Pressing on in what will be a four part look at the Unite Warriors Aerialbots, today we’re checking out the bots that form Superion’s arms: Fireflight and Slingshot. Yes, I know in the classic Scramble City fashion, these can be legs too, but in my mind there’s only one right way to form Superion and that means these guys are the arms. Let’s start with the alt modes…

Of course, Slingshot was the one that was late to party, with Alpha Bravo standing in for him in the Hasbro assortment. They eventually released Slingshot stateside, but the Takara set includes him from the get-go. As far as the jet modes go these are just repaints of the same alt mode. It’s a little bit of a cheat as they weren’t the same jets in the G1 days, but if this is the sacrifice I have to make to avoid putting some whirlybird impostor in with my Aerialbots, then I’m fine with that.

I like this alt mode a lot and with Fireflight being mostly red with white wings, the totally white Slingshot makes for a fairly distinctive looking jet. To help distinguish them a little more, I like to angle Fireflight’s tail wings up, which is totally inaccurate to the style of jet, but I like the subtle variety it creates. Otherwise, both aircraft have their own distinctive wing striping and they each have some nice and crisp Autobot emblems stamped on their wings.

Yeah, you can see their hands peeking out behind the wings, but I’m over that. Also, each of these guys comes with the same gun, which you can mount under either wing, or load one of them up with both guns for some major firepower.

Because these are basically the same mold, the robot modes also rely on paint to distinguish them from each other. This is a pretty classic Aerialbot design with the nosecones protruding from their backs. The wings can either angle out from their sides or be swept straight back for a cleaner look from the front. Either way, I think these robot modes are awesome.

The fact that they moved Slingshot’s Autobot insignia to his shoulder makes that blank side of his chest a little odd. Otherwise between the paint and the new head sculpts, they work fine for me as separate characters. Slingshot’s head always had the most personality to me and I think they did a great job on it. As for Fireflight, I think that’s supposed to be styled after the G1 toy’s head, but I wish they had gone for the Sunbow or comic look. I don’t really associate a mouth plate with any of the Aerialbots. Still, it’s not a bad looking noggin.

Again, they each come with the same gun, which unlike Silverbolt is scaled perfectly for these smaller guys. Yes, you can get creative and use the hand/foot pieces as accessories, but I don’t need to bother with that just to justify their existance outside of being combiner parts.

As updates to the G1 Aerialbots, these are fantastic figures. They’re relatively simple and yet their alt modes and robot modes are both great. As a big fan of this team growing up, I would have had so much fun playing with these as a kid. Especially since imagination would only take me so far with the original G1 versions of these guys. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Slingshot, just for the better head, but the truth is I really dig them both.
Next time: Air Raid and Skydive!