Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Deluxe Wave 11

#86.01 Autobot Jazz (not-quite-Porsche sportscar)
#86.02 Kup (Cybertronian pickup)
#86.03 Blurr (Cybertronian racer)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/Deluxe11

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Transformers the Movie, characters
from it are getting updated toys in both Generations and Studio Series, and
to distinguish the Studio Series ones from the live action movies, they're
numbering them all as 86 followed by a tiny number...I wonder if they'll
skip #86 in the regular series numbering to avoid extra confusion? As
happened when movie-style "Hunt for the Decepticons" and Generations
packaging split a bunch of characters across them, it's hard to immediately
see any distinction between the two lines, or reasons for including someone
in one line and not the other. For instance, Voyager Scourge is #86-05, but
Voyager Cyclonus is in Kingdom. Studio series seems to limit use of 3mm
studs to weapons, while Kingdom continues to put them on the main figure as
well, but there may be other more subtle differences.
Note, based on the fact I saw half a dozen Blurr before getting my first
Kup, and Jazz took a longer wait to see at all, I'm guessing that the case
assortment is lopsided. Also, the 2020 distribution issues are finally
hitting Transformers hard, with the launch wave of the year getting spotty
distribution and leaving a lot of empty pegs.

CAPSULES

$20 price point.

Autobot Jazz: Okay robot subject to lots of hollowness, challenging but
not frustrating transformation, decent vehicle mode. Recommended.

Kup: Okay robot mode with a cute undocumented gimmick, but the
transformation and resulting altmode feel like they needed Voyager budget to
pull off accepably. Very mildly recommended.

Blurr: Robot mode has too much loose vehicle kibble, vehicle mode held
together by some tabs that are TOO strong and begging to break off, okay
transformation other than those tabs. Mildly recommended.

To be honest, I think all three of these would have been done better as
part of the Kingdom line, with the Kingdom standard design elements.

RANTS

Packaging: It's the same size, shape, and basic layout as previous
Studio Series Deluxes, with a colorful animated movie logo on the front and
on the top. As noted earlier, the assortment numbers are all now 86 in large
font with the individual number in much smaller font. This does make it
harder to quickly scan the side of a peg stack looking for a particular 1986
figure. On the right side, instead of a cut-out showing an Autobot or
Decepticon symbol printed on the red inner tray card, they all have an 86 in
the window. They continue to include backdrops for the scene listed on the
box back.

AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT JAZZ
Assortment: 86.01
Altmode: Sportscar
Transformation Difficulty: 20 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes (mostly recent with the "Autobot" on it)
Previous Mold Use: None
Movie: TFtM
Scene: Moonbase One Destruction

AUTOBOT JAZZ makes a futile escape as UNICRON devours MOONBASE ONE.

Packaging: Three ties hold the robot into the blister, the rifle is held
by one tie, but you don't need to cut it to get the rifle out.
The backdrop is the interior of the Moonbase One control room, with
Cybertron visible out the window.

