But I'll reiterate that the Predators represent a back to basic approach for Transformers consisting of cars for Autobots and planes for Decepticons. But the small Predator jets are breaking new ground: They are the first range of small Decepticon jets. It's always bugged me that the Decepticons didn't have a small, pocket money sized version of their major form ! From the start there's been small Autobot cars - Minibots then Throttlebots but there's never been a range of small Decepticon jets before. When the combiners started up the Autobots got the planes. The first carded Decepticon planes were Needlenose and Windsweeper in 1988 followed by a pack of Micromasters.
Skydive is Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II fighter jet. He's purple in colour, so bang on the money for a Decepticon. Like all the Predators he has a cockpit canopy moulded in clear yellow/green plastic and a grey fold down landing gear under the nose.
Under the plane he carries the data chip for the Megavisor gimmick for the larger Predator toys. Find the grey square behind the landing gear and fold it back 90 degrees. Locking this onto the larger toys (or by lowering the plastic picture down) reveals a picture of all four smaller Turbomasters in car mode: Boss, Flash, Hurricane and Scorch. What's interesting about Boss is he's clearly painted red. Why ? Read the Boss review ;-0
Talon comes with a gold Predator launcher and three missiles - one mounts under each wing while the other is for the launcher. While there's no official place to store the launcher in jet mode - would a hole under the nose have hurt ?- you can mount it into one of the robot's hands.
TF: Simple. Fold the landing gear down and the Megavisor data chip in. Pull back on the jet so the back forms the legs, fold the feet out the underside of the jet and fold the nose down. An identical TF is used for three of the Predator jets.
Like all the other Predators the robot has been moulded to resemble the robot modes of the G1 jets with the cockpit and nose down the centre of the chest. The head has a face and like the other Predators & Turbomasters is one of the first to use a lightpipe for the eyes in the same colour as the cockpit canopy. The top of the head has a V shaped crest. The articulation is pretty simple by today's standards and is essentially a brick apart from the shoulders which allow the arms to move from in the vertical pointing down to horizontal in front of him. Each arm has a small (less than 2mm) peg hole that allows them to hold the Predator missile launchers. The hole runs through both hands so he could hold a weapon top and bottom of both hands.
Skydive was also available in Japan as Dark Jet in the Operation Combination TF-06 two-pack with Spin Road (Flash)
Overall: A modern fan might think it's a little simple but it's a decent smaller Decepticon jet - something severely lacking in Transformers at the time, and not much improved now, a reduction in size for a previously released vehicle with a new design feature, a decent launcher and a gimmick for interacting with larger toys. You can't go wrong really.
A modern re-release would almost certainly require a new launcher and weapon - the Predator launchers would fail US safety tests and indeed have been removed from every US recolour of Stalker & Skyquake. If a different weapon were included maybe the arm could be retooled to accommodate a 5mm peg hole - there's enough plastic there to take one - allowing it to hold most modern weapons.