A repaint of the Energon Sharkticon, Sky-byte was part of the Botcon 2010 boxset. He sports a paintjob similar to that shown in the RID cartoon and comes complete with a pair of missiles. Some of the parts may stick, but nothing feels loose or as though it is going to break. If you have the Sharkticon mold, you will not be running into any surprises. The paint is gorgeous and the overall look of the figure is supreme...

This is my favorite Botcon set out of the past few years. G2 was when I got into collecting transformers and I've been going strong since then. The colors on these guys, especially Clench, take me way back and are just so cool to have updated in the Transformers Classics styling.

Spark is intended to be an homage to the Generation 2 character Pyro. The figure's name has been changed, presumably due to copyright issues, but Fun Pub did a great job of creating a bio to explain the name change which effectively lists Pyro as his first name and Spark as his last name; problem solved.

A recolor of Classics/Universe 2.0 Inferno, Pyro shares the same vehicle mode and transformation with his mold-mate. The missile launcher/fire hose can swivel a full 360° and also move up and down about 45°.

As far as articulation goes in robot mode this figure is not bad at all. The feet are held in place with a simple swivel joint which gives the feet about 45° of up-and-down movement. In addition to that there is also a hinged point in the middle of the foot that allows for another 90° of movement, this hinge is there mostly there for his transformation but can also be used to help render more realistic poses. The knees are single hinged and allow for 90° of motion, from fully standing to the kneeling position.

The hips are where the articulation gets a bit complicated, but this is a good thing. In the hips there are two hinged points of articulation as well as one swivel point. The first hinge point allows for the front-to-back motion of the leg and provides about 90° of movement; about 45° in each direction from the fully standing position. The swivel point gives each leg a full 360° of rotation which allows you to pivot the legs for more realistic poses. The last hinge in the hips is the one that controles the sided-to-side motion of the legs. Each leg can move about 45° from sided-to-side; however this also included the inward motion of each leg, so that when both legs are spread as far apart from each other as they can go you still only have about a 45° angle between the two.

The hands use the simple peg-and-hole design, this gives each hand slightly more than 180° of rotation; the bits of kibble on the arms prevent them from being able to rotate the full 360°. The elbows are single-hinged, and allow for about 90° movement from fully extended to half raised. There is also a swivel point right above the elbow that provides a full 360° movement.

The shoulders themselves have two points of articulation. There is a ratcheted-swivel point that provides the front-to-back motion of the arms (allowing for 360° of movement. The second point of articulation in the shoulder is a hinged-joint that provides the side-to-side movement of the arms. The hinge allows for roughly 90° of motion. It's also worth mentioning that the missile launcher maintains its full range of motion while in robot mode, so that you can aim it independently from the direction of the arm if you wish.

The head is attached using a typical standard ball-joint, which gives the head a full 360° of rotation as well as a slight up and down motion. This allows you to not just turn the head, but also make him look upward or even cock the head off to the side which greatly increases the poseability of this figure.

One of the things that really surprised me about this figure is how well the Inferno mold works as Pyro; a quick change in the color of the plastic, new paint apps, and viola... Sir Pyro Ignatius Spark at your service.

Despite my love for exclusives, obscure characters, and this mold in general, there are a few little things that could be improved. During the coarse of my initial transformation of this figure I did notice that one of the arms had a tendency to pop off quite easily, at the swivel point in the mid-arm area. Also the ratcheted joint in his left shoulder is extremely tight, so much so that it almost feels like it might break if you were to force it to move. These are of coarse are assembly issues that could just be an issue with my figure.

Overall this is a very strong figure and works incredibly well as the character that it is intended to be. I don't know if I would recommend it to everybody, but this is mostly due to the prohibitive cost that is inevitably going to be attached to it on the secondary market. For the casual collector this is probably going to be slightly out of reach for most of you, but if you happen to get a good deal on him or decide to take the plunge on a more expensive figure then I would highly recommend this to you. For the so-called “high-end collectors” who are used to paying a premium price for exclusive or imported figures, and have a healthy love for the Classics line, or have an affinity for homages to obscure/rare figures then this is going to be right up your ally.

Awesome repaints, of already loved molds. Street star has to be my favorite. It's the closest to a CHUG Streetwise that I'll get.