by Rushie » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:40 pm
- Motto: "Eh, keep your little planet. I'll outlive it."
- Weapon: Fusion-Powered Particle Blaster
I don't have the Premium edition, so I'll tell you what I think of the original Blackout
He's a bit undersized, not only should he be much bigger compared to the other movie TFs, but he's actually extremely small for a Voyager. With his 'backpack' taken off he's only slightly larger than a Deluxe. Still, his backpack weapon thingie is huge and while his head and shoulders may be lower, in total he still reaches Voyager size.
Articulation is fine, plenty of arm and leg movement. Waist and head are swivels. His joints were nice and tight on mine, sake for the ones needed to plug in his shoulders (more on that later)
His backpack can be taken off and transformed back into rotor mode, for use as a melee hacking weapon. It is huge when posed over his shoulder, but thay adds to the awesomeness. He's got no other weapons, nor sculpted-on weaponry.
Moldwise, he definitely suffers from his small size. The helicopter looks great with the only kibble visible on the underside of the cargo bay. His robot mode is much more solid paneled and traditional than the movie model, especially his torso. The head is awfully low detail, which is made worse by the inexplicable paint wash. Should've had solid colours on his head. The eyes are lightpiped a nice blood red.
The automorph doesn't work on mine, but can still be operated manually. Maybe I lucked out, but he doesn't give me any trouble. The very first time you tf him, it feels like you're forcing the toy in wrong directions. Once you know how exactly to move the lower body, the rest will follow without trouble.
The transformation is fairly smooth sake for the attachment of the arms. The pegs which plug his shoulders to his torso are small and require gentle care. They are also awfully loose, so if you don't plug them in, they'll just flop down. Just don't be too rough and he should be fine.
The Scorponok accessory is a nice bonus and the deployment feature in which it is launched from Blackout's helicopter mode works well. It also provides a nice in-scale Scorponok. If you own the Deluxe version of Scorpy, there is a nice extra feature. Plug the grotesquely out-of-scale Deluxe Scorp to the underside of Blackout and press the rotor button. At the same time, Blackout's rotors will spin as Scorponok's digger claws twist. Works smoothly and adds to the fun.
In short, he's not bad, though the weakest of the initial four Voyagers. He's obviously the largest and most decked out version of the character, so if you want the most complete version of all the movie Decepticons, go get him. If you're really worried about his issues, the FAB version might be an alternative. Its robot mode is basically the same size and he's much sturdier. (but also more cartoony)
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