I won't go into great detail here, since this is a remold of the Energon Slugslinger toy. Airazor comes in a nice printed box, the toy nestled in black foam like most other boxed Club/convention exclusives. I don't care much for the Slugslinger mold personally, but IMO Airazor is a distinct improvement. The dual-nosed jet mode is mushy and floppy, and parts don't mesh together stably, just like the original Energon toy. Robot mode seems to peg together more stiffly, though that may be just because it's newer than my Energon toy. The shoulder 'flaps' don't stay pegged well at all, and flip up if you so much as touch the arms. Not much different than the Energon toy though, so I can overlook it a bit. The toy itself is mostly a bronze color, with orangeish yellow, and accents in black, silver, cold, and clear green. The color scheme is obviously Airazor's and works quite naturally for this toy as well. The orange-yellow parts are a little metallic, translucent, and swirly, making those bits look almost like they're made out of candy or something like that. The 'spark crystal' in the chest is translucent silver, making it look a lot like a pearl. There's a Maximal symbol stamped on her left shoulder. Overall, it's quite evocative of the Airazor character. The mold is slender, but not apparently feminine, not a big deal since the original Airazor toy was much the same way. The head sculpt is excellent IMO, perhaps the best seen from MC-exclusive toys so far. It looks good and looks like the cartoon incarnation of Airazor's face, without being a direct copy or having too many obvious birdlike features. All in all, aside from the general failing inherent in the Slugslinger mold, Airazor is a great display piece to round out the "Pre-BW" cast from the Botcon '06 comic. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes exclusives and/or BW, and doesn't hate Slugslinger too much.
BLASPHEMY! Slugslinger is the best mold from Energon. Arms that don't peg in quite as well as they should does not a bad toy make. But yes, Airazor is indeed awesome. Too bad she's bigger than Tigatron, though.
Yes, yes it does. If poorly anchored shoulders knocked Classics Grimlock down in my opinion, Slugslinger didn't stand half a chance, overcomplicated flopwad that he is. Anyway, the fact that I think Airazor is pretty damn nifty despite that should speak to how nice she is, or at least looks.
Fight! I ended up with a rather tight-armed Slugslinger (and rather like him and his inverto-compressyness), so if I luck out again with Airazor I am -so- happy. Though her new head means the mold loses one of my favourite parts. But by all accounts it's an awesome new head, so woo!
Does anyone have pictures of all the BW Botcon exclusives in one shot? I'd never go out of my way to buy these but admired from a distance, I think it's a sweet concept and execution.
I'd definitely get Airrazor if I was a club member...and it didn;t gost an ungodly amount of money... Too bad they didn;t fix the scathing problems Slugslinger had...the ******ed arms really ruined the figure...but that new head sculpt is awesome. Congrats on getting it!
http://tfkenkon.com/g/?mode=album&album=Collection/act421 Remy easily beats out any photos I could take.
shorty's gotta thing for amazons unfortunately the swap in size classes during 1996 ruined all his dreams
I recently picked up a second in the sale. I'm not sure of the context of your question, but while it's based on a mold I don't care for, it's a serviceable pre-beast Airazor with a rather pretty head sculpt. The total package is not all that feminine-looking, but then neither are most Airazor toy incarnations.
It's been a long time since I've handled Energon Slugslinger, but as far as I can tell TFCC Airazor is not particularly different in terms of joint quality, and I haven't noticed any other apparent age-related problems.
Yeah, don't worry, Airazor should be fine. The toy is as solid as it can be, given the mold chosen for it (which admittedly has some stability issues in both modes but isn't a wreck at all), and it does seems quite suitable for the character.
Prelude: Seventeen years ago I wrote a review for an Energon figure called Slugslinger. In 2007 this figure was reused by the Official Transformers Collectors Club for one of its first exclusive figures, Airazor, portraying the Beast Wars character in its pre-Earth configuration. Now I have finally had the opportunity to take a look at this club exclusive figure. Let’s say go! Many thanks to fellow TF collector Fuchs Geronimo, who loaned me Airazor for this review. Robot Mode: Airazor (or Chromia 10 Pilot, as she is semi-officially called) is a repaint of Slugslinger with a new paintjob and a new head. The new head doesn’t exactly resemble that of Airazor as seen in the Beast Wars TV show, but it’s close enough to make you believe they’re the same character. The new paintjob, orange and brown, is a good match to Airazor’s TV colors, so overall the figure looks pretty good as a pre-Earth Cybertronian mode Airazor. New head and colors aside, the figure is identical to Energon Slugslinger. A pretty cool looking figure, very nicely articulated for a figure from that time, with a cool shoulder weapon that can fold down onto the back, and posable wings. Of course the figure carries the same drawbacks, such as the kibble on the arms (wings, landing gear, thrusters) that restricts their movement. Overall, though, a very nice figure and it just works very nicely as Airazor. So bottom line for the robot mode: great figure choice, new head and colors work fine. The mold itself has some drawbacks, yes, but otherwise: very nice. Alternate Mode: Airazor transforms into a science-fiction style jet with a double cockpit. The transformation is surprisingly complex and getting the shoulders and forearms into the right position is not quite as easy as it looks, but in the end you get a pretty nice-looking jet with no underbelly worth mentioning and the big shoulder gun peeking out between the two cockpits. The jet has a four-piece retractable landing gear and there are almost no visible robot bits. The back of the robot’s head is kind of standing out a bit when you look at the back of the jet, but that’s about the only bad thing I can say in terms of looks. Sadly the jet has some drawbacks in terms of stability. While the legs that form the cockpit and the wings that form the body all tab in, the connections aren’t terribly stable and tend to pop out again. So while the jet holds together well when standing there, flying it around the room will probably make it come apart a bit. Overall I really like this jet mode despite its somewhat questionable stability. And an alien jet is, of course, a great choice for Airazor’s pre-Earth alternate mode. So bottom line: pretty nice, though again with some limitations. Remarks: The Transformers Collectors Club published a text story called “The Razor’s Edge”, portraying Airazor’s activities before going on board the Axalon. This was, coincidentally, also the first appearance of Flamewar. Airazor also appeared in the 2006 Botcon comic story “Dawn of Future’s Past”, which showed how she ended up on the Axalon after aiding Tigatron in the pursuit of Megatron and his renegade Predacons. Looking back at the review I wrote for Energon Slugslinger seventeen years ago, I judged the poor guy a bit too harshly, I think. The mold itself is pretty cool despite some design flaws (especially the arm kibble in robot mode) and it was a great choice for a Cybertron Mode Airazor. So despite “only” being a repaint with a new head, it’s a pretty cool figure and should I find it for a decent price, I fully intend to add it to my collection one of these days. So if you’re a fan of either Beast Wars or Energon (or both, like me), this figure is recommended. Just be aware of its flaws, too. Rating: B- Source: Transformers-Universe.com
