I’m past the halfway point in checking out Hasbro’s first wave of Combiner Wars Legends Class figures. I’ve already looked at Bombshell and Powerglide, both superb figures, and today it’s Windcharger’s turn. This figure has an uphill battle to win the approval of a lot of collectors because his predecessor, Reveal the Shield Windcharger, was such a damn nice figure. I, however, don’t have that one in my collection, so maybe this guy will have a fighting chance with me. Let’s open him up and find out.

The new CW packaging still feels strange to me, but since I’ll be buying very few Hasbro releases in this line, I’m not going to bother to try to get used to it. Windcharger comes packaged in his robot mode and comes with a collectible art card. The character art has been pretty good so far, although I’m not digging ‘Chargers all that much. Why does his head look so much like Megatron? Is it just me? Is that some wacky and bizarre thing from the comics that I missed or is it just a coincidence? Also, my package has cello tape across the top of the bubble as if the factory was having more problems getting the bubbles to stick to the cards. Why does it feel like so much of Hasbro’s stuff is being made out of someone’s garage these days? Those new 3 3/4” Avengers figures look like they came out of a .25 cent gumball machine. Anyway, I digress… let’s kick it off with Windcharger’s alt mode.

‘Charger is a pretty bitchin’ low-profile sports car. He’s got a bit of modern Camero vibe to him and overall I like it a lot. You get some nice sculpted contours to the hood and sides, an integral spoiler, exhaust pipes sticking out the back, and there’s even a peg hole in the hood if you want to steal a Targetmaster Mini-Con from one of the Generations Legends and let him borrow it. The coloring is mostly red plastic, and while it does have some of that swirly nonsense going on, I don’t mind it so much in a toy this small. Some black paint on the windows and silver on the headlamps, grill and hood round out a simple but effective deco. All in all, this car is tight, holds together well, and rolls great.

If you pick up Windhcharger and turn him over you can see most of what’s going on with his engineering. Getting him into robot mode is as simple as unfolding him and straightening everything out. Getting him back into auto mode is mostly about packing the legs underneath and the arms at their sides. He’s mostly ball joints, so you don’t have to worry about anything pulling out that won’t go back in, although one of the rear tires keep popping off when I’m changing him. It makes the toy feel rather cheap, but it does go back on without a fuss.

Alright, so the biggest problem I have with this guy is his wonky proportions. The shoulders actually remind me of Armada Prime’s shoulders and that shouldn’t be a bad thing because I still adore that version of Prime, but they don’t work quite as well on ‘Charger here. The design seems confused over whether it was going for a bulky or lean robot and so we get the hulked out shoulders and spindly legs that don’t go well together. The car plates on his thighs help to balance things out a little, but not enough for it to really work for me. I think he can be made to look better in wide stances, but when you compare him to some of the other robot modes we’ve seen in the Legends Class lately, Windcharger feels like a stutter-step.

That’s not to say it’s all bad. The head sculpt is on par with the excellent portraits we’ve been seeing in this line. There’s a lot of detail and neat paintwork packed into that tiny noggin. I also like how the front plates on his legs are faked out to look like the shuttered back of the original G1 Windcharger’s car mode. The coloring here is also quite good. You get a lot of the same red plastic from the car mode with some dark and light grey thrown in on the torso and limbs. It’s also worth noting that the side panels on his thighs can be displayed with the wheels front or back. The difference doesn’t really help the proportions, but I prefer them with the wheels facing front and that seems to be the official transformation.

Windcharger does sport some good articulation. The shoulders are mounted on ball joints and attached to hinged arms and the elbows are also ball jointed. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and knees, and the ankles are hinged as part of the transformation. Also, despite his bulky top and demure lower half, he’s a fairly well balanced figure. As with most of these Legends figures, he’s a lot of fun to throw in my pocket and play around with during the day, especially when trying to get through those boring meetings at work. Just don’t let anyone catch you. Seriously, it’s embarrassing.

Where to come down on Windcharger? I love his car mode, but I’ve got mixed feelings about the robot mode. The consensus among collectors seems to weigh heavily against this guy, but I can’t summon up any hatred for him. It’s not the best robot mode, but I’ve certainly seen a lot worse and in toys bigger and more complex than this guy. Hell, I’ve mailed about a dozen Transformers to my nephew in the last month or so that wished they looked this good. He’s a far cry from the sexiness that was the Reveal the Shield version, but taken on his own I don’t think he’s all bad and he scales really nicely next to the Generations Legend Bumblebee. Maybe this is a case of me being more forgiving of the Legends Class figures, but I’ve been far more disappointed with some Deluxe Class figures than I could ever be with this little guy. Indeed, I’d say that if this is the worst that Legends Class has given us lately, it’s a sub-line that’s doing pretty damn great.