Review: #135
Name: Blitzwing
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Generations
Year of Release: 2013
Size Class: Voyager (Wave 3)
Variations: none as of this date
TANK MODE:
Let's start with the tank mode first, which I think is actually the better vehicle mode. Everything pegs together solidly and it looks convincing as a tank.
Well... from certain angles anyway (of course, the official photographer chose to take pictures of Blitzwing from the only angles that make his three modes look good). You can clearly see the gappiness (is that even a proper word?) and the jet nosecone sticking out.
As ridiculous as a sword on top of a tank looks, it's worse if you don't plug in the sword to cover it the gap up in the turret. It helps a little bit when you fold the tailfins on the legs to make it seem that the back is more solid than it is.
That said, the toy does a good job of hiding all the jet and robot elements inside, there are some really neat concepts here.
On the underside, you can see the jet nose and the robot chest, but it doesn't give too much away on how Blitzwing transformers (and he's not a shellformer like the original G1 toy).
In addition to the triple-changing gimmick (yes, if you already haven't picked it up, Blitzwing is a triple-changer, even after Hasbro said that they wouldn't make another triple-changing figure after Animated Blitzwing coz of the difficulty), Blitzwing has a few additional ones, which is surprising. First off, the turret features a spring loaded missile launcher, pull back the cannon and it'll fire the missile, it's neat.
The turret also turns but I wouldn't recommend it. First off, it'll reveal the gaps at the back and second, the swivel isn't in the center of the turret so turn it too far and it'll look weird.
There are little plastic wheels on the treads so Blitzwing can roll in this mode.
.JPG)
In terms of comparison, here he is with his wave-mate Springer.
And another comparison with Optimus Prime. Don't be fooled into thinking Blitzwing has more mass, I think Optimus is heavier, Blitzwing just gives the illusion of being bigger due to how the tank forms.
There are some nice molded details (most are just generic lines). Obviously it's not terribly realistic due to the colors but it does a nice job.
Not a bad tank mode, sure, there are heaps of other Transformers that forms a better tank, but considering the amount of things this guy is expected to do, he gets away with it.
TRANSFORMATION (JET):
Not too hard conceptually, but in reality, things can get annoying. There are some neat elements like how his hips collapse down (and you fold down the panels that filled in the front gap in tank mode) and how the wings form. Then there's the annoying fiddly things like his jet nosecone and the cannon. That said, everything pegs somewhere, it's just when moving pieces to get there, you might dislodge other pieces. It's an interesting transformation and doesn't feel lazy at all.
JET MODE:
From certain angles (like the one above), Blitzwing's jet mode looks excellent. It may be a bit blocky but still very aerodynamic and looks like a jet.
From other angles... it's not so good. Just like the tank mode, the back is gappy. And just like the G1 toy, he has the cannon sticking out the back.
You really need to plug in the sword on top to cover up that massive gap in the middle of the back end of the jet, it makes it so much better.
Blitzwing features an opening cockpit, which was a surprise. There's some nice molded details inside (and it's painted too). Watch out though opening the cockpit causes the nosecone issue (which I'll come back to later) to become even worse.
So, onto the nosecone issue. For some odd reason, the designer decided on a spring loaded head to pop up, this shouldn't be a problem except for the fact that there is no catch to keep the head down. So the head ends up always wanting to pop out and force the nosecone off. This problem is compounded by the fact that the nosecone is made of soft plastic, which means it doesn't tab on securely and you end up stretching the soft plastic trying to force it on. NOT good.
Other than that, this is a nice jet, I guess as always, it was better as a concept than the execution. Another small problem is that the lower tail fins are on balljoints so they're easy to dislodge. Every piece has a place to tab in so you can fly this guy through the air and he won't collapse.
As a jet, Blitzwing is more spread out, as you'd expect, but as shown in other photos, there's a lot of empty space in the middle, coz it's all an illusion.
A comparison with his wave-mate Springer, both in their flying modes. Anyway, Blitzwing has a landing gear that folds down from under the nose, the other wheels are molded on. I really like how they didn't try and shove everything to the bottom of the jet and create some undercarriage kibble (something that still happens with a few non-triple-changing jetformers). The arms on top of the jet look natural and like a 'fast pack'.
It's a solid jet if you can look past a few of the problems, a good effort.
TRANSFORMATION (ROBOT):
80% of the tranformation is fine and causes no problems, what's a little bit annoying and fiddly is how the shoulders form, since there's some panel folding happening here (which is actually fairly ingenious). I think the shoulders are the neatest concept while all other parts are standard affair. It should be noted that some joints are annoying tight.
ROBOT MODE:
Personally, I think this is the best mode of this toy. The robot just looks so good. The aesthetics is perfect and it evokes Blitzwing nicely.
Plus, unlike the other modes, there are no gappy sections here. It seems like the designer focused more on making the robot mode look good, which is fine since that's the mode that most people will have him in.
