The RID2015 version of Windblade borrows heavily from her initial Generations version, with her alt mode being a fairly slim-looking VTOL jet. In general, this is a pretty good alt mode, at least when looked at from the top. The proportions are mostly good (again, from a top-down view), with the sole exception being that the wings could have been just a titch larger overall. She's got unique blade "swoops" on the end of her wings-- which, of course, fits her name perfectly. Her VTOL fans can rotate in place, and even the fanblades are separate pieces and can rotate around if you really dig a fingernail in there. The nosecone looks great and semi-futuristic, with several angular details around the cockpit window-- she also has some intake vent details on the sides of her cockpit, and she does have a flip-down landing gear underneath. The back portion of this mode is, relatively speaking, the weakest; it's generally solid-looking, but the robot hands are VERY clearly sticking out from behind the wings, and her feet are fairly obvious on the back end of this mode, with no real "thruster" details back there either. The extra little wings on the top are odd, but help add to her uniqueness. From a side view the arms are even more obvious-- they don't really fit in with the shape of the jet at all, folks, though at least they peg in solidly-- and you can see Windblade's chest dipping down a bit obviously. Somewhat less obviously are the interior leg portions below her back third or so in this mode. For mold detailing, beyond the aforementioned details on the cockpit, she's fairly sparse, as is the norm for RID2015 figures. She has some neat vent detailing near where her wings meet the main body, some surprisingly intricate little tubing details underneath said wings, and some basic line details on her smaller wings; otherwise she has a pretty angular, but sparsely detailed, look to her. For a color scheme, Windblade is mostly a pretty eye-catching cherry red on her nosecone and wings, and black on her rear third or so. It roughly flips the amounts of the colors from her original Generations figure, with red now being the more dominant of the two colors-- which is fine with me, particularly with this great shade. On the sides of her rear black-colored section, it's oddly broken up between "pure" black and a more charcoally black-- it's a bit of an odd mismatch. Keeping it all "pure" black would've looked better, in my opinion. There's red paint on the sides of this back portion, but it's much, MUCH darker and duller than her red plastic-- it honestly looks kinda bad. Either use a shade of red closer to her plastic or leave it black, Hasbro. There's also some charcoally, semi-metallic black paint on her cockpit windows and her VTOL fans, as well as some silver on her nosecone and a really nice light blue shade of paint on what becomes her robot kneecaps. This last bit in particular goes great against all the other colors; I wish it was used more. Her wings could use a bit more paint, but otherwise she's adequate in this mode in this respect. One last thing worth mentioning about this mode is Windblade's sword and holster weapon, which in this mode peg in between her legs underneath the bulk of the jet. It doesn't really hide it very well, though; it's so large it unbalances the entire mode (nothing else-- not even the landing gear wheels-- now reach down to the ground), and it really looks awkward sticking out down there. Unfortunately there's no other place to put it, so you're stuck with either this huge bulky piece below her jet mode that unbalances the whole thing or leaving the sword accessory somewhere else.
    The transformation to Windblade's robot mode is fairly simple; fold back the wings some, rotate her back section around and unfold it to become the feet and rotate up the legs; then fold up the long skinny piece containing her tailfins onto her back, and fold the nosecone onto her back as well, revealing her robot head. You can peg in her sword holster into the little slot on her hip balljoint, though unfortunately it comes off just as easily as the original Generations version's sword holster, also located there; it's just not a deep enough peg to adequately hold that big of an accessory. Thankfully, coming out of her holster is a pretty cool-detailed sword, with a mini "VTOL engine" detail on the sword's handle like on the original and a very sweeping look to the blade. (Unfortunately, it's completely black with no paint whatsoever-- a real shame, as the VTOL engine detailing in particular could've used some light blue or something.) The "core" proportions of Windblade are pretty good in this mode, with relatively skinny arms with sharp, stylized shoulder pads and fairly delicate-looking hands; a skinny waist; and larger, longer legs with a little more bulk in the hips and definitely more in the feet than in the knees. Her chest has a fairly skinny stomach with a chest that looks like it has armor over it. Her headsculpt is aces, with a collar around the neck joint, little red details underneath her blue eyes on her white face (with red lips), and some charcoal black hair. She also has a yellow-painted removable "hair comb", which she can hold in a hand... though why you would want to do that, I'm not sure. The rest of her head is red, though, which I'm not crazy about-- given how most of the rest of her head should be the equivalent of "hair" keeping it cherry red looks weird, here. Still, she's got a nice "sure of herself" expression on her face, which definitely fits her RID2015 persona. Like the other versions of Windblade, she does have her wings just hanging off her back, which in some instances can enhance her silhouette a bit, but I wish could at least retract a bit so they weren't so large proportionally. Her nosecone sticking off her back is a bit more obnoxious of a vehicle mode extra, as it's quite large, especially at the top where it has to easily fit over Windblade's entire ornately-detailed head. The wing piece also sticks out a bit behind her hips, which is a minor eyesore. For paint specific to this mode, beyond the paint on her face already discussed, she has some more of that really nice light blue on the sides of her chest panels; silver on her stomach/abs; some semi-metallic charcoal black on the pieces that form her hips (but oddly not on the pieces that form the lower portions of her legs); aaaand that's it. Still, given how much detailing is shared between this mode and her jet mode, her colors are still broken up fairly well in most instances. (As mentioned earlier, though, her weapon still desperately needs some paint, and her arms/shoulders could've used some as well.) For articulation, Windblade can move at the neck, shoulders, elbows (at two points), waist rotation, and movement at the hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and a bit back-and-forth at the ankles. She's a bit backheavy so this inhibits her articulation some, but otherwise she's pretty mobile, overall.
    Although the design still has its definite weaknesses (obvious hands in alt mode, an overly clunky weapon acccessory, wings and some other obvious kibble in robot mode), overall this is a definite improvement over Windblade's original Generations design. The stylized jet mode looks generally more solid and less "fragile-looking", and I love the blades on the ends of her wings. In robot mode the improvement is the biggest, with much better proportions and a better ability to stand up and pose than her Generations predecessor. Mildly recommended, though in my opinion, if you only get one version of her RID2015 version I'd make it the slightly-improved Combiner Force variant-- but this is a good "silver" if you can't find that version for a decent price...
 

Review by Beastbot

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