Movie Protoform Blackout

Allegiance: Decepticons
Toyline: Movie Custom
Year: 2008

Blackout is Megatron's most loyal servant and shares a strange, inexplicable bond with his master. It is this connection that has enabled the Decepticons to track Megatron across space and to the planet Earth. After landing on the planet the Decepticon follow their standard procedure of acquiring the specifics and shapes of militaristic vehicles. Blackout, his space-faring form still scratched and scorched from re-entry, wastes no time seeking a new shape to help him find and rescue his master.

Robot Mode: Okay, let's start with how this guy is put together. The largest part of the body is taken from Protoform Starscream, meaning the torso and the legs. The arms and the heads are parts from Voyager Blackout. And finally Limewire has added quite a few additional parts, such as the changed chest area and the big turbine on his back. This Protoform version of Blackout is meant to resemble Blackout as we saw him in the Movie Prequel Comics and overall I can say that Limewire has succeeded. But let's look at the details.

One interesting side fact first: Though he's built from a Deluxe-class figure, Protoform Blackout is actually barely any smaller than Voyager-class Blackout (their heads are at equal height, actually). So one can easily imagine a smooth transition here and both Blackouts suffer from being too small, considering that he's supposed to be the biggest Decepticon around. But I digress. The figure itself retains the great posability of the Protoform Starscream figure, so no complaints there. The big turbine on his back is, of course, the part that later becomes the helicopter's rotor, so a very smooth transition here, too. Limey even added the two rocket-launcher-type tubes on his shoulders, which translate into the missiles the Voyager-figure carries. So absolutely no complaints here.

My sole complaint about this figure - and that's more a matter of personal taste than anything else - is that I think Limey overdid it a bit with the scratched-metal-look. Blackout looks like he's been through a war, flown through a solar flare, and barely survived re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. It's done pretty well, but personally I like my Transformers to be a bit less-damaged looking. Like I said, though, that's just me. Objectively speaking the paint-job on Blackout is very nicely done. So all in all, no actual complaints about this robot mode here.

Alternate Mode: As far as I know none of the comics ever showed pre-Earth Blackout in his alternate mode, so there is no telling how close the resemblance might be here. Naturally Blackout closely resembles Starscream's alternate mode here, as most of what you see is unchanged from the original figure mold. The single biggest change here is, of course, the turbine on the back, which nicely integrates into the rest of the vehicle body without looking out of place. So what does this vehicle form look like? I really don't know. Like an alien spacecraft, I guess, so that works out just fine. There's not a whole lot of resemblance to Voyager-class Blackout's vehicle mode here, either, but then again, how much resemblance does Starscream's Protoform vehicle mode have to an F-22 Raptor?

Of course the altered arms don't integrate as smoothly into the vehicle body as the original ones did, but with the patched-together look of the entire thing you really don't notice unless you look very closely. So the bottom line is, this vehicle mode looks like you'd imagine a worn, battle-damaged alien space craft to look, so there is no reason to complain here, either. Nicely done.

Remarks: Blackout remains one of the favourite Decepticons from the Movie-line thanks to his impressive showing in the Movie's opening scene. The comics offered us a few glimpses of how he looked before coming to Earth and this custom Blackout here is the closest I've yet seen to bringing that character to life. Sure, a little less scratched-metal would have been nice, but all in all there is nothing worth complaining about here. A nicely done figure, bottom line.

Rating: B+