(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 Energon Sky Shadow. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Energon Sky Shadow here.)

    Skyfall is the first part of a combiner that will take five years (!) to complete, with one part being the club exclusive for each year up 'till 2009. Given the change in management at the beginning of 2005, the Collectors' Club people have admitted that Skyfall was a bit of a rush job to get him out on time to the club members. As such, although the other combiner parts will be remolded somewhat, this one isn't. However, the color designers did make Skyfall unique enough to easily distinguish him from his two Energon mold buddies, Sky Shadow and Terradive. He's almost ENTIRELY transparent-- it looks really cool, as not only does he almost glow near any reasonably bright light source, but you can see some of the internal robot parts through the plastic in plane mode. Also because of this, the robot hands are more easily seen in robot mode-- however, the flipside of that is they're also more visible in plane mode. The transparent red Energon weapon and chip also looks great next to the transparent dark blue. However, Skyfall does have some major downsides, as well, that partially overshadow the transparent Transformer. For one, the light red clashes a bit with the blue-- if it were more of a darker red, it would have been fine, but alas, it isn't. Also-- and this one's a biggie-- Skyfall has VERY few paint apps. Just a few small black paint apps surrounding his cockpit window, on the tip of the nosecone and the rear turbines, and on the robot face. (Well, and the Autobot symbols, but those don't really count...) So it makes Skyfall look very plain in terms of this, almost prototype-ish. In addition, his head paint app is very sloppily applied on many of the toys-- including mine, where the stripes on the forehead are noticeably off. I don't know if the cost of making the toy transparent forced them to get rid of many of the paint apps, but I wish a bit more variety in the color of the paint apps could have been used, if nothing else.
    Skyfall's transparent plastic was a good idea, as was most of his color scheme, but the clashy light red and severe lack of paint apps make him a bit inferior to Sky Shadow and Terradive, I think. Still, it is certainly a unique piece, and it's not at all a bad toy. If you're a serious collector, I recommend him-- otherwise, don't bother with the club membership price needed to get this toy.

Review by Beastbot

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