Phil's Beast Wars Fuzor Silverbolt,
Botcon 1999 Windrazor
and
Universe Silverbolt Review


Silverbolt

When 1998 came Hasbro decided they'd had enough of doing plain transforming animals and diversified the Transformers Beast Wars line. There would now be two separate ranges - the Transmetals, inside out BW toys with robotic animals and organic robots - and the Fuzors - beasts with two animals modes merged together. The whole toy is grey with some gold and black highlights.

Silverbolt is one of the first deluxe Fuzors. He's the second Beast Wars toy to bear the name Silverbolt in a few months and since they're different characters I find this somewhat confusing. He's a wolf merged with a hawk - the wolf forms most of the toy but he's got a feathered tail, wings on his back and elongated front legs ending in hawk's claws. The wings bend up where they meet the body. Each wing contains a missile that can be fired out to the side by a trigger on the front of the wing. The wings flap forward if you lift the tail feathers up - pull them up so far and the missiles discharge automatically in front of the beast.

TF: Fold the wolf's head down under the body. Pull the arms out to the sides - a strut connects the top of the shoulders to the bottom of the body. Fold the struts down beside the wolf 's head and lock the shoulders together underneath to form the robot's waist. Fold down the fur behind the head to act as a loin cloth and lock onto the front of the waist holding it in place. Spread the claws out to act as feet. Pull the rear legs out to the sides - the front of the hips for these (about 2/3 of the way along the body is connected to the back of where the front legs were (1/3 of the way along the body) by a strut. Fold the strut forward and lock the beast rear legs onto the robot's shoulders. Fold the lower rear leg up onto the back of the upper rear leg and fold the front of the rear leg down to form the forearms. Fold the head then the chest plate up.

Resulting robot is yet another with a Wolverine mask, but the dog face underneath it looks more friendly that fierce. Examination of the back of the head reveals a square block which to me looks like yet another aborted lightpipe eye. In the middle of the chest is an embedded red sphere that I'm sure would have been a spark if this toy was made a year later. He's got ball jointed elbows, shoulders and hips with bending knees & ankles and a turning head. Poseability is hampered by the loin cloth not correctly holding the waist together which cause it to pop apart whenever you move a leg. The wing flapping & missile gimmick is still in place here as is the ability to raise the wings above the toy. The feather missiles can be held as clubs in this mode.

Overall: Fusion works well between the two beasts. Robot is slightly hampered by the waist & hips.


Beast Wars Metals Silverbolt

Beast Wars Metals Silverbolt is a colour variation on Silverbolt - the grey is now much whiter than it was. The two can quite easily be told apart.

Silverbolt was BW Metals toy C-41 and appeared in VS-41 with Rampage. He was the only deluxe Fuzor to be released during BW Metals.


Botcon 1999 Windrazor

As Botcon exclusives go Windrazor feels like a bit of a con. He's very similar to Silverbolt, especially the Metals version but is molded in pure white. The gold highlights on the robot are now silver and the chest sphere is blue. It's not different enough to inspire me to go hunting for it.

Universe Silverbolt

Then again different can sometimes be a bad thing. A very very bad thing. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you what is possibly *the* worst Transformer repaint *EVER*. Silverbolt swaps the grey for purple (!) the gold highlights for bright yellow and acquires a red and silver Energon pattern on his back as well as an Autobot symbol on the chest sphere. Awful, awful, awful. I've seen it, I can't unsee it. Avoid !


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