Blackout's vehicle mode is a Sikorsky Pave Low helicopter. This mode is VERY nice, being pretty much perfect when it comes to proportions. The only robot extras in this mode are a somewhat visible Scorponok on the rear underside and Blackout's slightly visible robot hands on the rear end of his wings, but these are both pretty minor extras, if that. All of the mold detailing is spot-on, and the color scheme-- dull blue and black-- isn't very eye-catching, but it's certainly realistic and fits an evil character like Blackout well. He could definitely use a bit more paint detailing in this mode-- his cockpit is really the only part of him that's adequately painted. Putting U.S. Army decals, military reference numbers, or anything of the sort would have helped and made him look a bit less plain here. Blackout has two gimmicks in this mode-- first, if you press in the black button on the rear end of this mode, the main rotor spins, and very well, I might add. (Blackout's rear rotor can spin as well, but you have to do it manually.) Another black button near the rear end of this mode, when pressed in, lets the rear gate slide down and "launches" Scorponok onto the ground. Pretty cool, especially when it comes to the mold detailing, though Scorponok, at this scale, is very basic-- his only paint detailing is a black wash, and he only has one point articulation, at the base of his tail. He's also a rather odd off-white color, instead of the gray-and-brown coloration that he is in the movie and on his deluxe-sixed toy as well. Blackout's gears, used for the automorph feature in robot mode, are unfortunately misaligned, and it takes a bit of skill to realign them. Without realigning the gears, Blackout has a little trouble staying completely "solid" in this mode-- either the center of his cockpit is slightly misaligned with the side pieces of said cockpit, or the pegs that connect his lower robot leg pieces to the main body of the helicopter can come undone rather easily. Both of these areas CAN be aligned correctly at the same time, but just a little fiddling with the toy will "undo" either the center cockpit piece or the robot leg pieces from their pegs, which can get a little annoying.
    Blackout's robot mode is a bit kibble-ridden, but some aspects of it are still very cool-looking. The robot head, for one, is EXTREMELY detailed and evil-looking, and the black paint wash and transparent red light piping used for the optics only enhances this. He's generally pretty accurate to the actual on-screen movie design, though obviously a bit simplified. His proportions are spot-on, with the rotor-hunchback and all. His articulation is also great-- he can move at the head, shoulders (at three points), knees, partial movement at his wrists, and movement at his waist, hips (at two points), and knees (at two points). Blackout's overall chest design is also pretty good-looking, with the head and well-detailed chest slid up between the helicopter cockpit halves. He has the same impressive artillery that he has in the movie, for the most part (though none of the guns can actually fire missiles); he has four different guns on his shoulders, as well as one on the right side of his chest. Plus, his entire rotor backpack can detact and be held over his shoulder as a huge rotary blade weapon of death! It is a bit cumbersome to have him carry it this way, though. I don't like how his helicopter tail fin doesn't fold into itself at all in this mode, and essentially serves as a third leg for Blackout. Granted, this makes him more stable than he otherwise would have been, but it's a rather big vehicle extra. (I don't mind the rotors themselvers so much, as dropped behind his back like that, they look like folded insect wings, which is pretty darned cool.) There's also little vehicle shell pieces on his lower arms that don't like anything and stick out like a sore thumb. As far as his "automorph" feature goes, when you push his waist up into its robot mode position, his chest and head automatically rotate into their robot mode position. However, due to the aforementioned gear misalignment, the automorph feature in his legs doesn't work-- what's supposed to happen is that when you fold out his lower feet and heels, a little piece on his lower legs is supposed to fold out too-- it almost looks like a third toe, except higher up-- but this doesn't happen, so you have to pull it out manually. Blackout is also very small for a Voyager class toy, being just barely taller than your average deluxe. This is rather disconcerting, given how huge he is in the movie. What I dislike most about this mode, however, are the rather weak connection points between Blackout's main body and his shoulders-- only one tab holding together such large parts just doesn't cut it as far as "closing the gap" between his body and shoulders, so they don't mesh together and look as much the shoulder continues right from the body as I'd like. Just adding one or two more tabs would have solved this problem completely.
    Voyager-class Blackout isn't as good as he could have been, but he's the best version of the character to be released in the line that's known of as of this writing (9/07), and he has a nearly-perfect helicopter mode with some great proportions and detailing in robot mode. His kibble-heavyness and a few weak connections in robot mode are his main downsides. Mildly recommended.

Review by Beastbot

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