Cliffbee.com Universe Superion Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Superion
Series: Universe
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: N/A - Gestalt comprising Air Raid, Fireflight, Rotor, Silverbolt, Skydive & Storm Jet

Note: This set is a repaint of Sixwing. I don't have the original Sixwing, so I'll be making comparisons to the relatively easy to obtain reissue Sixwing set. While they were sold individually, I'm reviewing them as a set.

Thanks to Pulse for loaning me Superion for this review





AIR RAID
B-1 Bomber Mode Height: 2cm Length: 6cm Width: 5cm
Robot Mode Height: 6cm Width: 3cm

   A black bomber with blood red paint on the tips of his wings and tailwings, yellow cockpit windows and a large Autobot symbol stamped on the middle of the fuselage, which sits on Superion's chest. This is a good colour scheme, and one which is fairly similar to that of reissue Missile-Run. Black makes sense for a bomber and it also suits Air Raid. There are some white robot kibble elements visible underneath the front of the wings.

   Like all his teammates, Air Raid has two black wheels, which sit underneath the engines, and the front just rests on the plane's belly. He slopes forward very slightly, but not enough to really worry about. He has typical bomber wings, which stick out and sweep back, while the relatively small windows tell us that this is a fairly large warplane (certainly next to fighters, at least).

   Transformation is simple enough, with the tail flipping out to form his boots, the nose folding up to reveal the head and the wings folding back out of the way. Most of the robot is tucked away underneath, which explains why the bomber mode has kibble.

   The robot is slightly taller than it should be thanks to Air Raid's long thighs. The tail section forms more of a stand than boots, although we're meant to think that it's two separate boots. The colours are decent, and loosely match those of the original Air Raid. His arms are white while his torso and face are silver. His boots and helmet are black while his thighs are bright red. These colours are a distinct improvement over those of reissue Missile-Run.

   While the legs aren't great, the colours work well enough. This robot mode is well moulded above the knees, with fingers on the hands and a face which is sadly unpainted, but still distinct. His plane mode is very good, and there's quite a lot of moulded detail again, to go with a good colour scheme. Add to this that Transformer bomber planes are fairly rare and Air Raid is a good Micromaster.

FIREFLIGHT
SV-27 Jet Mode Height: 2.5cm Length: 6cm Width: 5.5cm
Robot Mode Height: 5.5cm Width: 3cm

   A bright red fighter with twin thrusters, twin tailfins, tailwings and swept back wings. There are backwards facing Autobot logos stamped onto the wings and the canopy is painted yellow. I'm not so sure about a bright red fighter, but it beats the teal of reissue Flanker and the original was also red, albeit using a more sedate shade of red. This is one of the weaker colour schemes here, but this set does have good colour schemes overall.

   The jet mode itself is reasonably well moulded for the most part, although the canopy is a painted transformation hinge which doesn't work at all. The engines, thrusters and plane seams are all pretty good for a Micromaster. Fireflight's wheels don't work - they're quite far back and he slopes down noticeably. The red actually draws your attention away from this, mind you. To transform Fireflight, extend the nose, flip the canopy back, fold the wings and stand him up. The tailfins and thruster sit awkwardly above his head with nowhere else to go.

   The robot mode colours work well, even if they bear no resemblance to those of the original. The torso, thighs and head are largely black with grey on his mouth and waist while his eyes are red. His boots and the overhead klibble are red and his arms are grey with black wrists. There are tiny missileracks moulded on either side of his head. Sure, it's still kibble but at least Fireflight is making a feature out of it. The boots are a mess of gaps, with poorly defined feet.

   While the poseability here is limited to swinging arms, the colours work well enough. His place mode is pretty good despite the bright red - thankfully they've avoided doing anything else and just letting that red alone. Fireflight is fairly unremarkable as Micromaster jets go, without being great or awful.

RO-TOR
Helicopter Mode Height: 2.5cm Length: 6cm Width: 3cm
Robot Mode Height: 5.5cm Width: 3cm (ignoring the rotor on his back)

   I wish they didn't feel the need to insert a dash in his name.

   A bright red Apache style Helicopter with a yellow canopy - not colours I want to see on an apache. While Fireflight shares the same colours, they work slightly better on a fighter than on an apache. This is probably the only member of this team who has colours as bad as those of his reissue Sixwing counterpart - Chain-Gun is teal.

