Nightstrike's Reviews: Earthrise Airwave

I think I've said it enough, but I'll say it again just for the hell of it: I LOVE the Weaponizer gimmick. The fact that you can armor up figures, other Weaponizers, and even make combiners is just plain perfection, and gives me a lot of nostalgia for Construct-Bots, which at the time I loved, but I'll admit they definitely had issues when it came to execution. Perhaps some day I'll address those, but today I want to focus on this modern awesomeness, or more specifically, the Modulator subset!

Thus far, with this latest acquisition, I've only got two of the six actual Modulators (Fasttrack doesn't necessarily count despite the connector, as he is first and foremost a similar augmentation for a Titan, and actually has an intentional vehicle mode). I loved Ironworks, though in order to play up the tower mode I printed a very rough copy of an upgrade I found on Thingiverse, in order to give him the missile and collapsible radar dish. Airwave, however, almost feels like a visual antithesis to Ironworks, and yet when the two are merged in any fashion they seem to blend almost seamlessly.

Where Ironworks' somewhat desaturated, dark color scheme lies, Airwave is upfront with his bright coloration. Where Ironworks' lithe 'tall' appearance comes in, so does Airwave's 'short' bulkiness.

But enough about comparisons, let's focus on the big guy himself.

Airwave is marketed as having 4 total configurations, in contrast to Ironworks' 3, with the 4th granting him mobility. That form is generally used as the primary alternate mode, a sort of land-based aircraft carrier. By reconfiguring the front 'deck' to be wider, and rearranging some pieces for the 'bridge,' you can pull off a close approximation of the classic airport mode. Lastly, he also bears a cannon-emplacement mode, harkening back to the surface-to-air mode of the original quite nicely, though it may be tricky to get a better angle due to the joints having bevels for holding positions. His robot mode seems to have a lot more mass to it from the outside compared to Ironworks, but a lot of it is just parts-distribution. Like Ironworks, he also only has one functional hand, with the other arm serving as a cannon. His head is, for lack of a better descriptor, flat, giving him more of a general behemoth vibe, which is rather befitting given his carrier mode. The two eyes are centered around a circular area that seems to evoke a nose ring, perhaps making for one of the most unique head-sculpts among my own collection. On the Hothouse redeco of Airwave, available as an exclusive Selects release, this central circle is used as the singular eye instead, further differentiating the two.

For his Micromaster, I'm naturally using Siege Over-Air, though if I were more of a stickler given that there was an 'Over-Air' redeco of this figure, I'd have hunted down the old BotCon Oilmaster, as the jet Targetmaster was intended to be a modern update of that little guy. In my own personal head-canon I envision Over-air as having taken over for Airwave, who would've been his deceased twin, but frankly that's subject to change! Unlike Ironworks, there's no clear method for integrating the Micromaster into robot mode, so the best bet is to work the little guy into Airwave's cannon. Not ideal due to "exposed head syndrome" but that never bothered me much.

As for his alternate modes in detail?

Technically the A.I.R.LOCK system, those interconnecting ramps introduced within late Siege releases, is NOT ideal for Micromasters, as the width of the tracks is very much exact to to the width of them, so trying to piece together a runway of sorts is nigh impossible. However, seeing as the whole Micromaster/A.I.R.LOCK is primarily meant to be Cybertronian in nature, you can imagine the jets as having some degree of VTOL capability. So yes, his airport mode is serviceable, though not in a traditional manner. Not much of a mark against him, though, considering the fact that scale has almost never been a thing in the nearly 40 years this brand has been active.

Carrier mode is a much better fit for jets, however, and if you're feeling cheeky, you can just have Over-Air sit on the bridge using the 5mm sword handle from his combo weapon form. This mode feels a lot more stable, and is very much an intended use for the treads.

Lastly, emplacement mode is a bit visually different from the original, replacing the missiles with the figure's cannons, now dark gunmetal grey instead of orange, and foregoing the 'bunker' made from the, well, bunker. The general shape is still there, though, and can be used to augment whatever loose base setup you have in mind.

What about other configurations? Well believe me when I say there's a lot. From the looks of things, it seems like these two base molds were almost made with all the redecos in mind. Airwave is able to assume a tank mode not too dissimilar from Hothouse's, Ironworks can relocate his crane arm next to the main body to make a building extension, a feature of assembly that gets used for the Greasepit retool.

Additionally, given the distinct Countdown Rocket Base homage that is the Botropolis Rescue Mission set, you can reconfigure the two molds together, like so, to achieve a workable version of the Rocket Base.