Wave 1 is just a repack of Megatron. Skyquake is wave 2.

 

Got mine in from CMD today. Really solid in hand. Really loving it. Backpack is a bit of a mess and instructions aren’t helpful for that point, but otherwise highly recommended.

I have high hopes for Armada Megatron now that the last two leaders have knocked it out of the park.

 

Stores have him for 50... Kind of tempted if he gets discounted to voyager?

honestly I'd get it if there's a repaint that matches Needlenose more colorwise.

 

Legacy Evolution Skyquake turned out very nice in person with only minor gripes.



Skyquake is a brand new leader size mold. He is a mix of the G1 and Prime Skyquake figures, although labeled as Transformers Prime for Legacy. His height is about the same as Legacy Transmetal II Megatron. This puts him at the high end of the Leader size scale, which allows him to tower over most current Voyager class figures. He is not overtly difficult to transform and has a good heft and feel to him.

Comes with a gatling gun and Energon sword. The gun has an adjustable top handle. The sword is foldable.


The sword is able to store in the gun, which is why there's a cavity. Outside of the cavity, the gun doesn't have other gaps.


One of my minor gripes is the sword handle. There's extra tabs on the handle, which prevents most other figures from holding the blade. It also locks the blade into only being held by Skyquake's left hand. There's no reason for this. Yes, one can shave the tabs off, but it wasn't needed in the first place. His right hand can hold it but then the blade is backwards.


Camera focused on the accessories in this pic.


Skyquake works well as a chonky figure. He has relatively nice although basic looking paint apps. The figure has a military green and gunmetal look with transparent orange plastic for various windowed parts, lightpiping, and the sword. The lightpiping really doesn't work all that well for the head. Actually, it works best if a light source is somehow placed under the head. The head is glued shut (despite the screw) although readily pops off the neck post with enough force. His alt mode profile, despite being chonky, actually works. It's great seeing actual landing wheels being used. For alt mode, Needlenose is able to "dock" on top of him...and not sure why this is a thing.

Head is on a ball joint, the shoulder covers are separate from the shoulders and have their own panels and mushroom pegs, the shoulder are able to extend 90 degrees and rotate forwards / backwards depending on the shoulder pads and wings, the shoulder panels are also able to fold forwards but requires the shoulder pads to be moved, the elbows bend past 90 degrees, wrists are on a swivel, there is no finger articulation and hands are hard molded semi-open, crotch rotates 360 degrees, hips are able to extend 90 degrees in all directions, knees bend 90 degrees, and has ankle rotation. The ankle rotation is somewhat hindered by the landing gears. The thrusters / heels are able to move but don't serve an apparent purpose for posing. He actually has an ab bend, but this may destabilize his torso connections. The canopy in alt mode is able to open.

Bot Mode:

He's big and chonky.


Rear view: He is relatively free of major gaps in bot mode. The closest are the calves which are decently covered up by the wing assemblies. The torso connections in bot mode are not well illustrated in the instructions but the nose cone piece has an attachment as well as the large wing panels.


Alt Mode:

The profile and chonky proportions actually work on this figure. Also nice for a jet, there's multiple stand options underneath: 3mm standard and multiple 5mm ports (which is good for his size). The gun and blade combo have a 5mm storage port underneath at the rear.


Another view: The orange bar is from the gun and blade storage. When these are stored, they do block the 3mm flight stand port. There's still 5mm ports underneath to use in that case.


This figure has actual landing wheels...3 of them. The wheels don't actually move and are hard molded, though, but that is a minor gripe.


There are 2 tabs on top of alt mode that connect to Needlenose's chest panel. The panel itself has 2 pairs of attachment points, so one can choose which position. Still, doesn't make a lot of sense...


Another "docking" view:


Overall: Highly recommended. Has relatively few minor gripes. He's chonky in a good way and as tall as Transmetal II Megatron in bot mode.

 

Needlenose is G1. Skyquake is Animated. They're from different lines. I don't get why they can combine?

 

Skyquake is Prime, not Animated. Or Euro G1.

These two particular characters have no canon interaction.

This toy's design is a 50/50 hybrid of both the Prime incarnation, and his original Euro G1 namesake.

G1 Skyquake had a "Megavisor" gimmick, which involved an optical scope on his back. Looking through it showed a targeting display of his quarry. Further to that, you could socket the smaller Predator jet figures to the scope to change the targeting display. This is what the function is homaging, fueling speculation that Needlenose will be retooled into one of the Predators.

 

I'm struggling to get his torso/backpack assembly to properly line up. There's those two slots on the sides for the wing-strut/bars, right? I can't get them to line up and stay tabbed and keep the lower torso from extending down.

I feel like the nosecone tip needs to fold in tighter or something else needs to shift so it all lines up right.

