(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Energon Divebomb. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Energon Divebomb here.)

    Laserbeak is supposed to be the same character as the G1 bird-tape, and was upgraded into a Predacon form like Ravage in the Beast Wars TV show. However, unlike Ravage, he's shedded his tape mode entirely and now transforms from robot to hawk. The color scheme has some similiarites with his partner Buzzsaw, including the transparent purple weapons, black legs and some feathers, and the light gray paint apps on his wings, bird neck, and robot chest. However, there's certainly more than enough color changes to still differentiate between him and Buzzsaw, the main one being that his main color is a fiery orangish-red. It's a pretty nice color to use, in my opinion, and makes him look rather Phoenix-ish. The gold paint apps on the wings and beak help to add to this look, and altogether the colors go together quite nicely, the only exception being the transparent purple, which goes together a little better on his darker-colored partner Buzzsaw. There's also a few other minor paint app changes such as on the robot chest to help differentiate Laserbeak from his pack-in buddy even more, though all of the paint app locations on Laserbeak are the same as on Buzzsaw. My only real outright complaint with the colors is that, though they look cool, there aren't "Laserbeakish" enough. G1 Laserbeak had a more "normal" red color instead of a fiery orangish-red, and he also had way more black. Thus, although some were able to see it in the leaked toy pics before it was officially announced, the fact that it wasn't anywhere near a consensus does show that it does take a bit of extrapolation to see Laserbeak in this mode, though not as much stretching as it does for Buzzsaw, granted. A Predacon symbol has been painted over the molded-in Decepticon spark crystal to fit the toy in with the story without any remolding.
    No mold changes have been made to Laserbeak when compared to Energon Divebomb. Also of note is that in addition to being a Botcon 2006 exclusive, you could only buy Laserbeak for $45 with Buzzsaw at the convention-- it was not available free to preregistrants or available at all to those who did not attend the convention. Laserbeak is limited to 500 pieces, so he's worth a pretty penny.
    Laserbeak is a nice redeco of a nice mold, and I don't really have any problems with his color scheme except that it's not quite as G1-accurate as it should have been. Still, it is quite expensive, and is obviously only meant for the big-time Transformers toy collector.

Review by Beastbot

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