Transformers Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures: Dinobot Sludge

Cyberverse is a series that I've not really followed, even though I picked up a few toys when the series first debuted a few years ago. However when new Dinobot toys are released do you really need an excuse to pick them up?

Sludge was released in late 2021 as part of the "voyager" assortment which feature the Energon Armor gimmick. Seeing how difficult it was to find select figures at local retail, I put this item on my Christmas list. On Christmas morning my mom laughed when she told me she couldn't remember if she ordered this for me our for either one of my nephews!

We'll take a brief look at his robot mode first since that is how he comes packaged. Growing up in the 80's Sludge is one of two Dinobots that I never owned, however the designers did a great job capturing the character's likeness. Sludge still has his famous "wings" on his back, along with the dino neck/head. With most of the figure being hollow he looks odd from the back, even a bit shorter if that's possible.

I was surprised when it came to how articulated the figure is. The head doesn't move at all, but that's due to the Energon Armor gimmick. The arms however are able to rotate a full 360 degrees and even swing out and rotate on a different joint thanks to the transformation. You've got an articulated waist, again due to the transformation. The legs attach via ball joints and give a good range of motion. Finally, the knees are on hinge joints.

For such a basic figure in terms of sculpt/paint apps, I'm pleasantly surprised with the overall outcome. The headsculpt alone is pretty fantastic. The paint apps are limited, but applied well on my copy.

I'm going to assume since the Cyberverse line is targeted at a younger demographic is why Sludge doesn't come packaged with a gun and rather his tail forms a spear. In the 80's each of the Dinobots came with a red sword alongside their gun, so I guess it's not that far of a stretch for this version to come with a melee type weapon. The dino tail has a handle that unfolds and allows it to be wielded by sludge. It looks a little odd to me, but again I'm not the target demographic here!

Personally I don't understand the Energon Armor gimmick, but I'm sure the 8 year old kid in me would have loved the spring loaded gimmick. Once you slide down the dino head/neck section in the back of the figure, the translucent blue armor pops out and up over the head and chest. The portion that covers the head has a skull like look...I tried to snap a photo that shows this off however it's hard to see.

Now we get to the bread and butter form of this toy...dino mode! As a kid I would have called this a Brontosaurus, but scientists now say that isn't a real dinosaur so we'll just stick with the generic term of "dino". I'm so glad they opted to keep the traditional G1 color scheme intact for this release...I always loved the gold, silver and red all mashed together.

The majority of the body is cast in a dull gray plastic with gold actuating the head and part of the tail. There is a touch of light blue paint applied for the dino eyes. On the sides of the body is a darker gray area with some horizontal red circuitry? lines. The upper portion of the legs feature an embedded cone shape that for no other purpose looks cool.

With many parts of the figure being somewhat hollow, the overall weight of the toy isn't much. If you hadn't bought a modern Transformer figure in some time you may even think this was a KO, but this par for the course these days. That's not to say that this is a bad figure as I think the dino mode looks great and will be how I display him amongst my collection.

Comparison time! To give you a little bit better idea of how this Cyberverse Sludge may scale, I grabbed the nearest two iterations of this character and snapped a few quick pics. Let's start off with the original G1 mold.

With Transformers collectors, scale can be a sensitive topic...after all it's over the place. While the Dinobots should be large, most of their toys, including the G1 molds are not. Here you can see that Cyberverse Sludge is just a hair larger than his G1 version.

I also just happened to have a 3rd party version of Sludge nearby, ToyWorld's Muddy. I recently acquired him to go along w/ Roar (Snarl) and I was surprised at how similar in size both Cyberverse Sludge and Muddy are. They are near identical in overall length, however Muddy is more chunky overall.

I'm not if I'll track down the other Cyberverse Dinobots (only other I have is Snarl), but I am satisified with this figure. While the Energon Armor gimmick isn't for me, it's well concealed in robot mode and doesn't detract from an otherwise solid figure. If you are a fan of the Cyberverse series, or Dinobots in general then I think you'll enjoy the latest official version of Sludge.

