Blokees Galaxy Series 04 Fractured Dimensions

 

More Blokees here.  On the one hand, I find them fun and engaging when getting a look at them one by one, but when I do these photo shoots with the whole series, I really see how similar they are and their minor flaws.  Blokees are definitely a case of less is more.

This is a look at series 04, which they call Fractured Dimensions, despite all the series fracturing dimensions in some aspect or another.

Once again, I got the official figures from the Chinese release and I nabbed the whole set.  Magnus, Snarl, Shockwave and the Constructicons were the major players on my hit list, but then looking at the Nemesis Prime, I decided he was cool enough, so Smokecreen and Tarn are just bonus figures.

In this release we got, eh, I just named them all up there... Shockwave is the one with the limited Variant, which I did not get.

All right, I think we will start with the one I was most looking forward to, Snarl.  Specifically Snarl in Dinosaur mode.

He's a cute little fella is this one and I like it a lot as he comes with a lot of articulation, although the tail is a little lacking.  He also looks good and appears to be a good size with Slag and Grimlock.

The greebles on this dude are actually fairly accurate to the actual toy!  He has properly angled sail fin things and even has a port in his mouth for their blast effects.

Here is a shot with him next to the Volcanicus combiner mini-Snarl

Not exactly prime sculpting on that one.  Oddly, I forgot that I have the Power of the Primes one too.  But there we go. Old age is a bitch!

One thing that kind of fascinates me about the Blokees is that while they share some parts 'feet for example), they also make a heap of new parts for each figure too.  Look at what you get for this dino guy:

It's also worthwhile noting that a few of the parts are actually used for respective sections of robotmode Snarl too!

Speaking of which;

This leads into a nice smooth flow into robot mode Snarl.

He's a good boy.

I really like his chest detail, the head sculpt and the paintwork.  His sword is also pretty well detailed too and he looks good with the other Dinobots.

Here is a comparison with the Leader Studio Series Snarl, with two types of Sword!

Naturally articulation on the Blokee is pretty good.  It's just a shame that the tail has the empty side exposed to the front of the robot.

Next up in Line is a very nice looking fellow, who seems to have a larger size than most I've covered so far, Ultra Magnus!

Unlike the previous Magnus, this one is in his armour!  I think it looks pretty nice too!  He comes with an extra chest piece that plugs over the main chest which raises up his shoulders a little bit.  This does result in less movement in the should joint however.

I think he also has longer than normal lower legs as well.  This all makes him a teeny tiny bit taller than his blokee pals up until now.    Paintwork on his is pretty nice.  No matrix in the chest though (good), but lots of other details.  The gun is also a nice sculpt and appropriately Magnus enough to satisfy.

He manages to stand over the others a bit and I felt signalled an intention for them to get cracking on the movie series figures. Oh yes!

He comes with the usual fist and open hands with which he can wield the matrix (not-canon)

Holy shit! It's gonna open!

  However if you have previous Magnus versions, you can indeed borrow parts.

Spiderman meme goes here.

So this armoured Ultra Magnus is nicely satisfying.  Also worth noting that his face sculpt doesn't freak me out like so many others do.

Now, that we've had a lookee at white Optimus, it's time to get contrasty  and look at black Optimus.

Nemesis Prime.

The black, teal and red colour scheme of this guy is always a winner and  I will freely admit that I think it looks awesome!  A nice addition for this guy is that they have mixed up various iterations of Nemesis Prime and included some cool accessories.

I like that they are kind of intergarting the guns from the Evolutions style Nemesis Prime from the er, line that had that guy in it.

<-This guy.  The sword is nicely scukpted and the guns can be mounted in his fists, or on the forearms.  They nicely wrap around the forearms a little bit, so they look like they become part of his arm, which is super cool.

His black plastic is SUPER black, so you'll find the grey hands that comes with most other characters will contrast and be very noticeable.

The guns and the sword are both very awesome!

The guns also work with both types of hand and he can also hold the sword while they are attached!

The black is so black, it was hard to get the detail, but the middle image there has a fist under the gun ok?  Trust me!

