Beast Machines Skydive

Series: Beast Machines
Allegiance: Maximal
Categories: Deluxe
Year: 2000

When in the skies, I am the terror which Vehicons despise!
To the Vehicons, Skydive is the true menace of the skies above Cybertron. Speed and maneuverability are umatched within the Maximal ranks; makes him an impossible target. Reinforced, specialized alloys offer maximum protection if any Vehicons manage to get a lock. Wings act as energy receptors, supplying incredible endurance - always outlasts opponents. Despite stoic personality, Skydive takes great pleasure in "buzzing" secret Maximal outposts.

Robot Mode: Quite a few Beast Machine Maximal figures are of the extremely long-limbed, gangly type, but I think Skydive here set out to beat them all. At first look he appears to be about 90 percent limbs. Long, long legs, almost equally long arms with long, long claws that make them even longer when flipped out and a torso that is mostly chest with the legs attached just below the armpits. Even his head is long, being a long cone. So yeah, he’s a long, gangly robot, standing out amidst a toy line containing many long, gangly robots.

In terms of articulation Skydive leaves no room for complaint, being completely ball-jointed and able to pull off all sorts of poses. His big feet give him a stable platform despite his gangliness, so there are no balance issues here. For weapons he carries the above-mentioned claws that would make Wolverine envious, being as long as they are. His spark crystal sits in the center of his chest. One minor complaint: his beast mode head sticks out the center of his back, but you only see this when looking at him from behind. So bottom line: a strange-looking robot, but with no objective weak points. Whether you like his look is, of course, entirely up to you.

Alternate Mode: Skydive transforms into a techno-organic Pteranodon and if you thought the robot mode looked gangly and awkward, the beast mode will take you to new heights (or lows, depending on how you look at it). The robot arms become wings and the beast mode head flips up from the back to replace the robot mode head, so far, so good.

The terribly long robot mode legs becoming the beast mode legs doesn’t really work for me, though, as they look disproportioned and awkward, no matter how you position them. Plus, the neck contains a spring mechanism that makes Skydive open his beak when the head is moved forward. Well and good, but it leaves his neck stuck in that reared-up pose, no way to straighten it out for flight unless you remove the spring or keep hold of it the entire time. So bottom line: a below-average beast mode, even for the Beast Machines line.

Remarks: Skydive is one of those toys you buy when you see it really cheap and he is part of a line (or rather an overall franchise containing several toy lines, some of which you like and some that are just in there for completeness’ sake) that you want to complete for yourself. He never appeared in the TV series, wasn’t in any comic I read, and the toy itself isn’t terribly special, either. I somewhat like the robot mode, but the beast mode is terrible. So bottom line: only for beast enthusiasts and completists.

Rating: C-