SDCC 2005 Legends of Cybertron Skywarp

Height: 8.5cm (Overall); 7.5 (Head)

Articulation: 7 points - ball jointed shoulders; ball jointed hips; ball jointed knees; swivel neck.

Colors: Molded black, purple; Painted silver, copper, purple, red.

Accessories: Autobot Cyber Key.

Release Data: This item was available at San Diego Comic-Con 2005 as a free promotional item, and is now only available on the secondary market.

Gallery: 14 images.

Author: ExVee

The Figure

As long as there have been Decepticon aircraft Transformers, there's been recolors of Decepticon aircraft Transformers. For Transformers: Cybertron, this continues to be true, though not in the usual way. Where normally the usual recolors would be applied to the normal size toy, the current Starscream is a 14 inch tall $50 monster. Not exactly the best recolor fodder. Fortunately an alternative exists, in the Legends of Cybertron series. Little, fully transforming, and inexpensive versions of main show characters, available through drug stores and other non-mainstream retailers. So for the SDCC Hasbro booth freebie, convention goers could get the LoC Starscream mold done in a Skywarpish black and purple.

Vehicle Mode

This is probably the main thing that drew me to this mold and its bigger counterpart. Unlike other recent jet Transformers, this is not remotely a realistic design, and I like that. It looks like an alien aerospace fighter, and that's where I think the fun comes from. These sort of designs allow for much more flexibility and play value even in the vehicle modes. ...of course, at this scale, most of that is lost. But the point is still valid.

Because of the limits imposed by the size, the engine pods have to sit out from the body to allow room for the ball joints to move freely in robot mode. This is only glaringly noticeable if you look at it from the top, bottom, or behind. The vehicle mode holds together very well considering the bare minimum of tabs to keep things in place.

The only moving parts in the vehicle mode are the Cyber Key power up weapons in the engine pods - a sword on its right side, and a cannon on the left. Naturally, only the cannon really appears useful to have deployed at this point.

Considering the small size (7.5 cm wingspan), there's a good deal of molded surface detail, but the details have been reduced just enough to keep it from looking overly busy.

Robot Mode

It's hard to see until you get to the robot mode just how well this reproduces the appearance of the bigger mold. It almost gives me an interest in getting some of the normal retail LoC figures, if they're all this kind of quality.

Of course, this is also where you see a bit of the limitation associated with such a small size. For example, there's no useful elbow joint. The arm bends as part of transformation, but it bends backwards. Since practically all the intended joints are ball joints, you do get extra range out of them. The shoulders can move quite a bit, though the bulk of the upper arms limits the outward range significantly. The legs can pose pretty freely, though, even able to kneel on one or both knees very convincingly. And surprisingly, the head turns, even though you need either needlenose pliers or tiny fingers to really get in and turn it.

And naturally the Cyber Key weapons are useable here, and the sword makes at least some extra sense. The way it's mounted makes it look awkward to use, especially given the available articulation. But really, that's more a problem with the original design, and not specific to this toy. The shoulder restriction mentioned before also makes it a problem to point the left arm cannon anywhere but basically straight. I mean, you can go up and down with it, but not out to the side more than a few degrees.

There's not much in the way of robot mode specific details, but what there are seem kind of lacking compared to the vehicle detailing. The details on the head and face are quite sharp, especially for how tiny the head is, but the face doesn't really look like Starscream or Skywarp. It's just sort of generic. And the forearms seem poorly defined, like you can see the detail they wanted there, but it's not especially sharp. The only word that I can think of to describe it adequately is to say that they look "soft".

Paint and Deco

Really top notch. All the paint work is smooth and evenly applied, with only the slightest edge overrun in one spot. An excellent job on such a small item.

Accessories

The only thing Skywarp comes with is a Cyber Key. It's a generic one, not planet or character specific. It is, however, an Autobot key. Bwuh?

Of course, this toy is too small to actually have a key activated gimmick, or even a real port for the included key. However, it is still possible to fake it convincingly in robot mode. On the tail section, there's a space just big enough to wedge the key in. Coincidentally (or maybe not), I think this is the space where the key goes on Starscream. There's a picture of this in the gallery, since it's difficult to explain just where to place the key.

Closing Remarks

I'm glad to have been able to get this toy, since I wasn't able to attend SDCC. It's a great toy to start with, but with the addition of the nice, and not to mention special recolor job, this is something I'm very happy to have been able to add to my collection.

I rate San Diego Comic-Con Exclusive Legends of Cybertron Skywarp an overall rating of Very Good.

-ExVeeBrawn, 08/11/2005