Air
Raid (FoC)
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Generations FoC Shockwave. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Generations FoC Shockwave here.)
Despite his name, Air
Raid isn't meant to be an homage to the G1 character of the same name,
but rather his fellow Aerialbot, Fireflight. (I'm guessing at the time
Hasbro was having trademark issues with the name.) His general color scheme
definitely fits what his name's intended to be, with a slightly dull, slightly
fiery red making up his main color, along with a healthy dose of a nice
(slightly dull) shade of gold and a milky charcoal gray making up his main
secondary colors-- both of which, obviously, go with the whole "flame"
thing he has going on quite well. His transparent plastic is-- obviously--
a nice cherry shade of red as well, and in robot mode a fair bit of silver
comes into play around his chest and face, too. A bit of gunmetal gray
finishes out his colors, basically being a paint-matched version of his
charcoal gray plastic. It all goes together astonishingly well for a flame-themed
Transformer, with just the right amount of every color. There's definitely
plenty of paint apps as well, so there's no large area of just one color.
Air Raid has a new headsculpt,
based on a more streamlined, detailed version of G1 Fireflight's. I LOVE
this headsculpt, with the little rivulets of detail running across his
silver-painted head, and the rather fierce-looking eyes and gunmetal faceplate.
The light piping also works decently on the eyes, though not as good as
Shockwave's. A new headsculpt isn't all that's been changed for Air Raid,
though. For one, he's got a new chestplate as well, which is a pretty cool
design with two translucent hexagon-laced pieces, surrounded by gold &
gunmetal paint and an Autobot symbol in the middle. (That said, the new
chest doesn't "flow" with the mold's waist details as well as Shockwave's
does.) The other major thing that's been changed for Air Raid are the mold's
weapons-- as opposed to a blaster, a small piece that sticks on the top
of his vehicle mode folds together to become a rather nifty-looking sword
for robot mode-- again, translucent red with a silver blade and a gunmetal
hilt, and it looks great. His other weapon is formed out of the "barrel"
of his flying aircraft-gun mode, and is considerably more awkward-- it's
another blade, but the way it's molded Air Raid has to hold it pointed
forward. This looks a bit weird, though the side-guns are still on this
"main" weapon, so at least Air Raid's got a bit of long-range capability,
here. The usage of silver and gold on the translucent red blade looks just
as nice as it does on the rest of the figure, though, and there are some
really nice jagged mold details on the blade.
It was a tough one,
trying to decide if I liked the Shockwave version or the Air Raid version
of this mold better. I eventually decided on a tie-- the mold fits Shockwave
a bit better and his main weapon is better, but Air Raid's overall color
scheme and paint apps are better, and his headsculpt is amazing. So if
you're trying to decide which one to get-- if you have to only get one,
just go with the side you like the most. I'd highly recommend getting both
if you can, though, this is a great mold-- the best of the FoC line.
Review by Beastbot