Name: Powerdive
Series: Generation 2
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Air Attack
Alternate Mode: Apache Helicopter
HELICOPTER MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 12.5cm Width: 5cm, 11cm across the blades
A dark green chopper with a dark transparent red canopy and lots of purple extras - the runners, gatling guns on either side, twin motors and four blades are all purple. Sitting on top is a red (or black) propellor which stands out an awful lot (the black would blend better, I suspect but I have the far more common red version). The colour scheme is very much G2 - indeed Powerdive exhibits G2's love of purple Decepticons. Thankfully there's no neon here. Ignoring the detachable red propellor, it's a decent colour scheme, and is one of the better G2 colour sets.
There's not a lot of detail here. The engines have stickers with the letters "DC" in white, there's a red sticker wrapped around the tailfin bearing "RD-b93" underneath G2 Decepticon logos on both sides. Curiously the purple G2 stamp is on one blade of his purple rotors. There are some chopper seams here and there, but the sculpt is nothing special.
The rotors spin really well, since they're mounted on the shaft of his gimmick. The idea of the Rotor Force is that pressing a button somewhere on the toy will fire the propellor. If you wind up the propellor until it starts clicking loudly then push back a little yellow notch underneath, the propellor will lift off and fly up around a metre. I just tried it, the propellor flew around a metre up and to the left of Powerdive, bounced off Tracks's head and came back to land on my knee. Ok, so it's a silly gimmick, but it's fun and they've nailed it, so this is a useful gimmick.
With good colours for a G2 toy, a very effective gimmick and an unusual choice of helicopter model for a Transformer, this is a decent chopper mode. My main complaint is that the propellor, rotors and central block (the launcher mechanism) can all be lost, which would leave a giant gap in a non-functional helicopter.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold down the tail and remove the weapons assembly, then fold the tail right under, revealing his head. Swing up the cockpit to form his chest. Curiously, the hinge that moves his chest is made of the same yellow plastic as the trigger (why yellow?). Flip up his feet, rotate the runners, fold back the gatling guns. Straighten the engine pods to form his arms and flip out his fists. Give him his rotor launcher as a handweapon.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 9cm Width: 4.5cm
Again mainly green, Powerdive has black arms and legs with purple hands and stabilisers on the sides of his ankles (the runners). The weapon is bit and obvious, so it's worth mentioning its colours - a mix of green, purple, yellow and red or black. The eyes are transparent red and the lightpipe works well considering how dark the red is. Again it's typically G2, although I'm not quite as keen on the colours now since the yellow is more obvious on his launcher, and I just don't see why they had to use yellow.
His arms can lift up and down, which is it for poseability. His launcher is big and bulky, you'll have to lift one arm up to 90° if you want Powerdive to hold it. The good news is that the stabilisers on his feet make sure he doesn't keel forward while holding that big, heavy, weapon. In fact if he's not holding the weapon Powerdive has a tendency to keel backwards, so it's a good thing you can rotate the stabilisers back.
Again the detail here is fairly low, but then this toy is all about that big launcher - any detail would be lost behind that rotor on the dark colours. The legs are a single piece but there's a gap running the length of that piece, which joins at the ankles. The lightpipe actually overshadows a fairly well sculpted face, which is green like the rest of his head.
As you'd probably guess, the play value here is all about the rotor launcher. Since it's now facing forward rather than up, gravity's not holding it back. I just fired mine two metres across the room, where it hit a wall before losing momentum. The force this thing fires with is impressive - I just fired it again and it was enough to knock over Hot Rod from over a metre away. This a great gimmick, it's fun and well executed.
Take the launcher away and this robot mode is instantly forgettable, but of course the whole point is the launcher, so Powerdive does what he's meant to. It's not the most interesting robot mode amongst the Rotor Force, but it's enough that it's a decent accessory for the launcher!
VARIATIONS
As mentioned, Powerdive was sold with either red or black rotors (the Rotor Force shipped with two rotors each). The red is far more common.
OVERALL
The chopper mode is nice while the robot mode is solid and unspectacular. The rotor gimmick works really well and both modes are enough to support the gimmick around which Powerdive is based. For a $A10 toy his gimmick is pretty good and the toy itself is decent. If Powerdive is missing his launcher, he's all but useless, but if get him complete he's a lot of fun - 7/10
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