Name: Thrust
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Warrior
Alternate Mode: VTOL Modified F-15 Eagle Jet
JET MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 21cm Width: 16cm
Thrust's dominant colour in jet mode is a sparkly claret colour, with a brownish grey on his wings and tailfins. His cockpit is a smokey transparent plastic and his nose is a rubberised black plastic. His jet engines are also black, solid this time. The tops of the air intakes are black-painted metal, but there's silver stickers which conceal this. Like all seekers, he's got big Decepticon stickers on the wings and a smaller one on the nose. Also, just behind the left air intake there's a rubsign.
The wings are smaller than a standard F-15's. They're not swept back at all, and have large claret blocks on them with grey VTOL turbines inside them. On the underside of the turbines are his missile launchers (which wouldn't actually work). It's worth noting that while Dirge and Ramjet have new missile moulds, Thrust uses the missiles and launchers the 1984 seekers had. There's no way design could ever actually fly - aside from the weapons getting in the way of the VTOL fans, he's got very small stabilisers on his tailfins, too small to be of any real use. Having said that, he _looks_ great.
Being essentially a Diaclone toy, Thrust isn't really poseable. But in this mode that's OK - F-15s are fixed wing aircraft. I suppose we could ask for spinning turbines, but then his missile launchers would spina round under his wings, so I can live without. The front undercarriage _can_ actually turn, and he does roll. The missiles in his missile launchers can be either short or long, with short more realistic for this mode, since the launchers then look bomb-like, but I personally prefer the long ones, mainly because I don't have to swap the missiles to have show-accurate robot mode guns.
It's really quite hard for me to fault this vehicle mode. The only real fault is that the wing posts are slightly too long, making the wings stick out too far, but you can easily file them down (as I have on all my seekers), to make them flush with the fuselage. There's also a gap between the engines at the rear of the aircraft. I wont count the fact it'd never fly, since that's really beside the point of this retooling (and beyond the capabilities of whoever designed the new wings).
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Remove the wings, remove the front undercarriage and place it inside the cockpit. Flip back the rear wheels to form the feet. Stand him up and push the plastic bit on his chest till it swings out to form the arms. Fold the nose down, then swing it through the chest until the cockpit rests on his chest. Fold the nosecone back to reveal the head (the toys are not meant to be coneheads, although you can fold it up if you like). Attach his fists, reattach the wings, insignia facing forward and attach the missile launchers to the arms. You can actually perform this transformation with the wings staying attached, though it'll take a tad longer and the attachments for the wings will eventually wear out. Mine are still taught despite Thrust being my worn seeker (I got Dirge first, but Thrust I got second hand).
One thing that has always bothered me about this transformation is that there's nowhere for the fists in jet mode. While you can store everything else, it does make for very easily lost fists. Of course, the other detachable parts are commonly lost anyway.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 14cm Width: 16cm
Yes, he's wider that he is tall, thanks to the wingspan. The claret still dominates in this mode - although not as much as it does on the cartoon Thrust. He's got claret arms, legs and missiles, with black fists, feet and head, with a largely (metallic) black chest, save for the claret cockpit with smokey glass. Unlike his cartoon incarnation, he has a black face - it's grey on the show. Oh and of course this toy is not meant to be a conehead. The missile launchers are completely black (FYI, Skywarp has lilac on his, so you can tell them apart).
Aside from his shoulders being able to move, Thrust pretty much just stands there being very wide. His shoulders do move in pretty much every direction, however, courtesy of his transformation. The missile launchers can shoot all of 2cm. The black air intakes form big towers on top of each shoulder, which look pretty good. If you look at the toy of Thrust and compare it to the show, the toy appears to be missing thighs. Basically, the proportions are the same, but in the toy the legs are one piece and the show added thighs that the toy simply doesn't have. It doesn't make that much of a difference in Thrust's case, since the show Thrust has entirely claret legs anyway (Dirge and Ramjet have different thigh colours in the show).
Assuming you have all the bits, it's a very nice looking robot mode. The poseability was reasonably good for 1984, too. The missile launchers on the arms leave Thrust well armed and he looks suitably tough with either the long or short missiles. He's not quite a claret as he is in the show, but this is still a cool robot mode. The only really shortcoming is that his wings design means his wings sit on his hips rather than on his waist (1984 seekers) or shoulders (Dirge).
VARIATIONS
Shares his basic mould with Thundercracker, Starscream, Skywarp, Dirge & Ramjet. No variations as such that I know of.
OVERALL
A cool modification of a good mould, Thrust also has a nice colour scheme. For Diaclone-based Transformer fans, Thrust is a nice toy. He's detailed, pleasing to the eye and poseable for the time. Of course, the sheer number of detachable bits you can loose work against him somewhat, but the complete toy is good. Not the best of the seekers in my opinion, but he's not very far behind. A toy I recommend - 7/10
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