General Information:
Release Date: January 2016
Price Point: $99.99 (in a boxed set with Air Raid, Firefly, Powerglide, Silverbolt & Skydive)
Retailer: Limited Release (Toys R Us, Target, Amazon, Walmart etc.)
Accessories: Hand/Foot/Weapon, Blaster
Official images and text below in italics are from Amazon.com:
Superion is driven by one thing and one thing only: a desire to obliterate the enemy. He attacks Decepticons – on the ground or in the air – with all-out force.
Convert, attack and destroy with this incredible 7-in-1 Superion Collection Pack! There’s a whole force of Autobots in this pack and they’re spoiling for a fight with their Decepticon enemies. Whether these daredevil Autobots are in robot mode or jet mode, they’ll attack with everything they’ve got! And when that’s not enough, they’ll combine to form a massive, unstoppable Superion figure! Maybe the Decepticons could defeat Silverbolt, Skydive, or Firefly alone. Maybe Quickslinger, Air Raid and Powerglide won’t be enough to stop the Decepticon advance. But when they combine, Decepticons beware! Dominate the Transformers battle with your Superion Collection Pack!
Back in the 90's Hasbro made an attempt to revive the then-failing "Transformers" toy line be re branding it as "Transformers Generation 2". This line took old sculpts and new sculpts and mashed them up into one line of figures. Among the G1 sculpts that were used for Generation 2 (or G2) were the Aerialbots. The Aerialbots largely featured dramatic new stickers in jet mode with all new decos that tended to lean towards the bright or somewhat gaudy side. At the time many fans were divided on this, either fully embracing the new colors or walking away from the line. Over the years these colors and sticker designs have gained a sort of nostalgic charm representative of a very different era not just in "Transformers" but pop culture as a whole.
When "Combiner Wars" began one of the first things fans wondered about was "Will we get the Generation 2 color schemes?!" and last summer it would indeed release G2 versions of certain characters! This caused quite a bit of excitement among a segment of fandom and in early 2016 fans finally had their chance to pick up the first G2 styled boxed set: Superion! Superion was packaged with all five Aerialbots and a redeco of Legends Class Powerglide who became an Aerialbot team member in "Combiner Wars", serving as a weapon for Superion. Retailing around $99.99 this set was most readily available at online retailers such as BWTF sponsor Bigbadtoystore and other stores such as Target and Toys R Us. Some stores such as Toys R Us in Canada had these at physical retail locations as well.
While this set did come in one big boxed set I've decided to divide up my reviews of this set into digestible chunks by team member. I think this is a bit more organized and also keeps you from having to scroll forever through one gigantic review. My "final" rating on the set will be in the review of the combined Superion robot.
Quickslinger is distinctive for a couple reasons. When he was known as Slingshot in "Generation 2", he was released in all gold plastic. This would prove to be an unfortunate choice in the long run due to the infamous "gold plastic syndrome". That is to say that in time, G2 Slingshots had a tendency to crumble or break when being played with. My Slingshot in particular crumbled when I tried to disconnect him from Silverbolt's shoulder joint. If you want to see gold plastic syndrome in action with another figure that suffers from the same issue, check out this video of "Beast Wars Neo" Randy being destroyed merely by squeezing it in one hand. This new version of a G2 Slingshot (now Quickslinger) represents the first time in years fans have had the chance to have the character in gold colors like his 1990's counterpart but without the pain of gold plastic syndrome.
This release of the figure is also notable because it is only the second time the Quickslinger character has been released in the "Combiner Wars" line, and the first time he was a limited exclusive that sold out very quickly.
Quickslinger's sculpt has been released twice before. First it was the limited exclusive run. More recently the sculpt was used to represent the Combaticon Blast-Off. Check out those reviews for a detailed look at the sculpt and mechanics. This review will be focusing on the changes made to the figure for this release.
Packaging:
The "Superion Collectors Pack" is a really impressive looking set. The box is large and rectangular, intended to be displayed horizontally. The front uses the black background seen on most "Generations" packaging with the red "Transformers" logo set vertically on the right. The middle section has new artwork featuring Superion in his G2 colors. Overlaid on top of that are small thumbnail images of all six Aerialbots and the words "Combiner Wars Superion" below that. The back of the packaging features a large photos of Superion fully combined with a brief write up on the character.
Open up the box and you slide out a huge, clear plastic tray with all the Aerialbots in vehicle mode. The accessories are all placed near the member they belong to. Also included in the package is a cardboard envelope with the instructions and a print inside. Oddly, the print features Superion's original "Combiner Wars" colors and not the G2 colors. It is also different art than the one on the cover. I love the presentation of the figures on a big tray and the idea of including a print is really cool.
Accessories:
Quickslinger's weapons are a single barreled blaster and a hand/foot/weapon piece with two barrels at the end. Both of his accessories are mostly cast in metallic blue plastic. On the hand/foot/weapon piece the hinge that connects the thumb to the rest of the hand is cast in gold, matching up with Quickslinger himself.
Vehicle Mode:
G2 Slingshot was mostly gold in vehicle mode with a silver cockpit, black nosecone and distinctive stickers on his wings with stripe patterns on them. With this version of the character history repeats itself. Quickslinger is mostly cast in metallic gold plastic. The tip of his nosecone is black rubbery plastic. Some black plastic from the robot mode peeks through on the underside of the vehicle. Silver paint is used on the cockpit, vents on the front of the vehicle and some of the sections on the bottom of the vehicle, matching up with the G2 Slingshot figure.
