United Blurr

 

Review by Laserwave13:

Prelude: Transformers United: the Japanese series that brings together both the Generations and the Reveal the Shield toy lines, highly anticipated as the successor to the beloved Henkei toys. But the more United figures came out, the lower the expectations went as people quickly realized that they were not of the same high quality that Henkei was. Even more surprising: in some cases they could not even hold up against the Hasbro releases. Of course there are exceptions such as United Jazz and Tracks and a few exclusives. So let’s check out some of those and see what really is going on with United.

Packaging: You could say the usual blister or bubble card. For United Takara even did recycle the the same blisters that Animated had. The ones who collect MISB might be tempted by the Japanese packaging for being more colorful and a little more attracting to the eye. The other ones (like me) who open what ever figure they can get there hand on will be less impressed by that. All in all, nice card but not more. Additional worth mentioning, Blurr comes with another one of those fake collectors cards. They can be used for some Japanese online game of some sort, at least as far as i know. So mostly useless and no matter that the card even shows Animated Blurr instead of the Generations or United version. I would have preferred a real collectors card like the Henkei figures had.

Figure: The figure itself comes with both small guns and the sniper rifle, just like the Hasbro version, and all weapons can of course be stored in the same positions, both in vehicle and robot mode. Combining these into a real standing sniper rifle is also possible and works the same way.

The highlight of the United version is, in fact, the vehicle mode, which looks somewhat different. Takara chose to paint the entire vehicle body and even skipped the lighter shades of blue. Meaning the car is way darker, but then again: way more shiny. The bright baby blue is not present here. Instead they gave him silver rims, probably leftovers from Drift. So again, a car and figure that has to be treated like a raw egg to avoid scratches and paint chipping. But I must say it is worth it, the car mode looks a lot better and I would prefer this one over the Hasbro version.

The robot mode, though, is the complete opposite and cannot hold a candle to the Generations version. It’s nice that they gave him a somewhat darker head with a silver face, but what they did to the body completely ruins it. The entire figure is blue, completely blue. Almost every part looks the same. There are almost no dark or bright areas, just blue. No black shoulders, no red knees, everything is blue. And that is a total no go. Where are the details? They are all on Hasbro´s version.

Conclusion: Which is the lesser of two evils you can live with? What do you prefer more on display? A shiny car or a detailed robot? For myself, the United car looks better, but in the end I would prefer the Hasbro version for its robot mode, which looks awesome with all the guns, especially the sniper rifle, which has to be displayed. In the context of availability and price the United figure has definitely lost this match. Blurr himself is a total must-have for any Classics display, but go for Hasbro this time. It will not only cost you less, but will also look better and is therefore the better choice.

Rating: B