You can have the cannon sticking straight up like the G1 toy and cartoon model or you can have to pointing down. The nosecone is weird coz it doesn't seem like there is a proper place for it to go (there is not much clearance with the cannon on his back).
Onto the weapons, Blitzwing retains both his melee and ranged weapons. There's his wicked looking sword (which has the blade painted in a lighter purple) and a small pistol. Very awesome.
Here's a shot of the headsculpt, it's excellent. I can't say anything bad about it...
In a homage to the Animated character in which that character has split personalities (three in total), and had three different faces to support that, so does this guy. The normal G1 face is the 'hot headed' one, and above is the 'cool and calculating' one.
Then there's the 'crazy' one (my favorite). Sadly, these faces don't really seem to meld with the G1 style helmet too much, it looks odd if you're not using the G1 face. It doesn't carry the same charm as the Animated toy and character. Plus, due to this gimmick, the head is longer than it should be, which might be partly why it's causing problems in jet mode. Finally, the joint for the face changing gimmick (you rotate the faces up) is tight and you feel like you might scratch the paint off or rip the faces off when you're doing it.
.JPG)
Some quick comparisons, here he is with Springer.
And here he is with Optimus. Blitzwing is a really decent size, his blockiness gives the illusion that he is really big (well, he is... but you know).
Obviously, Blitzwing can hold he sword for some cool sword poses, he has a rotating wrist even though it's not required for transformation. The sword feels a bit too short though, if it was longer, it'll be even cooler, as it is, it looks like a stub compared to Springer's massive (and cool looking) sword.
Sword poses could be easier purely because the fact that Blitzwing has a major problem here. Due to his torso piece having too much plastic, the tabs on his shoulders doesn't peg in securely (and on some figures, not at all). This means when you're posing his arms, you just completely dislodge the shoulders, it doesn't help that the joints are tight and they're attached on thin panels so you feel like you're warping them every time this happens. It's fixable, but you have to disassemble the figure and shave down some plastic.
He can also hold his pistol but it's stupid in the fact that there's the raised piece of his forearm that blocks the pistol, so you have to attach it at an angle or more loosely.
The articulation is good, he has balljointed feet in addition to a lot of swivels, he can be in a wide variety of poses.
Sadly, due to his nosecone, you can't tilt the cannon overhead to fire forward. Anyway, I love posing him in a standoff against Springer, it's like, triple-changer against triple-changer.
And now... time for a little bit of fun with his other faces...
There's surprisingly a lot of paint applications here, his lower legs are painted biege, there's the paint on his chest, his face and helmet and his forearms. It's much more than you'd expect and with all the moving parts needed for his transformation, I'm surprised they managed to have the budget to do paint all of these details.
Apart from the nosecone and to a certain degree, his cannon, Blitzwing's robot mode is kibble free, nice!
Due to his large feet, he stands solidly in a wide variety of poses. The color scheme is very nice.
This is a great looking bot, it's nice that he also has a Decepticon insignia in full view.
As mentioned before, this is the best mode of Blitzwing, if you can stand the shoulder issues, then Blitzwing is just brilliant and is a very nice update to the G1 character.
OVERALL:
Blitzwing is much more ambitious than Springer, it seemed that the designers tried out a few new things to try and make Blitzwing better. In the end, some of these didn't work, whether it was just due to clearance issues or a bad judgement. However, Blitzwing is still a solid triple-changer and he's a lot of fun to play with. He's crammed with gimmicks which gives him more play value. Both vehicle modes are passable and the robot mode visually stunning. If you can ignore the various flaws (the two major ones is the shoulders and nosecone), then Blitzwing is well worth having.
-------------------------------
Check out Springer's toy review from this page here.
From certain angles (like the one above), Blitzwing's jet mode looks excellent. It may be a bit blocky but still very aerodynamic and looks like a jet.
From other angles... it's not so good. Just like the tank mode, the back is gappy. And just like the G1 toy, he has the cannon sticking out the back.
You really need to plug in the sword on top to cover up that massive gap in the middle of the back end of the jet, it makes it so much better.
Blitzwing features an opening cockpit, which was a surprise. There's some nice molded details inside (and it's painted too). Watch out though opening the cockpit causes the nosecone issue (which I'll come back to later) to become even worse.
So, onto the nosecone issue. For some odd reason, the designer decided on a spring loaded head to pop up, this shouldn't be a problem except for the fact that there is no catch to keep the head down. So the head ends up always wanting to pop out and force the nosecone off. This problem is compounded by the fact that the nosecone is made of soft plastic, which means it doesn't tab on securely and you end up stretching the soft plastic trying to force it on. NOT good.
Other than that, this is a nice jet, I guess as always, it was better as a concept than the execution. Another small problem is that the lower tail fins are on balljoints so they're easy to dislodge. Every piece has a place to tab in so you can fly this guy through the air and he won't collapse.
