Name: Skydive
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Sub Group: Aerialbot
Function: Air Warfare Strategist
Vehicular Mode: F-16
JET MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 14cm Width: 5cm
A grey and black F-16 jet, Skydive has a grey fuselage with black nosecone, cockpit & wings.
His tail and wings have yellow lighting bolts on them. The nosecone is rubberised, more for safety than for impact reasons. he has a retractable front wheel and two rear wheels, so he can roll. He can't fly.
While the decorations aren't all that realistic, you could believe a grey & black F-16, since they have a tendency to be grey anyway, although I remain unconvinced about the merits of a soli black cockpit.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold away the front landing gear, swing the tail and nose onto his back and join them into a backpack. Swing the wings up, grab the legs and pull down. Swing the arms out and stand him up. Identical to Fireflight & Air Raid, you'll find.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 8.5cm (head, 10cm top of backpack) Width: 4cm at shoulders
The grey which is so prominent in jet mode is now confined to Skydive's lower legs. His thighs, arms & head are lack and his torso is red - and die-cast metal. His face is also black, he has orange eyes. He's got two stickers on his upper torso and one on his groin. The waist sticker is actually upside down - it's shaped to fit the groin's moulding, but has an Autobot symbol on it which is facing the other way. So you either have an upside-down Autobot symbol or a sticker which doesn't really fit.
His arms are on ball sockets at the shoulders, but his legs don't move and his head looks anywhere as long as it's straight ahead.
As posable and you'd expect of a robot of this era, but it's a reasonably attractive robot mode. Certainly more interesting than Fireflight or Slingshot. The mistake on his groin sticker is a minor flaw, although it's a really obvious one.
VARIATIONS
Released in some markets as a Classic, although with no significant changes. There's also the G2 version.
OVERALL
My favourite Aerialbot, but then I prefer the F-16 to the other planes chosen, so I'm always going to be biased. Still, for the size & era he's a pretty solid toy. The arm posability is better than a lot of equivalent toys - the small Aerialbots tend to have better posability than their contemporaries. The most distinct Aerialbot in terms of colouring, without looking out of place in Superion - 8/10
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