Combiner Wars deluxe Firefly is the current name Hasbro has given to G1 Aerialbot Fireflight. While the original figure transformed into an F-4 Phantom II, this new Firefly transforms into a Harrier jumpjet. While Firefly came out first, it’s a reuse of the Quickslinger body — the majority of the details between this review and Quickslinger will be the same. Read on for the Firefly review and photos.
Packaged: Firefly has the wave one packaging style that’s smaller because it doesn’t include a comic book, has 4-language text, and a minimal bio, but it is a bit simpler to open.
Vehicle Mode: G1 Fireflight was a red F-4 Phantom, which looks somewhat similar to the Harrier in a few ways but the key difference is that the Phantom had its wings at the bottom of the fuselage instead of the top, which makes CW Firefly here inaccurate. As Firefly and Quickslinger share a body in this line, their details here are the same, the only differences being the shape of the back of the head, and the deco. The majority of the plane is red plastic with a white undercarriage, wings, and a painted tail; silver-gray plastic makes up the fold-down landing gear.
Robot Mode: Firefly feels like the prototype for the Combiner Wars limb bots, many of the other figures share the simple transformation of the arms and cockpit, or the fold-out transformation of the legs.
The front of robot mode loses a lot of his red coloring compared to the G1 character, which makes him the most white robot mode of the Aerialbots, including the chest combiner joint which highlights the gap it causes in the chest. The deco also adds a good amount of silver and blue. The head sculpt, which is the only unique element of the figure, borrows from the G1 figure with a little Don Figueroa art tossed in; the design is a blocky knight motif.
Articulation is the same as Quickslinger, obviously; the joints are a touch less tight but nothing drastic. The right elbow is wiggly side-to-side but holds poses fine. Accessories are also the same molds as Quickslinger, and the hand/foot weapon can be held above or below the hand.
Limb Modes: Firefly traditionally transforms into Superion’s right arm, but can transform into any arm or leg. Everything said about Quickslinger fits here as well, although the joints on Firefly as an arm aren’t quite as tight as his mold-mate on my sample so Powerglide as a gun causes this arm to sag. I like how the hand/foot accessory has the cannon design, there’s even sculpted barrel detail within. If you need to tell Firefly’s hand/foot from Quickslinger’s, Firefly has the silver-gray plastic at the thumb joint while Quickslinger has white.
Overall: Firefly is ok but underwhelming since he doesn’t get his own vehicle mode, and all that white plastic in robot mode makes him seem a little bland compared to the other Aerialbots. The deco does carry G1 credibility in vehicle mode, but the similarities to Quickslinger don’t entirely melt away even there. On his own, he’s just not quite as unique as the other Aerialbots.
Review sample supplied by Hasbro