   The chopper is fairly well moulded, although much of the finer detail is overshadowed by the red. There are stabilisers on the tail and on the side of the main body, with little Autobot logos stamped on the body stabilisers. These Autobot symbols look good, actually - they're just the right scale to be large wing insignia (like those on the G1 Seekers).

   There's not really any play value here. He does sport two black wheels underneath the cockpit, but the back of the chopper rests on the table so rolling him along is out - it'll only scrape the chest. The rotor turns, albeit very slowly since it's plugged in rather than on any sort of fixed joint. Thankfully it plugs in fairly firmly - sure this limits play value but also means that it's far less likely to fall out and get lost.

   Transformation is pretty straightforward - fold out the canopy to form his boots, fold the tail up over the rotor to reveal his head and stand him up.

   Ro-tor's red is still prominent, joined by grey on his head, waist and thighs. His eyes are blue and the yellow canopy is on his boots. Red and grey generally combine well, which is the case here. He has a blue wrap-around eyestrip and delicately moulded nose and mouth. While his Autobot symbols are no longer visible, he has well moulded fists which cleverly have digits only visible in robot mode.

   Along with Storm Jet, Ro-tor doesn't line up to any G1 Aerialbot, which would be an advantage if his chopper mode wasn't painted in a colour that doesn't match it. The robot mode colours are nice, but otherwise he doesn't contribute anything - he's expendable for Superion, ending up as a backpack.

SILVERBOLT
F-16 Fighter Jet Mode Height: 2.5cm Length: 6.5cm Width: 5.5cm
Robot Mode Height: 5.5cm Width: 2.5cm

   A white F-16 with silver and red wing and a yellow canopy. I'm not sure why Silverbolt is the F-16 and Skydive is a Concorde - other than the fact that earlier Universe toys are notoriously unfocused efforts. At any rate the colours used are pretty good. The wings sport backwards facing Autobot symbols stamped on them.    This is barely an F-16 in truth, the nose and canopy doesn't look much it should, because there's a giant hinge behind the canopy. The back section is broadly accurate, although the level of detail isn't great. There are red missiles on the wingtips.

   Like his teammates, Silverbolt has two black wheels under the wings, but there's nothing in front to help out so he'll either tip right back or sag forward. The end result is an unnecessarily dipping fighter jet.

   To transform Silverbolt, extend the nose, flip the canopy back, fold the wings and stand him up. The tailfins and thruster sit awkwardly above his head with nowhere else to go.

   The robot mode's colours broadly those of Silverbolt, at least. The arms and thighs are silver along with his face while the torso and head are red and his waist is black. The boots and kibble overhead are white. The sculpt on his chest and head is actually fairly good, but the overhead kibble isn't trying to be useful.

   The boots are a single hollow block, which is pretty disappointing. The feet have a hole that I can deal with, since this hole is needed to clip him into Superions's thigh piece - but coupled with the lazy thigh moulding the legs looks awful.

   While I quite like the F-16's design, Silverbolt has one of the weakest moulds in this set. His colours work fairly well, so he's a lot better than Falcon. I'm annoyed that they didn't call this one Skydive - not so much because I want this set to be totally faithful to G1 (it's not - we have a chopper and a shuttle here) - but because the guy assigning just wasn't paying attention properly.

SKYDIVE
Concorde SST Passenger Jet Mode Height: 2.5cm Length: cm 7Width: 4cm
Robot Mode Height: cm Width: cm

   A white Concorde with silver along the edges of his wings and some red undercarriage junk, Skydive very much looks like G1 Silverbolt - and with his yellow cockpit windows, there's a fair hint of Sky Lynx here as well. This colour scheme is probably the best of the bunch, since it's simple and pretty realistic. He sports Autobot logos stamped on either wing, facing backwards. While he lacks moulded cabin windows, there are seams on the fuselage and wings. Skydive has two black wheels underneath the wings and red false wheels underneath the fuselage itself. Two front wheels on a Concorde might be a little silly, but at least he rests upright, not at an angle like some of his teammates.

   Transformation is pretty standard Micromaster - fold over the back to form boots and fold the front down as a chestplate. Skydive gets the extra step of folding the wingtips _up_, so that they worm quasi-kneecaps.

