Zob's Thoughts on Robots in Disguise 2 Deluxe-Class Windblade

[Zobovor]

I have not been collecting the RiD2 toy line faithfully (I think I have perhaps five other toys in the series) but I had to work about 12 hours yesterday (the infamous "Black Friday" sale that falls on Thursday lately) and I wanted to buy something to reward myself for surviving it. Windblade intrigued me and it's still new and refreshing to get a female Transformers who isn't Arcee. Plus, you know, she could be project fodder one day. You never know.

I actually wasn't going to review this toy at all (it was an impulse purchase and I don't have any attachment to the character or the world she inhabits). I got RiD2 Sideswipe ages ago and never said anything about him here, partly because Gustavo Wombat said he was a douchebag and I didn't want him judging me. Despite this, I'm uploading some files and so there's not much else to do at the moment, so here I am.

I have the Generations Windblade toy from 2014 in a box somewhere, but I don't remember which box so I haven't dug her back out for comparison. After working for 12 hours yesterday, I am allowed to be a slacker for one single, solitary toy review. So, anyway. This is kind of like a cartoony, kid-friendly Windblade. The first version was black with some red, but this version is mostly a bright, cheery red. She seems happier.

A lot of the same functionality is present. She has a sword and sheathe, and the sheathe connects to her hip. Her kabuki quantum fighter mask deco is retained, as is the geisha fan, which can be worn in her "hair" (she doesn't have hair) or held in her "hand" as a "weapon" (she actually does have hands; I just like putting random words in quotes). She's got a great, big jet nose and tail section hanging off her back, like a particularly feminine Aerialbot. I guess that stuff has to go somewhere. You can attach the sword sheathe to her backpack if you want to make her a tripod and help her stand up.

Transformation is a bit more successful than the floppy 2014 toy, which was essentially a folded-up girl robot with wings poking out. On this toy, there are a lot of pieces that lock together and the end result is much nicer. When you flip the jet nose up, there are rectangular tabs that connect to the robot shoulders. Her forearms do just sort of hang uselessly at her sides, but they plug into her hips so at least they lock in place. Robot legs do the same thing as the Generations toy where they collapse into themselves, but they actually look like part of the jet in vehicle form and not just a jet with robot legs tacked onto the top.

There's a flip-out nose gear, and the robot feet essentially act as the rear landing wheels. You can attach the sword sheathe to the undercarriage, but it makes her look like a jet dragging a sword behind her, and it interferes with the jet's ability to land. Like the previous toy, she has individually-positionable VTOL engines on her wings. The geisha fan can remain connected to her head when she's transformed, or you can pop it off and attach it to the underside of the jet nose if you want her to look extra-ridiculous.

Have I expressed my strong dislike lately for the app-enabled faction symbols? It feels like it almost makes the toys subservient to the app. Maybe if the symbols were hidden somewhere on the toys instead of being displayed so prominently. They just bug me.

Oh, and she's compatible with Mini-Cons. I guess they can attach to her forearms or something. I would have to dig one out and check. I'm too lazy to do it right now. Twelve hours, folks.

It's very rare for me to buy a toy based solely on its styling and aesthetic appeal. These days, I tend to only buy Transformers toys who are part of the classic G1 mythos, which represent characters from my childhood. The fact that Windblade successfully enticed me without any previous 1980's connection is quite a feat.


Zob (because I clearly need more toys, you see)

[Gustavo Wombat]

Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> I have not been collecting the RiD2 toy line faithfully (I think I have
> perhaps five other toys in the series) but I had to work about 12 hours
> yesterday (the infamous "Black Friday" sale that falls on Thursday
> lately) and I wanted to buy something to reward myself for surviving it.
> Windblade intrigued me and it's still new and refreshing to get a female
> Transformers who isn't Arcee. Plus, you know, she could be project
> fodder one day. You never know.

There are a lot of really nice toys in the PrimeRID Warrior class. Other
than Sideswipe, I think they all are at least passable. Weird aesthetic,
but I just figure the Earth they landed on has everything in that style,
and it helps them blend in.

> I actually wasn't going to review this toy at all (it was an impulse
> purchase and I don't have any attachment to the character or the world
> she inhabits). I got RiD2 Sideswipe ages ago and never said anything
> about him here, partly because Gustavo Wombat said he was a douchebag and
> I didn't want him judging me.

