Vehicle mode is a futuristic space fighter. (Wait, what I am saying... of COURSE a space fighter is futuristic...) Anyways, it's a very nice mode, with no noticeable robot extras at all. Granted, if you look at him from the bottom in the mode, you can see his robot head on the underside of his cockpit, but it's pretty much a given with Transformers that you don't look at their vehicle modes from the bottom anyways. The Energon gun attachment on the front of the nosecose is a bit overkill in its length, which I assume is because of some safety law. The Energon sword halves on the end of the wings really add to his look, though, as they make the wings an extra bit of length that really looks great on a space fighter. His paint detailing is really, really great in this mode, with and his mold detailing is as good as one can reasonably expect on a sleek vehicle such as this. His red, white, and gray color scheme also works very nicely, and it especially becomes apparent in his robot mode that he's a homage to G1 Jetfire. (Skyblast's original name was supposed to be Skyfire, but it didn't clear legal for some reason.) Skyblast also has some claws on the bottom side of his vehicle mode which you can use to have him "grab" onto some other thing to lift it. It actually works pretty well with long, skinny objects, and it's a nice feature.
    Skyblast's robot mode is also great. The proportions are top-notch-- a rarity for Energon Autobots-- and the only vehicle extras that he has complement this mode rather than hurt it, like the wings on the back of his hands and the nosecone behind his head. Speaking of his head, it definitely shows through as a G1 Jetfire homage, albeit with a bit of an asymmetrical look tacked on as well (which still looks good, mind you). One particular oddity, though, is that the wings on the back of Skyblast's hands have plenty of paint apps in vehicle mode, but when you turn them over for the robot mode, there's barely any paint apps on the other side. Talk about uneven... Skyblast's articulation is fairly good; he can move at the shoulders (at two points), the elbows, the hips, and side-to-side at knees. Because of his transformation, though, he doesn't have any back-and-forth knee articulation or any head articulation. The latter isn't that big of a deal on this small of a toy, but lack of real knees makes him look rather stiff in some of his poses. Skyblast's Energon weapon gets a definite A+, as it makes a very convincing Energon lance. It also has two holes to plug into a Transformer's hands- one at the very tip of the handle and another behind the blade. It also has a Minicon port above the latter handle, in case you want to plug it onto any Powerlinx ports. As with the other Omnicons, Skyblast's Autobot spark crystal is on his chest in robot mode.
    Skyblast is a near-perfect Omnicon- he's got great proportions in both modes, a very nice color scheme, an awesome Energon Weapon, and practically no extras in either mode. He has a few missing points of articulation in robot mode as well as a few other more minor problems, but they barely take away from the toy at all. Highly recommended.

Review by Beastbot

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