I have quite a few Fembots to catch up on, including this - the Bingotoys BT02 Windgirl.
It feels like forever now, but back when Nicee was first released by BigFirebird Toy (BFB), there were already hints that pointed at BFB releasing their homage to Windblade as their second transformable figure. Well, their second released turned out to be that fighter plane mecha figure, then came the Magic Henshin set, followed by the retool/repaint of Nicee. By this point, rumour had gone around that Hasbro/Takara was on the rampage regarding their IPs, and BFB had opted to drop their Windblade figure completely. Strange, as they wouldn't be the first company to do such a figure, though I suspect theirs would have been much higher on things collectors are aware of, mostly due to the expected sexy aesthetic.
Well, by sheer coincidence, there was another Windblade figure that was announced, and made many people forget that BFB even existed. That of course, would be this figure, and while the less than stellar box doesn't quite show it, but the prototype photos were quite stunning, and best of all, the thing even transformed. I did a little research and found out that their first release was fairly competent, so I threw down and waited for the release.
Within this mangled box are the contents of this set. Unlike Nicee/Mocha, there's not a bunch of random weapons and accessories which sometimes mascaraed as car parts. There are six swords, and arguably you can never really use more than two at a time, but they do look very cool when attached in robot or Jet mode. You also have a total of four facial expressions and, unfortunately, eight interchangable hands for weapon gripping and posing purposes. There's also a stand, which I never quite figured out how to use, mostly because there is no manual with this figure.
There is a stop motion video on Youtube that is used in place of a manual, but even that doesn't explain the stand.
I can't speak to exact MSRP, but I got Wingirl for about $116 CAD before shipping, which is less than that of Eris Kultur. They are both roughly the same size, being about 8 inches tall. While Eris is not a sleek and sexy as Windgirl, you can immediately tell why Eris costs more once you pick it up. Like Nicee, Windgirl is predominately a plastic figure - nicely painted plastic, but plastic nonetheless, with die cast metal reinforced joints. Eris is much more solid.
But as I said earlier, that aesthetic on Windgirl... absolutely stunning. Obviously not quite pure war machine like Eris, but she's got the sexy look to her, without being over the top like Nicee was. I suppose this allows collectors on the whole to better stomach adding her to their collection, though things like that generally do not bother me. If you're familiar with the character, you can definitely see how this is based on the original IDW design, as she's got that angry Geisha look. Her wing backpack features those VTOL fans she's known for.
Articulation wise, Windgirl is very much in line with what Nicee offers. That unfortunately means no waist joint, and the general posing capabilities are limited by the giant backpack that each of them possesses. This backpack also causes balance issues, which the stand is supposed to help with. Windgirl does posses some extra joints, mostly a result of the transformation sequence, that serve to improve range of motion. An example of this would be the extra joints on the forearm. There's also additional hinges on the backpack and its components that allow for some posing/display options.
Paint applications is an area that Windgirl surpasses pretty much every BFB item I own. The matte metallic red looks very nice on Windgirl, along with the other accent colours, all expertly applied. While it can be argued that the paint on Mocha/Nicee aren't terrible, I think just based on sheer surface area alone there's more on Windgirl than either of the two. With so many painted surfaces, paint wear is something you will always need to be aware of when handling Windgirl. Decals, while neatly applied, are generally blurry looking, though they do get the job done.
Build Quality isn't perfect, and there are some issues that are prevalent with other third party manufacturers, such as loose joints, and those horribly squeaky joints. On my figure, I guess you can say I'm fortunate that all my loose joints are on the backpack, so technically the body is strong enough to stand up, which is better than I can say for my Nicee. Overall tolerances appear to be good, as parts fit together nicely, and the hands can actually hold the swords. That bow on the back of her head has the tendency to pop off, though.
Transformation to Jet mode is relatively straight forward, and to its credit the stop motion video does do a generally good job of explaining the necessary steps to take. The Jet mode certainly highlights the red paint job much better than the robot mode, and the blades work very well with this mode, almost like.. someone had actually designed it that way. You will, however, need to mindful of limb positioning, particularly the legs as any misalignment of these joints will result in the Jet mode being wobbly as the landing gear will not be aligned.
For a non BFB product, I can see a lot of Nicee DNA in Windgirl, though without the questionable QC that plagued much of the earlier BFB releases. The aesthetic is good - sexy, without being too over the top - which makes it a safer purchase for those who are shy about displaying your figures. I'm alright with the paint work (or more accurately the label work), so if they could somehow improve the Build Quality, I think Bingotoys could easily dethrone BFB as the People's Champ for titillating Fembot designs.
I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled for any of their future releases.
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