Skyhammer is the only "large toy" (i.e., voyager or above) for the DotM line that doesn't appear in the movie, and as such, his helicopter mode isn't a particular type of licensed helicopter, though it does highly resemble an Apache. Proportions-wise, there's not much to complain about here-- there's no "underbelly kibble" at all, and everything looks pretty spot-on, with the only real robot mode extras being that his white feet are rather obvious near the tail of the copter-- but that's VERY minor at best, since they're molded in to fit in with Skyhammer's silouhette quite well and if it wasn't for them being a different color, they would've fit right in. Skyhammer's mold is a surprsingly detailed, with little panels, "rivets" nad the like pretty much everywhere on him. His paint detailing also works quite well, with the bottom of his rear two-thirds being painted silver-- that, along with the white and the yellow-ish colors used for his transparent cockpit and on the rear of his side thrusters, contrasts well with Skyhammer's dull blue. It's not exactly an amazing color scheme, but it is fairly realistic and slightly more varied than most movie characters' color schemes. Skyhammer has three landing gear to help keep him level in this mode-- the first one underneath his cockpit can fold back up, but the two behind his wings can only rotate around circularly, thus being rather obvious even when they're "retracted". The rotor spins very well, though occasionally the little "knobs" on each propeller towards the center can hit something slightly as they rotate. As for weapons, Skyhammer has two (non-firing) missile pods that are normally stored on the underside of each wing-- they're made to connect with any Mechtech-sized port, though, so they can be used on most other mainline DotM figures. Beyond the four he's got underneath his wings, he's also got one on the side of each of his side thrusters for a total of six. His Mechtech weapon is a rather overly bulky double-barreled gun that's a rather ugly shade of light gray, and is so bulky in fact that you can't mount it anywhere without it looking odd. Pushing foward on the button on the backside of the weapon causes the weapon to convert into a blade, though it still retains its bulkiness in this mode. As with most Mechtech weapons, it can't stay in this "activated" mode, making Skyhammer's Mechtech weapon rather weak, overall. He also has two area for C-clip weapons near his side thrusters, in case you want to pump him up with a few of those as well.
    Transforming Skyhammer can be a bit challenging the first few times-- his torso and arms in particular transform in a complex (and rather ingenious) manner-- but it's not overly frustrating, and it results in a robot mode that's also quite good. First, the bad-- his main wings hang rather obviously behind his back, though at least they stay out of the way of most articulation and peg into place. His helicopter tail fins also hang out behind his lower legs and small pieces of his cockpit hang up above the rest of his translucent yellow shoulders, which otherwise look great. Due to his transformation, the way his upper legs look is also a bit odd, being at a few weird angles to their surrounding parts. These are all minor issues, though, and Skyhammer is a really unique helicopter TF (in a good way), with the cockpit halves forming his shoulders and his lower arms folding into their robot mode configuration in a cool manner with the thrusters now acting as "guns". The best part of Skyhammer in this mode, though, has got to be how his rotors store-- almost all helicopter TFs have their rotors just hanging off of some part of them in robot mode, but Skyhammer's fold around and tab in at the sides of his shoulders and waist, looking a bit like a cool "combat vest" or somesuch. Due to the placement of his Mechtech ports, Skyhammer can also store his missile pods or weapons on the back of his lower hands in this mode, though his wing Mechtech ports behind his back aren't of much use here. Skyhammer's robot parts also also rather nicely detailed mold-wise, with tubing and armor plating everywhere-- though it's toned down slightly from most Movie toys, given his lack of an onscreen model that needed to be reproduced in physical form. His headsculpt also looks great, with a movie-ish faceplate but a transparent visor over his eyes, giving him a bit of a "pilot" look. His upper legs could use a little paint, but overall Skyhammer's various paint apps keep him from looking too monotonous in this mode. I particularly like the blue used for his face-- it's a striking shade of the color, and I wish more of it was used on the toy. As for articulation, Skyhammer can move at the neck, shoulders (at four points), elbows, inwards at the wrists, and he can also move at the hips (at two points), waist, and knees (at two points). He could've used a little ankle movement, but that's really the only thing missing here-- given his lack of back-heaviness and kibble, you can get him into some pretty neato poses.
    Dark of the Moon Skyhammer is definitely the best new-mold voyager toy in the line, with an ingenious transformation, a decent color scheme and number of paint apps, good proportions in both modes, and a cool, unique robot mode. There's not much to complain about here; highly recommended, even if you're not a big fan of the movie aesthetic.

Review by Beastbot

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