Thursday, November 6, 2014

Transformers: Prime - Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Class Windrazor Part 3 [Final]

Way better than the last one

An introduction of "Transformers: Prime - Beast Hunters" Cyberverse Legion Class Windrazor's transformation design in this posting, which is the last one for this review series. ^^


Tornado Box must be removed from the figure first.


The lower legs are hinged downward for 90 degrees.


The tail stored on the back is flipped backward for 180 degrees.


The arms are rotated upward in front of the figure for 90 degrees, using its shoulder joints.


The forearms are bent at elbow level for about 90 degrees as well. The collision between the edge of the elbow socket and the bicep serves as the indicator of the completion of this transformation step. ^^


By bending the shoulder blocks, the arms are hinged to their back.


Either wing piece is rotated outward.


Done for the wings.



Windrazor's head, together with its neck base, is hinged to the back for 180 degrees.


The beast mode head component is hinged outward from the chest, and positioned at where the robot mode head used to sit. The head itself has a separate hinge joint that would allow it to be bent upward, even though that's not shown in the images above.
A pair of shallow slots at the base of the neck loosely connects to tiny pegs at the edge of the chest cavity to secure the neck's position.


The robot mode head gets automatically hinged into the body when the beast mode head comes out. ^^


The legs are bent forward using their hips to support the beast mode.


Done for Windrazor's transformation. ^^


To not obstruct the wings' look, the connector port beside either knee is the only spot in beast mode to hold Tornado Bow.

More images of Windrazor in alternate mode:















Closeups on the details:





[Head]





[Body]



[Tail]











[Wings]






[Legs]

Bottom view:







Since there's nowhere to hide the hands, they are left exposed in front of the wings in beast mode. Being the most obvious robot mode parts that aren't taken care of well by its transformation design, the hands don't look as bad as they do on Blight from the same action figure series in my opinion, thanks to the same color molded for the arms. The wing claws, which are painted with a darker shade of yellow than the hands, helps to shift the focus away from said exposed robot mode parts as well, so the hands don't really bother me too much. ^^

A huge cavity on the chest, left by the beast mode head when it's flipped outward is my pick as the main weakness. It's not too bad when Windrazor is viewed from the front, or above, but when a taller stance is adjusted to it, or when it's mounted on top of a display stand, the large blank area becomes mighty obvious. It would be nice if Windrazor's beak was designed to be slightly thinner in the first place, which in turn allows the cavity to be made a little narrower. The bottom tip of that cavity would then be tight enough to hold one of Tornado Bow's straight pegs, allowing the weapon to be mounted in front of the body, effectively hiding the cavity in the process. That would be a good place to store the weapon as well, instead of having it mounted beside the leg, giving the beast mode an asymmetrical look. ^^

Still, as compared to Blight, I think Windrazor's beast mode is much better designed, and better looking as well. ^^

The beast mode's articulation design is similar to that on the robot mode discussed in the previous posting, with a couple of bonus movable points. ^^


90-degree hinge movement for the head.


The neck can be lifted upward, but the exposed gap between the neck and the body isn't great to look at. ^^


The two ball-type joints of each shoulder, and elbow, and the hinge joint of the shoulder block are still usable in beast mode.



Wide range of movements for the wings enabled by the three joints on each side as mentioned above.


The ball-type joints of the hips works in the way as they do in robot mode.


The tail can be hinged upward.

Some action poses for Windrazor in beast mode:



Supported using Soul Stage Act 5 Action Support Type for Mechanics Clear Ver.











Given that they pretty much define Windrazor's status as a flight-type Predacon, it's important that the wings are not just movable, but to be able to do so very well too. For that, inheriting the complete flexible articulation for the wings from that for the arms in robot mode is definitely a huge boost to Windrazor's posability. ^^ As compared to Blight, Windrazor is not only more posable in beast mode, the poses can be understood more easily as well. ^^

Comparison with Twinstrike, and Blight:




In robot mode.




In beast mode.



Comparison between the weapons: (left to right) Twinstrike's Piston Hammer, Tornado Bow, and Blight's Affliction Hammer.

Out of the three, I still think Twinstrike has the most balanced good look between its beast and robot modes, even though it kind-of "cheated" by having no clear robot mode arms, since they are formed from the dragon heads. ^^ There are fewer robot or beast mode parts to hide between its two forms, so to speak. ^^ In terms of articulation however, Windrazor is definitely the winner between the three. It's the only one out of the three with movable shoulder joints, and ankle-like joints that allow the legs to be adjusted more flexibly. ^^

And Blight unfortunately occupies the bottom spot for the ranking on everything positive among the three Cyberverse Legion Class Predacon figures reviewed so far. ^^;

With Commander Class Optimus Prime





A busy dragon-fighting day for Optimus Prime. ^^

By default, Windrazor forms the right arm on Abominus. The arm mode is basically Windrazor hanging upside down in beast mode with its wings tucked beside its body. ^^; It's not exactly too amazing-looking, which is why I prefer not to show it now. Windrazor will eventually return, when it's time to form Abominus. ^^

All reviews on Transformers: Prime - Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Class Windrazor:
Part 1: The wings will always be there
Part 2: Might as well make use of the large wings
Part 3 [Final]: Way better than the last one

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Transformers: Prime - Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Class Windrazor

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