Tets' Toys and Shenanigans: Blue guy that isn't Sonic The Hedgehog

I’ve always dug Blurr, his super sleek space car mode looks nice. His robot mode, well it wasn’t so sleek, (but animated fixed that!). The only Blurr toy I have so far is the recolour of Drift (and Animated), where he as a rather chunky looking car that turned into a chunky robot. I did really like his headsculpt though.

Legends has brought about a Headmaster Blurr. Hrm, Okay. He had a Nebulan chum in G1, but it changed into a gun. How does this guy turn out?

Nice. Very nice is the short answer.

Box is small and sexy.

Blurb says

Presenting Autobot Headmaster Intelligence officer Blurr.

The new Headmaster Concept allows wide play for all to experience.

(That’s the same line on each box, but I think I change the translation slightly each time)

As usual, opening the box reveals the instruction manual and comic.　We have some very nice artwork on this one. I really like it! (also, high quality scan!)

His bio reads like this

This messenger travels from battlefield to battle at the speed of light, leaving a blue blur in his wake. Blurr lives to run and runs to live.

Even after becoming a Headmaster and getting a new body, he’s still the same Blurr.

STR 7

INT 8

SPD 10

END 6

RNK 7

CRG 8

FPR 7

SKL 5

On the other side is the comic. I like this one, it’s a very cute story that links directly into the Japanese G1 story. Have a look. (also high quality scan).

And then read this. Damn, am I a nice guy or what. Look at the class.

I tells ya, this blog is moving up in the world baby!

Brief thoughts on the comic.

I do like the way it links the Legends story directly into the G1 story with Blurr, Kup and Rodimus flying away at the end of Headmasters.
It then explains Rodimus becoming a Micromaster (for Japanese Zone series) and that easily leads onto Rodimus joining the Legends series (which he is planned for). Remember that Alpha Trion is classed as a Micromaster\Micron.
Although it’s not made entirely clear in this comic, it seems that Weirdwolf (the current leader of the Decep HM) is having a sneaky battle with Megatron about the company, since Mindwipe hypnotised Galvatron to go on a rampage. It also justifies Shockwave giving Blurr a new body.

Time to check the toy.

It’s a great representation of his G1 self. I always liked his original vehicle mode. There was no doubt about why it was built. For SPEEEED. Headmaster Blurr is also built for speed, although he is not as flat looking as the original. If only Hardhead could say the same…

It looks great, all nice and angular, with his trident style nose and shoulders. The vehicle mode isn’t overly packed with detail sculpting, but the paint work breaks up the light blue very nicely. Plus too many sculpted details would affect his aerodynamics.

One little addition I thought was a bit odd at the start, but rather appreciate now, is the height of the vehicle mode and wheels. The wheels seemed to be a bit high from my first inspection but if you look at it from a normal point of view, it effectively gives the impression the car is a hover car. Clever work there boys and girls.

The cockpit is back in the middle with a little gap between the window and the seat back. If this bothers you, simply place HM Blurr in the cockpit, and push the seat back to the forwards a bit and BAM, sealed.

Headmaster interaction is a bit limited in this mode. He has a couple of stand spots on the side and some 5mm holes for weapons on the side. The nose of the vehicle becomes a little HM gun sled thing, but if you take that off of the vehicle mode…. His sleekness takes a heavy hit, there is also nowhere to mount it.

I do think the vehicle mode is a good size for Legends Arcee. They look really cool together.

Headmaster Blurr

He’s lacking his little blue scarf hanky thing that I think is really cute. Oh well.

I like the sculpt and look of this guy. I find it a bit hard to work out any homage in him, as he doesn’t really look like Blurr’s G1 Targetmaster partner Haywire but oh well. I like his big eyes and pronounced chin. Look fairly stern for Blurr really. Nevertheless, I like it! Good paint too!

To robot mode.

Because this toy is also being used as another Brainstorm toy, Blurr transforms very similarly. Unflip the legs, waggle the shoulders, and flip over the nose cone. Kinda fun and rewarding, without being too complex. One clever bit that took my fancy was the way the nose of the vehicle mode stops the cockpit window in too far, but once its flipped out of the way, the window folds very nicely to become the chest piece.

Headily deadily on on on!

Chucking HM Blurr on the Transtector makes a very fine looking figure indeed. His head managed\s to look just the right size. Don’t forget to pull his little Blurr topknot thing up, like Scourge.

Taking off the shield from his back manages to reduce the bulk of the robot by quite a bit. Very nice. Chuck it to the side somewhere, or give it to a Transformer that will love it.

The face sculpt is great! Wonderful details in the forehead and colours all match and blend well. I even like the little yellow dot in his forehead. Very nice indeed.

The vehicle mode cockpit also can be left open and you can put stuffs into it. Well, he IS a courier I guess.

The robot is a nice heroically proportioned fellow, yet still manages to look sleek enough to suit Blurr. There’s nice ambient sculpting revealed and even though he is mainly made of blue, a darker blue and white colourings, they look really nice.

Articulation is nice.

Man, lotsa joints here

Ball neck
Hinged, ball shoulders, hindered slightly by the shoulder pauldrons.
Bicep, thigh, waist and wrist swivel.
Ball hips.
Hinged elbows and knees.
Hinged toes for transformation (these don’t really aid robot mode though)

The nose of the vehicle can be take off his back and used for other HMs or, plugged onto his arm as a shield in a couple of ways. Just like the original toy. His laser gun can be stored on the nose cone, or put in his hand/ I quite like the look of his gun. It’s not too big and chunky. Nice a suitable for Blurr.

His robot mode is great looking all round and it manages to fit in really nice with Springer, Arcee and Ultra Magnus.

MULTI HEAD JOIN

Or Cross Head On

The blue of Blurr makes his head joining a bit hit and miss sometimes. Sometimes it look all right, sometimes it doesn’t. Here’s a small selection.

Blue streak sped by.

Wrapping this up, Blurr here is a great toy. The vehicle mode (while being a future space car) is a great update to his G1 look and I’d be upset if he became a normal car… It looks sleek and the fake hover effect is cool. It does lack HM interactivity though, but considering the source, I’m fine with that.

Robot mode is just excellent, all the right joints in good positions that are relatively unhindered. Personally I’d really have liked to see some ankle pivots (Generations Blurr lacked those too), but aside from the shoulders conflicting with the body its a really well unhindered figure.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED/avoid the Hasbro version though, it’s monotone blue is awful.