Skyquake
(Voyager) [Prime]
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the Prime voyager Dreadwing toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the Prime voyager Dreadwing figure here.)
Skyquake--as you'd expect
if you've watched the show--is a redeco of voyager Dreadwing, his "twin".
Compared to the Cyberverse version of
Skyquake, the green on the voyager version is substantially darker, and
actually a bit less show-accurate because of this color change. His main
light color is mainly the light milky gray plastic, which unfortunately
is just as prevalent on Skyquake as it is on Dreadwing-- i.e., the second-most-used
color on the toy. Still, a few silver paint apps help to give him a bit
more visual appeal, such as the silver around the cockpit and on the rear
thruster. His face uses a unique shade of the color-- a nice dark gunmetal
gray, with the light red eyes really helping to stand out against said
face. Black is also used a bit-- mostly on his rubbery bits, such as his
nosecone and vertical wings, and by itself doesn't really add or subtract
anything from the color scheme, given that it is a dark monochrome color.
What helps to give Skyquake a bit of much-needed visual interest is primarily
his transparent dull orange plastic. It's a rather neat, pumpkin-y shade
of the color, and I don't think I've seen this particular dull shade of
the color on a TF before. It works fairly well and goes with the dark green
well enough, but a lighter orange would've provided more contrast and looked
a bit better. There's also a bit of dull red on the edges of Skyquake's
wings, which again, help to vary up his color scheme a bit but would've
looked better if they were a bit lighter in shade.
No mold changes have
been made to the "core" toy of Skyquake, but the "Powerizer" weapon has
been partially remolded. It still has the same gimmick mechanism, but now
the front of and side of the gun have been changed to look more like Skyquake's
gatling gun he used on the show. It still can't stay deployed without your
finger constantly pressed on the lever, though...
Voyager Skyquake is
a great example of how a few minor color decisions can (relatively) make
or break a color scheme. On the Cyberverse commander class Skyquake, I
thought that deco had a slight edge over commander Dreadwing because of
the lighter shades of green and orange that added visual interest. Here,
I think voyager Dreadwing has the slight edge color-wise, given Skyquake's
entire lack of a bright color outside of that blah milky gray and some
silver paint-- making the orange, green, and/or red a bit brighter would've
helped him stand out more in a toy aisle. Still, it's not a bad color scheme
by any means, and if you like the mold or character, by all means pick
it up.
Review by Beastbot