Transformers Cyberverse: Thundercracker

While the Transformers Cyberverse series may not be my favorite line, I have found myself purchasing more of it than I originally thought I would partially due to the selection of characters and lower price point. I'm a sucker for the Thundercracker character so this was an easy purchase for me. Finding it at a local Ollie's discount store for $5 was the icing on the cake.

Thundercracker is part of the Warrior class of toys...basically a deluxe. It's the same mold as the original Starscream as well as the Acid Storm figure. As far as I can tell there are no changes made to the mold for this release. That said if you didn't like those toys, then I don't think you'll care for Thundercracker.

The mold itself isn't that bad. While we have seen better versions of the classic Decepticon seekers, this mold looks OK. Yes, it's a simple design with a simple transformation. Yes, there are parts of the toy that are hollow. What hinders this mold however in my opinion is the action feature. Dubbed "Lightning Slash", the top half of the body can spin around in a full 360 motion. This makes it hard at times to line up the torso straight as the top wants to drift to the left or right at times.

My only dislike of the vehicle mode are the tiny rear vertical fins. They are there, but they are so small that it's easy to miss them. This to me throws off the look of the jet mode a little. I'm fine with the colors used. Some may not like the brighter shade of blue, but if you've been buying Transformers for a while then you'll know that Thundercracker has been just about every hue of blue over the years.

If I weren't a Thundercracker completionist this would have been an easy pass, especially since there are so many better versions of the character out there. The Siege toy was a pain in the butt to transform, but is the far superior toy...then again the market these two toys are aimed at are not one in the same.

Transformers Cyberverse: Starscream

The Decepticon Starscream was given a makeover of sorts for the new "Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures" series. Since I haven't really followed either the animated series or the toy line I don't recall seeing his new form before I found to the toy hanging on the pegs at my local Walmart.

 

Starscream is part of the new subseries of Transformers Cyberverse and as such sport the new logo. The left side of the package still features a vertical yellow strip with the Transformers name in large black blog letters. A large Transformers faction symbol adorns the top left corner. The back of the blister card shows Starscream in both modes and touches on his "Starseeker Missile " play gimmick. At least one of his wave mates is the autobot hammerhead shark, Hammerbyte. 

I absolutely love the look of this version of Starscream. He has had his fair share of looks over the years in various Transformers series', but I think this one ranks as one of the best. I do wish his arm cannons were the same opaque gray plastic as the majority of his body, but the overall look is great. He has ball jointed shoulders, hips and head, allowing for a full 360 degree rotation. His elbows and knees are on hinge joints. 

On the back side of Starscream's wings you can see another set of wings folded up...this gives a hint as to how his new jet mode looks. The jet cockpit hangs off his back, but is movable. This unlocks his play gimmick when lifted up, but you can leave it in the middle (as pictured) or lower it. Problem with lowering it is you'll see the nose of the jet between his legs. There are a few hollow areas on the figure that will bother some fans, however by now we should be used to that cost cutting measure by Hasbro. The feet are wide enough that it gives the figure good support in robot mode.

While I forgot to the take a picture of his "Starseeker Missile" attack mode, this is activated by pushing up on the jet canopy on his back. This will make his arm cannons spring forward in extended fashion.

Transformation from robot to jet is done in just 5 steps, but I found the transformation to be fun. I like how his legs fold up and over the top of the jet instead of just being tucked in underneath. You would think this would make for a bulky jet mode, but it works amazingly well. I love the look of both the front and rear wings...one of the best looking Starscream jet modes I've seen in awhile.

Starscream makes the 5th Warrior Class Cyberverse Transformer I've bought so far and I feel as if he blends in well with some of the previous toys, such as Shockwave. 

The Cyberverse line isn't for everyone, however if you can look past some of the simplistic designs and transformations I believe you'll find some fun Transformer toys.

Transformers Cyberverse: Sky-Byte & Driller Drive

The Transformers Cyberverse line of toys seemed to start off a little flat in my opinion. The designs of core characters such as Bumblebee took design elements from other iterations of the character, but put a new "kid friendly" spin on things. Initially I dismissed most of the gimmick filled releases and focused more on the Transformers War for Cybertron: Siege series instead.

