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General Information:
Release Date: August 2012
Price Point: $9.99
Retailer: General release (Toys R Us, Target, Wal-Mart etc.)
Accessories: "Tornado" cannon weapon (comprised of two pieces)
*Images with asterisks* and text below in italics from The Official Transformers web site:
Bursting out of his earthbound tomb, SKYQUAKE is eager to once again bring battle to the hated AUTOBOTS. Wherever his lord and master MEGATRON commands him to aim his destructive power, he goes, and brings devastation to his enemies.
Add a DECEPTICON villain to your TRANSFORMERS adventures with this intense Commander Class SKYQUAKE robot-to-vehicle figure! In robot mode, your wicked SKYQUAKE figure’s tornado cannon will make serious trouble for the AUTOBOTS. But when he needs to "take to the skies," convert him to fighter jet mode to keep him one step ahead! Keep converting him back and forth so he can handle whatever his enemies throw at him!
Fierce SKYQUAKE figure converts from robot mode to fighter jet mode and back. Figure comes with tornado cannon! Weapons snap on to the wings in vehicle mode.
Includes figure. Commander Class Series 2 010 SKYQUAKE Ages 5 and up.
When the character of Skyquake was hinted at by early commercial leaks in 2012, "Transformers" fans were excited. In a CGI "Transformers" show such as "Transformers Prime", budgetary considerations limit the cast of characters to a relatively small number, so the introduction of a new character is always an attention getter. However, Skyquake was both introduced and then dispatched in the same episode. Even in his later appearance, he wound up stuck in an alternate zone of existence where he has not been heard from since.
Just as his participation in the television show has been minimal, his toy line presence has been rather small as well. The first release of Skyquake in the "Transformers Prime" toy line was as a Commander Class figure featuring alternate weaponry. This review will focus on the changes made to the figure for this release. For a more detailed look at Dreadwing himself, check out Commander Class Dreadwing's review.
Robot Mode:
Skyquake is a much different set of colors than his "brother" Dreadwing. Whereas Dreadwing is rather dark and bold looking, Skyquake is lighter in color. his primary plastic colors are green, grey and translucent orange. The green makes up most of his body, with the grey plastic forming smaller parts such as his uper arms and thighs. The translucent orange is found on his chest where it makes up the cockpit window on his torso. His weapons are cast in translucent orange plastic, matching the cockpit window. Many of the first year's worth of Cyberverse figures featured some type of translucent plastic, especially the Commander Class figures. The use of orange works since a darker shade of the color was featured on Skyquake's TV show CGI model. The other two colors also work nicely as they appear very similar in tone to the colors he had on the show.
The paint colors on Skyquake include silver, yellow and red. The silver is used all over the body including the face, his knee armor, waist area and feet. The yellow (a very light shade that almost looks green against the green plastic) is found on his torso, arms and the underside of the wings visible in this form. Touches of red are used here and there on his shoulder armor and his eyes. Skyquake did indeed feature some lighter colors on the CGI model, but they were more grey than yellow in color. The final deco touch is purple Decepticon symbol outlined with silver on his cockpit section. This corresponds with a similar detail on his CGI model.
Skyquake's joints are all nice and tight, not surprising since the sculpt had only been used once before. His signature cannon weapon has been designed to split into two parts: one end forming a cannon with the barrel and the other being a blaster with a thick base piece. The two combine in the middle to form a cannon based on the giant one he had in the episode "Masters & Students". The Hasbro instructions only note this weapon as the "Tornado Cannon" and don't address what the individual weapons are at all. This weapon is designed with two pegs on the bottom and one at the back. This allows him to hold the combined cannon in both hands or even as a club like weapon at the end. Another peg sticks out the right side towards the middile and there's a hole on either side on the back half allowing you to attach more Cyberverse weapons. These holes also allow you to attach the weapon to the peg on his back in robot mode.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
- Detach the weapons if attached.
- On each foot, swing the robot feet down.
- Swing the middle of the torso up to form the front section of the vehicle.
- Swing the shoulder armor pieces forward, forming armor on the sides of the nosecone section.
- Swing the remaining section of the torso down, then swing the legs back.
- Rotate each lower leg so the horizontal stabilizers are flat.
- Push each lower leg up and attach it to the section with the vehicle's engine using the tabs on the legs.
- Connect each robot arm using the peg on the inside of the forearms to the holes in the back of the lower legs.
- The weapons can be attached to the peg on top of the vehicle or using the holes on the underside of each wing.
Vehicle Mode:
The green color takes center stage again in vehicle mode on this figure. This time however the translucent orange color appears a lot more on both his cockpit and on the back of the jet. Add in the weapons on his wings and you have quite a bit of translucent orange on this figure. It's not overwhelming however and I find it a nice balance to the more solid and less bright green tone. Some grey plastic still peeks out on the underside of the vehicle as well as a strip on top, but it's not much at all.
Most of the striking deco in this form is done in red, forming striping on his four horizontal stabilizers and on the edges of his wings, both in front and back. The nosecone is painted gunmetal grey and more of the light yellow color apears on the underside of the nosecone and the lower half of the areas right behind it. I like the variety of colors on this vehicle form and I think it looks great, especially the red against the green.
Functionally speaking you can break up the two halves of the Tornado Cannon and attach each to one of the wings. You could also combine the two and attach them to a wing or to the top of the vehicle. Either way Skyquake looks like he's ready to do some serious damage!
Final Thoughts:
This is (currently and sadly) the easiest version of this character to find in toy form as his Voyager Class figure is currently rather hard to find. That said, it's a nice redeco of Dreadwing and a good representation of the character from the television show. Recommended!
