Silverbolt by Dirge

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Name: Silverbolt
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Aerialbot Leader
Alternate Mode: Concorde Jet Airliner

CONCORDE MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 20cm Width: 11.5cm

Silverbolt is a Concorde supersonic passenger jet. The type run by Air France and British Airways. Not surprisingly, he's white - well, off white. He has a small rubberised black tip on his nose, a gold painted cockpit and yellow & black stickers running down the sides of the fuselage to simulate cabin whindows. There's big Autobot stickers on his wings.

Silverbolt does have some kibble problems, with red and black bits showing underneath the front of his wings. Not horrible by any means, but clearly visible. There's also a really obvious post that swings up from the front of the fuselage. This wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't specifically for the rather lame base mode.

His play value in this mode is limited to a retractable front wheel and freely rolling undercarriage. About all you can hope for from a fixed-wing passenger jet, though.

Then there's the base mode. Basically you turn him upside down, fold the wings down and attach a ramp supplied for this mode. It's pretty silly, you can place the smaller Aerialbots on top, but why you'd have a ramp on there so fighters can drive up onto a platform is beyond me.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Fold the tail up onto the top of the plane. Fold out the legs from his underside, rotate them 180° and flip out the feet. Fold up the landing gear, slide down the red chest piece. Fold the nose down onto his back and flip up his head. Swing the wings back, which will bring the arms into position. Slide out the fists, attach the chest plate and give him his handgun. Incidentally, his hip joints are fragile considering the bulk of his legs and can break if you treat him too rough.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 16cm Width: 8cm

Still largely off-white, with chromed gold forearms and thighs, black hands, upper arms and feet. The upper chest is red and the rest of the torso white, along with the head and shins. he has yellow eyes and an Autobot symbol on his chest. The chest plate has small wings attach to the sides which cover up most of the shoulders.

I'm not a huge fan of the chest plate. The wings actually work to conceal the arms, and the proportions of it look wrong, since it doubles as the chest plate for Superion. Of course, if you remove it (or lose it) you're left with a series of parallel lines (intended for the base mode). I'd have preferred it had the base mode been abandoned so this mode didn't rely on the chest plate.

He's not very poseable. The elbows bend and that's it. Mind you, he has a tendency to overbalance backwards anyway (heelspurs, however small, would really help), so I think most poses would be out anyway.

I'm not sold on this robot mode. The chest plate bugs me, and there's really not much play value. It's reasonably cartoon accurate, but doesn't strike me as anything special.

VARIATIONS

Released in 1986 and again in 1991 as a Classic, and was redone in G2.

OVERALL

Both modes have some problems, and the base mode is forgettable. It's a shame Silverbolt isn't a better toy, since his portrayal in the cartoon was good. He's not awful, but there are better Gestalt main members out there. Still, I recommend grabbing him, since Superion is worth having. As a stand alone toy I'm only mildly recommending him. 6/10

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Silverbolt by Dirge