Don’t know why took that long and difficult. When Hasbro released the Classics Starscream, that was a good mold and fans were hoping and thinking Hasbro would release his two other pals. Then the re-tool Ramjet came up and later Skywarp was released along with the white Prime (Ultra Magnus). That was it. No signs of Thundercracker no matter how much fans asked for him. Later in Universe 2 line, Hasbro re-released Starscream and the super minor character Acid Storm and totally ignored fans highly inquiry “Where Is Thundercracker”. In the mean time, Hasbro’s partner Takara did listen and released Thundercracker in Henkei line. They cashed in what they wanted but with the limited amount available, Henkei Thundercracker’s price keeps floating and floating and even then messed in with Botcon’s Thundercracker to beef up the price. In 2011, Hasbro surprisingly released Thrust and Dirge to let people happily collect all their cone heads, and then, finally, finally, announce Thundercracker’s release in the late Generation line in 2011. Are fans happy? Absolutely not. With the current economic issue and the preparation for 3rd live action  movie toys coming up, he is not being seen at retails and even very limited amount on many online shops plus with all the scalpers around. He is still very hard to get. But I got one.

Thundercracker’s alternate mode is exactly the same as Starscream so there is pretty much nothing to cover here. Only thing is the paints. Truly, I haven’t seen Hasbro did such a good paint job like this for a while. Thundercracker does have a very good paint quality here. Still some minor issues can be seen but good enough.

The transformation scheme and robot mode are also exactly the same. The worrisome quality control is also very good. All joints are tight and no parts feel cheap. Painting scheme is also awesome although with few minor issues but I can easily fix them. So I’m quite happy with him but not that happy since I haven’t completed my original seekers. 