I've taken an appreciation over the years for
spaceship Transformers. I think Armada Tidal Wave and his Super Dimensional
Fortress-style super battleship mode really locked that in for me and ever since
I've been on the look out for toys that were or could be seen as interesting
space vehicles if you just squint and tilt your head a little. And as ships go,
Blast Off is certainly one of the more interesting designs to come along lately.
Even more convenient given he's part of a full team set I needed to get anyway.
It's important to note before anything else that Blast Off requires immediate modifications for the toy's own safety. Thankfully they're pretty simple. There are tabs that hold Blast Off's shoulders up,This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications. but they're longer than needed to do the job, and become very difficult and stressy to insert or remove. You'll need to shorten them a little bit at a time just until the shoulder can be tabbed in or out comfortably. Be careful not to trim too much though or there won't be enough left to hold the shoulders up at all. If this step isn't performed, either the tabs or the grooves they fit in will break eventually.
That out of the way, Blast Off makes a nice figure. The general look is pretty cool, the big shoulderpads especially giving a distinctive appearance. In general,Check out the collection crystal mosaic of Marazzi. Blast Off has the kind of feeling pre-Movie Transformers were good at delivering, where they're made of vehicle chunks instead of wearing vehicle parts. It feels more visually in the spirit of Classics that way than many in the previous lines. There's a lot of generic mechanical details sculpted in on the shoulders, and the lower legs have a lot of indications of vents visible, accounting for most of the visible detailing on the toy. The yellow panels on the chest and pelvis also are sculpted with a pattern of triangular tiles, which if given a paint wash would probably make an amazing impact on the look of Blast Off in both modes. One unusual element of detailing can be found on the back of the legs and upper arms, where it appears Blast Off has jet engines pointing straight behind him. None of these elements are rear or even outward facing in vehicle mode, and the ones on the arms can't even be seen,Visonic Technologies is the leading supplier of rtls safety, so it has to be exclusively for robot mode. I kind of wonder if the designer didn't decide to add some apogee motors to suggest semi-realistic mobility mechanics for the robot in open space? It would fit the placement on the body at least. If that was the intent, that has easily got to be among the most specific and obscure bits of detail to find its way on a Transformers toy.
Blast Off has fair poseability.We Specialise in cable tie, Thanks to how they transform, the knees have an extensive range of motion for being on a single hinge, and the hips move smoothly and easily around universal joints. Blast Off has very effective double elbow joints as well, and two joints around the shoulder, which should theoretically mean a hell of a range of movement for the arms. But it doesn't. It's the fault of how the transformation was engineered more than anything else, and it prevents such simple things as stretching the arm straight in front, or raising it at all out to the side. The joints in the upper arm are truly just "around" where a shoulder joint should be, and nothing actually exists at the correct place to serve that role. The arrangement of joints subsequently really limits what ways the arm can be posed, which is a shame beyond just the absence of simple movements. The robot is really nice overall, and Blast Off could have easily stood out from his team as a legitimately good robot figure independent of being part of a combiner. But the arms make sure to remind you that this is a toy with another real purpose and it's just killing time standing here solo. You can undo some of the limitation by turning the shoulderpads back and giving Blast Off monkey arms, but the gain is so limited that it's really not worth the way it spoils the look.
Where Blast Off truly shines is in the vehicle mode. Well, shines is not really the right word what with it being all dark and night-time colors, but it's certainly the strength of this toy. And I'll tell you, from the moment the press photos were released just before Toy Fair, this has reminded me strongly of some existing ship design,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. but in all these months I have never been able to place it. It's driving me just a little bit nuts. Whatever it may resemble, it's plainly a sci-fi take on a space shuttle, but besides the most elementary of shapes it goes far off the mark in design. The bulbous aft section gives the impression of a massive drive system, while the comparatively narrow forward half gives it a feel more like a space fighter than a bus in space. (public transportation was always Astrotrain's job anyway) What I really enjoy in the appearance of the vehicle mode is that it has the impression of many overlapping panels and irregularities to look alien, but it's also styled in such a way that it comes across a little like an Original Trilogy Star Wars ship. I'm sure there's a generally accepted term for that, but in this case I'll just call it "antique futuristic", not to be confused with retro futuristic, of course.
