Bludgeon!

[BWprowl]

As a potentially-obscure Pretender made famous by the late-G1 comics, Bludgeon’s a pretty popular choice for fans to beg Hasbro for a new toy of. We did *kinda* get a new Bludgeon back in the tail-end of RiD, as a yellow repaint of G2 Hero Megatron. It worked about as well as expected. Then, earlier in the ROTF line, they recolored Wreckage as Bludgeon and packaged him with Evac recolored as Whirl. This turned out a little better. Now, finally, following up the story thread from that two-pack, Hasbro has finally released a new-mold Bludgeon toy, fully designed to homage the G1 original.

This mold has apparently been on Hasbro’s to-do list for a while. They were reportedly close to releasing it back in Universe Classics, but held off on it, infamously stating that there were already ‘too many tanks’ in that line. As such, it’s totally plausible to think of this toy more as ‘Classics’ Bludgeon than ‘Movie’ Bludgeon. That’s how I see it anyway. He is totally leading my Decepticon shelf currently.

Vehicle Mode: TFwiki calls this a Type 90 tank, so who am I to argue? It’s a fairly simple-looking, green tank. Not nearly as beefy or built-up as the Abramses we’ve grown used to in recent years, but imposing in it’s own ways. It’s chock-full of details, a hallmark of Universe Classics, as well as the ROTF line. Everywhere you look there’s armor plating, hatches, little tools stored on the sides. There’s little bits of paint where it counts too, which is nice: a splash of brighter green on a vent in the back of the turret and the extra armor on the sides, and a brownish-red on the mud-guard-things on the front, as well as the tips of the extra rocket launchers on the sides of the turret (which are molded in grey). There are a few color failings, admittedly. Mainly, there’s a big square of orange between the front treads, with superfluous wheel and tread details tacked on. These bits become shoulder pads with vestigial tank details in robot mode, and they just wind up here in vehicle mode. You basically have to ignore it. The wheels of the tank treads also have some issues, in that they’re all totally mismatched to each other. The back two wheels of each side are orange, then the next three up are gloss black, then the next one is grey, and the last one up front is more of a matte black. Another bit you’re just gonna have to teach yourself to ignore.

Otherwise, I think it’s important to stress just how *normal* this mode looks. Just as G1 Bludgeon turned into a simple green tank, this new one does the same. The difference is in knowing what you’re dealing with here. There isn’t really anything in this mode that screams ‘skeleton samurai’, and that’s pretty impressive. You might suspect that this tank turns into a robot, but there’s no way you’re guessing what kind of robot. That’s the real beauty of this simple altmode.

Plus the treads are actually made of rubber in the fronts and backs. That’s really cool too.

Transformation: Given the circumstances, the relative simplicity of this is rather striking. It takes a little effort to disconnect the tank armor into thirds to become his separate robot parts, but from there, there’s very little we haven’t seen before. One part that is interesting is the insidiously clever way the back armor chunks flip and rotate around with the hips to become perfectly-placed samurai-style hip armor, with an extra sword hilt performing a minor automorph out along the way. Oh, and it takes some serious Excessive Force to get the spine shoved up into the chest to reveal the head. It takes even more going back to vehicle mode, especially since there’s really no decent place to push in his head to get it to go. Don’t pull on the legs; I tried that and yanked the things right out of their sockets (don’t worry, they go right back in). I find the best strategy is to get both thumbs on the smooth parts of his helmet, then press down with all your might.

The turret snaps open on his back, with a little wheel Mech-Alive’ing around as you open it. This reveals his wakizashi, in its own little scabbard that pops up, quite cool. You can leave the turret popped open like this on his back for some (in my opinion) cool looking asymmetrical back kibble (one side looks a little like a rank flag), or snap it back together after you’ve removed the swords so he just has a turret on his back. Your call.

Robot Mode: As I said before, getting this thing out of an innocuous-looking green tank is an impressive feat. Bludgeon is a big, orange and grey, robotic, skeleton, samurai. With…not a lot of tank kibble hanging off him, honestly. He’s got those ingeniously placed hip-pads, and the turret on his back, but the rest of the tank is integrated into him, with chunks either serving as robot parts, or like on his lower legs, cleverly emulating samurai armor (with little bits of that folding back to allow proper knee articulation). A lot of thought has gone into this design, which may be an artifact of Hasbro sitting on it for so long. His aesthetic is very well thought-out, with skeletal upper arms, ‘bones’ visible in his upper thighs, pointy claw-toes, and a sweet head sculpt whose missing lower jaw brings to mind Bludgeon’s design from IDW’s Stormbringer (a badly-written comic with very nice Don Figueroa art). The eyes are cool too, being all red, with molded in eye shapes, sitting behind the ‘mask’ of the skeletal face. The whole thing is a riot of colors (green, orange, grey, maroon) that nonetheless works really well. The treads hanging out of his armor adds another layer to the coolness.

