Review: #886
Name: Sky-Byte
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Age of the Primes
Year of Release: 2025
Size Class: Voyager (Wave 2)
Mold Status: new
BEAST MODE:
Sky-Byte is an updated figure from Robots in Disguise, and he transforms into a blue mechanical shark.
Unlike previous toys, the shark mode isn't in a permanent bend, but is straight.
The shark is quite articulated to be fair. His mouth can open and close, and you can peg in a missile pod to similar his attack in the cartoon.
The neck can look down, while the tail can move from left to right. It's very articulated considering everything.
He has a lot of great sculpted mechanical details, and a lot of those are highlighted by silver paint that contrasts nicely with the dark blue plastic.
TRANSFORMATION:
While not overly complex, there are some trickier elements to it. The shark mode not sculpted to be bending its body helps. The arms are at the back, with the tail forming a claw, and the other arm needing to unfold from the beast mode's shell. The two biggest pieces of the shark mode's shell form the shoulder pads. The shark mode's head unceremoniously end up on his back, and the legs are formed from the lower jaw, it's nice that they kept this element. The dorsal fin is the top of his head as well.
ROBOT MODE:
Unlike the previous Generations toy, this is a real update that aimed to be a lot more accurate to the original cartoon design.
He has kibble on his back, with the shark's head and some panels, they situate close to the torso but is still bulky.
The head sculpt is great, with a permanent snarl, and the huge fin at the top.
He's a good size in robot mode, average height and feels okay in hand.
His chest has a great amount of detail, too bad the spark crystal in his chest is not transparent.
By default, you can leave the fins on his body, but no matter how you angle them, they stick out at an awkward angle. Although this is accurate to the original toy.
For articulation, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.
The fins on his back can detach to become weapons, and he has the missile pod.
The missile pod can be held in his hands, but it looks a bit small and stumpy.
While he can hold the finds like a kind of small blade, they also look cheesy.
However, he does have that giant claw for his left hand, and that looks impressive. Given the shoulder pads are more symmetrical this time around, he loses some asymmetry that had made his unique.
It's hard to know why since the previous toy was like this (and it does stem back to the original toy), but his legs feel very insubstantial. They're thin and light with most of the bulk in the upper body and this feels weird.
On the whole though, this is still a solid robot mode and one that is what you can say is a definite upgrade over previous toys.
OVERALL:
Sky-Byte is a good effort. He's not amazing, but he's solid and doesn't do much wrong. Yes, there could be improvements, such as bulking up the back of his legs, but otherwise, it's the definitive toy version of the character, as there is no doubt that he's better than all his previous toys.
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