Bruticus back for 25th line, with all Gen1 names this time.

[King Atlas]

Well his not a perfect tribute, but you get the idea (well, I do anyway )

[GoktimusPrime]

You could optimistically argue that it's a G1 & G2 double homage! Not sure how well that would work with the other Combaticons though, lest we'd see...
Onslaught: olive green & yellow!
Blast-Off: Brown & white!
Swindle: tan & bright red!
Brawl: jungle green & bright green!

[kup]

What?! So Swindle's a chopper?? And we know Vortex is the other one... which means that Blast Off has to be one of the TANKS?!? Man... the colours alone don't impress me, but screwing the names around like that unimpresses me on a whole new level. <swear.words> (O_0)

The poorly assigned names and the colors attached are now making this a hard sale for me.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that Vortex and Blast off should be the choppers and Swindle and Brawl the tanks.

It was an excellent idea until they screwed it up for not paying attention.

This time its not an issue of renaming the toys yourself since they have misassigned color schemes too. What are we to do? Pretend that Swindle's mustard yellow is now purple?

[GoktimusPrime]

...yeah... precisely how does a tank blast off? Gawd... TANKOR would've seriously been a better name for a tank than "Blast Off"!!! (oh the irony)

"Whodja talkin' 'bout Tankorr?!"

[jaydisc]

Pfft. To me, it's just another style of the re-imagining that is part of Classics/Universe. To me, the original ridiculousness is the fact that they included a space shuttle as a Combaticon. To me, that's more dumb than any swapping of names and colors. So it seems they've fixed that, but now they have to work in the name, "Blast Off" and seemingly decided "Blast" correlated better with a tank than a helicopter.

If anything here is really ill-imagined, it's the original G1 stupidity of a space shuttle. It's amazing what is accepted vs. criticized.

[MV75]

But people shouldn't need to. It's entirely moot for me since I already have the Super Link version of these toys which all bear the proper G1 names anyway, so I have no intention of ever getting this set.

I suppose, but as I editted in, at least they use the proper names. They could have called one of the choppers Whirl and one of the tanks Tracks, and onslaught Barrage.

Pfft. To me, it's just another style of the re-imagining that is part of Classics/Universe. To me, the original ridiculousness is the fact that they included a space shuttle as a Combaticon. To me, that's more dumb than any swapping of names and colors. So it seems they've fixed that, but now they have to work in the name, "Blast Off" and seemingly decided "Blast" correlated better with a tank than a helicopter.

If anything here is really ill-imagined, it's the original G1 stupidity of a space shuttle. It's amazing what is accepted vs. criticized.

Yea, I thought that about the Blast off name too, as in the tanks guns blast. Yea, corney.

Good point about the space shuttle, but I dunno, it could have been that they are a force that controls land air and space. They're probably the most versatile team there is, aside from Computron I guess, what wasn't any earth vehicles at all anyway.

[GoktimusPrime]

To me, the original ridiculousness is the fact that they included a space shuttle as a Combaticon. To me, that's more dumb than any swapping of names and colors.

That's all rather moot considering that we're comparing a tank with a military helicopter, not a space shuttle here. What would've been wrong with calling a chopper "Blast Off"? Sure, they don't really blast off, but as an aerial vehicle it makes more sense as a tribute to Blast Off's original G1 form, ridiculous as it may be.

So it seems they've fixed that, but now they have to work in the name, "Blast Off" and seemingly decided "Blast" correlated better with a tank than a helicopter.

The word "blast" may co-related better to a tank, but not "blast off."

dictionary.com defines "blast off" as:
a. (of a rocket) to leave a launch pad under its own power.
b. (of an astronaut) to travel aloft in a rocket.

Now a helicopter is obviously different from a rocket, but it can launch under its own power and it certainly does travel aloft. Tanks do not travel aloft under their own power.

I suppose, but as I editted in, at least they use the proper names. They could have called one of the choppers Whirl and one of the tanks Tracks, and onslaught Barrage.

That is true - but when you're going after making a tribute to G1 Combaticons you're increasing the standards for yourself. Takara realised this in 2004 which is why we had Swindle and Brawl as tanks and Vortex and Blast-Off as helicopters. Is there a problem for Hasbro to do this or are they just not paying attention?

Yea, I thought that about the Blast off name too, as in the tanks guns blast. Yea, corney.

No, you're thinking about "blast" not "blast off"

Blast
(noun)
5. Machinery (a) air forced into a furnace by a blower to increase the rate of combustion.
12. any pernicious or destructive influence
(verb used with object)
16. to affect with any pernicious influence; ruin; destroy:

Good point about the space shuttle, but I dunno, it could have been that they are a force that controls land air and space. They're probably the most versatile team there is, aside from Computron I guess, what wasn't any earth vehicles at all anyway.

well, a shuttle is ridiculous in terms of being an alt mode for Combaticons in a team where all the other members are military vehicles except for one shuttle. Blast Off's G1 colours are also totally unrealistic for a space shuttle. Car Robot's Shuttlor (RiD Mo-Vor) looks a lot better with realistic shuttle colours. Still looks weird when either Blast-Off or Shuttlor attacks with guns blazing out of a space shuttle.

But these are just things that we accept in Transformers... like say Astrotrain's train mode being able to freely roll around whilst derailed. But it's all silly when you think about it. Heck... even the merging of gestalts is pretty weird ('cept for Devastator in the G1 comics who would combine forming Devastator "lying down") - what happens to things like GRAVITY when they merge? Some Japanese manga artists have tried to draw "energy lines" I guess to represent some kind of electromagnetic energy used to assist in lifting and guiding Transformers as they merge. Then there's the issue of vulnerability in mid-merge and mid-transformation. The best time to attack a Transformer would have to be during transformation. How would you interpret that in a role playing or miniature war game? i.e.: what penalties to turns or movement would you impose? I would impose a 50% movement penalty per turn for a standard transformation and a 100% penalty for merging into a gestalt (so all characters wishing to merge would have to sacrifice their turn during the same phase). There would have to be a certain range limitation too (e.g.: 6 squares or 15 centimetres if playing on a D&D or Star Wars miniatures size map).

[jaydisc]

But these are just things that we accept in Transformers...

Just not names.

[Paulbot]

The word "blast" may co-related better to a tank, but not "blast off."

dictionary.com defines "blast off" as:
a. (of a rocket) to leave a launch pad under its own power.
b. (of an astronaut) to travel aloft in a rocket.

The Blast in Blast Off is enough for most of us to accept that as a name for a tank. Blast Off's G1 weapon was a powerful X-ray laser that could hit a target 12,000 miles away. Sure sounds like something that belongs on a tank to me.

And besides, Blast Off is a Cybertronian. Your inferior earthling dictionary means nothing to one as aloof as him.

[kup]

These things are supposed to be G1 tributes. Its not a new toy/character.

So G1 Blastoff being a space shuttle and not a combat vehicle is completly irrelevant. The point is that he was a flying vehicle not ground.

Making Blast Off a tank and Swindle a helicopter kills the tribute which IS the intention of this release.