Review: #223
Name: Sky-Byte (Gelshark)
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Predacon
Line: Legends
Year of Release: 2014
Size Class: Voyager (LG-06)
Variations: repaint of Generations Sky-Byte, the mold of which was also repainted into Cloud Hellwarp
PACKAGING:
This is the review of the Japanese version of Generations Sky-Byte, who is packaged in a beautiful box, but also one that contains a lot of empty space.
Interestingly, the box has the name Sky-Byte in English letters (Romanji) but Gelshark in Katakana.
SHARK MODE:
Anyway, onto the actual figure, Sky-Byte is probably five times better than the Hasbro version, purely because the Japanese version is more show accurate with the darker blue and none of that tacky aqua.
Sky-Byte is based upon his RiD appearance, transforming into a mechanical shark. He is in a mid-jumping pose which means he requires external support otherwise he'll just look weird if you rest him by himself on the table.
There are some beautiful silver painted mechanical details which contrast nicely with the gorgeous dark blue.
He is a mixture of blue, white, yellow and silver, which seems like it shouldn't work but it does quite well here. Unfortunately, depending on your transformation skills, you might be able to get Sky-Byte's panels to stay together... or you might not.
Sky-Byte is a Voyager class figure, which means he is quite sizable in your hands. He is also compact in this mode so he feels quite hefty too.
There is a gimmick regarding his tail, actually, two. First is a spring loaded missile launcher but you can leave the blue missile off for a more screen accurate shark mode. The second gimmick which is moreso for robot mode is that there is a button you can press to spin the tail around.
In terms of shark poseability, prepare to be disappointed, not that I expected much. His fins might look like they can move but they can't. The poseability is limited to the opening of his jaw, which reveals some sharp teeth and empty space (wish they could have somehow included the mouth missiles of the original toy).
In the comic pack-in, he shows off the ability to fire lasers from the Predacon symbol that you can flip out from the shark nose.
This is a fantastic shark mode and is undeniably the better mode of this toy.
TRANSFORMATION:
Less of a shellformer than the original, although it still relies heavily on panels. The legs are interesting, too bad the end result is not worth it. Same with the way the shark head is utilized. Going back into shark mode is a massive pain mainly due to the annoyance of trying to get all the panels aligned properly enough to peg together.
ROBOT MODE:
Whereas Sky-Byte's shark mode was decent and impressive, the same cannot be said for the robot mode. Frankly, this is a horrible robot in terms of looks.
Let's start off with the legs. They look okay from the front but from behind, you realize it is all a front. It is formed basically of one panel and a thin piece of plastic, which makes it feel insubstantial and that something is missing.
Next, the designers decided to forego the faux chest details and actually make his shark head his chest. Neat idea but poor execution. The angle of the shark head is too high, by making it tilt up it looks and feels wrong, as well as causing a massive hollow gap underneath his torso. At least the Japanese version has the proper paint to help alleviate this flaw.
Thirdly, the proportions. To accommodate the shark head forming the torso, this inevitably cause his lower waist to be too thin to look good. This is compounded by the fact that he has large arms but not only that, his shoulders are set too far back.
With all the negatives out of the way, let's take a look at some of the better elements. His head sculpt for one is good, it's very menacing though and I would have preferred a more cheeky smiling face though.
He maintains a decent size in this mode, although a lot of it is an illusion since his right arm and legs are hollow panels. He also has an abnormally huge fin on his head, which can seem a bit odd.
His left arm is the shark tail and ends with his trademark claw weapon. You can stick the blue missile there if you like. The blue and grey claws are also adjustable.
Sky-Byte has a decent amount of poseability but it's let down by the fact that his lower legs like to unpeg. The yellow pieces don't actually clip in and stay in place which is annoying and trying to bend his knees will end up just unclipping the grey support strut.
At last his large feet allows him to maintain his balance well in a variety of poses. The panels on his back are adjustable but too bad you cannot position them as shoulder armor like the original toy. They also like to get in the way of the shoulders though.
The right arm is your disgusting awkward inward elbow version, made worse as it is formed by folding two panels together which doesn't even peg together. It's basically a mess there.
This is not the best robot mode, actually, it's one of the poorer ones in the Generations line. There are a lot of questionable design choices and flaws which could have been avoided.
OVERALL:
It's really cool that Hasbro recognized the popularity of Sky-Byte enough to give him a new figure. The shark mode is fantastic but it is the robot mode that lets you down. There are way too many visual and engineering flaws to overlook. It impairs his aesthetics to the point that it feels like a downgrade from his original toy's robot mode. Recommend a purchase only if you like the character and if you can find him cheap. The TakaraTomy version is the superior one with a faithful and excellent paint scheme.
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