Got this guy in the mail from Big Bad Toy Store today. The version I got is part of Kingdom wave five; he's also scheduled for a package refresh as part of legacy wave one. It ultimately doesn't matter which version you get, since it's the same product (and I don't think he was originally intended for Kingdom at all, sort of like Astrotrain probably wasn't originally intended for Siege, but he was ready early).

Blaster is, unfortunately, one of those oft-maligned characters like Soundwave or Perceptor that Hasbro has made various attempts to modernize over the years. A great many of the Blaster toys we've gotten in recent years have been redeco versions or remolds of Soundwave, despite the fact that the two characters did not start out as mold mates. Blaster has been reimagined at various points as spaceships and communications trucks and such, but it seems like Hasbro has finally come around to the idea that he just needs to be a boom box, full stop. The Titans Return version from 2016 wasn't a completely terrible toy, but the spy tablet concept was kind of ungainly, and the toy as a whole was far too large, even though he came by it honestly (G1 Blaster was just about the biggest toy in the entire 1984-85 toy range, even taller than Devastator).

This is a more comfortably-sized Blaster at a more economic scale, and is properly sized with other characters from Kingdom, Studio Series, and such. According to Sunbow scale guides for animation, Blaster was one of the few Autobots who stood eye-to-eye with Optimus Prime. With that in mind, the Kingdom version of Blaster standing at 6.5" in height is perfect, allowing him to scale nicely with a modern neo-G1 collection.

He's predominantly red with a yellow painted cassette door, with grey for the hip pieces, the lower legs, and tape deck buttons, and black for the fists, biceps, upper legs, and speakers and handle. This is one hundred percent faithful to his animated look, and it's rare that we get such perfect color mapping. It would have been nice if they'd painted the little red circles on his legs, just above his feet, but I could put some stickers or something there later if I want. The level of sculpted detail is high, but not absurd. We even get little fake sliding tabs on his wrists as a tribute to the G1 toy design. I like the face sculpt a lot, as it captures that very distinctive cartoon look, with the wide cheekbones and square jaw.

In addition to most of the standard articulation (waist swivel, ankle pivots, etc.) he's also got wrist pivots, which is used for the transformation but also, I think, is meant to allow him to press his own eject button. His right hand is sculpted with a finger pressing the button, like Netflix Soundwave, but it also looks like he's got his trigger finger on his gun when he's holding it, so it's great. The cassette door is spring-loaded and pops open when you press in the row of buttons just below it.

He's fully C.O.M.B.A.T./F.O.S.S.I.L.-ready, with peg holes in the sides of his shoulders and forearms, sides of his legs, his back, and bottoms of his feet. Hasbro seems to have fallen away from playing up this aspect of compatibility, as it's not even mentioned in his instructions. Blast effect compatibility also seems to be largely a thing of the past—I don't think the toy can accept them anywhere, not even the tip of his gun.

His transformation mostly involves tucking the robot head away, folding up the arms into a compact position, and then opening up the folding panels inside the legs, which serve to hide the arms and complete the boom box mode. I do have some trouble figuring out how to fit the robot arms into the robot legs; after a few tries I can usually figure it out, but it's not very intuitive. The speakers on the fronts of his legs can be flipped around, which is fun.

Ghetto blaster mode is about five and a half inches end to end, roughly three inches tall including the handle, and a little over an inch thick. He's got various tuner knobs and volume knobs and things, so not quite authentic to G1 but still convincing as an AM/FM cassette deck. The fronts of the robot legs actually form the sides of the boom box mode, and the flipped speakers serve as subwoofers, so it's a great design. The handheld gun can plug into the back for storage., or you can plug it into one of the many holes in the back and have it poking out like an antenna, which is I think what the G1 toy was originally designed to do.

Eject, meanwhile, is a tiny Siege-compatible cassette, though I dislike the decision to make him entirely out of translucent plastic. I get that the theme for Legacy is translucent energon weapons, but Eject isn't a mere weapon; he's a character in his own right. I would be quite happy if we got an opaque version at some point down the road.

He transforms pretty much like the G1 toy from 1986, with the bottom of the tape forming the legs, the top corners forming the shoulders, and the middle chunks with the cassette reels becoming the forearms. As a robot, he's about 2.25" in height, and has no weapons of his own. He's not super impressive, but I like what he represents; its my hope we get Rewind and Ramhorn and Steeljaw in this format eventually, and maybe even Grand Slam and Raindance as well. (Likewise, I wonder if the decision to reissue Siege Soundwave is a sign that more Decepticon cassettes are eventually being planned. We still need Buzzsaw, Overkill, Slugfest, Beast Box, and Squawktalk.)

This toy pleases and delights me in a way that previous versions of Blaster have not. He doesn't need to be a weird spaceship or communications truck in an attempt to modernize the character. Just an authentic, awesome boom box. In the past I have been a very loud detractor of Hasbro when they fail to get it right, but this is an absolutely superb G1 update.

Zob (has no place to put my Legacy toys yet, since the shelves aren't set up, but I have no box for them, either...)