Airazor was one of those characters who was fairly memorable in the series as a secondary character, though not on the same level as Blackarachnia nor Silverbolt; apart from her creation by Rhinox and the relationship she shares with Tigatron, she doesn't really get to do as much and ends up written off the show along with Tigatron during Season 2. Granted, she's got a lot more to do and say than characters like G1 Skids, Armada Overload, and the TLK Decepticon crew, but it's not significant enough if you ask me. Still, I think it's a welcome addition to have her after not having a proper version of the character that's not her old Basic toy, the Transmetal form she never had in the show, and those Cybertronian repaints that contradicted her backstory. Let's take a look at Kingdom Airazor!
Here is Airazor in her falcon mode. It's done rather nicely in terms of details, what with the texturing of the ruffles and some of the paint apps applied to make it look as organic as possible. While the proportions might not entirely be accurate to how a proper eagle would look, they at least attempt to hide the robot parts better than Animorphs Tobias would with his human parts...though I will say that the coloring of the beast mode isn't exactly like the cartoon. Granted, some BW characters aren't given the exact level of accuracy that the MPs achieve, but it is kind of annoying that Airazor is gray when she was a very dark brown on the top and white on the bottom. It's not an awful look, but it does feel a little inaccurate to the way she appeared in the show. Then again, the Kingdom toys were never meant to be 100% accurate to the cartoon. As far as articulation is concerned, the arms can pose somewhat while her wings can hinge up and down as well as hinge forwards and upwards to make her look like she's flying. She even has a stiff but hinged beak as well as a neck swivel!
Here she is with her Maxmial allies. She might be an overgrown falcon yet she is decently in scale as a smaller Transformer when put alongside her teammates. I think she scales fine with Rattrap, though.
Transformation is somewhat involved beyond folding her wings away, straigntening the legs, and revealing a new head. Her arms have a little bit of work to handle when hinging them outwards, the torso collapses downwards to fit proportionally, and the waist swivels to give her crotch guard in the front of her body. Partsforming is used for the weapons. As for her robot mode, it's very accurate apart from some of the liberties that the figure can't quite mimic the look of the cartoon, mainly the wings and the bigger falcon head. She does have a bit of a backpack with her wings, yet it's far better than the crap Chromia had back in Siege. A lot more orange is revealed for this mold, and the figure's proportions are certainly for a feminine build. Funny how Takara made Airazor a man in Japan and now this figure wouldn't really suit the male proportions unless it was a younger Airazor.
Head sculpt is very accurate to the character, what with the influences of the eagle head, the orange and gold for parts of the head, and the purple face (which looks weirdly like Ivan Ooze with that chin). Her eyes are black with green dots to give her the less robotic look to them compared to characters like Cheetor and Airazor. Her articulation is impressive, with a ball-jointed head, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out, bicep swivels, elbow bends, waist swivels, hips move front and back, in and out, swivels above the knees, bends for the knees that go past 90 degrees, and ball-jointed ankles. She also has some nicely painted gold rockets that go on her forearms.
As far as reuses are concerned, this is Skywarp, who is not the G1 Seeker but is actually the Beast Wars II version of the character (who was a repurpose of the American non-show Silverbolt that combined with lion Prowl and elephant Ironhide to become Magnaboss). The deco is faithful to making the bird look like an eagle, though the faux eagle head is now separated from the bird head chest. He is included in a 2-pack with an Earth mode Sideswipe.
For a comparison between herself and her old counterpart. Apart from the coloring being different, you can tell that the toy definitely came before the cartoon, seeing how the toy had less in common with what the character would become, especially when it comes to the face; the Kingdom version better resembles how she appeared in the cartoon while the original toy almost looks like a different individual by comparison.
And here she is with the rest of her teammates. She scales as well with Cheetor and Optimus Primal as one would expect, which is perfectly fine by me when you consider how she wasn't a tall robot in the show. Airazor as a figure is a nice addition to the Kingdom line; not 100% perfect as far as coloring is concerned, but the transformation, the functionality, the solid beast mode, and the rest of the toy feel as accurate as one would hope. Good luck getting her because some stores vary in terms of distribution.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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