Robot Mode: This is weird...Studio Series is supposed to go for "looks
like in the movies" as much as possible, and yet this is the first G1-style
Jazz I can remember in quite some time that doesn't have G1-style door
wings. Instead, the doors are rotated 90 degrees and stick out as stubbier
wings. It otherwise looks fine from the front save for the hollow forearms,
but from the back there's significant hollowness problems, as if this were
done by the Cyberverse design team. Colorwise, the blue central stripe on
the chest doesn't go all the way up to the neck, and they decided to not
bother with the sometimes-there gray stripes flanking that.
5.25" (13cm) tall in mostly black, white, and silver, with some blue and
red bits. There's two white plastics, mainly distinguished under UV. The
less glowy white is used on the torso core, shoulder roots, abdomen, hips,
and thighs. The brighter white is used on the chest top, wings, forearms,
gun, boot fenders, toes, and heels. Black plastic is found on the head,
shoulders, biceps, fists, boot cores, and wheels. The center of the backpack
is clear light blue plastic.
The abdomen is painted almost entirely silver, silver is also on the
toes, shins, wheel hubs, face, front grille, and most of the gun (the main
grip and side pegs are left unpainted). The visor and headlights are painted
light blue, while the chest stripe (well, part of a stripe) and belt details
are a darker bright blue. The backpack roof piece is painted white except
for on the window parts, plus a bright blue and bright red stripe down the
middle. The top of the windshield has a black strip, and there's "14" in
black on the door wings. (This is reportedly as an homage to how G2 Jazz had
1 instead of the 4 every other G1-style Jazz did, so 1 and 4 makes 14. I
guess.) The hood Autobot symbol is red on white, and the lower edge of the
chest is painted bright red.
The neck is a restricted ball joint, the waist is a smooth swivel. The
shoulders are a bit weird, there's swivels where they meet the torso, and
then pinned hinges a few millimeters above the axis of the swivel, so the arm
can be lifted above the level of its attachment to the torso. Bicep swivels,
hinge elbows, and the wrists are hinged to swing inwards for transformation.
The hips are more traditional universal joints, there's thigh swivels right
below the hips, and hinge knees. Note, the knee hinges need to be secured
via tabs into the backsides of the shins, or a transformation joint inside
the shin is more likely to bend than the knee. The ankles are hinged to
allow flat feet in legs-apart poses, but do not rock forwards/backwards. The
toes fold down, but that's not very useful.
The hands hold 5mm pegs, there's a 5mm socket in the middle of the back,
and one under each toe. There's a 3mm socket in the back of the pelvis.
The gun is a decent imitation of the G1 toy's gun, ending in a 3mm stud
and held by a 5mm peg. There's short 5mm pegs on either side above the main
grip, presumably so it can be stowed on the back on its side rather than
using the grip.
Not only does he not come with the shoulder launcher the G1 toy had,
there's really no place to put a borrowed one unless you 3-D printed an
adapter.

Transformation: I was able to figure this out without the instructions,
but there's one step that probably took me longer to figure out than the
entire rest of the process...the abdomen piece rotates independently of the
spine in order to make room for the forearms on the underside.
Unfold the backpack and lift it out of the way for now. Lift up the
hood/chest and make CAREFUL note of where the hood gap-filler panel is,
becaus it'll need to go back there for robot mode...just folding it all the
way down won't help. It then needs to be folded all the way in, and then the
head pushed forwards past where it feels like it shouldn't be going in order
to flip over (seriously, I was concerned I was about to break it before it
finally moved correctly...and it's not much better going back). Spin the
abdomen piece without rotating the hips. With the fists stowed in the
forearms (it's pretty hard to get them back OUT, mind you), there's now room
to fold the arms inward and have them flank the head. Make sure the forearms
have their little tabs facing outwards. There's tabs inside the torso that
the forearms push up against, but don't actually slot onto. The legs are
(too) easy to collapse into the boots, then rotate the rear fenders around
and fold up the toes. Then it just remains to snap the backpack and wings
around the top and massage everything into place. The tabs on the forearms
go onto slots on the insides of the doors. The gun goes on the roof. Oh,
and if the center of the hood drops out of position during transformation,
you need to undo at least one arm to get a good enough push on the piece from
inside to shove it back into place.

Vehicle Mode: Another not-quite-Porsche, cartoon-accurate but
unlicensed. The almost comically oversized spoiler is show-accurate, and
also serves to make good heels for the robot. In this mode, it's easy to see
that the blue stripe on the hood is a little lighter than the blue stripoe on
the hood...might be an effect of the underlying plastic, though, especially
if they printed the entire roof at once instead of covering it with white
first and then adding the stripe.
4.75" (12cm) long, half a centimeter shorter if you ignore the robot
toes sticking out in back, making it a little smaller than 1:36 scale for a
Porsche 935. It's mostly white with the blue and red central stripe and
light blue windows. Other than a white hinge interrupting the rear window,
all of the windows are clear light blue plastic. The rest of the body shell
is white plastic, and the wheels are black plastic. The non-window parts of
the top are painted white (rather brighter than the plastic), plus the blue
and red stripe on the roof. There's also a little bit of white paint (which
looks significantly gray in this case) on some black boot plastic between the
rear windows and the rear fenders. The gap-filler of the hood has a blue and
red stripe. The rest of the front end is as described in robot mode. The
wheel hubs are painted silver.
It rolls okay on the wheels, but has deliberately negligible clearance
in front. There's a 5mm socket in the roof, and that's it for connection
points. You can't even use any other robot mode connectors, as they're all
covered up and hidden away.

On Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 10:18:17 PM UTC-6, Dave Van Domelen wrote:

> Note, based on the fact I saw half a dozen Blurr before getting my first
> Kup, and Jazz took a longer wait to see at all, I'm guessing that the case
> assortment is lopsided.

It's Jazz (x3), Blurr (x3), and Kup (x2). For some reason Blurr just pegwarms in a major way. Maybe it's the face sculpt.
> Robot Mode: This is weird...Studio Series is supposed to go for "looks
> like in the movies" as much as possible, and yet this is the first G1-style
> Jazz I can remember in quite some time that doesn't have G1-style door
> wings.

You do know that Jazz doesn't have visible doors in robot mode in the cartoon, right? That's why they went out of their way to hide 'em.

(This is reportedly as an homage to how G2 Jazz had
> 1 instead of the 4 every other G1-style Jazz did, so 1 and 4 makes 14. I
> guess.)

I thought it was because the Porsche Robo from the Diaclone days was collector #14. By accident or design, Jazz was also number #14 on the original 1984 G1 toy checklist.

Zob (I have no pillow, and yet I must sleep)

On Friday, June 4, 2021 at 12:18:17 AM UTC-4, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> Dave's Transformers Studio Series Rant: Deluxe Wave 11
>
> #86.01 Autobot Jazz (not-quite-Porsche sportscar)
> #86.02 Kup (Cybertronian pickup)
> #86.03 Blurr (Cybertronian racer)
>
> Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Studio/Deluxe11
>
> To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Transformers the Movie, characters
> from it are getting updated toys in both Generations and Studio Series, and
> to distinguish the Studio Series ones from the live action movies, they're
> numbering them all as 86 followed by a tiny number...I wonder if they'll
> skip #86 in the regular series numbering to avoid extra confusion? As
> happened when movie-style "Hunt for the Decepticons" and Generations
> packaging split a bunch of characters across them, it's hard to immediately
> see any distinction between the two lines, or reasons for including someone
> in one line and not the other. For instance, Voyager Scourge is #86-05, but
> Voyager Cyclonus is in Kingdom. Studio series seems to limit use of 3mm
> studs to weapons, while Kingdom continues to put them on the main figure as
> well, but there may be other more subtle differences.
> Note, based on the fact I saw half a dozen Blurr before getting my first
> Kup, and Jazz took a longer wait to see at all, I'm guessing that the case
> assortment is lopsided. Also, the 2020 distribution issues are finally
> hitting Transformers hard, with the launch wave of the year getting spotty
> distribution and leaving a lot of empty pegs.
>
>
> CAPSULES
>
> $20 price point.
>
> Autobot Jazz: Okay robot subject to lots of hollowness, challenging but
> not frustrating transformation, decent vehicle mode. Recommended.
>
> Kup: Okay robot mode with a cute undocumented gimmick, but the
> transformation and resulting altmode feel like they needed Voyager budget to
> pull off accepably. Very mildly recommended.
>
> Blurr: Robot mode has too much loose vehicle kibble, vehicle mode held
> together by some tabs that are TOO strong and begging to break off, okay
> transformation other than those tabs. Mildly recommended.
>
> To be honest, I think all three of these would have been done better as
> part of the Kingdom line, with the Kingdom standard design elements.
>
>
> RANTS
>
> Packaging: It's the same size, shape, and basic layout as previous
> Studio Series Deluxes, with a colorful animated movie logo on the front and
> on the top. As noted earlier, the assortment numbers are all now 86 in large
> font with the individual number in much smaller font. This does make it
> harder to quickly scan the side of a peg stack looking for a particular 1986
> figure. On the right side, instead of a cut-out showing an Autobot or
> Decepticon symbol printed on the red inner tray card, they all have an 86 in
> the window. They continue to include backdrops for the scene listed on the
> box back.
>
>
> AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT JAZZ
> Assortment: 86.01
> Altmode: Sportscar
> Transformation Difficulty: 20 steps
> Previous Name Use: Yes (mostly recent with the "Autobot" on it)
> Previous Mold Use: None
> Movie: TFtM
> Scene: Moonbase One Destruction
>
> AUTOBOT JAZZ makes a futile escape as UNICRON devours MOONBASE ONE.
>
> Packaging: Three ties hold the robot into the blister, the rifle is held
> by one tie, but you don't need to cut it to get the rifle out.
