Transformers Legends LG 16
Item No.: No. ??? Manufacturer:Takara-Tomy Includes:2 cannons Action Feature:Changes from VTOL Jet to Robot Retail:3,100 yen (or $21-$30 at importers) Availability: October 2015 Other: Retool of Windblade
For a character that started life as a female clone of Starscream, Slipstream has carved out a bit of a fanbase being her own woman. The Fan Club got her as a toy Starscream remold with a new head, plus she has made appearances in a few video games. This particular toy is a remold of Windblade with a new head, new guns, and a new torso - and if you believe TFWiki, is meant to be the Animated character. The included comic seems to show the Animated character getting a new body - but then she appears in a continuity with G1 Arcee and others, so I'm not quite sure what that means as dimension-hopping goes. All I know is the aesthetics mean she's probably going on a "classic" shelf.
The figure has a mix of metallic plastic and metallic paint, delivering you a figure that looks a lot like a mix of a "Generations" figure and the deco of the Japanese "Animated" toys which for some reason had metallic paint. The comics seem to place the characters in some new special world, so I guess whatever you want to do is cool. Here's hoping she shows up in the comics - it's a nice design.
Slipstream's head is great, mostly. The back half of the head is clear, colorless plastic with red painted eyes - almost light-up eyes. The head has a great smirk on it, but I wouldn't say it's exaggerated or cartoony. She has a little more emotion in her face than Windblade, but the feel isn't all that different. Her red eyes have a clear outline because, well, painted eyes on clear plastic generally don't turn out great. Her nose being formed by a widow's peak coming down from her helmet is consistent with the design of Animated Starscream, making this figure a decent catch-all in any collection. Her chest is more Starscreamy with a great false canopy complete with clear blue plastic. It's a charming mold, and one I hope they use to repaint and make more new characters.
Without remolding the arms, Takara Tomy came up with a great solution to give her null rays, or arm cannons, or whatever you want to call them. They fit over the fins on her arms and can be mounted in either direction - they face away from her body and toward her hands for robot mode, or in the opposite direction as a jet. It's a tight fit, and I don't know if I'll be prying them off much down the road.
Transformation from jet to robot, well, you've probably got a Windblade by now. She's the same. The parts are a little weirder in the nosecone area thanks to the new head and chest, but you can swing it. They fit together well.
As a jet, she's very much a redecorated Windblade. You can see a little difference under her nosecone thanks to the parts used for the head and chest, but aside from that everything is held over from the previous toy with new colors. The retractable landing gear under the nose is nice, the Decepticon symbols are on the bottoms of the wings (so you can see them in robot mode), and the clear parts are a lovely blue. I like the coloring here more than Windblade, just because she's a little brighter overall. The metallic paint is real nice too, so kudos to Takara Tomy for taking a good toy and making it different, yet still totally good. Like most vehicles, she doesn't do much - her blades on her wings spin, and that landing gear moves, and... she exists. There's not a lot of play action here, but I do love the paint job. It's really cool, very late-G1.
As either the final Animated toy or as yet another Generations toy, however you display her, she's pretty neat. With no known plans to dump Slipstream in the USA, it's probably worth your while to do some comparison shopping now and snag one if you can. Just look at it this way - $20-$30 is more than a Hasbro toy in the USA, but it's a lot cheaper than a Fan Club toy. I dig it, and it's one of many favorites from Hasbro and Takara in 2015 - get her if you can. And if anyone from IDW is reading, I'd love to see her show up and do something in the comics.
--Adam Pawlus
Additional Images
Additional Transformers Legends October 2015 Wave Images
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