Transmetal Airazor is the newest incarnation of the Maximal femme warrior. Her new form is bigger than before with some interesting new features. Now a Transmetal, Airazor is a powerful triple changing Transformer!
Beast Mode:
In beast mode, Airazor is a mechanical peregrine falcon. The inclusion of vacuum metallized armor and engine turbines shows that this is one Maximal packing power! Unlike the prototype, the final product of Transmetal Airazor has mostly silver grey armor (whereas the prototype had primarily metallic blue armor). This armor covers most of the back of the falcon mode and the engine turbines and the falcon beak. The wings, rear tail and beast mode head are call colored ivory with red and orange coloring. The red and orange colors actually fade into each other, a very nice coloring touch. The beast mode legs are colored blue and yellow.
There are eight points of articulation in beast mode, mostly centering on the legs (which form the robot arms). The beast mode looks very strong and mechanical, however, the robot mode chest sticks out from the underside of the beast mode, making the underside looking rather odd. Also, from the rear, one can see the robot mode legs sticking out at the very rear.
Transformation to vehicle mode:
Airazor's vehicle mode is a sea plane. The engine turbine covers slide forward, the beast mode legs move straight back and the plane pontoons on the beast mode wings fold out and down and the sea plane mode is ready to go!
Vehicle Mode:
Airazor looks more like a bird on pontoons more than a real airplane. However, since her beast mode leans so much towards the mechanical side, that fact doesn't subtract too much from the look of this mode. A down side of this mode is that the back end is so heavy, Airazor cannot rest on the pontoons properly without dropping on the rear end of the plane.
Transformation to robot mode:
The pontoons disconnect and reattach to the wings. The turbine engines slide back and the transformation into robot mode begins. Next, the center of the metallic armor on the beast mode back splits in half and the wings fold down. The robot legs then swing to the underside of the beast mode and connect with the robot mode chest as the head swings up. The wings in the rear then fold up and the rear wing folds down. Positioning her feet in the right position and moving the beast mode feet down completes the robot mode.
Robot Mode:
In robot mode, Airazor, looks much more slim and feminine than her predecessor toy. It should be noted that with the original Airazor toy, the Hasbro designers were not yet sure whether to make Airazor a male or female. With this toy, there was no debate. In this form, Airazor is primarily yellow with brown accents, metallic light blue and silver with a touch of ivory. Her robot mode face is painted yellow and metallic red forming a very nice looking "fire like" pattern. Like many Maximal Transmetals, Airazor has a mechanical looking device on the left side of her chest int he form of a silver, circular object.
Airazor's primary weapons are wrist mounted claws which one can imagine her using as a slashing weapon or firing weapon. With the wings in the rear, one would think that Airazor cannot stand properly, but her ankle joints are so tight that she can easily be positioned so that she stands just fine. The two halves of her beast mode back armor can be snapped together (with her robot arms at the sides) to form blast armor for her robot mode. In this form, Airazor has thirteen points of articulation.
Transmetal Airazor has the trademark Beast Wars posability and detail are there. Her ability to balance in robot mode is welcome considering all the parts on her back. Mildly recommended. B+
Updated Thoughts (January 28, 2022):
By today's standards, many fans would probably have an issue with the design of this figure. On "paper" the design is actually very nice, sleek and powerful looking especially with the giant blade like wings. However, in "plastic" form she winds up being very back heavy and basically needs to lean on the tips of her wings to stand. I cannot help but feel like a modern day design would (hopefully) overcome such an issue. Even with that weakness however, I really still dig this toy. It gave us something we had never had up until that point (robot to bird to sea plane!) and frankly, have not had since. Aside from a really nice sculpt and deco, the very concept of this figure is just silly and fun.
