TFC Aiakos

Prelude: Legal stuff first as usual. Aiakos is not a figure released by Hasbro or Takara-Tomy and thus not officially a Transformer. He hails from third party company TFC and is of course meant to be Gaihawk / Guyhawk from the Breastforce, but for legal reasons he can’t be called by that name. TFC instead took a name from Greek myth once again, naming him after the king of the Myrmidons. Aiakos was one of many demigod bastards of Zeus, a wise king, and was elevated after his death to be one of the three judges of the dead in the underworld Hades, along with Minos and Rhadamanthus (apparently jet Transformer equals judge of the underworld).

Robot Mode: Unsurprisingly Aiakos is a remold, though an extensive one, of his fellow Hades-arm Minos. The engineering is identical, but quite a few of the details differ. All in all I’d say they’re about 50% the same guy. Aiakos is mostly a light red, bordering on magenta, and comes with a new head, a very close match to the noggin’ of his animated counterpart Gaihawk. Articulation and detailing is every bit as good as it was on Minos, no complaints there.

That said, Aiakos has a few problems Minos hasn’t. For one thing, he just feels… cheaper. I can’t put my finger on why, to be honest, but he seems more fragile, something about the plastic. Also, the accessories he comes with are a bit mismatched. His Breast-Animal chest plate (see below) is just a tad too large, meaning it obscures his chin from a straight angle view. Also, when transformed into weapon mode, Aiakos can’t really hold it very well. Aiakos has additional weapons with him, the three piece Hades gun and two Hades fists that double as hand guns, all of whom he can wield… with the slight problem that his joints are not quite tight enough to support these relatively heavy weapons.

So bottom line for the robot mode: looks good, moves good, but Minos is by far the better use of this particular mold.

Alternate Mode: Aiakos transforms into a MiG-29 fighter jet. The transformation is basically identical to that of Minos except for the arrangement of the wings. The resulting jet looks pretty good, has only a very minor underbelly, and everything clicks together nicely. It features a working landing gear, an opening cockpit, and the two big Hades-Hand-Guns can be fitted underneath the wings (they drag them down due to their weight, though). If you want you can also mount the two big side guns of the Hades gun that comes with Aiakos, but I advise against that, as they look massively out of scale. Aiakos’ Breast-Animal (see below) can also be fitted in weapon mode, but doesn’t look particularly good, either. So overall, a very nice jet mode as long as you don't try to mount any extra parts. No complaints.

Partner / Add-On: Like all members of the Breastforce, Aiakos comes with a detachable chest plate that becomes a gun for use in robot and vehicle mode, as well as a beast companion, a bird in his case. The bird is basically Laserbeak, really, and looks pretty good in beast mode and as a chest plate, but the gun mode isn’t that great and Aiakos can’t hold it very well, either. So bottom line: one of the better Breast Animals in terms of looks, but not so much in execution.

Combiner Mode: Aiakos forms an arm (left or right) of the Hades combiner. I’ll do a separate review of Hades now that I’ve got the entire team together. Aiakos also provides Hades with his big three-piece gun and supplies a second set of hands, too. More on that in combiner review as well.

Remarks: Gaihawk (or Guyhawk, the spelling differs) was the sixth and final member of the Breast Force to appear in the Japanese Victory cartoon. He had been stuck in a prison for years, thanks to Star Saber, until he was rescued by his teammates so that they would finally be able to combine into Liokaiser again. During the prison break he faced off with his former mercenary teammate Greatshot, but afterwards he – like most of the Breast Force – was basically reduced to being a part of Liokaiser, more or less ceasing to exist as an individual.

Aiakos is the sixth and final member of the Hades team and… yeah, you kind of have to buy him to complete the set. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing really wrong with this guy, but to me he is by far the least exciting of this team, whose individual members have mostly managed to impress me even apart from their ability to combine. So yeah, I bought him to complete my Hades, but that was pretty much the only reason.

Rating: C+