Transformers: TF2010 Hailstorm is Something That Exists

It's kinda weird these days to look at the TF2010 line, especially given how Legacy and the movie franchise are today. It was a time of plenty; the first two live action films had been massive successes, if not critically, while Transformers: Animated had overcome an initially hostile reaction to be a fan favourite that was taken too soon. We were again in a situation where we were getting more toys than media, but both the live-action and animated styles were highly divergent from what came before, and, call it the classical style, was starting to reassert itself around the edges. Live action toys not actually in the movies were much less extreme, and modernised takes on G1 characters were coming back. Note, this wasn't the faithful-to-the-point-of-idiocy remakes we've seen a lot of lately, rather reinterpretations with different alt modes. TF2010 ran concurrently with the more nostalgic Generations, which was just getting started, although in truth this distinction was somewhat arbitrary. Think Kingdom and Studio Series, or indeed Studio Series and Legacy. Things would change when Dark of the Moon came along, but this lead a period of melange, where we had a bunch of toys supposedly of the live-action continuity rubbing shoulders with nostalgia bait, both sets sharing the same design principles and pricing. Hailstorm is such a toy, a dude intended for the bayverse, but truthfully tangential to it, whom honestly does not and did not look that odd on a Generations shelf. The dude didn't do much, but is reported based on the G2 comic character Mindset, although somewhat loosely. He's something of a pretool to Mindset actually, there would be a headswap recolour with that name shortly thereafter.

The altmode is a MLRS vehicle of seemingly made-up origin, although one tending towards realism. This was the style of Transformers without licenced altmodes at the time, things tended towards real world contemporary altmodes. Its somewhat small and stocky, although with a lot of nice visual touches. The caterpillar tracks for example are picked out in two different colours, and while predominantly green, there's a camouflage pattern applied to some of the flat surfaces. The cab meanwhile, which hints at the true scale of the thing, lacks windows but leaves the frame for them empty, an odd choice. Functionally it's not bad either, to a point. The launcher turns and tilts, not always a given, and it features two bars for then-standard 3mm clip system. That was a play feature that grew out of the movie lines, where weapons had a clip to attach them to toys, and it was pretty good, although it's not something Hailstorm gets much use by himself. The issue comes with the eight missiles. The big, red, and kinda-bad pressure-launched missiles. These didn't work great at the time, still don't, and this was during a period when spring loaded missiles where a mundane feature. It's a millstone around the neck of the toy; it doesn't look bad here, but the actual execution is lacking. If only these had a little more punch to them. In other news, there's a lot of robot bits on the underside, which isn't that notable, but put me in mind of a horseshoe crab.

Hailstorm's transformation is possibly unique to the mould, although telegraphed somewhat by the robot bits. What's interesting here is the difference between the upper and lower body. The legs form the front of the vehicle, in what is a fairly unusual manner with the feet in the middle. It's reasonably good at concealing the other mode, but the upper body isn't. Instead that has an accordion type compression going on, which adds a lot to the character of the robot mode, but doesn't do much with the lower arms and chest. What is very unusual though is how the tracks form the upper arms. Shades of Tarn there, I half-remember a custom along those lines. It is an interesting way of doing things, to say the least, by turns impressive and basic.

Above, I mentioned that TF2010 toys would fit on a Generations shelf without looking odd. For Hailstorm this is something of a technicality. Hailstorm is inherently odd, just not in way a typical Bayverse design was odd back then. Make no mistake, this is not the inhuman over-complexity of early bayformer designs where your eyes could have a hard time processing what they were actually looking at. Hailstorm has a much cleaner and well-defined appearance, still a lot going on, but with recognisable focal points and good colour choices. I love that chest plate, it's such a good look with the silver abs and white shoulder assemblies. He is however a hunchbacked ogre of a robot with odd proportions and a heavy investment in those missiles that don't work great. These stick out the back to a comical distance, and at that point you kinda feel that maybe the toy would have been better off with purely decorative examples. Or actual 5mm fist holes for that matter. This wasn't that uncommon at the time, Animated didn't do standardised accessories, and smaller bay verse toys without handheld guns often didn't bother with fist holes. It would have helped though. On the plus side, you do have the C Clip functionality, the option to leave the missile pods in vehicle configuration so they take up less space, and he's not doing badly for articulation. Due to his transformation he ends up with ankle tilts, and gravitates naturally to a missile launching stance akin to Energon Demolishor. He's not super-posable or anything, but it feels appropriate to his general vibe.

Is Hailstorm good? Now that I come to think about it, I'm not sure. His key feature doesn't work that well, which is a problem as he's largely built around it. But he does have character, and that does count for something. It's probably why this guy has kept a place in my collection when I've moved on objectively better toys. It's a transitional design, if you will, midway between the bayverse and what Generations would quickly become. A realistic vehicle mode, an unconventional robot mode, but with a transformation that isn't overdone. There is a place for such things. Regardless, TF2010 Hailstorm is something that exists.