> The backdrop is the interior of the Moonbase One control room, with
> Cybertron visible out the window.
>
> Robot Mode: This is weird...Studio Series is supposed to go for "looks
> like in the movies" as much as possible, and yet this is the first G1-style
> Jazz I can remember in quite some time that doesn't have G1-style door
> wings. Instead, the doors are rotated 90 degrees and stick out as stubbier
> wings. It otherwise looks fine from the front save for the hollow forearms,
> but from the back there's significant hollowness problems, as if this were
> done by the Cyberverse design team. Colorwise, the blue central stripe on
> the chest doesn't go all the way up to the neck, and they decided to not
> bother with the sometimes-there gray stripes flanking that.
> 5.25" (13cm) tall in mostly black, white, and silver, with some blue and
> red bits. There's two white plastics, mainly distinguished under UV. The
> less glowy white is used on the torso core, shoulder roots, abdomen, hips,
> and thighs. The brighter white is used on the chest top, wings, forearms,
> gun, boot fenders, toes, and heels. Black plastic is found on the head,
> shoulders, biceps, fists, boot cores, and wheels. The center of the backpack
> is clear light blue plastic.
> The abdomen is painted almost entirely silver, silver is also on the
> toes, shins, wheel hubs, face, front grille, and most of the gun (the main
> grip and side pegs are left unpainted). The visor and headlights are painted
> light blue, while the chest stripe (well, part of a stripe) and belt details
> are a darker bright blue. The backpack roof piece is painted white except
> for on the window parts, plus a bright blue and bright red stripe down the
> middle. The top of the windshield has a black strip, and there's "14" in
> black on the door wings. (This is reportedly as an homage to how G2 Jazz had
> 1 instead of the 4 every other G1-style Jazz did, so 1 and 4 makes 14. I
> guess.) The hood Autobot symbol is red on white, and the lower edge of the
> chest is painted bright red.
> The neck is a restricted ball joint, the waist is a smooth swivel. The
> shoulders are a bit weird, there's swivels where they meet the torso, and
> then pinned hinges a few millimeters above the axis of the swivel, so the arm
> can be lifted above the level of its attachment to the torso. Bicep swivels,
> hinge elbows, and the wrists are hinged to swing inwards for transformation.
> The hips are more traditional universal joints, there's thigh swivels right
> below the hips, and hinge knees. Note, the knee hinges need to be secured
> via tabs into the backsides of the shins, or a transformation joint inside
> the shin is more likely to bend than the knee. The ankles are hinged to
> allow flat feet in legs-apart poses, but do not rock forwards/backwards. The
> toes fold down, but that's not very useful.
> The hands hold 5mm pegs, there's a 5mm socket in the middle of the back,
> and one under each toe. There's a 3mm socket in the back of the pelvis.
> The gun is a decent imitation of the G1 toy's gun, ending in a 3mm stud
> and held by a 5mm peg. There's short 5mm pegs on either side above the main
> grip, presumably so it can be stowed on the back on its side rather than
> using the grip.
> Not only does he not come with the shoulder launcher the G1 toy had,
> there's really no place to put a borrowed one unless you 3-D printed an
> adapter.
>
> Transformation: I was able to figure this out without the instructions,
> but there's one step that probably took me longer to figure out than the
> entire rest of the process...the abdomen piece rotates independently of the
> spine in order to make room for the forearms on the underside.
> Unfold the backpack and lift it out of the way for now. Lift up the
> hood/chest and make CAREFUL note of where the hood gap-filler panel is,
> becaus it'll need to go back there for robot mode...just folding it all the
> way down won't help. It then needs to be folded all the way in, and then the
> head pushed forwards past where it feels like it shouldn't be going in order
> to flip over (seriously, I was concerned I was about to break it before it
> finally moved correctly...and it's not much better going back). Spin the
> abdomen piece without rotating the hips. With the fists stowed in the
> forearms (it's pretty hard to get them back OUT, mind you), there's now room
> to fold the arms inward and have them flank the head. Make sure the forearms
> have their little tabs facing outwards. There's tabs inside the torso that
> the forearms push up against, but don't actually slot onto. The legs are
