Animated Review Thread

[Misanthrope Prime]

I'm kinda OCD when it comes to buying transformers. I need an equal number of autobots and decepticons in the same size class, and I also pick them based on vehicle mode shape, theme and even weapon layout.

For example, I bought BB and then BA (I'm happy with BB, not so fond of BA) because they both have a 'bug' theme.

I bought Prowl and then Oil-Slick because they're both cycles.

I bought bulkhead and lugnut because they're both tiny toys with big taste.

Yeah, it's a disease.

[onslaught86]

I bought bulkhead and lugnut because they're both tiny toys with big taste

..Mint and grape?

[CrossRook]

I'm actually a pretty much a completest with Animated, so far. The only one I probably won't buy in the near future is Elite Guard Bumblebee, and even that's a maybe.

[Misanthrope Prime]

I bought bulkhead and lugnut because they're both tiny toys with big taste

..Mint and grape?

Yes.

About the only things I never buy are repaints, actually. And if the characters don't match. Which is kinda nagging at me, since the decepticons are very voyager heavy with the 'bots very deluxe heavy, this line around.

[annhell]

This is 3 weeks late, but I finally broke free from that old job and got time to do this: Animated Blitzwing review!

One thing that Transformers Animated does well is that it portrays each robot in its cast as a unique and different from one another. In Blitzwing’s case, his distinguishing factor is his triple-change ability, which is taken as far as giving him three personalities. It’s no surprise, therefore, that his toy also goes along this line and uses the fact that he is the only triple changer in the product line as one of the main selling points.

However, where the cartoon used the multiple personality and alt modes to create an endearing character, the success of this gimmick on the toy may not be as great for some of us.

Robot mode
Blitzwing’s robot mode captures a lot of his cartoon character. The toy looks very much like his cartoon rendition, and has a face-switch gimmick to immolate his 3 personalities. The 3 faces on the toy resemble their cartoon versions very closely and capture the feel of the 3 personalities well. However, the mechanism to switch among the faces involves a gear that doesn’t always work well, and it’s easy to tear the soft, rubbery plastic that makes up his “helmet” while trying to get a good grip on the gear. The huge chin of the red face also tends to become an obstruction within the “helmet”. In the end, it’s easier to just ignore the gear and push the faces around directly.

The only thing that falls short in terms of similarity to the cartoon is his back-mounted cannons. Firstly, the cannons cannot swing forward over his shoulders. And, secondly, the cannons only come with 2 flame-coloured missiles, and no projectiles to emulate his ice attacks. I don’t find either flaw to have been too difficult to rectify, and it’s quite a shame, that out of all the elements that he toy failed to capture properly, it was the combat capabilities that define Blitzwing as a Decepticon warrior.

Summary of his articulation:

Good:
- Elbows are double-jointed and can fold his hands up to touch the shoulders.
- Bicep swivel
- Head has full rotation despite the 3-faces gimmick
- Head can sort of look up, using his transformation hinge, though he may just end up looking like he has a severed throat.
- Feet have some ankle articulation to support some poses.

Bad:
- Wrists can kinda "flap", but not wrist rotation
- Lateral shoulder spread is limited
- No waist rotation

In terms of aesthetics and posability, there are 2 aesthetic issues that I have with the figure. One, Blitzwing’s thighs are molded to look as if he’s slightly bow-legged. This irks me a little because I keep thinking that he stands funny. It also has a tendency to make him look like he’s perpetually squatting whenever I try to pose him with bent knees. The other issue I have is with his hands, which are molded as open-palmed and have no wrist rotation. This hurts the kind of hand and arm gestures he can pull off.

These 2 issues together, plus the unmovable cannons on his back and lack of waist articulation, affect his potential to pull off combat poses decently. However, you can probably get a lot of goofy poses, which go well with the black face. If that personality is your favourite, then Blitzwing could be a great robot to you.

Transformation and alt modes
This is where the toy either makes or breaks for most people, I think. Blitzwing’s transformation scheme essentially involved tucking his appendages away, and using what’s left as a basic shape for his 2 alt modes. The tank mode goes even further to pack in his wings into a very compact and small package. However, it’s the more solid of the 2 alt modes. The cannons on the robot’s back become a rotating turret. Considering that this is the alt mode of Blitzwing’s red fire-using personality, the flame missiles compliment the tank mode very well, making this the better of his 2 alt modes.

