Tomahawk (who has an
AWESOME name, by the by) has the alternate mode of, appropriately, a helicopter.
For the MOST part, this mode is pretty good, but it has one huge, glaring
flaw-- namely, that the robot legs stick out like a sore thumb from the
bottom. I mean, yeah the legs are collapsed in a fair amount, but they
still are a big bulbous protrusion out of the bottom of what is otherwise
a fairly sleek mode. The feet are the worst offenders, sticking out from
the sides of the helicopter tail. Ignoring that, though, this mode is pretty
nicely proportioned, with no other real extras, either. The mold detailing
is appropriate for a helicopter, being a bit sleek on the top but having
intricate detailing where necessary, such as on the tail rotor and the
cockpit, which has a small pilot's seat molded inside to boot. The main
color of Tomahawk is a dark blue, so dark it looks black except under a
strong light. I'm not fond of the rather ugly pale brownish gray that serves
as Tomahawk's main secondary color (and is visible primarily in robot mode),
though the bluish gray is alright. It's not that exciting of a color scheme
normally, but the accent colors-- namely the gold, silver, and red paint
apps, as well as the transparent yellow plastic-- make the mode look more
visually pleasing than it otherwise would have. The gold lines down the
wings and tail look particularly nice, to the point where I wish there
was a bit more of them to break up the top of this mode. As far as weapons,
Tomahawk has two spring-loaded missile launchers which are attached to
C-clips. He has two clip points-- both on the tail, though for helicopter
mode you'll want to peg them under the wings, as there's more room for
them there and they also help to cover up the leg bits a little. There
are also three flip-out landing gear, though the two that come out of the
feet are pretty much just wheels, since the legs hang so close to the bottom
of the mode anyways. Oh, and regarding Tomahawk's main rotor-- it's on
a bit of a rotating joint (two of the propellers fold behind the other
two for the transformation, which results in those two being slightly higher
than the other two propellers if you look at the vehicle mode from a side
angle). This causes a TAD of resistance, so it doesn't spin quite as freely
as many other helicopter TFs' rotors, though they still can rotate by themselves
a fair bit.
Tomahawk's robot mode
transformation is fairly straightforward, and results in a TF with a rather
slender build. First, the downsides-- the halves of the tail kind of hang
off his arms rather obviously and can get in the way of movement a little,
there. At least they're used a bit, as the one on his right arm has a "claw"
made out of the halves of his tail fins (a rather ingenious design, there),
and the two C-clip bits are in a perfect spot so you can mount his missile
launchers on his arms. His launchers can still be pegged under his wings
if you so desire, however, and the way they come up over his shoulders
in this mode looks fairly nice and actually enhances the silouhette rather
than serving as just a piece of extraneous kibble. The rotors also look
fairly nice splayed behind his lower back and folded in half like they
are, though I wish they had some way to lock in place. The chest-- made
up of his cockpit and side vents from his vehicle mode-- is quite solid,
and his head design is great, being reminscient of a helicopter pilot's
with the visor down. Even with a transparent yellow visor in front of his
blue eyes, however, the light piping still works well, and just looks great
in general. Given the general markings and transformation, this looks a
more movie-styled, "friendly" version of Armada
Cyclonus, though I'm not sure if the homage was intentional or not.
The legs may turn off some, being rather bird-like with two long claws
and the most obviously movie-styled part of the bot mode, having extra
joints at the ankles for a "chicken-walker" stance, though they can be
posed straight if you desire. Me, I like the style of them, though of course
you pay a high price for them in vehicle mode. The color scheme is a bit
more varied in this mode with more paint apps visible and the plastic colors
breaking up a bit, along with introduction of a nice shade of metallic
bronze-- however, it still isn't exactly what I'd call "exciting" or eye-catching.
The mold detailing on the robot bits is what you'd expect for a movie-styled
toy-- i.e., they're covered in little details like pistons and the like,
and just look quite nice. As for articulation, Tomahawk can move at the
neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), hips, knees, and
ankles (at two points). So he has a decent amount of movement though he's
not exactly mind-blowing in that department, and as mentioned before, the
bits of his tail on his arms can get in the way of elbow and shoulder movement
a little.
Tomahawk has an excellent
robot mode with some great weapons and features, but his vehicle mode--
though nice-looking on the top-- has the robot legs just sticking out from
under them. Given that they're rather hard to ignore, they are a fairly
significant drawback and are what keep Tomahawk from getting a "must-buy"
rating of 9.0+. He's still a decent enough mold, though.
Review by Beastbot