The Energon Pub

Howdy, folks! Sorry it has been a while since my last review. Anyway, today I start taking a look at Unite Warriors Superion! I'm breaking the review into multiple parts, and part one looks at the team's leader, Silverbolt.



I won't make a new topic for each part of the review, but I will be sure to update the topic's subject line when new parts of the review are added. So stay tuned! Next up will be Fireflight and Slingshot!

As always, I welcome any comments, either on my own website or right here in this thread!

Part two of the review is now available, covering the figures of Fireflight and Slingshot!

I LOVE these reviews!

william-james88 wrote:I LOVE these reviews!

Thank you! It is always nice to feel appreciated.

Yotsuyasan wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I LOVE these reviews!

Thank you! It is always nice to feel appreciated.

I will give you even more precision. While I could not be dissapointed with UW Superion with Silverbolt alone and Superion himself (there is a huge difference in the torso, looking forward to that review, it is always fun to have more reasons to not regret a purchase (I got heavily taxed on mine making my overall cost far greater than I initially imagined). And your Fireflight review showed me things I didnt see in the individual limbs. I didnt realize that Takara had painted the red molding plastic white to extend the wing. That is amazing! And it makes a huge difference both in my appreciation and look and the purchase feels all the more warranted. Thanks for pointing that out! It is always fun to know that one's purchase was worthwhile.

For william-james88 (and, if anyone else is actually reading these, for you, too!), I now present the next part of this review, looking at the final two individual figures, Skydive and Air Raid!

I thought Air Raid and Skydive were retools of one another. They arent?

william-james88 wrote:I thought Air Raid and Skydive were retools of one another. They arent?

I guess, technically, you are correct. Which, as any good bureaucrat knows, is the best kind of correct. Looking at the TFWiki, I see that they are described as "major retools" of each other.

But I dunno... I mean, yes, they share some parts. I even noted this in my review. But on the other hand, they transform quite differently (what, with the way Skydive's chest has to come together), and they have more parts different then they do similar. (Head, wings, arms, majority of the chest, nosecone, back, back of the legs... All different!) All of that is different!

So yeah, there are a few shared parts... But, to take a more extreme example, no one considers Generations Red Alert or Universe Ratchet retools of Universe Prowl, do they? But they share the same light bar!

So yeah, maybe these are considered retools of each other. But honestly, there are enough differences in both parts and transformation, that it felt like a different mold to me.

That being said, in the interest of accuracy, while I will leave part three of the review alone, I suppose I shall begin part four with a correction, possibly quoting much of what I just said above.

You dont need to do that. I myself didnt think they were more a retool of oneanother than Skydive would be from Firefly. All those 3 molds feel as much new/repeated to me. But when I wrote that, I was corrected. I was just curious about your take on it. No need for a correction. It's not like you said Skydive wasn't sold in the US when he indeed was

But this does make the dead end/Streetwise case interesting. While at first they appear to be very similar, under close inspection they actually share almost no parts. But we call that a retool. So if that is a retool, than are all the jets retools of one another?

william-james88 wrote:You dont need to do that. I myself didnt think they were more a retool of oneanother than Skydive would be from Firefly. All those 3 molds feel as much new/repeated to me. But when I wrote that, I was corrected. I was just curious about your take on it. No need for a correction. It's not like you said Skydive wasn't sold in the US when he indeed was

That last part was a dig about Prime First Edition Cliffjumper, wasn't it?

Anyway, as I said, it seems you are technically correct. So I do wish to address it, in the interests of accuracy. In fact, I've already written that part for the next part of the review. (Hope you don't mind that I quote you in it!)

william-james88 wrote:But this does make the dead end/Streetwise case interesting. While at first they appear to be very similar, under close inspection they actually share almost no parts. But we call that a retool. So if that is a retool, than are all the jets retools of one another?

That is a curious thing to ponder. You take one figure, completely change its outer shell, use almost none of the same parts... Technically it is a retool. But at what point does it just end up becoming a similarly engineered toy? I mean, there are only so many ways you can make a robot that has to have a big ol' combiner peg in its chest, and that transforms into a (car/jet), arm, and leg. There is a reason that many of the G1 Scramble City limb-bots ended up looking so similar to one another, and that same reason is why Combiner Wars does have so many figures that are just recolors or retools, even if we didn't throw Skydive and Air Raid into that mix as well.

I guess the technical definition of a retool is when one toy is designed specifically using an existing toy as the starting point. And by that definition, Dead End did come first, and Streetwise was engineered from him.

But then since Skydive and Air Raid were designed together, and released as part of the same wave, we kind of end up with a chicken and egg* situation, don't we? Who was designed first, and who was the retool? Or were certain parts just designed from the start to be a part of both figures? Wording on the TFWiki suggests that Air Raid is the retool. His page describes him as a "major retool," where as Skydive's only says, "A large portion of his body parts are shared with his team mate Air Raid including his waist, legs, combining connector and gun." But do we really know that they weren't designed completely in tandem, and if so do we then know for sure which one was designed first? (If there is an actual quote somewhere from within the design team that answers these questions, please feel free to share. I'm genuinely curious!)

* As for the actual question of the chicken and the egg, the answer to this one is so obvious it boggles me that this is even an expression used to describe unsure questions such as this. Creatures were laying eggs long before the chicken evolved. (Hey, not my fault that the question never specifies it as a chicken egg!)

Oh I am just as curious. Hence why articles like that Devastator one are a gold mine for me, it finally answers questions as to the planning of the figure and what came first. I feel that for these Combiner Wars figures, they are released so close to oneanother that I think none are retools of eachother but instead just all designed simultaneously. There was one key design and then that evolved into different robots. Hence why Jelze calls them "pretools" since the similarities and cost saving design was done from the start. I actually feel that all Aerialbots are pretools of oneanother since they share the same transformation but some share more similarities with eachother.

As for Chicken and Egg, it is obvious. The Egg came first because Breakfast comes before Lunch!

william-james88 wrote:As for Chicken and Egg, it is obvious. The Egg came first because Breakfast comes before Lunch!

What, you've never had chicken and waffles? An awesome savory breakfast.

Yotsuyasan wrote:

william-james88 wrote:As for Chicken and Egg, it is obvious. The Egg came first because Breakfast comes before Lunch!

What, you've never had chicken and waffles? An awesome savory breakfast.

Oh man, sounds delicious. Now I am hungry, good thing it's lunchtime

Taking a break from tasty discussion of chicken and waffles, here is the next part of the review. We now take a look at the combined mode, Superion!

Well, technically the last part of the review concluded the look at the official toy... but for a little icing on the cake, here's a look at a third party accessory set that goes with it: Perfect Effect's hands and feet!



And that, as they say, is that. The end! (Except, of course, that I will happily reply to comments!)

Excellent Superion review. I myself much preffer written reviews over videos since they dont spoil the transformation, even if they describe it. I also really like and appreciate your inputs. I feel more knowledgeable about a figure when I have someone's opinion instead of just a description. Because at least then I can get a sense of the reviewer's likes and dislikes and compare them to mine. It gives me the best idea of what I am getting into. It also gives me an insight on some cool features I might not have known were as special.

I look forward to reading your next reviews!

Thank you again, william-james88, for the kind words.

And as a bonus... Here's some more photos I took last night, after transforming them and everyone else on their shelf into alt* modes:






When Defensor comes out, I may have to re-do that shelf a bit, possibly relocate Windblade and Goldbug and make it a strict '86 Autobot shelf. (Yes, I know that Arcee wouldn't be on such a shelf either, since she certainly didn't get a toy in '86! But I can't imagine not having her there.) I'll need a bit more room to squeeze everyone in! Fortunately, I was able to find another shelf to use as a post-'86 shelf, to which people like Brainstorm, Nightbeat, and Scoop have already been moved.

And maybe find a new home for Masterpiece Grimlock, who shouldn't be on a Classics shelf anyways, but just always looked good there...

*Well, except Wreck-Gar. He just kind of lives in robot mode while Junkheap lives in vehicle mode. And Six-Gun, I suppose, since he tends to be in robot mode when Metroplex isn't and vice versa.

(Speaking of Metroplex, one of his MegaMoonMan replacement knees failed when I went to transform him! I may have to update that review! And hopefully the superglue holds! Worst case scenario, I do still have his original knees somewhere...)

who is the red and white robot in the back?

william-james88 wrote:who is the red and white robot in the back?

That's a third party version of Six-Gun, one of Metroplex's buddies that was included with his G1 toy.




More details can be found in my Metroplex review.