I have to agree with some of the criticisms expressed here. I don't like how the mid-section of the figure bulges forward, while its legs are placed so far behind. It is almost like he has a beer-belly or something. BUT: I do like how everything folds up underneath the cockpit-roof. It is quite an impressive bit of engineering.

I don't necessarily dislike the figure, but it Whirl is not the best in the series. Right now, its a tie between Sandstorm and Tailpipe for me, but that's not saying that Whirl is a "bad" figure. Thus far, the HA Basic line has proven to be a very strong and very consistent line, going from strength to strength. Its tough competition near the top, where little things like specifics of the mid-section can make a difference between a "good" and "excellent" figure.

 

May I have pics of him in weapon mode for other figures in another angles? I'm having trouble getting it to look right.

 

Would dig a Black and Red repaint as a Cobra F.A.N.G. Paint Sgt Chaos Blue and black and have him be the Cobra Pilot/trooper.

 

Finally managed to snag this guy tonight. I have got to say he is a damn fun little figure. Yes his midsection is borderline absurd and the skid feet are a bit much. But over all he doesn't let any of that interfere with posability. Also the arm cannon trick with him blades is fantastic. Though, I do worry about the blades warping due to wrapping them around his gunpods.

All in all, quite a fun figure and my first HA Basic (really wanted him as a partner for Skyhammer) Definitely would recommend.

 

i didn't see any MechTech ports on Skyhammer's back, and with his rotor blades stored as they are, i don't see how well he could plug into the back anyway.

i was curious how to mount the gatling gun to skyhammer's arm. i'd like that better than his original MechTech weapon (which i put on Shockwave.)
{Edit: to clarify, mounting just the barrels, not the whole Whirl figure.}

 

This whole line needs to be redone as a GI Joe Transformers crossover. We've already got ourselves an AWE Striker, Polar Battle Bear, and Silver Mirage. Don't know how much broad appeal it would have, but I'd sure as heck get in on it.

 

Well considering how long the Star Wars Crossovers has been going on, and how a Joe/Transformer crossover makes even more immeasurable and actual sense....I can see it having massive appeal.  

 

Unfortunately, there seems to be someone on the G.I. Joe team that's immensely opposed to the idea. It's been proposed and blocked repeatedly for the past few decades.

Edit: Yeah, apparently it's some guy named Josh Warden.

 

That is all, go buy him.

 

3rd & a half mode

 

I've just got this guy today and I was wondering how the gold plastic has held up for people (yes, I know Hasbro said they'd fixed the GPS thing but then Hasbro says a lot of things...).
So much of Whirl is gold and swirly it just worries me greatly. There's a light mark in the plastic on his back where the hinge is for moving his hips up and down and I don't know if it's just a normal stressmark or signs of soon-to-be horrible deadly crumbling.

Since most of you guys have now had the figure in-hand for about a year, how well has the gold plastic held up to repeated manipulations?

 

My son plays with his often and so far it didn't see any disintegration, so I /think/ it's fixed...

 

I don't think this guy ever showed up in stores around here. At least, not when I happened to look. The first Wave shelfwarmed pretty hard, very much like what happened with the PCC 2-packs.

If my understanding of GPS is correct, the plastic would flat out crumble without any warning. Light colored streaks near joints or pegholes are typical stress marks in plastic; that is, a warning of possible breakage. Ergo, stress marks ≠ GPS.

 

Distribution on wave 2 and beyond of the HA Basics were awful. They probably arrived and were gone in a week, never to be seen again.

I saw wave 2 at a Target twice, then when I decided to get them never saw them again until they started showing up at TJ Maxx and the like.

 

Yeah, I got mine from TK Maxx here, plus a Tailpipe. HA Basics were exclusive to Argos here in the UK and then the useless gits only bothered to get the first wave in so I'm very pleased these showed up elsewhere eventually.

That was my general understanding too, but I just wanted to check just in case it might be signs of later troubles either way. But me being me I'll still be very careful and keep an eye on that joint.  

Thanks, guys.

Although if anyone else has had a break I'd still be interested to know.

 

I finally found Whirl myself at TJ Maxx, buried under some other not-mainline TF stuff.

- I really like the weapons he has, though I wish the rotor had a universal connector and a more intentional way to be used in robot mode.
- The way his chest and legs compress and expand for transformation is pretty darn cool, though since it doesn't all click into a specific place in alt mode it does feel a bit unfinished.
- I love the robot mode, particularly the ski-feet. I'm a fan of unconventional designs, and Whirl is quite unconventional. Not as unusual as the original Whirl, but good enough for me.

I was half-tempted to call the helicopter mode too "unrealistic", but a quick internet search of "one-man helicopter" shows that they actually do make really small helis.


Source: rotorfx.com
You can easily imagine Whirl being a 'militarized' version of the above copters. With that in mind, he goes really nicely with Armorhide/Landmine (though I wish Whirl had some NEST/USA/etc. tampographs).


EDIT: Do we know what color plastic the windshield is made of? The silver feels painted, and the instructions imply it's supposed to be clear plastic.

 

Although originally intended to be clear, I think it's actually molded in black now. I have no intention of scratching off the paint to confirm that though. The black part of the windshield end where the nose clips on appears unpainted. And there's a tiny bit of silver paint missing around one of the pin holes on mine that looks like black underneath.
I would've said they dumped the clear plastic for cost reasons of then not needing as many plastic types for the figure, but then he still has his light-piping part. Would it have been cheaper to just use the clear plastic for the windshield rather than have to pay for the silver paint to cover it, and production cost of applying that paint too?
Even though it made sense in alt mode, maybe in robot mode the transparent windshield looked a bit crap so they opted for molding it solid and then painting it silver so it would look like protective metal armour plating instead.

Somebody must've done a custom job on this figure though and stripped that silver paint off the windshield part and can come confirm it either way.

 

If it were clear plastic it'd be the dark blue of his visor, which would probably look black if only little nicks reveled it. The black section that clips to the nose is itself paint; some of it is scratched on mine, revealing silver. This means the ENTIRE windshield is painted, which is pretty damn crazy.
TFWiki mentions it is clear plastic, but they don't elaborate. And all the customs I've seen either paint over the canopy, flat out replace it, or do nothing.

This is really going to bug me now.