Allegiances: Autobot
Size: Crash Combiner 2-pack
Overall Rating: 5.1
 

Skysledge

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: White and some black, dull forest green, dark dull glossy red, dark milky red, moderately dull blue, and orangish "cheesy" yellow
Individual Rating: 4.0

    "Skysledge" is certainly an accurate name for this guy given his alt mode, which is one of the bulkiest jets I've ever seen. It's very rectangular overall, with a very wide front (what's a nosecone?) that's kinda ruined by the big combiner port smack dab in the center, complete with a green arrow showing you how to "crash combine" Skysledge into his pal Stormhammer. Most of Skysledge's body is fairly well-detailed in terms of the mold, with vents and the like obvious on the sides, little tailfins on the top near the rear, and a small cockpit molded into the center of this bulky flier. His robot arms are a bit obvious on the front sides of the mode, but color-wise they fit in the surrounding parts and they don't really break up his silhouette too much, so they're minor problems. Skysledge's wings are also a bit wide and not as skinny as you'd expect them to be, so they kinda fit the rest of his silhouette. There's some nice thrusters detailed on his back end, and Skysledge even has a port on top of this mode where you can attach a Mini-Con Weaponizer or other weapon with a similar-sized port into him for some more firepower. Color-wise the vast majority of Skysledge is white, with some black on his wings and on part of his combiner clip on the front. There's also some red plastic used for his thruster/tailfin pieces, and some orangish-yellow paint on his cockpit windows. It's a very "Aerialbot-y" color scheme, though whether Skysledge was intended to be an Aerialbot or not I'll never know, since this group never made it onto the show. That said, some more paint apps to break up all the white on this mode would've been appreciated.
    As with pretty much every Crash Combiner, the individual transformation is incredibly simple and just involves swinging out the legs from the sides and separating the back halves into the legs a bit, then opening up the chest cavity on the underside, folding out the robot head, and closing it again. As such, Skysledge's robot mode isn't that impressive to look at-- again, as is the case with most individual Crash Combiner robot modes. His proportions are a bit too stiff-looking, and he's got a heck of a lot of kibble-- at this size having those big wings come out at the sides are a bit too large, though at least the black paint helps make them "disappear" depending on where you've got him displayed. The sides of the jet mode also jut out rather obnoxiously behind his waist and, to a lesser extent, behind his upper legs/chest. His robot mold detailing is generally fairly generic and not looking like they came from his jet mode pieces. He's got some general angular details on his knees, a belt-like collection of shapes on his waist, and generic arms with fists molded in and tiny little spikes on the backs of the lower arms. The shoulders have some rather interesting spiky details on them, though I'm not sure what they're trying to replicate from the vehicle mode, there. The vents on the sides of his chest and shoulders definitely look like they carry over from his vehicle mode, though (they don't), and the detailing on his chest looks like a crumpled-up cockpit from a jet with... well, with a more normal cockpit. His head looks very much like G1 Jetfire with his helmet on, with a blue visor, a faceplate, a circular forehead, and side antennae. Beyond the blue on his visor and some red on that faux cockpit-chest, Skysledge has no other visible paint beyond the black wings in this mode-- something he DEFINITELY needed more of with his various details to break up all this white. As is the case with basically all individual Crash Combiners, Skysledge can't move much-- just side-to-side at his shoulders.
 

Stormhammer

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: White, dark milky red, black, and some dull forest green, silver, and moderately dull blue
Individual Rating: 4.3

