Silverbolt's vehicle mode copies his G1 alt mode pretty much to the letter, and is a supersonic jet. From a top view, this mode largely looks good-- he's got a nice, long nosecone and pretty good proportions as far as the "jet parts" go in relation to each other. The mold detailing is also quite intricate when it needs to be, what with all the little windows on his nosecone (though only the front windows are painted) and rather detailed rear thrusters, along with the usual aircraft lines all up and down the top. Unfortunately, as is the case with pretty much every other G1 Silverbolt toy, he's got a LOT of robot mode kibble-- it's pretty much his entire robot mode under there, and this greatly ruins the streamlined look that this mode should have. His legs at least fold into to the body of the jet mode decently enough from most views-- even if they're too thick-- but the robot arms are particularly obnoxiously obvious. There also isn't any real rear end, with the knees sticking out obviously and nothing in between them. There's also a dearth of paint apps in this mode-- Silverbolt's almost completely an off-white color. There's two stripes of dull orange down the center, and there's silver thrusters and the aforementioned painted front windows, but the wings in particular could've used a little something more than just Autobot symbols. That said, the overall color scheme by itself looks nice enough-- the orange and black provide varying levels of contrast against the white. Silverbolt does have one fold-down landing gear below his nosecone, but the bulk of this mode sticks out enough below what should be the main body that there's no real room for rear landing gear. If you fold up said front landing gear, you can plug in Silverbolt's weapon-- a rather long-barreled gun with a landing gear wheel molded on the bottom of the rear to keep this mode level with the weapon plugged in. That said, be careful-- it can be a bit of pain to wiggle that gun out of the two tight holes it's plugged into, to the point where on another release of this mold I had the rear peg snap, so don't plug it in there TOO snugly.
    The robot mode follows Silverbolt's usual transformation of mostly simply unfolding from the jet mode. Thankfully for this version, the jet wings and nosecone all fold behind his back. They can get in the way of hip movement a little, but are generally not that big of a deal. Other than that big extra, Silverbolt is surprisingly extra-free in this mode, with the only other bits that might qualify as "kibble" being the combiner chest halves on the sides of his lower legs and the tiniest bits of the end of his combiner antennae coming out below his upper chest; both are easily ignorable. His proportions are also quite solid, with a rather normal-looking (for a TF) chest and well-proportioned legs. His lower arms are just a tad large though, as are the fists, which I chalk up to being an acceptable side effect of his torso transformation. The mold detailing is still pretty good in this mode, adding in the usual G1 details along with a few extra unexpected details here and there, like some vents on the sides of his arms and some circuitry patterns on his stomach. His color scheme layout is the best in this mode, with the white still staying dominant while black and orange become more obvious, adding some more contrast. The red also makes itself known in this mode, and really just helps break up all the colors perfectly. Silverbolt's headsculpt is pretty much perfect, capturing his G1 look while adding some more crisp detailing. His silver face and blue eyes look quite nicely against the off-white "helmet". For a weapon, the long gun from vehicle mode can either be held in one hand, or split into pieces with the back end becoming a shield that can attach to the side of either lower arm. It's a bit small for a shield, but the option is certainly nice. For articulation in this mode, Silverbolt can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows, hips (at three points), knees (at two points), and ankles, so he's quite poseable (keeping in mind that because of his wings, he's slightly back-heavy).
    Silverbolt's torso mode transformation is quite delightful, and features mostly flipping him upside-down, splitting open his chest and revealing the combiner head, and then combining his legs together to form the chest. This leaves the torso very well-proportioned, with a skinnier, more proportional waist that tapers up to a broader chest and shoulder sockets that aren't too far apart; the overall look is powerful, but not super-buff. There are a few minor extras added in this mode-- namely, the robot fists just hang off quite obviously behind the torso knees, as do the panels that used to cover up his shoulder combiner sockets now just hanging below said sockets. There's also the jet mode wings and nosecone off the back end, but this compresses better in this mode than robot mode, given that it's now a smaller part of what will become a much larger figure, and doesn't get in the way of articulation at all. The chest detailing is well-done, adding red as a major color to this mode along with some landing wheel-like details on an otherwise fairly smoothly-sculpted chest. The headsculpt for Superion is adequate, though I think it could've have been done slightly better; the way the visor and faceplate line up seems just a teesny bit "off" to me. The helmet detailing on the black plastic is quite well-done, and the orange antennae frame his overall robot head quite well, with the latter being made of the rubbery, bendy sort of plastic both for safety purposes and so they don't necessarily crack when you take the combiner head out of the rather small cavity for it in the torso. (This said, be careful; several people have reported the hinge that you open to take out the combiner head cracking during transformation, though thankfully mine doesn't have this issue. This issue SEEMS to be solved with later runs of the figure, but this is not 100% confirmed.) For articulation in this mode, Superion can move at the neck, at the base of each antennae, and at the hips at three points-- all pretty solid connections, so no complaints there.
    Combiner Wars Silverbolt may have a very kibble-laden vehicle mode that only looks good from the top, but his other modes are both stellar. His robot mode has excellent proportions and articulation while keeping the wings mostly out-of-sight, and the torso mode is the best out of all the Combiner Wars voyagers, with a waist that isn't too wide and upper combiner legs that aren't obviously just the robot legs in a different position. If you just want Silverbolt, a mild recommendation because of the jet mode issues, but if you're planning on combining him with any sort of regularity this is a solid purchase.

Review by Beastbot

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