Title:
Blitzwing 3rd Robot Mode
Description:
Thrilling 30


Ich bin wieder da! Und wo ist der verfluchte Bolschewist?! (Hasbro Version Pictured)


(TakaraTomy Version Pictured)
Blitzwing (Triple Changer Voyager, 2013)
Series / Number: 02 / 002
Japanese ID number: TG22
Accessories: Rifle, scimitar, missile
Part of the third wave of 2012-2013 Generations Voyager Class toys, Thrilling 30 Blitzwing is a modern reinterpretation of his original toy, and transforms into two vaguely futuristic vehicles: a jet with an opening cockpit and back-mounted rocket boosters, as well as a tank with a rotating turret and a spring-loaded cannon that launches its missile when the barrel is compressed. The cannon can be swung out and deployed for use in jet mode. He comes with a blaster and a sword, both of which mount/are held by 5 mm post. He features 5 mm ports for his hands, shoulders/vehicle sides, cannon base, and wings, while both weapons have numerous additional posts and ports.In a nod to his Animated incarnation, he sports a face-swapping feature, allowing him to switch between a more traditional, visored face, a monocled face (inspired by the Animated character’s ’Icy’ persona), and a black jack-o’-lantern-like face (inspired by the Animated character’s ’Random’ persona). Unlike his inspiration however, the toy’s faces spin vertically rather than horizontally.The toy is renowned for two significant design flaws. The first is that tabs meant to anchor the robot shoulders to the chest never solidly lock into place—they are simply too far apart. This makes his shoulder assemblies swing up and out of his chest when the shoulders are rotated up. Pressing the shoulder slots into the chest tabs sometimes works to counter this, but it depends on the tolerances of each individual figure. The problem can be completely eliminated with a little work:
For those not wishing to modify the toy itself, spacing material can be affixed to the back of the shoulder piece. This creates support in the back and allows the front tabs to remain in place.
Alternately, one can disassemble the figure and lightly sand the screw mounts and inside chest walls on the front half, bringing the back of the figure and the front closer together, and allowing the shoulder assemblies to lock in completely solid as originally intended. This has the potential risk of over-sanding, which prevents the legs from clipping securely to his chest for his vehicle modes.
The second major flaw concerns the face-swapping feature; almost universally, this does not actually end up working because the rotating faces are rendered immobile by an excess of paint on the inside of the helmet, including the post the faces are mounted on. This can be fixed by dismantling the head, removing the faces, and trimming the excess paint in the helmet interior, or in some circumstances, by leaving the toy in a freezer until the inner-helmet paint becomes brittle enough to crack by exerting pressure on the faces, allowing the faces to move as designed. Unfortunately, the yellow paint is also prone to rubbing off when transformed due the rubber used to create the jet mode’s nosecone.There are two variants of Blitzwing: The first version sports an all-silver Decepticon insignia on its chest and has the missile inserted into the turret inside the packaging, no extra space for the missile in the plastic tray behind the turret and no holes cut for tying down the missile, while a later running change changed the Decepticon insignia’s color to purple, with a silver outline, and has the missile tied down in the plastic tray behind the turret. Oddly, the official Hasbro stock photo of the toy inside its packaging depicts the later version.The Japanese release sports a more metallic gold paint application as opposed to the lemon yellow gloss of his helmet, additional purple paint on his thighs and shoulders, dark metallic gray paint within his cockpit, and additional silver paint on his torso. The neck of the figure is now painted black rather than yellow to better blend in with the lower portion his three faces. Some of the silver detailing on his torso was changed to gold. The figure also features a lighter, more metallic purple, lighter tan, and silver paint on all his gray plastic. The rubberized nose cone’s colors are now more in sync with the entire body’s purple. The scimitar weapon is molded in a solid purple plastic as opposed to the Hasbro version’s "blade” being painted in a lighter hue to simulate an "energon” effect. The same design flaws that plagued the Hasbro release were also carried over in the Tomy version with the exception of the face switching gimmick issue.Blitzwing was retooled into Generations Doubledealer and Cloud Starscream, neither of which fixed the mold’s shoulder problem. The design of the figure also inspired the look of Flywheels in the 2005 IDW continuity.


