As far behind as I get in reviews from time to time, this one is still noteable. The moulding is damned near 3 decades old. And, I got this toy last summer.
While I had the tapes as a kid, I have never owned a G1 Blaster. Like any other kid, I only got so many toys, and Blaster was never one of them. Despite liking the character, I never picked one up at a convention for whatever reason, (usually a combination of price and the condition of the toys available).
SDCC Blaster w/ tapes:
Packaging:
SDCC Blaster is packaged with Ramhorn, Eject and Steeljaw. Apparently Hasbro did not feel the need to package Rewind, a recolor of Eject, in this set. Of course, this means that the only way to get a complete set of re-issue tapes is to order the "Encore" series from Japan.
The outer box is a slip-case style package that slides over the inner box, not unlike the box of an old VHS tape. The outside of the box looks like the sort of reflective foil sticker sold from vending machines in front of big box stores.
The inner box has "Universe" (2008) trade-dress, (which was roughly current for the early '09 release at SDCC), though is larger and flatter than a standard retail box. Like most re-issue packages, the front panel of the box hides the contents entirely and is mounted on a sort of hinge that swings open. (The stickers are applied at the factory, meaning it is possible to simply display the figure without ever opening the package.)
Like most contemporary Autobot figures, Blaster's character profile has an aggressive tone to it, focusing on Blaster's eagerness to destroy Decepticons as retribution for the latters' destruction of the music scene on Cybertron. The tapes are listed as Mincons.
Blaster (robot/boombox):
Blaster was the Autobot's answer to Soundwave. While Soundwave turned into an awkwardly scaled tape deck, (too large to be even remotely scaled to vehicular figures and too small to be a credible RP toy), Blaster turned into a similarly scaled boombox. Similar to Metroplex and Trypticon, or Unicron and Primus, the two figures uniquely complimented each other if only for bieng in scale to each other.
Put simply, Blaster looks old.
There are people in the building that I am typing this from that may never even have seen a real boombox. (The technology was on its way out in the early 90s, with the last remaining vestiges being largely gone by the mid 90s.) The robot mode has the stiff construction and blocky appearance of a Japanese robot toy from the late 70s or early 80s. (This should come as no surprise to anyone, given the vintage of the tooling for this toy.) While the tranform has a few clever elements, (if only for the time it was originally designed), there are no real suprises. In terms of complexity, I have fiddled with Deluxes in the last 24 hours that are more complex (in the good sense), and there are comparable Scouts. In terms of scale, Blaster is about comparable to a Voyager, possibly a small Ultra.
The SDCC edtiion of Blaster replaces the traditional grey on the legs with a metal-flake plastic. Being unfamiliar with the original figure, I am unsure which looks better. However, given how unreliable metal-flake plastic can be, it is entirely likely that I may have to hunt down another Blaster in a few years.
All of the stickers are applied at the factory, which is a nice bonus for me and my arthritic hands.
Blaster has the worst rub-sign placement I have ever seen, being right on the figure's crotch. (His loyalties are apparently less an issue than his proclivities.)
The tapes:
One of the things that irked me as a kid was that the Decepticons had tapes and the Autobots did not. The fact that the bad guys had something that cool that the good guys did not have an answer for was a sticking point for me. (The ground-bound Autobots fighting Decepticon jets served to accentuate the heroism of the Autobots. But, their lack of a counter-point to Soundwave always seemed to be an unnecessary slap in the face.) Then, one day in early 1986, I was in a toy aisle (in a store whose name I have long surrendered to the mists of history), and saw tapes. My Ravage had long since gone missing. My old Laserbeak had long since broken. While going over to look for a replacement, I noticed the red blister cards. Then, I saw card art of a glorious yellow lion.
Autobot tapes.
After a bit of frantic pawing, I found a rhino and the new Decepticon bat. (It never dawned on me that the bat meant that Laserbeak was coming out of circulation.) Somehow, I convinced my mother to pick up the Autobots as well as a replacement for Ravage and that new bat thing. (Oh yeah, all the critters came with dual used moulds of Rewind/Eject and Rumble/Frenzy. But, you can guess where my priorities were.)
I still have most of those figures in a box of old, if unused, toys. None of them are display worthy. (In, fact, I actually cannibalized parts from Steeljaw to round out a custom figure about 2 years ago.) But, yeah. Long and short, the tapes may not hold the same place they did when I was a kid. But, Blaster's tapes still occupy a soft spot in my heart.
Objectively, I cannot really saw that the tapes are great toys. Truth be told, they are not even exceptionally good. Even for the time they were desinged, (the mid-80), they could have been better. But, part of me still cannot forget my glee at the Autobots finally having something to match the Deceptions' spies.
I have a set of Encores to compare the SDCC set to, and can find no real differences between them. Ramhorn and Steeljaw are definitely "Encores". And, "Encore" Eject uses stickers instead of paint. As is typical of quadruped beast former tapes, Steeljaw (a lion) and Ramhorn (a rhinoceros) only look good from one side, (the firgure's left), owing to the cassette label dominating the right side of the toy.
Over all:
As is the case with most re-issues, there is little objective basis to recommend this set for most people, even before factoring in the price. (I think I paid $60.) The engineering of the figures ranges from "acceptable 25 years ago" to "should have been better even then". As much as I like the characters, they were never terribly important. This set is only for completists or sentimentalists.
Grade: C/D