Not Superion.

Power Core Combiners, does anyone remember those? Welp, I just did so we’re taking a look at Skyburst and the Aerialbots!

Reception for the Power Core Combiners line as a hole was pretty bad when they came out. Let’s see if they deserved the hate.

Skyburst

Vehicle mode

Skyburst is a Scout/ new Legends sized Transformer and that’s important to remember here because his jet mode turned out great. It looks great from most angles and the undercarriage is surprisingly clean. Yes, it’s a bit thick but it’s tightly put together and the parts aren’t obviously robot bits.

Also, he even has three point deploying landing gear! Aside from that, for playability, Skyburst also has a Mini-Con port on the top of his jet mode.

Transformation

The transformation to robot mode is pretty simple and kinda boring but getting to the torso mode is a trip. I’m impressed Hasbro came up with engineering like this at this size especially with things like the RID Combiners they put out nowadays.

Robot mode

After that great jet mode, Skyburst is a bit underwhelming in robot mode. He doesn’t look bad and he is nicely painted but he does look kinda simple and out of proportion. This is definitely the mode that suffers the most out of all three.

Posability is a mixed bag but the sore point here is that he doesn’t have any posability at the head. He ball-jointed shoulders, ball-jointed elbows as well as an extra hinge above the elbow’s ball joint. His hips are ball-jointed, he has thigh swivels and he bends at the knee. His heel also goes up and down.

Aerialbot drones

The main point of contention about the Power Core Combiner line was that the limbs of the combiners did not have robot modes. They were just drones that turned into limbs.

For what they are, all the drones look nice. They’re also nicely molded and have a good amount of paint apps. It’s nice that they turned into aircrafts that were pretty unique instead of the usual jets you normally see Transformers turn into.

Combiner mode

Skyburst looks suitably mighty (if a bit lanky) in his combiner mode but he’s only about the height of a Voyager in this mode. Combiners should be big. Still, his head and torso are all suitably nice to look at and he has an admirable amount of detail for a figure this size.

One thing I want to point out, PCCs were kinda hit and miss when it came to how well they stayed together in Combiner mode. Skyburst (or at least my copy of Skyburst) holds together nice and solid.

For posability, Skyburst has head posability in this mode! He swivels at the head as well as looks up. He can rotate as well as move in and out at the shoulders. He rotates as well as moves in and out at the hips. He bends at the knees and rotates below them. If Skyburst could bend at the elbows it would have been awesome but as it is, his posability is okay.

Gimmicks

The Power Core Combiner limbs are all spring-loaded so that when they get pegged in by the combiner pegs they automatically transform. They automatically transform back when you remove them. It’s a fun enough gimmick that works well but it would have been nice if the combiner mode hands were more humanoid than what we got.

The main figure of the set himself doesn’t have any other gimmicks. Skyburst just transforms between all three modes and has a Mini-Con port.

Toy or collectible?

At this point, toy. Surprisingly, even though the Power Core Combiner line is over decade old, the toys are still available pretty cheap. And compared to stuff on the shelves nowadays that are aimed at kids, these PCC guys seem to have had way more thought put into them.

If you’re the kind of collector who collects obscure and forgotten toylines, you’ll probably enjoy Skyburst. Not only is he obscure and affordable, he and his team of drones are also quite good.

Closing

If it sounds like I like Skyburst and the Aerialbots it’s because I do. Power Core Combiners got a bad rep for a number of reasons but Skyburst and the gang are a fun but flawed team of Transformers.

Yes, they’re not perfect but they’re certainly not awful. Give PCCs a shot, you might be pleasantly surprised.