DAY 11- Skydive (Combiner Wars)

January 11th, 2015. Day 11 of 365.

I haven't exactly been quiet about my disdain for combiners in Transformers. Every time Hasbro tries to make a combiner, one of the various modes has to suffer, such as with the majority of Fall of Cybertron Bruticus, or dated engineering (Energon) or sheer gimmicks (Power Core) prevent the various toys from becoming more than a sheer novelty.

Not this time.

Skydive, while still being the goofiest Aerialbot in terms of design for me, is the example of why I'm looking forward to the rest of Combiner Wars Deluxes. Articulation is simple, but the bare minimum of what's acceptable (to me) is there: Ball jointed head, waist joint, ball jointed shoulders, bicep swivel, single elbow and knee, and ball jointed hips.

Transformation is also fairly simple, yet far more complex than I expected with a fantastic hinge trick to lower the shoulders down for vehicle mode, when a far simpler yet less-sturdy slide would have done the trick. The legs open up and collapse inward onto the thighs of Skydive, and if you like that trick well good news: That transformation step is used on 3/4s of the first wave of Combiner Wars deluxes. 

Accessory-wise, Skydive comes with a double-barreled blaster of some sort, as well as a rocket launcher pod that MAY OR MAY NOT BE A FIST OR FOOT FOR A GIANT ROBOT FORMATION WHERE HE COMBINES WITH THREE OTHER JETS AND ALSO A NOT-JET-THAT-MAKES-PEOPLE-FURIOUS-FOR-SOME-DUMB-REASON.

Jet mode is preeeeeeeeeeeetty great, not gonna lie. Yes, it does suffer from "my underside is completely exposed robot bits" syndrome, and yeah the arms from the robot mode stick out like a sore thumb and yeaaaaaaaah the placement for the weapons is this mode is kinda useless, but the vehicle modes for the majority of the Aerialbots so far hit plenty of my aesthetic preferences right on the head. For being the Aerialbot I wasn't looking forward to at all, he slowly creeped up there to possibly being my favorite.

Maybe.

Look, it's kind of a three-way tie at this point. From a group of five.

NYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWN

Day 11 Complete. 354 Days Remain.