The jet mode essentially unfolds the nose cone and wings, and flips the tank turret down to form the rear section and stablising fins. However, this back portion doesn’t lock in place in any way, and is instead left hanging on its hinge. The spring-loaded cannons now become the jet’s thrusters, so that the missiles, when inserted, emulate the flames coming out as he flies

One thing that should be mentioned about transforming from tank to jet is that in tank mode, the turret is very tightly locked onto a catch made of soft plastic. It is entirely possible to damage the soft plastic while trying to pry the turret off, leaving white discoloured dents.on what will become the top of the jet.

And, yes, Blitzwing’s jet mode has tank treads. I don’t know about others, but this is not really a problem for me. The goofiness of tank treads on jets is like a minor sci-fi quirk next to the huge-chins and stumpy-legs of the robots. A greater disappointment is in the fact that the jet mode does not pay any tribute to Blitzwing’s ice power.

Summary
Blitzwing was a figure that I wanted to get at retail rather than getting it loose through back-alley channels. This was a decision that saw me struggling with for months, but I held on because I though he was worth supporting in retail despite the higher price.

After I got him, though, I found him to be a mixed bag. While there are a lot of elements that make him true to the cartoon character that made him attractive to me in the first place, There are also flaws that hurt in some of the more critical aspects.

His transformation is simplistic. Comparing him to Universe Tankor, the other recent triple-changer, Tankor is more complex at deluxe size. However, Blitzwing has nicer looking alt modes than Tankor or even the next most recent triple-changer, Classics Astrotrain.

Still, Blitzwing is a decent entry to the limited range of triple-changing transformers, and a great rendition of an Animated character. How good or bad he is as a toy depends mainly on how much the various flaws and issues irk you personally.

[annhell]

And, Lugnut's:

Lugnut is the Decepticon’s brainless hulk, whose lack of intellectual prowess and cunning is explained by his mindless devotion to Megatron. As a character, Lugnut does not have any specific references to other Transformers from the past. As such, Lugnut pretty much stands on his own strengths (and the story writing) to draw consumers to his toy.

Alt Mode
Lugnut doesn’t spend much time in jet mode on the show, and has never been shown to have any really unique or special abilities in this mode, except to launch the 2 huge bombs under his wings, which he only did in the Season 2 finale. This, however, is not a feature on the toy. The toy’s jet mode bears a good resemblance to its cartoon counterpart, but not much more comparison can be made since it is so neglected on the show. One good thing to come out from this resemblance, however, is that the nosecone/ cockpit design is probably one of the most intricate designs ever to be seen on a Transformers jet.

In jet mode, Lugnut comes with 2 pairs of rotating gun turrets at the sides of the cockpit, and retractable landing gear. Neither gimmick is really unique, and similar features are found on almost all Jet-formers. A note of caution, however, is that the ground clearance made by the landing gear is very little, and it is entirely possible to scrape paint off the under-wing bombs when rolling the jet on the ground.

On its own, Lugnut is a rather nice-looking jet, but it really suffers from the one problem that so many in the fandom have been griping about – its size.


Transformation to Robot
Lugnut’s transformation scheme bears some similarities to Cybertron Jetfire, in that his arms are tucked under the wings, and the legs are tucked into the main body of the plane. However, the transformation process is significantly different, on the whole. For one thing, Lugnut has an automorph feature; folding the plane’s tail down flips his head out and separates the cockpit to form his chest. This automorph is pretty well done, and makes for a more enjoyable transformation experience than a purely manual procedure.


Transformation to Jet
The transformation back to jet mode is essentially a reversal of the procedure. Even the automorph works in reverse, although the sections that make up the robot chest have to be put back manually. Many have complained about the cockpit not staying in place after transforming Lugnut to jet mode, however, I’ve found that this is because the catch to secure the sections in place is a little further in, and you need to push the cockpit pieces slightly past their final resting positions for them to catch properly. The plastic is flexible enough to allow this extra pressure without any significant or extra long-term wear.


Robot Mode
Quite likely, the reason anyone would be drawn to Lugnut’s toy is for his robot mode. Proportionally, Lugnut’s chest and arms look massive, and while his legs are comparatively skinny and short, it pulls off the lumbering juggernaut look very well.

