This Ultra class set of three figures was released at the dawn of CHUG, in 2004, in the Universe 1.0 toyline, which consisted entirely of repaints from old and older molds. Today you would expect this to be priced around $35-$40. Packaging pictures Spoiler Whirl is a repaint of European G1.5 Rotorstorm/Machine Wars Sandstorm, a mold from 1992. Its alt mode looks nice enough even now, with no extreme kibble. Rotor... rotates, and a button allows deploying the two missile launchers, dropping them to the sides. Fun gimmick, but the launchers tend to disconnect way too easily. Missiles are much longer than for Rotorstorm, and no longer attach at the bottom of the alt mode. Unfortunately, despite coming with two mini cons, Whirl has no connection plugs, and the effort here is much inferior than for Armada Rhinox and the other previous-era offerings which came packaged with minicons. Transformation is simple and elegant, and can be easily understood just by looking at the end result. In robot mode, Whirl has some presence. A good head sculpt is not always met by the same level of quality through the mold, with sculpted detail being a bit low on shoulders and legs. This is indeed an ancient mold from almost 30 years ago, and, while the new color scheme energizes it, the result is still pretty static and limited. The color scheme can't decide if it wants to be serious or funny. The yellow rotor does look like candy, at least. Gunbarrel is a pale gold repaint om a member of the Air Military minicon team. A target master and triple change, it competently turns from airplane to robot to... six-barrel weapon, whatever that is, it looks cool. Makeshift is a repaint from the Emergency team, and transforms from VTOL plane to robot to double-rotating-murder-gun or whatever that is. One of the funniest minicon molds. Whirl is not too bad, but is quite forgettable. The two minicons look nice, but not nice enough to justify hunting down this set. Overall, this Ultra class set is only recommended to Universe 1.0 completists or minicon collectors. Its price double or tripled in the last 16 years or so, and even when it came out the value for money was debatable. Overall, I give this set a 4/10 (6/10 if we were in 2004).
Love your reviews like this. Great job. My son has both of those minicons and they are actually fantastic.
Fab toy. Whirl has 1 minicon recolour from each of the Emergency and Air Military teams. 2 more, 1 from each team were with a Flipchanger as a deluxe and the last 2 were with 2 Beast Machines Basics as another Ultra set. Really Whirl should have got the Prowl minicon recolour as he's the only one of the larger toys they're packed with that can hold him! Need the 2 BM Basics set for their Minicons...... and Whirl's Oppo, Universe Soundwave.
No cyclops head means no whirl. This is an example of the old days when Hasbro could label anything anything. I’m glad we got a better Whirl later on down the road.
Universe 1.0 was kinda more or less "Proto-CHUG" - the idea was there (and some of those insane paint jobs were really impressive) but I don't think it's fair to call it the Dawn of CHUG until fall '06 when Classics was released.
Honestly, this mold really would have benefited from having the spring loaded launchers with hollow 5mm pegs as well. At least that way it will add some compatibility with the minicons he's bundled with.
if at least they painted the canopy structure like on rotorstorm..as he is now he look unfinished, and yeah minicons but no ports added, well...
Nice review. Bought every single Universe fig, only line i’ve ever completed, but didnt open any of them except for the Soundwave. Your review makes me want to dig em out & get a misb display going. Forgot how cool they looked.
I have this as I liked was nostalgic to the Euro G1 toys I had in the early 90s. Its not a great toy by modern standards, but its what you expect from a G1 era toy. My only issue with the color scheme is the unpainted cockpit. The Mini-Cons are faultless, but they are just Mini-Cons so were nothing special. I would like a Universe Whirl repaint of Rotorstorm. With the Rotorstorm head, not a G1 Whirl head.
