Name: Elita One
Series: Power Of The Primes
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Jet Plane
PLANE MODE
Height: 8cm Length: 20cm Width: 17cm
A white and wine coloured jet with some dark grey on the nose and thrusters; Elita One has a white fuselage and central line while the cockpit windows are blue. There's foil stickers on her wings with backwards-facing Autobot logos - the stickers are mostly red with some silver aspects. The vertical stabilisers feature "E1" in white print on the outsides. There's only a couple of hints of Elita One's signature coral pink - the landing gear under her nose and some minor outbursts under the wings. It's a distinctive colour scheme which looks nice enough in itself, but there's very little of Elita One here.
Elita One was introduced in the G1 cartoon, and while we barely saw her alt mode, it was clearly a pink car. Needless to say, this jet isn't that - but it's a decent enough jet, I suppose. There are gaps in the wings towards the tips and it's a fairly detailed jet. My main complaint is that the complicated stickers on the wings - factory applied - are messily applied in places & there's some minor peeling on mine; both are shortcomings of foil stickers, in general.
There's some play value here but it's probably below what you'd hope for from a voyager. The landing gear at the front can fold away - there's no rear landing gear and no rolling wheel on the front. She has two small wine guns which can plug into holes under her wingtips or the robot shoulders underneath the wings. The black combiner feet can plug into the holes under the wingtips... but it's kind of pointless. There's a compartment under the canopy - you can open it and store her Enigma of Combination (or a Prime Master)... but this also feels kinda silly. Neither of these two gimmicks hurts at all, they just don't bring anything.
An interesting looking jet thanks to the gaps in her wings and unusual colours, but it's not really Elita One & it's a bit simple at this size class. The stickers on the wings are my only real complaint - I suppose you can remove them if you wish. I don't dislike this jet mode, it's just not compelling.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Detach and set aside the feet accessories, if attached. Fold up the landing gear. Lift the nose up, fold over onto her back. Fold the wings top, to either side of the nose section. Extend the rear to form her legs, split and fold up the panels on the insides of her shins to lock the extended legs in place. Fold down her feet, fold back the vertical stabilisers. Rotate the head, deploy her guns as desired and you're done. It's a simple transformation for a voyager, but the locking panels on the insides of her legs are innovative.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 18cm Width: 10cm
A wine and white robot with coral pink on her head and chest, Elita One has wine boots, forearms and torso while her upper arms, hands, waist, feet and thighs are white. She sports foil Autobot logo stickers on both shoulders, some other minor stickers and dark grey paint on her shins. The colour map is more or less what was introduced to us in the G1 cartoon, aside from the wine being notably darker than the darker shade of coral pink seen in the show. Her face is white with blue eyes (but not the pink lips of the cartoon). While the jet mode doesn't evoke Elita One, this colour mapping does, despite the dark colour used.
The shape of her head is very much that we saw in the cartoon - as is the chest. The small guns can clip into holes on her shoulders and point up to mimic the posts on her upper arms in the cartoon - which is a nice touch. In truth they're such small handguns that they look much better on her shoulders. This is a very bulky robot mode, with big pads on the outsides of her forearms and fairly chunky boots. While I don't subscribe to the idea that female Transformers need to be dainty, Elita One was defined that way and this robot mode is definitely not dainty. I don't mind, because the head and torso are sculpted as Elita One, though.
Poseability is reasonable. Her head is on a ball joint, her waist is fixed. The shoulders swing and lift out the sides - they swing on ratchets as these rotators double as the hips of her torso mode. The elbows are hinged and have rotators while the hands are fixed. Her hips swing and lift out to the sides, the knees are hinged and supported by rotators hidden within her thighs. The feet are fixed but have big heelspurs in the form of the stabilisers, so while her feet wont pose, they will support a range of poses. The guns can plug into her shoulders - as mentioned - or her hands. The combiner feet can plug onto the outsides of her arms... which doesn't add much. I'd have liked a longer (extra) handgun, here.
Well, unlike the jet mode, this mode really is Elita One - if a much stockier version of her. The wine colour is a little dark, but not to the point where this doesn't feel like the intended character. Play value is disappointing for a voyager - though I suppose she does combine.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of. She's a retool of POTP Starscream.
OVERALL
This is the first mass release Elita One toy, and while it's not an amazing toy, it's nice that Hasbro gave us the character after 30 years. There's some nice aspects such as the head sculpt, unusual colours and those locking panels on her legs, but she's a fairly simple voyager since she forms a combiner torso - something no-one was crying out for. I'm not sure this somewhat muddled toy is the Elita One any G1 fan would choose but it's not a bad toy in itself - it's just a rather strange match of the mould and character - 6/10
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