The character the world would come to know as Whirlwind made his debut in Tales To Astonish #50.
One of Marvel’s first mutants, Dave Cannon discovered he had the ability to create cyclonic funnels that would allow him to zip about like a child’s top. So named, the “Human Top” spun off to rob some banks, pestering Giant Man and developing a crush on the Wasp along the way. It wouldn’t be until Avengers #46 that Cannon took on the more impressive moniker “Whirlwind,” as well as a second identity as Charles Matthews, chauffeur to — you guessed it — Hank and Janet Pym. Between playing head-games with the Pyms, Whirlwind joined an early version of the Masters of Evil, upping his villainous profile and earning himself a higher quality of beatings. He remains a mainstay in the Marvel universe, most recently scrapping with the new Ant-Man.
Whirlwind is part of the Red Onslaught series of Marvel Legends. The figure comes in the new standard packaging, which allows for a clear view of both the toy and the included Build-a-Figure piece, in this case the left arm of Onslaught. The packaging is plastic and cardboard and is entirely recyclable. Give a hoot, kids.
Whirlwind is a reuse of the Grim Reaper body, with a new head, torso, and lower arms. The choice of the Reaper body is a good one, providing Whirlwind some distinction from all the recent villains released on the smaller Bucky Cap body. Because of the reuse, Whirly lacks his signature scale-mail suit. To me, his armor was less for battle and more to protect him from his own weapons — after all, those blades of his are listed as 10 inches long in the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe. With all of the spinning he’s doing, he’s bound to bump into himself on occasion. In spite of the missing armor, Whirlwind still has lots of new tooling to get excited about.
The torso features some clean, even work with raised elements representing Whirly’s odd metallic halter top. This is complemented by a wide three-banded belt that rests above the waist joint. In hand I am surprised at just how much unique tooling Whirlwind gets — I have no idea who else Hasbro could use this torso for, but I’m sure they must have something up their sleeve.
Speaking of sleeves, Whirlwind sports twin saw-blades on the end of his, attached to bracers that share the belt’s banded aesthetic. The blades are separate pieces, which allows them to spin or be removed from the mounting pegs. As I said above, these are meant to be 10 inches in diameter, but they scan as much smaller. I suppose Hasbro didn’t want to release a figure with serrated pie-plates on the back of his arms, but they may have played it too safe. The detail on the teeth is a bit soft. Combine that with the small size and shiny unpainted plastic, and the blades come off as cheap and toy-like compared to the rest of the figure.
The head-sculpt redeems things a bit. Hasbro wisely went with the character’s classic torpedo-shell helmet look and did a fine job bringing it from the page to plastic. Pointed fins adorn the sides, making him more suggestive of a missile than the wife’s “nightstand companion.” Even better, the sculptor got the shape of the eyes and mouth right. In spite of the fact that the helmet conceals his expression, Whirlwind still looks pissed thanks to the angle of the eye and mouth slits.
Whirlwind is more colored plastic than paint, but what paint there is looks decent enough. The bits of the costume that are meant to be armor receive a nice metallic green paint that contrasts nicely with the darker matte green of the trunks and boots. There may be some black overspray on the silver bits, perhaps in a bid to mitigate the swirliness of this particular batch of plastic. What you can see of the face is good and matches the plastic used for the hands.
The articulation won’t come as any surprise to collectors of the line. Whirlwind has a ball-jointed head, ball shoulders, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, and hinged wrists. There’s a torso crunch, a swivel waist, ball hips, swivel thighs, double-jointed knees, as well as swivels at the top of the bootcuffs and a single-jointed ankle with pivot. Everything works as well as you’d expect, with only the helmet limiting neck movement.
Whirlwind bucks the trend of coming with a load of extras, but that’s not surprising considering how much new tooling the figure has. He does come with the arm of Red Onslaught, who we’ll be reviewing in the next week or so. Ultimately, Whirlwind is solid figure that looks great in-hand or on the shelf. He’s been a long time coming, but the wait was worth it.
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