Dave's Transformer Rant: Cyberjets, Fake Deathsaurus, DQ Prime
Dave Van Domelen
Cyberjets (Skyjack, Space Case, Hooligan)
Star Warrior II (aka Fake Deathsaurus)
Dairy Queen Optimus Prime
The computer lab looks like a small toy show right now....
WHERE AND HOW MUCH:
Cyberjets: Target at Consumer Square on Broad St. in Columbus, still not
available at the Target I normally go to (I spent a LOT of driving time today).
$5.99 each.
Star Warrior II: Meijers on Sawmill in Columbus. $13. Star Warrior I is
that three-animals-into-one-robot thing I think Swiper was selling.
DQ Prime: Milwaukee area, parents bought one for me, presumably very low
cost. And no, they won't buy more, sorry.
CAPSULES:
Cyberjets as a group: Smaller than SmokescreenG2, and much cheaper in
construction, I'd have rather seen ones built like SmokescreenII and a few
dollars more expensive. Color jobs not obscene, transformations okay, missile
launcher gimmick pretty good. Recommended.
Star Warrior II: Lacks the wings, bird breastforcer and proper gun of
Deathsaurus, but still makes for a fair triplechanger. And he comes with
Dinoking's axe. Recommended (for the price).
DQ Prime: Immobile chunk of plastic, maybe 50% larger than the decoys.
Pretty good detail match with the original Prime's robot form, but no hands
(which matches mine pretty well, actually). Don't knock yourself out finding.
RANTS:
CYBERJETS
General notes: Snap-together joints snap apart easily, sometimes too
easily. The missile launchers are manually operated, using a ball and claw
system to build up enough pressure that when the missile pops out, it does so
at high speed. But the missiles bend easily and stay bent. Transformations
are very high entropy in the jet to robot direction, which is to say they
happen easily but don't reverse well. Similar to that Magic Snake puzzle from
the early 80s, if you don't observe carefully when pulling it open, it's very
hard to get back together. None of them have the adjustable feet that make
Smokescreen so successful at holding poses and still standing, giving them very
little standing stability. Extensive use of pegs and holes to maintain
stability of jet forms. All of them have very poseable heads, a feature
lacking in TFs of this size for a long time, with ball and socket joints for
necks. Regardless of overall color scheme, all of them have cheesy red
soft vinyl hips, thighs and shoulders/upper arms. Finally, these are very
definitely not Munchkinmasters...some are downright wimpy. On the one hand,
bully for Hasbro finally giving small toys small stats. On the other hand,
they can be whupped by the Go-Bots.
Decepticon: Skyjack
Function: Spy
"Trust me if you dare!"
Rumored to be sympathetic to the Autobot cause - once photographed meeting
with Optimus Prime. In reality, a master spy who can't be trusted. He'll buy
you a glass of high-octane turbo juice one minute, then steal secrets from you
the next. Activates stealth armor to cloak body from Autobot radar. Practices
shooting at cars with missile launcher alongside his mentor, Dreadwing.
STR 5 INT 8 SPD 8 END 4 RNK 5 COUR 4 FRP 7 SKL 7 Avg: 6
Looks like the Shadowcons on TFMUSH have a new member. Unfortunately,
while this stealth fighter (F-117) looks extremely cool in the ads, he's got
probably the most problems in both vehicle and robot mode. His vehicle mode is
fairly stable, with the notable exception of his tail (as Zach found out last
week). It doesn't seem to fit naturally at all...there's one way that it seems
to fit into the slot at the back well, but then the tail's sideways. The only
way I was able to get it in the "right" position was to look at the still-
packaged one I bought for Jameel.
In transforming to robot mode, it's hard to get his head (itself on a ball
and socket joint) to fold up. Especially if you try to fold it down. }->
There's a tricky bit where his collarbone assembly collapses to let his waist
to clamp together that's not immediately obvious (just found it myself) and
without this trick he's extremely floppy. Can stand straight up, but other
poses tend to require he slouch forward, since he's a bit back-heavy.
Great color scheme, though. Also has the glowing eyes trick like all the
Cyberjets, but his wings get in the way of this working well.
Decepticon: Space Case
Function: Air Recon
"My mind may be slow, but I move like greased lightning!"
Speed greatest asset - intelligence greatest liability. Screeches through
the sky at Mach 5. Flunked flight school twice, eventually forged himself a
passing grade. Escapes Autobot artillery thanks to plasma-powered engines.
Powerful missile launcher only reason he has eluded capture...and destruction.
STR 5 INT 2 SPD 8 END 4 RNK 4 COUR 3 FRP 7 SKL 5 Avg: 4.75
As Ken put it on TFMUSH, if someone applied to play this guy he'd be told
to use up the extra points allowed to a non-toy character. Major wimpage.
Vehicle form I'm told is an X-29, the hypercritical (forward pointing) wing
fighter capable of high-G turns at Mach speeds. Color scheme kinda lacking.
Much better stability in jet mode than Skyjack, with his weapon being
underslung instead of messing with his tail. Elements of his transformation
reminiscent of a more poseable Windrazor. His back doesn't obscure his glowing
eyes effect, and he's a little more stable in odd poses than the rest of the
Cyberjets. Looks better in robot mode than jet, since the worst excesses of
his paint job are on his back in robot mode.
Decepticon: Hooligan
Function: Hit and Run
"I'll break your funny bone!"
Mischievous practical joker and troublemaker. Attempted to land and
disrupt the recent shuttle launch from Earth - plan thwarted by Autobot
intervention (Aerialbots launched a flak attack chasing him away from the
Kennedy Space Center). Likes to fire missile launcher in front of commercial
airliners. Sometimes goes too far - was nearly dismantled after putting sugar
in Megatron's fuel tank.