As later waves of figures begin to hit store shelves, I started to pay the series a little more attention, starting with Shockwave. Suddenly Cyberverse began to at least gain my attention. More and more classic characters were starting to be introduced into the series. While they all had a twist on their look, many of these classic characters were modeled after their Generation 1 (G1) selves that I grew up with.

The most recent wave of Cyberverse toys includes characters from other "universes" such as Cheetor from Beast Wars / Beast Machines appeared, followed by Sky-Byte from the Robots in Disguise universe. When I first saw these images solicated online I didn't know what to think of them. Silly maybe? Out there? Creative? Maybe a little of all of the above? When I finally found the Spark Armor releases at retail I just stared at them. I looked them over and over and before you knew it I was headed to the checkout with several in my hands.

While I never liked the Transmetal 2 Cybershark mold that Sky-Byte's RID toy was based on, I loved the goofy character he was portrayed as in the animation. The more I stared at Sky-Byte in the store the more I became intrigued with this toy. Sky-Byte comes packaged on a blister card and retails for $14.99. Starscream, Prowl and Jetfire are his wave mates.

Hasbro has used so many terms to describe their various size points of Transformer toys that I don't even know what this size toy is called. It's smaller than a standard deluxe scale figure, but a little bigger than the old basic size. For me it's the perfect size of figure to fiddle around with. In fact, he became my desk-bot for several weeks after opening him for this post.

Sky-Byte resembles his Robots in Disguise self pretty good. While not as big or detailed as his original toy, there is no mistake who this character is. This size Spark Armor toys are a little more simplified than some of the other larger releases, but that doesn't mean the toy doesn't pack a punch. The design is simple, but gets the job done. Paint applications are limited, but well applied. Articulation is much better than I anticipated as well. There are hollow parts on the toy, but that is the new norm when it comes to Hasbro.

Transformation into shark mode only takes a handful of steps (10) before you are done. I was able to go between the two forms rather easily without the use of the instructions. In shark mode Sky-Byte resembles a submarine more than a cyber-shark. Actually I love this new look.

One of my pet peeves is when you can see the robot parts or kibble in the alternate mode, especially the robot head. The designers did a good job at concealing most of the robot parts in shark mode. Here on the bottom you can make out the robot's waist and legs, but they are glaringly noticeable. 

Sky-Byte's Spark Armor is Driller Drive. While I've not yet watched any of the Cyberverse animation, I'm going to assume these armor pieces like Driller Drive are not sentient robots and just weapons. My first impression of this piece upon pulling it out of the packaging was it immediately reminded me of Bandai's Machine Robo Mugenbine toys. If you're not familiar with Mugenbine, those were transformable toys that had a core robot that could form a cube and all of the included pieces could be assembled with the core robot to form various animals, vehicles and more.

Sadly the wheels and drill piece on Driller Drive do not move. In fact you can't do much with Driller Drive on it's own other than to use your imagination. However his real purpose is to form a set of battle armor (or Spark armor) for Sky-Byte.

Driller Drive easily separates into a few pieces, mainly the drill piece, each side of the drill vehicle and the center portion. The two side pieces simply attach to the sides of the upper arm, while the center portion folds in half to reveal the battle helmet. This piece fits over top of Sky-Byte to form armor for the chest and back. The drill piece can be wielded using the attached 5mm peg.

While I've only opened one other Spark Armor release, it seems as if the battle helmets all have some sort of theme that matches the main character. In this case the battle helmet has a fish motif...fitting for Sky-Byte. I like the look of the helmet, even though the Sky-Byte's actual face sets back in the helmet and makes it a little hard to see his face.

Here you can see Sky-Byte compared to a Legends class Sharkticon from Titans Return. While the figure is small, it's a fun release. I know the Cyberverse series isn't aimed at me, but this toy has reminded me that it's OK if my Transformer isn't super detailed or super articulated. Toys are meant to be fun and if I was a kid I would be all over this toy as well as others I've seen in the series.