I personally feel these are possibly the most important set of TF's ever released. Here's some reasons why:
1) Ball Joints ! Ball joints had showed up the previous year (1995) on the hips of the Laser Rod cars and the Stealth Bomber/Fighter. These toys are the first to use ball joints for all their joints (with one exception) This represents a huge step forward articulation wise for TFs. Some of the larger early TFs were quite well articulated but in general articulation on G1 TFs isn't good - especially bellow the waist - as each point of articulation requires multiple parts and thus has a cost at assembly. Some TFs are effectively bricks - Powermaster Optimus springs to mind as a G1 TF that would be stunning with a few more points of articulation. Ball joints allow a full range of articulation with just 2 pieces - each limb part involved. You even get some bonus articulation thrown in - a ball jointed elbow effectively serves as both an elbow and a rotational bicep joint in that it allows the lower part of the arm to move up and down (which you'd expect at an elbow) but also allows movement from side to side. They pop out easily preventing breakage for the most part and a worn ball and socket joint can be easily restored with a bit of clear nail varnish. Make no mistake, this is a gigantic leap forward for TFs as you can now get some good action poses out of your toys - this is the point where TFs truly become action figures.
2) Light Pipes ! I love lightpipes. It's a simple action feature adding real value to a toy. This is where there's a piece of coloured clear plastic running from the eyes/visor etc on a toy through to the back of the head. Light shines through and makes the eyes glow. The only down side is a clear coloured panel in the back of the head but to me that's an OK price to pay. It's also been used effectively on Star Wars Jawa figures and most modern R2 & R4 units. Light pipe eyes first show on the Euro G1 Turbomasters and Predators in 92 so were quite common by the time the Cyberjets showed in 1995
3) Marble missile launchers ! We'd had a string of weak missiles, then huge oversized missiles. These missiles are long, yes, but they look a reasonable size for the launcher, and don't have any springs involved. Nice touch.
4) Landing Gear ! Each plane has 3 sets of fold down landing gear (which previously would have been a treat on larger toys)
5) Small Jets ! You may have heard me rave on this subject before. As a rough generalisation Autobots are Cars, Decepticons are planes. It infuriated me as a child (11 in 1984) that although there were mini Autobot Cars there weren't mini Decepticon Planes. The first mini Plane is an Autobot (Powerglide), the next 4 are part of an Autobot combiner (Superion - why ? Surely the plane combiner should be a Decepticon ?), the next is again an Autobot (Strafe) making the first Decepticon small planes Needlenose (dual TM) and Windsweeper (Triggercon) in 1988 the 7 & 8th small planes (and there's another 2 Autobots - Dogfight and Raindance that year !) Things improve with Micromasters but it isn't till the Euro exclusives of 1992 that things start to be put right. We get 4 Predators in 1992, 4 Skyscorchers in 1993, 1 Rotorforce member in 1994 and then these
Several common colours run throughout these toys: Red for the upper limbs, 2 heads and some robot body parts. Problem: I associate red with Autobots. For Decepticons I'd have gone for a purple, or a black or even the pale blue that eventually turned up on the Autobot repaints. Black for the missile launchers and landing gear Yellow for the missiles Clear Yellow for the canopies and lightpipes
Skyjack is a stealth fighter. Back in the late 80s early 90s Stealth Fighters were popular toys - we had a Micromaster version, AM Thundercracker is riding one and of course there's the G2 Stealth Bomber - all variants on the Stealth theme. This is the first version of this vehicle mode to be an actual Transformer. The stealth mode suffers slightly as the G2 colourists have scrawled a red and yellow flame detail all over the back of the jet and the wings of the missile launcher - d'oh.
The missile launcher - like Hooligan - is the end of the right arm and is again swung over the back of the plane to be to the above and the back of the plane. In someways the launcher looks like a small version of the jet itself. As with Hooligan, Skyjack has the swing down landing gear, and storage space for 2 missiles this time - under each wing.
TF: Turn the plane over and fold the legs and hips down like Hooligan. Straighten out the missile arm and fold down and to your left. Extend the other arm out from the centre and fold up & to your right at the shoulder. Push down on the back of the jet, which raises the middle up so that the wings are at 90 degrees to the rest of the jet. Turn the wings round 180 degrees at the point it connects the front - the robot's neck. Poke the head through from the back, and fold down at the base of the neck so the wings now form the rear of the robot with the back of the jet at the top of the robot back - the entire piece locks into the robot's hips.
The resulting robot is a lovely contrast between his almost all blackness and the red of the robot's upper limbs. Articulation is nearly as good as Hooligan's - Knees, Hips and Shoulders are ball jointed as is the right (missile launcher arm) elbow. The left elbow lets the side down with a straight folding joint.
Another fantastic toy just a degree or 2 down from Hooligan's awesomeness.
Now onto repaint city !
There is some hint of thought going on for the name choice for this toy - Air Raid was the black painted Aerialbot so let's make him the stealth fighter Cyberjet. Much applause as well for restricting the urge to make the repaint some garish multicoloured thing - they've stuck with black, this time with a pale blue trim along the trailing edge of the jet. Looks good, and works especially well with the light blue in robot mode. Problem is it's screaming Decepticon at me, which I'm not sure is a good thing for an Autobot.
Air Raid is the Sky Jack Repaint.
"Cool - a vs pack ! Both of these have limbs in the nice burgundy that's been in so many of my recent Universe purchases. Air Raid - the Autobot - is the stealth jet and done in a fetching dark blue. Windsheer is a lovely metallic grey with burgundy camouflage pattern on him - different to the pattern on my existing grey Autobot version of the mold. Both nice, well worth having and a good edition to a con army which lets face it does not have enough small size jets."
Which shows that a few lines later I'd completely forgotten Air Raid's faction. I was ready to lay into him this time but the dark blue does hold up well, and there's some lovely painted detail. It's hard to know what to do with a Stealth Jet without breaking out the black.
Delta Seeker is the Skyjack repaint.
"These aren't the best colour schemes of these molds I've seen. X-Gunner's grey is nice enough, and goes well with his purple clear plastic but it sort of doesn't work with the red in the forelimbs. Whereas Delta Seeker's metallic blue/green positively clashes with the red forelimbs on him. And to make matters worse DS suffers somewhat in the joint department - mine's gun hand came off coming out of the box, but the joint on the shoulder is so tight I damaged the plastic attaching the shoulders to the wing section. Not the greatest moment for the RM range "
Subsequent experimentation showed that X-Gunner (the Decepticon) works far better with Strafe's light blue limbs. A 2nd of each may have to be purchased and a permanent swap arranged. I suspect the same is true for Delta Seeker ! Apart from that I stand by the above comments still
An obvious line to go would have been to complete an all black set. But I wouldn't mind seeing a set with Decepticon Purple bodies and limbs. Black obviously for Skyjack (Skywarp ?) and possibly for Hooligan too. Spacecase would have to be a lighter grey than used on the Universe repaint and made similar to Skyfire. I'm sure there's other possibilities out there - white limbs spring to mind.