The second and third of the MakeToys Seekers, Skycrow is a
straight up black and purple repaint of the excellent Meteor, and Lightning is
a light blue version of the same. You know who they are supposed to be.
We’ve already taken a look at Meteor, so the general
response to the figure has been made public. This figure is an excellent
representation of the G1 Seeker, and does things that improve on the official
Takara Masterpiece Seeker, so much so
that, after owning the MakeToys trio for a little while, the official MP
Skywarp and Thundercracker were sold off, these versions replacing them as the Masterpiece-level Seekers in my
collection. This honestly was an easy decision to make, but a tough one to
follow through on, and not for reasons of hesitancy when it came to selling
them. Some eBay complications required me to actually sell them twice, because
of nonpayment and all that that does not matter when we want to focus on a toy.
Skycrow is a gorgeous shade of purple, very light so as to
be more like the animation colors for G1 Skywarp, and not the darker purple
that so many of his toys, including the original Takara Masterpiece version, and that was a terrific choice by MakeToys.
With the Masterpiece line now going
in the direction of being more and more screen accurate, the darker colored
Skywarp was set to be a thing of the past. (it just occurred to me that I don’t
know what degree of purple the MP-11 repaint is . . . –mr) Skycrow comes with
the same accessories that Meteor has, including the head with Despotron hand
choking him, the two null rays, and the two bomb parts, and some
interchangeable faces, which never really get much use around here.
Lightning also has the same array of accessories, and is
similarly a more visually appealing version of the character than the original
Takara MP version. Or any subsequent versions, really, as it seems that
Thundercracker colors are always a miss for Takara and Hasbro.
Both of the figures look terrific, and are outstandingly
good molds. Their design is excellent, and they feel great in hand. The gold
chest cockpits stick out real well, particularly on Skycrow, as the gold
provides a real strong contrast to the black of the torso. Also exceptional is
that the gold cockpit remains constant across all three of the MakeToys
Seekers, giving the squad a very uniform look. Hopefully, the MakeToys
Coneheads, due later this summer, maintain this trait as well. It feels a
little uncomfortable to be grateful that a company has kept a unifying visual
detail in place over the span of related releases, but it does sometimes feel
like that is the least that could be done. Longtime followers of Hasbro
products know that this uniformity is something that occasionally does go
missing, for no apparent reason, so two of the three characters will have
similar paint or detailing, only for the third to be missing that. For some
reason. While it seems like there should be a list of examples provided to
support this claim, at the moment I can’t think of any, although we all do know
that such things exist. Visual uniformity across a team is an important
feature, especially across a team that is three of the same toy in different
colors. Skycrow is particularly gorgeous in jet mode. 
The transformation is really good, similar enough to the
official Masterpiece mold to be
somewhat intuitive yet different enough to be interesting, making changes in
some real interesting places along the way. Paramount among these would almost
have to be the tailfins, and both the vertical and horizontal fins are composed
of folding panels that store inside the legs in robot mode. This may have come
up with Meteor a while back, but there is a sense of concern that the joints
will wear out over time, as they are only friction joints that fresh out of the
box are not the tightest or strongest, so repeated transformations will only
cause them to loosen more and more. “Over time” may be a bit generous: Skycrow
and Lightning both have tailfins that are slightly looser than Meteor’s, so
this loosened future may be closer than we realize. However, this is not a
thing unique to these figures, as Takara’s Masterpiece
Seeker mold, at least the original MP-03 version, had a pair of tailfins
that were pretty loose straight away as well, an issue that only got worse as
subsequent repaint versions were released.
Here is the thing that is the ultimate point of this review:
Skycrow, Lightning, Meteor, and Despotron make for an awesome group display.
Currently, they occupy a detolf shelf at Coffin HQ along with official Takara Masterpiece Soundwave and Shockwave, and
they look like a 100% uniform group of figures. They all look good as toys
together, and they all look good as physical depictions of cartoon characters
together. This was the deciding factor in the selling of MP Skywarp and
Thundercracker: those two, as well as the official MP Starscreams in my
collection, didn’t look right together. Takara as we know is steering the line
towards fixing this shortcoming, but all that I can do is work with what I
have. Forget about the Masterpiece Megatron
that I own, the once lauded MP-05, as there’s no way that would fit with these
figures. But the Takara Skywarp and Thundercracker, honestly high grade
repaints of the original Seeker, don’t really fit in with any of these figures,
and certainly not with Meteor. They look out of place beside other Takara Masterpiece figures like Soundwave and
Shockwave. They also don’t work very well with the official Takara Coneheads.
After assembling this Decepticon command staff on a shelf, MP Skywarp and
Thundercracker began being relegated to lower and lower shelves, until it was
finally clear that they were not necessary any longer. My collection still
includes samples of the Masterpiece Seeker,
so I don’t feel any actual sense of loss, other than both of those MPs do end
up holding places in my memories more for when
I obtained them, and less for having obtained
them. About a year ago I briefly waxed poetic about packing MP Skywarp in
preparation for a move, simply because I had done that same thing three
previous times in my life, so my attachment to the figure was more because I
had had it for a long time than any real sense of value.
Also, the MakeToys Seekers look good next to the Masterpiece Coneheads, mainly because
Takara took the opportunity to cartoon-up the Coneheads a little bit. The
official original Seekers didn’t even look right next to the Coneheads.
MakeToys’ Coneheads are coming soon, and I’ve got the trio on preorder, but
will be hanging on to the Takara versions as well, because I really, really
enjoy those. The MakeToys Coneheads are also set to include extra pieces for
the standard Seeker trio in the form of plates that will cover the bottoms of
the wings, filling in the gappy parts that are apparently such an abomination
to some people that they can’t even.
So, two more excellent offerings from MakeToys, and two more
worthy adds to your collection. Even if you’re not in for other 3P Masterpiece-alikes like Despotron, these
Seekers would look good on your MP shelf because they do work so well with the
Takara Decepticons. 
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