Name: Skyfire
Series: Robots in Disguise
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Saab Grippen Jet
JET MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 12cm Width: 8cm
Remember the white, blue and red Autobot called Skyfire in the G1 cartoon? Well, this guy looks nothing like him. Skyfire is grey with some purple on his wings and black on the wings and around the canopy. The canopy itself is a fairly bright transparent orange, which manages to work since the other colours are all dull. So while this is the first Transformer toy named Skyfire, we're left in no doubt that it's _not_ the cartoon character vaguely resembling Jetfire. The colours are wildly imaginative - the undercarriage is purple plastic and the canopy bright orange - but these colours work quite well - at least aesthetically.
Skyfire has Decepticon insignia stamped on his wings, and quite a few plane lines that tend to fade into the grey plastic. All three wheels can retract (though none roll). There's a fair bit of kibble underneath, it doesn't really hurt from above, though you can see his limbs from the side. Being such drab colours, the visual impact of the kibble is minimal.
There's really no play value in this mode - it's all in the transform and the robot mode. But there's not really anything wrong with it. The colours work, the kibble isn't perfect but could be a lot worse. It's a disappointment for G1 cartoon fans like myself that the name Skyfire wasn't given to a white Autobot, but this is still a good jet in it's own right.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Theoretically, push down on the nose and that's it. In reality, you have to fold up the landing gear first. Once you've done that he does essentially transform. The tail section actually slides up when it transforms, which is kind of cool. Position the arms and legs, and remove the two halves of his gun from inside his legs.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10cm Width: 8cm
The grey is joined by a lot of purple - on his head, shoulders, fists and thighs. The back of the head and the eyes are transparent orange, and this gives Skyfire an effective lightpipe - something neither of his Machine Wars predecessors (MW Thundercracker and Skywarp) had - although BWII Dirge had one. He has a yellow mouthplate small enough that you'll barely notice the yellow paint, which is a good thing. It's a good colour scheme, the dark colours and bright orange again work well, although the orange canopy on his chest is brighter than I'd like.
This mode is quite poseable. The hips, knees, elbows and shoulders are ball joints. The head is, too, but it's almost immobile since the metal rod that his chest swivels down on is pushing up behind it. Good play value and a lot of poses are possible.
The gun is a long grey shotgun rifle. It looks nice, and you can remove the silencer from the front to give him a pistol, if you like. It's actually possible for him to hold both the front and rear handles on the gun. It'll point to the side, and you can't turn his head to face that way, but it still looks quite impressive, like he's on guard or something.
VARIATIONS
A repaint of MW Thundercracker & Skywarp as mentioned, the mould was also used for BWII Dirge, but there are no actual variations of Skyfire that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
By the time RiD rolled around, this mould was well used - but I don't mind the reuse, since it's a good mould and the colours are very different to those previously used. Those hoping for a homage to the G1 character should grab Skyblast instead. Even if you have the MW versions I'd recommend Skyfire - addition of the lightpipe and a head that _matches_ the rest of his body make him worth picking up, even if he is slightly more garish than the MW toys - 7.5/10
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