> (too) easy to collapse into the boots, then rotate the rear fenders around
> and fold up the toes. Then it just remains to snap the backpack and wings
> around the top and massage everything into place. The tabs on the forearms
> go onto slots on the insides of the doors. The gun goes on the roof. Oh,
> and if the center of the hood drops out of position during transformation,
> you need to undo at least one arm to get a good enough push on the piece from
> inside to shove it back into place.
>
> Vehicle Mode: Another not-quite-Porsche, cartoon-accurate but
> unlicensed. The almost comically oversized spoiler is show-accurate, and
> also serves to make good heels for the robot. In this mode, it's easy to see
> that the blue stripe on the hood is a little lighter than the blue stripoe on
> the hood...might be an effect of the underlying plastic, though, especially
> if they printed the entire roof at once instead of covering it with white
> first and then adding the stripe.
> 4.75" (12cm) long, half a centimeter shorter if you ignore the robot
> toes sticking out in back, making it a little smaller than 1:36 scale for a
> Porsche 935. It's mostly white with the blue and red central stripe and
> light blue windows. Other than a white hinge interrupting the rear window,
> all of the windows are clear light blue plastic. The rest of the body shell
> is white plastic, and the wheels are black plastic. The non-window parts of
> the top are painted white (rather brighter than the plastic), plus the blue
> and red stripe on the roof. There's also a little bit of white paint (which
> looks significantly gray in this case) on some black boot plastic between the
> rear windows and the rear fenders. The gap-filler of the hood has a blue and
> red stripe. The rest of the front end is as described in robot mode. The
> wheel hubs are painted silver.
> It rolls okay on the wheels, but has deliberately negligible clearance
> in front. There's a 5mm socket in the roof, and that's it for connection
> points. You can't even use any other robot mode connectors, as they're all
> covered up and hidden away.
>
> Overall: Well, it's better than Power of the Primes Jazz, but that's
> damning with very faint praise. And it's a bit better than that, but it
> takes a few tries to get the hang of transforming it properly in both
> directions. Vehicle mode appearance was prioritized over robot mode
> details.
>
>
> AUTOBOT: KUP
> Assortment: 86.02
> Altmode: Cybertronian pickup truck
> Transformation Difficulty: 21 steps
> Previous Name Use: G1, Gen, Gen:TR, Prime
> Previous Mold Use: None
> Movie: TFTM
> Scene: Sea Squid Showdown
>
> KUP struggles to free himself from the tentacles of a giant squid.
>
> Packaging: Four ties on the robot, while the gun and energon goodies
> dispenser are just held in by the blister shape.
> The backdrop is the giant mecha squid, with one of its tentacles in the
> process of being blown apart.
> The package does not tell about the "torn apart mode," nor do the
> instructions.
>
> Robot Mode: Aside from Siege-style chest windshield detailing and a
> strangely tall face (which might have been referenced from Rebirth), plus the
> inevitable backpack, it's very on-model in both lines and colors. He even
> has the more rounded look of Flory Dery's designs, with not as much squaring
> off as some other updates of movie characters. Most of the colors are even
> there, just missing light greenish-blue paint on the abdomen and toe-tips,
> and some instep stuff that the mold doesn't support.
> 5.5" (14cm) tall, about as tall as Voyager Hot Shot, in mostly dull
> green and light greenish blue. Dull green plastic actually comes in two
> shades, one of which is probably the "unpaintable" variety and is slightly
> lighter. This slightly lighter dull green is found on the abdomen, the feet
> except for the toes, panels on the backs of the boots, the core of the
> shoulder joints, and a hinge between the main torso and the shoulder root
> area. The other dull green is used on the head, torso core, forearms/fists,
> pelvis, most of the boots, and parts of the backpack. Light greenish blue
> plastic is used on the shoulder roots, the upper arms, the gun, the thighs,
> and some bits inside the torso. Clear blue plastic is used for the chest
> front, the eye lightpiping, and the energon goodies box. (Spoiler: they
> don't reciprocate.) The collar area and the shin wheels are black.
> Darker dull green paint is used on shoulders. Light greenish blue paint
> (decent match) is used on the top of the helmet, parts of the forearms, some
> bits on the outer faces of the boots, a bit of the upper abdomen, kneecap
