Blackout's vehicle mode, which is a Sikorsky Pave Low helicopter, is one of the Fast Action Battlers that Hasbro arbitrarily decided to deform a bit while leaving other Fast Action Battlers rather accurate. I'm not sure why-- maybe for transformation or design purposes-- but the "kiddiness" deformation isn't too bad, especially compared to a few other of the Fast Action Battlers, and there's tons of mold detailing all over the place, which helps him look less like he's aimed at the Playskool crowd and more like he's aimed at kids a bit older than that. His overall colors are rather dull, but they're realistic, which is certainly what the movie line is aimed at-- and the black and blue go together fairly well anyways, so I can't really complain. He really could use some more paint detailing in this mode, though-- a couple of tiny yellow stripes on his wings comprise the only bright color used in this mode. Blackout does have a few rather obvious robot extras-- particularly his robot feet on the rear end of this mode, though the bottoms of his robot hands are also rather visible sticking out of the back end of his wings. His shoulder joints are rather loose as well, which means that his arms can fall out from below his wings a bit easier than I'd like. Both of his rotors spin exceptionally well, however, and he has the standard spring-loaded missile launcher on the front of this mode, which you launch by pressing in a black button located under his cockpit.
    Blackout's robot mode is fairly good for a FAB, with fairly solid proportions (with the exception of his head, which, although well-detailed, is WAY too big proportionally, and it also doesn't stick out of the top his chest quite enough). The mold detailing is, again, excellent, especially on the legs, and the few silver paint apps he has helps to liven up this mode a bit more than his alt mode. His vehicle parts are rather visible, especially on his shoulders and the helicopter tail rotor sticking out of his back, but they stay out of the way of movement well enough so I don't mind them much. Blackout's articulation is fair, but not particularly great-- he can move at the shoulders (at two points), hips, knees, ankles, and he also has the same "you can only turn my waist to the left, but as soon as you let go it snaps back into its origianl postion" movement that most of the other Fast Action Battlers do. He doesn't have any elbow movement, which he really needs. Just like in vehicle mode, however, his shoulder joints have trouble locking in place, though it's not quite as annoying in this mode. As far as weapons go, Blackout's rotor can be held in his left hand as a sawblade-style weapon, though you have to take the missile out of his chest if you want to spin his rotor-weapon without it smacking into the missile. What's also really cool is that another (non-firing) gun can flip over Blackout's back and onto the top of his chest, mimicking the pop-out chest gun that appeared for one brief scene in the movie.
    Gyro Blade Blackout is one of the better FABs, though he still does suffer from a few problems like loose shoulder movement and an oddly big robot head. I'd still recommend the mainline Voyager class Blackout over this toy, but if you don't feel like spending $20 on a toy of him or if you're buying one for a youngster who probably couldn't transform Voyager class Blackout, this is a fine substitute.

Review by Beastbot

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