TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

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Box Art:

Detective Barricade's review: Blitzwing

Name: Blitzwing
Function: Decepticon berserker
Sub-Group: Animated Voyager class

“Whoo! I’m freaking out!”

Even by Decepticon standards, Blitzwing is totally insane. He’s got three personalities packed into his cyberium-steel chassis, and he argues with himself almost as often as he argues with other Decepticons. The only person he listens to without interrupting is Megatron, because all three of his personalities are terrified of the Decepticon commander. He carries a superheater cannon and a hyperfrost emitter to burn or freeze his enemies.

Galactic Powers and Abilities:
- Sometimes changes to tank in midair, and crashes.
- Likes to freeze, then melt his opponents.
- Has trouble flying in a straight line.

Just about everyone who’s watched the original Transformers movie has at least heard about the Decepticon triple changer Blitzwing, who turned into a jet and a tank. Animated brings Blitzwing back in both cartoon and toy form for the first time since the original series, though this Blitzwing is almost nothing like his namesake. He’s more comedy relief without being blown to scrap all the time, unlike another poor soul with this role... Onto the review!

Since Blitzwing is a triple changer, he has three modes, two of them vehicle modes. So, I will review each vehicle mode separately, and then the robot mode.

Jet mode:

First up is the jet mode. Blitzwing comes packaged in this mode. For the most part, it does it’s job about as well as can be expected, having to work with kibble from the other two modes, as well as the “cartoony” design of the whole thing. The tank tracks are quite visible hanging of the bottom, but so too is the robot’s body. The nose may dip on occasion since there’s nothing locking it in place, but the back does tab into the feet. Overall, the jet isn’t perfect by a long shot, but I can see past most of the flaws.

Tank mode:

This mode is in some ways better than the jet, but worse in other ways. It’s much more compact, and much meaner looking to me at least. The wings fold to create the tank’s hull, with a mean looking view port. The turret can turn a full 360 degrees and shoot up to two missiles. While it could technically shoot them in any mode, they’re more appropriate here in tank mode. Unfortunately, the barrels can’t aim up or down without modification. Since there isn’t anything locking the tracks in place in this mode, they will sometimes fall out of alignment.

When transforming Blitzwing to robot mode, or back to jet mode, the turret may sometimes refuse to come off of the tab on the back panels. It might help to pull back on it rather than up, as well as filing the edges of the tab a little. I’ve had this problem, and if you don’t heed this advice, the tab could break. Swinging the wings out and then pushing on the flaps also seems to work.

Robot mode:

After two mixed bags of alt modes, we have the robot mode, where Blitzwing really shines! He’s about 90-95% accurate to his show model here. He’s got the WWII German soldier like look, (as commonly portrayed by Hollywood) with the goggle helmet, the elbow length “gloves”, and the knee length “boots”. He’s also equipped with the two turret barrels behind his shoulders, though they can’t aim down over his shoulders. The main attraction to Blitzwing, however, is his face switching gimmick. Turning the dial on the back of his head will rotate his faces, changing which one is showing out of his soft plastic helmet between “Icy”, (the blue one) “Hothead” (the red one), and “Random” (the black one). Unfortunately, “Hothead” doesn’t have his teeth painted in despite the space to do so. I imagine he’d have a few choice words about that... Blitzwing is mostly a light beige, purple, and black in color.

There are two errors present in the entire production line of Blitzwing so far: the upper arms are swapped, (when on correctly the wings sit more flush with the body) and the Decepticon symbol tampographed on the cockpit is that of the movie’s style (The eyes are diamond shaped instead of triangular). There have been several reports that the dial for the face switching gimmick doesn’t work, or the faces get stuck. Most of these problems are easily negligible or fixed.

Oh, and in closing, for everyone who’s wondered what the purple springy tabs on his arms are for, those are to keep the wings level in jet mode while being able to compress and allow the turret to connect in tank mode.

Transformation: 6 Fairly easy, except if the turret gets stuck. That can complicate things.
Durability: 9 Some of the problem areas can pop off and on again to avoid breaking. Be careful with that turret, though.
Fun: 9 Three modes, three distinct personalities, all kinds of ways to pose him!
Price 9 $20 USD, about your average Voyager class price. I wouldn’t pay more than that.
Overall: 9 He won’t win anyone over who wasn’t already sold on him. If you like the character, I recommend this.