Name: Bludgeon
Allegiance: Decepticon
Size Class: Warrior Class
One of the most cheering things in recent years has been the cementing of Bludgeon as a legacy character, in much the same way as your Primes, Bumblebees and whatnot. It's nice to see one of the later 1980s characters have some resonance down the line. Unlike many of the these legacy characters, there's still a certain freshness to seeing a Bludgeon toy in a new line. He's also perhaps the only Transformers character to have that whole Eastern vibe going on without it feeling utterly cringeworthy. I do like that versions of Bludgeon have always kept to that Cybertronian equivalent of an Eastern marshal arts philosophy, without it being his singular character trait. Unfortunately for this Bludgeon, some of the impact his toy could have made has been lost as Blastwave made it to market first, looking like Bludgeon in Autobot colours – although this could make for a neat Keldor/Skeletor journey to villainy. Or at least it would have, if Blastwave didn't have a skull face too.
Robot mode: Bludgeon is a surprisingly bright and cheerfully coloured fellow, decked out in bright peach and vibrant red, accented with some nice deep green and silver. He carries over the skull-chest design from the ROTF toy/ IDW comics design, which I like, and the samuari look he has going on is a bit more sublte and stylised here which looks really nice. One of the things that's so good about this figure's robot mode is the lack of any major kibble anywhere, so he's got a nice range of movement unfettered by any tank parts clattering around his frame. Paint apps are pretty sparse, but that's okay as he has this nice balance of plastic colours to add some pizazz. The ones he does have are excellent and very clean – I especially like his purple eyes. Nice. His primary weapon is his katana, but the tank canons on his back can be detached and used a ridiculous looking gun.
Alternate Mode: It's a skull-faced H-Tank! H-Tanks are a bit boring, but again this mould makes the design feel really fun and fresh. Bludgeon's alt mode does look a bit adorable, with those huge purple eyes peering out at the front. It's cute, rather than fearsome. The turret can do a full 360 and it rolls decently enough, with the usual rolly wheels to do the duty of the treads. Only the fists poking out the back of the turret are a bit of a no-no, but I don't mind them.
Marks out of ten for the following:
Transformation design: I love the overall design of the figure and how clean it is, so you get a good solid action figure and a decent alt-mode out of Bludgeon. There's the use of faux-parts, but they don't look bad or like they don't belong. I'm quite happy for him to have two skull faces and for these not to look like they're supposed to be the same part in different places. It's not as if it makes the toy look bad from the back or anything. 9/10
Articulation: He's not a collector-grade or Masterpiece figure, so don't be expecting a crazy amount of joints, but what he has got is more than enough – waist swivel, movement in the hips, knees, shoulders and elbows. It's the basics of a good action figure and is more than enough for your day to day play battles. 7/10
Durability: As with all mould re-uses these days, Bludgeon doesn't feel as tight and his plastics not as dense as Blastwave's. Whether this is down to particular coloured plastics or being made in a different factory with lower grade materials, I don't know. Bludgeon doesn't feel like anything's going to break anytime soon, but ever since Combiner Wars, each mould reuse gives us some obvious physical weakness compared to previous uses and Bludgeon is no exception. The ratchets feel less tight and his joints a little looser than Blastwave. I always feel like I've bought a toy someone's already played with on a second mould reuse these days. 6/10
Fun: Bludgeon is fun. Of course he is! Look at him! He's a colourful dreaded spark hunter who turns into a tank. Brilliant. 9/10
Value/ Price: I paid the full RRP of £14.99 for Bludgeon. I would have been happy with this, if the mould didn't feel less of a quality product next to Blastwave. He's a fantastic toy, just let down by whatever's going on with the manufacturing process these days. 8/10
Overall: This version of Bludgeon is by far my favourite. It's like it's distilled all the cool things about the character and just nailed it. He's got the ghoulish look of the original's pretender shell, picked up on the awesomeness of the Revenge Of The Fallen reimagining, but just tidied all these things up to come up with an ultimate version of what Bludgeon's all about. Skeleton warrior who turns into a tank and has a sword. 8/10
Robots In Disguise Bludgeon
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Robots In Disguise Bludgeon
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