TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE POWERGLIDE

Not as fast or powerful as the DECEPTICON fliers, POWERGLIDE relies instead on his raw skill as a combat pilot. Where his enemies rely on afterburners and advanced weapon systems, he executes loops, flat spins, and other aerial maneuvers that make even the craziest and most foolhardy DECEPTICONS backfire out of fear. In a sky full of bad guys, you can always easily spot POWERGLIDE twisting and diving through enemy fire, dodging missiles, and generally outclassing even the best among the DECEPTICON air warriors.

Hear cool conversion sounds as you twist and turn this awesome AUTOBOT warrior from battle-ready robot figure to fighter jet vehicle mode! The roar of the vehicle’s engine lets you know that this fierce “flyer” is ready to roll out into battle. In robot mode, the launching thermal beam projectile helps to keep enemies at bay.

JUNE 2008
MSRP 24.99USD

So I have to admit, I’m a pretty big sucker for jet and helicopter Transformers. As unwieldy and fugly (and even inaccurate) as the movie Blackout figure was, I really liked him. A lot. So when images started leaking earlier this year of Universe Powerglide, I was in lurrrve.

First of all, Powerglide for those who don’t know, was a little doofy runt of a figure from the 80’s (which you can see in this Seibertron gallery!) who I barely even remembered. Although the one thing I did remember was he was red, like mostly red. And yet here was this really tall and really grey Universe figure claiming to be Powerglide.

And here we go…

The packaging for Powerglide carries a large imprint, it’s a giant box with a lot of tape holding it shut and wires keeping the figure in place. As someone who mildly considers himself on the greener side of things, I’ve got a hard time seeing so much packaging used for these figures, especially since so many folks probably just toss it right in the trash afterwards. Meh.

The back of the packaging showcases Powerglide’s power stat levels, speed intelligence firepower etc etc, as well as a mini-bio.

Overall I’m not as in love with this Universe packaging design as I am the Animated stuff, but regardless it still strikes a good visual presence on the shelves as well as maintaining an immediate separation from the other TF lines, which might be confusing for some of the moms and dads out there in the toy aisles.

After unwrapping a bunch of twist-wires and pulling Powerglide free from his packaging-prison, we get him in all his aeroplane glory. Bearing an intentional resemblance to an A-10 Thunderbolt II Warthog, Powerglide is a beast in the air. At about 11 inches in length, and around 10.5 inches in width, he strikes a good size, although at the “Ultra” size class the figure is in I guess that should be expected.

Jet mode is highly detailed, with panels and knooks and crannies and gears and all manner of stuff to make it fun to look at. Powerglide has extendable landing gear, ALTHOUGH as you can see in the above pics they aren’t engineered so swiftly, as the whole jet tips extremely front-low. So much so that the gattling gun under the cockpit actually scrapes the ground. That’s dumb Hasbro, really dumb and lazy too.

There’s also, as you can see, a ridiculous abundance of seperate ID marks on him, four on each side. I think I read those are in reference to people from the Hasbro design team’s initials or some such in-jokiness, but it really is kind of silly and pointless. Pointless in that sorta why dumb it down so inaccurately way? It’s not like a toy gun that needs to be painted bright neon yellow so some kid in Omaha doesn’t get shot by the local Sheriff, yeah? It’s a toy jet, who is going to mistake it for a real one? EXACTLY.

One of the gimmick features of the figure is a button activated noise and light display, which ranges from jet engine sounds, machine gun firing, and missile launches, as well as the cockpit and engine lights flashing on and off during. It’s kind of a cool feature, but also kind of annoying because of how easy it is to activate by brushing up against the button on the top of the jet. I can see this being something that gets old QUICKLY, and where people will be removing the battery to prevent future outbreaks of the sound effects of doom!

Final assessment of jet-mode is that it’s cool, and definitely good looking in that it not only hides Powerglide’s robot mode but also looks like a real jet. Kinda. Sadly there are a few key points that keep it from being great, the landing gear issue being one, as well as the ID markings. All of which can be fixed with some homemade modifications and rubbing alcohol, but at a 25 dollar price-point, I really shouldn’t have to do, yeah?

