Dreadwing's alternate
mode of a jet is quite accurately represented in his Cyberverse form--
a particular feat at this scale. All of the proportions of the jet mode
look spot-on (though the wings could perhaps be just a TOUCH longer), and
his color scheme is definitely Dreadwing, being in "Blue Angels" colors
of dark dull navy blue with a bit of yellow (both painted and transparent)
that provides a nice contrast color against all that dark blue. All of
the necessary paint apps are here, including the yellow stripes on the
back end of his wings and the Decepticon "air force" symbols on his wings.
Dreadwing unfortunately has a fair amount of robot mode kibble on his underside,
however-- more specifically, his arms stick out from beneath and behind
his main wings, and the tips of his feet sticking out the back end. This
said, with the exception of his lower arms, it blends in with the overall
"silouhette" of this mode quite a bit better than on his Voyager
class toy, not sticking out so obviously below the main parts of the
jet (particularly up front with the nosecone and such), only below the
rear half of the jet where it's more hidden. Dreadwing's two weapons are
a cannon and a sword, which store under each of his wings in this mode
and look pretty cool in their transparent-ness. The sword can be plugged
into the bottom of the cannon to form Dreadwing's cannon-bayonet weapon
in the show, something that makes these cool weapons even cooler.
Dreadwing's robot mode
transformation is very straightforward, having you just fold the legs/main
body section down and then folding down the nosecone section while spreading
out his shoulder pads. The "core" of this mode is quite well-done, keeping
in well with Dreadwing's unusually beefy proportions for a jet-former.
However, he does basically have three-fourths of his jet mode on his back.
The wings fit in with his silouhette well enough, though the big "bump"
of the main body of his alt mode that sticks up behind his head does make
him look a little more hunchbacked, when he's not at all like that in the
show. His shoulder pads also cover up the exposed ball joints on his shoulders
and look quite good, even if they are a bit large proportionally. The wings,
obviously, can interfere a bit with backwards movement of the arms, but
in general I don't mind them. Dreadwing's color scheme in this mode gets
a bit of milky bluish gray added to it, which-- though definitely not my
favorite color-- does give a bit more variation to his colors here, and
the unique "swirl" in the plastic makes it look semi-metallic, which is
always good to me. Dreadwing's sculpting is fantastic. In keeping with
the Prime aesthetic, some parts have only a few stylistic details on them
(such as the arms and legs) while his chest and head have quite a lot of
finely-detailed sculpting on them, along with his weapon and a few cool
"circuitry" patterns on his transparent parts. His paint is decent in this
mode-- his chest in particular looks nice with the gunmetal gray, and his
head is painted accurately-- but his limbs could've used another paint
app or two. For articulation, Dreadwing can move at the shoulders (with
movable shoulder pads), elbows, hips, knees, and slightly forward at the
ankles. He's fairly well-balanced so he's got a decent range of movement--
keeping in mind the aforementioned restrictons on arm articulation because
of his wings. I also wish his head could swivel, too. As with all 2012
Commander-class figures, Dreadwing has a peg on his upper back in this
mode that you can attach any Cyberverse-compatible weapon with an LED light
on it, and it's supposed to light up Dreadwing's body, too. But-- just
like almost every other implementation of this gimmick-- it barely works,
if at all, and is best forgotten. In addition to being able to hold his
weapon (or combined weapon) in his hands, Dreadwing also has Cyberverse-compatible
holes on the sides of his lower arms if you want to pump him up a bit more
with other weapons.
Commander class Dreadwing
has a bit of kibble in his modes (particularly his robot mode), but generally
manages to look quite good in both modes despite this, and also has a fairly
nice color scheme, proportions, range of articulation, and some awesome
weapons. Whether you should prioritize picking up this version or the voyager
version depends; if a better vehicle mode and weapon matter more to you,
this version is the one you want to pick up. If robot mode proportions
matter the most to you, the voyager version is your best bet.
Review by Beastbot