Toy Review: Transformers Age of the Primes Superion

Review:  #905

Name:  Superion

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Age of the Primes

Year of Release:  N/A

Size Class:  N/A

Mold Status:  new

AERIALBOTS:

And here we have it, the complete set of updated Aerialbots using the new "frame" system, which has Silverbolt lugging extra kibble as an extension to his jet mode.

The Aerialbots are comprised of Skydive, Fireflight, Slingshot and Air Raid, led by Silverbolt.

The individual Aerialbots are... okay.  They're quite generic as individual robots, none of them feature any interesting or surprising engineering marvels.

However, coming together as a set, they do look coherent as a team and it makes collecting them worthwhile.

Despite the flaws of each bot, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

TRANSFORMATION:

Unlike previous attempts, the torso of Superion (being Silverbolt), needs to partsform.  Silverbolt himself still folds up to form the torso core, but the extra combiner kibble becomes the chest plate, and the skeletal arms and legs.  Fireflight and Slingshot snap onto the arms and separate into two.  While Skydive and Air Raid are in jet mode as well with the wings and cockpit folded up to be plugged into the back of the legs.  It's a transformation where all the heavy lifting is done by Silverbolt.

COMBINED MODE:

And the combined form of Superion looks surprisingly good, despite the skeletal frame system where the rest of the members look somewhat slapped onto the limbs rather than an integral form of them.

There is quite a bit of kibble here and there, including Superion's cockpit, and both Skydive and Air Raid just stick out the back of the legs.

The head sculpt is quite nice, especially with the silver faceplate.

As expected from a Commander toy combined with four Deluxes, Superion is quite big.  He towers over your Voyagers.

A comparison against Legacy Menasor.  While they use a similar system and there are some bits and pieces that are interchangeable, on the whole, they're not "Scramble City" style and you cannot just mix and match different limbs.

He has really good articulation for such a big figure, such as joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

It helps that the skeletal frame provides the stability to allow those joints to be used properly.

However, the negative of that system is that Skydive and Air Raid barely contributes to the legs.  They just plug to the back, and two springloaded panels closes together, completely obscuring them.  They feel pretty pointless as a result.

They stick out a fair way from the back too, so can get slightly awkward when trying to move his legs.

Superion comes with a long black gun, that is plugged onto his forearm for stability rather than directly held in his fists.

Interestingly, you are able to swap the arms around or the legs around, but you can't make an arm to a leg and vice versa.

It's not surprising being formed from five figures that Superion is hefty, but he is surprisingly well put together, pieces won't easily come off.

That means Superion is able to pull off dynamic poses more easily, and those ankle tilts are super helpful in keeping him stable.

A wonderful combined mode that ends up justifying the individual Aerialbots' blandness.

OVERALL:

Superion is a solid combiner.  He looks really good in combined form, and has a sense of presence and elegance to him.  He's not as generic in combined mode, and while the execution of the legs sacrifices the visual (and physical) contributions of two members of the Aerialbots, we gain extra stability so it kind of nets off.  Superion does make collecting all of the Aerialbots worth it.

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Toy Review: Transformers Age of the Primes Slingshot (Deluxe)

Review:  #904

Name:  Fireflight

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Age of the Primes

Year of Release:  2025

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 3)

Mold Status:  retool of Age of the Primes Slingshot

JET MODE:

Fireflight is based upon his G1 appearance and transforms into a predominantly red jet.

It's not a bad looking jet, and the red looks quite vivid in person, bringing some color and pop, helping him stand out.

He is an okay size for a Deluxe.

Fireflight is a minor retool of Slingshot (the wings are situated lower against the fuselage), and the contrast in color schemes helps to differentiate them, but this also means that Fireflight is not that exciting.

Due to the design of the jet, it is quite chunky, but it also means that he does not have much undercarriage kibble, which is a worthwhile tradeoff.

A decent looking jet mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Unfortunately, Fireflight transforms pretty much like the rest of the Deluxe Aerialbots, so it's quite boring and generic.  The simple transformation has the back extend to form the legs, while the arms unfold from either side of the cockpit.  The cockpit then folds onto his back.

ROBOT MODE:

In robot mode, Fireflight can also be a little bit generic, but the extra white that comes out, which is contrasted nicely by the splashes of red makes him more visually interesting than some of the other Aerialbots.

