Firefly - Combiner Wars Generations - Deluxe Action Figure


Height: 13.5cm head height.

Articulation: 14 total points - ball-joint neck; 3 points each arm: ball-jointed shoulder, upper arm swivel, hinge elbow; swivel waist; 3 points each leg: ball joint hip, thigh swivel, hinge knee.

Colors: Molded Red, white, black, and silver-gray. Painted silver, blue, gold, and red.

Accessories: Flamethrower, HandFootGun.

Release Data: Released December 2014 at a suggested retail price of US$16.99.

Author: RAC

Aerialbot recon specialist

If we had to have one-line bios, I'd have much preferred that Firefly's be "Easily distracted by shiny objects." Recon is his job, yes, but his short attention span is his defining character trait, as well as the worst possible one to have with that job. The Aerialbots are kind of a mess, huh? But to be fair, their most notable enemy outside of Menasor is the Giant Purple Griffin.

As I mentioned in the previous review, Skydive is going to serve as the reference point for the things that all the Combiner Wars figures have in common, so click here to see that review!


Robot Mode

He's slimmer than Skydive, but also the slightest bit narrower in the hips so the body type is somewhat similar. In an interesting departure from most of his Combiner Wars brethren, Firefly's head isn't based on G1 Fireflight's animation design, but his toy's visored and masked face. This one ditches the visor for distinct eyes, but otherwise it's very clearly the original Fireflight figure's head. This was a good move, because the animation design was a pretty standard, dull face. He's got some new forearm guns, and built-in weapons are always nice to see. The rest of the body draws from the animation in terms of details and color layout, going with the white thighs of the animation as opposed to the red of the toy. The original design had some blue, but Firefly wisely expands on that to add some more variety to the torso. Cutting down on the silver also helps with the overall impression of whiteness that the figure gives off, but it's still kind of drab. If Slingshot was even duller, I guess that's why he's a different helicopter guy now.

And like Skydive, he's got Aerialbot Back. Again, the tailfins are incorporated into the legs, though not as elegantly as Skydive's. The single tailfin sticks out at an odd angle, though the base is level with the ground.

All the Combiner Wars Deluxes use the same set of jointing (which is why all these reviews use this same paragraph): ball-joint head, swivel waist, and limbs with uniform points of articulation: ball-joints at the shoulder/hip, swivels at the upper arm/thigh, and single hinges at the elbow and knee. And all have closed blocky fists with 5mm-compatible sockets. It's not groundbreaking, but that's kind of good; since these toys have twice as many modes as the average Deluxe Transformer, the less that can go wrong the better.

Firefly's head tilts upwards much farther than Skydive's, but otherwise the articulation ranges are identical. Firefly does have the advantages of stiff ratchets in his elbows and a soft, clicking "lock" for centering the lower body.

Transformation

As with Skydive, the legs open up and lock onto the torso, and the nose unfolds. But the arms just fold down and tab to the body here, which I think I prefer to Skydive's weird shoulders. There's an issue with mine which appears to be unique, where the nose doesn't want to stay seated. It looks like the base of the nose had its pin installed a miniscule amount too high, so the back of the piece interferes with the torso. I'm seeing a stress mark form and getting small plastic shavings occasionally- but hey, shavings mean it'll work itself out ultimately! I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem, so hopefully it's a one-in-a-million thing.

Vehicle Mode

Where the original Fireflight turned into an F-4 Phantom II, Firefly becomes something much closer to a Harrier jump jet. Which was Slingshot's old alt-mode. Hmm. But they're similar enough forms that it's really not much of an issue to me. Unlike Skydive, Firefly does have a landing gear, and it does help the balance of the jet mode in his case. There are 5mm ports on each wing for accessories, but none on the jet's back unlike Skydive. So you're stuck with a thoroughly asymmetrical weapons configuration, if that kind of thing bugs you like it does me.

Accessories

Fireflight's individual weapon was a Photon Displacer Gun in G1, a weapon that distorted light waves and that no doubt Fireflight spent many happy hours firing off to make a lightshow for himself. But Combiner Wars Firefly's gun is pretty obviously a flamethrower. Tank on top? Check. Ventilated barrel? Check. Blatantly obvious pilot light at bottom of barrel? Check and mate. Like most of these weapons it's got a lot of hollow areas, but since that's been part of the Transformers aesthetic since forever it's not too objectionable. Except for a rectangular hollow on one side of the gun. Makes me wonder if it's designed to attach to something else, but so far I've not found anything else that works.

Interestingly, the joints on Firefly's HandFootGun are all much stiffer than on Skydive's. The thumb clicks in and out of place just like Firefly's elbows, and there's also some clickiness in the hinges that handify the piece. It's significantly better feeling than Skydive's. This version has gunbarrels instead of missiles, and in another missed opportunity for weapons combining, the barrels are just short of accepting 5mm pegs.


As An Arm

Firefly's arms swing back over his shoulders and attach to a pair of small tabs, but otherwise it's the same as with Skydive: pinch robot legs together, point front of legsaway from the direction you want the elbow to bend, fold up and attach the hand. Firefly's hands don't attach to those tabs as strongly as I might like, but the arms are firm enough that they don't flop around. I'm wondering if the unusually strong ratcheting action in the elbows was decided on partway through the development process as a bit of insurance to go with those tabs.

As A Leg

Pretty similar to Skydive and equally solid. There are minor differences in the shoulders and tailfins because... well, Firefly's shoulders and tailfins are different than Skydive's. But otherwise it's Aerialbot construction through and through.


Closing Remarks

Firefly is Excellent on the Figurereviews.com Non-numeric Rating Scale. He does everything Skydive does with most of the flaws of Skydive being unique to the figure. I would still prefer greater weapon combining, but again, that's minor considering everything the figure does right. The third original Aerialbot, Air Raid, will be a part of Wave 2. What about Slingshot? Well...



ReviewerRAC  
DateJanuary 16th 2015  
Score 9 stars (9 out of 10)  
Reads9506


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