Wolfman Jake wrote:The idea that these were briefly there for more of a solicitation for special retail distribution makes some sense. Maybe it was put up specifically for Walmart to consider adding to their G1 Vintage exclusive deal? In any case, it's strange that only a sample of Soundblaster was physically present. I'm sure it was actually just a hand painted Soundwave figure too, and not a real production sample of Soundblaster. The battle damage is still on the chest door like on Soundwave, but nowhere else on the figure, because it has been painted over in glossy black, obscuring the original paint weathering details. I don't know why they didn't try to mock-up a "clean" version of Optimus Prime or Megatron, or repaint a Prowl into Bluestreak, though. Maybe they only had time to do one and only a spare Soundwave was at hand?
Bluestreak might be absent due to having different accessories than Prowl, given both the weapons present in the cutout and the differences in armaments between Sideswipe and Red Alert.
I'm hoping that like Sideswipe and Red Alert, Bluestreak having a more involved and less monochromatic paint scheme compared to Prowl will make the mold look better to me and convince me to grab him, as he's one of those characters I've never really experienced due to my not being born during G1, but like the look of as a kinda overshadowed background guy.
...plus I only just actually read his bio on the wiki the other day and it's surprisingly deeper than I expected, so I like him more now.