Ich bin wieder da! Und wo ist der verfluchte Bolschewist?! (Hasbro Version Pictured)


(TakaraTomy Version Pictured)
Blitzwing (Triple Changer Voyager, 2013)
Series / Number: 02 / 002
Japanese ID number: TG22
Accessories: Rifle, scimitar, missile
Part of the third wave of 2012-2013 Generations Voyager Class toys, Thrilling 30 Blitzwing is a modern reinterpretation of his original toy, and transforms into two vaguely futuristic vehicles: a jet with an opening cockpit and back-mounted rocket boosters, as well as a tank with a rotating turret and a spring-loaded cannon that launches its missile when the barrel is compressed. The cannon can be swung out and deployed for use in jet mode. He comes with a blaster and a sword, both of which mount/are held by 5 mm post. He features 5 mm ports for his hands, shoulders/vehicle sides, cannon base, and wings, while both weapons have numerous additional posts and ports.In a nod to his Animated incarnation, he sports a face-swapping feature, allowing him to switch between a more traditional, visored face, a monocled face (inspired by the Animated character’s ’Icy’ persona), and a black jack-o’-lantern-like face (inspired by the Animated character’s ’Random’ persona). Unlike his inspiration however, the toy’s faces spin vertically rather than horizontally.The toy is renowned for two significant design flaws. The first is that tabs meant to anchor the robot shoulders to the chest never solidly lock into place—they are simply too far apart. This makes his shoulder assemblies swing up and out of his chest when the shoulders are rotated up. Pressing the shoulder slots into the chest tabs sometimes works to counter this, but it depends on the tolerances of each individual figure. The problem can be completely eliminated with a little work:
For those not wishing to modify the toy itself, spacing material can be affixed to the back of the shoulder piece. This creates support in the back and allows the front tabs to remain in place.
Alternately, one can disassemble the figure and lightly sand the screw mounts and inside chest walls on the front half, bringing the back of the figure and the front closer together, and allowing the shoulder assemblies to lock in completely solid as originally intended. This has the potential risk of over-sanding, which prevents the legs from clipping securely to his chest for his vehicle modes.
The second major flaw concerns the face-swapping feature; almost universally, this does not actually end up working because the rotating faces are rendered immobile by an excess of paint on the inside of the helmet, including the post the faces are mounted on. This can be fixed by dismantling the head, removing the faces, and trimming the excess paint in the helmet interior, or in some circumstances, by leaving the toy in a freezer until the inner-helmet paint becomes brittle enough to crack by exerting pressure on the faces, allowing the faces to move as designed. Unfortunately, the yellow paint is also prone to rubbing off when transformed due the rubber used to create the jet mode’s nosecone.There are two variants of Blitzwing: The first version sports an all-silver Decepticon insignia on its chest and has the missile inserted into the turret inside the packaging, no extra space for the missile in the plastic tray behind the turret and no holes cut for tying down the missile, while a later running change changed the Decepticon insignia’s color to purple, with a silver outline, and has the missile tied down in the plastic tray behind the turret. Oddly, the official Hasbro stock photo of the toy inside its packaging depicts the later version.The Japanese release sports a more metallic gold paint application as opposed to the lemon yellow gloss of his helmet, additional purple paint on his thighs and shoulders, dark metallic gray paint within his cockpit, and additional silver paint on his torso. The neck of the figure is now painted black rather than yellow to better blend in with the lower portion his three faces. Some of the silver detailing on his torso was changed to gold. The figure also features a lighter, more metallic purple, lighter tan, and silver paint on all his gray plastic. The rubberized nose cone’s colors are now more in sync with the entire body’s purple. The scimitar weapon is molded in a solid purple plastic as opposed to the Hasbro version’s "blade” being painted in a lighter hue to simulate an "energon” effect. The same design flaws that plagued the Hasbro release were also carried over in the Tomy version with the exception of the face switching gimmick issue.Blitzwing was retooled into Generations Doubledealer and Cloud Starscream, neither of which fixed the mold’s shoulder problem. The design of the figure also inspired the look of Flywheels in the 2005 IDW continuity.
Theme:
Generations
Manufacturer:
Hasbro
Year:
2012
Country:
United States
Series:
Generations
Date Added:
2021-03-19 16:46:40
Date Added:
2021-03-19 16:46:40
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