Nightshade

How can a computer be non-binary? Isn't it 1's and 0's all the way down? Nightshade is a Terran, one of the first earthborn Transformers bots, and has a knack for building and inventing. I haven't seen any of Earthspark (other than that confounding first promo), and so far none of the toys have looked good enough to be worth buying. Some of them are just repaints from Cyberverse, and the ones that aren't don't have great designs. Consider Twitch, who looks like "Windblade, but with no wings." But hey, now we've got her sibling, Nightshade, who actually manages to look cool in both modes. And isn't hard to find in stores, which is an equally important factor! (Still waiting for that Legacy: Evolution Tarn to be released, Hasbro. Any day now...) "Terrans," like that text up above says, are the Transformers who were born on Earth instead of Cybertron. They do have their own faction symbol, though so far they're all aligned with the Autobots anyway - at first there were just two of them, but soon Nightshade and two others joined the ranks. They all have different looks, rather than any unifying "familial" traits; in fact, with those big round eyes, Nightshade looks more like Rung than anyone else. With the addition of gigantic fox ears, of course. Rather than being as square and blocky as most Transformers, Nightshade is angular and rounded - which seems fairly common for the Earthspark Terrans, though not always to this degree. We get long legs that get thicker as they near the ankle, and pointed flares over the shoulders. Judging by the character art on the front of the box, yellow-green "wings" on the forearms should be longer, and the wings on their back should jusy be frames, not feathers. The altmode's head is visible right there on the small of their back, but it's such a stylized design that it just blends in as shapes on the body, which is a difficult thing to pull off. The back-wings also get in the way of the arms a little bit, due to the kibble on the elbows, but you can pose around that. Nightshade moves at the head, shouders, elbows, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. Additionally, the wings are mounted on balljoints and have a hinge just next to that. They're packaged separately in the box, and so could technically be removed, but it seems like that might be tough on the plastic, which is already soft and flexy enough that getting the wings on correctly in the first place is difficult enough. If you choose to point them back at all in robot mode, prepare for the toy to want to fall over backwards, even with the heels on the feet properly folded out. Nightshade's weapons a simple pair of serrated daggers that can be held in either hand. As long as two of them make it into the sample you buy, and not just one. To convert Nightshade, swing the central torso around to switch heads, fold in the arms at the shoulders, flip down the kibble on the underside of the arms, hinge the waist backward, turn the thighs up and fold the toes and heels down, turn the legs to the inside, fold the shins down to the outside, and secure everything by plugging the tabs on the sides of the ankles into the slots on the top of the wrists. Finished! The story of Earthspark is about the Terrans learning who they are - not as a race, but as individuals. Like, when somebody tries to teach them about the history between the Autobots and the Decepticsons, they don't care: that's the past, and it happened on a planet they've never been to, so they care about their human family and what's happening on Earth. And none of them came with altmodes pre-installed, so it was about them each picking what was right for them. Nightshade at first wasn't interested in having an altmode, feeling they were complete without one; but then it was pointed out by their friend that an altmode isn't about completing yourself, but expressing who you are. With their parents in danger, Nightshade scanned a statue of the Sentry Owl, a major character in the scifi/adventure novel they'd been reading, Winged Sentinel, and "protector of all in need." So while Nightshade's altmode is an owl, it's not an owl owl - this is a beast mode like you'd see in G1, not like you'd see in Beast Wars or something. It's very obviously something other than an organic animal, and its sleek, stylized lines make more sense when you know that. Before selecting an altmode, the Terran protoforms were all the same pale metallic gray-blue shade, with differentiation only coming later. As the Sentry Owl, Nightshade became a really striking shade of green that's unlike any other toys I can think of: it's sort of a myrtle green, with the lighter, metallic areas being more mint. It doesn't stand out very well against Earthspark's blue packaging, but mixed in with other toys? It's something! The owl's head can swivel freely, and the wings can be folded down against its sides (as long as you don't mind them being backwards when you do). The owl's legs are hinged, so it can either perch or raise them to strike, and Nightshade's daggers can store in the top of the wings. Hasbro is bringing the Build-A-Figure concept over from Marvel Legends for the Deluxe Class Earthspark line. Like when they did the same thing with Cyberverse, you have to buy multiple waves of figures to complete the BAF, rather than being able to get it all at once. This time the figure is Mandroid, a human villain for the series, and Nightshade gets the torso. If you decide to import the TakaraTomy version, there's no BAF part, but more screen-accurate paint apps. Nightshade is a fun little character - the quiet, kind of nerdy type who's more interested in reading stories and working on their own projects than roughhousing with their siblings, but feels kind of lonely and left out because of that. Damn, I am in this photo and I don't like it! It's like they were calculated for your typical Transformers fan to identify with and understand, despite any other potential differences between us and Nightshade. Having not seen the cartoon, I only got this toy because the design looked good on the shelf, not sure of what to expect; turns out they're a really nicely made Transformer, cool in both modes and fun to change between. Which I guess means now all the other new characters are worth a second look, as well. -- 01/23/24

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