TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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Box Art:

Blackjack's review: Blurr

Name: Blurr
Allegiance- Autobot
Rank- Elite Guard
Function- Recon
Accessories Included- Car Hood/Shield/Energy Saw

"Eat my dust, Decepticons!"

Twenty Five years have passed since Optimus Prime and Megatron graced our little televisions and comic books with their presence. Now, the superb Animated series is nearing its conclusion. One of the characters that got my attention was Blurr. Blurr had always been of my favourite characters from G1, mainly due to his jerky fast voice provided by the world-record John Mosso- Mossci-... something. I can't recall people's family names... Go Wiki it. Twenty something years later, Animated Blurr's voice actor is still good ol' John. Along with Animated Rodimus, Animated Arcee, Movie Optimus Prime and possibly Soundwave, Blurr is one of the few transformers had the honor of being voiced by his original voice actor.

This continuity's Blurr is not a jittery over-enthusiastic young greenhorn. Rather, Blurr is a member of the Elite Guard, which also includes Ultra Magnus, Sentinel Prime, Jazz and the Jet twins. Blurr is also the first Transformer to be actually killed in Animated, being crushed to a pulp by Shockwave/Longarm Prime during the first few episodes of Season 3.

History time. G1 Blurr first appeared in 1986's flick, as part of the 'new cast'. He first appeared alongside Ultra Magnus, Arcee and Springer, showing off his hyperactiveness and super-speed. He appeared mostly in Season three in a regular basis. In Season Four, he was one of the Transformers who got a Targetmaster upgrade, being partnered with young Nebulan Haywire. Blurr is also present in the comics, but in a lesser amount, usually appearing with his fellow 'future cast' in UK comics, or the Targetmasters in the US comics. Transformers Armada brought us a new reincarnation of Blurr, who had a minor role in the cartoon and the comics. There's also a Cybertron Blurr, meant to be a reincarnated Armada Blurr. There might be a Universe Blurr somewhere... (hell, there are Universe/Timelines versions of basically everybody, either in toy form or in their comics.) Then, there's this fella that we're reviewing now.

ALTERNATE MODE

Blurr's alternate mode is a homage (ripoff?) of Speed Racer's Mach 5. Before I give the good news, let's go bad news first. The back portion of Blurr's alternate mode is wide open, and you can see the back of his head very clearly. Yeah, sure, Blurr's horn tries to masquerade as an ornament of sorts, but it's so blatantly visible. The shame about it is that it wouldn't take much to repair this little defect on Blurr. In fact, if it weren't it for this defect, Blurr wouldn't be shelf-warming right now.

It's a pity, since I think Blurr is a very sweet toy. The gap doesn't look so bad in person, and the alternate mode is just sweet to see. Even the glowing 'Allspark blue' colouring doesn't bother me so much in this toy. Rather, it suits Blurr. Predominantly light blue, Blurr also has aquamarine, black, a little red and a little smattering of neon blue and Allspark blue. The Elite Guard Autobot symbol adorns his hood.

Overall, Blurr looks sleek, powerful, and most of all, damn fast. Certainly he looks like he could eat Jazz and Bumblebee up in a race.

Blurr rolls quite well with his relatively larger wheels, compared to some other Animated cars I have (namely my Animated Ratchet.) There's not much you can do with a car mode, and I don't really recommend you to display it this way, as the gap is quite visible.

ROBOT MODE

I actually find Blurr's robot mode quite cool. With his sharp and sleek features, as well as his lean body, Blurr looks like he could take on any Decepticon.

If there's something about Blurr, it's that he's very poseable, especially in the legs. The ankle and 'dactyl toes endeared Blurr to me. The feet/ankle is basically his back wheel, with a front toe and a back toe attached with a powerful ball joint. Blurr can pretty much hold any pose without slipping if you adjust these toes. Besides, it looks quite cool.

The thin legs are quite poseable as well, and he has joints on the hips and elbows. Shoulder articulation is limited somewhat by kibble, but since the kibble really improves Blurr's badass-ness (is that even a word?) I don't really mind.

Blurr's head sculpt is wonderfully done, and a huge improvement compared to the sad excuse of a face the G1 toy has. Blurr's new head design is sleek, with the head pulled back in a sharp angle, and with his head-hood being made sharper. Blurr's features are much sharper and he looks stern and angry. This manages to give him the impression of a professional. Blurr can strike a number of cool action poses. He's also quite durable, having survived a fall from a shelf with no visible injuries.

Badass look, poseability, good head sculpt, durability, a nice paint job, an okay alternate mode... It's just a shame there's one thing that Blurr lacks. It's a good weapon.

Blurr's weapon is very lazily done. They took the hood (which, in my opinion, functions better as a throwing shield of sorts) and placed a pop-out translucent, blue, plastic saw under it. Mine is very trigger-sensitive, though I've been told (by Detective Barricade) that this is not widespread. So chances are if you buy one, it won't have a lousy spring.

Now if it were larger, like, say, on Blazing Lockdown, it would truly look badass. But bad spring assembly and the blue colour makes it look stupid. And you can't fold it up and make Blurr hold it in the closed position either. The spring is very sensitive, meaning it can pop out anytime, including in car mode.

Yes, you can store it on Blurr's back, but the saw will pop down and it would be visible dangling from Blurr's butt.

A pity. Why do Animated Autobots have such pathetic weapons? I mean, Bulkhead, Swoop, Grimlock, Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus are okay, with their badass melee weapons. But the others? Ratchet has a can opener, and the four tools just run around everywhere. Wreck-Gar's... thingies are too small and doesn't look like it would hurt much. Prowl's shuriken are nice, but the traffic light is bloody stupid. Snarl has a cheese stick. Once you get over Jazz's coolness, his nunchucks look stupid. Sentinel Prime's and Bumblebee's weaponry just look dinky and ineffective. Don't even go to the Jet boys. Seriously, Hasbro. Same thing's happening in Universe. Guns are being shrunk and all. Whatever happened to those big rocket launchers? Le sigh.

Marks out of ten for the following:

DURABILITY- 8/10 Able to survive a fall from a shelf. However, his weapon's spring feels flimsy.
FUN- 6/10 As much fun as posing his robot mode into kung-fu action poses is, Blurr's weaponless. Cost him lots of points.
PRICE- 8/10 As a deluxe class toy, he's justifiable. I mean, come on. There's been toys that are much worse than Blurr.
TRANSFORMATION- 6/10 Simple but ingenuous.
OVERALL- 8/10 Recommended. The gap in Blurr's back isn't that much of a problem, really. Besides, his robot mode is so cool that I found it hard to pass him up. I would've given him a 10 had he had a proper weapon.