Phil's
Energon Divebomb,
Superlink Shadowhawk & Shadowhawk Cosmic Type
and
Botcon Laserbeak & Buzzsaw
Review

Divebomb

I was worried. I liked the look of this toy and was worried it would be poor. It isn't it's the best of the wave 2 Energon Basics! The vast majority of the toy in this mode is white with some gold highlights on the wings & rear body and black legs. He's got fabulously posable wings that move forwards and back, fold up vertically from a level position, can be folded up or extended. He's got ball jointed hips & bending knees on the bird mode and either flat or clenched claws courtesy of a bending joint in the claw. Tiny complaint is it needs a tail instead of just having the head stuck up the bum.

There are two green Energon blades housed within each wing that are revealed when the wings are fully opened out. He comes with two more blades that attach onto the side of the head. He also comes with an Energon star which attaches to the rear of the beast or the robot's chest.

A very inventive TF sees you fold the wings up and back to form the legs, with the front of the wings becoming the feet. Separate the head down the middle and fold towards the birds back to form the shoulders. Lock the waist into place and position the arms and head.

The robot has spikes sticking out of his knees ! How cool is that ? He bends at the ankles & knees, has ball jointed hips, a head that turns, shoulders (like the arms and waist moulded in black plastic) that turn & have the arms fold up to the sides, and ball joints at the elbow. The Energon blades can stay plugged into wrists or combined end to end to form a scythe which he can hold.

Looks evil and is a great toy. Right up there with Strongarm for best basic ever.

Divebomb was sold in the Super Link series in Japan as SD-08 Shadowhawk

It emerges later that there's TWO significant variations on the Energon blades. The first involves the blades themselves: the original version had a handle on one of the ends but the other terminated in a spike. Later versions - for I assume Health & Safety reasons - have two of the handled blade which does mean that the can be held individually as swords/hand axes in robot mode. You can also plug both blades into the bird's head by their handles to give longer outstretched blades in beast mode.

The second variation involves how they're attached to the toy. Earlier versions had a 5mm peg but with a ridge of plastic sticking out the side of the peg and a corresponding notch beside the peg hole on the main toy - it extends forward from the peg hole towards the beak & on the blades where they join together. The variation looses the notch & ridge meaning the blades can be attached pointing forward. This may have been originally to prevent the pointed blade end from pointing forward.

Both these variations *may* have occurred at the same time, I'm not 100% sure. What I do know is I have the original version sitting here, and the version on TFU.info's pictures is the one with two handles blades and no notch. The original version was only ever found on US cards and hasn't been seen on any of the repaints.

Shadowhawk Cosmic Type

Shadowhawk Cosmo Type was sold in the Superlink series as toy number SD-13.

This is your Energon Divebomb figure with paint alterations: White become a sea blue type colour (think Predators Talon or even G1 Thundercracker) Gold becomes a sort of slate grey and the blue/black for the claws becomes more black. The Energon is more yellow than the greenish tint on my Divebomb's - possibly a clear pale blue may have worked better ? The energon blade is of the double handled no notch type found on the later versions of the western toy. The colour scheme is beautiful, slightly odd on first look but ideal camouflage for a sea operating variant - I seem to recall this version was referred to as Shadowhawk Ocean Type by some people at the time. Me like.

At the time of writing (2004) no western release was scheduled yet but seeing as Command Jaguar Desert type (Command Ravage) and Dinobot Magma Type (modified to become Doomlock) were we thought it was a possibility. Alas no western shop release of a Divebomb recolour was ever made available - but see bellow for some ides !

Buzzsaw

In 2006 Botcon's toy theme was pre Beast Wars forms. Before the convention pictures began appearing on the Internet of a brown Divebomb repaint, which was generally assumed to be Airazor's pre Beast Wars form. Well we got that wrong, it was in fact Buzzsaw - the white becomes a bronzey brown and the other plastic becomes black. It's OK as a repaint but merely OK. The G1 Buzzsaw was more gold and the Beast Wars Buzzsaw (the superb Waspinator repaint) was more yellow. This tends towards the G1 colours but misses the mark.

The Energon for this toy and his compatriot is a lovely Decepticon purple, which doesn't really work with either of them. Both toys have their Spark Crystals modified to become Predacons.

Laserbeak

Very similar to the Buzzsaw listed about, the only difference is the white plastic is this time shifted to a orangey red. This again misses the bright red of the G1 Laserbeak, and is nowhere near the purple used for the Beast Wars version (a repaint of basic Terrorsaur)

Possible Future Repaints

I've cooled on this toy since I initially reviewed it in 2004 - this review for all versions of the mold is being rewritten in 2009 incorporating that original review - but I do feel Divebomb's been short-changed in the repaint department. Here's a few ideas of what could be done with it.

* The name Shadowhawk automatically lends itself to having a stealth variant made - this toy would look great in black with purple blades.
* Having tried to do versions of the G1 tape birds, a purple version to match Lazorbeak's Beast Wars form would be nice
* A little inventive colouring in white, pale blue, dark blue & purple could produce a Wingspan toy to be paired up with a similar Energon Ravage as Pounce repaint. Dark blue Energon here to mimic Wingspan's original weapons
* The name suggests a repaint by itself: Black red, yellow & orange could be used to make a G1 Predacon Divebomb - perhaps to be paired with an Energon Ravage repaint again.
* Finally the name also brings to mind G1 Dinobot Swoop - so something in silver and red/blue here !

Email Philip