RID 2001 Destructicon Bludgeon

Remarks: Like most RID bad guys, Destructicon Bludgeon is a repaint of an older toy, in this case G2 Combat Hero Megatron. Seeing as the original Bludgeon transformed into a tank, too (on the few occasions when he was not hanging out inside his Pretender shell), that does make a certain amount of sense. It also means I’m not doing a full review here, but rather just pointing out differences.

No changes were made to the actual mold, meaning we still have what is basically Megatron’s signature bucket head here. The resemblance to the original Bludgeon is minimal at best, what with the green on the tank gun (Bludgeon’s inner robot mode was green) and the mostly yellow body (his Pretender shell, though that was more orange than yellow). Otherwise not much has changed on this figure. It’s still a good figure overall, very posable, but still really needs bigger feet to solve its stability problem. Little side note: On the back of the package the missile tips are red, while they’re grey on the actual figure. Not sure if there are any variants with red tips out there.

The RID toyline was stretched out to include several store-exclusive toys that saw release as late as 2003, when the Armada series was already in full swing. Hence the very Armada-like packaging. Bludgeon, just like several other figures, was released exclusively in KB Toy stores. He never appeared in the actual RID cartoon or any of the accompanying media (not even in Japan), so he’ll probably be of little interest to most people. He was recently repurposed, though, to serve as the Shattered Glass version of Bludgeon, but only in a text story available exclusively to the members of the Transformers Collectors Club.

I got Bludgeon for a very good price at the German TF convention CONS, so I bought him. Nothing more to it than that. He is a good alternative for people who can’t get a good Combat Hero Megatron at a decent budget or are huge Bludgeon fans.

Rating: B-

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