A new character enters the Classics toy line and this time he has been pulled direct from the G1 Masterforce universe. Welcome one of the Decepticon duo jets from Masterforce known as Darkwind! his brother is Dreadwind and together to duo can merge to form the devastating DarkWing which is the tow jets merged together to form one mighty air cruiser.
 
First things first about this mould that everyone is wondering - can Botcon Dreadwind and Classics Darkwind actually merge together to form Darkwing? the simple answer is - YES THEY CAN. This is great news for fans because it is such a great added gimmick that the duo are now brought back into the Classics line but are still able to combine like how they used to in the G1 Masterforce cartoon/toy series. The two actually merge to form Darkwing pretty much the same way they used to in the original toys which is rather a surprise because it makes you wonder why Hasbro went in the design of these two figures so that they could merge together but they don't officially mention that these two have the ability to do so.
 
Obviously for those who have Botcon Dreadwind this is a great added treat...however the rest of us fans who can not afford $300+ for a Botcon boxset which consists of a repainted Thrust/Jetfire/Bumblebee/Ramjet are pretty much fucked unless were lucky and Takara choose to release a version of Botcon Dreadwind like how they did with Thrust and Dirge OR unless a repro maker out there starts doing the head of Botcon Dreadwind and the rest of us become good at repainting Jetfire into his Dreadwind colors.
 
This is more than just a repaint of Jetfire into Darkwind because when you compare the original G1 Masterforce mould to this new updated classics version you notice something very stange indeed...while is originally was released as Silverbolt its rather shocking how accurate this looks to G1 Darkwind! The legs/face/chest/arms and even the way the wings fold on the back all seem the same. You wonder if originally this WAS ment to be sold as Darkwind but was then changed to Silverbolt and then Darkwind later on in the line. Either way this figure is far superior to the look of Silverbolt in both vehicle and robot modes because the color scheme on this figure just looks so amazing and G1 in representation.
 
Vehicle mode looks fantastic and slightly like the concord style plane which has been retired but this is mainly due to the fact that this mould was originally sold as Silverbolt and in the G1 cartoon he WAS based off a concord type plane. A repaint this may be but the look is still very impressive and still resembles his G1 version of the toy rather well. There are sound effects on the top section near the cockpit which when pressed make a 'Firing' type nose or a 'Thrusting engine' type noise and also when transforming the figure he makes his G1 Transformation noise which we all know and love.
 
The robot mode looks almost identical to his G1 counterpart and looks amazing well painted and very well detailed in all areas. The arms and legs are very flexible and can move pretty much in almost any direction but the chest/waist however doesn't move but that's not a huge problem because it still doesn't take anything away from the figure as a whole.
 
The figure is an Ultra size so he is in the same scale as Onslaught/Powerglide and Megatron and Ultra Magnus (with FP armour added) so he is slightly oversized compared to characters such as Sunstreaker or Hound but he is ment to be a big character anyways since he and his brother went up against PowerMaster Ginrai on several occasions.

The box is basically just a repainted/re-coloured version of the Classics Silverbolt box but this has a 25th Anniversary sticker mentioned on it to kind of Celebrate the toy abit more, however this is only good for us fans who actually watched G1 as kids and actually understand just who Darkwind actually is because kids today wont really have a clue or know anything about Darkwind unless there sat down and forced to watch/read the subs on the G1 Masterforce cartoon.

A great figure to own especially if your a fan of the Masterforce series or if you want a fantastic toy all on its own, he does seem a little incomplete without his brother Dreadwind however so he is an even greater buy if you do happen to have the Botcon figure but if you do not however seem to have Dreadwind which a lot of us wont then it seems rather sad because he just doesn't look like merging Darkwind to Autobot Jetfire as it looks like he is being made to do it against his will. A fantastic figure to own and sure to impress and make any Transformers fan happy