Windblade has a bit of history to her; she's the first "Fan Built 'Bot". Hasbro held a series of online polls where fans could vote for the Transformer's allegiance, gender, alt mode, weapon, etc-- and this toy here is the result of that vote. In vehicle mode, Windblade is a jet with VTOL engines, and from the top looks fairly good, with one major caveat-- namely, her robot legs and feet are sticking out RIGHT THERE in the middle of the jet. Particularly given that they're the only major red parts in this mode, they really stick out like a sore thumb-- Hasbro should've found a better way to hide the feet, at least. There's also a bit of obvious hollowness in the middle of this mode in between her legs, if you look at her from a near top-down view you can see straight through the body of the jet. Other than that, the jet's overall proportions are pretty good, with a nosecone and cockpit that's a bit larger (read: proportional) than on most jet TFs, three smaller tailfins, and wonderful VTOL fans that can rotate around in their place on each wing and can spin as well. When you get to looking at her from a more side-on view, though, this mode gets a bit weaker. Her robot chest and arms stick out rather blatantly from the underside of the jet-- they aren't super bulky like some of the worst jetformer alt modes, but they're definitely obvious, particularly the arms as the hands stick out behind the wings. If you have her sword stored in this mode that's also another big bump on her undercarriage, to the point where her rear (molded-in) landing gear aren't really needed because the sword sheath keeps the back raised up that much regardless. The back end of the sword sheath also sticks out very blatantly from the back end of the jet. Windblade does at least have one fold-out landing gear underneath her nosecone, however, to keep her more stable with the sword sheath pegged in. The mold detailing on this toy is quite well-done, being a little more detailed than your average jet, with molded-in paneling and "rivet" detailing everywhere, along with some nicely-detailed thrusters and rear wings as well. A shame that there isn't a visible seat inside her transparent cockpit, but I suppose at a deluxe scale I can forgive that. Her color scheme is pretty basic-- she's almost entirely black and red, with some transparent yellow and off-white highlights. This isn't a bad color scheme by any means-- each color contrasts well with the black-- but Windblade desperately needs more paint apps in this mode, as she's got way too much undetailed black that's just begging for some more paint.
    Windblade's transformation is rather unconventional, with her body twisting around and her legs in particular transforming in an original manner, with the front halves folding down and what you'd think are connection pegs actually rotating around to become her heels. The end result, however, largely looks like your typical jetformer (excepting the female proportions, of course), with the nosecone behind the main body and the wings thrusting out from behind the shoulders. The proportions of her "core" robot mode look pretty good for the most part, with her arms and legs being nicely proportional for a fembot, and the way her tailfins go behind her heels is a pretty creative usage of those pieces for this mode. Her stomach is a bit overly skinny when compared to her hips, but other than that she looks pretty good. The mold detailing on her robot mode bits is quite good, giving her a slightly armored look, and I love the little extra points on her arms that look like little extra wings-- the addition of a bit of metallic silvery blue helps spice up this mode at least a little bit color-wise, as well. Windblade's headsculpt is incredibly unique and definitely fits the samurai warrior theme of her, with geisha-like detaling framing her decorative face, her helmet looking like a "hairdo" and there even being a gold "fan" piece behind her head. This piece can theoretically be detached, but I've heard reports that it's quite fragile so I personally haven't tried it. Clearly with the blue, the off-white, the red, and the gold, it looks like Windblade's head took up nearly all the paint apps of the figure, though it immediately draws your eye so it did its job there. That said, the face itself does look a tad off with the eyes for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. Where this mode really suffers is from the jet mode kibble-- both the nosecone behind her back and the large, barely-folded-up wings behind her shoulders. I really wish there was some way her wings could have folded up or attached to her main body more stably-- they're supposed to angle backwards, but this makes her so back-heavy that it's quite hard to stand her up on her high heels, and the wings stick out too much if you don't angle them back. I also wish the nosecone pegged in somewhere on her back, though it doesn't really get in the way of articulation much. Speaking of articulation, Windblade can move at the neck (at two points), shoulders (at three points, one for the "shoulder pads"), elbows, wrist and waist rotation, and movement at the hips (at two points) and knees, so she's fairly articulated-- her back-heaviness does limit her posability a fair amount, though. Her shoulder transformation joints also don't peg in solidly, so they can accidentally fold out rather easily when you're fiddling with her arms. Windblade does come with an awesome weapon, though-- her sword sheath can plug into the side of either of her hips (albeit not very firmly), and a transparent purple blade can be unsheathed and held in her hands, complete with a "wind turbine" detail at one end, like the blade itself is made of some sort of wind energy! It's a really neat feature, and certainly appropriate given her name.
    It's a shame, but despite how much "history" this toy has, I can't recommend it except to fans of the character. Both of her modes have some major kibble issues, and she desperately needs some more paint detailing, particularly in vehicle mode. In addition, some parts just have bad QC, like her fragile head-fan, the sword sheath very easily becoming unpegged from her hips, and-- worst of all-- several people have reported stress marks/breakage around the couple of points where her wings attach to the main body (the plastic is surprisingly thin around there). A cool sword, unique face design, and fan gimmick aren't enough to save her; there's lots of better TF molds out there.

Review by Beastbot

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