Toy Review: Transformers 2010 Hailstorm

While the third "Transformers" movie "Dark of the Moon" is still in production, Hasbro is filling out its movie line of Transformers toys with various molds and characters. One that caught my eyes was the Decepticon Hailstorm. It has been some time since I have seen a Transformer toy with an array of missiles so I picked it up hoping to fill in the ranks of well-armed evil robots fighting the goodie two-shoes Autobots.

Alternate Mode: Multiple Rocket Launcher

Packaged as a little missile truck, Hailstorm packs eight red missiles to clash with his green vehicular hull. It is a small vehicle and rather cute for a military toy. The missile turret can rotate 360 degrees and elevate up to nearly 90 degrees for a wide firing range. I was hoping for a spring launching mechanism for the bragged about eight missiles and was disappointed to find none. Missiles are pushed, meaning the finger presses the missile forward until enough tension causes each to launch. It can take a lot of pressure to fire one. Alternatively, you can unlock the missiles from their secure spot and finger flick them. Either way the result is a lot of toy missiles firing around with lots of potential to lose them.

Robot Mode

Converting Hailstorm from missile truck to robot is really simple that instructions are hardly necessary. Everything just sort of folds in and out to result in a squat looking robot. The arms extend all the way to the feet, which results in a simian look that could use a big hug. The eyes are painted red instead of the expected light piping. The missiles in the missile truck now dock on top of Hailstorm's shoulders as two individual missile pods. The missiles fire the same way as the truck. The main concern about the Robot Mode is that the back end of the missiles are really exposed. Not only do they take a lot of space, they are easily bent when exposed. This can affect their launching capabilities.

All in all, Hailstorm is not exactly a major purchase at about $9 in retail stores. He does not stand out outside of the missile gimmick and is not from the core cast of the main characters from the "Transformers" films. He is a new character with little personality outside from the box blurb that was not too interesting. He was based off the Generation 2 comic Mindset character, which only means that later in time we will expect to see a Mindset retool that might have more personality and nostalgia factors in its favor.