Robot-mode is go!

And wowzers is it a pitas to get there too. I pride myself on being able to mostly transform any figure the first time without having to resort to the instructions, but oh boy did I need them here. The instruction sheet has a dizzying 17 different panels, which is actually misleading since a few of the panels feature multiple movements indicated - which is kinda crazy since the difficulty rating for transforming this figure (as listed on the front packaging of all Transformer figures nowadays) only lists this at 3 out of 4. If this guy is a 3, I don’t think I’ve ever transformed a 4 then - yikes.

So 10 minutes later, and we’re ready to go. In continuance with the annoying sound effects issue, there is a hidden button that during transformation is triggered and will activate the old cartoon’s transforming sound. And don’t get me wrong, I love hearing that sound as much IF NOT more than the average nerd, but this was nuts. Just like 50 times in a row while trying to get the pieces not only all into place but stay there as well, by the end I was all noised out.

But here we go, and Powerglide is ready to battle. Coming in at a little over 9 inches tall, Powerglide went from being one of the smallest Autobots to one of the largest. He’s bulky too, featuring his engines now as chest pieces, which I’ve seen some people refer to as man-boobs, but I really dig the look. There is something very Japanese mecha to his overall robot design, while still incorporating some elements from the original toy (like the little gun-turret on the side of his head) to be a good homage. There might even be a little sense of a Bandai Power Rangers look there too, huh?

Powerglide’s gattling gun now becomes his “thermal beam” weapon, and actually fires a missile at a range of about 3-4 feet - and would definitely hurt if you shot it into your eye, so be careful!

Powerglide features a nutso amount of points-of-articulation (PoA’s for the toy nerds), what with the all the little flips and flaps and parts, so much that I’m not even gonna bother to count. Suffice it to say, in terms of action figures, Powerglide moves at all the right places. Head, shoulders, elbows, waist, thighs, knees and feet, the only place he really doesn’t is at the wrist (which would have been nice but not imperative).

And despite all this, the major biggest flaw to his robot-mode comes from the fact that he has too much articulation. Or at least, the wrong kind of joints used in the articulation he does have. Namely at the thigh cut joints, which simply rotate freely to allow for positioning and balance, however they offer nothing in terms of resistance to counter for how heavy the upper half of the figure is (Powerglide is especially back-heavy in robot-mode) so he tends to fall over a lot. All of which could have been avoided by putting a ratcheting gear in there, and I’m surprised that this toy went into full production without one. A simple fix which would have given Powerglide a much better range of motion and balance, that without, severely hinders the figure in the worst way. So what we’re left with is a very limited, and precarious range of movement the figure can do, most of which are either standing straight up and stiff, or require a lot of balancing out on your part and hoping Powerglide won’t just take a spill on his own accord anyways.

Boo.

And while Powerglide did pass the patented Murdershow Karate Kick Test™, he had to cheat a little to do so. If not for the use of his cane, er I mean gun, he’d have never been able to hold that pose, again mostly to the looseness of the thigh cuts.

So in the end, what do we have? I’ve been extremely critical of the figure and all its various flaws, but you know what? I still kinda like this guy. The bizarre and alien look of his robot-mode, the chest area, he just looks so mechanical in design. Plus, he’s got a ton of potential, and as a semi-professional toy fixer I know I can address a lot of these problems as well as give him a more G1 (and gaudy) paint job. Yay!

Plus the little touches on Powerglide really go a long way. Like the fact Hasbro actually sculpted a heart into Powerglide’s chest, which is a reference to an episode of the old cartoon, The Girl Who Loved Powerglide, which is absolutely as literal and disturbing as it sounds. But still, a nice throwback to something as disposable as that 20-something year old cartoon shows that the design team was at least sorta trying here.

I don’t think I can actively recommend Powerglide as a good buy, especially at the price, you’re likely to find him on ebay in a year for 10 bucks if you’re willing to wait. However, if you’re a completist or into aerial Transformers like me, I can say he’s a pretty good figure, and of the choice between Powerglide or the other Ultra class figure, Silverbolt, I definitely gotta go with Powerglide.

Even with all his flaws.