Searchlight is a clear green Minicon robot. The only other colour plastic used is some black for the legs and a frame running through the body. There's a couple of paint applications in this mode - yellow circles on each knee and a silver face plate. His most prominent feature is his arms - they're very long with the elbows at waist level and the hands - hook shaped - at floor level. He almost looks more simian that human in proportion. His right forearm has a six barrelled gattling gun moulded into the top of it. Articulation is good: ball jointed knees, hips & shoulders and bending elbows. His Minicon port is at the centre of his chest, but it's a screw hole so unlike every other Minicon he's missing the post down the middle that will trigger gimmicks.
His vehicle attachment mode is designed to work specifically with Searchlight. Point his right arm - the one with the gun - down and the left arm up, then fold it up at the elbow. Fold the upper legs up behind the lower legs. Pin the Minicon under the helicopter's nose. This gives Searchlight some added search & rescue equipment. The yellow circles on Backwind's knees become bright searchlights, with the left arm serving as a hooked winch while the right arm serves as extra weaponry.
Backwind's weapon mode is somewhat less successful. From robot mode fold the right gun arm up above the head. Fold the right leg back so it covers the lower leg then turn so the right knee cap is in the right arm pit. Swing the left leg round at the knee so the back of the left leg is up against the bottom of the right foot. Fold the left arm down so it runs along the left upper leg. What you get is a gun, but only in the sense it's got a barrel. The rear of the weapon is a square block formed from the body parts but it doesn't hold together well. It's held by a Minicon post on the side of the robot's left foot.
I'll stick with Chopster's axe mode.
Finally we have Backwind's armour mode. Fold each arm up and out to the sides. Fold then lower arms in to cover the upper arms. Rotate the lower legs out to the sides 90 degrees at the knee and fold up over the upper leg. Swing the legs up so they're alongside the chest with the knees under the armpits. With a large chest piece this helps to make Backwind a decent sized bit of armour. The arms which stick out to the sides can be folded back if they get in the way of the robot.
If you remove the armour mode with the arms bent back, open the arms up at the elbow and bend the legs back to get a bonus beast mode - Backwind can become a frog !
Overall: Weapons mode is a bit rubbish. But otherwise he's a pretty decent Minicon.
Early publicity photos, shown here at the 2005 boards show the sandy colour more as a goldy yellow, the brown as slightly metallic and the solid red of the Mini-con as a smoked clear colour. This looks far, far superior to what's actually sold and to make it worse the prototype picture is on the back of the box.
A shame because his companion Steelshot is actually quite a nice repaint. He'd have looked fine in the original colours or even a clear red. But this is awful.
It would make it so much easier to remember if Power Core Minicon Caliburst had been used to remake Targetmaster gun Caliburst!