Review: #131
Name: Air Raid
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Dark of the Moon
Year of Release: 2011
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 5)
Variations: none as of date
JET MODE:
Air Raid transforms into a plane that bears a resemblance to a Boeing E-767. This is a really well formed alternate mode and looks realistic.
Air Raid has the best MechTech weapon integration in vehicle, period. There is no contest, in case you don't know, his MechTech weapon is the radar dish.
There are some minor flaws, the most notable one would be his left robot fist at the back of the plane. The designer just left it there, in full view, slightly disappointing.
Air Raid features three-point landing gear, all are retractable. The wheels are molded, thus he doesn't roll. The radar dish is attached via clip joints. There MechTech ports (well, they're just standard 5mm peg holes) underneath each wing and just behind the cockpit.
Since he's fairly realistically proportioned, the fuselage is thin, making him feel a bit small. Never fear, since he still feels your money's worth.
While the sculpting is great (and having some nice details such as transparent cockpit windows), there's a lot of transformation panel lines (in the case of the wings, it breaks it somewhat).
An amazing plane mode. What I like about Air Raid more than other jet Transformers is the fact that he isn't a fighter jet, and while he's not a passenger aircraft, at least he's shaped more like one.
TRANSFORMATION:
Quite interesting, and he doesn't transform in the way you'd expect. Detaching the radar dish takes more force than I would like, especially considering that it's only connected via clip joints (so it should have been real easy). It can be quite complicated going back robot to plane if you don't remember where everything goes. I thought forming the legs from the fuselage was a nice touch, but that they could have done more for the arms. The only thing that's disappointing here is how they dealt with the wings, pretty much everything manipulates around the middle of the plane, which forms his torso.
ROBOT MODE:
The first thing you'll notice about Air Raid is his right arm... he has no right fist. This reminds me back in the days of Beast Wars where the robots had no arms and had some sort of kibble instead. In this case, it's the tailfin.
The forearms are hollow (which isn't ideal) and he has some really long shins. I like how the thrusters aim downwards so that you can easily imagine that he'll have flight capabilities in robot mode with no problem.
The head is not pretty but it's far from the worst. He has a huge gold crest, and clear lightpiping which doesn't work very well. The head is only on a swivel allowing him to view side to side.
In addition to the wings as kibble, he features the whole front of the plane. While the panels do move around for clearance in transformation (and not just having the whole front of the plane left untouched), it feels a tad bit lazy just leaving it on his back.
Sadly, the elbows are a problem. The pictures above is as far as the elbow goes... yes, it does not bend forward very much. Ironically, the backwards range is way better...
Now let's have a look at his MechTech weapon. It's painted silver in the middle.
Pushing it in front flips out a tiny gun. It doesn't look that great as a weapon as it's too round and circular. It's look way better as a shield instead.
You may store the weapon on his back.
What I like to do is to set it so that it's against his forearm as a shield. Sure, his fist looks weird, but better that than... (look below)
Better that than... this, since you can't make it stay in gun form thanks to the springs.
Now a size comparison, Air Raid doesn't do too bad. Only that his torso is quite bulky while his limbs are thin. I wish they could have bulk up the limbs more.
I can't help but notice how much paint this guy has, it's awesome. There's the silver stripes on the side of the plane, and the big slab of gold for his torso (not to mention the other silver paint applications on his shield, tailfin and engine turbines).
Articulation is good, as mentioned, the elbows are limited. The knee joints are situated fairly low. The tailfin are jointed in a few places.
Not a bad robot mode, although there's a lot to hate and a lot to love.
OVERALL:
For some reason, the lack of a hand in robot mode doesn't urk me, on the contrary, I thought it's a pretty cool flail weapon. The jet mode is great, and I love the fact that it's not a fighter jet. The robot mode is good but there are some odd design elements such as the long shins, no right hand and thin spindly limbs. I think this is a solid toy, Hasbro didn't skimp much on this one (which is surprising), and it's a good mold.
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