As a jet, Blitzwing is more spread out, as you'd expect, but as shown in other photos, there's a lot of empty space in the middle, coz it's all an illusion.
A comparison with his wave-mate Springer, both in their flying modes. Anyway, Blitzwing has a landing gear that folds down from under the nose, the other wheels are molded on. I really like how they didn't try and shove everything to the bottom of the jet and create some undercarriage kibble (something that still happens with a few non-triple-changing jetformers). The arms on top of the jet look natural and like a 'fast pack'.
It's a solid jet if you can look past a few of the problems, a good effort.
TRANSFORMATION (ROBOT):
80% of the tranformation is fine and causes no problems, what's a little bit annoying and fiddly is how the shoulders form, since there's some panel folding happening here (which is actually fairly ingenious). I think the shoulders are the neatest concept while all other parts are standard affair. It should be noted that some joints are annoying tight.
ROBOT MODE:
Personally, I think this is the best mode of this toy. The robot just looks so good. The aesthetics is perfect and it evokes Blitzwing nicely.
Plus, unlike the other modes, there are no gappy sections here. It seems like the designer focused more on making the robot mode look good, which is fine since that's the mode that most people will have him in.
You can have the cannon sticking straight up like the G1 toy and cartoon model or you can have to pointing down. The nosecone is weird coz it doesn't seem like there is a proper place for it to go (there is not much clearance with the cannon on his back).
Onto the weapons, Blitzwing retains both his melee and ranged weapons. There's his wicked looking sword (which has the blade painted in a lighter purple) and a small pistol. Very awesome.
Here's a shot of the headsculpt, it's excellent. I can't say anything bad about it...
In a homage to the Animated character in which that character has split personalities (three in total), and had three different faces to support that, so does this guy. The normal G1 face is the 'hot headed' one, and above is the 'cool and calculating' one.
Then there's the 'crazy' one (my favorite). Sadly, these faces don't really seem to meld with the G1 style helmet too much, it looks odd if you're not using the G1 face. It doesn't carry the same charm as the Animated toy and character. Plus, due to this gimmick, the head is longer than it should be, which might be partly why it's causing problems in jet mode. Finally, the joint for the face changing gimmick (you rotate the faces up) is tight and you feel like you might scratch the paint off or rip the faces off when you're doing it.
.JPG)
Some quick comparisons, here he is with Springer.
And here he is with Optimus. Blitzwing is a really decent size, his blockiness gives the illusion that he is really big (well, he is... but you know).
Obviously, Blitzwing can hold he sword for some cool sword poses, he has a rotating wrist even though it's not required for transformation. The sword feels a bit too short though, if it was longer, it'll be even cooler, as it is, it looks like a stub compared to Springer's massive (and cool looking) sword.
Sword poses could be easier purely because the fact that Blitzwing has a major problem here. Due to his torso piece having too much plastic, the tabs on his shoulders doesn't peg in securely (and on some figures, not at all). This means when you're posing his arms, you just completely dislodge the shoulders, it doesn't help that the joints are tight and they're attached on thin panels so you feel like you're warping them every time this happens. It's fixable, but you have to disassemble the figure and shave down some plastic.
He can also hold his pistol but it's stupid in the fact that there's the raised piece of his forearm that blocks the pistol, so you have to attach it at an angle or more loosely.
The articulation is good, he has balljointed feet in addition to a lot of swivels, he can be in a wide variety of poses.
Sadly, due to his nosecone, you can't tilt the cannon overhead to fire forward. Anyway, I love posing him in a standoff against Springer, it's like, triple-changer against triple-changer.
And now... time for a little bit of fun with his other faces...
There's surprisingly a lot of paint applications here, his lower legs are painted biege, there's the paint on his chest, his face and helmet and his forearms. It's much more than you'd expect and with all the moving parts needed for his transformation, I'm surprised they managed to have the budget to do paint all of these details.
Apart from the nosecone and to a certain degree, his cannon, Blitzwing's robot mode is kibble free, nice!
Due to his large feet, he stands solidly in a wide variety of poses. The color scheme is very nice.
This is a great looking bot, it's nice that he also has a Decepticon insignia in full view.
As mentioned before, this is the best mode of Blitzwing, if you can stand the shoulder issues, then Blitzwing is just brilliant and is a very nice update to the G1 character.
OVERALL:
Blitzwing is much more ambitious than Springer, it seemed that the designers tried out a few new things to try and make Blitzwing better. In the end, some of these didn't work, whether it was just due to clearance issues or a bad judgement. However, Blitzwing is still a solid triple-changer and he's a lot of fun to play with. He's crammed with gimmicks which gives him more play value. Both vehicle modes are passable and the robot mode visually stunning. If you can ignore the various flaws (the two major ones is the shoulders and nosecone), then Blitzwing is well worth having.
-------------------------------
Check out Springer's toy review from this page here.
