Animated Blitzwing

Robot Mode: I'm under a bit of pressure here, seeing as quite a few people have been pushing me to get this review on the road. People love Blitzwing, it seems, so here is my opinion on him. Let's get the show on the road.

Blitzwing looks pretty much exactly as he does in the Animated cartoon and is a very posable, nicely detailed robot. So absolutely no complaints on this front. His posability is only slightly restricted because of the wings he carries on his arms, but that's easily compensated for. The only real drawback here is the fact that there is no way for Blitzwing to flip his two cannons forward onto his shoulders in robot mode. If he wants to fire, he has to bend over really far.

The real kicker in this mode, of course, is Blitzwing's three faces. I had my doubts as to how this would be translated into the toy figure, but the designers pulled it off pretty well. Blitzwing's head can rotate inside his helmet by way of a small wheel on the back and all three faces are present and accounted for. It's not perfect. Sometimes you need to help the faces along a bit as the wheel is pretty small, but it works. You can see a bit of the other faces through the sides, but that's just a minor thing. Overall I'm very much satisfied with this gimmick.

One thing I've only really noticed with Blitzwing: So far there are only very few Animated figures who have the standard "fist-with-hole-inside" type of hands. Most of them have individually sculpted hands, and so has Blitzwing. While this means he can't hold most weapons of other Transformers, it gives each Animated figure a very individual flair. Nicely done. So overall, there is absolutely nothing bad I can say about Blitzwing in robot mode. Very nice.

Alternate Mode: Transformers with more than one alternate mode often have the problem that their multiple modes either look very much alike or look nothing like what they're supposed to be. Blitzwing is a mixed blessing in this regard. But let's break it down.

Blitzwing's first alternate mode, the one he comes packaged in, is a jet. Judging solely by looks, the jet is pretty cool, at least as long as you look at it from above. Because below, well, there's a tank. The tank threads hang right underneath the plane, very visible. It kinda looks cool in a very strange way, but it's not exactly your normal jet. Also, the jet has a few engineering problems, as the rear part with the vertical fins is pretty loose here. What does look pretty cool, though, is the 'flame exhaust', Blitzwing's orange missiles function as jet fumes here. Overall, though, the jet mode is mediocre at best.

The tank mode is just a slight variation of the jet mode. Flip in the nosecone, fold together the wings and you're pretty much done. And while I don't think I've seen a tank looking quite like that one before, it's pretty evident what it's supposed to be and looks good overall. The tank turret can turn a full 360 degrees and you can flip the barrels forward or to the sides, resulting in two different looking turrets. Whatever way you want.

To me the tank is the better of the two alt modes, but it does have a slight problem, too. The wings don't snap together on front, leaving a slight gap in the front of the tank. Not a big thing, but something that could have been easily fixed. So all in all this mode is better, but far from perfect.

All in all one can say that Blitzwing has two fun alternate modes, but both are more for fun than for actual play value. The emphasis of this figure is clearly the robot mode.

Remarks: Possibly the most memoriable character to emerge from the Animated cartoon is Blitzwing, the first and so far only Triple-Changer in the Animated Universe. Not only does he have three different forms, he also has three different personalities to go with them. Number one, the one with the blue face, looks and sounds like a stereotypical Nazi villain from a cheap Hollywood adventure movie, German accent and all. The second one, the one with the red face, gives a remarkable impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger and loves to pound Autobots into scrap. And number three, the black-faced one, is completely crazy, likes to express his feelings in song, and loves to paint mustaches on the faceplates of Autobots, because mustaches are funnny.

Blitzwing as a toy combines a very good robot mode that is a near-perfect counterpart to the cartoon character with two alternate modes that, while okay, come in at a distant second and third. Still, Blitzwing is possibly the most fun character of the entire series and despite its few shortcomings this toy is, to my mind, a definite must-have. That's all there is to it. Go get it now!

Rating: A-

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