> details, and chunks of the backpack. Light gray paint is used on the face,
> fists, and the sort of headlamp detail on his forehead (hard to tell it apart
> from the light blue, though). There's dark orange stripes on the arms and a
> dark orange belt buckle, with dark gray used for the rest of the belt. A red
> Autobot symbol is printed on the light blue abdomen bit, and the chest window
> is back-painted in silver. The goodies box is painted mostly gloss olive
> green, with just the peg grip and the energon goodie left unpainted.
> The neck is a restricted ball joint, the waist a smooth but pretty stiff
> swivel. Universal joint shoulders, albeit placed a little low compared to
> the top of the torso due to the animation design. The upper arm "swivels"
> are actually 5mm pegs, with the socket part on the lower half. Hinge elbows,
> no wrist articulation at all. Universal joint hips, and the mid-thigh
> swivels are again 5mm pegs with the socket part on the lower half. Hinge
> knees, ankles that bend inward, toes fold down.
> The hands can hold 5mm pegs, and there's 5mm sockets on the undersides
> of the toes. 3mm socket on the back of the pelvis. No storage for either
> accessory.
> The gun looks weirdly scaled down, only 1.75" (4.5cm) long with a 5mm
> grip and a muzzle that narrows to less than 2mm. It has a tab on the right
> side, which goes into a slot on the vehicle side...but that slot is covered
> up in this mode. The goodie box is a little under an inch tall (22mm
> including the peg on the bottom) with a similar tab on one side for vehicle
> mode storage.
> There's no official storage for the goodies box in robot mode, but you
> can open up the backpack and stick it in there awkwardly. The backpack
> doesn't actually stay pegged onto the back on mine unless one of the panels
> is lifted up anyway (I think one or two pins are driven a fraction of a
> millimeter off), it stays put MUCH better when I store the goodies box this
> way. (The tab on the box is slightly smaller than the slot, though, so it
> falls out easily.) The rifle doesn't go into this spot very well.
>
> Undocumented Feature: As noted, the bicep and thigh swivels are really
> 5mm pegs, so you can recreate the "reassemble Kup" scene from the movie (Hot
> Rod has a welding torch that can swap out for his right hand). This also
> means he can borrow pieces from various Weaponizers/Modulators/Fossilizers.
> And because the pegs are always on the top part, you can swap arms and legs
> if you feel like it.
>
> Fair warning, it's all downhill from here. Mine is staying in robot
> mode once I'm done with the review.
>
> Transformation: This is not an enjoyable transformation. The arms in
> particular were a major hassle, since joints that are NOT supposed to pop
> apart did so more easily than moving hinges in the shoulders. I tore both
> arms off in the process of trying to get the sliding bits moved, popped the
> collar area off entirely because I thought it was supposed to bend to let the
> head store in the chest (it isn't, the hinge literally just lets it move a
> tiny bit during transformation and that's all it's there for). While I was
> able to figure it out without the instructions, eventually, it was not so
> much challenging as just bad.
> It's also hard to go back to robot mode without detaching the arms along
> their peg-swivels. They grip onto the underside of the pickup bed a lot more
> strongly than biceps stay together. Oh, and the front wheels pop off really
> easily while trying to fold the fenders into the back.
>
> Vehicle Mode: Not worth the trouble. Oh, the actual lines of the mold
> match the animation model pretty well, but the colors don't. There's several
> bad color boundaries because apparently they lacked the paint budget (or used
> too much "unpaintable" plastic) to make things match up. At least it's
> reasonably stable despite all the panels and seams. It has a more credible
> pickup bed than the G1 toy did, and to the extent the cartoon stayed on model
> itself, this mode has the right *lines*. It just doesn't have the colors in
> the right places for either animation or toy models.
> 4.5" (11cm) long in mostly the darker green with some of the light
> greenish blue. The two slightly different shades of darker dull green are at
> least reasonably well distributed, with the lighter shade being along the
> middle of the sides, the endcaps, and the pickup bed. The slightly darker
> shade is on the rear fenders and most of the cab. Light greenish blue on the
> front halves of the front fenders and the back and sides of the cab. The
