By Loran
While the Hunt for the Decepticons/Reveal the Shield/Generations lineups have given us amazing updates of classic (and movie) characters, their new characters have been the best part. With Breacher, we got an all-new character inspired by a Micromaster with a new name. Terradive here is a bit different. While he may use a name that’s been seen time and time again, his personality and design are completely new, and let’s face it, half of those previous Terradives were Minicons. It’s time for this guy to get an upgrade and become a Decepticon again, now with some actual articulation!
Terradive’s alt-mode is based on Russia’s Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut, an experimental fighter plane we’ve seen in Transformers before as Space Case, the dumb-but-fast Cyberjet from G2. Most people recognize it as the Conquest X-30 from G.I. Joe, however, one of my personal favorite Joe vehicles. You’ll notice right off the bat that this guy is very orange. Some people have even been repurposing him as Sunstorm. I can see why, but personally, I like Sunstorm as a Starscream clone.
H
e does have some unfortunate visible robot legs in his vehicle mode, though, but he still manages to keep flat unlike the first movie Starscream, ROTF Jetfire, or Universe Silverbolt. I can ignore them, but I can see it being a problem for some people.
Transforming this guy is nice and challenging. Like a lot of other contemporary figures, he manages to pull off a complex transformation without feeling overly frustrating. Take care to make sure the black part of his nosecone folds behind the orange part, which will allow his torso to peg in properly. He has a lot of turning pieces and pegs for his transformation that all stay in nice and tight, allowing for a very solid robot mode.
And what a robot mode it is. This guy is as lanky as he is sturdy. It avoids a lot of the common traits and clichés of planeformer robot modes, like his head coming from right behind the cockpit. I love how his actual wings end up on his heels, and how the tailfins are the ones behind his head.
His head sculpt is quite awesome, looking kinda like a manta ray. It’s distinct and downright creepy, although once again we get stuck with nerfed light piping. Really, why mold the light piping in straight-up clear plastic? They already made his cockpit translucent, so why not his eyes? Augh.
Terradive is incredibly pose-able. His arms actually have a double joint! His arms have all of the joints they should have, and for this guy’s weapon, they’re necessary. While he doesn’t have double-jointed knees, he has double-jointed ankles which allow him to actually HOLD his poses. All he really lacks is a waist joint, which honestly is something I’ve come to accept on Transformers.
Possibly the best part of this guy is his weapon. Does he have a sword? Nope. Guns? Nope! He has a TRIDENT. Yeah, that’s something you don’t see every day. It’s a big nasty weapon, and this makes me use him as a member of Straxus’s Decepticons-using his big, nasty trident to poke prisoners into the smelting pools.
Sadly, he doesn’t have any places to clip 3mm clip weapons on his body, but you can put them on his trident! And as a result you can clip him to other guys! It doesn’t quite work, though…
For some reason, this guy was kind of a shelf-warmer in my area, staying around after all the Tomahawks had been picked up. Honestly, I can’t see why. So hey, don’t let him warm our shelves. You know you want him. He makes orange look badass!
It’s funny that he’s a shelf-warmer in your neck of the woods; I’ve only seen him two or three times around here and was smart enough to snatch him up the last time. He’s a great toy, with a cool vehicle mode and a really fun robot mode.