The Unvincible One! Part I!

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It's the unvincible one himself - Whirl!  I've been after Whirl pretty much since I got back into the collecting game nearly 15 years ago?  What was holding me back?  Truth be told, other figures.  Every time I would think about purchasing Whirl, I'd end up getting another figure.  Finally, I decided to make a concerted effort to get all of the figures from the 1985 line that I kept neglecting within the year.  First on my list?  Why Whirl, of course!

As a kid, Whirl never really factored into my collecting habits.  He wasn't featured on the show, and he was never in the comic; at least the US version that I had access to.  The only reason that I even remembered him at all was because I had pretty much memorized the 1985 catalog.  Thanks to his prominent role in IDW's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, I was relatively concerned about prices.  After consulting with flywheels, I think I came up with a decent price range for a complete Whirl and got to work looking.  After about a week, I found one with a price that didn't make me convulse.

Whirl's helicopter mode is awesome, especially for something designed in the '80's.  He was originally released in Japan by Takatoku Toys in the Dorvack line.  In the Dorvack line, he was a much darker blue.  I won't go into the original version as I don't own one, and Maz at the TFSource Blog has already done an amazing job detailing the origins of this figure.  I highly recommend reading it.  

Whirl wouldn't be an early 80's figure if he didn't have space for a humanoid figure to sit.  There is a variant version of Whirl that has raised ridges on the canopy, but I could care less about that.  As you can see above, my Whirl came decal free, as preferred.  I took these pictures in early January and I've already acquired Reprolabels to make him look better.  Time constraints and, frankly, laziness, have prevented me from using those pictures.

Sadly, the rubsign is destroyed.  Always pay attention to pictures on an auction!

Whirl comes with four weapons, two of which attach to the helicopter mode giving it an Airwolf feel. 

Transformation is pretty standard.  Once transformed, Whirl doesn't really look like he belongs in the line.  He is very different aesthetically from the rest of his brethren.  For starters, there's the single eye that looks more like a camera than a face.  Secondly, his hands are just claws.  It's a very unique look that distinguishes Whirl form everyone else.  Once acquired, I realized how cool he looks.  However, a flaw was detected on mine - loose arms!

Apparently, Whirl's arms are on ball joints, and are prone to becoming loose over time.  After some research, I discovered a neat trick on how to tighten the arms that involved nail polish.  Once that fix was done, I was quite happy.

See?  Good as new!

Articulation on Whirl is pretty much limited to the above picture.  His head can move up and down as a result of his transformation scheme, but that's really it.  After dealing with Venom, another figure from Takatoku included in the Transformer line, I thought that there might be a bit more articulation.  Still, Whirl is a very gorgeous figure.  The blues go rather well with the yellow highlights.

That's one more figure from 1985 crossed off my list, leaving just a handful more.  I must say, if I'm going to complete that year, Whirl is a good place to start.  You may be wondering why this is titled as Part I.  Think about it.  Think about what figure was released this year.  If you can't guess it, don't worry, Part II will be around soon.  How soon?  Well, let's get through more of my backlog first.