Poor Windcharger.
According to the TFWiki, when the Transformers were introduced to the cartoon-viewing world with the three-part "More Than Meets the Eye" mini-series, Windcharger never got to speak, or even so much as get his
name mentioned on-screen. It's no surprise that many Transformers fans (perhaps especially those who didn't grow up during the earliest days of the franchise) don't remember him.
Like most of these initial characters, Windcharger is remembered (by those who actually do) for a single signature ability. In Windcharger's case, his arms can function as powerful magnets. Yes, Windcharger is to the Transformers what Magneto is to the X-Men (except not evil!). In retrospect, I'm actually kind of surprised that no official Windcharger toy has ever incorporated magnets into the design. It's comparatively easy to do, and kids would have tons of fun with such a feature....
Windcharger's original Tech Specs tell us that he's the fastest Autobot for short-distances (of course, this really only applies to the original characters, as obviously faster characters were developed later). This is in keeping with his sporty Pontiac Trans-Am alternate mode, although like Windcharger's smaller-robot buddies, his proportions are super-deformed rather than realistic. Of course, this less-than-authentic detail didn't stop me from taking a spare toy and painting it black to resemble
KITT from the original
Knight Rider. And, besides, it's not like most
modern car-type Transformers adhere to realistic stylings, anyway, as that tends to require licensing from the car companies, and can be expensive. That said, it's hard not to argue that the more recent Mustang/Camaro hybrid version of Windcharger (
featured last year) is a better toy, and I'm still glad that I went to the effort to pick it up. In fact, I've since picked up the nearly-identical Japanese version of the toy so that I could get the all-black
"Wipe-Out" toy that comes with it. I haven't yet decided to add a red scanner to the front of Wipe-Out to turn him into a new version of KITT, however.
Poor Windcharger. According to the TFWiki, when the Transformers were introduced to the cartoon-viewing world with the three-part "More Than Meets the Eye" mini-series, Windcharger never got to speak, or even so much as get his name mentioned on-screen. It's no surprise that many Transformers fans (perhaps especially those who didn't grow up during the earliest days of the franchise) don't remember him.
Like most of these initial characters, Windcharger is remembered (by those who actually do) for a single signature ability. In Windcharger's case, his arms can function as powerful magnets. Yes, Windcharger is to the Transformers what Magneto is to the X-Men (except not evil!). In retrospect, I'm actually kind of surprised that no official Windcharger toy has ever incorporated magnets into the design. It's comparatively easy to do, and kids would have tons of fun with such a feature....
Windcharger's original Tech Specs tell us that he's the fastest Autobot for short-distances (of course, this really only applies to the original characters, as obviously faster characters were developed later). This is in keeping with his sporty Pontiac Trans-Am alternate mode, although like Windcharger's smaller-robot buddies, his proportions are super-deformed rather than realistic. Of course, this less-than-authentic detail didn't stop me from taking a spare toy and painting it black to resemble KITT from the original Knight Rider. And, besides, it's not like most modern car-type Transformers adhere to realistic stylings, anyway, as that tends to require licensing from the car companies, and can be expensive. That said, it's hard not to argue that the more recent Mustang/Camaro hybrid version of Windcharger (featured last year) is a better toy, and I'm still glad that I went to the effort to pick it up. In fact, I've since picked up the nearly-identical Japanese version of the toy so that I could get the all-black "Wipe-Out" toy that comes with it. I haven't yet decided to add a red scanner to the front of Wipe-Out to turn him into a new version of KITT, however.
No comments:
Post a Comment