It’s 2024, and you know what just made me feel old? The fact that the original Windblade toy came out an entire decade ago. That’s right, the line that she hailed from, Transformers Generations: Thrilling 30, came out in 2014! And what a Transformers line it was, a real moment of change in the franchise. Historically, it was the first time Generations became the *main* Transformers toyline, instead of a side-line in between the movies. It was also the first time we got a Titan-Class figure, Metroplex. And one of the last releases in this line was the original Windblade toy, the immigrant from the planet Caminus with the power to speak to, and control city-sized Titans.
The original.
What made Windblade special was that she was a “fan-built bot.” That year, there was a long series of online polls that fans could take part in, to decide every aspect of the character, including faction, gender, altmode, primary colors, weapons, name, powers, even personality traits. Windblade was the result, and her character would also get a marquee role in IDW’s Transformers comics following her debut.
When you’re a newcomer to Transformers, and don’t know any of the established character traits.
But beyond that original push, the character proved to have legs on her own merits, going onto appear in multiple shows (The Prime Wars trilogy, The 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon, and Cyberverse), a ton more comics, and get more figures than just that first one. Which is a good thing, because man, that first figure was *not* good, which was disappointing. To put it briefly, it can barely stand under its own weight thanks to bizarrely-designed feet, one of the accessories broke like a minute after unboxing my copy (it’s glued on now), and just, generally, she’s really fiddly, somehow both over and under-designed. Luckily, that wasn’t the only time they tried. Still, up until now, there hasn’t really been a “definitive” good version of her. The Titans Return one, which I reviewed some years back, was pretty fun, but it was kind of an odd variant instead of her standard look, and still had a few frustrating shortcomings, on top of being really rare.
Pretty good, but not definitive. And good luck finding one.
So, her getting a new figure in Legacy United immediately appealed to me, as a chance to finally do her right.
Robot Mode
The hand’s always on the hilt.
So, this is “Cyberverse Universe” Windblade, meaning it’s based on her appearance in the Cyberverse animated series (which, by the way, was really good, and if you haven’t watched it, here’s the whole thing legally on YouTube.)
She’s specifically this version.
But Windblade isn’t the kind of character that’s had a ton of design variety in the stories she’s been in, so this is still very much her standard look, and when I actually compare it to her show design, there’s a bunch of little details that they changed, anyway. In fact, I think she’s the exact same height as the Thrilling 30 one (it’s hard to tell when I can’t get that one to stay standing).
For this comparison shot, I gave up, and used a figure stand on the Thrilling 30 one.
The point is, this is very much Normal Windblade, a kind of geisha-looking lady-bot, with wings on her back.
All of them are anything but demure, though.
I think the biggest point of variance with this take on the design is her big, flared Mega Man-like boots, which adjusts her silhouette in a way I like.
It makes her feel like she can hover.
You know, a decade later, I kind of think the Geisha motif was a bit ill-advised (especially considering that it wasn’t something the polls voted on), but it is what it is, and it’s rendered well here. Uptop, she’s got an ornately detailed, made-up face, complete with clipped hair, and a sort of serious, stern expression.
Her role in IDW’s comics involved a lot of debates like this.
To be honest, I think I like the Titans Return version’s headsculpt better, it looked more like a person’s face, and less like an artificial facade, if that makes sense, plus it matched how Saren Stone drew her in the IDW comics. Still, the new headsculpt is more accurate to the Cyberverse cartoon’s look, which is the marginal mission statement.
Her and Bumblebee’s friendship on that show was a wholesome high point.
I think the only real qualm I have with this sculpt is that she’s got a surprisingly large backpack of folded-up jet parts behind her wings.
The burden hardest to bear.
On the other hand, as multiple other fans have figured out, the whole thing’s just on a friction hinge, so you can just pop it off if it really bothers you, a la Studio Series 86 Arcee.
An easily-managed burden, it turns out.
That, and I guess that the front-facing side of the wings is full of gaps and pegholes, but I keep not noticing they’re there, because they scan to my eyes as deliberate techie detailing.
Since I no longer have Chromia, Bee Movie Arcee’s the understudy.