 

Got him for free today (I had enough points in my hobby store and they were about to expire next week), so here are my thoughts:

Accessories are poorly designed and are quite pathetic. The sword has a rail going through the side of the 5mm peg so that means you can only hold it on the left side of his hand and the minigun is too small and thin. The barrel doesn't rotate with is honestly pretty lame. I'd rather have them ditch the sword in favor of a better minigun, like having actual feeder/ delinker instead of a toothpick after the barrel ends, a detachable drum (a la the 440mm EM-226)



Transformation is cumbersome despite not being really complex at all, the side of his robot mode looks skeletal and the top looks unfinished (it looks like it should compresses even more in but it doesn't) and the whole torso is held by the back of the cone slotting in which doesn't really feel secure. Ankles are on those siege seekers 15 degrees of movement so its pretty useless.

Aesthetic wise its a freakshow. The blocky Euro G1 chest completely clashes with the rest of the Prime proportions where its more humanoidy. It's kind of like putting AOE Prime's limbs on a say, G1 toy Prime torso. Obviously I'm exaggerating here but there's a definite "well this is bloody off".

The jet mode has all the fundemental basics of a jet locked in (landing gears on jetformers has and will always should be a standard from deluxe onwards). The opening cockpit is a super nice touch of detail, and Needlenose slapped onto him is cool. None of these really redeem the robot mode for me.

It’s not bad but it just feels like a voyager blown up at 1.25 scale with none of the issues ironed out, 100% not worth leader price. Voyager at most. 6.5/10

 

More comparison pics:

If Skyquake and Transmetal II Megatron are more indicative of Leader scale from here on out, then I'm all for it. Sits somewhere between the Prime Wars Trilogy Voyager and Leader scale.


Compared to Metalhawk (current Voyager) and Needlenose (current Deluxe). Metalhawk and Needlenose are on the taller end of their size classes too.


"Docking" with Needlenose vs POTP Dreadwing.

His front ab area is going to extend upward a little bit but should not expose the hollow center section. It is possible to try to get the 3 tabbed parts to connect and keep the ab section flush with the canopy sticking out the back, but it would still be under some strain.

The nosecone is the only solid connection. There are tabs on either side of the wing struts but merely act as 'suggestions' rather than hard tabbing in.


Should look like this when everything is aligned. The orange arrow shows that the ab extender will go up a little bit and this helps to relieve strain. It should not go up so far to expose the hollow center of the ab plate. Ab crunching will of course untab the nosecone. Having the canopy stick out the back hole will allow the ab area to sit flush but then would be under strain.


Top view:

The ankle tilt can get up to around 35-40 degrees but hits the landing wheels. Popping out the landing wheels will help.

I also ordered the old SXS weapons kit and will see how that sizes up.

The Dr. Wu gatling gun for Springer is shorter by a few mm lengthwise but is thicker and has a rotating barrel.

 

G2 smokescreen dreadwing

 

Thanks for replying! Realized that I mistransformed by not flipping the rear of the jet (that's why I could slot in Needlenose at the back in robot mode), so its now a lot less "oh god the whole thing is held by the jet nose"; but on my copy the the shoulder tabs still just doesn't like to the jet torso, so its super easy to dislodge it.

 

For the ankle tilt being 'gummy' and wanting to go back to neutral, the fix is similar to the Siege Seekers although easier since doesn't require leg disassembly. Simply rotate the ankle joint fully about 100 times or so to wear in the joint. Also, extend the landing gear out as the ankle tilt will hit it when fully rotated inward.

The ankle is now staying put after wearing in the joint.


If one wants a nosecone chest, this configuration may work. Swapped the arms at the bicep swivels. The torso will be left gappy.


With the arms swapped, they can't fully seat in place in alt mode and will stick out below the leg pieces. Also creates a new small side gap. However, this will not affect clearance with the landing gears out.

 

That's basically all of the leader figures these days. I've said it before: I just do not see where the $20 upcharge is going. These things should be about $40 to $42 max.

 

I was thinking that Needlenose's alternate Targetmaster storage on the rear just looks weird as a 'thruster'. Then I thought about turning around the jet when docked on Skyquake to turn into a weapons platform of sort. Still looks quite odd but would make more sense this way than a simple docking.



Using Moderoid wind effect and Tricranius set blast effects.

 

So this came in today and it’s a…baffling figure. in bot and jet modes, it looks spectacular.

that torso design though is…frustrating. As the posts above show, the “locking” points are the host one clipping to the pelvis, and then the wing swing assemblies VAGUELY slotting into some indentations - that’s it. And it’s a heavy backpack

there’s also a huge discrepancy between the instructions and the actual transformation that everyone is using. The catch is the orange canopy, which the directions clearly show depressing INTO the cockpit area, permitting the key nosecone tip area to fold 180 degrees in the illustration. In reality, there’s physically no way to depress the canopy into the cockpit section as it’s too big, and the cockpit section does not split

the front landing gear is then suppposed to also depress into the u derisive of the cockpit area, but in reality it bangs into the swing arm for the backpack. There’s a lot going on in that forward section that is critical to locking, but fights against each other for internal space

The wing backpack itself splits in half and joins back together, but there is no true locking with the torso


You then get a huge vacuum space behind the head, which you can’t slide anything into to fill.

it really feels like so,etching was lost between the engineering on paper and production

 

My apologies for the late reply. It was just a matter of running into a couple of Prime figure when cleaning out the basement. But I wanted to keep my promise.

Here are just a couple figures with Skyquake.


If you need mor, it may take some time.