Blast Off's Cybertronian vehicle mode is a steampunk space shuttle. Now, simply reading that once may not have been enough to accurately convey its awesomeness, so let me reiterate that again: STEAMPUNK. SPACE SHUTTLE. I don't care if it's possible or not, this is one of the coolest-looking alt modes I've ever seen on a Transformer. I love all the "tubes" and the like molded into the rear half of this mode, and the turbine-like look that his circular aft, with its many fins, gives off. The front part doesn't look too bad either, looking abstractly like the body and nosecone of a space shuttle but considerably more angular. There aren't any real robot extras either, a nice plus. His wings could stand to be a touch longer, and he doesn't have landing gear, but other than that this mode's gold. The color scheme is pretty darned cool too-- it's not an homage to G1 Blast Off's colors, this "mass retail" release instead opting for an homage to Blackout from the Energon Bruticus Maximus gestalt, similar to how his other mass-released Combaticons got their own color schemes based off of other characters from that combiner. These colors pop quite well-- no, they're not remotely realistic, but again: Steampunk Space Shuttle. So who cares? The darker and light shades of purple complement each other quite well and give Blast Off a nice "Decepticon-y" appearance, with the light yellow paint apps really bringing a bit of bright contrasting color to him and just looking really spiffy as accent colors. The gunmetal gray paint used on his engines and a few other, more minor, parts also is a nice shade of the color as well, and along with a bit of black plastic serves as a good "neutral" color for the others to play off of. Blast Off comes with two (non-firing) cannons, which can be mounted to the tops of his wings in this mode or held in his hands (or on the sides of his lower hands or lower legs) in robot mode.
    Blast Off's transformation is pretty simple-- mostly consisting of unfolding the legs, splitting the back part of the shuttle in half, then swinging around his midsection-- but it leads to a quite different robot mode and one that looks pretty awesome to boot. His stubby wings make for excellent legs, and his turbine-halves also make for great shoulder armor, enhancing his silouhette quite a bit. The body/nosecone of the shuttle forms his chest, and all of the mold and paint detailing on it really make it pop. (That said, a bit of paint on his legs or lower arms would've been appreciated.) His headsculpt is also crisp and well-done with some nice paint detailing the eyes, front vent, and mouthplate, and it looks pretty spot-on to how he looks in the FoC game. He really doesn't have any vehicle mode extras in this mode, everything either converting nicely into a body part or framing it well like his engine-shoulder halves (he even has thrusters molded on the backside of his upper arms, which is a nice touch). His articulation is also quite good, with the toy being able to move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), hips (at three points), and knees. A bit of ankle articulation is pretty much all that's missing (waist articulation would've been impossible given his role as a combiner limb, and to get it done they would've had to leave a vislble seam line in all that nice chest and waist detailing, so I'm glad they didn't include it in Blast Off's case). He's also fairly stable, so he can pull off a good variety of cool poses. I will say, though, that I do have one somewhat minor complaint about this mode, and that's how the shoulders connect to the main body-- they tab in securely, but it's at a bit of an odd diagonal angle, which can make shoulder movement outside of certain set positions look a bit odd.
    Blast Off forms an arm or leg of Bruticus.
    Taken by himself, Blast Off is easily my favorite mold out of the five FoC Combaticons. He looks awesome in both modes, has no kibble whatsoever, and is-- as I said before-- a friggin' steampunk space shuttle. This is also my favorite release of the mold color-wise, so I'd highly recommend picking up this dude. I wish all Cybertronian alt modes were this good.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers Generations Index