Powerglide is a figure I have fond memories of. It was yet another flea market find with my father back when I was a child so it was probably a knockoff. I enjoyed that thing more for the jet mode than the robot due to many hours playing A-10 Tank Killer. While my contemporaries loved the Tomcat, Falcon, and Eagle, my favorite was the Warthog. DX9 Richthofen is another delightful upgrade to that beloved childhood toy.
Jet mode is serviceable. No one's going to mistake it for a model, but it does resemble the awesome A-10 Thunderbolt II, albeit a chubby one. In a rare example, he does not look like a robot with a jet on his back. He's mostly red plastic with some metallic trim on the engines. He has four retractable landing gears. Although they all have wheels, he doesn't really roll. Extending or stowing the front landing gear requires you to open his chest panel. The rear landing gear also serves as the attachment point for the flight stand. His rifle can peg to the underside of the nosecone. Unfortunately, the rifle doesn't also transform to more resemble the A-10's iconic Avenger cannon.
Transformation is pretty simplistic. I do not like how his feet are formed. The stabilizer wings wrap around the front of his feet, but are not long enough to run the entire length of his feet. This causes him to lean backward, but can be offset if you angle his heel spurs. It's a bit kibbly, but you could also fold up the wings and place them in front of his shins. Too bad there's no way to fold them into that space in his calves. Going back to jet mode, I do not like having to put pressure on the metallic finish of his face to rotate it away.
Robot mode looks wonderful. His chest has a panel that opens to reveal some circuitry and a heart. The paint applications there and on his crotch are cleanly applied. The metallic finish of his face highlights the beautiful sculpt. His wings could be more flush against his torso. Overall, he does not have that slightly off G1 look that is typical of most other DX9 offerings.
His head is on a hinge and swivel. I like the noticeable hard stop for when his head is pointing straight forward. His shoulders are on hinges and swivels. They can raise out and up a bit past 90 degrees if you move his shoulder pauldrons out of the way. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, waist, thighs, and knees. He can perform full curls with his double-jointed elbows. His thumbs are fixed and his fingers are single-pinned. His pointing fingers articulate separately from the rest. His hips are on universal joints with ratchets along the front-to-back axis. He can perform a decent front and side splits. He has single-jointed knees that can only curl to 90 degrees. His feet are on rockers and tilts.
His accessories include a rifle, a mask, a flight stand, and a mini Astoria. The rifle has a metallic finish and resembles a larger version of Masterpiece Bumblebee's rifle. It fits securely in his hands and doesn't use a Masterpiece-styled tab nor a standard peg. The mask is an off-white plastic, with painted eyes and teeth. It pegs onto his face while it is rotated away. The flight stand is clear plastic and requires some assembly. It works well enough holding his jet mode in place. I find it annoying that you have to disassemble the armature in order to reposition it. Astoria isn't very detailed. Her face just has a flat skin tone and her hair isn't even painted completely on the underside. Like all the other miniature people from previous figures, she will stay in the box.
I'll keep Richthofen on my DX9 shelf and use him as a Masterpiece stand-in until something better comes along. Unlike my original G1 toy, he will definitely be displayed in robot mode. He has just enough design choices that prevent me from liking him wholeheartedly. It's a fun figure though and definitely has a place in my collection.
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