It's important to note before anything else that Blast Off requires immediate modifications for the toy's own safety. Thankfully they're pretty simple. There are tabs that hold Blast Off's shoulders up,This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications. but they're longer than needed to do the job, and become very difficult and stressy to insert or remove. You'll need to shorten them a little bit at a time just until the shoulder can be tabbed in or out comfortably. Be careful not to trim too much though or there won't be enough left to hold the shoulders up at all. If this step isn't performed, either the tabs or the grooves they fit in will break eventually.
That out of the way, Blast Off makes a nice figure. The general look is pretty cool, the big shoulderpads especially giving a distinctive appearance. In general,Check out the collection crystal mosaic of Marazzi. Blast Off has the kind of feeling pre-Movie Transformers were good at delivering, where they're made of vehicle chunks instead of wearing vehicle parts. It feels more visually in the spirit of Classics that way than many in the previous lines. There's a lot of generic mechanical details sculpted in on the shoulders, and the lower legs have a lot of indications of vents visible, accounting for most of the visible detailing on the toy. The yellow panels on the chest and pelvis also are sculpted with a pattern of triangular tiles, which if given a paint wash would probably make an amazing impact on the look of Blast Off in both modes. One unusual element of detailing can be found on the back of the legs and upper arms, where it appears Blast Off has jet engines pointing straight behind him. None of these elements are rear or even outward facing in vehicle mode, and the ones on the arms can't even be seen,Visonic Technologies is the leading supplier of rtls safety, so it has to be exclusively for robot mode. I kind of wonder if the designer didn't decide to add some apogee motors to suggest semi-realistic mobility mechanics for the robot in open space? It would fit the placement on the body at least. If that was the intent, that has easily got to be among the most specific and obscure bits of detail to find its way on a Transformers toy.
Blast Off has fair poseability.We Specialise in cable tie, Thanks to how they transform, the knees have an extensive range of motion for being on a single hinge, and the hips move smoothly and easily around universal joints. Blast Off has very effective double elbow joints as well, and two joints around the shoulder, which should theoretically mean a hell of a range of movement for the arms. But it doesn't. It's the fault of how the transformation was engineered more than anything else, and it prevents such simple things as stretching the arm straight in front, or raising it at all out to the side. The joints in the upper arm are truly just "around" where a shoulder joint should be, and nothing actually exists at the correct place to serve that role. The arrangement of joints subsequently really limits what ways the arm can be posed, which is a shame beyond just the absence of simple movements. The robot is really nice overall, and Blast Off could have easily stood out from his team as a legitimately good robot figure independent of being part of a combiner. But the arms make sure to remind you that this is a toy with another real purpose and it's just killing time standing here solo. You can undo some of the limitation by turning the shoulderpads back and giving Blast Off monkey arms, but the gain is so limited that it's really not worth the way it spoils the look.
Where Blast Off truly shines is in the vehicle mode. Well, shines is not really the right word what with it being all dark and night-time colors, but it's certainly the strength of this toy. And I'll tell you, from the moment the press photos were released just before Toy Fair, this has reminded me strongly of some existing ship design,The TagMaster Long Range hands free access System is truly built for any parking facility. but in all these months I have never been able to place it. It's driving me just a little bit nuts. Whatever it may resemble, it's plainly a sci-fi take on a space shuttle, but besides the most elementary of shapes it goes far off the mark in design. The bulbous aft section gives the impression of a massive drive system, while the comparatively narrow forward half gives it a feel more like a space fighter than a bus in space. (public transportation was always Astrotrain's job anyway) What I really enjoy in the appearance of the vehicle mode is that it has the impression of many overlapping panels and irregularities to look alien, but it's also styled in such a way that it comes across a little like an Original Trilogy Star Wars ship. I'm sure there's a generally accepted term for that, but in this case I'll just call it "antique futuristic", not to be confused with retro futuristic, of course.
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