MakeToys Bomber

Prelude: As usual when reviewing 3rd party toys, let’s put the legal stuff first. Bomber is not a toy produced by Takara-Tomy or Hasbro, as such he’s not technically a Transformer. He’s obviously a homage to G1 Powerglide, but for legal reasons he can’t be called that name. Also, many thanks to Lucy of NTF-Archive.de, who loaned me this little guy for this review.

Robot Mode: First let’s start with this figure’s resemblance to the original Powerglide. Simply put, it’s almost a spitting image, though the emphasis is on replicating the look of the cartoon character more than that of the toy. Even so, Bomber has the same general design as Powerglide, the same size, the only differences are in the length of the arms, the darker shade of the grey parts, and, of course, Bomber’s ability to actually move his lower body. Otherwise the figures are clearly meant to be the same character. They even share the screw in their foreheads.

Bomber is as detailed and articulated as you can reasonably expect from a figure this size. He is ball-jointed throughout, making for a high degree of posing ability. One thing I need to mention, though, is that the ball joints are pretty loose. I don’t know if it’s a general problem, but anything but the slightest pull causes Bomber to lose an arm or a leg. I know, it’s not supposed to be a toy for small kids, but even this adult collector would have preferred some stiffer joints.

One other thing I need to mention is the very small feet, which make it hard to balance Bomber in the more dynamic poses. He can still pull them off, but it needs a bit of fiddling and standing him on one leg is pretty much impossible. Still, given the size, both detailing and articulation are pretty outstanding. And it’s Powerglide, a bonus all in itself. So bottom line for the robot mode: very well done, but give it bigger feet next time.

Vehicle Mode: Bomber naturally transforms into the same kind of aircraft Powerglide does, a red bomber that loosely resembles the A-10 Thunderbolt. Here the resemblance to G1 Powerglide is even closer than in robot mode, the only differences being the painted details on Bomber as opposed to the sticker on Powerglide.

Two slight points of contention here: Bomber doesn’t have a landing gear, instead the jet balances on the robot mode’s knees, which stick out below, and the folded-up arms under the wings. Not a major thing and you don’t see it from most angles, but I would have preferred better-hidden knees. Also, the legs don’t fit together seamlessly, leaving a slight gap in the rear assembly of the plane. That might just be a problem with this particular figure, though, and not a general thing. Otherwise, though, a very nice-looking bomber mode, as good as you can expect in this size class.

Remarks: Powerglide was the hot shot pilot of the Autobots during the second season of the original cartoon and remains one of my favourite characters from that time. He also starred in one of the most infamous Transformers stories ever, the episode “The Girl Who Loved Powerglide”, where he fell in love with a human. Best not to think about that one too much. Anyway, I really like Powerglide and was glad to see him get reincarnated in the Universe toyline as an Ultra-class figure.

Now 3rd party company MakeToys has brought him back as a Minibot, similar in size to the original G1 figure. Do you need it? Well, that really depends on what you want. In terms of detailing and play value the Universe Ultra-class toy is far superior, but the MakeToys version adheres to the original scale and gives you a spitting image of the character you saw in the cartoon, both look- and size-wise. Also, for once the 3rd party toy isn’t far more expensive, seeing as you can get this guy for 40 bucks together with Hover (Seaspray), while Universe Powerglide goes for about the same on eBay. So really, it’s a matter of what you want out of your Classics Powerglide. Me, seeing as I already own and like the Universe version, I will stick with it. But this little guy here is still worth a look or two, it’s an excellent little figure.

Rating: B+