#transformers rid01

Sunstreaker is surprised Side Burn went for him, instead of his brother. It was odd. Very odd. And he wants to know why.

Side Burn is used as a model for an art piece of Sunstreakers.

New isn’t better The old still has its merit I like this more though

Sky-Byte is something of a curious case. His original toy was a straight repaint of BW Transmetal 2 Cybershark, something that can be hard to remember with how much that original toy and character has been overshadowed. All of the things that are visually iconic as “Sky-Byte” were imported verbatim from another toy. The tail arm, the fin mohawk, that toothy grin, he stole them. Now, yes, Sky-Byte was in the RID cartoon, which used the toy designs very directly, and he was a very prominent cast member with many memorable moments, genuine character development, and an absolutely legendary performance by the late Peter Spellos that is impossible to forget. He was instantly iconic. That… that definitely helped a lot. BUT, he’s still weird and it would take some time for him to start appearing in other pieces of media still did better than most of the RID cast though, and when he did start popping back up, he… looked very similar to his original RID look, many of those design elements carrying straight over. Design elements that weren’t his, originally. Now, no, Cybershark was never really a character, at least, not originally, and certainly not in anything like a main series TV show, but still. It’s not just the lack of character on Cybershark either, as that original TM2 toy… looked awful, with a deco that is somehow simultaneously garish and plain. Too much green and not enough… anything else.

So, Cybershark was all around less interesting than his successor Sky-Byte. A well sculpted toy with a color scheme that’s the exact opposite of complimentary, and no cool character to make kids want to buy that, quite frankly, freaky toy. This left Sky-Byte the perfect opportunity to sweep in and steal the glory Cybershark could have had all for himself, which… actually worked! One of his schemes had to work out eventually. How lucky for us that it was this one.

Now, onto the actual toy of today's discussion. Age of the Primes brings us a brand new Voyager class rendition, unburdened by the low parts counts or somewhat bland gimmicks of his recent Cyberverse and upcoming Cyberworld efforts. It emulates the original toy while shedding many of its design quirks spawned from late 90’s toy engineering, making for a much smoother experience over all.

Visually, he’s a real treat. The face sculpt is great, feeling like it came right out of the show, but he is less of a snide little bastard than he was on the original toy. He’s pretty purple too, which is… interesting. Sky-Byte has always been rather blue but this latest effort shifts the hue a fair bit. It might technically be a very dark/warm blue, but it at least feels purple. And like, I’m a purple expert, so I think I know what I’m talking about. I can’t complain either way.

Articulation wise he’s very on par with other modern figures, with hinges and swivels and ankle tilts and all. A lot of more recent figures have kind of been lacking on wrist swivels, but he gets them for both… hands? Is the fin claw a hand? Idk. No matter what it is, it spins and so does his definitely-a-hand, even with it needing to fold up for transformation. The top and bottom halves of the fin are each on a hinge as well, letting them pinch together. So it’s basically a hand, right? He does have some high thigh swivels, but he can actually use them! No weird cover to block them from turning.

For accessories, he comes with his blaster, which while there obviously aren’t any spring loaded missiles anymore, it does have the missile heads sculpted in. That’s his only real accessory but it’s not the only thing in the box. The shoulder pads are packaged separately and are attached via 5mm peg for some general convenience, and his fins are… still on the sprue? I’m not bothered by it, I have the tools for such things and I’m sure they pop out just fine, but it’s still odd. Maybe that was the best way to package them? We’re not doing the plastic clam shells anymore (thank GOD) so it’s either gotta get tied down or shoved in a roll of tissue paper. Or maybe Hasbro are cheap fuckin bastards. I mean. They are. But maybe that’s why this happened. Either way they can also be used as some manner of bladed weapon, should you so choose.

The transformation is delightfully smooth. I have handled the original RID01 Sky-Byte and while it’s a fine toy that does a lot, it is… not very fun to transform. The shoulder panels get very little clearance so there’s a lot of fiddling to squeeze things past in either direction, and the torso can be unpleasant to untab. There are no such issues here. Everything has more than enough room, and there’s no trying to squeeze past anything. The fundamental process isn’t all that dissimilar, it is very much based on that original RID design (and like the show was based on the toys so) and you can only reinvent the wheel so many ways, but by utilizing a few different tricks the whole thing is hassle free. Refinement to a T. ...thaaat said I do have some trouble getting the shoulder pad side panels in place for shark mode. It’s nothing major but they usually seem to be too far forward. But then sometimes they aren’t. Feels utterly random. Probably something I’m doing. Dunno what. Still less of a hassle than the original though.

The final shark mode is fantastically fishy, capturing a fierce but still slightly dopey energy. Strictly speaking, he’s less innately expressive than the original, sculpted straight instead of with any sort of bend and his mouth not permanently in an active chomp, but the jaw, head, and tail are all articulated so you can actually pose him! You have control over how he looks now.

The loss of the chrome is, almost undeniably, a shame, BUT, I’m not too bothered by it, personally. Chrome is nice, it’s damn pretty, but it’s not any sort of necessity, even if it’s been part of a design for ages. I- I need the designers to understand, I am begging here, you guys don’t have to worry about not doing chrome for modern Generations releases it- it’s fine what you did for Legacy TM2 Dragon Megatron and like, the armorizers works you can- you can do that please. Give me more Transmetals I’m begging-

The rest of his colors are great though. The silver paint is really nicely done, though he’s got less of a gradient than the original and misses out on some of the numerous dotting paint apps on the exposed circuity, which I feel is a bigger loss than any amount of chrome, but I understand that’s just kind of where things are at nowadays. Profit margins and all. Doesn’t mean I like it though. There are a couple other spots like that, where the details are sculpted but not picked out with paint, or things are a solid, single piece. His shins and arms are other prominent examples.

As a whole, Age of the Primes Sky-Byte is a fantastic time and another slam dunk in this lineage of the greatest shark around. While he does show a few of the oddities of the modern age we find ourselves in, I can absolutely recommend you pick him up.

My copy was messed up though :/ Rant time! It's all under the read more line, but TL:DR it talks about the current state of QC issues and how they have gotten increasingly common. It- it's not great, folks.

I just don't remember so well where else they exist outside of comics.

Well I know protoforms are in TFA! After all it's where we get Sari!

We ALSO see them used in tfp for Starscream's clones

It's more complicated in beast wars but protoforms are there too

... and in rid01, I don't think I will ever forget how rid01 Scourge is a fucking Megop kid (long story)