The most visually striking feature (beyond the gold plastic) on this figure are the tampographs on his wings and vertical fin. Each one features a background gradient of color that goes from yellow to white to blue in a spray pattern. Then a series of black stripes are overlaid on top of that color. But wait! There's more! On the vertical fin and left wing the number 4 is printed in white and on the left wing there is a yellow and red (almost orange) G2 Autobot symbol resembling Optimus Prime's head. The Autobot symbol replaces the name "Slingshot" which was printed on G2 Slingshot's wing (so much for "Robots in Disguise"). I actually prefer the use of the symbol. Let's be real, this deco is already quite the sight. Having the character's name blazing across his wing would kind of send it over the edge.
Quickslinger's weapons can attach to the underside of his wings. Both weapons hold without a problem. His landing gear also swings down without an issue.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
- Detach the accessories and set them aside for now.
- Swing the cockpit up, bend the hinge it rests on and then slide the tabs on the cockpit section into the corresponding slots on the top of the vehicle.
- Swing the wings up.
- Swing the robot arms out to the sides and up.
- Swing the vertical fin forward.
- Swing the rear horizontal fins up.
- Flip the vehicle over and pull the lower leg panels forward.
- Pull the halves of the leg panels down, then swing them up and connect them together.
- Split the lower legs in the middle.
- Attach the weapons to the fists or store them on the wings in the back.
Robot Mode:
When the Aerialbots were released for Generation 2, the stickers that had made up much of their detailing in robot mode were not included with the figures. Instead the designers depended on paint detail to fill in details. This always kind of bugged me (hence the G1 stickers on my G2 Aerialbots in the photos for this set). In the case of Slingshot, his G2 incarnation had a ton of gold and silver with some blue detailing here and there, but because his torso was mostly flat it came off looking very plain.
Given that, it speaks highly of the designers who worked on this set that they managed to make Quickslinger look interesting while still staying very true to the G2 figure's deco. Most of the figure is cast in metallic gold plastic. Black breaks up the gold plastic on the center of the torso, the shoulder joints and thighs. G2 Slingshot also had black on the center of his body, so this matches up nicely with that version. The outer part of the torso and waist area have been painted silver, again matching up with the G2 Slingshot figure.
The G2 Slingshot figure had some blue details, but not enough to make up for the non-detailed silver and gold panels in robot mode. In Quickslinger's case however, blue detailing is used perfectly. Blue is used on several parts including the top of the head, the eyes, the fists, knee armor and feet. This is important as the blue breaks up the monotony of the gold and silver in key places, making the figure interesting on a visual level. Rounding out the details is a medium sized G2 Autobot symbol in red and yellow on the left side of his chest. Overall the deco in this mode looks fantastic.
Quickslinger's joints are not super tight, but they aren't loose either. He can be posed just fine and the weapons fit snug into his fists.
Transformation to Arm Mode (Starting in robot mode):
- Detach all weapons.
- Transform the fist piece into the hand. Flip out the four fingers that are sculpted together, then swing the thumb up to the side you want to form.
- Press the two lower legs together.
- Swing the jet cockpit piece back.
- Push the robot head section back, this will swing out the square peg that serves as the Combiner connection point.
- Swing the jet cockpit piece back into place.
- Swing each robot arm down.
- Bend the arms at the elbows so they roughly line up with the angle of each wing.
- Rotate the waist around so the red parts on the back of the lower legs face forward.
- Attach the hand piece to the port under the robot feet.
- The weapon can be attached to the hand.
Arm Mode:
Quickslinger has so much metallic gold plastic on him that the arm looks almost uniform in color, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Generation 2 was known for its outrageous colors and concepts, so Superion having a golden arm fits the theme. I will say that having the blue fist piece as his hand draws a nice parallel to Quickslinger's own hands and feet which are painted blue.
Since Quickslinger's hip joints aren't particularly tight, he can't hold up Powerglide in weapon mode (though I'm sure some nail polish tightening up will help). He can hold up a small blaster or weapons like those included with other "Generations" figures, and of course you can attach extra weapons to his wings to give him additional firepower.
Transformation to Leg mode (Starting in robot mode):
- Detach all the accessories.
- Swing the jet cockpit piece back.
- Push the robot head section back, this will swing out the square peg that serves as the Combiner connection point.
- Swing out each half of the lower legs, then swing them forward and condense them (as if you were forming the rear of the vehicle mode).
- Push each arm down against the sides (as if you were forming the vehicle mode).
- Unfold the fist/foot accessory so it's flat. Make sure the "thumb" is now a heel piece.
- Attach the fist/foot piece to the hole on under Quickslinger's feet.
Leg Mode:
What I said about the deco of the arm mode pretty much applies to the leg mode as well. The gold color dominates the figure overall, and combined with the rest of the Aerialbots (who are mostly reds, blues and white) he sticks out like a sore thumb - but that's part of the fun and silliness of this set to begin with.
Final Thoughts:
Quickslinger is sort of the "deciding piece" for me when it comes to whether or not to buy this set. His color scheme is wonderfully odd and it's finally a chance to own a "G2 Slingshot" that won't disintegrate if I look at it funny. Add to that this being Quickslinger's first real "mass" release and he's quite the incentive to pick up this set.
