Name: Slingshot
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Sub Group: Aerialbot
Function: Ground Troop Support
Vehicular Mode: Harrier "Jump Jet"
JET MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 12cm Width: 7.5cm
A white Harrier, with an orange cockpit, black rubberised nose and a fair bit of kibble visible. He has silver, blue and red stripes on the wings and tail. As mentioned, he has robot bits clearly visible. The fuselage noticeably widens just behind the cockpit, and the arms are easy to see on the sides. While the kibble is all white, it affects the shape of the plane mode and has never sat well with me.
Like the other Aerialbots he has rolling undercarriage, however unlike his friends, his front wheel does not retract into the nosecone - it's under the fuselage.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
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.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 8cm Width: 3cm at shoulders
Like Air Raid and Fireflight, he's got a red torso, white legs, arms and head. He's got a entirely orange face, which I find reminiscent of a mandrill or something. There's a big prominent black stripe down his torso - which is the front wheel of the undercarriage.
Like the other Aerialbots, he's got ball and socket joints on his shoulders. However he's got very thin spindly arms so they look kinda needly in any pose. Actually Slingshot looks rather skinny in robot mode overall. Considering the kibble in plane mode, you wonder if they couldn't have made the plane mode slightly bigger and avoided both of these problems. I find his anorexia rather annoying, since it wouldn't have taken much more than this to make him a much better toy.
VARIATIONS
Released in some markets as a Classic, although with no significant changes. There's also the G2 version.
OVERALL
My least favourite Aerialbot, Slingshot is a case of should-have-been-much-better. Considering the prominence he has in the cartoon compared to his teammates, I really wish he stood out for good rather than bad reasons. OK, so it's not a terrible toy, but the three other limbs are similar and all are much better designed, so he just looks bad in comparison. Still, he's got the posability which toys like the Combaticons missed out on, so it's not all bad news. Had they included a little Rolls Royce grill that you attach to his chest it would have been pretty awesome.. I'm going to be generous and give him 5/10, mainly because he's a cool character and without him I'd have a one-armed Superion
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