This guy also has a unique chest detail as well.  IT looks like there might be a matrix in there...  Also, check them beautiful eyes.

Next to his Power Ranger pals, he looks pretty great.

Of course, he needs his own time with his negative counterpart.

ULTRA MAGNUS

The even have Axe vs Sword going on.

There we go, I think I like NemesisPrime the most out of this batch.  Disappointing really, considering how he is just an Optimus repaint... But whatcha gonna do?

Next up, we go onto the final two members of the Constructicons!

Hook!

I'll be frank here, I don't have that much to say on this guy.  He follows the other Constructicons relatively well.  The hook section on his back can be wiggled around a bit.  The wheels on his shoulders are a unique piece and his head sculpt is rather nice.

I do like the Constructicons big goggles on their faces.

It just reminds me once more that now I have them all, I should look at swapping around some of the joints, so they don't have mysteriously appearing purple bits admit the green chest and whatnot.  Not entirely sure how to approach the guys who have purple chests and green arms like Hook here. Any suggestions?

Fellow Constructicon; Scrapper!

Scrapper was my favourite of the Studio Series Constructicons to be honest and once again, this guy in Blokee form is pretty much a guy I've seen 5 times already.  The shovel piece is the nice addition to him and can be wiggled around.  I feel that it adds a bit of bulk to his look, so I think I prefer him over Hook from this wave.

The two main dudes of Constructicons

Naturally they looks pretty special next to each other and as a team.  My idea was to have SS Devastator displayed with these guys in front of him.

What a bunch of miscreants!

Next up, it's back to the Autobots with one of my favourite Masterpiece Car boys, Smokescreen!

This guy looks great and the car dor wings are always a hit in my opinion!  His shoulder launchers are cool and mounted on ball joints so you can have them pointed wherever you like and the standard Blokee articulation comes into play making his pretty good fun to mess with.  His paintwork is also pretty intricates and detailed too.

My only complaint, the face sculpt.

It's like the nose is too big, or the eyes are too far apart, looking off to their respective sides.  Or maybe the eyes are the result of the big nose... Something is off.

Here he is with the other car bots, most of them also expressing my face bias.  except for Nemesis, that mask is good.

Back to the Decepticons and their big guy in this wave.

TARN - AKA Edgelord

He has the same body build type as Ultra Magnus did in this wave, thereby limiting the shoulder movement a little bit, but adding some height.  

Sculpting on this guy is pretty good, as are paint decals.

I think the face is pretty well done, and the Decepticon logo even has some scratches on one side.

The chest and waist paint is also pretty nice.  The guns can be mounted in various places, just like the transforming voyager one, but I prefer to keep them on his back.

The good news is, you can still have him gesticulate majestically to his "peers" if you so wish.

So far I think I've hit up three of the "big guys,"  Blitzwing, Magnus and Tarn here, so here is an attempt at a comparison shot (although they don't look too big TBH).

Maybe not entirely successful

Now we'll be moving on to the final member of the Wave, the one who could've been the chase figure, but was not for me, but that's fine.

Shockwave.

I'm gonna come straight off the bat and say, I really like this Shockwave!  It looks great!  He comes with an extra Saluting hand (no, it's not a nazi salute) and a mini-me gun of himself for that one (maybe two) time he was holding himself and threatening humans. Oh and a pipe.

The er, face sculpt? Gets no complaints from me and the chest detail is pretty cool as well, although I'm not entirely sure what it is supposed to be.

The little gun Shockwave is nicely sculpted and super cute.  Imagine someone charging around with Gun Shockwave in one hand and Megatron in the other.

You can swap his laser hand out if you like (but who would want to do that?????)

Finally you also have his saluting/pledging faithful allegiance (ha ha)/backhanding slap hand.

I love that hand, it adds so much expression to the guy with a yellow blot for a face.

And that's the end of the review.  I'll state this again (maybe).  These Blokees are fun and fine when you approach them singularly, but get very repetitive when you do them all at once.  Yeah, they're fun, but I strongly recommend not overdoing it on them (he says with another two waves after this one).