*Disclaimer: these figures were provided free of charge for review purposes (thanks Jas!) but all opinions in this review are my own.*

I never really hear War for Cybertron: Kingdom Wave Two being talked about. I think it’s because it was sandwiched between wave one (the best wave) and wave three (which had the commander and Titan class figures), and while this wave had some real highlights, it also had some of the worst figures in the line.

Today, let’s take a look at two figures that interested me and seemed to be the most average of the wave.

Huffer

RRP: £18.99 (AVAILABLE HERE)

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I’ve never cared for Huffer’s design, with his weird head and arms sticking out. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this, looking as it does like a modern adaptation of the character, something that might’ve come out at the height of Thrilling 30. The oranges and blues match the G1 counterpart nicely, tracking ideas from the show and toy. The paint is also well applied and the material choices are good, featuring no clear plastic hinges (also, what clear plastic we do have is certainly built to last.

Unfortunately, Huffer has hollow legs. On a larger deluxe like Hoist this would be fine, but Huffer’s only a head taller than most legends figures, and as such, some collapsible flaps would’ve been much appreciated.

The kibble on this figure is really well managed, and he retains the leg tyres and head box from his G1 design. The designers did a great job of designing the truck cab to ensure that it doesn’t obstruct posing. However, my favourite piece of kibble management has to be the tyres behind his head, they are unobtrusive while also making the transformation more interesting.

As for accessories, Huffer includes a riot shield – it’s well painted and there’s lots of mechanical detail, while also being a good size for Huffer – and a large gunmetal blaster. The blaster is really chunky and the sculpting is lovely. An interesting note is that, neither of these accessories are traditionally associated with Huffer. The designer definitely wanted this to be a modern upgrade of Huffer and didn’t want to ‘cheap out’ on accessories.

This figure has very average posing, with nothing out of the ordinary, but due to the smothering of 5mm, Huffer can use blast effects and weapons to kick himself up a notch, and heel supports to keep him balanced.

The transformation on this figure is very simple, with the most interesting part being the aforementioned wheels mounted behind the head. I do wish the forearms did more to conceal the hands, but in a transformation as smooth as this, that is only a minor niggle.

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This transformation is the personification of simple but effective, and in vehicle mode Huffer perfectly matches his on-screen counterpart. The cab is perfect. It’s well painted, with the grill being a highlight. The clear windows don’t show any robot junk either, you could probably fit a Titan master in there, with a little bit of finagling. The bed hasn’t been skipped out either, with detailed hitches and enough room to attach Earthrise Optimus Prime’s trailer.

One minor niggle would be that the hands don’t fold away much, and are pretty obviously just chilling out there. Surprisingly, the weapons actually have function in this mode. The blaster splits in half and tabs onto either side of the riot shield, which then plugs into the bed, turning Huffer into more of a pickup truck, this is great optional partsforming, and coincidentally, weapons storage was a feature common on the Thrilling 30 figures.

VERDICT: Huffer is really good. He fills his budget much better than other minibots like Cliffjumper, but, honestly, if you have no attachment to Huffer as a character, you’d be better getting Kingdom Pipes, who is effectively Huffer with a more interesting transformation.

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Airazor

RRP: £18.99 (AVAILABLE HERE)

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Airazor on the other hand has completely blown away my expectations. I came into this thinking Huffer was going to be good and Airazor wouldn’t be for me, but in actuality, the ‘Battle of the Planets’ vibes and the colour scheme really elevate this one.

Her (or ‘his’ if you follow Takara’s continuity) head sculpt is surprisingly cool, and the painting and sculpting is excellent. The back mounted wings are also really dynamic, helping with balance in some poses.

I personally prefer how the eagle head stores as it looks more like an emblem than Cheetor’s cheetah clothes. The arms and legs are the are nicely detailed for such small parts, and yes, the backwards chicken feet are stupid, but they do a great job of keeping her upright and stable.

Airazor is quite light on accessories, but she does have wrist rockets designed to invoke her retooled Skywarp build. These are well painted and fit well with hey aesthetic, despite clearly not being designed for her. For such a slender figure, the designers have really crammed in as much posing as possible. She has pretty much everything you could ask for, her elbows and knees pull above ninety, and she’s got an ab crunch for transformation. If I were greedy, i’d ask for wrist swivels and downward bending wrists, but she is so dynamic as it is, and looks cool in almost any pose.

We never really get bird transformers all that often, and for that reason, Airazor’s transformation is really interesting. Lots of folding and twisting, and you end up with this semi-decent bird mode.

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From an upper perspective, she looks practically perfect, maybe a bit chunky, but once you turn her to the side, you realise she’s basically a Jetformer, and with a kibblely underbelly and random robot bits, she could fit in with a Seeker collection.

That being said, all the bird details are well painted and sculpted, the bird head is amazing, and the underside kibble is unobtrusive and can be hidden when she is landed. The wings retain all functionality, as do the feet, and the bird head has an opening mouth which really helps with the expressiveness of this figure.

VERDICT: You definitely want a flight stand for this figure, at it kicks up the dynamic nature of both modes. Quite frankly, my socks are knocked off.  I didn’t think I would enjoy this anywhere near as much as I did.

OVERALL VERDICT: These are definitely underrated gems. Airazor is better, but both would be great additions to any collection, especially General Grievous’. They are both still widely available, and you definitely wouldn’t regret such great pickups.

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The writer of this piece was: Daniel AKA BrickBuiltDengar
You can follow Daniel on Instagram at BrickBuiltDengar

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