Animated Voyager Blitzwing Review
Well i promised this for the weekend, so to anyone who was wondering where it was, sorry it's late :)
Animated Blitzwing is my first triple changer ever - as a kid i always wanted one.. not even sure which! But the concept really sold me as a kid. So in that respect, i'm glad to have one finally! ... now onto the review
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Head
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Blitzwing's only real gimmick is his head - just like the show you can change between the 3 faces to give the toy a different personality - as much personality as a toy can have anyway! The feature is controlled by a dial (think music volume old-skool style) on the back of his head, which unfortunately given the simplicity of the task, doesn't quite work flawlessly. The hothead/Arnold head has a whopping great chin which can make it tough to rotate by dial alone - often you have to dig in to his helmet (which is made of a flexi-plastic) to force the head around to the next slot. Once in place though, all heads do look good and are very show accurate. You can see the 2 hidden heads behind the current head, only slightly, and not really enough to detract.
Robot
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I don't want to give away the rest of the review here.. but oh well - Blitzwing's robot mode is the best of his 3 modes. With any triple changer, one mode has to be the best right? - so i'm thankful my preference lies with having a good robot mode! Blitzwing is very show accurate - only missing a few applications of purple (hands, top of ankles), and his inner shoulder is a bit different too. The main point of difference though, is the decepticon logo on his chest - now gold rather than purple. It still looks good, but seems odd, was there really a good reason to change it? Overall, the toy's proportions seem more realistic than the actual animation model - his shoulders are less exaggerated, his thighs are larger and his back-mounted guns are thicker. Overall i think this works for the better, without sacrificing the Animated stylings. His colours hark back to the G1 toy - but a bit more subdued hues of cream/beige, and purple. The purple paint is slightly metallic looking like the red on Voyager Starscream and Leader Megatron - overall very nicely applied as well. The other dominant colour is black, creating a colour scheme befitting of the character, and one that fits right in with a cast of decepticons.
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In terms of his articulation, Blitzwing is not bad, but not perfect. His legs are quite well articulated, only really limited by a lack of side-to-side motion on his feet (which are otherwise really solid - the heelspurs don't stand out more than they should). His arms are only missing rotation at the elbows (they have it at the shoulder though). However, because of the wings, shoulders and back mounted cannons, Blitzwing can't really do a "star" pose with hands arms outsretched. His hands are locked in a pose and unfortunately they cannot rotate, only bend inwards.
Overall, i can live with the faults i've mentioned - the only thing i think is truly wrong with the robot mode, is it's inability to point the canons over his shoulders as in the show. It doesn't seem like something they couldn't have done with a bit more thought, so it's a shame. I do really like the overall look - i'm not sure whether it was intentional or not, but his thighs remind me of a german soliders pants - here's a picture of what i mean - it's not outrageously graphic but given this is a toy review, i'd rather not display it inline :)
Transformation
Blitzwing's transformation is simple, but admirable for moving between the 3 modes quite effortlessly, and dispersing space very well. Unfortunately it's hampered by what i can only describe as laziness on the designers part. Since this adversely affects the 2 remaining modes, i'll go into detail in their respective sections - but to summarize - Blitzwing just doesn't hold together all that well in either of his alt modes.
Tank
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While Blitzwing is clearly a tank, it's not the kind of tank we're used to seeing . Not at all realistically styled like the G1 toy, it looks almost super deformed. However it is relatively show accurate, and looks good from all angles excepting the back. It has compressed the robot mode very well, to a size that apart from height, is more in line with deluxe toys! The turret can rotate a full 360º but cannot lift up and down - again something that could have easily been included. The missiles fire as you'd expect. Blitzwing seems more purple in this mode than his robot mode - while his size lets you better appreciate the detail on his tank tread and the like.
My disappointment with this mode stems purely from the transformation aspects. The purple wings fold inwards to form his front, but there is no clip to hold them together, when there very easily could have been (in a non-obtrusive manner too). This pales compared to his tank treads however. They fold/compress up against his thighs. The thighs have a tab, the tread has a hole... but they do not clasp together well at all. This could this have been fixed very easily with a better fitting mechanism given the mass of plastic the designer had to play with. The tank treads are fine when on a table (and roll decently), but try and pick up the tank from the treads, and they will literally collapse in on themselves. Considering how well his arms clip inside, and his canon to the roof (sometimes hard to detach!), it's very annoying that the legs are held in place so poorly.
Jet
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The Jet mode unfortunately bears the triple-changer fruit - almost proudly displaying it's tank tread with no effort whatsoever made to hide it. To be honest, with the current transformation scheme, there probably wasn't much they could do without adversely affecting the robot proportions - so i was ready to live with this fault. In my mind it's not as bad as say Classics Astrotrain's split train fronts sitting on either side of his wings, but i guess that comes down to preference. In general the Jet mode ... well, it looks like a Decepticon Jet, and a very fast one at that - due to its elongated shape and angled back wings. The colour scheme again works well and retains quite a degree of show accuracy.
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Like the tank mode, the jet mode is let down by how it is(n't) held together. For a period, i had the jet mistransformed - you're supposed to flip his feet out as if he were standing on his toes. This improves the tank's problem, giving a place for the underside of the turret to slot into, but it'll still collapse if you hold it too tight. New problems have been introduced though. The position where his turret sits to form his back wings, is a good 1.5cm away from where it looks like it should be when viewed from above or side. There are these folding beige flaps that could have easily been connected to the front of the jet in a number of ways. It honestly strikes me as completely odd, it's a blatant visual blunder and yet it remains. Also frustrating, is the lack of any solid clipping mechanism for the cockpit. The slightest nudge will dislodge the very tip of the cone, and a bigger nudge will dislodge the entire cockpit. This is again an annoying oversight - the cockpit is hinged off-centre, so it was bound to tip forward - but no attempt has been made to secure it in place.
Overall
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Well like most triple changers (from what i've gathered while scouring the _Encyclopedic_Site_of_Dirge_), Blitzwing is certainly not without his faults! However, unlike the usual problem of mismatched parts between modes, he gets off lighter than usual - only the tank tread in jet mode really stands out.
But the methods used to secure a good number of parts clearly let the toy down. It is a massive shame because both modes scream to be played with, but a child would experience nothing but frustration from doing so. Most times, it gives the impression of being broken, while not actually broken - which i'm sure you'll agree is not a good sign!
I think it's pretty clear - Blitzwing is a toy full of missed opportunities. If you plan to display in robot mode, i can definitely recommend him - but if you're looking to appreciate a solidly transformed alt mode (or 2), prepare to be let-down.
