Vehicle mode is a... really funky tank. I don't think any real-life tanks have huge arrow-missiles on the sides of them, nor big air bellows making up the body of the tank. And I certainly HOPE no tanks have that awful blue-green and yellow coloration. I mean, I know they're trying to hearken back to the G1 Bludgeon, who was also a tank (inside his pretender shell) and also had a partially green-and-yellow color scheme, but... blech. Heck, practically any color scheme I can think of not involving pink would have been better than this. The stuff really clashes, and isn't fitting at all of a tank. The white stripes don't help much, either. At least the tank "wheels" are individually chromed, which is a nice touch (even though they aren't real wheels, just engravements in the plastic- four smaller, real wheels are on the bottom of the toy). Another problem I have with this mode is that the main body of the tank doesn't stand together very well- see, the sides of the main body are made up of the robot arms, and there's absolutely NOTHING holding them in place- no pegs or anything, so they swivel around on their joint as much as they want to. As for Bludgeon's gimmick, it's rather cool, if you can get it going- place a missile on the tank turret, then SLAM in the air bellow to fire it. It only really works if you REALLY smack that bellow hard, though, which usually ends up messing up the rest of the tank mode... *sigh* Once you do get it going, though, it fires FAR. Like, 10 feet.
    Bludgeon's robot mode wouldn't be so bad (ignoring the color scheme, of course) if it wasn't for his rather loose joints in this mode. And it isn't just mine- I've heard of numerous reports of this thing having unsatisfactory joints everywhere but the knees, which for some reason are nice and tight. This makes him rather floppy, as you can imagine. This is a shame, since his articulation is pretty good- he has head, shoulders (at two points each), elbow (at two points each), waist, hip, and knee articulation. The overall LOOK of the mode is nice, though- nicely balanced, and I love the big launcher on the shoulder. The chest is a bit big proportionally, though, but you sorta get used to that when you're talking Transformers. Bludgeon also has no heels on his legs, which makes it rather easy for him to fall over backwards. A "running pose" is the best pose for keeping him stable, as seen above, and even then, it doesn't do that well of a job. Oh, and Bludgeon also comes with a "normal" gun that doesn't do anything that you can stick in his hand in this mode. Don't worry, it's storable in his tank mode. My only other complaint about Bludgeon's robot mode is the head- it's too... recognizable. I mean, practically everyone who knows anything about Transformers knows what Megatron's head looks like, and that is unmistakably Megatron's head. In fact, while I was typing this review, half the time I typed "Bludgeon" I almost typed "Megatron". He's just... so familiar a character that your brain keeps telling you he's the leader of the Decepticons, and not just some foot soldier. A little remolding on the head to make him less recognizable would have been appreciated.
    Bludgeon is a so-so toy- he certainly has his good points, such as his big turret and well-proportioned robot mode- but his tank mode doesn't stay together very well, his joints are floppy, and his color scheme is atrocious. I'd recommend Destructicon Scourge over Bludgeon any day.

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Review by Beastbot

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