Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 2, 2011 14:41:03 GMT
Human Alliance Whirl with Major Sparkplug
The name Whirl has history and association for transformers fans. Its started out on the 1985 Deluxe Autobot Whirl, the first Transformers helicopter, an early UK non release and member of the Wreckers. It's then become a first choice for helicopter repaints being used on the 2004 Universe toy (a repaint of Rotorstorm), the 2007 Legend (a repaint of Legends of Cybertron Evac) and as a 2009 Movie Repaint (which used the original Movie Blackout).
Whirl's robot mode looses points straight away by being coloured brown, and not blue like the original. He looks a little odd with a wide waist separating the legs and helicopter landing skis for feet, and a protruding flat panel for a chest that could really do with a nice large faction symbol in the middle of it to break up the plain silver. We'll speak more about the chest panel when we get to vehicle mode..... The head is a face, surrounded by a helmet with lightpiped eyes, but spin the head round and you get a large mono lensed searchlight head similar to some of those seen on the 2007 Movie toys and reminding you over the one eyed design the original had.
He's covered in 3mm bars: one sticking out from his forearm, one going round his shoulder in an L shape, one formed from the missile that is folded behind the upper legs and one on the end of the helicopter's chin guns the are mounted on the sides of the robot chest. His weapons to clip on it are really good too: a pair of moulded 6 barrelled gattling guns. In a wonderful piece of design you can mount them on the front of the shoulder so that the bar over the top of the shoulder recesses into a gap at the back of the gun. Each gattling has a pair of bars on each side of it for more add on weapons. The rotor from his helicopter mode sits on the robot's back but you can remove it and fold the blades together as a gun barrel for his weapon mode. It just so happens that the space in between the blades is almost exactly the same size as one of the gattling guns so if you close the blades round the gattling it forms a large clip on cannon for the robot's arm.
Articulation is superb: ball jointed ankles, double bending knees, thigh swivel, ball jointed hips & neck, shoulders that fold back at the body, turn and fold out to the sides, bicep swivel & bending elbow. Sadly his hands are moulded open so no holding 5mm or Mechtech weapons. The inappropriate features department would like to draw attention to his waist panel: it turns round putting a 5mm peg, used on the toy's weapons mode, in front of the robot's crotch..... wait, it's worse than that! The peg is actually hollow in the middle so it serves as a Minicon peg. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Where's Minicon Skyburst?
Transformation to vehicle mode: If it isn't already, slide the folded out helicopter blades onto his back with the hole at the top. Turn the head round and fold the blades onto the top of the shoulders. Remove the weapons. Straighten the arms and swing the arms round 90 degrees at the bicep. Lift the arms up to the sides at the shoulders and fold back, bringing them together to form the helicopter's tail. Fold the waist backwards so the legs stretch out the back of the vehicle. Fold the silver chest panel up, then fold out the nose & cockpit clipping the chest panel in as a windshield. Fold the missiles out from the legs, fold the legs forward, bending them twice at the knees, then fold the ankles forward so the ski feet act as the helicopter's landing gear. You'll almost certainly pop the skis off at this stage, I did! Sit Major Sparkplug, a blonde haired human in a green flight suit, inside the cockpit
Whirl's vehicle mode is a small one man helicopter, mainly brown in appearance, with a 4 bladed main rotor. In front of the rotor mount is a searchlight formed from the lightpipe at the back of the robot's head. The canopy is the solid silver painted panel from the robot's chest which frankly looks even worse here than on the robot mode. Moulding it in the same clear blue as the lightpipe would have helped it here and improved the robot at the same time. Under the nose is a pair of guns, each of which end in a 3mm bar, while the missiles to the sides of the cockpit also serve as 3mm bars, and there's a 3mm peg sticking out from each side of the tail. It's not the worst Transformers helicopter ever but there is something lacking....
Weapons Mode: fold the Helicopter blades upwards locking the tips together. Rotate the sides of the helicopter, the robot's legs, forward & up 90 degrees. Transform the cockpit back to hoe it was in robot mode. Fold out the 5mm peg for holding the weapon. Easily the best of the Human Alliance weapons modes. It's a hand held gattling gun with a rotating barrel, what's not to like? As a bonus you can turn it over, extend the legs a little and use it as a ground based stand alone weapon, like the auto guns in Aliens.
Whirl also has a Mech suit mode, but that's just the robot mode with the chest folded out into the vehicle's cockpit.
There's a lot to like in this toy, especially the innovative rotor blade transformation that forms the gun and the c-clip weapons. The robot's wide stance is a little odd, and it's chest is just wrong as a flat piece of painted plastic. Moulding this in clear blue like the lightpipe would have made it more interesting, given the helicopter a proper canopy you can see through, the lack of which is a major issue in that mode, and a flip up targeting screen for weapons mode. I wonder if this part ended up on the wrong tree ?
Whirl was a Dark of the Moon Human Alliance toy. He was released in the USA but at the time of writing hasn't been seen in the UK where the Human Alliance toys are exclusives to Argos. He was released in Japan as Dark of the Moon toy DA-26.
