Combiner Wars Sky Reign (minus Hound): Combiners, now with 100% more cats

Who here is sick of people talking about Combiner Wars? Who here is sick of all the repaints? Who here is probably telling me I have no life because I review kids toys? To those I say: You have seen what's commonly covered on this site right? Trust me, this will probably be the last time Combiner Wars gets covered... at least gestalts. I do have a few Legends class characters from the line, just not the rest of their teams when applicable. So, lets finish off Combiner Wars before Titans Return goes to far ahead... I've got time... I hope... For those wanting to see a review of Hound, look up my review of Combiner Wars Swindle, I cover the two of them together. Also so that I can power through these: Deluxe figures that make up the limbs: Arm mode is half robot, half car with a hand on its foot, and the Leg mode is a compressed car with a foot in its exhaust.

Gotta go to the gym more mate, you're meant to be the Autobot bouncer

Starting with Trailbreaker, who right off the bat, is the worst of this combiner, and probably up there as one of the most annoying molds for me. Unlike Brawl, it is stable, and the ute mode is pretty good, main issues come in Arm and Robot mode. Thankfully the recommended config for Sky Reign is to have him as a leg, which I do, but the arm and robot modes have a bad case of kibble. I can live with the front of the car being the backpack, all three of these limb bot molds have that issue, its the doors on his upper arms, they clash with the backpack and make movement a nightmare. Without them, the arms look spindly, which for someone who can apparently make force fields (if I remember right) and would likely be one of the best tanks in the Autobot army... aside from those who actually transform into tanks. I'd have prefer ed see some of the door go into some bulk in his arms, fix both issues in one shot. The arms also plague the arm mode for the same reasons, one at least has even modded theirs to basically chop the arms in half, leaving the two parts in their ute mode configs, to clean up the arm. He is a leg, he stays as a leg, or as a ute. Next bot.

I need a gun blade... you know, for science!

Wheeljack: Another one that has a hard time with bulk management, but I don't have nearly as many issues with it here as the car kibble is just the backpack. The car mode is very Wheeljack, but one thing that plagues him is paint. Again Hasbro, if you're going to do a foe windshield, PAINT THE FOE WINDSHIELD! It looses the effect if you don't. Arms are very spindly like Trailbreaker, but the arms here are the doors, by folding up to form the full door, not hiding behind them, so at least I can move his arms more freely. On my copy of the toy, the transformation joint in his pelvis is really loose, and I can't get it tighter, so its semi easy to have him do the "I'm a little tea pot" song and dance. That does get annoying, not as much as door shoulder-pads, but getting there. Arm mode's a bit meh, but like TB, he is a leg.

Still don't know why anyone would consider making you a prime

Smokescreen: A lot of people like this mold, spouting it as one of the best in Combiner Wars... and yeah I do agree. I have a blast transforming him, his modes do work overall, lack of paint issues again (seriously guys? And yes I do know I can just paint it for myself, I prefer reviewing as unaltered sources as possible... and I don't trust myself with making it look nice...) Smokescreen is also the only one of these three who went to bulk management classes, as he actually has strong looking arms, and only a car hood backpack. Probably could have gone without the unpainted light bar, and repaint the original Stunticon version of the mold, also he cannot hold his gun to save his life, so I arm mount it instead using the car mode ports, but apart from that, he is solid.

*Edit (because its late and I don't feel like rewriting paragraphs): Aparently Wheeljack's the arm, and Smokescreen's the Leg... Yeah... no, not in my house

The king, of visible head syndrome, yet he hides it so well

Sky Lynx: How do you make a new version of a heavy gimmick toy? A space shuttle, with a crawler transport that could split into two smaller robots, one being a bird, the other being a lynx (yeah go figure), and the lynx was motorized. How do you make a new toy out of that? You make him a combiner boss of course... what? Sky Lynx no longer splits, but while the bird head is used for beast mode, the Lynx head is used for the combined mode. No motors in it either, you just have to settle for weak ratchets and feet. Mine aren't too bad, both Sky Lynx and Sky Reign can still stand, but those ratchet joints did need to be stronger, and some are so weak to do either if you believe the internet. I do like Sky Lynx as a character. He'll never get a Masterpiece figure because he is meant to be one of the larger bots in the franchise, which is a shame here because he is tiny. I can have characters ride him as a mount. It is saying something though when the one issue is that he's too small. As for Sky Reign though, its clear that this was a half assed combiner, at least the other teams had some sort of theme, this is just four cars and a space shuttle. This could have been a Science based team, maybe have the limbs be Wheeljack, Ratchet, Perceptor, and... I don't know, Mainframe? Any one remember him? Hey at least its not as dumb as four random cars. I actually saw one that has a mode more fitting of Sky Lynx's Lynx mode, using Slingshot and Alpha Bravo for front legs, and Blades and Fireflight for back legs. Can't get the image here though.

Send in the cat man!

For now, we're done with Combiner Wars. Its over, and next time will be Titans Return!... Just kidding. Next is Pokemon Generation 5, followed by LEGO Dimensions.