TFC F-4 Phantom

Prelude: Legal stuff first, as always. F-4 Phantom is not a figure released by Hasbro or Takara-Tomy, thus he is not legally a Transformer. He was created by third party company TFC Toys as a homage to the G1 Aerialbot Fireflight, but can not be called that for legal reasons.

Robot Mode: F-4 Phantom’s robot is pretty much a spitting image of what G1 Fireflight would look like if he were bigger and a tad more cartoon-accurate. The basic layout of the body is the same with the nose and rear end of the jet mode forming a rucksack, the wings folding alongside the legs and the body being the jet body, just extended. Naturally F-4 Phantom is not only bigger, but far more detailed and quite a bit more articulated.

Weapon-wise F-4 Phantom carries two missiles that go under his jet wings in jet mode and can be held in either hand (or both in one hand) or attached to his forearms. I’d have liked a gun like his G1 counterpart, but that’s just a little thing. So bottom line: a robot mode that’s exactly what it was advertised as: a bigger, more complex version of the G1 Aerialbot.

Alternate Mode: As you might have guessed, F-4 Phantom transforms into a fighter jet, more specifically an ... F-4 Phantom. Big surprise, right? Anyway, the transformation sequence is practically identical with that of the G1 figure, only tugging in the arms and shoulders is a tad more complex. The resulting jet fighter looks very good and while I’m by no means a military expert, it also looks pretty authentic as far as I can tell. The missiles fit under the wings and it has a working landing gear. Lots of detailing, a very streamlined shape, nothing to complain about. Not much else to write, either, I fear. A straight-forward, good-looking jet mode.

Combiner Mode: F-4 Phantom forms the right arm of Uranos. I'll do a separate review for the combined robot once I have assembled all component figures. The picture above shows F-4 Phantom attached to the Hercules robot, as the connecting parts are interchangeable.

Remarks: To a certain extent I could pretty much copy and paste the reviews I’ve written for the TFC Hercules team members. Because just like it was with most of those guys, F-4 Phantom is nothing more and nothing less than an upscaled, more articulated and detailed version of the G1 figure Fireflight. Considering the price of this figure, the only solid reason to get him is, of course, because you want to assemble Uranus / Superion. As a stand-alone figure Phantom is cool, but definitely not worth the high price.

What else to say? Well, I’m not sure why TFC didn’t give their Not-Aerialbots proper names like they did for their Not-Constructicons. All of them will just carry the names of their alternate modes… boring. Or maybe that’s just so that people will more easily call them by their G1 names? I don’t know. Anyway, I intend to get the entire Uranus team and F-4 Phantom is off to a good start.

Rating: B