Future Repaints Pale blue, like the original Whirl, with a blue windshield please!
The name Whirl has history and association for transformers fans. Its started out on the 1985 Deluxe Autobot Whirl, the first Transformers helicopter, an early UK non release and member of the Wreckers. It's then become a first choice for helicopter repaints being used on the 2004 Universe toy (a repaint of Rotorstorm), the 2007 Legend (a repaint of Legends of Cybertron Evac) and as a 2009 Movie Repaint (which used the original Movie Blackout).
Whirl's robot mode looses points straight away by being coloured brown, and not blue like the original. He looks a little odd with a wide waist separating the legs and helicopter landing skis for feet, and a protruding flat panel for a chest that could really do with a nice large faction symbol in the middle of it to break up the plain silver. We'll speak more about the chest panel when we get to vehicle mode..... The head is a face, surrounded by a helmet with lightpiped eyes, but spin the head round and you get a large mono lensed searchlight head similar to some of those seen on the 2007 Movie toys and reminding you over the one eyed design the original had.
He's covered in 3mm bars: one sticking out from his forearm, one going round his shoulder in an L shape, one formed from the missile that is folded behind the upper legs and one on the end of the helicopter's chin guns the are mounted on the sides of the robot chest. His weapons to clip on it are really good too: a pair of moulded 6 barrelled gattling guns. In a wonderful piece of design you can mount them on the front of the shoulder so that the bar over the top of the shoulder recesses into a gap at the back of the gun. Each gattling has a pair of bars on each side of it for more add on weapons. The rotor from his helicopter mode sits on the robot's back but you can remove it and fold the blades together as a gun barrel for his weapon mode. It just so happens that the space in between the blades is almost exactly the same size as one of the gattling guns so if you close the blades round the gattling it forms a large clip on cannon for the robot's arm.
Articulation is superb: ball jointed ankles, double bending knees, thigh swivel, ball jointed hips & neck, shoulders that fold back at the body, turn and fold out to the sides, bicep swivel & bending elbow. Sadly his hands are moulded open so no holding 5mm or Mechtech weapons. The inappropriate features department would like to draw attention to his waist panel: it turns round putting a 5mm peg, used on the toy's weapons mode, in front of the robot's crotch..... wait, it's worse than that! The peg is actually hollow in the middle so it serves as a Minicon peg. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Where's Minicon Skyburst?
Transformation to vehicle mode: If it isn't already, slide the folded out helicopter blades onto his back with the hole at the top. Turn the head round and fold the blades onto the top of the shoulders. Remove the weapons. Straighten the arms and swing the arms round 90 degrees at the bicep. Lift the arms up to the sides at the shoulders and fold back, bringing them together to form the helicopter's tail. Fold the waist backwards so the legs stretch out the back of the vehicle. Fold the silver chest panel up, then fold out the nose & cockpit clipping the chest panel in as a windshield. Fold the missiles out from the legs, fold the legs forward, bending them twice at the knees, then fold the ankles forward so the ski feet act as the helicopter's landing gear. You'll almost certainly pop the skis off at this stage, I did! Sit Major Sparkplug, a blonde haired human in a green flight suit, inside the cockpit
Whirl's vehicle mode is a small one man helicopter, mainly brown in appearance, with a 4 bladed main rotor. In front of the rotor mount is a searchlight formed from the lightpipe at the back of the robot's head. The canopy is the solid silver painted panel from the robot's chest which frankly looks even worse here than on the robot mode. Moulding it in the same clear blue as the lightpipe would have helped it here and improved the robot at the same time. Under the nose is a pair of guns, each of which end in a 3mm bar, while the missiles to the sides of the cockpit also serve as 3mm bars, and there's a 3mm peg sticking out from each side of the tail. It's not the worst Transformers helicopter ever but there is something lacking....
Weapons Mode: fold the Helicopter blades upwards locking the tips together. Rotate the sides of the helicopter, the robot's legs, forward & up 90 degrees. Transform the cockpit back to hoe it was in robot mode. Fold out the 5mm peg for holding the weapon. Easily the best of the Human Alliance weapons modes. It's a hand held gattling gun with a rotating barrel, what's not to like? As a bonus you can turn it over, extend the legs a little and use it as a ground based stand alone weapon, like the auto guns in Aliens.
Whirl also has a Mech suit mode, but that's just the robot mode with the chest folded out into the vehicle's cockpit.
There's a lot to like in this toy, especially the innovative rotor blade transformation that forms the gun and the c-clip weapons. The robot's wide stance is a little odd, and it's chest is just wrong as a flat piece of painted plastic. Moulding this in clear blue like the lightpipe would have made it more interesting, given the helicopter a proper canopy you can see through, the lack of which is a major issue in that mode, and a flip up targeting screen for weapons mode. I wonder if this part ended up on the wrong tree ?
Whirl was a Dark of the Moon Human Alliance toy. He was released in the USA but at the time of writing hasn't been seen in the UK where the Human Alliance toys are exclusives to Argos. He was released in Japan as Dark of the Moon toy DA-26.
Future Repaints Pale blue, like the original Whirl, with a blue windshield please!