Name: Windmill
Series: "European" Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Air Defence
Alternate Mode: Helicopter
Thanks to Griffin for loaning me Windmill, making this review possible.
HELICOPTER MODE
Height: 10cm Length: 15cm Width: 5.5cm, 11cm rotorspan
A mid blue helicopter with some red, lilac and yellow elements. Windmill has a blue canopy which is slightly darker than the rest of the toy. The tailfin and rounded runners at the base are lilac. The colours are quite simple, but this is a pretty gaudy colour scheme, and one that sets the tone for some of the bright colour sets we'd see later in the "European" G1 lines.
This chopper is a bit of a mess. The central part - the robot torso - is more or less unified, but the robot limbs don't hide very well. One leg does a good job of forming the tail, the other limbs are lumped above and below the fuselage itself. The blue twin blade rotor sits on top, on top of an engine which is clearly one of the arms, while the other sits underneath the fuselage and sports a red cannon at the front. Despite the cannon, it really does look like an arm shoved under there.
The gimmick is simple and rather ineffective. There's a yellow button just above the cockpit, pressing it causes the rotors to spin, and you can keep spinning it by pushing repeatedly. In reality this doesn't work so well - but the rotor spins fine if you simply push it anyway. There's no other play value here. There are no wheels of course, since he rests on the runners.
Bad colours and a bad shape make this a rather questionable chopper. The gimmick is superfluous, the rotor comes off (and apart) easier than I'd like. Not a good chopper mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
From the left side of the chopper, swing back the runner section, back to form the right leg. The tail forms the left leg in place with the tailfin folding away and a lilac foot folds out. The runners themselves fold forward to form a rather lame right foot. The engine unclips to form the left arm while the cannon arm swings down. The rotors can stay in place, clip into his forearm or hand or stow on his back.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 11cm Width: 6.5cm
Again mainly blue with lilac feet, some red details mainly on his arms, a silver face with red eyes and some yellow here and there. The colours look better this time around, although he's still not fantastic. The right foot looks really weird and there's no right hand - instead he has a red cannon that resembles the gun-arm of Shockwave. Mind you, Windmill isn't a Shockwave tribute - in fact he's the only Actionmaster Elite that's not obviously based on an existing Transformer.
Windmill can lift his arms and hold the rotor, while the head turns. His hips swing and lift out to the sides while the knees bend, allowing him to sit down. I do like the leg poseability, but that's probably the highlight here.
A disappointing robot mode without a gimmick. The colours are mediocre and while the poseability is nice, it's no better than the poseability of the regular Actionmaster. The asymmetry really works against this toy - especially the runners on his right leg.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of. As with all of the Actionmaster Elites, Windmill was sold only in Australasia and continental Europe - making him a hard to find figure.
OVERALL
A disappointing toy, Windmill doesn't really work visually and his transformation is creative but awkward. Most of the better detailed regular Actionmasters are better, cheaper and easier to find. Unless you're a completist I couldn't recommend this guy - 3/10
|
