Once again, I am here with more pictures of my addiction, er collection of Blokees. This time though, I 'm looking at Series 03, entitled "Autobot Run," for reasons I am not too sure about, but hey, it tickles the memory about the cartoon though, so that ain't bad now is it?
They come in random selection of boxes, but if you buy a case then, you most likely get the whole set. The case boxes looks like this:
This line up consist of a mere 3 Decepticons and 6 Autobots, although 2 of the Autobots are the same dude. They are:
- Soundwave (has a chase version)
- Scrapper
- Bonecrusher
- Red Alert
- Sideswipe
- Ultra Magnus (IDW)
- Bumblebee
- Slag
- Slag (Dino mode)
Okay, let's get on with it then.
Blokees are non transformable snap kit things, which one assembles oneself. They have pretty good articulation because the the modular nature and same base body build. Articulation consists of:
Because the joint connections are relatively unhindered the articulation is really good. The joints on these Blokees are:
- Butterfly & ball jointed shoulders.
- Hinged knees & elbows, which have swivels.
- Swivel waist.
- Ball jointed hips.
- Hinged knees with swivels.
- Ball jointed ankles.
- Ball jointed wrists.
In the order in which google photos decided to organise the images I took we'll start with:
er.. Bumblebee:
As you can see, Bumblebee has all the required bumble-bits. Much like his Bro Cliffjumper, he has the wheel on the back and the shorter arm/legs pieces. He does come with very different footsies though, which is nice, but also a necessity. He also suffers the slightly too large hands situation that CJ has.
He does have a different paint job on his chest though, which is nice.
Once again, I'm going to have a little whinge about the face sculpt. He has a mouth and nice robotty chin, but something about it is just off. Could it be because the eyes are extra pieces that need to slot into the face they are too big or something? I'm not 100% sure what it is, but the expressions and looks have a tendency to look a bit weird on these things when they have a face.
You may have noticed from the initial picture, Bumblebee also comes with quite a few accessories. One of which I find odd for him to have...
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| Thumbs up!, a gun, a vid screen and a blast effect! |
I'll admit, I was pretty pleased with the thumbs up! The gun though I was a bit "really?" on, mainly because the toy never came with a gun, however, I guess in the cartoon, Bumblebee was often seen armed with "generic blaster" so it kinda makes sense for him to have one. The blast effect actually looks pretty good, and the vid scree, well that deserves its own whole section!
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| The blast effect just plugs onto the end of any weapons you happen to have on hand. |
The thumbs up looks pretty great and fits on all robots, but works best with those with black hands of course.
Of course a thumbs up is just a twist away from being a thumbs down as well!
Finally (for Bumblebee) we get into the accessory I think tickled me the most pink at the time, the vid screen transmission thing. This baby plugs into the forearm and emulates a communicator. There is a picture of Spike on it.
and
OH
MY
GAWD
I wonder where they got this image from? The managed to fine the most "I'm just talking to my boyfriend" image that ever existed. I can imagine Bumblebee and Spike talking for hours about what they did that day, perhaps how that Carly girl is a bit too familiar, how comfortable Bumblebee's "backseat" is... I love this!
It's very clearly printed as well, which is a very nice bonus, considering how tiny this things is!
Next character up on the photos selection committee is:
Slag (robot mode)
Slag doesn't come with many accessories, BUT he does come with an all important sword. Impressively enough though, he actually comprises of quite a few individual pieces. A lot of the pieces are reused for the Dinosaur mode. For example, the horns and head, frill and neck connection of the dino head on his back is the same one used for dino mode, yet the back piece with the open "wings" are a new piece.
you can actually wiggle the dino head around on his back if you so wish.
Paint work is pretty nice and crisp. The body build also looks nice solid as well.
Articulation, while containing the standard amount is a little bit hindered. The should pauldrons and chest piece are quite bulky and have a tendency to clash with each other, resulting in the pauldrons being prone to popping off.
Sculpting is rather nice and this guy's face is pretty well done. Perhaps it's because they just gave him a standard no-emotion face, or its his big bulky helmet and shades. Even the back of his head looks pretty nice and general other body details keep the sculpt interesting to look at.
Also while he has a nice sword, it is difficult for him to point it. However this is the way of many figures with swords isn't it?
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| Ya want some cleavage? |
Grimlock and Slag seem to look good together.
