Review: #780
Name: Nightbird
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Generations - Studio Series
Year of Release: 2023
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 22)
Mold Status: new
VEHICLE MODE:
Nightbird transformers into a licensed Nissan GT-R and the coloring is a lot better than the mainline Deluxe. She is now a much better consistent color of dark grey with gold highlights and purple wheels.
The vehicle mode is good, even the back is properly sculpted to look like the real thing.
She's a bit small for a Deluxe though, she's very compact but also quite hollow where the vehicle mode is basically a shell.
There are some nice details, such as the way there is a small Terrorcon logo where the brand badge would normally be.
The gold and purple paint is metallic, and the purple rims in particular look really nice in person.
The wheels rolling is the only play value, but this is a great vehicle mode.
TRANSFORMATION:
A bit fiddly and she is effectively a shellformer except for parts of the hood forming her chest. The sides of the vehicle form the hip armor, with the legs unfolding from underneath. The arms also come out from underneath the hood and the rest of the car is basically just panels that you fold up to form her backpack.
ROBOT MODE:
Nightbird's robot design looked good in the movie but when translated into a figure, it is an acquired taste. To be honest, it looks like a mess but the main thing is that she has a ninja / samurai theme.
She carries most of the car on her back, which is very disappointing as it is not a compact backpack either. It's feels messy and there is a flaw in that the backpack does not tab securely against her torso.
The head sculpt is fine, the head is proportionally big compared to the rest of the body. The purple visor looks good though.
If you look carefully, you will see that there are painted eyes beneath the visor so that's a nice touch.
You can see that the backpack juts out quite a bit. She has the wings from the movie but they're small here since they need to be folded and hidden in vehicle mode.
As part of the Studio Series line, she comes with a cardboard stand depicting the scene from the museum.
Poseability is as you'd expect of a modern Deluxe. She has joints for her head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.
She comes with only one sword. Why they couldn't include her second I don't know... and don't say it is budget as she is already smaller than usual... (although well painted to be fair).
She can hold the sword in either hand but it looks a tad bit too short.
The sword can peg onto the panels on his hips, like a scabbard.
The other aesthetics flaw is her feet. They look like stubs, even when you fold the piece out as much as you can. It's also very slim but surprisingly she is quite stable.
Finally, the sword can also peg on her back for storage.
She has proportion issues, the two halves of the hood forming her chest is too big to look good. If they were angled a bit or small, then it would have looked much better.
Despite her flaws, she still had a striking robot mode.
OVERALL:
This rendition of Nightbird is the best one of the character yet, and probably the best one we'll get until she gets a redux years down the line (if at all). The vehicle mode is fantastic, and the robot mode looks good at first glance but has her fair share of flaws, such as her small size, weird proportions and a big backpack.
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