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Blackjack's Review: Beast Hunters Windrazor

Name: Windrazor
Allegiance: Predacon
Function: Inferno Stormer
Size Class: Legion Class
Accessories: ‘Tornado Bow’

So back at one of the conventions or toy reveals or whatever, something got me excited like I never had before, namely, the news of Twinstrike, a homage to the G1 Terrorcon Sinnertwin. And it’s a damn good homage too, making a block of cheese with limbs tagged on look absolutely awesome and deadly and completely awesome. And he looked damn amazing, so much that I was actually surprised he was a Legion class toy instead of a Commander or even Deluxe class. He looked like he had the sophistication of something larger.

I was even more pleasantly surprised that apparently they’re going to make all five Terrorcons in a similar style. And they’ll combine. Hell yeah, Hasbro, sometimes you do things that are actually pretty damn cool for a change.

I have no idea why I really liked the Terrorcons so much. They haven’t been in many stories at all, and their personalities are barely developed beyond ‘rawr scary rage monsters rawr’. I guess it’s something about the sheer absurdity of their toys and what they’re supposed to be. Blot in particular. What the heck is Blot supposed to be? But that’s the subject of another review.

See, the subject of this review is Cutthroat. Or, rather, his new trademark-friendly name ‘Windrazor’. First up… unlike ‘Twinstrike’ and ‘Blight’, I don’t particularly think the name ‘Windrazor’ is suitable for a name change from ‘Cutthroat’, so I’ll be using Cutthroat for the rest of the review. Windrazor is like on the list of names that Hasbro slaps on any random toy. We’ve got the G2 Skyscorcher Decepticon, we’ve got the Botcon-exclusive Maximal from Beast Wars, we’ve got some random jet Minicon dude from Energon, we’ve got some random motorcycle Minicon dude from Micron Booster, we’ve got some random pterodactyl Minicon dude from Universe… yeah, when Hasbro slaps your name on three different Minicons that don’t homage anything, you know your name is just there to fill up space.

Whereas Cutthroat is unique to the G1 Terrorcon pterodactyl monster-thing that is extremely sadistic and psychotic and enjoys inflicting pain. Or something. I don’t think he’s got much of a personality beyond that.

Also, I have to note that Prime’s Legion class brings back functions after a long, long time without it. I really liked seeing functions in older bios and it’s nice to have one. G1 Cutthroat’s original function is a ‘shock trooper’, whereas Windrazor Cutthroat’s function is the awesome-sounding ‘inferno stormer’ but I assume is the same thing. Except maybe with more fires.

Beast Mode:
The original Cutthroat toy from G1 transformed into a block with extremities tagged on which resembles a very cute-looking fat bird thing. The comics and cartoon were much kinder to Cutthroat, portraying him as some sort of (blocky) pterodactyl-styled monster. Flash forward twenty-plus years later, and Windrazor Cutthroat turns into the exact same thing, but with less blockiness and with more animalistic curves.

And damn, does the new Cutthroat turn into a hell of an awesome pterodactyl monster. It’s… I don’t know what to make of it. It looks like a mutated pterodactyl, it looks like some sort of monstrous roc or whatever giant bird of prey monster of your choice… with all the ‘dragon’ theme, the packaging and instructions are kind of obliged to call this the ‘dragon mode’, but screw the instructions.

Cutthroat is an awesome little thing full of all sorts of mean-looking spikes and spiky panels that simply look great. His main body is predominantly a nice shade of green, whereas his feet, head, wings and shoulders are beige. His awesome-looking wings are purple, and some details are painted over in gold paint – namely the wing-claws, the talons, the upper beak and the head crest. The eyes are red. A black Terrorcon insignia is tampographed on the right shoulder blade.

All in all Cutthroat looks pretty damn sweet, in spite of being a Legion class toy. There are still some obvious corner-cutting like the fact that his robot arms are very much visible near his wings, and the hinge on his tail is obvious as well, but these are sort of minor, I guess.

Cutthroat’s decently articulated in his beast mode, having ball joints on his thighs, shoulders and elbows (or whatever the proper anatomical terms for those organs on a bird monster are, anyway), as well as hinged talons, head and tail. It’s pretty fun, he can go from swooping-in-for-a-kill to perching on a cliff, to simply gliding through the air… in short, all the poses you ever wanted a pterodactyl to have, this toy is mostly able to pull it off.