   The end result is a very awkward robot that looks like it's been stretched on the rack. Skydive looks like he should be playing basketball. The boots, chest and head are white while the arms are red and the thighs black. The face is painted mid blue, a colour that masks a reasonably good facial sculpt. There's some silver on his boots and black on his elbows, while the yellow cockpit windows sit on his chest.

   The boots sit further forward than the rest of the toy, and while he'll stand without any trouble, he looks incredibly awkward. The only useful poseability here is in the arms - which can lift up, but need quite a bit of force to move.

   While the Concorde mode is really good and his colours are good, Skydive's robot mode is just plain bad. At least his colours are better than those of reissue Super Sonic.

STORM JET
Space Shuttle Mode Height: 3cm Length: 6cm Width: 4.5cm
Robot Mode Height: 6cm Width: 2.5cm

   A white shuttle with black skirting, bright red and tail and yellow cockpit windows, Storm Jet's colour scheme is not especially realistic, although at least he's white, unlike some Space Shuttle Transformers. Sadly he's not as realistic as reissue Raker, the only pastel-less reissue Sixwing component. The tops of the wings are painted white with backwards facing stamped Autobot logos, and there are some seams on the cargo hold. We don't see any NASA badges or anything like that, but there wouldn't be much point in trying at this scale anyway. While these colours are a regression from those of Raker, it's not an awful colour scheme or anything.

   For the most part this is a well defined shuttle, and other than the back end being flat rather than having mounted thrusters, it's about as realistic as I'd hope for a Micromaster. There's a single black wheel underneath the tail and two bumps underneath the front most reaches of the wings, on which he rests. The shuttle slopes forward slightly, which is actually how things should be.

   This is probably the strongest vehicle mode amongst the set, bright red paint aside. There's no kibble, and the shape is good. In truth it's better than some of the larger shuttle Transformers, such as Blast Off.

   Transformation is pretty simple - fold down the nose to form his chestplate, fold the wings up and flip over the rear to form his boots. The tailfin will sort of stick out from the single boot-piece, although you can fold down to one side if you prefer.

   The robot is mainly white, with some red on his boots, black thighs and arms and a black head with a silver face. The face is well sculpted, with a nice heroic crest on his forehead.

   The arms are the front sections of the shuttle wings and sit very close to to torso, which is the nose and canopy. There are fists moulded on the insides of the arms, which you'll only really see if you lift the arms. The single wheel sits between his knees, which looks a little strange, as does the tailfin between the boots. There are no real feet here, which isn't immediately obvious since the tail draws your attention away. Despite the flaws this is one of the better robot modes in this set, and Storm Jet's shuttle mode is good, making him my favourite of the set.

COMBINED MODE
Height: 17cm Width: 10cm

   A mixture of whites, bright red, black, some silver and gold (the groin and gun). The central chest is the black Air Raid, Skydive & Storm Jet form the arms, Fireflight & Silverbolt the legs and Ro-tor forms a backpack. The upper body has a concentration of whites while his head is black with a gold face and red eyes. I'm not entirely sure why the eyes are red on this Autobot repaint, although it does fit in with all the red elements here.

   The overall mould isn't bad here, and there's a definite Superion tribute in the mould. The chestplate works, since it's the black top of a plane, and the stamped Autobot logo is nice.

   Play value is pretty much what we'd expect - the arms swing at the shoulders and the head turns. There's a plane that can be formed from the add on pieces (chest frame, thighs, feet, hands, head & gun), although it's nothing to get too excited about.

   Really the best aspect of this combined mode is the mould - the combination itself is as clever and well-though out as the other Micromaster gestalts. The colours work well here, much better than the eyesore that is reissue Sixwing.

VARIATIONS

   A repaint of both the original Sixwing, an Autobot, and the Decepticon reissue Sixwing.

OVERALL

   A vast improvement on reissue Sixwing, Superion is worth getting despite some missteps in the repaint. The most annoying one is the assigning of the names Silverbolt and Skydive - the bright red helicopter is also less than ideal. This set _is_ worth picking up if you like Micromasters, and I'd easily recommend it over Sixwing. While Skydive is a poor Micromaster, the others are all worthwhile - 7.5/10

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