Air Raid's vehicle mode is a high-altitude radar plane, and for the most part the proportions in this mode are pretty spot-on. Of course, they're not actually close enough to give Air Raid a licensed real-world alt mode (since he doesn't make any sort of appearance in the movie), but they're certainly close enough. The wings are actually of a reasonable size, a somewhat rare occurrence among jet Transformers, and his sleek look is punctuated quite nicely by the rather unique two intake areas a bit behind the top of the cockpit. For the MOST part he doesn't have any robot parts peeking through in this mode, though his robot chest does stick down below the general outline of this mode near the center; however, since it also pokes down bit right where the main wings come out, it's a minor complaint since it's not that easily visible. However, his robot fist pokes RIGHT out of the back end, so any angle approaching a side or back angle will have it right there, made all the more obvious because it's made of light gray plastic, in contrast to the mostly green plastic surrounding it. In keeping with his sleek look, Air Raid has fairly sparse mold detailing in this mode, but it's there where its needed, like at the cockpit (which is made of transparent plastic), intakes, and areas like that. His color scheme primarily consists of two different shades of green with some silver in this mode, and it works quite well; there aren't many green jet Transformers, and the silver paint throws in a nice "light" color to contrast against the two complementary green shades. That said, including a few more paint apps along the top of the mode certainly wouldn't have hurt. Air Raid has three slightly oversized flip-down landing gear in this mode. Air Raid's Mechtech weapon doubles as his radar dish in this mode, which can be either attached near the rear on two C-clips, or mounted on top of the front area of the plane, slightly behind the cockpit. (There's also a Mechtech port underneath each of his main wings, but it looks pretty weird and unwieldy down there in this mode-- their placement is clearly meant for robot mode.) Pressing forward on the silver-ridged part makes the radar dish convert into a blaster-- though unfortunately, like most Mechetech weapons, as soon as you let go of the trigger it converts back into radar dish mode. Thankfully, even in robot mode the radar dish can be held in his fist kind of like a shield if you angle it downwards, so it's not TOTALLY useless in Air Raid's other mode.
    Air Raid's robot mode is quite skinny, with his arms and upper legs in particularly looking positively skeletal. I understand wanting to keep Transformers visually different to give them different personalities, but I personally feel they're a bit TOO skinny, to the point where I worry about the little light milky gray parts snapping over repeated use if a little too much stress is placed upon them. (Speaking of the light gray parts, they're a really light, ugly color that I wish wasn't used in TFs-- particularly movie TFs-- so much, but at least it's a secondary color here. Would've preferred silver paint over this by quite a bit, though.) Anyways, keeping in mind his skinny, lithe look he looks pretty decent, if a bit two-dimensional from a front angle. (From a side angle, his legs gain a little much-needed bulk.) The way his plane cockpit and main wings fold up behind his back is quite ingenious-- they're completely out of the way of articulation, stay in place, and the wings coming up vertically over his shoulders make for a nice silouhette. His main vehicle Mechtech port being back there also works as a nice storage point for a weapon. That all said, it's clear that a few other pieces of the plane mode Hasbro just didn't know what to do with-- there's some little pieces hanging off the sides of his ankles, but the main offender in this area is his right arm, which just kinda... has a jet tail on it. There aren't any claws that fold out of it or anyway it converts to form any sort of hand-- it's just... there. This is definitely my biggest beef with the figure overall, and is just extraordinarily awkward, having no real use that I can see of. His chest and "robot parts" detailing is great, however, with little pipes and the like molded in everywhere, and I love his angular, partially hollow pelvis (though I'm not fond of the fact that his hips extend out sideways from the waist instead of naturally coming down from the bottom of said waist). His headsculpt has a nice rounded "mohawk" thing going on, but otherwise that part of the sculpt-- though well-detailed-- looks a bit lifeless and doesn't convey much personality. Air Raid's articulation is pretty decent-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows, at the wrist on his right arm, at two points on the lower part of his left arm and at the base of two of his three "tailfins" on his left arm-hand-thing. He can also move at the hips (at three points, including a nice backwards-inwards pivot which helps to partially overcome his lack of waist movement) and knees. Thus, overall he can strike some nifty poses, though I wish his lower legs had a bit more movement in them.
    DotM Air Raid runs roughly in the middle-of-the-pack as far as "mainline" releases go for the line, perhaps a bit below average. His vehicle mode is quite good overall, but his robot mode suffers from overly skinny proportions, a really odd tailfin-arm-thing, and a lack of real personality. Still, for those who are looking for more original designs from their TFs, this mold certainly delivers.

Review by Beastbot

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