Shockblast
(Alternator)
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Alternator Meister. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Alternator Meister here.)
Alternator Shockwave--
excuse me, ShockBLAST-- is a fantabulous remold of the Meister mold. I
mean, a purple, black, and gray car is spot-on with Shockwave's G1 color
scheme, and it looks really mysterious on a car, as well. Heck, Shockblast'd
be almost invisible at night, heh. Some of the secondary colors, such as
silver and light purple, also contrast extremely well with the main color.
As for the mold changes, Shockblast has several-- his vehicle mode has
been remodeled into a "race" variant of the Mazda RX-8 car, with a larger
front bumper, more panels on the underside of the side doors, a different
rear bumper, and a small rear spoiler. All in all, it looks even better
than Meister's vehicle mode, as now the large front bumper hides Shockblast's
robot arms much better than Meister's front bumper did. And, of course,
the robot head has also been remolded to highly resemble the G1 Shockwave
we all know and love. The side antennae seem to be slightly more angular,
but otherwise it's spot-on. The cloudy yellow plastic used for the light
piping in his eye also works GREAT, even under low light. Given the size
limitations of where the head is stored in vehicle mode, however, Shockblast's
head isn't quite as big as Meister's, which makes the chest look a LITTLE
overly large in robot mode. But it's not that big a deal at all. The left
hand has also been remolded into a transparent gun, which, again, is virtually
identical to the one G1 Shockwave had. It's really a cool extra nod to
the old toy. As for how the individual pieces fit and move together when
compared with Meister, Shockblast's pieces generally have the same overall
quality, though the arm pieces on mine don't pop out nearly as easily as
they did on Meister. The sliding door panels on his shoulders in robot
mode are still really loose, though, which kinda bugs me, since they should've
fixed that by now. There also have been a few reports of Shockblast's gun
and/or head antennae breaking during transformation, but this is usually
due to the user not being careful with the toy, so be sure to exert a little
extra caution when transforming those parts. But overall, he's pretty solid.
It's hard to imagine
a Transformer getting much better than Alternator Shockblast. Awesome colors
on an awesome mold, with a big nod to an awesome G1 character-- what's
not to like? He has a few VERY minor problems, such as the loose sliding
door shoulder panels in robot mode, but that's very easily overlooked,
especially since Meister had those downsides too. HIGHLY recommended, even
if you already have Alternator Meister.
No Stats
Review by Beastbot