
Series: Rise of the Beasts Beast Alliance
Year: 2023
Allegiance: Maximal
Class: Battle Master
Prelude: Now bear with me here. In Rise of the Beasts, Airazor never once transformed, staying in beast mode the entire time until her demise. So it is entirely possible that she did in fact not have a robot mode, but rather a weapon mode. Like this Battle Master here, see? A bit of a stretch? Maybe, but you’d be hard pressed to prove me wrong. Anyway, here is Beast Battle Master Airazor from Rise of the Beasts. Let’s say go!
Beast Mode: Airazor is still a falcon, of course, with a roughly 10cm wingspan. The wings are on balljoints, meaning she can both flap and rotate them for all sorts of flight poses. The legs are somewhat mobile, too, as you can bend them back and forward a bit, but the head is fixed in place. Nothing much more I can write here that you cannot see in the pictures, too. A nice falcon mode, no complaints.
Weapon Mode: Unlike other Battle Masters from Rise of the Beasts, Airazor actually has two (slightly) different weapon modes. Her primary mode is a sort of crossbow, with the barrel of a blaster (which is effect part compatible) being framed by the wings spreading out to the sides. You can slightly modify this weapon by folding the wings up and combining them into a sort of shield. Now you have a blaster with a shield for the shooter to take cover behind. Okay, calling it two different weapons is pushing it a bit, I admit, but still. With a 5mm handle, the weapon (either one) can be wielded by most Transformers figures and looks pretty good, too.
Remarks: Let us not lament Airazor’s unfortunate fate in the Rise of the Beasts movie, but rather enjoy that one of the lesser-known Beast Wars characters has received so many new toys as of late. Apart from two different Deluxe-Class figures, Airazor also saw release as a Battle Master and she might just be my favorite of the bunch, too. She has both a cool weapon mode (or two) and a fully functional beast mode with very few restrictions due to the small size. So bottom line: unless the concept of a robotic animal turning into a weapon for other robots to wield is totally not your thing, Airazor here is worth a look.
Rating: B+
Picture Gallery: