Transformers Generations Whirl Voyager Class Review

Wreck and Rule

With his starring role in IDW's recent comic book series, and rise in popularity, it was a no surprise that Hasbro would eventually give us an update of the character in the Generations line. But was was a surprise, is that there was already a deluxe class version (a repaint of FOC Vortex) released recently, and also how much of an homage to the original toy this is, as opposed to being based on IDW's design as we have seen with other figures recently

So Generations Whirl is an update of his Generation 1 figure. In a twist of irony, just like his Generation 1 figure - Generations Whirl has not been released in the UK.

Same old Hasbro UK.

So after importing the figure, and playing around with it - is it any good?

Hit the button below to see some shiny pictures, and a review.

Helicopter Mode

Whirls original alt mode is that of a Bell AH-1 Cobra Attack Helicopter, and the same goes for his new Generations figure.

It does a great job of looking like his original toy, though not exactly. You can that whilst the legs are in the same place, they are now silver and so stand out more.

What I love is the shade of blue they used, which is much deeper than on the pictures, and demonstrates that I need a new camera.
Its not quite as smooth as the original, which when transformed displayed very little sign being a robot, but it is still quite a nice clean alt mode.
There's no big chunks of robot sticking out, and everything fits together snugly.

Really, it does a very good job of looking like a helicopter.

A sticker sheet is included, and the details do add a lot to the this mode. I did not add them all, as I didn't think they were necessary, but the ones I did add a few nice touches.

You can see the red stripes on the rotors are all stickers, and all stuck on well. There are other stickers across the figure, mostly warning signs and the like.

Originally, I only planned on adding the Autobot symbols, but after looking at the sheet I gradually came round to adding a couple more.

Whirl comes with 4 separate weapons, which can mount in all sorts of places.

To start with, there are peg holes on the sides, as well as clip points. The weapons feature both pegs and clips, so it gives a wide range of options you can mess with. The clips on the weapons can also attach to the landing skids underneath, if you wanted, which is where some of them attach in robot mode.

There is also a peg hole under the nose, but any weapon weapon you attach there will sit too low for you to have the toy flat on a surface.

Whirl looks great fully armoured up, so a flight stand might be  a decent investment if you want to display in some really good flying poses.

I love the Helicopter mode as its fairly simple, and is not covered in hyper detail, or designed to look futuristic.

Gerwalk Mode

Whirls bonus alt mode, and yes its official, is a Macross style Gerwalk mode. Having never owned the original toy, I am not sure if it had this too, or whether Hasbro were just really big fans of ED-209 from RoboCop.

Because that's what this mode looks like.

Its easy to get to this mode, as its sort of half way between Robot and Helicopter mode. You merely slide the waist forward and unfold the legs. Job done.

As well as looking like ED-209, its got a very Metal Gear Rex feel.

If you had a tiny Liquid Snake figure, you could sit him in the cockpit because, yes - it opens.

There is actually a nicely details control console and seat in there, but I am not sure what size, if any, figure would fit in it?

Maybe the original Micro-man figures? I would be interested to find out, as I don't have any to test.

Its a strange mode to add in my opinion, but its not something that detracts from any of the other modes really.

Robot Mode

Transformation is fairly simple, you unfold the sides into the arms, unfold the legs and then split the fuselage to reveal his head.

This works a lot better going from Helicopter to robot that it does the other way around. Its a real pain trying to line up the bits of the fuselage and get them to peg in, and it feels like you might snap his antenna.

But its not one of the most difficult transformations, and there is also a nice extra hinge to allow the rotors on his back to hang properly in the centre. Which is an unusual extra length for Hasbro to go to.
Whirls Robot mode looks almost the spitting image of the original toy, with the large cockpit chest, square arms and claws.

There a few differences, some of which I don't find very successful.

The first change is the head, which is based more on his appearance in IDW's comics. Its a great sculpt, and looks really nice. It even has a movable antenna, if that floats your boat. He also has a glowing yellow eye, thanks to decent light piping.

The big change though, is in the legs, whereby Hasbro have elected to go with a messier version of IDW Whirls chicken legs.

Whilst it does not sound like a bad idea, its executed pretty poorly. Its not just that its hard work getting him posed looking right and standing straight, but the knee joints are horrendously tight, but made of really thin plastic.

This has lead to some breakages, and stops me wanting to transform him again.

You can also see on the thighs, in this configuration the outside of the thighs are hollow - so it makes it look even more crappy.

They severely hamper leg articulation, as although you have hip and thigh swivels and knee joints - the chicken legs make him awkward to pose.

There is no foot articulation, and again his feet just look weird. I would have much preferred they had just given him regular legs, as it would have made for a much better toy.

You can rotate the legs, and straighten them out like this to give him a more traditional look, and the heel spurs even form ski's to homage his original toy. But due to the way the joints are, he can't stand straight, so there are balance issues.

It does look a lot better in my opinion though, purely as a display piece.

Whirl has strangle articulation all round. His shoulders are on rods, which can pull out or push in, and when pushed in they look better. But pulled out gives him more articulation at the shoulder, but its still not great.

Whirls many weapons do attach in Robot mode, and you get a couple of options. Like the Helicopter mode, you can clip them on to mounts, or peg them into a variety of places.

But you can also fold his claw in, and slide one of the weapons over his forearm to give him a cool head cannon sort of thing.

In the comics he uses swords, and giant cannons, but these weapons all more closely follow his original figure.


Overall Whirl is not a bad figure, but hes not great. He looks really good in both modes, but the articulation is so hamstrung by a couple of strange design choices that he is no fun to play around with. For me, he will go on the back of the Masterpiece shelf, as at his size, and with his closeness to his G1 figure he fills a hole for a Masterpiece Whirl.

I am glad I got him, and for a good price, but it could have been so much better had they just not gone for those ridiculous legs.

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