Terradive's vehicle mode
is a jet, and it's a pretty cool-looking jet, to boot. The long nosecone,
forward-sweeping main wings, and backwards-facing tail and side wings all
look very nice and give this mode a rather bird-like appearance, even for
a jet. Particularly in comparison to most other Transformer jets, Terradive's
vehicle mode is very sleek and skinny, though there are two rather noticeable
robot mode extras in this mode-- namely, his robot legs. Granted, an ATTEMPT
is at least made to hide them-- they rotate sideways in this mode to lessen
how deep the make the "belly" on the jet, thus not really making it bulkier
in that dimension at all; however, the upper legs and feet can be rather
clearly seen below the front and back of the main wings. Ignoring that,
this mode is pretty darned awesome, with no other robot mode extras and
great proportions. There's three little flip-out landing gear to kepe Terradive
stable, but he almost doesn't need them, given how flat his underside is.
His trident from robot mode does clip onto the underside in this mode for
storage (and looks like a cool claw-gun in this mode), though, so these
landing gear at least allow you to keep that stored away while still keeping
the toy level. The mold detailing is very well-done, with tons of little
panels 'n such visible in this mode, while the "robot bits" have tons of
movie-former-esque intricate details on them such as gears, tubes, and
the like. The color scheme is also quite eye-catching, with the light orange
and black playing off of each other beautifully and the striped paint apps
across the vehicle mode helping to maximize that contrast. The off-white
also serves as a nice "buffer" color to break up some of the larger areas
of orange. The light milky gray not so much, since it's that same (way)
over-used boring color as on many other TFs. However, it does serve as
a bit of a "neutral" color that's darker than the off-white and orange
but lighter than the black.
Terradive's transformation
is absolutely ingenious, with his nosecone and wings folding up in a particularly
cool manner to form his robot chest. His proportions are great, giving
him a bit of a skinny look without making him too lanky, and the wings
behind his shoulders really enhance his silouhette. There are two minor
quibbles I have with this mode-- for one, the wings which fold against
the sides of his legs peg in nicely, but are still definitely way wider
than the lower legs and stick out a bit too obviously (I wish they folded
in on themselves once or twice to minimize this). Secondly, if you look
at him from a side view you can see a few little gaps in the sides of his
main body. These are both easily overlooked, however. The addition of metallic
gunmetal gray and a little bit of purple and bronze really help to bring
his whole color scheme together, and the red used on his eyes is a perfect
shade-- against all the other paint on his head, it definitely makes him
look like an evil Decepticon, with the sides of his angular forehead looking
like little wings. Oh, and let's not forget his TRIDENT weapon, which is
AWESOME. Seriously, how many Transformers get a trident? Especially JET
Transformers? You can move the head of it up or down slightly to have the
two side prongs of the weapon either open or close in a "clamping" motion,
though after a few tries of this on mine the pieces did tend to get a bit
loose and not lock in place quite as well as I'd like. Terradive's articulation
is also great-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows
(at two points), wrists, hips (at two points), knees, and a bit at the
ankles. He's also quite stable, and given how dynamic he looks, you can
get him in some pretty darned awesome poses with his weapon (which can
be held by both hands at the same time, by the by).
Autobot Alliance Terradive
is an amazing, ingenious, and quite original design. He looks particularly
stupendous in robot mode, with his great proportions, great articulation,
great look, and awesome trident. The way most of his parts are well-intergrated
into both modes is quite impressive. His rather obvious legs in vehicle
mode are the only major detractor but even those and a few other minor
flaws-- with the bonus points he gains for ingenuity and looks-- isn't
enough to knock him off the "must-buy" rating category of 9.0+. If you
can at all stand "movie-style" Transformers, get him!
Review by Beastbot