General Information:
One of the promises made back when Transformers Universe was announced was the ressurection of Generation One molds. This has already happened in Universe with the release of Defensor. Now, it's happening again. This time, the mold of the G1 Turbomaster toy "Storm" (a.k.a. Rotorstorm) has been brought back to life for a second time. The first time this mold was resurrected was as Machine Wars Sandstorm. While his name technically is "Autobot Whirl", I will just use the name "Whirl" for sanity's sake in this review. This time, the toy includes two extra figures: Makeshift
Vehicle Mode:
Whirl is a fairly large sized toy, and would easily fit into the mega class by today's standards. The design is really nice, having a bit of bulk, but not so much that it looks bad. It is important to keep in mind that this design is well over ten years old at this point, so the details on it are not
Whirl was originally one of the Turbomasters, a small group of Autobots whose primary "gimmick" were large missile launchers (large in proportion to the robot that is). However, the missiles they fired were rather small little things (measuring maybe an inch or less). This violates current toy safety Thankfully, for this release Hasbro saw fit to modify the missile launchers. While the outer shells essentially remain the same, the internals have been altered to accomodate two large (and legal) sized missiles that do fire at the touch of a button. The new missiles are nicely detailed too, with fins and various shapes making up the whole instead of just a plain tube with some lines on it. Another change has been made to this mold, although I'm not one hundred percent sure why. Behind the helicopter blades is a button that you can push to have the missile launchers swing out to the sides as an attack mode. This button has been made wider than the original, which was quite small. This could be for safety reason since I could see a child accidentally poking his finger too hard on the original button and getting hurt. Sharp eyed readers will notice that Whirl has small rectangles on the skids. These were originally designed to hold the missiles that came with Storm/Rotorstorm. Indeed, you can see in this picture that the missiles still do fit on there. It's a shame that current laws prevent the original missiles from being included in this set. However, at the same time I'm glad we didn't get long missiles to put on there, they would have looked a bit silly.
Whirl's color scheme is not an exact homage or replica of G1 Whirl's colors - but you can definitely see the influence. G1 Whirl was mostly a light shade of blue, but Universe Whirl is mostly dark blue. However, he has an interesting camoflage type pattern on him done up in metallic light blue. An Autobot symbol graces the front of the rotor section. The cockpit cover and the blades are translucent yellow plastic. Most of the more hidden parts In terms of action features, the missile launchers are the primary ones here. You can also push the blades to make them spin. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode:
Detail-wise, there is quite a bit more to be seen in this mode than in the vehicle mode. On the robot arms for instance you'll find nice raised and line cut
In terms of posability, there is only so much one can expect from a toy developed over ten years ago. In this case, Whirl has nine points of articulation. Whirl's deco is quite different in this mod.e Many of the newly revealed parts are a combination of gray and a cream color. The head, upper arms, weapons, upper legs and feet are all cream colored. The lower arms and lower legs are gray. Brown deco is used on the legs, and red and silver are used on the head and face respectively. The eyes are made of orange translucent plastic, allowing for light piping. Perhaps the best part of the deco on this toy are the weapons. The sides are painted dark red, but in a rough pattern that indicates wear and tear. The ends of the missile launchers have a black spray op applied to them, indicating many, many missile launches blackening the ends. These are beautiful touches that really make the deco look awesome. For those keeping track, the Storm/Rotorstorm mold has never been totally reproduced and given a new deco without having something Changed in the process. Whirl is no exception. Aside from his missle launchers and missile launcher deployer button, the trademark information has changed as well. It now reads "© 1996 Takara Co. Ltd, © 2004 Hasbro, Made in China" (commas indicate line breaks). This trademark information has been changed each time the toy was released. The 1996 date indicates when the mold was pulled into service for Machine Wars, which is interesting. The one thing that did disappoint me, and I guess you could even say it's an unrealistic one, is that Whirl has no Powerlinx points. Since he comes with two Mini-Cons, it would have been a neat way of tying the three robots together as a unit (other than all three being aerial vehicles). Oh well. Autobot Whirl is a cool toy from another time. It is one of the few Generation One molds currently in Universe, and I'm glad it was brought back.
For a detailed review of Gunbarrel, check out the Air Military Team review in the Armada section. For his turn as an Autobot, Gunbarrel has lightened up. Instead of dark gray, his new primary color is a light gold color. A really dark blue (almost black) has been used for details on the wings and cockpit section. In robot mode, Gunbarrel surprises with some silver and white. The robot head and arms are white, with orange eyes painted on the face. The chest has silver and dark blue detailing while the upper legs are black. What's nice about these lighter colors is that they really help you see the details in this toy a lot better. He's very intricate from the chest piece to the arms. For the weapon mode, Gunbarrel's top barrel has been painted silver, distinguishing it from the others. Overall, I prefer this deco to the original.
The Makeshift sculpt was originally used as part of the Armada Emergency Team and its redeco. This review will just briefly cover the changes made to the toy.
While Gunbarrel went lighter for this three pack, Makeshift has gone dark! A dark maroon color to be precise. And that is coupled with black and silver
Final Thoughts:
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