Silverbolt (Ultra) [Universe 2.0]
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Autobot
Size: Ultra
Series: Classic/Generation One
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Light gray, black, and some silver, light orangish red, dull metallic gold, dark dull brick red, gray, metallic gunmetal gray, and transparent blue
Rating: 7.0

    Silverbolt's alternate mode is a supersonic jet, and is fairly close to his G1 alt mode in terms of its overall proportions and design, though with a few extra fins. The detailing on this mode is quite good, with rivets and vents in the appropriate places, but without making the jet mode look too "busy" considering it's supposed to be a really sleek, fast design. The color scheme is a bit plain, being mostly just light gray, but it becomes more varied in robot mode (discussed shortly). Silverbolt has "BOLT-25" and Autobot "25" tampos on his wings and the sides of where his nosecone meets the main body of the plane, which are nods to the 25th anniversary of the Transformers line, which came shortly after Silverbolt's release. Another detail I like is the transparent blue plastic used for the cockpit windows, small orbs near the back end of the nosecone that look like gun ports, and the rear engines, which have a nice red-orange fade pattern on them to make it look like the "metal" on them is overheating. Silverbolt can hold his robot mode's gun underneath the nosecone, which is your standard spring-loaded missile-firing gun. He also has three fold-out landing gear, but there's one HUGE downside to this mode, and that's that almost his entire robot mode is just hanging under his jet mode. It's compressed in, to be sure, but it's still blatantly from any angle except a top-down view. It really ruins the otherwise sleek look of this mode. As far as his electronics, pressing in on the dull brick red button near the back end, causes either a repeating "machine gun firing" sound to be emitted as long as you hold down the button, with the green lights near the rear of the nosecone blinking; a one-time "jet flying by" noise; or a one-time "jet starting up" noise with the rear engines blinking red. Pretty cool how each noise is different, in its own way.
    Silverbolt also has one other electronic noise-- during the final transformation step, as you push up his head, the classic G1 transformation sound plays and his robot eyes blink green, which is pretty cool. (The transformation sound also sounds in reverse when you complete that first step back to vehicle mode. Also, pressing in on the dull brick red button his backside causes the repeating "machine gun firing" sound to be played along with the blinking green lights, but that's the only sound that plays, as opposed to cycling through the three different vehicle mode sounds.) Silverbolt's robot mode is very accurate to his G1 self-- in fact, it's a bit TOO accurate. He has his entire jet mode on his back, sort of the opposite of his his vehicle mode looks. It's not as bad in this mode, since overall his jet mode is more folded-up and just has less mass, but it still makes for a fairly lazy Transformer, especially at this scale. You could shrink down Silverbolt to a deluxe scale without losing anything except the electronics, and if you wanted to get rid of the missile firing gimmick and some of the articulation, you could actually accurately shrink him down to LEGENDS scale. THAT'S how overly simplistic his transformation and design is for his size class. Those major complaints aside, the rest of Silverbolt's robot mode is pretty cool. His proportions are nearly perfect, with the only caveat there being that his lower legs ar are a tad on the skinny side. The dark red, black, gray, and dull gold really help break up all that light gray and make Silverbolt much more visually interesting in this mode. His chest in particular has some really nice detailing on it. I think the light red-orange is a bit of a ugly color for plastic, though, and really doesn't work even as an accent color. As far as articulation goes, Silverbolt's got his fair share of that; he can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows, hips (at three points), and knees, so you can get a fair number of poses out of him-- however, because of the aforementioned back kibble, not quite as much as you would otherwise.
    Universe 2.0 Ultra Silverbolt has a fairly good-looking, well-proportioned robot mode, but his transformation is way too simplistic, with each mode basically "wearing" the other mode on its underside or back. Because of these major downsides, I think Silverbolt is the weakest of the new Universe 2.0 Ultra molds. There's simply no reason this couldn't have been a deluxe toy instead.



Silverbolt Bio:
As the leader of an elite group of Autobot warriors known as the Aerialbots, Silverbolt shoulders a great deal of responsiblity. He is a careful planner who never risks the lives of any of his men, unless it is absolutely necessary. All his care, however, hides a deeply insecure nature. Optimus Prime actually put Silverbolt in such a stressful position largely to distract him from his paralyzing fear of heights; a weakness he hopes the other Aerialbots never discover. He is a capable leader nonetheless, and has honed the Aerialbots into one of the finest Autobot units in the universe.
Strength: 6.0
Intelligence: 8.0
Speed: 9.0
Endurance: 8.0
Rank: 8.0
Courage: 8.0
Fireblast: 8.0
Skill: 5.0

Review by Beastbot

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