Unfortunately, as a by-product of the simple transformation (and probably budget issues), Fireflight has a horrendous amount of kibble.  The cockpit on his back may be forgiven, but all the wings and tailfins sicking out the back of his legs are terrible.

The head sculpt is okay, it's squared off look reminds you of the original G1 toys.

His height in robot mode is fine, although proportionally, his arms are a bit skinny.

A shot against Slingshot shows that the biggest change in robot mode is the different head.

Articulation is fine, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with a pair of double barrelled blasters.

Fireflight can either hold the guns in his hands.

Or they can plug onto the outside of his forearms, which does look slightly better and more integrated.

Those guns can peg onto the wings outside his legs (the same place as in jet mode), but you're just adding to the amount of kibble at that point.

And speaking of the kibble, his heels stick so far out the back, and the wings are so big, that it makes the legs too chunky and unwieldy.  It's awkward posing them.

Too much bulk is in his legs, if only some of that could have been transferred to his arms, which feels flat in comparison.

It's not a horrible robot mode, but is a tad generic and bland.

OVERALL:

Like the rest of the Aerialbots, you have no choice but to get him if you wanted Superion.  He's better than Slingshot due to his more visually interesting color scheme (but that is a subjective thing).  Otherwise, this is an average figure, it's doesn't do anything amazing, and the kibble in robot mode really hurts.

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To a T (PC)

To a T is a weird game, from the creator of the Katamari series. Whereas the Katamari series at least still has a concept that sounds interesting and understandable on why it can be addictive, T a T… doesn’t really. It has a unique premise that sounds like it could work, you play as a character who’s stuck in a T-pose (the default pose of character models in games and computer animation), and you see how this affects their life.

The game starts off by giving you the ability to customize the appearance of the character somewhat, plus name them whatever you like. The default name is Teen, and he’s a 13 year old boy living in Japan. The game is basically a slice of life story, as Teen goes to high school. Soon after the story starts, you’ll realize that Teen’s T-pose issue was always there since birth, although there is some cryptic dialogue from his mother that suggests that there may be more to it.

However, the game is slow paced, and is designed to be relaxing and chilled, with little tension, if any. All the gameplay are mundane things to do, such as getting Teen to school, using the right stick and the shoulder buttons to manipulate his arms so that he can eat or do other things. It’s amusing to see how he copes with doing normal things with his arms stuck in a T-pose, and it can be clever every so often, but since it’s mostly the same, it can get mundane and bland.

The controls are very easy, giving that you just use the analogue stick to move, a button to run, and the rest of the buttons as prompts which perform different things depending on the context. It’s a semi-open world, as Teen can explore his neighborhood. Everyone speaks gibberish, but you are expected to read the text dialogue to understand what they are saying. There are some weird things in Teen’s world that are just accepted, such as him permanently stuck in a T-pose, and the giraffe that makes food that just seems to be everywhere.

Teen has a dog, named Dog, who follows and guides Teen around. Dog acts as the objective marker, since it’ll lead you to where you need to go next. The game has fixed camera angles, and usually side on so that Teen runs from left to right. However, these angles will shift, which makes exploring confusing since you can’t see what’s coming up ahead, or lose your orientation due to the camera shifts. There are some minigames scattered around, but aside from the main story, there aren’t many side activities. You get to explore the town and collect currency, but there’s not much incentive to do so.

The story starts off focusing on Teen not appearing keen to go to school. There are no surprises why, given his condition, there are bullies. It will eventually move on and resolve that issue, given it’s a coming-of-age story. Unfortunately, that story is bland and down to earth, except for the random strange things that are accepted as normal in this world. It picks up in the final third of the game, where the story really takes a turn for the strange, yet somehow still makes sense. That’s not to say that the plot twist was not predictable, but it has a heartwarming finale.

There’s plenty of casual fourth wall breaking, even though the characters act clueless about it. The story is split up into episodes, complete with an “opening” and “closing” theme. There’s eight episodes, which are around half an hour to an hour each, depending on how much you want to get sidetracked. So, the game itself takes four to five hours to finish. After the story, you can reload your save and explore the town but nothing new unlocks.

Overall, To a T is an interesting and experimental game, although it lacks a gameplay hook. The story itself is good, given it’s more of a chilled and relaxing slice of life game as it slowly explores Teen’s life and background, giving a reasonable explanation for his permanent T-pose. The ending is interesting but given the slow pacing and mundane content, it is hard to say whether the payoff is worth it. A lot of the game feel boring given all you do is run around and read dialogue.

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