TFC F-16 Falcon

 

Prelude: Legal stuff first as always. F-16 Falcon is not a figure released by Hasbro or Takara-Tomy and thus not an official Transformers toy. It's from third party provider TFC Toys and an obvious homage to the G1 Aerialbot Skydive (it even says 'SDIVE' on his rear fin), but for legal reasons it can't be called by that name. The question why TFC named these figures after their alternate modes instead of giving them proper names remains unanswered.

Robot Mode: Falcon is similar in design to his fellow Uranos-leg-bot F-15 Eagle, but far from a mere repaint. Not only does the different design of his jet mode give him different feet, different chest pieces and different wings, the new robot head and the vastly different paint job also serve to differentiate him from his teammate.

Speaking of the paint job, Falcon looks pretty spiffy in black, red, and grey if I may say so. Paint-job-wise he’s my favorite of the Uranos team. In terms of articulation and detailing he’s on the same level as the others, meaning very good. The only slight complaint I have is that his backpack, the nose of his jet mode, has some trouble remaining in place (sticking straight up behind his head) and tends to point backwards a tad. Not a big thing, but there does need to be something to complain about, right?

As for weapons, Falcon carries two small missiles – nearly identical to those F-4 Phantom carries – that he can use as handguns or clip to his forearms. So overall, a very nice robot mode. Great detailing, nice articulation, superb paint job.

Alternate Mode: Unsurprisingly F-16 Falcon transforms into a grey-colored F-16 Falcon fighter jet. Who’d have guessed, right? The jet looks reasonably realistic to my untrained eye and apart from the bigger missiles the robot uses as weapons, it also comes with two smaller missiles that can be put on the edges of the wings for additional armaments.

Not that much more I can write here, really. A very nice jet mode with nice detailing and a working landing gear. Just like F-15 Eagle the jet does not incorporate the big foot of the combiner mode, but it can still be put to use here as a display stand. So overall, a very nice jet mode. Nothing spectacular, but fully sufficient.

Remarks: Skydive is one of the Aerialbots and... yeah, that’s where his characterization pretty much ends. Unlike Silverbolt and, to a lesser extent, Air Raid, he never did take center stage in any cartoon or comic book that I am aware of. According to his tech spec he’s the strategist of the Aerialbots and usually the one Silverbolt calls on to map out the plan of attack before a battle, but that’s it. So not a lot of character value to be found in this toy.

And thus we start the copy & paste from my previous TFC reviews: a nice figure, but considering the price tag the only reason to buy him is if you want to assemble Uranos / Superion. His price tag is simply too large for a stand-alone figure. Currently he is my favorite among the Uranos members, mostly because I like his paint job in robot mode the best so far, but again: part of the team. You either buy all of them or none of them, anything else makes little sense.

Rating: B