Generations 30th Voyager Blitzwing

Alright, time for something a bit more recent. How about a Generations toy? A Voyager, no less. And one from the 30th Anniversary part of the line...even though the 30th anniversary is next year. (to be fair, TF4 comes out next year so starting now gives time to get stuff out before the movie toys take over the shelves again) I'm going with Generations...Blitzwing!

...What? You were hoping for Springer? Oh I'll get to him eventually.



Blitzwing's first alt mode is a tank. It's mostly tan and purple with black tracks. A little grey pokes out too. From most angles, the tank mode is pretty convincing. Though from the back...the robot feet make next to no effort to hide, and the jet mode nose is pretty visible. The turret turns...but at the center of the tank body, not the turret itself. Little plastic wheels are clipped into the tracks to allow this mode to roll. I bring this up because it doesn't take much to pop them off. So if you get this figure and one day find a little purple disc thing kicking around...check Blitzwing's front track sections. It's probably one of his wheels that has popped off. Nearly everything else though locks in solidly, and there's little flaps that fill out the front of the tank so it doesn't look so broken up from the hips being slid apart. For features, the tank barrel can shoot a missile by pulling the barrel back. It can also store the weapons either on the sides of the turret or on top of the turret by plugging the sword on and then plugging the gun on top of that.

I sense a need for a size comparison, so with Universe Inferno:



Pretty close in length, actually. Of course Blitzwing's much wider. But now let's chill out with his jet mode.



The jet mode's transformation is quite clever. Other than the nose swinging out, the hips collapsing together, and the barrel swinging into under the back; nothing changes places. Instead his limbs just twist 90 degrees and then tab back in. The legs take some getting used to, as you have to make them go in at an angle and then straighten out at the last minute. This mode too is solid, with what was the turret pegging into place in the back so it won't move. The nose is made of PVC, and is painted purple. A Decepticon symbol appears just behind the cockpit in either silver or purple on silver background. (mine's the latter) The feet still stick out, and now the tank barrel joins them, but at least the wings have extra flaps that swing out to fill the wings out a bit near the base. For features in this mode, you can kind of open the canopy (no idea why. The nose itself blocks it from opening worth a darn) and deploy the nose gear. (doesn't roll, and the rear landing gear are just nubs on the tan painted panels of the legs) Oh, and store the weapons, this time also being able to store them under the wings. I prefer to use the sword to help cover the big gap on top some. And you can swing the tank barrel around to point forward under the jet for an attack mode if you like.

And another size comparison, again with Universe Inferno:



But now for the moment you've all been waiting for! The robot mode!



Wait. Why am I getting an icy stare from a toy? Lighten up, Blitzwing! I fixed your shoulders, a common problem with this mold where the shoulder locking mechanism doesn't quite reach as well as it should, if at all. Easy to fix, just take his body apart and sand down the insides and screw hole parts attached to the front half. And you're not gonna be missing that silly spring for some cute head reveal gimmick that didn't have a catch to keep it down in the alt modes and thus forced your head up against the inside of the nose. It's even worn a little of the yellow paint on your noggin off. Besides, your head stays up fine without the spring and isn't hard to pull up.



...Lugnut, straighten him out will you? Should also serve as a size comparison too.



Better. In case it wasn't obvious, Generations Blitzwing has the three face gimmick of Animated Blitzwing. Many complain over this, but I love it. It's easiest to push each face downward to rotate to the face you want to display. Icy to Random to Hothead/G1. The robot mode is pretty cool outside of the three face gimmick. I would have preferred his head to have been molded in yellow plastic than have been dunked in yellow paint, as the paint coating the inside may make it stick a bit and leave a slight yellow residue on the painted Icy and Random faces, but oh well. I'm also mystified as to why the upper arms and the knees are painted grey rather than molded in grey plastic, as well as why the inner leg panels are painted tan instead of molded in that color. I don't think this has anything to do with the repaint/retool of this mold as Doubledealer, but I can't say for sure. At least he's got his 21 points of articulation, albeit the ball jointed ankles are kind of limited. He can hold his sword just fine, but his gun's butt sticks down and generally keeps him from holding the gun very well at all. Both weapons can store on the back of his shoulders just as they could in his vehicle modes.

So, is Blitzwing worth it? If for retail price, and you're willing to do the fixes for him, then yes. Make no mistake, Blitzwing is a flawed figure, but the two biggest flaws are rather easy to fix. Once they are fixed, he's just about as good a figure as his wave mate is. Being a Voyager class figure, he naturally won't fit in with Classics Astrotrain and Universe Octane. And that's rather unfortunate. However, he goes great with his buddy Lugnut and the size difference between them isn't as bad as their Animated counterparts.

And now if you excuse me...I have a mess to clean up.

Damn, nice review as always, my friend! I agree with DB about the repair/mod being really simple. I'm usually in the camp of not wanting to disect my figures but it doesn't get much easier than this mod right here. Loving my Blitzwing and Springer so far. Just need to get some Reprolabels for them, as those sets look outstanding.

My walmart has a Blitzwing, Springer and Sandstorm. I was tempted to buy them. But I have not bought a TF in a very long time.

What a great review DB

Thanks a lot

Springer and Sandstorm are the better triple changer figures of the Generations line, Blitiwing, he's ok thou besides the problems DB points out, I dislike the procession of his tank mode spin point because once you move it off front centre, it looks rather stupid to me, I'm wondering if this Blitiwing was designed for a deluxe class and then suddenly got to become a voyager!