This is a good one. If you liked the jets in Combiner Wars, you'll probably dig Stormshot. Some of the concessions needed to service the combiner modes are long gone, but the transformation is basically the same as those guys - with a vestigial chest cavity that hints at the peg below the breast. With a fancy red, white, and blue color scheme this Decepticon Seeker-esque figure is a slam dunk.
If I'm being generous, the robot has 17 points of articulation. Four of these - the wrists and toes - are there solely for transformation, although maybe you'll get more from them than I did. I loved the ball-jointed shoulders, and everything basically moves as well as you might want. The swivel neck, the ball-jointed hips, and the swivel thighs all do a good job keeping this figure upright and sturdy. The joints are nice and stiff, allowing Stormshot to be posed without too much fuss. His body language is most expressive thanks to the sturdy joints, so I was able to wrangle some decent poses out of him. It's nothing you haven't seen before, but it's well-executed.
I love the head sculpt - a red visor on a blue helmet complete with white "eyebrows" looks like something inspired by the robots of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The silver face is painted well, and it gives us something we so rarely see - a new character that isn't obviously a prepaint of someone else. For this reason alone, I had to get myself a Stormshot.
Two 5mm guns can combine with one another into a big rifle, or you can hold them separately - they even mount under his wings, on the jet back, or under the jet nosecone. The design is versatile, and while unpainted the guns are pretty nifty accessories.
Transformation isn't a stretch - the robot shins open to engulf the thighs. The fists fold in. The arms and legs all have pegs and tabs to fit in position. The nosecone unfolds from the wings, and they all cover the back. It's simple, and it works well. This is what I want as an increasingly cranky toy fan.
The jet deco is amazing, while the jet mode itself is adequate. It's just like the Combiner Wars planes, where you've got a decent flying vehicle with robot kibble underneath. Aside from multiple places to mount weapons, the jet has articulated landing gear under the seating area. What I love about it most, though, is how the paint works with the sculpting. White plastic on the wings is left unpainted in spots, giving the toy a higher level of detail than I would have expected for the price. Autobot symbols are painted nicely, plus there are little sculpted grooves which I assume will be where the symbols go on the Japanese release. Sure, it's got a big blue butt, but the jet is pretty nice when taken as a whole.
If you're hung up on only getting remakes of toys you had as a kid, you don't need this - and you know that. But seeing it in person a few times, man, how can you not want one? If he ever shows up in the IDW comics - and you know he's going to eventually - I'm sure he'll get expensive and you'll be sorry you missed it. He's also only one per box so far, which is baffling considering the rest of his case was 50% Grimlock and Strongarm by volume. It is by no means exceptional, but it does everything you could want pretty much correctly. My only real snag was getting the fists back out when going from jet to robot - but aside from that, Hasbro delivered a worthwhile toy that will probably be quickly forgotten if the lore doesn't play him up in a big way real fast.
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