This review, like another one I did a while back, is one that has been a long
time coming. When I first started this blog, the then-recent Generations Jetfire was newly found at
retail, and was the figure I thought I’d launch my Internet empire with. That
never happened. Months later I got its retool/repaint Thundercracker at retail,
and thought that was a good time to write on the mold. Months passed and last
week I found Skywarp at a Toys R Us, and figured that now was finally the time,
or else I should just wait until I get the Starscream version. So, here I go.
As with Ultra Magnus, the Leader Seeker mold is pretty thin
and light in terms of its plastic. My wife, who thanks to putting up with me
for years, knows more about action figures than she wants to, has commented
several times about not liking Thundercracker (simply because I’ve had him
longer, not because of anything personal) because he looks cheap and ‘like a
toy’ compared to higher grade figures, like the Masterpieces. Again, this is a
hard criticism to defend against in terms of the Leader Seeker here, but these
guys and the Masterpiece figures are doing very, very different things in some very
different ways. These guys wind up missing some of the bulk that Generations Jetfire has because of the
lack of the fast pack, yet they don’t end up looking like toys that are missing
something. I will credit that to the large and ill-placed forearm cannons,
clearly intended to replicate the classic arm mounted null rays, but hampered
by their attachment to the figures’ forearm rather than bicep. The result is a
weapon that is difficult to manipulate in posing, as the arm needs to be either
straight at the side or straight out to the side, as if the figure were
pointing at something directly to the left or right. The large cannons and the
smaller guns that I have mounted on the wings are interchangeable, and the
smaller guns do work better as arm mounted weapons, but then the larger cannons
look a bit awkward hanging on the figure’s back.
Speaking of weapons, each of these comes with ANOTHER
weapon, a handheld rifle that fires a missile, but I tend to leave it out. There’s
no place to put it in jet mode, Seekers don’t carry handheld weapons, and
having only one of them disrupts the symmetry. Yes, I did just push my glasses
up, thank you.
While Skywarp and Thundercracker tend to be on the bland
side deco wise (Thundercracker in particular), these two figures do look quite
nice. There are some who dislike Skywarps’ fake chest cockpit being surrounded
in purple, as if it were really the cockpit of the jet, the surrounding area
would be black. True, but just looking at the toy you can tell why they went
with the purple there: to break up all of the black. Skywarp’s purple is a bit
more vibrant than any of Thundercracker’s colors, and yet it is a dark enough
purple to not throw off the look of the overall robot by being on the chest
like that. In fact, the standoutishness of the purple is much more of an issue
in photos than it is in person.
Jet modes are sleek and dangerous looking, thanks to the
array of armament. The color placement on the wings is a real welcome break
from the otherwise pretty monotone looks. The transformation is basically three
steps, but the robot folds away nicely underneath the jet. It is similar to the
way the Deluxe Seeker from the Dark of
the Moon toyline folds away, as opposed to the 2007 live action movie Seeker:
you can still tell that there’s a robot under there, but it is hidden better,
contributing to a stronger overall aesthetic. The plastic quality does make
transformation a little stressful, as it feels like at any second you’re going
to go from moving or untabbing a part to holding two piece of robot in your
hands. I swear I grit my teeth each time I handle these figures.
Overall, there has been a lot of complaints regarding this
mold. People have decried its hollowness and lightness and thinness since
Jetfire first hit, and those are all legitimate complaints and I for one have
no problems echoing them. It clearly hasn’t been enough of a problem so as to
keep me from buying the figure three times, and actively on the hunt for a
fourth. People have also been complaining about the size class for Seekers. . .
. and the notion that you essentially have to buy all three of them if you’re
buying any one of them. Those are the biggest factors I’d say in terms of
buying or skipping these toy: whether the plastic quality turns you off, and
whether you believe you’d have to get all three, and whether that bothers you
or not. As a Seeker fan and collector, it doesn’t bother me, and while I do like
a toy of this size to have a bit more weight to it, I enjoy the Leader class
Seeker quite a bit.
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