Thundercracker

Height: 12.5cm

Articulation: 13 total points: Swivel neck; universal joint shoulders; hinge elbows; ball-joint hips; hinge knees; knee swivels.

Colors: Molded dark blue, black, clear yellow; Painted silver, red, grey, black, dark blue, white.

Accessories: Missile launchers x2, missiles

Release Data: Released in March 2011 in the US at a retail price of US$11.99.

Author: ExVee

(more...)


Back on Cybertron, Thundercracker was a master of using sound to his advantage. His fear-inducing sonic booms were tuned perfectly to the composition of the atmosphere. Sonic vibrations from his attacks could be felt thousands of miles away, generating panic in those nearby, and deep unease even on the other side of the planet.

...wait, isn't that Dirge's power...?

It may  interest you to realize that since it was first released in 2006, the Classics Seeker mold has been subsequently reused each year at least twice. In 2006, it was Starscream, Skywarp, and Ramjet. In 2007, the Botcon trio of Dirge, Thrust, and Thundercracker. 2008 saw Acid Storm in Hasbro markets and Henkei Starscream and Ramjet in Japan, along with the limited exclusives of Henkei Thundercracker and Skywarp. In 2009, another Hasbro Starscream, plus exclusive releases of Dirge and Thrust in Japan. 2010 finally had Thrust and Dirge released to general retail by Hasbro, and this year Hasbro has released Thundercracker, the Transformers Collector's Club offered G2 Ramjet, and a Botcon at-show exclusive was ANOTHER Thundercracker, but this time in Action Master inspired colors. All this, plus a Ghost Starscream offered as a premium with Japan's Transformers Generations book in 2009. That's a lot of seekers, man.

As you can see, we've reviewed only a fraction of these releases over the years, despite having full sets of at least the US versions. The sad part is that of all the original Classics molds released that year, the seeker body was easily the weakest. I hate to say it, but while it may have taken us five years to get to the point of having a full set of the original six seekers, this body type is the first thing I'd like to see get redone whenever Hasbro comes around to revisiting some of the Classics style toys. Serious advances have been made in those five years, and a number of toys could really do with an upgrade at this point. The seeker mold kind of needed upgraded at the time it was released, to be honest.


Vehicle Mode

It seems to me that just statistically this must be one of the most-reviewed Transformers molds around. Heck, this is my third spin on it, though my first time writing about a non-conehead version. But still, especially with the jet mode exactly how much is there one can say about this?

Even in terms of differences from earlier iterations of the mold there's very little to talk about in jet mode. The parts fit is good, without significant gaps or other alignment issues. One of the exceedingly few notable points is that the back end locks together more cleanly than was the case with Thrust. But for things like that, it's important to remember that the coneheads are most likely separate molds at this point, for all practical purposes. It's pretty well documented that there's a series of minor differences in all the molds that help to track what's what and point to several independent toolings existing to support these body types. Honestly, after the multitude of releases over the past five years they'd really have to have a bunch of molds to keep up sustained output like that.

Though not as strictly adherent to the original G1 deco as the Botcon or Henkei versions of the character, Thundercracker isn't reimagined to nearly the same extent his Classics predecessors were. Still, the minor changes to the shape of the wing stripes nicely distinguishes this version from those before it. The plastic color would probably contribute to that also. This Thundercracker uses a blue darker and bluer than either of the releases that came before it, and is actually not unlike the blue on Dirge, but maybe a tiny bit darker.


Transformation

That was actually very pleasant. Unlike previous non-conehead types where you feared for breaking stabilizers off, or thought the legs might spontaneously drop off the body, everything on Thundercracker moves smoothly with just the right amounts of friction and tension so that it's a quick, comfortable process. The only part that was a little off was pressing the cockpit section into the torso cavity, but even that managed with a little extra pressure. This seems to have gotten the Bumblebee treatment.


Robot Mode

The best thing I can lead off with is that Thundercracker isn't trying to do the splits like Acid Storm tended towards. As went with the transformation, all the moving parts are in good shape. Whether the plastic ended up curing just right or the mold had some maintenance done in the meantime, it feels great. However it happened, I'm really happy in general with the way this came out, physically. When a mold is this old and heavily used, it's only natural to worry about the quality of each successive product run off it.

Of course, being a standard seeker, it means that the wings and missile launchers aren't playing well together, where this could be passable on the coneheads. But while this seeker mold was never the greatest, it was free of any crippling issues beyond the missile launchers and wings infringing upon each other's space. It's a level of articulation I'd much more expect to encounter in a Scout toy. From 2005. But even so... y'know, actually no. I can't really think of a way to qualify that statement to seem positive. It's more readily apparent when there aren't any other substantial build issues to take the forefront. Thundercracker's being free of any material flaws kind of damns him for being exactly what he is. The fact that just this afternoon I wrote about a toy that is vastly superior and actually is a Scout can't possibly be coloring my perception here either.

Thundercracker manages in robot mode to diverge from his prior incarnations further. Notably by using red shoulder stripes versus what would otherwise be a typical white, and some red on the abdomen. It really does help to dress up the colorscheme that normally would be fully dominated by blue with only some silver and black accents. Adding another actual color goes a surprising distance. Sadly this comes with the loss of some of the paint apps I would expect to see on the legs and that had been present between the Botcon and Henkei versions. It ends up with the legs looking a bit on the bare side, unfortunately. Following along from Dirge, Thundercracker has a small Decepticon insignia in the middle of his chest. Unlike Dirge, these came out correct on the first try.


Accessories

The missile launchers, naturally, are the only extra pieces with Thundercracker. Where the Henkei version (based on the same mold variation as Universe Starscream which is separate from this one) had an endemic issue of the arm holes being widened while the launcher pegs stayed the same size, Generations Thundercracker is spared any such failing. In fact, the launchers slide smoothly into either arm and hold in place securely as well as any seeker figure I've seen. The firing strength of the launchers is pretty good too. I'll have to warn RAC to disarm these else we have a repeat of the Thunderwing incident...


Closing Remarks

I know we're short a Sunstorm off most people's short lists for additional uses of this mold, but seriously I could do without ever seeing this mold used again. At least not on a normal retail toy, since I sadly do have active desire for that Action Master version... But this just does not stand up to its modern fellows. It never had a chance. If ever there was a time to retire this mold and roll out a new one, whatever the next incarnation of the Classics series will be should be it. I do believe Hasbro and Takara have both gotten adequate mileage out of these toolings by now. I don't even care if we have to start the whole bloody recolor cycle over again, as long as it's a good mold that'll hold up to the test of time.

But as for the merits of this specific toy compared to other examples, Thundercracker came out really well. Among seekers I can say it's Very Good. Your mileage may vary in other metrics, especially since the potential to complete a cartoon seeker group may be a strong motivation for some even knowing the shortfalls of the design. But really, can the next seeker be something other than a modified F-15? That thing is something like 35 years old already. Get us an F-22, maybe. That's only about 20 years old!

-ExVee