Whirl’s a girl?

I guess it’s an Alex situation with the name. It’s acceptable for both genders. Whatever the case, this Whirl is definitely not the same character as the Whirl I reviewed earlier.

This is the second Rescue Bot I’ve reviewed. I wonder if Whirl stacks up to Heatwave.

Vehicle mode

Whirl is still a helicopter and is quite a bit more convincing than you’d expect for a Rescue Bot. Her head, arms and legs aren’t on obvious display. Only her hands are exposed on the bottom which is a bit of a shame.

You could also make an argument about her feet being exposed as well. Well, the helicopter mode is molded and painted well enough that I can forgive those flaws.

For playability, Whirl doesn’t have tiny rolling wheels but does have a spinning rotor. Neat!

Transformation

It’s an easy two-step conversion! It’s actually one-step if you don’t count removing and putting an accessory back on as a step.

Splitting open the legs transforms Whirl from helicopter to robot mode. Then you can remove and put her rotor on her back or arm.

Robot mode

This Whirl definitely doesn’t look the Whirl we looked at earlier. The obvious thing is that she has two eyes and a mouth. Also, this Whirl is a girl and she kinda feels like Prime Arcee.

Also, I’m very impressed by the amount of paint Whirl has. She’s painted much better than the Cyberverse figures. Her molded detail is simple but gets the job done.

For posability… Whirl is a Rescue Bot so it’s basically non-existent. She can only move her arms up and down at the shoulders. That’s an improvement over Heatwave though!

Gimmicks

The aforementioned 2-step transformation was one of her gimmicks. The other one is her spinning rotor. Pressing the big grey button on the rotor assembly makes it spin.

The assembly can either be left in place or put on either of her robot mode arms. It’s a nice gimmick that works well and it was a nice touch to be able to use the assembly as an arm mounted weapon/tool.

Toy or collectible?

Whirl’s a Rescue Bot and is obviously meant for younger kids. She’s a smashing success in that regard! Dense, durable, simple and colourful.

Also, reasonably priced for the amount of toy you’re getting. It’s even better if you can get her on discount or second hand!

Closing

Whirl does exactly what she’s meant to do. Be a simple yet fun gateway for younger kids into the world of Transformers. You probably will be disappointed if you get Whirl thinking you’ll be getting anything more than that.

Oh yeah, about what I said earlier. I actually think Whirl is a better Transformer than Heatwave. She’s smaller but does more than him.