Transformers: Adventure - Windra TMC-05

Hasbro and Takara Tomy decided to do a little something with Mini-Cons in their Robot in Disguise (2015) / Adventure series. Instead of just being smaller robots that could aid other Transformers they transformed into various projectile like objects. Think cassettes with Blaster and Soundwave from the original G1 era, the Mini-Con toys interacted with larger Deployer toys such as Fracture. These new Mini-Cons came in various shapes, such as discs, round spheres or torpedos. Windra falls in the latter category.

Mini-Cons in the Adventure series came packaged in small window like boxes. Takara Tomy always did package their TFs in cooler packaging than what we received in the West courtesy of Hasbro...at least in my opinion. This packaging allows you to see the actual toy along with the Energon armor bits in the rear.

On the rear of the packaging you get some simple transformation instructions, along with a view of the Energon armor bits and how you can attach them to the figure itself. I believe there is a bio/tech spec of sorts in the blue box, but since I can't read the language this is just an educated guess.

Windra is based on the Robots in Disguise toy Dragonus. Outside of the obvious color change, a clear 5mm port was added to the tip of the tail. This allows Windra to be attached to other toys or even be wielded by another Transformer.

In traditional Takara fashion there are more paint applications to the toy than the US version. Whether or not the pink, blue and metallic purple of Windra appeal to you more than the neon green and bronze of Dragonus is up to you. Personally, I love the new colors and was excited to add Windra to my Mini-Con collection.

Windra's alternate mode is a torpedo shape. These type Mini-Cons I feel are the idea versions for the deployer version of Fracture. Not only do these Mini-Cons look great when inserted into the spring loaded launcher, they also seem to launch better.

Like other Mini-Cons, the torpedo shape has an auto-transformation basically. Pull out on each side and you're done. Overall this design does a good job at concealing the robot bits. Flip it over however and you can see the feet and the tail. Look underneath the tail and you can see the dragon head.

The Energon armor bits come attached to a faction shaped symbol. The parts are attached via small plastic sprues. For the older Transformer collectors this harkens back to the days of the original TF toys where accessories had to be removed from little plastic "trees".

As I was getting ready to create this post I realized that when I took these photos (which was awhile ago) I realized that I didn't have any photos with the armor bits attached. I almost scrapped this post entirely since it's "incomplete", but instead I'll just borror a pic from the TF Wiki instead!

I like the little helmet piece and gun that attaches to the back. The wings get axe like pieces while the feet get longer talon attachments. I really like the look of the figure with these Energon attachments and in part reminds me of certain toys from the Transformers Energon line.

When the Transformer Adventure Mini-Cons were originally released in Japan they were affordable to import. On the secondary market (at the time of this post) they can be purchased from Japanese sellers for less than $15 shipped. More than I paid, but not too bad. I used to be a super collector of Mini-Con/Micron toys and that mentality re-surfaced when I learned that the Japanese version of the RID toys would feature different decos. These are fun little toys and I love the new characters and I enjoy them, but your mileage may vary.