You know, I have often wondered about scale and the Dinobots. Usually they are are depicted at about the same in robot mode... But this can't be correct. Obviously the largest would without a doubt be Sludge. I have often felt that Slag and Snarl should be smaller than Grimlock, but after doing a quick google, it would appear that stegosaurs and triceratops are actually both very large animals and bulk wise they would be about the same as a tyrannosaurus rex anyway. So the Dinobots that are out of scale would be Swoop and Sludge. Interesting.
Having said that though, because of body build, I think Slag looks a little bulkier than Grimlock here.
Since we're on the Slag-wagon, let's have a move on to
Slag - Dinosaur mode
He's a cute little fellow and actually uses a fair few pieces from the robot mode. Such as the chest piece, which is mostly hidden . The arms are reused with new feet sculpts and the majority of his rear is new with dino legs, feet, tail and BUMB. (Dinobutt? )
Articulation is pretty good. The head is on a ball joint and can look around, although it is hindered by the frill (of course). The front legs are connected to a ball joint and the shoulder and have a fair bit of movement available. The front knees are standard blokee hinges, so a hinge and swivel at either end of the joint and the feet are attached via a small ball joint. The rear legs are hinged jointed at the hips and ball jointed at the ankle. There is also a ball joint at the tail.
The Jaw is connected via a hinge and has a small port for effects. I was a little bummed that he doesn't come with any effect pieces, a shame since his function on his bio is "Flamethrower," one would think that a flame effect would be most appropriate. Luckily the previous series Grimlock has a flame effect.
He comes up to about knee height and looks pretty decent with Dinosaur mode Grimlock.
Admittedly, while it seems decent enough, it's pretty tricky to pose and play with this guy. The body is just a big chunk and the legs offer limited options. Just like the G1 toy then!
All righty then, who is next?
excellent!
Red Alert
I have a soft spot for Red Alert, especially when they give him such gloriously white plastic! Naturally Red Alert and Sideswipe are body-buddies, however they have been allowed different head sculpts. They also come with the same accessories. I was half expecting some malfunctioning head-ache accessories for Red Alert here, but sadly that was not to be.
I must get one thing off my chest though. At the time of me typing up this review, I have experienced 4 waves of Blokees and while they are pretty good fun, I always find myself being less impressed with the usual car guys. This was kind of noticeable in Cliffjumper and a touch in Bumblebee. Maybe a tad in Grapple and Inferno as well, but not as much. They just feel a tad plain and generic background robot. There isn't much to flair to them. I guess they lack the dynamic silhouette of many of the other figures in the line.
Let's move on though.
RA here has some nice basic sculpting and a good amount of clean paint application. He comes with his shoulder missile things and a blaster. Once again, the face sculpt leaves me a bit underwhelmed.
With some other effect pieces though, I was able to create paranoid Red Alert.
With a bit of fanadagering, you can also recreate this wonderful scene: (recomended music)
Next up, Red Alert's body-buddy,
Sideswipe.
Dargh, awkward camera change. That is because SS here was the first one of these guys I made up and I put his shoulders on the wrong way. I took the photos and didn't realise until I was playing with red Alert and realised that RA's shoulders don't pop off all the time like SS do.
I do think the misaligned ones looks a bit snazzier though.
SS comes with the same stuff as RA, just in different colours and generally the comments I have are about the same. Aside from the white plastic. SS does look very nice in his red though. They do have different paint applications.
Even their legs have slightly different applications and articulation is fine and unhindered.
Sideswipe also has a slightly whack face sculpt though. He reminds me of Berserk's Nosferato Zodd.
Since I seem to be sticking to the Autobots, I might as well now head on to the last one.
Ultra Magnus (IDW)
This is an Ultra Magnus based off this one time in the comic when he gets blasted to bejeebus and ejects his inner white robot from the outer armour that we are more accustomed to seeing Magnus in. At the time it was an awesomely cool moment, as while we had a few toys of Optimus repainted and renamed Ultra Magnus, the white-prime-clone side of Magnus had never been referenced in a story at all.
This Magnus comes with some extras, pointing finger, gun, axe and a blaster. The axe looks very similar to the one one could expect from a War For Cybertron Optimus toy you know.
The hands are very easy to swap and the axe has some really nice detail in it as well. Interestingly, Magnus here has a lot of detail that Optimus and even Evil Optimus does not have.
