284-2
Hasbro- Transformers- Studio Series: Blackout.
Rating of worst to best of the Transformers movies continued; see review 208-2, 213-2, 217-2, 223-2, 226-2, 230-2, 234-2, 239-2, 243-2, 246-2, 249-2, 252-2, 257-2, 260-2, 264-2, 268-2, 269-2, 271-2, 274-2, 276-2 & 280-2 for previous instalments:
Transformers Movie Rating #1 The Transformers: The Movie.
The Bad: It’s a bit of a dangerous practice to look at memorable childhood things that you hold dear to your heart and look at them through current eyes as its pretty easy to see the cracks. Not to say there is anything new and terrible that I was not aware of in The Transformers: The Movie, but lets not kid ourselves, it's not perfect by any stretch. That said I was surprised at the overall animation and how bad some scenes looked. I mean, this was an animated theatrical release that looks only average to many of the popular cartoons currently on TV and way below the other animated features of the day. Don’t get me wrong, many of the key sequences look great and it seems to get better with the introduction of the new characters, but some scenes looked rushed or even done by a different studio entrily. For instance the part where Devastator hits a rather unexpected Snarl in the back and his eyes literally come out of his head as if he were a Disney character. Sure its a fun little thing for us fans to notice, but talk about killing the serious vibe of the first act.
Pros: Of all the Studio Series figures I was most looking forward to Blackout as I feel he was a bit of an underutilized Decepticon from the first movie and the first figure was just meh in my opinion. That said, I really like this version and Hasbro totally hit it out of the park in my opinion. A great sculpt in both modes with masterpiece level detailing, a good transformation that is reminiscent of the Revenge of the Fallen mainline figures and a really great price point considering all of the above. I also appreciate that he comes with a little Scorponok figure that fits under the chopper when in vehicle mode.
Cons: If I was going to complain about anything it would be the relative lack of ability to pose a figure this size or detailed. Also his tail fin folds up to form a really basic looking gun that fits on his arm and really doesn’t go together with the rest of the figure.
