Is it worth buying? Hit the jump to find out
First off, the most obvious addition to the set, is a brand new head. Its easy to install, you simply pull the old one off, and pop this one into its place. Instantly, you can see it looks far better than the original head. The head was one of the worst parts of the Generations Blitzwing figure. The face sculpt had this weird Tibetan warrior thing going on, looking too squished for Blitzwing, and with a really gawpy facial expression. Paint also liked to fall off the head sculpt if you so much as gave it a sideways glance. It felt like the head was compromised to incorporate that face changing gimmick, and nothing came out of it well.
Dr Wu has ditched Tibetan warrior look, and gone with a way more authentic look.
Its square, chunky and is everything you could ever want from a Blitzwing head - making him look like the stout grunt from the original cartoon. It seems to more specifically resemble Blitzwing from the IDW "ation" comics, which fits with Hasbro's current approach.
Dr Wu has, wisely in my opinion, also ditched the face changing gimmick that was present, and instead given us glorious light piping - cheers for that good Doctor.
As its now on a ball joint, you also get a bit more movement with the head. Its not lots, but there's just enough to make his head a bit more expressive.
One issue here, the chin on this new face sticks out a little too much, so when you go to transform him, it catches on the inside of the cockpit and can scrape off paint.
There is an easy way to solve this, which is to not snap the neck post all the way in when you attach the head, but its not particularly secure.
Its a big negative against the set, so points lost bad Doctor!
One way to avoid this is to use a gimmick Dr Wu did throw in, and that was Blitzwings famous skeleton face. Famous, I hear you cry.
Why yes, its that face that appeared once in a Dreamwave comic somewhere. Sigh, poor old Generations Blitzwing, forever cursed to have heads ruined dodgy unnecessary gimmicks.
Removing the face solves the problems of the chin catching, but obviously leaves you with a face to store somewhere.
Removing it is easy enough, it just pegs on and off. My biggest issue is that as the went with light piping, you can see the skeleton face through the visor. Its a bit distracting and unwanted, at least on my part.
The next part of the set, is a brand new rifle. The originals was tiny, and a flimsy bit of black set, but not this one, this is superb.
Its much larger, and the colour matches the purple plastic on Blitzwing perfectly. The real points scorer here though is the red light piping that is dotted across the weapon, and it makes it glow beautifully.
I will give Dr Wu top marks for this, as this how transformers weapons should be done.
Just to top it off, not only does it match the original weapon from the cartoon and toy, it even has an extendable barrel just to give you that option if you so wish. Well played Doctor...well played.
Looking at the picture above, its very hard to tell where they are, that demonstrates just how good a job Dr Wu has done with them.
The clips fix the most renowned issue with the figure - the arms not locking into place.Upon release, it was discovered that the locking mechanism did not work as designed, which meant turning the arms at the shoulder lifted them up and was an annoyance for most people. There were all sorts of fixes, including another 3rd party option, but Dr Wu's is rather elegant in comparison.
No modding is require, they just clip on, and apply an extra bit of pressure that pushes the arm hinges correctly into place. You can even leave them on for transformation into tank mode, but they do removing for jet mode sadly.
Overall though its a neat solution to problem. They are colour matched to Blitzwing, their design blends in with the figure, and they are tiny so don't stick out.
This set does a wonderful job in adding that extra layer of shine to Blitzwing in appearance, and making him a more functional toy to play with. I personally love it, and for under £20 it really adds a lot.
But the issue with the chin may put you off, as potentially its a Transformer, who you can't transform for fear of damaging your expensive upgrade set.
For what it adds, I would say it was worth it though.
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Really marvelous work man! This robot looking like a man going for war. It seems like a man completely lased and had heavy personality.
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Thank you for your kind words, really appreciate it! The set really makes a difference, particularly with his squat head!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post thanks for sharing
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