His head sculpt is damn good, but that's just because he is using Optimus Prime's head.
For whatever reason though, Magnus can't hold the gun too well.
Here he is with the other guys who share the same body.
What I find rather interesting about these repaints is when they could've easily slacked off and just gone for the same paint work, but with different colours, they haven't.
Case in point, all these guys share the same chest, and most of them have a matrix painted in the windows in some way, but instead of just using the same set up, each one has a different design!
BEHOLD + a bonus or two
Finally he has a really nice axe for chopping. He is a lumberjack and he's OKAY.
And I think that should lead us nicely into the Decepticons.
Scavenger
So, I think you may have spied a bit of Scavenger's super power up above there. Yes, the golden invincible cod-piece. Always a winner. Scavenger here manages to have a fair bit of exciting stuff. Er well, bits hanging off his back, if that's the same thing.
He comes with a gun, and green hands. So there ya go. I will have to mention here though, that for the early series, the joints for elbows and knees must be assembled by hand. They come on the plastic tree that has the hands, so they are often the same colour as the hands (not always though, such as Megatron). As a result, while Scavengers elbows match nicely, his knees do not, but since you are generally just looking at the backs anyway it's not too bad.
Although, now that I have acquired all the Constructions, I have now gone and assessed their Jointage and have rearranged to match the joint colour, so now Scavenger has purple knees and green elbows, whereas before, he would've been blessed with green elbows and knees.
Moving on, his head sculpt is great and the shovel off his back manages to give the right impression.
He also has enough paint work on him to give you the image of a construction vehicle. The shovel is nicely articulated.
He's a strangely fun boi.
Next up, his fellow Constructicon,
BONECRUSHER
I've always had a soft spot for Bonecrusher. My best pal in Primary school had one and even though, I thought BC was a pretty crap toy, I just couldn't resist his charm (BC, not best pal's). For whatever reason, Blokee Boner here comes with all purple joints, which doesn't match his design at all. Sure it makes him more visually interesting, but less accurate. As it is, I have swapped the elbows and knees over. Next, I'll be breaking apart Mix Master and swapping over their should joints.
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| I just need a bit of a prying tool |
I really like the detail on BC here. He has the dumb looking square head, chunky ass chest and some nice beep-boop robot details.
Best of all (and a nice surprise) is that the outer chest is a separate piece and you can lower the bulldozer shovel, to reveal... painted chest bits.
He looks good with the other guys I've grabbed so far.
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| I swear the keys to the base were in here when we left guys.... |
He's a good chap. If a little dense.
Now for the highest ranker in this group:
Soundwave (chase shiny version)
I was rather hoping to get this guy, as I thought it was the only way to get Laserbeak, but I suspect the only thing chase about this dude is his shiny metallic paint.
Which looks bloody great BTW
Soundwave comes with a bunch of accessories; his battery guns, Laserbeak and a Frumble (the purple one) in cassette mode.
Assembly can be a bit tough. The paint adds just the slightest bit of tightness to the joints, making it hard to get stuff in. You'll have to put the cassette drawer in yourself, which forced me to warm the plastic up a bit, it was so damn tight, I was terrified it would snap. I got it in there eventually... Obviously. It can open and close and houses Frumble rather nicely.
Soundwave is very nicely sculpted and the paint just looks amazing! I love the red eyes, they really pop here. I was curious to know if this was painted, or plastic colour, but he is painted all right.
The blaster in his hand is made of two parts, which are also very tight due to the paint.
His headsculpt also looks damn amazing too.
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| AHMAHGAWD THA SHINE |
Laserbeak plugs into the forearm holes and can be used with anyone you desire.
As much as I try though, I can't get him to sit on shoulders, or look like he's launching though...
And while I've been banging on about the metallic paint a lot, the other paint is also very sharp and sexy as well. Check out his groin baby!
Remember, these guys are ~10cm tall
Naturally you can use other accessories as well, but just be aware that because of the extra paint layer, it can be a bit of a tight fit and require some wiggling. Oh and his back looks appropriately Soundwave as well.
But we all knew that anyway didn't we?
And that is the end of this series of Blokees. Another good run, oddly let down only by the blandness of the Autobot Car boys. Hrmm. Interesting.
In case you are wondering about the build, I've taken a scan of the instructions. However they are chinese, but you don't need to read the words.
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