    Stormhammer's vehicle mode is a bit slimmer of a jet than Skysledge, and despite being a bit more futuristic-looking, is a bit more realistic in its proportions. Now, given the gimmick, it's still a bit thick down the main body for a jet, but it's much closer to what one would expect for something like a fighter spacecraft. The nosecone is still fairly wide, but there's a more clearly-defined "normal" jet cockpit in the middle of it, with some vents molded on the side and what looks like the front portion of a sled on the front (should HE have been called Skysledge instead?) with two small guns jutting out the front. The back end is mostly a result of his other modes' parts, with the combined mode chest just flipped upside down with some small tailfins on it, and the combined mode arms a bit obvious on the sides due to their black coloration compared to the surrounding parts. The wings point forward for a bit of a changeup compared to your usual jet. There's some angular lines on the wings, but beyond those the back is fairly sparsely detailed mold-wise. For colors, just like Skysledge Stormhammer looks fairly Aerialbot-ish, with the back end being a dark milky red shade and the rest a mix between black and white. Despite the fact that the blue cockpit is the only paint on this entire mode, there's still enough of a color variation on such a small toy not much else is needed (though perhaps a bit on the wings would've looked good). Just like with Skysledge, there's a hole on the top middle of this mode for you to stick a Mini-Con Weaponizer or weapon with a similarly-sized port into him there for added firepower.
    As you'd expect, Stormhammer's transformation is very straightforward-- flip him upside-down, flip down the front of the nosecone to become his feet, rotate out the arms a bit, and then open up the chest cavity, flip out his head, and close it again. Stormhammer's "core" robot mode is detailed on the underside of his vehicle mode-- again, as you'd expect for a Crash Combiner individual robot mode-- with some rectangular shoulders and chest markings, an armored waist, skinny upper legs, and bulkier, curvier lower legs and feet. His arms have some curved details on the lower arms, but otherwise look pretty average with molded closed fists. His headsculpt has five little headcrests coming off of it, with small vents on the side of the head and a "normal" face and eyes. The head's impressively detailed for the size. Although I'll say the wings enhance his silhouette a little, otherwise Stormhammer has quite alot of kibble sticking out the sides of his body-- namely, basically his entire alt mode. The hips are especially bad and wide, with some substantial junk to the sides of his main body and a little on the sides of his lower legs, as well. Behind his head there's the tailfins back there as well as the Crash Combiner port, complete with the usual green painted arrow indicating where to combine him with Skysledge. Despite all the robot mode details, beyond his silver face and blue eyes NONE of it is painted in this mode, which is a real shame, as it would've helped it stand out from all that white plastic a lot better. As with basically any individual Crash Combiner, Stormhammer can only move side-to-side at the shoulders in this mode; no other articulation.
 

Skyhammer (Combined Form)

Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Individual Rating: 6.9

    Their combined form, Skyhammer, definitely looks like another, larger Aerialbot. As with most Crash Combiners, the legs are just Skysledge's vehicle mode cut in half and spread out to form the legs, with feet pieces folded out-- and which have jet engine exhaust ports molded into them, a nice carry-over from Skysledge's jet mode. The black wings do definitely stick out from the sides of the legs, but they don't get in the way (especially given Skyhammer's limited articulation), and they actually help enhance the silhouette a bit if you ask me, so I don't mind them. For the top half, the outer portions of Stormhammer's vehicle mode fold around and down when you connect him and Skysledge together-- unfold the front nosecone halves down behind the lower arms and you've got said arms. The nosecone halves on the bottom of the arms are probably Skyhammer's biggest pieces of kibble and the most obnoxious, as they neither fit with his silhouette or are minor. They just kinda... hang there. The main body is formed from the "core" of Stormhammer, with a new chest panel flipping up and the combined head being revealed. The combined head looks AWESOME, with pointy side antennae, rather intricate details on his forehead, a faceplate with divots in it, and vents on the side-- of course, it incorporates elements from both Stormhammer's and Skysledge's heads. He also has two narrowed blue eyes, which look great. The chest panel has some simple angular details on it. The downside with this transformation is that Stormhammer's individual robot arms are made a bit clear on the sides of the midsection, which is a minor eyesore. That said, they only make Skyhammer's midsection a BIT thicker, and color-wise they fit in with the upper body. Speaking of the colors, Skyhammer's mostly red-and-black top section meshes well with the mostly white lower section. The black on the leg-wings actually makes it easier to ignore them if you don't like them. Most of the paint apps on the legs and arms are taken from the individual members' respective toys, but there's some white paint on the angular details on his chest, black paint on his abs, and some yellow paint on the faceplate. Overall the colors are varied enough for a toy of this size. Like most Crash Combiners, his articulation is very limited-- he can move back-and-forth at the elbows, but that's it. (You can also rotate his shoudlers up, but they're spring-loaded and will snap back into place as soon as you let go of them.)
 

    Overall, the Skyhammer 2-pack is one of the best of the Crash Combiner sets. It still has the same downsides as basically all of the Crash Combiner sets-- minimal articulation and robot modes basically just detailed on the underside of the vehicle modes-- but the combined mode looks incredibly solid. Stormhammer's jet mode is also pretty solid, while Skysledge's robot mode is at least better-than-average. Maybe it's because I don't have larger "normal" toys of these guys to compare them to, but I generally like the individual bot's designs even in miniature, simplified form, even if I don't like all the kibble around them. The only reason this isn't my most-recommended Crash Combiner set is because the Shocknado redeco looks even better color-wise. Still, if you're into these, this is the first Autobot set I'd recommend.
 

Review by Beastbot

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