by rob_charb » Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:30 am
Lugnut was a pleasant surprise for me. I got him mainly because he was the only Animated figure on the shelf that I didn't have yet and the ones I was really looking for weren't out. When I freed him from his plastic prison though, I was, as I said, pleasantly surprised by just how great a figure he is. He has a decent amount of articulation and is, by far, one of the most show accurate figures out. However, due to his rather top-heavy design and somewhat scrawny, stumpy legs, he is somewhat limited in his poseability, despite having good articulation.
Blitzwing was the last Voyager I was looking for to add to my collection, as I just wanted the core 'Bots and 'Cons (and of course the Dinobots) and was quite stoked when I stumbled across him sitting on a bottom shelf, almost out eyesight. When I opened him up, I was satisified with the figure, but to the same extent that I was with Lugnut. Blitzwing has a great looking robot mode, no doubt, and good looking tank mode, but the jet mode suffers horribly from tank-kibble. The back end is just one giant mess of tank parts hanging off it. He has a decent amount of articulation and strike some pretty good poses. Also, due to his more evened out design (not as top heavy as Lugnut), he is better balanced, but as was mentioned before, the wings tend to get in the way of his arms. Also, there's a pretty widespread problem with his biceps being assembled on the wrong sides, like the left bicep is on the right arm and vice versa. Another common flaw with Blitzwing is his face gimmick. It tends to, well, not work. The gears don't quite line up inside, thus making it rather difficult at times to rotate the faces using the wheel, but they can still be spun around using your finger.
Really, in the end, it all depends on which figure is more appealing to you. Had I seen Blitzwing and Lugnut on the shelf at the same time, I would have bought Blitzwing without hesitation and left Lugnut for another time. But knowing what I know now about the two figures, had I seen them at the same time, I would pick Lugnut.