War for Cybertron Air Raid’s wiki picture
Ah yes, the continual March of Time. Ever dragging the nostalgia window forwards to your eventual demise. As I've discussed before, 2012/13 wasn't a brilliant time for Transformers toys, as budget cuts kicked in and the bayverse had lost its shine. Around this time, The Fall of Cybertron video game had been released to general acclaim, but the tie-in toys were patchy, prompting a cottage industry of third party substitutes and add-ons. That was 11 or so years ago, so it now counts as nostalgia to think about. While the FOC line has largely been supplanted by the conceptually similar Siege, and the more recent Studio Series Gamer Editions, but it was influential in its way. The FOC toys were notable for their use of Retooling, foreshadowing Combiner Wars and modern Legacy toys. And this wasn't merely new heads either, it meant additional accessories too. Air Raid is one such toy.
Given that Air Raid, is, well, called Air Raid, you'd probably think was he a jetformer of some description. Possibly a seeker repaint, and in the context of being an Autobot, part of the Aerialbots sub-group. He may very well be an Aerialbot, and he is a retool of a Decepticon mould. It's just that the base mould was Shockwave. He has wings, he flies a bit, but Air Raid's altmode is described as “Cybertronian mobile artillery”. Its a weird direction to go, not least because this toy is a legally mandated name-swap too. That's more a discussion for robot mode, but here its evident with the colours, burgundy, gold, silver and metallic grey. Its not a bad look by any means, with things being retooled significantly along the centre line. It has a different character from the Shockwave version, not least because of the additional sword weapon that folds out into decoration or wannabe control surfaces. What is less great is the remnants of Shockwave they didn't change, most notably a piece of faux kibble on top, and the cannon barrel is neglected. By the standards of Cybertronian altmodes, subset of Transformers that look like nowt specific, Air Raid tends towards the middle. Clearly alien, not a Siege style cop-out, but not something noteworthy in form or function. Its a gun with wings, one integrated weapon, one externally stowed weapon, a spare 5mm port if you need more gun, and an upsidedown Autobot badge. Its adequate, although the colours do look great. There's a lot more visual interest than the source material. It does however need landing gear.
In robot mode, I find there's more to talk about with Fireflight. What? Oh, yes, this is meant to be Fireflight, not Air Raid, but they couldn't secure the name. This is why the toy has absolutely no resemblance to the Air Raid from the preceding video game, and why it was cheating for me to use the wiki image I used above. But I didn't know that at first, and in my defence they did rework Optimus Prime's design completely in-between games. Fireflight is something of interesting one here, in that they've gone a few steps beyond a mere head replacement, but there's still a lot of Shockwave there. The head for example is a stylised take on the G1 version and sits like an ornate helmet atop a mess of cables. His chest plate is new, but otherwise retaining the thick-torso/thin-limbs look of the original. Sculpted detail is otherwise unchanged, but paint applications do help differentiate things here as much as with the alt mode, and he does have wings. The new weapons are of course a highlight, although the more I think about it, the less they seem to fit. Replacing the modular gunarm is a modular bladearm affair with a very large cutting edge and two small gun barrels inherited from the previous version. This didn’t immediately impress me, as the completely new components on this toy seem to be red translucent plastic painted over, thus foreshadowing some of the more worrisome of early 2020’s Transformers, but I digress. My example seems entirely fine with respects to cracking, but as a combined unit it feels a touch impractical given the overall dimensions and build quality. Splitting it up makes for a nicer pair of weapons, granting a rather large blaster with a fearsome blade attachment. The other sword is however immediately lovely; 9 out of 10, no notes. You can combine the accessories for an even more elabourate weapon, its a very modular set, but I've neglected to photo it here. Meanwhile articulation is a bit basic and smells of cut corners. The arms have some decent motion due to the transformation, but there's nothing in the waist, and the lower-legs aren't great. or indeed visually pleasing. Its no legacy deluxe is what I'm saying, although it does have a spring-loaded Dramatic Head Reveal, light piped eyes, and can certainly flourish its swords a fair bit.
I went back and forth with myself when writing this article. There’s two discussions to be had, the base mould, and what was done with it. As a case study in retooling, FOC Air Raid nee Fireflight, is very compelling. Play value is superior to the original, the colour choices are striking, its clearly a different character, and there’s the sort of trivia about the whole process that I enjoy as a collector. As a base toy? Well, the Fall of Cybertron line had recognised weaknesses when it was new, and you can count on one hand the few toys that have aged gracefully. The base mould is mediocre by modern standards, not bad certainly, but a waist joint would have meant so much here. That said you have a toy that is distinct in both forms, has more weapons that it can sensibly use at once, and absolutely is not skimping on the paint applications. So, its something that exists, and exists loudly.
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