C-50 SILVERBOLT

When I was a kid the American release Silverbolt was my first Arielbot. I remember not understanding what that sliding red bar on Silverbolt's chest was for. Since Hasbro deleted the spring and trigger mechanism for the US release, my neutered Silverbolt didn't work like the Japanese release one. I did try using mine as an Arielbot launcher but I couldn't get it to work too good because I couldn't flick the trigger hard enough with my finger. I was pretty impressed when I first saw the Japanese version. Unlike D-50 Motormaster and D-64 Onslaught with their obvious and protruding launcher parts, C-50 Silverbolt's launcher is integrated almost seamlessly into the toy's design. The landing gear acts as the trigger and the sliding red bar works exactly as I thought it did when I was a kid.

Notice the small red tab at the top of Silverbolt's head. This is the catch mechanism that keeps the spring tension once the long red bar has been pulled back. The landing gear then acts as a trigger, and pushing down on it launches the red bar forward. Because the trigger lever is built into the nosecone and it's always pushing on the landing gear the landing gear sticks out a bit. Notice how the C-50's landing gear is protruding upward ever so slightly. A western release Silverbolt's landing gear will fit almost flush inside the nosecone while the Japanese C-50's landing gear always sticks out a bit more. The sliding red bar on the Japanese C-50 always stays in the down position because of spring tension. The western release Silverbolt's red bar slides around loosely because there's no spring to hold it in place.

Here's a shot of C-50 ready to launch an Arielbot. Notice how the red bar is pulled all the way back, caught by the little red tab shown in the previous picture. This is the "locked and loaded" position. Also note the spring itself-it can be seen through the chest slot. You really have to see a C-50 from the bottom in order to find all the subtle differences that seperate it from the western release. In robot and jet mode it is impossible to differentiate the Japanese from the non-Japanese versions. If you are looking to buy a loose C-50, make sure you get a good look at the toy in base mode or from the underside. Also beware of knockoff Silverbolts that have the launcher. They exist and are easy to find but they don't have the Takara copyright stamping under their right wing like the official release does.

C-50's packaging is like D-50 Motormaster's in that they're both sealed on plastic bubbles like typical western released TFs. During this period Takara usually packaged Transformers with styrofoam inserts. I don't know why D-50 Motormaster and C-50 Silverbolt came in bubbles. I don't know if other C-50's came with styrofoam inserts, but mine didn't. I have heard rumors of D-50 Motormasters that came packaged in styrofoam, but not C-50 Silverbolt. I've never seen either of them in styrofoam. This is odd because later Scramble City team leaders like D-79 Hun-Grr and Scattershot came single packaged in styrofoam-just like all the other Japanese TFs of the time. Heck, I haven't heard of ANY Japanese deluxe level TF from that period being bubble packed like C-50 and D-50 are.

Here's how it works. In the nose section there are three parts that make up the trigger. There's the landing gear, a red catch lever, and a small wire spring that keeps tension on the red catch. You can't really see it from here, but if you've ever taken apart a floppy disk it looks exactly like the spring used in floppy disks to make the metal sliding cover move back and forth. In this picture it's hiding behind the red catch lever. It's because of this little spring that there's always tension on the landing gear forcing it to stick up a bit. When the landing gear is pressed down the red lever rotates on its axis and the catch comes down, freeing the long red bar that's not seen in this picture. C-50 Silverbolt's launching mechanism uses more parts than D-50 Motormaster's or D-64 Onslaught's.

This picture gives a view of the inner workings of C-50 Silverbolt's chest area and the rest of the launching mechanism. The long red bar is attached to a post inside Silverbolt's belly with a spring. Western release Silverbolts don't have the spring but the mounting hardware is still inside them, so it is possible to take a launcherless Silverbolt and install a spring in its belly. It wouldn't have a trigger mechanism in it's nose but the long red bar could manually be pulled back and let go if you wanted to do it that way.

Below I've included an extreme close up of the steps in C-50 Silverbolt's instructions highlighting the operation of the launcher. As far as I know launcher equipped Silverbolts came in all Japanese versions including the C-55 Superion giftset. I found no differences between my single packed C-50 and the one that came in the C-55 Superion giftset I own. I've also included scans of C-50's instructions and a cool little poster that came with my individually packaged C-50.