Lately, I’ve been buying up a hell of a lot of Animated and Generations figures, but today I’m going to throw a bit of loving behind The Hunt for the Decepticons line with the new Autobot attack helicopter, Tomahawk. I’m a big helicopter buff, so Transformers that turn into helicopters usually get extra points from me, but they still need to work well in their robot forms, which I don’t think is as easy to do as a car or a jet or a tank. So I always have a lot of appreciation for the figures that can get it right.

Yep, we’ve seen this packaging before. It’s not my favorite deco, but it’s cool. I’m used to it now. But I think Hasbro can cram a few more stickers on the bubble schilling their websites. I mean, I can still see the figure.



I loooove Tomahawk’s attack chopper mode. Between the black coloring and the heavy armaments, he looks almost too vicious to be an Autobot, which makes me wonder whether we’ll see Tomahawk repainted as a ‘Con one of these days. So, how about them armaments? He’s got two firing rocket launchers mounted on his wing, along with two clusters of bombs and miniguns mounted on the tips. There’s also a small sensor package under the cockpit that pivots from side to side. Yeah, I usually imagine Autobot choppers as rescue helicopters, but this guy is out to seriously slag some Decepticons. The cockpit screen is tinted yellow, and he’s got some gold and gray in the mix, along with silver Autobot emblems on his wings. Tomahawk holds together really well and features folding landing gear and spinning rotor blades. This is one seriously awesome helicopter mode with a heck of a lot of detail for a Deluxe Class toy.

Tomahawk’s chopper mode is so good, naturally his robot mode has got to suck big time, right? Not this time. Tomahawk has a nice, clean humanoid robot form with the cockpit forming his chest, similar to the design often used with jet Transformers, and the intakes forming his shoulders. The blades and wings position nicely on his back with his miniguns and bombs facing forward for added firepower. You actually have some leeway with how you want to position these wings. His missile launchers are removed from the wings and attached to hardpoints on his arms, using the same type of clips seen on Generations Darkmount. Overall, he still looks very much like a Decepticon in robot form, although his head sculpt definitely says Autobot to me. It’s just rather reminsicent of a flight helmet with a visor. Aesthetically, Tomahawk is one of those figures that feels like a hybrid between the Bayformers and the Generations, but why try to pigeon hole the guy when he looks so awesome!

The articulation on thsi figure is fantastic. Tomahawk has a ball jointed neck. His arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and hinges with swivels in the elbows. His legs are ball jointed in the hips and feature two sets of hinged knees, giving him those bird-like legs that appear in many of the Bayformer toy designs. He stands very well on his own and you can pose him in a lot of cool ways.

For me, the HftD figures have been the least interesting Transformers toys on the pegs right now, but Tomahawk has definitely made me sit up and take a second look at this line. He’s an outstanding figure in just about every way and he’s loads of fun to play with. Don’t hesitate to pick him up when you find him, and you won’t be disappointed.