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Series: Legacy United
Year: 2024
Allegiance: Star Raider
Class: Deluxe
Prelude: The 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon is not exactly remembered as a masterpiece of Transformers media, but it did give us some of the most original and fun Decepticon designs in many years. One example is Filch, a Corvicon, who transforms into a giant robotic magpie attracted to shiny things. Filch never got a toy in the RID2015 line (except for a Tiny Titan), but finally makes an appearance on the shelves for Legacy United’s Star Raiders. So spread your wings and let’s say “SHINY!”
Robot Mode: Filch is an extensive retool of Kingdom Airazor, so this review here will focus on the changes made to the figure. Now in the cartoon we only saw Filch in robot mode one time and only from the back, but there is a character model which was used, among other things, for the Tiny Titans version of the figure. The resemblance to the Airazor mold is already pretty good (bird head on the chest, bird feet as robot feet, tall and thin), so with the proper colors (purple and blue), Filch already closely resembles her animation model. Add the new head mold, which looks pretty fabulous, and we’re mostly there.
The one big difference Filch has to the general look of the Airazor figure is that her wings are not on her back, but rather on her arms. The figure accomplished that by making the larger part of each wing a separate, removable piece that plugs into the 5mm holes on Filch’s forearms. Thus she has the look of the animation figure and can also use the wing pieces as hand-held blades, if you wish. Nicely accomplished. The one thing from the animation model that is not quite present is that Filch had turbines on her shoulders in the cartoon. The Filch figure somewhat imitates that by giving it new shoulder pieces, but it’s not quite working for me.
Quick note about the feet: just like on Airazor, you can turn the feet around to have either a single foot facing forward or the three bird claws. Now on the back of Filch’s packaging, she is putting the “normal” foot forward, on the artwork on the side, as well as the RID2015 animation model, she has the bird claws facing forward (and she also comes packaged that way). So take your pick which look works better for you.
Bottom line: a very nice robot mode and great job on making a figure intended for a different character look almost like the barely seen robot mode of cartoon Filch. Thumbs up.
Alternate Mode: Being a retool of Airazor, Filch naturally transforms into a kind of bird. Going by the shape of the head and beak, she most closely resembles some form of Corvidae (crows and crow-like birds), which fits with her being called a “Corvicon” in the RID205 cartoon series. Magpies are part of the Corvidae family, so that fits, too. The transformation is basically identical to that of Airazor, just with the extra step of unplugging the wings from the forearms and putting them on the back.
The resulting bird has the same color scheme as the robot and was also gifted a new head, closely resembling that seen in the cartoon. Overall the resemblance to the cartoon beast mode is very good, though again we are missing the turbines that were part of Filch’s wings in animation. They did add that slight “hump” on the bird’s back, though, so a nice job overall.
That’s basically it for this mode, given that it’s basically identical to Airazor otherwise. Still a great bird mode and very nicely modified to portray Filch.
Remarks: Filch only had a single appearance in the Robots in Disguise (2015) cartoon as a bad guy (or gal) of the week in “Collect’em all”, the seventh episode of season 1. Attracted to shiny things, Filch wrecked havoc around Crown City by taking down power lines, bridges, and everything else that was in any way shiny, collecting it in her nest on top of a statue. She was not particularly fond of non-shiny things (such as humans). Kudos to voice actress Constance Zimmer (who also voiced Strongarm), who managed to make the rather innocent words “Not Shiny!” sound extremely menacing. Side note: in the German dub, Filch got a male voice, Rainer Fritzsche. His “Kein Glitzer!” didn’t sound half as menacing.
I am a big fan of the Airazor mold, of which I now have five different versions here at home (if you count Terrorsaur). Filch came out as part of the Star Raiders capsule of Legacy United exclusives, which makes her a space pirate, I guess. Well, the RID2015 cartoon never really specified what crimes landed Filch on the Alchemor, so why should she not be a pirate, given her penchant to steal stuff? I like this figure a lot and while I would have liked to see the turbines of the animation character included in some way, it still works very nicely. So thumbs up and fully recommended to fans of the RID2015 Decepticon designs and beast mode Transformers in general.
Rating: B+
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