Skywarp
(Leader) [Combiner Wars]
(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 Generations Leader Jetfire. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Generations Leader Jetfire here.)
Skywarp is a fairly by-the-book
redeco as far as the many Skywarp redecoes over the years have gone; as
is traditional, he's mostly black with a fair amount of purple and silver
highlights, and a few minor accent colors. The purple used on Skywarp is
a little darker than on most Skywarps, but only a touch; it still contrasts
quite well against the black and looks great as part of the color scheme
overall. Also as expected, Skywarp has a fair amount of silver, particularly
in robot mode, where his chest and waist are painted almost entirely silver.
He's also got some silver lines contrasting against the much fatter purple
lines on his main wings, and silver and black lines against solid purple
tailfins-- it's a minor change, but it generally looks good, though I wish
the silver stripes were a bit fatter on the main wings. Another slight
change from the usual is that circles on Skywarp's chest and waist are
painted a nice gunmetal gray, a color that both contrasts and complements
the silver paint surrounding them-- this is a nice little extra to break
up the silver on a toy of this size. As is usual for Seekers, Skywarp has
transparent orange plastic used for his cockpit. He's also got a little
transparent red plastic for his eyes, but the light piping doesn't really
work, so it doesn't really show up well. The faux jet nose chest details
in robot mode have an appropriately orange cockpit (a nice metallic shade
of the color, too), but the details around it are painted purple! The nosecone
isn't purple in vehicle mode, so this choice was rather odd, and I feel
that purple paint could've been better used elsewhere, like on the entirely-black
undersides of the wings, which are pretty dominant in robot mode.
Skywarp has the same
mold changes made to the Leader class Jetfire mold as Thundercracker,
but has no unique mold changes himself.
Combiner Wars Leader
Skywarp is pretty much your typical expected Starscream
redeco, with the best overall color scheme of the "usual trio" of Seekers
that doesn't break the mold in terms of color scheme and paint apps, even
if there's a few minor differences here and there (like the gunmetal gray
and purple on the chest in robot mode). If you only get one Leader-class
Seeker, I'd make it this one, but Seekers tend to be better as a squadron.
Since getting three Leader class toys of one mold may be a bit steep for
some, I'd thus only mildly recommend him, given the flaws of the mold and
the many smaller, more affordable options for the character.
Review by Beastbot