Stone Wing (Rock Lords) Review

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Stone Wing (Rock Lords) Review

Stone Wing
Rock Lords (Tonka)It's not what it looks like.
I liked Rock Lords as a kid. Tom Hanks can eat it, I had a lot of toys that turned into rocks, and they were awesome. But I never found the vehicles, except a freak sighting of the Rock Pot at a KB in the mid 90s, and I stupidly passed on that. But then this came along, and I had to pounce.
Though officially a vehicle for the villains, the Stone Wing was originally designed for the heroes. It just so happened that none of the first-wave heroes could sit down, while all the villains could. Which makes me wonder if there was just a typo on the ledger somewhere to begin with. Anyway, this thing is made out of "a mysterious space rock monopole stone", which has antigravity properties. Which is ironic, since it weighs just over a pound and a half. There's a lot of metal in this thing.
The overall appearance of the car mode is somewhat like a cross between a rocket car and a dune buggy, with the chassis made out of what can charitably be described as a sort of marbled stalactite. It also looks like someone played Mr Potato Head with model car parts and a turd. But it's a nice design, lots of pipes and intakes and a rollbar. The wheels roll freely. The tiny gun on the nosecone is a button, which thrusts the tip forward with surprising force on a metal shaft, and a spring-loaded gun flips out of the rear.
Transformation is, as usual, worryingly tight. The wings fold out of the body; angle the tips however you like. The entire wheelbase rotates sideways, letting you fold the wheels upward with a horrifying crack to form thrusters. The side cannons can also be raised and lowered, wings permitting.
Jet mode is quite impressive, with a nice wingspan and a decent flow to the design in spite of the chunky cockpit.
All in all, despite the oddities present in both modes, Bandai's design here can hang with some of the mid-card MASK vehicles, and that's not bad at all for a vehicle from the red-headed stepchild of Gobots.