Twister has unusually convoluted origins I'm still gathering info on, so bear with me. Well, or skip to the next paragraph, where I'll start telling you whether the thing's any good. The toy was designed for Bandai line Zenmai Kahen Winch Robo, known as Winch Robo for short. As with many Bandai brands, it was co-opted for the European Robo Machine line in 1985, and released as one of the Winchers, simply 'named' Helicopter.

By 1986, Machine Robo was on the way down in Japan, but Bandai decided on a full line of toys to support the 'Revenge of Cronos' Anime, they managed to cobble together a series largely composed of reissues and reuses from other lines. The Winch Robo helicopter toy was one of these, recoloured as Battle Gyror, a Dash Robo who also appeared in the Anime. The recolour came out in America in 1986 (with minor changes to the stickers) as Twister, one of the Secret Riders.

The back-of-box picture for the range advertised Twister as predominantly white (which formed the basis of his cartoon look), but this version was skipped (possibly for financial reasons, as the line was on the skids by then). I've only got the European version at the moment, so the review will apply to that version.

Twister's helicopter mode seems to be a hybrid design - at least I can't think of anything that looks much like it. The mode is about 8" long (ignoring the guns on the nose), and pretty boxy.

The presence of the winch mechanisms in the fuselage presumably means space is at a premium, and so the legs and arms can't do much beyond fold into themselves and look as discrete as possible - which, it turns out, isn't particularly discrete at all… The block below the rotors does its' best to deceive you into thinking this is just part of the design philosophy, and the placement of some details (such as air intakes and what look a little like guns) offer a slight distraction, but the thing is just too ungainly to be convincing. I mean, there are some really ugly helicopters out there in the world (basically, the lot of them bar the Sea Sprite and the Lynx), but there's no reason for this one to be so damn boxy… Though all that said, I rather like him. There's no way to rationalise it - there's just something satisfying about the bulk of him.

It helps that he's sturdy and a nice sort of size, and that the colours work - the European ones aren't quite as sharp as the US/Japanese release, but they get the job done. It should also be said that Twister's a lot of fun - winches are always entertaining, and this one, with its' two-way switch and sensible placement, is fantastic for airlifting out injured Guardians.

In terms of transformation, Twister is by far the simplest of the Secret Rider figures. It's all perfectly sensible, but it's a bit too obvious, with the needless 'sidepod' parts clearly the source of the limbs.

The stature's pretty good - while he's only an inch or so shorter than a Dread Launcher, the robot looks a lot less lanky. The proportions aren't superb - the arms are longer than his legs, though thankfully the elbow joints mean you can disguise this a bit - but he just looks a lot more compact, and can reasonably interact with Super Gobots. Aside from the long arms, he doesn't look bad at all. The only real gripe is the solid helicopter tail, which almost reaches the ground. It's a big shame the end couldn't hinge away (perhaps in a similar fashion to that seen on the Helicopter Transport Combinator), but I guess there's too much winch-related gubbins in there. Which brings us to another problem - the winch position in robot form is a bit unfortunate. It's not that it can't be used in robot mode - on the contrary, it's completely without obstacles. It's just the idea of Twister dragging things towards his crotch is a little unsavoury…

However, despite all these drawbacks, I still really rather like him. The overall look, when he's posed right and if you keep your gaze above the equator, is very nice, a good boxy robot. The head sculpt is nice, and there's some decent articulation (even if the winglets interfere a little) in the arms. I do like the fancy shiny stickers on the European version enliven the thing.