If you agreed with me, I would at least judge you favorably. You don't like
PrimeRID Sideswipe, do you? You know he's such a douchebag that he even has
a crappy toy to disappoint children, don't you?

> Despite this, I'm uploading some files and so there's not much else to
> do at the moment, so here I am.
>
> I have the Generations Windblade toy from 2014 in a box somewhere, but I
> don't remember which box so I haven't dug her back out for comparison.
> After working for 12 hours yesterday, I am allowed to be a slacker for
> one single, solitary toy review. So, anyway. This is kind of like a
> cartoony, kid-friendly Windblade. The first version was black with some
> red, but this version is mostly a bright, cheery red. She seems happier.

She also doesn't seem out of place with Generations toys -- a bit sleeker
in both modes, but that could easily be a gender marker.

> Transformation is a bit more successful than the floppy 2014 toy, which
> was essentially a folded-up girl robot with wings poking out. On this
> toy, there are a lot of pieces that lock together and the end result is
> much nicer. When you flip the jet nose up, there are rectangular tabs
> that connect to the robot shoulders. Her forearms do just sort of hang
> uselessly at her sides, but they plug into her hips so at least they lock
> in place. Robot legs do the same thing as the Generations toy where they
> collapse into themselves, but they actually look like part of the jet in
> vehicle form and not just a jet with robot legs tacked onto the top.

She's a much more successful toy.

> There's a flip-out nose gear, and the robot feet essentially act as the
> rear landing wheels. You can attach the sword sheathe to the
> undercarriage, but it makes her look like a jet dragging a sword behind
> her, and it interferes with the jet's ability to land. Like the previous
> toy, she has individually-positionable VTOL engines on her wings. The
> geisha fan can remain connected to her head when she's transformed, or
> you can pop it off and attach it to the underside of the jet nose if you
> want her to look extra-ridiculous.

Ooh, I do want her to look extra ridiculous, so that's a great idea!

> Have I expressed my strong dislike lately for the app-enabled faction
> symbols? It feels like it almost makes the toys subservient to the app.
> Maybe if the symbols were hidden somewhere on the toys instead of being
> displayed so prominently. They just bug me.

They bother me a lot less than the date stamps that end up visible in one
or both modes. I can accept that Transformers might have different styling
for their symbols in universe -- why shouldn't the faction symbol be
against a white background with a circle? And why not have information
encoded in that circle? It might be their rank, or just a name tag, or
their credit score... or simply decorative to a robotic being.

But random date stamps?

>
> Oh, and she's compatible with Mini-Cons. I guess they can attach to her
> forearms or something. I would have to dig one out and check. I'm too
> lazy to do it right now. Twelve hours, folks.

PrimeRID has its own minicons that are not compatible with previous
minicons, I think. Some transform into weapons that can be held by standard
hands.

> It's very rare for me to buy a toy based solely on its styling and
> aesthetic appeal. These days, I tend to only buy Transformers toys who
> are part of the classic G1 mythos, which represent characters from my
> childhood. The fact that Windblade successfully enticed me without any
> previous 1980's connection is quite a feat.

I really like that the G1 mythos has been expanding lately. I don't have a
great fondness for the IDW universe, but I can happily accept that
characters like Wingblade were there in proper G1, somewhere in the
background, having adventures that we never saw.

The Deathsaurus combiner set is filled with characters that mean nothing to
me, despite them actually having some precedent in G1, and I don't see
Wingblade as being any different. Or Victorion. Or Generations Lugnut.

(Genuinely pleased that Lugnut got a Generations toy -- he's a character
archetype that G1 never had, and he really makes sense and should be there.
Loyal and somewhat dim Decepticon)

(Generations Thunderhoof or Bisk might be going to far... but I would love
a Generations Knockout)

> Zob (because I clearly need more toys, you see)

Of course.



--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

I was thinking about picking that one up, I've gotten 4 from this series, but the detail on the faces I've seen in the store just bug me. I have the older Generations version, and the jet mode on this one looks much more like a jet.