The “big” problem arises, however, when you have him stand with the other figures in the Animated line, because next to them, he’s not a huge juggernaut so much as he is a misshapen dwarf. Discontentment over the figure’s size is a well-known complaint within the fandom, and after seeing Lugnut next to the other figures, it really hurts. This is a figure who is not only supposed to be the biggest of the Decepticon jets, but is also shaped to look the part. And yet, Starscream and Blitzwing’s toys can use Lugnut’s head as elbow rests easily.

Another issue I was disappointed with is that Lugnut’s exploding punch feature from the show was not incorporated into his toy. Instead, he was given his mace weapon, which was featured very briefly (like 2 seconds) in one episode. I don’t have a problem with the mace being part of the toy per se, but both of his hands are fitted to work the same gimmick, and you can only fit the weapon in one hand as a time, leaving the other hand doing nothing instead of having his exploding punch. It’s a bit of a sore point for me that Lugnut should have 2 arm-mounted gimmicks, but was given identical arm molds, whereas Voyager Bulkhead ought to have two wrecking balls, and instead has a silly arm-bending gimmick that required a different mold and set-up for his right arm.

On a more positive note, the mace’s spring-loaded feature is quite nicely done. The length of the haft is long enough that Lugnut can pound its base on the ground while standing to trigger the gimmick.

Summary of his articulation:
Good:
- Arms have a very good range of movement

Bad:
- Head doesn’t move. Maybe that’s why he has 5 eyes in total to compensate for that.
- No waist rotation
- Hip joins and swivel above the knees are loose (on mine, at least)
- Knee joint doubles up as a transformation hinge, and is located slightly lower than where the anatomical joint should be. Poses might look odd when the knees are bent past 90-degrees.

Aesthetics and posability:
Left standing upright, Lugnut looks really nice. His body shape and colour scheme really make for a burly deception. But, as mentioned earlier, the aesthetic is pretty much botched in comparison to the other figures from the product line.

Poses don’t really come off well for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the lack of waist rotation makes action poses look stiff. Add his lack of head movement to that, and anything a front-face display will look out of place. His footprint comprises of 2 “toes” on each foot 2 very small heel spurs and mostly hollow in between. Given his massive upper body, it’s hard to get any kind of stability if his legs are bent in any way. For my figure, the loose hips and knee swivels make things worse, and posing is next to impossible.

Finally, Lugnut’s hand set-up only allows him to hold his mace in only one hand, and at only one spot in the middle of the haft. As good as his arm articulation is, it’s hard to find good positions for him to hold the weapon in due to these restrictions. Furthermore, the weight of the mace in one hand may also cause more problems with balance on his tiny footprint.

In the end, I don’t really have much choice but to leave him standing upright like a sentry.

Summary
I never actually intended to get Lugnut, but I found a few loose pieces in a local specialty store for toy collectors, and going for half the retail price. And even then, I only got it because I found myself bored and needing a little something to perk me up.

I’m actually glad that I got him for a price that was slightly higher than a deluxe at retail, because, although he’s a nifty little toy on his own, I don’t think he justifies the voyager price. The transformation is fun, but that’s like an enjoyable drive between 2 mediocre locations that you don’t want to spend too much time staying in.

I have to say that I’m in the camp of those who hope for a Leader class version of this toy, and hopefully we get the exploding punch feature and better articulation on that one, if we ever get it.

[Dominic]

Lugnut has some similarities to movie Blackout and arguably G1 Thundercracker in terms of character.

Dom
-just throwing that out there.

[Misanthrope Prime]

Finally picked up Soundwave- been to 6 stores and have yet to find a voyager prime, gonna break down and order off the internet.

Kinda tired, but I'm happy with my purchase. He could click together a little better in vehicle mode and the joints are a tad loose in robot mode, additionally, the tail comes off the birdguitar rather easily. But he's a nifty, and, I mean, who wouldn't love a giant robot with an equally giant guitar!

[onslaught86]

Lugnut has some similarities to movie Blackout and arguably G1 Thundercracker in terms of character.

Dom
-just throwing that out there.

..Thundercracker? I could see Soundwave or Cyclonus, but what does Lugnut have in common with Thundercracker?

Aside from being a Decepticon jet.

[Dominic]

Thundercracker is listed as having doubts about the Decepticons, but he needs something to believe so he goes along with it.

Lugnuts is a true believer. The similarities are less pronounced than they are with Blackout, but they are vaguely there.


Soundwave and Cyclonus have had such inconsistent characterization over the years, but I can see if if you go by the cartoon.

Dom