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[Fighbird]

Taking a slight break from my "origins" threads, I felt it was about time to look a bit more towards the (intended) toy focus of this here web log with a toy review, and I figured: What better candidate than my latest addition, Dark of the Moon MechTech Voyager Class Skyhammer? (Whew, try to say that five times in a row! Talk about a mouthful!)

I've seen quite a few reviews praising DOTM Skyhammer as one of the better DOTM Voyager-class toys released - at least of the non-screen characters. Well okay, according to the TFWiki he's the only non-screen Voyager character, but that only made him more appealing in my mind, since, well, the other DOTM Voyager toys were rather uninspired to me.

Except Megatron, though. He's all kinds of awesome. But that's for another review...

During the first movie in 2007 especially, Hasbro released quite a few non-screen characters that were really, really good toys. Toys like Wreckage, Longarm, Payload, Stockade and Dropkick for the first movie, and - hmm... well, basically only Brawn from ROTF was any good, really. But for some reason all these toys were much better engineered than the on-screen characters, IMHO. Perhaps because the designers were given much more freedom (or had really poor reference material) and/or weren't "locked down" to a certain expected character trait (i.e. Bumblebee being a yellow car, Ratchet being an ambulance etc.) that really let the creativity flow. The "bonus" toys from the '07 are arguably some of my most favourite movie toys, and thinking that DOTM Skyhammer potentially could have come from the same creative outset intrigued me immensely.

And seriously: How many versions of Bumblebee do we really need?

European Voyager Skyhammer MISB

The box - although I quite like the DOTM packaging design - looks a bit bland. Sadly, the European packaging always ends up looking bland because it has to suffer under having to be usable on so many different markets as it lacks a lot of text due to having to have everything being in, what, 20 different languages at once. The US versions are so much prettier - even though they are perhaps a bit more text heavy - but they were designed to be text heavy. The European boxes are just food for the trash can.

Yes, I throw away packaging. I've been keeping cards and boxes now ever since I started collecting again in earnest around 1997, but I had to face the sad fact that I don't have to room for all that cardboard any more. So all the newer stuff in my collection - basically everything from Classics and onward - is mostly loose; I've saved one carded and one boxed item from each movie though to at least keep the movie designs "available" to me.

A bit long in the arms but the proportions are good nevertheless

Once freed from his box, Skyhammer is very impressive to look at. There's no doubt that he turns into a helicopter, but the way the alt mode is worked into the robot mode is very original - especially in the way the rotors are stored. No big backpack with the rotors, no kibble on the arms that hold the rotors like some sort of blade weapon, nope: They drape around his torso (and also help lock the very modest backpack kibble firmly in place). Simply ingenoius by my standards, and makes for a very uncluttered appearance for his robot mode. Actually, the only things really giving it away that he turns into a helicopter are pretty much the "shoulder pads" with their signature step-like window frame typical of army type helicopters. The winglets from the vehicle mode are pretty much hidden completely in the back, the rear fuselage with the stabiliser kibble is discretely folded away behind the legs and the main fuselage becomes armor on the lower arms. Very very nicely engineered.

His MechTech weapon is pretty "meh" by my standards. The gimmick is nice, but the execution is terrible; the weapon is just too big and boxy, and really doesn't fit the delicate aesthetics of Skyhammer himself. In general the whole MechTech gimmick has been "meh" by my standards and I could easily have lived without them at all. Well, except for Megatron's, though - there it is quite essential.

Nifty alt mode, a look at that mug of his and some nice close-ups of his... erm... blackheads?

Helicopter mode is quite beautiful and very well executed. There is no kibble visible in this mode which is very nice, and the parts you do see (like his feet on the outside of the rear fuselage) don't seem all that out of place. His hands and head are completely hidden inside the main fuselage, and only if you look real close you can see some details of his torso between the main and the rear fuselage sections. Even the underside doesn't give anything away! That only, again, goes to show that extra care was put into this toy perhaps on the very same basis as some of the other non-screen movie characters.

The colors are nice and subdued - bright, but not glaring. The overall look works really well in robot mode, but I find it a tad too bright and/or pale for alt mode for some reason. The face has a sort of Power-Core Combiner quality to it in its design, which in my mind gives it a quality of being part Movie part Classics - something that is evident in the body construction as well and really makes him at home in both camps. A nice touch is the usage of black-head screws instead of the usual chrome ones.

Transformation is complex but not frustrating. Yet. There is some clearance issues with the winglets assembly and pretty much everything else it gets close to while transforming, but other than that, everything moves and works great. No annoyin parts-massaging afterwards to get everything to fit. Robot mode is a bit on the loose side, though, especially in the legs, and moving the arms usually moves the whole shoulder section as well, popping off some of the propellor blades from their backpack attachment points.

"Come get some!"

Still, this is a very nicely made toy, and I am glad I was able to find him and add him to my collection. I've been very selective with the DOTM toys and only bought a handful of them, but every single purchase has been of toys that I really really wanted from that line, and so far I haven't been disappointed one bit.

[DkConvoy]

Once again, a good read!

And seriously: How many versions of Bumblebee do we really need?

Silly, silly Martin.. we clearly dont have enough Bumblebees. In fact, how about we dedicate an entire LINE to him? *sarcasm-mode*

[Lucar-tron]

A really nice review. I have been interested in Skyhammer for a while myself, so it's good to hear others opinion about it.

[Tformer]

I can wholeheartedly agree on pretty much everything you said.
Skyhammer was the last DOTM toy I picked up before AAE last year. I was originally done with the line completely, but I'm a sucker for helicopter TFs and happened to come across a lone Skyhammer during a 25% off sale at TrU. There just wasn't a way I could pass him up.
The only real flaw I can think of is the lack of thigh swivels. Since I'm a bit of an articulation junkie it's quite annoying (though my standards when it comes to articulation are admittedly very, VERY high. Curse those high-end Japanese collectors lines! ). Not a big fan of the headsculpt either. But it's still a fun toy.

[Fighbird]

Thank you for your kind words, gentlemen.

Upon closer examination, and while posing Skyhammer for these pictures (I usually do the write-up ahead of time and then the pictures afterwards) I think I'll have to agree that he is lacking some much-needed thigh swivels. He has swivels at knee level, but it's just not the same. Also, there are some beginning stress-marks on his heels from transformation. Small things, though, but still a liiiiitle bit irritating.

I really like the face sculpt. It has a bit of Movie Ironhide going on for it with the mouth there, with the addition of a cool pair of shades. Gotta love that.

Oh, and the repaint possibilities are endless with this guy: I've seen lots of Springers and Whirls, but the most creative ones have been Spinister and a pseudo-Animated Megatron.

[vmv-81]

Nice review. Skyhammer is pretty cool and I'm glad I got it when it was available.

[NRJohn]

Skyhammer is an amazing figure, no doubt about it! Both modes are solid and transformation is fun! In general it seems that the movie-verse toys have gone towards wearing their altmode as panels and kibble, more and more. But Skyhammer doesn't have kibble in that sense, everything works! But yes the mechtech weapon is rather...well not bad it just looks like it belongs to a different, bigger toy.

Btw, he looks a bit like Armada Cyclonus, with the minicon attached to the helicopter.