I'm sure most WST fans know who heero is, and I'm sure that most have already seen the previous versions of Skywarp and Thundercracker. The original versions of these two were available a few years ago, but have since been more difficult and expensive to get. While browsing ebay a few weeks ago I noticed that they were up for sale again, but this time they looked slightly different. I hopped over to heero's website and took a closer look; they are indeed newer versions, featuring more paint than the previous versions.

Apologies in advance for the pic quality, I discovered I had a dead camera and had to use the cell phone.

My original versions have since been reprolabeled, but this is what the original versions looked like (photos belong to the original watermarks):


The originals came with (crappy) sticker sheets to add some not-accurate stripes if you wanted. The new versions have the original G1 wing and tail decos done as tampos, and you'll notice the midsection of the jet is now painted to match the rest of the body. There's also additional paint near the thrusters, and a couple of details added to the null rays.




Comparison to the originals with reprolabels (left) and the new versions (right):



Robot modes:


Overall, I like the new versions. Thundercracker is no longer translucent but a solid color with metallic flakes like the original G1 toy, and his color is more of the greenish-blue tint that the original G1 toy had. Likewise, Skywarp's purple hue is bluer, closer to the original G1 shade while the original had the more vibrant purple you find on the G1 reissues. Side by side, I think I like the reprolabeled versions better, but those were getting hard to find and while they were still cheaper than the official Takara chase figures, they were starting to cost more than they were really worth. If you don't have the original KO's or the Takara versions, these are well worth picking up - just get them through heero's official website rather than ebay, they're a few dollars cheaper and mine arrived by airmail about 10 days after I ordered them. Then go pick up the reprolabel sets, since you'll still need them for the robot mode details.

 

Thanks for that, will definitely have to replace my old translucent Thundercracker with this new one. Not sure on Skywarp, though, I felt the original was exactly what I wanted.