My respect for Beast Wars is basically in the revolutionary CGI (for the time) and story telling, because most of the earlier toys were absolute hot garbage. Still, some toys outside the Transmetals had my attention, specifically Silverbolt of the Fuzors. Pretty neat looking toy went well with his charming personality, until that ALL went away in Beast Machines.
Anyway, point is I bought the Legacy United version.
So Silverbolt has gotten a glow up of sorts, starting with size, as he is now a Voyager sized release rather than a Deluxe. While the scaling is not perfect, this DOES make him significantly larger than Black Arachnia, just like on the show. Accessory wise, you get exactly what you got back in the day, specifically two Wing segments that double as melee weapons. However, you do lose the fancy Spark chamber and the spring projectile launchers.
Overall, Silverbolt is visually, improved though there is a downside which I'll get to a bit later. For now, bask in the heroic body proportions and much sexier looking wings. Beautiful looking feathers and fur. Jump ahead, while the bod is still minimally painted, the selection of a Pearl finish silver plastic rather than a drab flat one certainly gives the impression of a painted surface, and blends in with the actual painted surfaces nicely.
The facial sculpting on the original toy wasn't bad, but the new one is significantly more accurate due to its larger size.
Articulation is, as with other Mainline figures, perfectly adequate but isn't going to blow your mind. Knees on this figure only bend 90 degrees, but at least one can blame bulk for that. Rest of the body is pretty standard. Wings have a few points or articulation for a flapping motion or to create a sense of motion with the figure. Despite its limitations, this figure can still do more that the OG toy can.
Transformation into Beast mode isn't overly complex, though I can't remember if this is that much more complicated that the OG. The larger figure size allows for more of that nice detailing to show up. I don't think the figure has gained any points of articulation in this mode either, or at least nothing significant.
This mode, however, suffers from the bot mode glow up. As the robot legs become the front legs of the Beast mode, well, it just looks kind of weird. This could have been remedied with larger rear legs or something to that end, but alas, this is what we got.
Paint Application discussion was started above, and it isn't so much that there's more paint, there's just less flat plastic so the entirety looks painted. So if this figure had real Silver paint on it, it would look even better. The actual paint work (Gold, Black, White, Red, Yellow) are nicely applied, and I like the choice of the Gold/Copper with some metallic flakes in it. Overall, this combination of choices results in this figure looking significantly better than the OG toy, or at least the Hasbro version because I don't have a clue if the Takara version was any better.
Build Quality wise.. not a particularly risk taking figure in terms of its transformation, so the fact it's a solidly made figure should surprise even fewer people. No poor finishes or issues with tolerances. Most joints are pretty good, but I find the wings can be a bit looks because of the way the friction joint is designed. The weapons fit nicely on the front edge of the wings.
Silverbolt is a very nicely done glow up from the OG figure, and its one that I don't think we've actually seen since the 90s, so it's nice to see him back in action. Slight proportion issues, but it gives me great hope that a really good Masterpiece of the character could be done that could correct some of the short comings of this release. Maybe some of those lost safety features would make a return.
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