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Brave Maximus’ Review of Reissue Wing Waver

Name: Wing, Waver (Wing Waver or Waver Wing)
Allegiance: Cybertron
Alt-Mode: Jet Fighter, Hydrofoil
Function: Multiforce Leader
First Cartoon Appearance: Victory - Multiforce Combine

Long before Transformers: Energon came up with the concept of over\under combiners, there was a small group of “Micromasters” called the Multiforce. It was made up of 6 members, each transforming into their own robot mode, but also forming a top or bottom part of a larger robot. They were sold in pairs, and in the Victory cartoon they were only seen in their 3 combined forms, or as the giant warrior Landcross. One of the big selling features of the Multiforce (other than their being a combiner) is that there were 37 possible combinations. The names of the combined robot was made up of whomever was on top, then whomever was on the bottom (Hence Wing Waver if Wing was on top, or Waver Wing if it was reversed). Through the reviews, you’ll see me refer to them as “Micromasters”. The quotation marks are not accidental. They were marketed as Micromasters, but each toy is between 3" and 4" in length in vehicle mode. This is double the size of the average Micromaster.

The leader of the Multiforce team was the pair Wing Waver,who forms the core of the giant robot Landcross. They are a young team, prone to making mistakes. Thankfully, they usually went up against Dinoking.

Alt Mode:
Wing:
Wing’s vehicle mode is a jet fighter of some sort. It looks like a very blocky F-15.... sort of. Like all “Micromasters”, there’s some things that don’t quite work. For Wing, his arms stick out on the sides, and he’s very blocky. The sculptors try very hard to compensate for this, though, with some great raised detail on his back, showing what should be the outline of the jet and it’s thrusters. Unfortunately, it still looks weird. Wing is primarily grey, with red wings, a black cockpit, and dark grey thrusters. On the left side if his tail is a tampographed Autobot symbol, and there’s a hole on his back to place his blaster.

Waver: Waver is some sort of hydrofoil boat. Unlike Wing, his vehicle mode works quite well. It’s very angular, and, while still blocky, manages to look sleek. He has 4 hydrofoils (2 on the front, to on the back), and a huge fan\propeller on the back to allow him to move. As a bonus, the fan actually spins! His primary colour is white, with red hydrofoils and fan, and a blue cockpit. Unlike Wing, though, he doesn’t have a space for his blaster, but a peg that you can attach one of Landcross’ fists (which has a gun on it). The front left side also has a tampographed Autobot symbol.

They aren’t the best examples of Transformer vehicle modes, and Waver is definitely the better of the pair. Each of them rolls along on 3 working wheels.

Robot Mode:
Wing:
Wing’s robot mode is a little bit better than his vehicle mode. There are 2 types of Multiforce robot modes, and unfortunatly Wing suffers from the worst of the two (this poor guy is getting the short end all over the place, though he does make it up later), which is the bow legged kind. His legs look like they have too much space between them in robot mode, but it’s not too bad, just not great. His head is an interesting design. It’s the standard helmet design, with inset face, but there’s also a nice crest and antenna. it actually reminds me of Saber's head design. His colours are still grey and red, but silver makes an appearance on his chest and face. If you look really closely, he actually has painted yellow eyes. Wing also comes with the smallest weapon on the Multiforce team: A small, black laser pistol.

Waver: Again, Waver comes out as the best of the pair. He doesn’t have the bow legged stance of Wing, and has nice large feet to provide stability. His face is back to the helmet with side ridges and a face plate, though his features a strange chin\beak design. His colours are the same: Red chest and arms with white feet and head, and he has a silver face and yellow eyes. Waver also has one of the stranger things found in the Micromaster reissues - Sticker detail. He has black and yellow venting on his chest. Waver comes with a larger black rifle, with a fin design, which fits his nautical design.

Both Wing and Waver suffer from a common design flaw in the Multiforce: Smaller upper body, huge legs and feet. Every thing on them, from the waist up, is proportional. But, when you get to their legs, they’re HUGE. This is because they form the legs and\or Arms of the combined form. Speaking of which:

Wing Waver: Of the two combined forms, this one looks the best. Wing’s larger head shows better detail and has a much sterner look (which fits the leader of a combiner team). The red wings on the arms actually frame the body quite nicely, and Waver’s huge feet balance the robot quite nicely. If you’re wondering where to put the weapons, they each have a peg on the back of them, that fit on the front of Wing Waver’s fists. This doesn’t look too back, actually.

Waver Wing: I really don’t like this form. Wing doesn’t form very good feet, as he has no “toes”, so the robot is rather unstable. He also seems rather squat compared to Wing Waver. This is partially because his arms seem disproportionally long - which they aren’t in reality. If you look at where his fists are, they’re in the proper place, but the bow of Waver’s boat mode adds extra space to the front of them, which makes it look weird. I’m also not to fond of his face in this. Instead of having a bizarre chin thing on his faceplate, he has a nose that sticks out, and then it's blank underneath. Not impressive.

In the combined mode, they don’t look too bad, though I would suggest Wing Waver over Waver Wing. There’s a tone of detail on them, but with their plain colour scheme, it tends to be hard to see. The colours work quite well together, and he’s nicely armed with his blasters.

Poseability: Individually, they don’t have much. Really, their arms go up and down, and that’s about it. Combined, they have 6 points of articulation, all in their arms.

Transformation: 4. Pretty easy, though it takes a bit of effort to get their head out. Using their guns helps.
Durability: 9. Pretty solid little guys. The wost that can happen is losing the extra bits (weapons and combiner bits).
Fun: 9. 37 possible combinations, 3 or 6 individual robots or one giant robot. You have to be able to have fun there.
Price: 7. Pretty good actually. I’ve seen a complete set of 6 still going for $40CDN.
Overall: 6 for Wing Waver. Not bad, but not something I’d get if this was all there was.
 
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