STR 5 INT 3 SPD 8 END 4 RNK 4 COUR 3 FRP 7 SKL 6 Avg: 5
Another unintelligent coward, probably likes to hang out with Sizzle (or
is it Jolt?) and chop down telephone poles. On the "hey, kewl!" side, he has
an actual Gerwalk/Guardian mode, which can actually stand upright if you're
careful. For those without any Robotech jargon, Gerwalk mode is essentially a
jet with legs and arms, a halfway stage between robot and jet mode for the
Valkyrie mech (aka Jetfire). Not totally sure of the identity of the jet mode
for this guy, probably an F-111 with the tail split to allow his gun to mount
over the top. In robot mode, his head is also free of blockage once you move
this small tab back, so his eyes glow too.
One small drawback of this one is that in jet mode he has nowhere to store
his spare missile. But other than that, he's easily the coolest of the trio
overall.
Rankings:
Hooligan: Overall best. Good robot, good jet, fair Gerwalk, cool colors.
Space Case: Middle. Good robot, fair jet, no Gerwalk.
Skyjack: Worst. Best colors, but bad stability in jet form, so-so robot
form, no Gerwalk.
So if you can only afford one Cyberjet, get Hooligan.
STAR WARRIOR II
For those unfamiliar with the Japanese TF cartoons, the main villain in
Victory (7th season) was named Deathsaurus. He was a double Breastforcer,
having two weapon/animal cartridges in his chest that popped out. In the
cartoon, he only seems to have used two of his modes, that of robot and his
dragon creature thing mode.
However, in this knock-off, he's missing many of the cooler bits, such as
his wings, his raven breast module, his proper gun, and the wings on his
panther chest module. Here's what he comes with:
Basic robot sans wings, in red and black with white accents.
Panther chest module in red and silver.
Dinoking's Axe (Dinoking was the Victory version of Monstructor, and
used an axe instead of a gun, this is going to my Monsty)
One of Greatshot/Sixshot's guns, colored red.
Panther Module:
Makes a fairly credible beast mode, hangs loosely in the main robot's
chest in module mode. Legs may be loose, but screws can be easily tightened.
Unfortunately, it looks like in order to form his Meteor Cannon weapon, it has
to be merged with his correct gun. The Sixshot gun is too wide to work,
although a quick trip to the machine shop might fix that.
Dragon Mode:
Okay, has that "puny forearm syndrome" of a T-Rex. Lack of wings makes
his lack of tail very apparent, looks like a slab with feet and a head. Wait a
minute, okay, found another thing to transform in his legs, he looks a little
better now. The instructions are pretty vague. In fact, the picture on the
box has an incorrect transformation. There's a panel on the back of each leg
that has to be flipped up so that the fists can fold fully back in, giving him
an extra leg joint and creating 'spurs' on the back of each leg. If you have
the Superhuman Syber Samurai Squad "Drago" toy, the transformation of
DeathPsaurus should resemble him in basic structure.
Vehicle Mode:
Okay, looks like a less convincing version of Sixshot's car mode, with
some dragon motifs on it. Maybe it'd look better if I painted the windows of
the driver's chamber.
Robot Mode:
Flip vehicle over and unfold legs at knees, basically. Can do Van Damme
splits, but I don't know why, since this isn't actually required for any of his
transformation modes. Non-moving head. Has mysterious metal loops on his
hands, as well as bars on his thighs, which serve no visible purpose here.
Perhaps they were important on the original Deathsuarus toy. Always be sure to
fold out the backs of his feet before trying to stand him up, I had him fall
backwards onto my Destroids earlier before discovering the heel bits. Overall
height in this mode (his tallest) is 10.5". Ooh, and he can stand up in a
side-kick pose, perfect for having him whomping on PseudoGarry.
DAIRY QUEEN PRIME
What? He's a chunk of rigid plastic. His sticker sheet is unclear
whether some stickers go on front or back. What more is there to say?
Dave Van Domelen, wonders if he should fit a strap to those loops on
DeathPsaurus and make him a shoulder bag?
byron_molix
>Dave's Transformers Rant:
> Hooligan: Overall best. Good robot, good jet, fair Gerwalk, cool colors.
> Space Case: Middle. Good robot, fair jet, no Gerwalk.
to stretch your imagination just a bit, Space Case can become something
reminiscent of the jetlike Destroid. My Space Case is without head at the
moment (Hasbro will be hearing from me before the week is out), so I don't have
to imagine this as much.
Bring legs down but do not swing out the red underpart that is SC's
hips. Pull arms out, and twist waist around like you normally would. If your
Space Case has a head, you will have to swing the carriage down enough to
clear the head for twisting, as I assume the little hole is for his head.
Bring the wing structure forward onto the black bar like you would if you
were changing him into robot mode. The arms should be right above the leg
joints now. I like him both ways, with the wing structure just sticking
backwards or with the wings all the way down. Either way, it looks like
something out of battletech, which is okay for me, as it's the best I've got
at the moment. If you're bored or innovative enough, you can get Hooligan to
do the same thing
It may not be a gerwalk, but it's a midway transform, requiring only
that you push the chest upwards and pull the undercarriage down to move to
robot form.
> Skyjack: Worst. Best colors, but bad stability in jet form, so-so robot
> form, no Gerwalk.
And you are absolutely right about Skyjack, no amount of fooling around will
make him do anything than what he was originally designed to.
Byron Molix
Spectre @ TFmush
Hoist @ TFmush