Combiner Wars Vortex

Prelude: Today we shall talk of Vortex, the helicopter of the Combaticons. If the Combaticons are the A-Team of Transformers, then Vortex is, of course, Howling Mad Murdoch. He also utilizes the same mold as Alpha Bravo, he of Hasbro’s doomed attempt to inject a little variety into the Aerialbots. But we don’t talk about Alpha Bravo, he who replaced Slingshot aka Quickslinger in the Aerialbots. There is no Alpha Bravo, actually, at least that’s what I was told to say whenever the topic of Alpha Bravo came up. This review is dedicated to my buddy Reyjin, who is a huge fan of Alpha Bravo, I believe.

Differences: I have already reviewed Combiner Wars Blades, who shares the Alpha Bravo mold with Vortex, so here we’ll just be talking about the differences. Unlike Blades, Vortex didn’t get a new head, he shares the same noggin’ as Alpha Bravo. He did get a new paint job, though, being mostly grey in vehicle mode and actually quite colorful in robot mode with green, purple, red, and yellow joining the grey. He comes with a grey gun and a grey combiner hand/foot/weapon thing, too.

Overall Vortex looks pretty close to his Generation 1 animated counterpart, it’s easily apparent that the mold was made mostly for him (and Blades), not so much Alpha Bravo. Who was Alpha Bravo again? Anyyway, Vortex makes the most out of what is really just an average Combiner Wars figure. And, naturally, he can become either an arm or a leg for Bruticus, whom I’ll review separately once I’m through with the individual Combaticons.

Remarks: When Starscream liberated the Combaticons’ brain modules from prison, he installed Vortex in the shell of an old World War II Corsair fighter (or rather the wreck of one). How an old single engine jet fighter ended up becoming a modern military attack helicopter will forever remain a mystery of Cybertronian technology (maybe he had scanned Alpha Bravo’s vehicle mode at some earlier point).

Anyway, when it comes to combiner teams, it’s often the case of simply having to get all five for the sake of the combined figure. Vortex isn’t a particularly thrilling stand-alone figure (none of the Alpha Bravo remolds are, really), but you need him to complete the team and he works well as part of the whole. Some bonus points from me, too, because I found mine at a flea market in San Diego during a vacation with my dad.

Rating: C+