Robot Control Design and Animation

Here is the design of the robot control after some thought:
The idea will be the same as the previous OMA. IE. The robot's upper body will be rotating and can fire in all 360 degrees. However, this time the robot will be view in complete side way (no tilting). So, at the same time the body is rotating, the arm (and the body will partial tilt as well) will tilt to aim 360 degree with Z axis. IE. the body will rotate with Y axis at the same time the arm will rotate with Z axis, while the view will be complete side way, looking down the Z axis. Ex, arm tilt 45 degree, body rotate 45 degree (counter clock wise). The rough picture above will illustrate the concept.
This way, the mechanism of shooting in all direction will be maintained, while the style of the game is good as well. To implement this, the most likely method I thought of now is to use 3D editor, to do a complete arm direction animation, with key frame at 0, 45, 90, 45, 0, -45, -90, -45 and back to 0 degree. Setting the frame between this animation as 360, I should be able to use each frame according to the direction the player is aiming. The rotation of the body will be the same as the previous OMA.
Another thing is the boomerang throwing animation. It poses another problem. But I think if I tilt the upper body a little, and making the animation of the throw a vertical movement (arm raise then goes downward to throw), I can get away with it. (It will look like the robot is throwing it upward or downward etc). Another way is to make just 1 set of throwing animation, but tilt the whole robot robot to face the direction it's throwing (ie if it's throw down, the whole robot will face down). This might work as well. But these are aesthetic concerns which won't impact the game play.