Cliffbee.com Beast Hunters Windrazor Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Windrazor
Series: Beast Hunters
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Winged Dragon



WINGED DRAGON MODE
Height: 12.5cm Length: 14.5cm Width: 23.5cm (exact dimensions will depend on pose)

   A menthol green bipedal robotic beast with beige feet, wings and a beige head, Windrazor has metallic purple painted wing membranes. Unsually he's a scaled up adaption of Legions Windrazor, with essentially the same engineering. His eyes are painted red & his crest gold along with the "fingers" on his wings & claws on his feet while there's a small black Predacon logo on his left wing. It's a nice colour scheme, one he has borrowed from Cutthroat - and he's quite clearly a tribute to the Terrorcon (with a better defined beast form). The green is lighter & brother than both the Legions version & Cutthroat while the smaller toy has yellow rather than gold paint. The gold stands out better than yellow but I prefer that toy's darker green. The crest on his head is painted purple (yellow on the smaller toy) while his tail is purple (green on the smaller toy). The purple tail doesn't really match the green body - I'm not sure why this was changed.

   The fingers and membranes on his wings suggest that Windrazor is a European dragon of some sort (or a bat...!) as these features aren't found on bird wings. The wings are quite detailed (we'll ignore the visible robot hands, I guess) while the neck and tail have sculpted scales. The long slender head and feet are also quite well sculpted. The wings are in an "about to fly" pose, raised on either side of his head. The sculpt doesn't feel too simple despite essentially being the same as the smaller toy - a testament to the Legions toy I suppose.

   Play value is okay but nothing special as he lacks any gimmicks. His purple mace weapon can be plugged into either knee while the wings can pose (it's even possible to fold them down by his sides, although it brings the robot hands into focus while his neck, ankles and tail are all hinged. The hips are jointed as well. While most of the joints which give Windrazor some poseability are for transformation or robot mode usage, they all add to the toy's appeal in this mode. There are also holes on his ankles (not found on the original smaller toy) where the mace can attach. The mace weapon plugs in as a sort of gun, with the handle pointing forward - but it still looks like a mace attached to his leg.

   While it's a scaled up Legions toy, this is still a nice beast mode. The menthol green could have been darker & the tail needs to be green, but he still displays well & the G1 tribute is strong. The dragon is a nice beast too.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Remove & set aside the weapon. Fold the head down into the gap on his chest, rotate the robot head up from behind in its place, click into position. Fold the tail up on his back, flip up the beast feet to form shins & robot feet. Pivot the wings in towards his chest, collapse the wings & swing down to form his arms. Place his crossbow in either hand and you're done. The transformation is on the simple side for a deluxe - as it's the same as the original toy.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 13.5cm Width: 9cm

   A green robot with beige boots, forearms, shoulders and a beige head while the centre of his chest is the beige beast head. His purple wings sit on the outsides of his forearms. Windrazor has a gold face with red eyes while the gold hangs around on his knees and waist (remnants of beast mode elements). That Predacon logo is now on the inside of his left forearm. It's a good colour scheme and while the lighter green isn't quite as nice as the smaller toy, it works better here than beast mode. The upper arms - which were green on the smaller toy - are now purple.

   This is a well formed robot mode, and while the transformation isn't all that involved the transformation of the legs is elegantly simple & the head swap is effective also. The wings are definitely kibble though - and the wing fingers hang below his robot hands. His face is quite well sculpted &comes to the fore in this metallic gold paint job.

   Play value is limited to poseability here. Windrazor's shoulders, elbows & hips are all hinged with rotators (upgraded from ball joints on the smaller toy) while his knees are fixed - an artefact of his leg transformation. It's useful enough poseability & he can wield the mace as a mace or again as the awkward looking gun. Unlike the smaller toy he can't combine (as there are only 2 of the 5 produced at this scale). It's worth noting that one of the few mould changes is the removal of posts on the insides of his boots used for combination. It's a trivial change which doesn't affect his look really.

   While his arms have large dragon wings hanging off them, this is a visually pleasing robot mode with a strong G1 tribute, useful poseability & good colour scheme. The G1 tribute is slightly weaker than the smaller toy's, but the joints are more substantial & the paint job is better thanks to the use of gold paint.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of. As mentioned he's a scaled up version of the Legions toy.

OVERALL

   Scaling up a Legions toy to the deluxe size is risky, and within his line we saw a very simple Smokescreen, Bumblebee (like we need another of those...) and Twinstrike. From my impressions of the Autobots in pictures/packaging (and my own playing with Twinstrike), Windrazor has pulled it off the best. He's a simple deluxe but works well despite this. He doesn't combine to form Abominus, which makes his somewhat less compelling that the cheaper version - but he does make for an excellent Generations Cutthroat - we'll probably never actually see that toy. I wouldn't recommend him purely as a Beast Hunters toy, but as a Terroron tribute this is a good toy with nice colours, a simple but effective engineering. Sure there's some kibble and only basic play value but there are worse toys in Generations trying for a dedicated tribute - 7/10

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