Hunt for the Decepticons Tomahawk

 

Robot Mode: Tomahawk is a drastic change from the copter bots of old. Despite his alt mode, the profile of Tomahawk is clean and relatively kibble free. His major kibbly bits, the rotors and wings, can actually be manipulated so that they don’t interfere with his posability and/or alter his profile to your tastes. I prefer to keep the wings up high (some shoulder mounted weaponry for you Philister) and the rotors down low. Additionally, since there isn’t a spinning mechanism for the rotors, you do not have a giant chunk of plastic hanging off somewhere.

His color scheme is mostly black and silver with bits of bronze, red, and yellow serving as accents. His head sculpt is also very well done and it looks like a flight helmet with a visor covering his eyes. Plus the light piping gimmick still works. Just as with Blazemaster, Tomahawk has large bird-legs which fit the avian nature. I originally had one qualm against his appearance in robot mode, but I discovered that I had him mistransformed. There was a gap behind the cockpit where it hangs over his torso, but I discovered that if you fold the front landing gear up, you can push the cockpit in further fixing this blemish

While not as limber as his wave mate, Terradive, he is more than decent in the posability department. Due to the requirements of his transformation, he lacks articulation in the waist and the wrists, but I can’t hold that against him. He did have an issue standing at first because of his loose hips. With the proper fix on the hips and those enormous feet, he is more than stable for just about any pose imaginable.

In terms of weaponry, Tomahawk lives up to his bio and fireblast tech spec. All of his weapons, save one, are mounted on his wings. The large guns with the launching missiles can removed from the wings and placed in either of his hands (not very snugly though) or clipped to his arms via the infamous 3mm clip system. As I stated before, I prefer them on his wings high above of the shoulders. The other weapons present on the wings are small missiles and a pair of chain guns. For close quarter combat, he possesses a multi-function combat tool. The actual tailfin of the copter mode can act as a blade or a battle claw. With the added bulk of the tail on his forearm, the claw resembles the jaws-of-life. By not properly folding this arm up you get something akin to a glaive. One interesting note in regards to weaponry, you can borrow some firepower from other toys.

Tomahawk makes for an awesome robot mode overall. He scores high marks in every department. Between the robot modes of him and Blazemaster, Tomahawk is a clear win.

Vehicle Mode: You can tell that there was serious thought put into Tomahawks vehicle mode. It is very solid without any excessive gapping in the seams and no rotor-spinning gimmick with a large chunk of junk to activate it. On those merits alone he has nearly every copter-bot (Leader Animated Megatron excluded) to date beaten. However, he has a clear case of VHS (visible head syndrome) and there is a gap under the cockpit that is visible from the side. Due to this, Blazemaster actually wins even with his faults.

In the gimmicks department, you have the wing mounted weaponry, a free spinning rotor, and a three point landing gear system. The wheels are only molded plastic though. If you choose to, you can relocate the launchers to the clips (which resemble realistic steps) on his tail or the tips of his wings, but he can’t rest on his landing gear. As with the robot mode, you can further modify his weapons payload by borrowing some from everyone else. One nifty feature I wasn’t aware of at first is that his radar array can be pivoted just like a real helicopter. Additionally, there is some translucent red plastic added to it, further proving that the designers loved this guy from start to finish.

For all intents and purposes, Tomahawk is almost as successful as a vehicle as he is a robot. The gap under the cockpit brings him down a bit so he misses out on the A. Regardless, he is a solid contender for one of the best helicopter alt modes.

Conclusion: Hasbro’s first attempt at a deluxe copter received a lukewarm reception, but as I said I liked him because of the novelty. Tomahawk is the deluxe copter bot that the fans wanted the first time and you can tell that he was made by fans for fans. If you like great robot modes and/or good helicopters alt modes, then you need to get this guy.

Robot Grade: A
Alt Mode Grade: B+
Overall Grade: A-