Review: Transformers One Cog Changers Airachnid

The only Airachnid figure from the line, so far, and it’s an unposeable kiddie toy, but it’s actually nicely detailed and pretty fun! Read on for more.

Reminder: I haven’t yet seen Transformers One, so this review is only of the product itself outside of film context.

This Airachnid is a one-step auto-converting figure, you manually convert it to robot mode, then hit the chest button and it automatically springs into spider mode. I have a soft-spot for those kinds of figures and this is a winner in that category. Her MSRP is $9.99.

Packaging:

Ok, I cheated that first picture as I didn’t get a clear photo of her sock-tied to the package originally and didn’t realize it until it was too late, but it looks just like that only a little better. There’s not much to this, you cut off a couple sock ties and out she comes, the only insert is the standard multi-lingo legalese. Instructions are the icons on the back and could be way clearer for first-time play, but otherwise aren’t really necessary.

Alt Mode:

Airachnid’s alt mode is a drone spider with multiple eyes, each eye gets picked out with a little paint. The only robot-mode kibble showing are her forearms, everything else hides away well, pretty good for a one-step Transformer, not even the undercarriage shows anything. The only poseable elements are each chunk of 4 legs, they can fold all the way down, but there’s not enough strength for partway down, it’s all or nothing. Size is pretty good, comparison for a Generations deluxe are promising.

Robot Mode:

Airachnid isn’t too bad in bot mode, her character art suggests she’s not really this chunky and doesn’t have that chest target slider, but the loops in her legs do seem to be part of her movie design; a nice touch is her spider head becomes her robot bustle. Her scale is smaller than a deluxe by a bit, but it doesn’t feel inappropriate since she’s a henchwoman that turns into a drone. There’s a loss of the the techy detailed nose from alt mode, but it does bring that red into play, and her face has silver with blue eyes that changes up her look nicely. Her arms are not posable at all, and those fists aren’t standard 3mm holes but slightly smaller, but her forearm-mounted guns do have a bit of paint to bring out detail. Like alt mode, her spider legs can be posed in one chunk per side.

My sample has a hinge pin not fully seated on the right, this doesn’t affect any functionality whatsoever and I can tap it into place if it bothers me.

Transformation:

Going from alt mode to robot means pulling the bot feet down while holding either half of the spider torso, then pushing the bot chest into final locking position. Going from robot to spider mode requires 2 steps (which the instructions didn’t highlight enough for me, I struggled to find this), there’s a panel that has to be slid up into the chest and locked, then you tap that panel and she auto-converts, like so:

This is great fun, and I appreciate how the spider legs get into position no matter how they were set in bot mode.

Overall: B

Ten bucks is a hint steep for a one-step cog changer, but these are the times we live in. Airachnid’s spider drone alt mode is nicely sized and has minimal kibble for the format. Robot mode has some charm but no meaningful poseability hurts, and not making the fist holes a standard diameter feels like an oversight. Auto-conversion is a hoot.

This review sample was provided for free from Hasbro and Paramount.