Being dead for two movies doesn't keep ol' Blackout down, as he has a new mold toy just in time for the third movie. In his helicopter mode, Blackout looks quite impressive, especially for a Cyberverse-scaled toy, with proportions that are very spot-on. You can see the robot hands sticking up rather blatantly in fromt of the tailfin, but otherwise there's no robot mode extras in this mode. His main rotor is also on three different levels horizontonally, due to the transformation (two rotors are on each level so they can fold up under each other for robot mode), but at most angles this is a minor issue at best. Both his main and tail rotors can spin freely as well. His mold detailing is incredibly well-done even for a movie toy, with teeny tiny panel lines and windows detailed all over his form. The number of paint apps is pretty decent, with important things like his front windows and engine detailed. His side windows also could've used some paint, but realistically with the amount of mold details in this mode some things had to be left out. His overall color scheme of dull blue and gray is pretty... well... dull, but it's of course accurate to the movie and doesn't outright clash. Blackout has a clip at the back end of this mode where you can attach his teeny-tiny partner Scorponok, though considering the scale Scorponok is far too small to really have enough much paint or articulation himself to qualify as a full-fledged extra figure (only his head has silver paint on it, though he's got intricate mold detailing). Scorponok can move at two sections along his tail, but that's it for his beast mode.
    Unfortunately, in robot mode Blackout doesn't hold up nearly as well as he does in vehicle mode. By far the biggest issue here is that the large side panels of the helicopter mode hang off Blackout's shoulders a bit too far and serve as awkward intermediary points for his "real" shoulders. The side panels also don't peg together, meaning that if you rotate his "real" shoulders out you'll often get part of the side panels rotating out on a back hinge with them, another annoyance. On his lower arms there's also some helicopter kibble hanging off them-- it's not too bad for his left arm, but his right arm has the entire tail rotor hanging off it as well, which is a big eyesore. His lower legs are also too flat and two-dimensional, being very skinny from a side view. On the plus side, his mold detailing is still just as incredible as ever, particularly on his head. His long toes and heels give him pretty good stability, and by themselves the proportions on the arms and upper legs look pretty good. His main body is also pretty accurate and well-proportioned, and the way his rotors fold over each other behind his back is pretty creative. For articulation, Blackout can move at the shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), hips, knees (at two points), and at the ankles-- pretty darned good movement for a toy of this size. Scorponok can kinda sorta transform into a gun for Blackout to hold in this mode, though it's only one in the loosest sense of the term-- a gun barrel folds out of Scorponok's underbelly and then his tail pegs into the top side of it-- that's it. It's not much, but it is better than having him simply do nothing.
    Dark of the Moon Blackout pulls off a pretty nice vehicle mode, has incredible mold and decent paint detailing, a good range of articulation, and a little partner. Scorponok doesn't do much, but at this scale frankly I'm surprised he was included at all. That said, Blackout's huge unwieldly shoulder pieces in robot mode (which don't look good from any angle), as well as his two-dimensional legs, are really off-putting and together drastically reduce the rating I gave the figure. This is nice for a Cyberverse-scaled Blackout, I suppose, but if you're going for looks I'd definitely just spring for one of the several voyager versions of this design instead.

Review by Beastbot

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