Fall of Cybertron: Vortex

I am proud to present the final of the Fall of Cybertron G2 inspired Combaticons.  Vortex, without a doubt probably my favourite of the bunch for both robot mode and vehicle mode.  He comes with a nice pale blur for his main colour with the prerequisite purple camo splodges.  Which of course any helicopter needs really.  Not only does this guy look good in chopper mode, he also looks good in robot modes too.  So let’s have a look-see shall we?

 

The helicopter mode is quite a lot of fun and the robot mode looks pretty close to his game model (aside from the blades on the arms) and is articulated well.  However there are still a few issues with this fellow.  It’s just that he has less than the others.

 

The helicopter blades spin really well, easily and for quite a long time.  Underneath, the robot is hidden pretty well and you have a variety of options in regards to armaments for the guy.

 

 

Firstly you can have his nose cannon stowed away for those peace-keeping missions.  He also comes with a pair of knife guns which you can mount on the skids.  These I think are really stupid weapons for Vortex as he doesn’t need a blade in either mode  and they don’t really look like guns either.  A real waste here.  The general sculpting of the chopper though is pretty good and even the  connection port to Bruticus isn’t that ungainly.

 

 

The nose cannon I referred to earlier lives in the cockpit area of the chopper, as does Bruticus’ hand.  This can allow for some interesting adaptations of Vortex if you feel so inclined.

 

My what a friendly looking helicopter, let me shale your hand!!  The thumb can be flipped over to the other side of the fingers for left or right handedness.  The only downer to the hand is the ‘karate-chop’ pose it’s in as it can’t be changed.  I usually chuck his gun in there when combined to cover the hand up better.

 

Vortex’s robot mode is quite a good one.  The head is very reminiscent of the G1 toy and looks like an excellent update that can be done with today’s toy making technology.  He even has a fair amount of detal on the back of his head!!

 

 

Sculpting overall is pretty impressive although the plastic is thin and cheap feeling, which seems to have become the norm for Transformers recently.

 

Articulation for the robot is really good.  Vortex does have a loin piece that has a hinge at the top, which hinders the hip movement a little bit, but aside from that it isn’t too bad at all.  He is inflicted with the nub style ratchet on the knees which work fine on one knee, but the other doesn’t connect to the corresponding part and as a result he has a free-flowing shin and foot that just flops all over the place like crazy.

 

The helicopter blades on his fore-arm is a wasted opportunity I think.  On the game model, they folded into his back quite nice and neatly, but I do know that they cheated in regards to mass and the like on the game models.  However I think they could have been handled better than they have been with this toy.  I’d be quite happy if they detached for robot mode to be slotted onto his back.  They just really get in the way of his hand where they are.  You can use them and spin them around still, but if you put his gun in his hand it looks incredibly cluttered.

 

It also makes the weapons ridiculous.  Why would Vortex arm himself with bladed pistols when he has a couple of massive blades on his fore-arm???  Especially when you can spin them so easily…

 

 

However aside form the blade on arm placement issue (and a wobbly knee), Vortex is a nice little figure.  I would actually recommend this guy even if you didn’t have the other Combaticons as he is a fun robot and a nifty chopper as well as a pretty cool Bruticus arm.