Powerglide's alternate
mode is a A-10 Warthog-style aircraft, and for the most part looks pretty
good proportions-wise in this mode. The front nosecone, the rear thrusters,
the main wings and tailwings-- they're all pretty much in proportion with
each other. The robot arms underneath the main wings are real doozies when
it comes to extras-- couldn't there have been some way to fit them entirely
underneath the wings, at least, instead of having them stick out so blatantly?
On a lesser note, the rear end dips down a bit because of the feet that
are on the back end. Granted, the robot feet have landing gear molded onto
them, just like the flip-out piece underneath the nosecone, but with landing
gear deployed Powerglide definitely isn't level but pointing slightly upwards.
QA-wise, the middle tan section does have a little bit of problem staying
in place given that they're on ball joints and not connected to the main
body with very secure tabs. On many Powerglides, the rear section also
has a tendency to split down the middle into the robot legs even if you
press these sections together firmly-- thankfully this isn't universal
and was fixed on later iterations of this mold, but it can be quite annoying
(mine has this issue). Powerglide's classic color scheme of brick red and
tan with a bit of black is reproduced pretty faithfully here, though particularly
in this mode he's a bit lacking in paint apps-- some paint on any of the
wings would have been particularly appreciated to help break up all the
brick red. I mean, the scheme itself looks okay, but it's not particularly
eye-catching, and some bright colors in this mode would've helped quite
a bit. As far as mold detailing, though, it's pretty decent, with the appropriate
aircraft panels and patches molded in where you'd expect them to be.
Powerglide's robot mode
is where the priority seems to have gone in terms of engineering-- it's
easily my favorite mode of the toy, replicating his G1 cartoon design fairly
accurately with only a couple of extras-- namely, the engines and tailwings
on the sides of his lower legs, and a targeting reticle panel from weapon
mode hanging off his lower back (but this last one doesn't get in the way
much and is kept out of sight from many angles, so I don't mind the latter).
The proportions are just all-around fantastic, with arms that are skinny
at some parts and chunky at others, a decent-sized head with an excellent,
cartoon-esque headsculpt, and legs that are fairly well-proportioned if
just a tad skinny. Powerglide's signature "wings folded up at the shoulders"
design cue is present here, too. His robot parts a bit scarce in terms
of mold detailing when compared to many other Generations toys, though
again, this toy seems to be going for Powerglide's G1 cartoon look more
than anything else, so this was probably intentional. As with his vehicle
mode, unfortunately, Powerglide's color scheme remains very basic with
few paint apps-- even most of the black is out-of-sight in this mode, with
the face, waist, and a big Autobot symbol on his chest being the only well-painted
areas on the toy. The limbs in particular definitely need some more color
variation. For articulation in this mode, Powerglide can rotate at the
neck and move at the shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and slightly forward-and-backward
at the ankles. Most of these joints are ball joints, so Powerglide's pretty
poseable, especially considering that he's so well-balanced.
To help him fit in with
the Combiner Wars toys, Powerglide has a third weapon mode, to be held
by another TF with 5mm ports (he's supposed to be part of the Aerialbots
and thus held by Superion, but of course
the choice is yours). It's mostly his jet mode with the arms in their robot
mode configuration while the rear section has the thrusters extended a
bit, the tailwings folded down, and a targeting reticle panel flipped up.
For a third mode, this is actually pretty decent-- the elongated thrusters
make for great cannon barrels, and the painted "missile packs" on the underside
of Powerglide's arms make for some nice additional firepower, even if they're
still way too obviously Powerglide's arms and should extend out from the
sides a bit more as, realistically, they would partially fire into the
front of the weapon mode. The targeting reticle was an unneeded, but nice
touch. Unfortunately, the hip ball joints do cause the front section of
this mode to sag a bit. Additionally, the tailwings are really obvious
and don't contribute anything useful to this mode at all besides being
kibble, though the molded-in thruster makes for a nice pretend additional
cannon barrel. Ingeniously, the fold-out landing gear piece works as the
handle for this mode.
Combiner Wars Powerglide
has one of the best robot modes he's ever had, and his weapon mode is passable
for a third mode, but he pays for it with a substandard vehicle mode with
some obvious arm kibble and a sagging back end. He also desperately needs
some more paint to help liven up his color scheme. Mildly recommended if
you want a Powerglide that goes in a more G1-direction than his other toys,
or if you want a weapon for your CW gestalts; just temper your expectations.
Review by Beastbot