Transformers: Titans Return Sky Shadow Is Something That Exists

Righty, let's try an essay format article about a toy. One where I can tell a story and then chat about its actual merits. I haven't done a proper review in about five years, and I have no intention of being topical. So, let me just try this and see how it turns out, OK?

 

 

The 1989, Japanese exclusive Black Shadow toy

To properly explain what Sky Shadow is, you have to dive deep into the minuate of Transformers circa 1989. By this point the brand was still a big thing, but the cracks were starting to appear, with the American cartoon off the air, and Japan making its own animes in response. This created a vast fictional schism, as while Transformers always had a “do what you want” attitude to continuity, Takara's spin on things like the Headmasters was fundamentally incompatible with Hasbro markets. This also resulted in a number of exclusive toys, and a regrettable subset of the fandom that have the negative traits of both geewunners and weebs at once, but let's try to stay on topic. Sky Shadow's fate in this was somewhat more extreme, requiring yet more context. Originally, he was Thunderwing, a character given great prominence in the Western comics, and featured the Mega Pretender gimmick. This meant you had a small robot interacting with a much larger outer shell, which resembled a He-Man style action figure that the robot stored inside. Supposedly, this was taking the Robots in Disguise thing more literally, and yes, Thunderwing wasn't immediately recognisable as a robot, but he weren't exactly blending in either, so the comics treated the shell like power armour. The “mega” bit, came from the fact that Thunderwing's shell could transform into a jet like the inner robot could, both segments combining, effectively granting him and his casemates 5 modes. It was a fairly noteworthy toy of its day. When Takara decided to release Thunderwing however, they opted to retool the shell to be more robotic along with a black paint job, prompting the name Black Shadow. The name Sky Shadow would come much later. If you're familiar with Thunderwing, or just looked at the image below, you might find yourself a little bemused. Thunderwing had Japanese oni visual elements for his shell, and would not have looked out of place in a Tokusatsu production. It probably needed less explanation in Japan than it needed elsewhere, as it would have dovetailed nicely with the Masterforce version of Pretenders. So why the change? Maybe they found it vulgar, I dunno? Thunderwing was by no means the only toy this happened to as the brand fragmented, however, with the Pretender Monsters and Dinoforce being another good example.

The 1989 Thunderwing toy 

 

Whatever the logic, Black Shadow would then go on to appear in Transformers Victory, the last proper animation of G1. No, Zone doesn't count. I don't want to get too far into that anime, as it would quickly become about the show is an ancestor of Gaogaigar, but he was only in 1 episode. I don't know what actually happened, but this feels like a lot of extra effort for a character that they just didn't do much with. Retooling is a decidedly non-trivial expense, especially if the toy was not planned from the start to do that, like something we'll talk about in a second. Black Shadow would then go onto do basically nothing. It became one of the aforementioned Japanese exclusives, prized for its rarity and obscurity more than anything else. It would ultimately be Western media that brought him back. First, Fun Publications used him in a Trans Tech prose story in 2008. Then, Black Shadow would get notable cameos in the IDW comics continuity in the early 2010s, via fans-turned-professionals like James Roberts and Nick Roche. He was basically there as Thunderwing was unavailable, and died unpleasantly in 2013, but he was a big thing. A "Phase Sixer" to be specific, a person of mass destruction, no less. More importantly, in 2011, Hasbro was doing some comic inspired toys and decided to do both Thunderwing and Black Shadow on the same deluxe class mould, though renaming the latter to Sky Shadow for trademark purposes. This was famously revealed in Thunderwing's instructions, which happened a few times back then. While always a feature of Transformers, retooling and pretooling was coming become more and more common, to the point of ubiquity in with the Prime Wars Trilogy of collector-oriented toy lines. So, perhaps inevitably, Sky Shadow came back. In 2017 as part of Prime Wars, we got another Sky Shadow, this time as a pretool of Titans Return leader class Overlord. As this was also a Japanese exclusive character made (more) prominent by Roberts & Roche, and a fellow Phase Sixer, this completed some vast circle of nerdish obscurity. Takara, now TakaraTomy, was however less interested. They eventually shuffled the deluxe into Transformers Adventure, and never released the Titans Return version. They instead retooled it further into Dai Atlas, another Japanese obscurity that turned up in the same IDW comics, but that's a tale for another time. If you can say anything about Sky Shadow, is that he is mould mates with a select group of asskickers.

So what about todays subject then? Well, Sky Shadow benefits a lot from his colour scheme of black with shiny metal and red highlights, with greys contrasting. He's not just a black repaint, he's actually very colourful, as befits a toy of his price bracket. While much is shared with Overlord, the pretooling is both intense and very localised, as while the lower-body/tank is the same, almost everything above the belt-buckle is different. The jet mode is entirely distinct from Overlord's, not featuring the detachable cockpit block, instead coming with a little drone thingy that evokes his original altmode. This mode also features a seat for his Titanmaster Ominus, probably not a fun dude at parties, and a mounting clip which allows for the tank to be carried underneath. Yes, its a little undignified, but Overlord can't do that. The base mode he gets out of this jet isn't bad either, as such things go, being tangibly different too, and the colours again being an asset. Meanwhile, the robot mode is quite satisfactory. There's a presence to it, and it poses well enough. However, a weakness common to the Titans Return leaders was acceptable, but not memorable, articulation with lots of big ratchet joints. Sky Shadow is part of that trend, the transformation and Titanmaster functionality placing limitations, and if he'd just had something more in the wrists, it would have helped a bit. Overall, there's lots of fun to be had here, Titans Return was great at that sort of thing. Its not about being absolutely faithful to the source, as with modern Generations, its about being good to play with. The only actual flaw on my example is involves the drone and its movable peg, which comes off at the slightest touch. I also note that the arms feel a bit hollow, but not to the point of being worrisome.

 

 

The oddest thing about Sky Shadow is that I actually like this toy than I did Overlord, and Overlord is much better and more memorable character. Part of that is maaayyybbbbeeee that Overlord felt like a near-miss? Fine, but not a slam-dunk? Like they updated the original toy, but didn't add the finishing touches? It would have been nice, if technically difficult, for the tank turret to turn, for example. Even the modestly retooled Japanese version feels a little off. Sky Shadow has however benefited from being a leader class pretool. Yes, he doesn't do exactly what he did before, but he's only gained play value versus all his previous versions. And it all looks unified, and does what it does well.

 

I just think he's fun.