[Zobovor]

On Friday, November 25, 2016 at 5:22:51 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> If you agreed with me, I would at least judge you favorably. You don't like
> PrimeRID Sideswipe, do you? You know he's such a douchebag that he even has
> a crappy toy to disappoint children, don't you?

I don't hate him, certainly. He's got just enough Sideswipe elements that I can accept him as a reimagining of the G1 character in a multi-mythos kind of way (red, wheels on the shoulders, car headlights in the robot chest). The helmet-hair is ridiculous and has to go, of course. That's just Nightscream-level doofy.

> I can accept that Transformers might have different styling for their symbols
> in universe -- why shouldn't the faction symbol be against a white background
> with a circle?

I can accept that there are occasionally variations on the traditional symbols (like the weird, proto-Autobot symbol on the forehead of one of the ancient Autobot leaders inside the Matrix in "Five Faces of Darkness" part 4 or the way the symbols on all the Paradron robots in "Fight or Flee" were slightly different). From a real-life perspective, I dislike the symbols because they take up a lot more real estate on the toys and they're not very aesthetically pleasing to my eyes. They're just one step away from UPC codes on the toys.

> PrimeRID has its own minicons that are not compatible with previous
> minicons, I think.

I have a handful of them. Ratbat and Beastbox and my eight-year-old son has a few more. I just don't know where any of them are right now.

> The Deathsaurus combiner set is filled with characters that mean nothing to
> me, despite them actually having some precedent in G1, and I don't see
> Wingblade as being any different. Or Victorion. Or Generations Lugnut.

There are millions of robots from Cybertron who never got featured in G1 in any capacity, so I'm definitely okay with the idea of expanding the G1 mythos retroactively. Along the same lines, after all this time, there still have not been 100 named Smurfs, even after all the comics and cartoons, so I can accept that the new characters being invented for the CGI films are "really" part of that original complement.

With that said, I tend to be a fan almost exclusively of stuff from my childhood, so anything introduced much later afterwards just doesn't hold the same level of appeal for me. I collected a lot of the Star Wars toys from the prequel trilogy, but Watto and Jar Jar Binks and Darth Maul are never, ever going to be as important or meaningful to me personally as Chewbacca or Boba Fett or Greedo.


Zob (generic background characters are sort of this odd middle-ground because they were technically always there)

[Gustavo Wombat]

Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Friday, November 25, 2016 at 5:22:51 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> If you agreed with me, I would at least judge you favorably. You don't like
>> PrimeRID Sideswipe, do you? You know he's such a douchebag that he even has
>> a crappy toy to disappoint children, don't you?
>
> I don't hate him, certainly. He's got just enough Sideswipe elements
> that I can accept him as a reimagining of the G1 character in a
> multi-mythos kind of way (red, wheels on the shoulders, car headlights in
> the robot chest). The helmet-hair is ridiculous and has to go, of
> course. That's just Nightscream-level doofy.

He doesn't hold together in robot mode well, and he doesn't roll well in
vehicle mode. He's a failure. And he does it deliberately to disappoint
children.

>> The Deathsaurus combiner set is filled with characters that mean nothing to
>> me, despite them actually having some precedent in G1, and I don't see
>> Wingblade as being any different. Or Victorion. Or Generations Lugnut.
>
> There are millions of robots from Cybertron who never got featured in G1
> in any capacity, so I'm definitely okay with the idea of expanding the G1
> mythos retroactively. Along the same lines, after all this time, there
> still have not been 100 named Smurfs, even after all the comics and
> cartoons, so I can accept that the new characters being invented for the
> CGI films are "really" part of that original complement.
>
> With that said, I tend to be a fan almost exclusively of stuff from my
> childhood, so anything introduced much later afterwards just doesn't hold
> the same level of appeal for me. I collected a lot of the Star Wars toys
> from the prequel trilogy, but Watto and Jar Jar Binks and Darth Maul are
> never, ever going to be as important or meaningful to me personally as
> Chewbacca or Boba Fett or Greedo.

I really enjoy the Clone Wars cartoon, and the Silent Movie edits of the
prequels so a lot of the characters and designs have been redeemed for me.

I am hopeful something makes me like Episode 7 stuff... Perhaps Episode 8
will.

> Zob (generic background characters are sort of this odd middle-ground
> because they were technically always there)
>