Fall of Cybertron: Blast-Off

Blast-Off from Fall of Cybertron was a character you didn’t get to play with.  He flew with you as you played as Vortex and was a super fast flying guy, who pretty much provided amusement and showed you the way.  Originally he was a space shuttle in the G1 series and got changed into a plane with massive bunch of jest and stuff.  Which makes sense considering his name and how Transformers probably don’t think space shuttles are all tha impressive.

 

He is needed to form Bruticus though and here I have him in his G2 colourings.  Let’s see how he is shall we?

 

 

He is amazingly white, with ‘camouflage’ purple blotches. Just yesterday I was thinking that there were no common colours between the G2 Combaticons.  Ruination (the Combaticons from ‘Robots in Disguise/ Car Robots’) has a desert camo pattern, but these guys are all over the place.  Then it hit me.  They all have purple splotches.  I’m not too sure where exactly they will hide, but hey, it was the nineties.  You know, hyper colour t-shirts and parachute pants and all that.  Strange times.

 

 

He is pretty much white, purple with a smattering of black.  Very small wings and a big engine.  the cockpit area seems very long and realistically I am fairly certain there is no way this design could fly.  But logic doesn’t apply to kids toys.  It’s a pretty good representation of the game model in both robot and vehicle modes.  He comes with two blasters which have two pins to them.  I really like this, there are multiple ways they can be mounted on both vehicle and robot mode, which is great.  Do you have them as an extra pair of wings, or should you go for another tail fin?  Mount them on the side of his fore-arm or in the hand?  Very nice.

 

Just don’t look at it from the back or the bottom…

 

Once again, the figure is plagued by cheap, thin feeling plastic…  Something the whole group suffer from.  I can sort of see why when they combine though, I just wish it wasn’t necessary…

 

Sculpting all over is very good.  He even has details sculpted into the small of his back and on his calves.  Are they MORE jets I spy?

 

 

The robot mode is pretty good too, with some nice articulation allowing for decent posing and playability.

 

 

My complaints for this figure all stem from his shoulders.  There is a little tab that pegs into the body to secure the arms in place.  It can be rather tight sometimes and I suspect that it will not last long before breaking.  Please be aware and take care.

It’s a bit nerve wracking putting it in as you have to bend the purple strut it’s connected to and apply a fair bit of force.  Much the same is required when unplugging it too.

 

The other thing is even though that purple strut is secured very well, the shoulder pads themselves don’t plug into anywhere, so every time you move his arms, you will need to reposition the shoulder pads.  This really annoys me as they move so easily.  They also seem to be in the way for the Bruticus mode as well. 

 

It would also appear this his Decepticon insignias are on his wings, which are going to be covered by guns most of the time, or on his legs for robot mode.  Not terribly loyal are we Mr. Blast-Off??

 

 

The head sculpt is great and I am even impressed with the detail on the back of his head as well as the front.

 

Although the blue looks a bit out of place, but I guess it breaks up the monotony of white.

 

Blast-Off usually forms an arm from Bruticus.  In the Robots in Disguise cartoon, when they needed a flight mode, the shuttle and helicopter formed the arms, and when they needed over the same two became the legs.  Makes sense.  Like the other limbs, Blast-off can be either a L/R arm or leg.  Sadly the formation of the leg just seems to be the shuttle mode plugged into the knee.  So it looks like crap.  Don’t do it.

 

However if you follow the official instructions, Blast-Off forms one way-too-long arm and it looks ridiculous.  I suggest experimenting a bit.  I end up folding the legs at the knees and hips and joining the two hands together.  This allows for a better proportioned Bruticus as well as adding the impression of bulk to the arm.  Unfortunately I haven’t found and entirely satisfactory way to stash the shoulder pads/jets yet and just leave them a bit loose.  From most angles it looks all right.

 

Overall I quite like Blast-Off.  The jet mode is cool and robot mode is decent and fun.  If you were starved of Transformers, I would actually recommend this guy by himself.  If you get the set, then he is needed and one of the better figures.  I just suggest getting a feel for the arm formation yourself and work out something that looks decent.  Don’t bother with the foot mode.  Actually now that I mention it, the instructions all cover one limb mode, as per the box art, but not the other, so Blast-off here has the arm mode transformation in the instructions, but not the foot.  Hmmm.