The colors are, again, traditional Windblade: Red and black plastic, with hits of light blue and silver across her body. Probably the biggest shift in her design over the years, I think, is that there’s gradually been more red and less black on her. What hasn’t changed is that her head gets the lion’s share of the deco, thanks to that geisha motif, with a silver face with ornate patterns in blue and red on it (including lipstick), plus a gold hairclip at the back. Again, the idea’s a bit dated, but the execution’s done really well.
Bumblebee doesn’t judge.
I think the only paint app she’s lacking is that the fans on her wings are only painted silver on one side, though there’s nothing stopping you from rotating them so that the painted side’s facing whatever way you want. Plus, considering how much deco her face alone demands, I’m impressed she looks so complete.
Windy Kick?
Build quality is, to my relief, on par with Legacy’s high standards. She’s not the fiddly mess of the original, and she’s not the chunk of blocks the Titans Return one was, she’s just…solidly normal. And can stand just fine! Well, okay, she’s taken a couple tumbles since I’ve gotten her, but within acceptable parameters. It helps if you pop that backpack off, she balances a bit better.
Flying Scissor Mode?
When it comes to articulation, firstly, and most importantly, yes, she has wrist swivels. Since her whole deal is that she’s a swordswoman, this is very important, and the Titans Return one didn’t have them, nor, I hear, did the Robots in Disguise Warrior (the original did). Beyond that, she’s got a standard set of Legacy bends and swivels, plus a few extras, like transformation joints giving her “toe” articulation, plus the ability for her wings to both flare out diagonally, and a bit backwards (again, she can do both to a higher degree if her backpack is popped off). One thing that does bug me, though, is the sculpted “collar” around her neck, because it slightly blocks her ball-jointed head articulation via collisions with her chin, but it’s very minor.
She’s bendy enough to beat Bludgeon!
So, for accessories, she firstly has her all-important sword (you’d be surprised how many versions of her don’t come with it.) As per the original, it’s a purple translucent not-lightsaber, with an ornate black handle (pretty sure the whole thing’s painted over clear plastic, given the clear pegs on the sides of the hilt).
She can even hold it two-handed.
The difference this time around is that the blade’s sculpted like crackling, rippling energy, instead of an actual sword, and it’s an effect I like. The only downside is that it no longer has a scabbard you can unsheathe it from, but I think losing that was worth the stylistic choice, and you can still pin it to her hip via those pegs I mentioned.
Not that it’ll spend much time there.
Meanwhile, that golden hairclip at the back of her head can also come out, to be used as a kind of war fan.
Apologies for the extreme closeup.
Now, on the original Windblade, it was difficult to remove, and fragile, and I know I’m not the only one that snapped it in two. I’m told that the 2016 Robots in Disguise Warrior had a better version of the feature, and that’s also the case here, sort of. See, it’s still a really tight connection to her head, and a bit stressful to remove, but it hasn’t broken yet!
Look out, she’s gonna fan you to death!
She can hold it in her hand, but more importantly, in an undocumented feature I discovered on Transformers Twitter, there’s these little grooves in her hands that let you plug it in and have her hold it in a way that resembles an actual fan, a really nice bonus.
Who is she?
Finally, while officially the backpack doesn’t do anything (you’re not even supposed to remove it), a friend of mine figured out that you can remove it, partially transform it into its jet mode configuration, and snap it around one of her arms, to make a kind of shield/cudgel/big laser attachment.
No idea what it’s for, but it’s not bad-looking!
It’s not much, but it’s not official, either.
*BONK*
And, to their credit, despite her waifish physique, they found real estate on her for some 5-millimeter accessory ports, on her feet, shins, beneath her forearms, behind her shoulders (though not much fits there), and on her wings.
After the 5000th political debate, she finally snapped.
Transformation
All Windblades have always been pretty simple to transform, usually some variety of “hide the head, deploy a cockpit over it, belly-flop, compress the legs,” and this one’s no exception.
