 Thundercracker
Mold Debut
Transformers Studio Series 86 Voyager
Item No.: Asst. G0478 No. G0562
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Includes: Removable tail fins, two null-ray blasters, wing tips
Action Feature: Transforms from robot to fighter jet
Retail: $42.99
Availability: December 2025
Other: A prepaint reboot
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Hey kids, a new Thundercracker! I thought I had bought my last Earth-mode version of the toy in 2020 right when COVID-19 festivities started, when Target got an exclusive Earthrise Skywarp & Thundercracker [FOTD #2,210] set for $60, and now just this one guy is $50. It feels like it has, oddly, more and less going for it. It's the most cartoony Thundercracker since the Robotmasters toy, but it also feels rather light on detail. Fans of pins and rivets will find less to like here, as Hasbro got clever with assembly in some ways that work well (ball-jointed wrists) and others that don't (toes that pop off due to weak connections.)
Once assembled out of the box, it looks gorgeous. Maybe even more so than Megatron and Soundwave, this feels like something that's physically impossible - a fully-transforming flier that matches the cartoon about as closely as anything we've ever seen. It's not 100%, but it's darned close and an impressive leap in getting the letter of the character design down. I found transforming it to be a bit of a hassle, but I feel most people buying this figure are going to leave it in robot mode and also buy his many future repaints. This is the one you want on display on a shelf, and getting it in y our hand may inspire you to clean out the closet and dump some of the older ones.
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Hasbro did such a good job working with Takara-Tomy to make a great sculpt. It clicks in my brain as "yes, that's the cartoon and it's in three dimensions" that most of my quibbles are technical ones. The engineers and whoever rendered this one got the major locations in here, with intake vents and proportions that seem to perfectly capture where almost everything goes. Sure, the knees aren't the exact right shape. Yes, there may not be a perfect 1:1 match on the front of the torso. But overall it's closer to "cartoon" than "toy" or "original design" than we've ever seen in America. The wrists are a ball-and-socket joint, swiveling thanks to how they were designed. Arm movement is good, which is no small feet given the clearance issues we have had with his wings in the past. The leg movement is good, and the gray speedo flips out a bit so it won't get in the way of most poses. The silhouette is gosh darn perfect, with options. Much like Devastator's crane, you can pop out the wings on his ankles and move them out of the way so it looks more like the TV version.
As an action figure of 1984 Cartoon Thundercracker, this one is presently king. Unless the fandom suddenly dies off, I cannot imagine them not trying to make it better and better, bit by bit, as time goes on because this is so close that I cannot fathom them reinventing the sculpt from square one. The head is so good, the face is excellent, and it seems like a team of people worked really hard to sculpt a toy where fans would have little to complain about. But I'm old, and of course I'll highlight things that don't quite work for me.
My main complaint was the toes falling off, but the clear colorless eyes in the light-up eyeport that are painted over seem like a big waste of everybody's time. The tips of the wings aren't connected in the box, and may fall off during transformation - this doesn't seem like a great design choice. The null-ray blasters are also clear plastic painted over in blue, which again, seems baffling and a way to really raise costs in an era where it would be nice to bring costs down. As a fan, I don't really care about most gaps on the back or inner areas of most figures - but the large rectangular gaps on the front of the thighs seem like something that maybe could be fixed with money. I assume it wasn't worth Hasbro's bother, but engineering those as two pieces might make the figure look better from the front. It's just so agonizingly close to perfect that it's hard to ignore. Earthrise Seekers were basically a big Classics toy, so they were easy to judge on their own merits... but this? This wants to be your best-ever cartoon guy. I assume 3P upgrade makers are going to have a lot of fun making those parts until Hasbro decides to make these guys into Leaders with alternate faces and firing rocket parts or other elements to justify a higher price.
In terms of deco, I don't have many notes other than molding the eyes and rockets in color would be nice, as would an outline around the Decepticon symbols. The gray on the chest looks great, except for what I assume is some flash and/or excess paint on one of my shoulder pylons. It looks like you'd want. Maybe the factory didn't execute the tooling precisely, but I can't see anything here as a fault of the design team.
I found this toy challenging to convert. Even with instructions, figuring out how to unlock the canopy part from the lower body was a little tough, and having parts to remove (or parts that fall off) make it an unpleasant process. I appreciate there's on-board storage for all parts in all modes, though, just be careful that they don't fly off behind a box while you're shifting it around. I particularly disliked manipulating the figure's back parts, as nothing looked or felt quite right. But it's on the back, you won't notice.
My jet expectations are low, and met. It's a bit more streamlined than many previous releases, with multiple places to mount the cannons. It has a bit of an undercarriage, but it's not too bad. The big surprise, the canopy opens. There's no figure in there, nor is there a lot of leg room, but I appreciate adding in a play feature for no good reason. It doesn't offer much new over previous jets, but it's not bad either. It gets the job done, and in this era of fealty to animation cels from 1984 that's all you can ask for. Maybe a future version will incorporate some fun fidgety play features again, but most toy companies seem interested in catering to older fans abilities to pose figures with the maximum articulation possible... before they put it on the shelf, standing straight up and down, with their arms at their sides.
As time goes on I'm starting to let some older toys go. During Combiner Wars Hasbro gave us a Leader, a Legends, and a sub-Legends version of Thundercracker and I let a couple of those go. (I did, of course, keep the Starscreams.) This new figure was a bright move, giving fans the version of the toy they wanted for years while setting them up to re-buy Starscream, Skywarp, and goodness knows how many others. On one hand, that's great business for them with higher price points and an audience expecting those figures. On the other, the Siege and Earthrise molds gave us so many versions that it seems unlikely Hasbro will adapt them all to the SS86 chassis. (A few Classics Starscream repaint jobs haven't made it to the Voyager scale yet, in any line.) This $43 toy means that fans are in for $260 if Hasbro just updates the main six 1980s Decepticon fliers. With various Air Warriors and comic or toy variants, plus minor jets on Cybertron, this mold could wind up being a whopper of an investment that pays off handsomely while making fans ask if they should be happy with what they have, or upgrade. In reviewing this figure I realized Earthrise Thundercracker was at the back of a very big shelf for years, and I hadn't seen it in quite some time. I have to ask myself if it's worth it - and if nothing else, it does highlight a need for downsizing after 42 years of collecting. Nobody needs every Thundercracker, and if you only buy one (or keep one) this might be worthwhile. If you're a cartoon fan, that is, comic fans will have to wait and see what (if anything) happens.
--Adam Pawlus
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