Gomess once pointed out that G1 Bludgeon’s toy did not include a sword, and thus it was inaccurate for all his fictional appearances to portray him with one. I generally agreed, that the sword was a cop-out concession to his samurai motif. I may have to revise my opinion now though, as ROTF Bludgeon is packed with two swords, and they make him *awesome*. His ‘katana’ slides out of his turret, and honestly doesn’t look like any katana I’ve ever seen. It’s wider at the top than it is at the bottom, which is just…wrong, in terms of katanas. It may be done this way to make for better tolerances. Anyway, while it doesn’t exactly look like a katana, it’s still plenty cool as a big sword for Bludgeon to swing around. He can also hold it with two-hands. This looks cool, even though you can only get a couple poses out of it. You can also use his other hand for holding his Wakizashi, which compliments him nicely. Furthermore, the wakizashi can also plug into the bottom of the ‘katana’, creating a kickass double-bladed weapon thing. He can also sheathe both swords in the aforementioned slots on his hip, which looks cool enough. Sadly, though he’s pretty poseable, it’s not enough that he can pull off an ‘unsheathing the sword’ pose.

And that might be the only detriment of any sort I can think of for Bludgeon’s robot mode! Seriously, he’s a good size, he looks *awesome*, has kickass weapons, and holds together pretty much perfectly (the hips can be a little finicky, but not really). If there was one thing I could change, I wish his secondary turret from vehicle mode could pop out and be held as a throwback to the gun G1 Bludgeon had, but given how cool the swords are, that’s hardly a loss.

Bludgeon is a very good toy. He homages the original in all the right ways, has a solid vehicle mode with a clever, but non-frustrating transformation, and a kickass robot mode that delivers on the promise of ‘robotic skeleton samurai’. He’s been dominating my desk for the past week. C’mon, you know you want one too. I predict that this thing will get scalped to hell, given the character’s pedigree (this toy effortlessly functions as ‘Classics’ Bludgeon) so you’re probably gonna wanna buy this one on sight. Which you should anyway, because it’s just that awesome.

[andersonh1]

Great review. I saw a couple of these in Wal-Mart for the first time earlier this week. Definitely on the 'must buy' list. I rarely spring for any price point above deluxe, but this is such a great homage that it's worth it to me.

[Dominic]

I am tempted myself. The vehicle mode looks consistent with TFU. But, the fact it is packaged as a movie toy deters me.

Dom
-what shelf should it go on?

[BWprowl]

I am tempted myself. The vehicle mode looks consistent with TFU. But, the fact it is packaged as a movie toy deters me.

Dom
-what shelf should it go on?

Dude, it really doesn't matter what it's packaged as. If you recall, they put out stuff like Fracture and Big Daddy in the 2007 Movie line, and those were definitely holdovers from Classics. Bludgeon is pretty obviously a Universe Classics toy, and you're never gonna look at the packaging again once you get him out of it, so that really shouldn't matter.

[Onslaught Six]

The earliest version of this Bludgeon goes back to a drawing Figuroa did back during 'Energon,' so this design has been kicking around for aaaages, making his place irrelevant. He's Bludgeon, Dammit. And if he were anybody else, his being a Movie toy might matter, but as is, he's got a skull head and a sword and that's what he needed. Years ago I proposed "Green tank that turns into orange samurai" and had no idea how it could actually be done, and this toy totally makes it happen.

Now I need to find one and get money to buy it, before he's gone forever.

[Dominic]

I look at Big Daddy and co as being movie toys though, albeit weird movie toys. It bothers me to put them with my "Universe" or UT toys. But, they do not look right as movie toys.

Bludgeon would present a similar problem.

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

I put Big Daddy and co with the Classics, and they fit as well as anybody else who's a repaint from Cybertron does with them. Then again, my Decepticon shelves are in so many scrambles due to general lack of numbers. MasterScream is hanging out next to Classics Dev and Ruination.

[andersonh1]

Then, earlier in the ROTF line, they recolored Wreckage as Bludgeon and packaged him with Evac recolored as Whirl. This turned out a little better. Now, finally, following up the story thread from that two-pack, Hasbro has finally released a new-mold Bludgeon toy, fully designed to homage the G1 original.

Ok, that explains the refence in Bludgeon's bio. I wondered where Whirl had turned up in ROTF.

[Onslaught Six]

It doesn't help that when the pics surfaced, everyone was all, "Hell yeah! Green Wreckage repaint! Also, Wreckage in general since he rules!" and then IDW was all "Shit yes! Wreckage is back, and he's in green!" and then Hasbro was all, "No, it's Bludgeon, and we haven't announced the proper Bludgeon yet so this is all you might get. Also he's in a damned two-pack."

[JediTricks]

Here's my miniview:

Bludgeon is wild, very cool. The alt mode is decent, nice tank mode, although the tank barrel doesn't quite go straight because it's a sword handle and comes out of the factory slightly bent. Transformation is involved and awkward at first, but more straightforward the second time around. The one sticking point is the midsection, it's just REALLY difficult to move forward or back. The bot mode is precisely what it intends to be, but that also means it has intentional kibble (samurai armor is tough to deal with in toys), the tiny heelspurs, and the hands not having more articulation does put a damper on the fun. The automorph knife sheath reveal is easily one of the most entertaining and detailed things they've done with the concept. And having the long sword (which IMO is too long) and knife slip into slots on the hip armor is really nifty too. All in all, quite nifty.