Toy Review - PCC Skyburst w/ Aerialbots

[griffin]

Toy Review - Skyburst w/ Aerialbots

Series - Power Core Combiners
Sub-line - 5-pack
Size - Commander w/ Drones
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 1
Released here - May 2010
Approximate Retail Price - $35-40
Approximate Size - 10cm (Skyburst), 3-5cm (Aerialbot Drones)
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Stealth Jet (Skyburst), Fighter planes & Helicopters (Drones)
Main Features/Gimmicks - Combiner core (Skyburst), Combiner Limbs (Drones)
Main Colours - Greyee-blue/bright blue (Bombshock), White/grey/blue/yellow (Drones)
Main Accessories - none
My Difficulty rating (out of 5) - 1.5
Stability - Good in both modes (Skyburst), springloaded, so fairly stable (Drones). Combined mode is a very unstable on its feet.
Poseability/articulation - A standard level of articulation.
Playability - I think it's more playable than the Combaticon set, and are easy to convert making it a fun set. Tiny, but fun. The Powerup (combined) mode is a bit wobbly, so might impact on its play value.
Other Comments - I don't like the spring-loaded transformation of the Drones into limbs. It seems too lazy, and I want to 'transform' these Transformers, especially with the concept paying homage to the classic 'Combiner' concept.
Skyburst looks to be the only Commander figure in the first wave that actually hides the blue pegs completely in alt-modes. The robot mode suffers from a big back-pack.
The Drones as limbs are all flawed in some way with me. The arms have clamp and claw hands, while the legs have to be positioned a special way to balance them. Plus, some Drones often have to be 'activated' manually to plug them onto the pegs, as their spring-locking engineering is very stiff.
Pics of the various combinations between other Commanders and Drones with this set can be seen here.

My Rating (out of 10) - 7

[Deonasis]

The drones look ok but I'm really not digging that dull grey/blue on Skyburst so much that, because of it, I don't really care for getting this set.

[jaydisc]

Compared to Bombshock and co., these are pretty crappy. The legs are poorly defined and unstable. I do like the arm that the A10 makes and I've used it to replace the missile launcher drone arm of Bruticus. I figured it would be good to have lots of drones, and the $30 sale at Mr Toys was on. So totally skip unless it's cheap.

[SMHFConvoy]

I don't mind him so much. Hopefully as this subline continues they'll start correcting the stability issues with these automorphing legs and some elbow articulation on the arms.

[GoktimusPrime]

So totally skip unless it's cheap.

Yeah, that's my feeling atm. I've seen both this set and Bombshock in stores... but they were freakin' DEAR. I'll gladly pick both up on sale though.

[SMHFConvoy]

Just got a "gerwalk mode" out of Cloudburst. All he needs is a booster or something...