Titans Return Windblade & Scorchfire

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Titans Return Windblade with Scorchfire

Since Scourge had already had one major remould as Highbrow I didn't expect to be looking at the mould again except as a Sweep or Beast Machines Obsidian repaint. The first sniff of a Windblade came a few days before Toyfair 2017 when a rumour stating she was a Highbrow retool emerged, to some doubt which wasn't 100% silenced by her reveal in the Toyfair 2017 showroom.

I could spot from a distance some shared parts, notably round the upper legs, but now she's in hand I can list a whole load of parts that are the same: Scourge's feet (Highbrow's heel spurs), the spine/inner waist, the knees, upper legs, hips, shoulder joint, elbow, bellow the bicep on the upper arm, the Titanmaster connector and the Titanmaster's chest, upper & lower legs. There appears to be some mould degradation as a few of these, the spine and the upper legs in particular, look to have slightly changed shape and definition while retaining the same detail.

Her Titanmaster Scorchfire is all black with a new head and arms which helps to separate her from Xort, Fracas and the forthcoming Legends Sweep head. She, and I'm presuming a female Transformer's Titanmaster would also be female, transforms into a head with a really good representation of the Windblade face on it.

The figure itself is slightly odd: the top half is y our typical slim armed busty Windblade but the lower half looks too big for the upper half. The Upper legs, carried over parts remember, are far too square and chunky in comparison with the arms while the lower legs are similarly large in order to accommodate having the upper legs folded into them during transformation. It isn't a complete disaster by any means, and stands far far better than the original Windblade did, it just looks ever so slightly odd.

Articulation: foot bends at the ankle, bending knees, thigh swivels, universal joints at the hips, shoulders that shrug down a bit at the body as part of the transformation, ball jointed shoulders, bicep swivels, bending elbow and a neck joint provided by the Titanmaster. As it's the same Titanmaster connector as Scourge and Highbrow some people have reported problems with it but I can't see anything major on any of the the three toys and their heads stay attached fine for me.

Weapons: because it's Windblade she needs a sword and here she has not one but two! The design differs from the curved blade seen on previous deluxe Windblade toys, she now has a pair of straight blades, cast in clear yellow plastic, and painted silver everywhere bar the handles, leading blade edge and a tab used for storing the weapons on each wing. The swords can be held individually but can be combined into a double bladed weapon which she can hold by one of the handles. The weapon by itself can also function as a Titanmaster vehicle, via a seat at the back which accomodates a Titanmaster who'se feet peg onto the front of seat area. It's not great as a stand alone vehicle to be honest and works better as a weapon though, as we'll see, it can attach to the vehicle mode too. For storing the combined weapon, fold down the landing gear on Windblade's back and place tha Landing gear's foot into the rectangular hole imediately in front of the Titanmaster's seat.

Transformation: Remove the weapons and the Titanmaster. Straighten he arms to the sides and swing each in 90° at the bicep. Extend the spine by pulling down on the legs/waist. Tab the arms into the back panel. Fold the wings forward. Fold the nose up off the back and into place. Fold the feet down. Lay the toy down on the robot's front. Fold the lower legs forward 180° at the knee so that the feet rest between the wings, Tab the weapons in under each wing, open the cockpit and sit the Titanmaster inside.

So much simpler than the T30 version to transform and so much more stable in jet mode: rock solid here compared to the floppy mess of the T30 version. The shape is broadly similar to both existing Windblades with the pivoting fans still present in the wings. She's mainly red, with black highlights so is more similar in colour to the Legends versions rather than he mainly black Generations toy. There's two individual Titanmaster footpegs either side of the body should any Titanmasters want to stand on her. Her combined sword weapon tabs in behind and projects out over the cockpit. It looks a bit odd but I can see what they were going for and if you don't like it then stor the blades under the wings. The slot for attaching the weapon is a little odd: it's cut over and through a 5mm peg hole behind the cockpit that's useless tio Windblade as she comes here. Her swords, while possessing 5mm handles, are tapered to the end and won't fit in it. I can only presume that it's present at Takara's request to accommodate a Titanmaster accessory in weapons mode or a Targetmaster. The only problem with that is Haywire, Blurr's Targetmaster, has been done with Doublecross, Fracas would be surely with a Decepticon, all the other Targetmasters have either been packed with their toys or their toys haven't been made yet and there's no real Titanmaster sword weapon! I await Takara's version with interest to see what they do!

Proportions of upper to lower body aside I think Titans Return Windblade is a decent toy. It's a far better Windblade than the original to my mind, having a jet mode that doesn't fall apart when you look at it helps there! I probably should get rid of the original but I think it will have to stay because there's a slight chance I might want to use it's sword with this toy!

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Future Repaints

Windblade has Combiner Hunters and Titan Force versions this toy could be repainted into, with my preference going to a Titan Force repaint as that was already associated with Titans Return. The original Windblade was also remade as Legends Slipstream and Botcon 2016 Airazor.