*Muffled politics noises*
It’s the kind of transformation you remember instantly after the first time. And it finds a satisfying middle ground between the overly-complicated original, and the way-too-simple Titans Return version, by keeping it simple, but giving you a bunch of little fidgety stuff to do, like unfurling the backpack into a larger cockpit, and doing a lot of tabbing and snapping things in. Critically, all those tabs actually work, and do their job, unlike the original. When going back to robot mode, there’s an easily-missed step, though: Be sure to tilt her shoulderpads back up. It doesn’t even cause problems, they just look a little nicer that way.
Jet Mode
Nyoom? Nyoom.
Same as usual, Windblade transforms into a vaguely Cybertronian jet with VTOL fans on her wings, a design that hasn’t really changed much over time. If this version does anything unique, it’s that both her cockpit and VTOL fans come off as being a bit teeny-tiny compared to other takes on the design, giving her the illusion of size.
What if Windblade was a Titan, instead of just someone who could talk to them?
Not sure where that came from, they were larger on the show, not that I mind, because they work here. Meanwhile, every take on Windblade has two pitfalls they need to contend with in this mode: Hiding the fact that her back section is compressed robot legs, and hiding her torso and arms dangling beneath her. In the case of this version, they hide the legs pretty well, with her shin details blending into the back of the jet pretty decently, and a bunch of fold-out wings further helping the whole assembly blend.
I think the IDW politicking would have been more interesting if they were in altmode the entire time.
As for her torso and arms, though, little to no attempt was made to hide them, and her arms are pretty blatantly visible from most angles. Amusingly, her hands are gripping a pair of pegs around her tailfins, making it look like she’s actively holding herself together.
Those grips are how she sublimates the stress of interacting with Starscream.
It’s not the worst problem to have, but I wish there’s even been a little attempt to disappear it a bit.
She got redder over the years.
In terms of colors, this is the mode where her gradual design shift to more red and less black has become most evident, as red’s now her primary color, with black basically being an accent color, along with those same bits of silver and blue, and a clear cockpit. It’s a good shade of red, though, and it highlights the newly-present metal riveting details across the jet’s body really well.
It’s debatable if it’s a good Earth disguise, though.
Another thing I really appreciate in this mode: The stability. Everything locks in, stays stable, and makes the whole thing feel like the good kind of flying brick, a trait I’m glad was imported from the Titans Return one.
Caminans roll out. Ignore that I left her landing gear deployed.
So, for features, we’ve still got a couple things kicking around. Firstly, you can rotate her VTOL fans as you like. Secondly, there’s a piece of landing gear you can flip out from beneath her cockpit (her rear landing gear is sculpted in). I keep forgetting which way to pull on it to deploy it, but that’s more of a me problem, I think (also a me problem: I forgot to fold it back in for a bunch of these flying photos). Finally, they decided to get a bit creative with her weapon storage: Her sword fits onto pegs in between her robot feet, and the crackling energy of it becomes a trail of exhaust. It’s a clever way to handle it, though I wish it was easier to place the sword there, you basically have to undo the whole back of the altmode to make it happen. Meanwhile, the actual bottoms of her feet can still host blast effects, if you felt like she didn’t have enough exhaust.
What we all wish we could do when it’s time for a long meeting.
And the bottoms of her wings still have 5 millimeter pegholes, if you want to mount some weapons, Seeker-style.
Aragon’s guns work especially well.
Overall
Well, they finally did it, they finally made a good Normal Windblade.
She won the Game of Thrones of Transformers.
There’s no question that this is better than the Thrilling 30 original, if only in terms of “can stand, can hold together in both modes, and feels solid.” And while the Titans Return one was pretty good for its day, this one looks more like who she’s supposed to be, and has enough quality-of-life improvements to outclass it. I daresay this one’s almost a bit difficult to talk about, because of how it’s just The Design, But Done Well, though I will say, it’s not soulless the way some of the Studio Series 86 releases can be, this feels like the designers really wanted a redux to make a solid do-over. So, yes, this is the Windblade you want, if you’re after a Windblade. We helped build her, after all.
But can she talk to this Titan?
For over 100 Bot, Non-Bot, and Retro Bot Reviews, click here to view my archive.