His legs may be a little long, which looks kind of odd when he’s standing, like he’s one of those monsters from Japanese kaiju shows where it’s really a dude in a suit, but when you pose him with his legs angled forwards like he’s going to grab the hell out of whatever unfortunate prey he’s set his sights on, the long legs look threatening and great.

He comes with a crossbow-shaped accessory, but unless if you want to peg it into Cutthroat’s mouth or the sides of his legs, both of which look stupid, it’s not for the beast mode.

Cutthroat isn’t perfect, but he’s a Legion class toy. Compared to his new Terrorcon peers… hell, compared to any Legion or Legends class toy I own, his beast mode is simply gorgeous.

Robot Mode:
Cutthroat’s robot mode transformation is smooth and great. Unlike Rippersnapper or Twinstrike, there isn’t any annoying part in his transformation. It’s great, quick, and painless, and I really like how the beast head folds into his chest, and how the shoulder blades end up in robot mode. Cutthroat is relatively tall and lanky, because most of his mass is concentrated in the wings, which now hang under his lower arms like some sort of sweet-looking under-arm blades. Oversized under-arm blades, which simply looks mean and threatening in their transformed state.

Cutthroat’s most distinctive feature is obviously said underarm wingblade things, which certainly fits his skills as a dirty, brutal fighter. I can just imagine Cutthroat jumping into battle, swirling and spinning and hacking heads off unfortunate Autobots.

Cutthroat’s kind of articulated here, although not as good as his beast mode. His head can’t turn. His legs are only articulated in the thighs, which is rather odd since his legs are really long and slim. And end up in upside-down high heels. His arms are articulated with ball joints on the shoulders and elbows, but due to how the elbow is jointed, the articulation is sort of limited there. It’s pretty standard fare, to be honest.

He's got this cocky smile on his face that's just perfect. Cutthroat, you smug bastard.

He comes with the aforementioned crossbow accessory, which I suppose he can hold in his hand like a crossbow in two ways – like a proper crossbow, or vertically like a bow. Cutthroat can also hold it by the long end, making it look like a pickaxe of sorts. It’s a weird accessory. With the awesome-looking wing-blades I never had Cutthroat hold the crossbow until I had to take pictures of him with it.

Also, he can form one of Abominus’ arms with pegs on his legs, but for once I am not really that hyped about Abominus.

In short, a nice little robot mode as well. Not the best, but certainly better than his Terrorcon compatriots.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation Design: 8/10 It’s not the best transformation out there, but Cutthroat transforms smoothly, everything goes where they should in both modes, and it’s really the best they could do at that size.

Durability: 8/10 He’s pretty decent, I guess. Cutthroat’s survived several aborted flights from his shelf, and unlike Twinstrike or Blight there aren’t any particular part of him that has a lot of pressure put on it due to transformation.

Aesthetics: 9/10 Mmm, I do quite like Cutthroat. He’s great looking, has a great colour palette, and has two utterly well-designed modes. Those arm blades are great.

Articulation: 6/10 Cutthroat has average articulation for a Legion class.

Fun: 8/10 All the Terrorcons are pretty fun by virtue of being little mean-looking robots that turn into little mean-looking monsters, but Cutthroat’s arm-blades really give him an extra degree of awesomeness.

Price/Value: 7/10 About the par for such a nice toy, I suppose. Damn Legion toys are expensive. Also, hunting down individual Terrorcons is a pain in the ass.

Overall: 8/10 Cutthroat, or rather, Windrazor, is a really solid Legion class toy that looks great, transforms great, and doesn’t really have a major problem to him other than a slight simplification of things. I really like his paint scheme as well… Cutthroat’s going to be repainted into a bunch of other guys with the ‘Predacon Rising’ subline, and if you don’t particularly have feelings for the G1 paintscheme, there are others to choose from. Just stay away from the upsized Deluxe toy. Upsizing and yet cutting off articulation from a toy instead of adding them? (The elbow ball joints are, AFAIK, turned into hinges) Yeaaah.
 
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