Slipstream – the female Seeker fatalle.
Introduced back in Transformers Animated as a female clone of Starscream, Slipstream became very popular very quickly. Not only having the distinction of the only official female Seeker ever, but also one of a small number of female Decepticons all up.
Fans loved seeing another female baddie and combined with her cool attitude and colour scheme it meant that Slipstream soon started turning up in other Transformers Universes. In the Aligned Universe via novels, video games and a Timelines figure (recolour of TFP Starscream) and was retroactively introduced into G1 via a Legends toy (retool of Legends Windblade).
Well now Slipstream has shown up in the new Cyberverse cartoon. Not only was she the main antagonist for the first season of the cartoon, but it has finally after all these years given her well overdue original toy that’s not simply a redo of someone else. So let’s check out Ultra Class Cyberverse Slipstream.
Robot Mode
Aesthetics
I reckon without a doubt this is the best looking Slipstream we have ever had! Not a recoloured Starscream, not Windblade with an Animated-style head stuck on. No, this is Slipstream all the way! The proportions, the colour scheme, the arm cannons, the face with the plum coloured lipstick, she looks exactly like she does on the cartoon. If it wasn’t for the fact you can see a big purple panel hanging down behind her thighs I’d say she was perfect.
Articulation
Of course, while her looks are great, her articulation is not. No knee articulation, no neck and head movement and the few places where she does have articulation (hips, shoulders & elbows) the movement is quite limited. So unless you want her very purposely striding somewhere or doing the splits, you will feel let down here.
Jet Mode
Aesthetics
Once again, you can tell this figure was meant to be Slipstream from the start, the jet mode looks just like it does on the cartoon. Whilst a tad plain for my tastes, it certainly does the job of recreating the onscreen look. She has landing gear that pops down but the cockpit is simply painted on. The only real letdown to this mode is the very visible hands from the robot mode, it would have taken so little effort for the designers to make them fold into the hollow forearms.
Sonic Swirl
Sigh… look, I understand why these gimmicks get put in. While I as an adult would prefer they get left out so as to put more effort into the rest of the toy, they are very appealing to little kids. My 6 and 4 year old had great fun squeezing the jets guns together to activate the ‘Sonic Swirl’. My question is – what the hell is the sonic swirl supposed to be?! It makes some panels pop up off her wings and flip behind her to briefly twirl. But why? It can’t be propulsion, she is already a jet. As it’s sonic, maybe it causes some kind of noisy vortex behind her to deter pursuers or something? For me it just seems to be a bit of useless gimmickry that the toy could have done without. But yeah, I guess I’m not the key target demographic.
Ultra Class Slipstream, worth getting?
Depends. Aesthetically she is by far the biggest and best looking Slipstream figure we have ever had from any continuity. Articulation wise she isn’t much better than the KRE-O version. The vehicle mode looks great but has a couple of glaring issues. That combined with the very simplistic transformation (9 steps) means that your more serious Transformer fan will happily bypass her. But for young kids, Cyberverse fans or Slipstream & Seeker fanatics (which I am) she is worth shelling out some bucks for.
Got anything to add to the review? Pop it in the comments section below!
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