> clear blue plastic with silver paint backing from the chest is now the
> windshield.
> There's light greenish blue paint on the "roof" area that match well
> under normal light, and some on the front halves of the taillight bulges (but
> not all the way, I guess the lighter dull green plastic is "unpaintable")..
> The center of the hood is also painted light greenish blue with a red Autobot
> symbol printed on it. There's also red Autobot symbols printed on the sides
> of the rear fenders. There's no paint on the front wheel hubs.
> It rolls okay with minimal ground clearance, even if the seams aren't
> all closed. There's non-standard slots on the rear fenders for holding the
> rifle and goodies box, but no other useful connectors otherwise (lots of tabs
> and slots, but they're all for holding robot mode together). I suppose the
> fists are accessible under the tailgate area.
>
> Overall: Decent robot mode, frustrating transformation with a vehicle
> mode that isn't really worth the hassle. Ultimately, it feels like they were
> trying for that "mini-Masterpiece" sort of design that was successful on Hot
> Rod, but without enough budget or good enough manufacturing tolerances,
> leading to a Stereotypical Studio Deluxe. Really only worth getting if
> you're a completist, really want the squid backdrop, or want him to go along
> with Hot Rod.
>
>
> AUTOBOT: BLURR
> Assortment: 86.03
> Altmode: Cybertronian Racecar
> Transformation Difficulty: 18 steps
> Previous Name Use: G1, Gen, Gen:TR, Arm, Cybertron, TFA
> Previous Mold Use: None
> Movie: TFTM
> Scene: Battle of Autobot City
>
> BLURR defends AUTOBOT CITY until reinforcements arrive.
>
> Packaging: Four ties on the robot, one on the rifle, one on the
> fist-cover welding tool from a scene on Junk.
> The backdrop is a section of Autobot City with some explosions in the
> background, but no actual Decepticons visible.
>
> Robot Mode: My first impression as I pulled this out of the package was
> that it relies way too much on hinge friction to keep vehicle kibble from
> flopping around. The fenders on the forearms are the biggest offender
> (there's tabs that are supposed to lock them in place, but they don't even
> work a little), but the nose end backpack ain't great either. Anyway, the
> molded shape is otherwise pretty close to the animation model (other than the
> nose end hanging off the back), but I suspect they were using a washed out
> copy or something for color reference, because the bits that are light gray
> in the movie are bright white here. The face is also weirdly elongated
> compared to most of his appearances.
> 5.75" (14.5cm) tall in mostly blue, light blue, and white. The head is
> actually made from three plastics...the faceplate is medium blue, the center
> and top piece is light blue, and the back is all clear dark blue, which does
> lead to pretty effective lightpiping on the eyes. Medium blue is used for
> the torso core, elbow joints, thighs, and most of the boots. White plastic
> is used on the fists, feet, some struts on the sides, the gun, and the welder
> accessory. The windshield on the chest is clear colorless plastic. The rest
> of the arms are light blue plastic, as are the pelvis, the backpack, and the
> torso sides. (The armor pods on the forearms seem to be a slightly different
> light blue plastic, but that might not be on purpose.)
> There's white paint on the face, the lower shin and sides of the shins,
> and the vehicle bits inside the windshield. There's medium blue paint on the
> elbow spikes and the sides of the upper arms. A light blue about halfway
> between the light blue and medium blue is used on the center forehead and the
> very bottom of the windshield chest piece. There's a yellow rectangle at the
> top of the helmet front. A red Autobot symbol is printed just below the
> windshield. (There's no paint on the tops of the shoulder thrusters, and
> that's a detail that's actually pretty consistent in the animation.)
> The neck is fully molded and has a limited ball joint at the bottom of
> it, it can rock a bit. Smooth swivel waist. The shoulder have that same
> sort of offset hinge/swivel thing as Jazz's. There's swivels right above the
> hinge elbows. Now the wrists are weird...they have swivel joints, but
> they're purely for transformation, only work once the forearm pods are swung
> down, and only turn 180 degrees. Universal joint hips with swivels inside
> the thighs, hinge knees, and sideways hinge ankles.
> The hands can hold 5mm pegs, and the thrusters on top of the shoulders
