G1 Windsweeper

 

Robot Mode: Windsweeper is a blocky little robot whose arms are bigger (each one) than either his torso or his legs (which are a single block). That’s because they not only contain the wings of his alternate mode, but also his gimmick, the flip-out cannons that are triggered by a, well, trigger on the back of each arm. When flipped out the cannons align with his arms, making them longer than his entire body.

In terms of articulation Windsweeper can swivel his arms at the shoulders and that’s it. The detailing is accomplished mostly by stickers (which are pretty faded on mine) and... yeah, that’s pretty much it. Noteworthy is that Windsweeper’s got a pretty nice head and face mold for so small a guy (about the size of a Scout-class figure). All in all, a pretty typical G1 figure from that time with a nice gimmick, but very strange proportions.

Alternate Mode: Windsweeper’s alternate mode closely resembles a B-1B Lancer bomber. It’s basically just the robot lying on his stomach with the legs tucked in, but it works well enough and the jet has less of an undercarriage than quite a few other jet-formers I could name. The Triggercon gimmick works in this mode as well, of course, with the guns flipping out from underneath the wings. A non-retractable landing gear rounds out Windsweeper’s features in this mode. Bottom line: a decent vehicle mode considering the year, no real flaws.

Remarks: Windsweeper appeared in numerous Transformers comic books, but was never more than a background character. His characterization from his Dreamwave profile book is probably the most interesting thing about him, as it establishes that he once was the head of Cybertronian sanitation before the war. His obsession with keeping things clean was easily applied to the war, only now instead of stains he’s rubbing out everything that pollutes “his” skies. I kind of wish some comic would run with that, making him an obsessive-compulsive neat freak. He’d fit right in with IDW’s Scavengers, I think.

As a toy Windsweeper is okay given the time. The Triggerbots and –cons were among the better of the G1 Gimmicks in my opinion, as the flip-out weapons usually didn’t restrict the toys much and made sense in an in-story context. That said, Windsweeper is far from the best of the Triggercons. He’s okay, but little more than that. I got him to complete my sextet of Triggerbots/-cons and that’s it.

Rating: C-