Thursday, April 9, 2009

Blitzwing



I love Transformers and I love themed posts, so let's kick off the first in a series of reviews showcasing Transformers triple-changer figures!

(By the way, if you have no idea what a "triple-changer" is, it's a Transformer that can change into two vehicles as well as a robot)

Why Did I Buy This Toy?

After picking up a few Transformers: Animated figures, I became a fan of the line. I wanted to get a Voyager-class figure, and I ultimately settled on Blitzwing here. Like with Bulkhead, I mainly got the figure because I'm a fan of the character. On the cartoon series, Blitzwing here reflects his physical characteristics by having three distinct personalities. All of which are German. That's goddamned brilliant.

Ever since I was a kid, I always liked having more villains in my collection than heroes. This is because toy companies consistently make more heroic character figures than antagonists. This has particularly plagued Transformers toy lines, so I'm always looking to add more Decepticons to my ranks. It helps that, unlike Bulkhead, Blitzwing is towering in robot mode, as suits his size class.

Any regrets?

One of my personal preferences for Transformers figures is that I want figures that can carry weapons in robot mode. Blitzwing can't.

Oh, he has two big rocket launchers on his back. But unless you're acting like a dork and flying the figure around the room while you go "Weeeee!", they're useless in robot mode. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the character uses tons of weapons in the cartoon. Hell, if the rocket launchers could flip down, that'd be fine.

The arms are a lesser problem, but still somewhat irksome. The lower arms are oddly sculpted, and contain open palms so you can't even give him a weapon from another figure. Coupled with the inhibited articulation cause by the wings, it's hard to get the arms into a position where they look good.

Am I happy with my purchase?

Given I simply display my figures, it's hard to complain about Blitzwing. Aside from the odd arms, it looks pretty imposing on the shelf. As an added bonus, his face rotates to showcase all his crazy Kraut personalities. I like to display him with his Colonel Klink face.

1 comment:

  1. Nice review! If you're unhappy with your Blitzwing's lack of pivot to his cannons and the wings getting in the way of arm articulation, you should read Matt Booker's guides on how to fix them. It made me go from disappointed to making Blitzwing one of my favorites. :D

    http://mattbooker.info/custom-guides/

    ReplyDelete