> are also 5mm sockets. There's 5mm sockets in the undersides of the heels,
> and a 3mm socket on the back of the pelvis.
> The rifle has a 5mm peg handle but the muzzle is not a 3mm peg. Between
> that and Kup, it feels like the design team got the 3mm stud memo late.
> 2.75" (7mm) long and all white plastic with no paint (it's gray in the movie,
> usually). The stock has slots on either side that go onto a tab under the
> vehicle nose for storage, with the welder clipped over the stock.
> The welder is your basic fist-covering chunk, all white plastic an inch
> (2.5cm) long total. Pushed all the way onto the fist, it doesn't quite go
> flush with the forearm, but it's close. (Probably would have looked better
> in gray or in light blue with the nozzle painted.)
> While the instructions don't show a place to store the welder in robot
> mode, it fits just fine under the nose end of the vehicle on back. It also
> helps keep his backpack more vertical...and it's not like it can snap into
> place regardless of whether the welder is in place. If you're careful, you
> can thread the rifle down the backpack so it connects via its vehicle mode
> tab but with the barrel pointed up behind the head...but you can't attach the
> welder back there if the rifle is "upside down" like that.
> Note, while the backpack isn't pinned in place and can be removed fairly
> easily, there's no way to have him hold it as a shield as the G1 toy did.
>
> Transformation: Pull the arms away from the body on the white struts,
> straighten them, and then rotate the wrists 180 degrees with the forearm pods
> out, and fold them up over the fists (there's flaps that move just enough to
> allow this) and rotate the shoulders to have the arms point up. The light
> blue torso sides fold towards the back once the struts are out of the way..
> Rotate the chest window 180 degrees and bring the backpack up over the head
> to meet it. In theory, you can open up the abdomen as a driver's seat, but I
> don't have long enough nails to do it without a prying tool. Fold the toes
> all the way up and open up the boots (the hinges are on the outer face),
> flipping the back fin out of the left boot. Move the shoulders back up out
> of the way so you can fold the legs double and close the boots back around
> the thighs. Excessive force is needed to snap the boots to each other...and
> getting them back apart for robot mode might break something. I think mine
> had a little bit scraped off in the process of going back to bot mode.
> Anyway, tabs on the heels go into slots in those light blue torso-side
> pieces. Then it's just a matter of swinging the shoulder struts all the way
> back and snapping the arms in along the sides, including some slide-on tabs
> near the front. Finally, and optionally, attach the rifle and welder under
> the nose end.
>
> Vehicle Mode: It's his classic hovercar, for once without regular wheels
> or even hidden little rollers. It actually rests on the robot feet, so
> there's at least 5mm sockets available for flight bases. While the driver's
> compartmant is to scale with Diaclone-sized figures, more or less, there's no
> leg room. It is a little weird that there's five shades of blue in total
> (two light blue plastics, two light blue paints, and then the medium blue
> paint matches the medium blue plastic well enough).
> Leaving off the gun, the vehicle mode is 5.5" (14cm) long, attaching the
> gun increases the total length to 7.25" (18.5cm). The driver's compartment
> and the stuff directly behind it are medium blue plastic, the windshield is
> clear colorless plastic, everything else is one of the two shades of light
> blue plastic (the middle thirds of the sides are slightly lighter). The tip
> of the nose end has medium-light blue paint, while the front of the
> windshield piece and a stripe across the back are light blue paint that's
> slightly darker than either of the light blue plastics. There's some more
> medium blue paint details on the front fenders (technically visible in robot
> mode, but not prominent), but nothing actually newly visible in this mode..
> As noted earlier, the 5mm sockets of the feet are on the underside. The
> shoulder-top sockets are now thrusters, and Fire Blasts suitable for thrust
> can be placed in them. The underside of the nose has the unique connection
> points for the rifle and welder. No other connection points.
>
> Overall: Decent vehicle mode and transformation, but the robot mode has
> too many vehicle kibble bits loose to flop around.
>
>
> Dave Van Domelen, supposes he'll wrap up the Studio '86 wave 1 before
> moving on, so Grimlock next.