Bot Reviews: Transformers: Kingdom/Legacy Voyager Blaster, with Eject

You know, I’m pretty grateful for the current trend in mainline Transformers of doing a few repacks in every new line, because it gives me a shot at guys I missed, like this one. For those not in the know, a repack is when a Transformers figure is re-released in the next line with little to no changes, just in a new box. The current version of it started during Earthrise, with some Siege figures popping up again (like Rung, reviewed here), and has continued into Legacy. On my end, I rather like it, actually, because the modern shelf-life of a figure before it vanishes is shorter than it’s ever been, so if I missed the boat, it gives me another chance to own one. This even seems to have been pre-planned going into Legacy, where a number of figures from Kingdom’s final wave were repacked into the first wave of this one, seemingly on purpose, since another frequent problem is the final wave of a toyline is traditionally kind of scarce (due to retailers not ordering a lot of it, not due to anything Hasbro does). So, yes, that’s how I ended up with Legacy’s re-release of Kingdom Blaster.

Introduced in the second year of the toyline and second season of the cartoon, Blaster changed into a boombox, and served as the Autobot counterpart of Soundwave. Amusingly, his original toy was extremely oversized compared to Soundwave, and most Autobots, though the show shrunk him down to a more modest size. On top of that, despite having the same tape deck features as Soundwave, he had no cassette-bots of his own, until the Movie came out.

To remedy that, this new version comes with Eject, one of his many cassettes…and the one who’s probably had the least amount of characterization. He’s a sports fan…he had a big role in the hard-to-find prose story Beast Wars: Uprising, and that’s it. As for the larger bot’s personality, on the show, Blaster was a loud, jovial radio DJ-type. In the Marvel comics, though, he was completely different, written as a grim, serious resistance leader on Cybertron, who carried guilt with him over the death of his friend, Scrounge, and was effectively one of the main characters during Bob Budianski’s run on the comic.

Also, he talked a LOT about his Electro-Scrambler weapon, almost like he was getting paid to advertise it. Other characters would sometimes talk about their abilities and equipment, but he basically did it once an issue, and he was in a lot of issues.

I mostly wanted Blaster, though, because of his role in Transformers: The Movie, to add him to my display.  So, I’m glad I got a shot at owning one.

Robot Mode

Surprisingly, Blaster’s taller than Netflix Soundwave (reviewed here)! The fact that he comes with a little guy means I was expecting him to be a bit smaller, or a bit simpler, or more hollow, in the name of budgeting in the other figure, but instead, Blaster feels as substantial and chunky as Soundwave, too. He really only has some hollowness in his arms, and that’s for the fists to fit in during transformation. He has the good, chunky toy feel to him.

In terms of sculpt, Blaster’s definitely been done cartoon-style, but with some stylization. He’s got more panel lines and tech details on him than his Sunbow design, and includes a few altered details, like black rectangles on his shoulders that seem to be abstracted from his G1 toy’s stickers, but is generally immediately recognizable as “the cartoon guy,” coming with animation-model quirks like his black knees, and the red shapes on his upper thighs.

While he’s got a cartoon-accurate head, he’s got a surprisingly stern, almost angry expression on his face, which makes me recall his Marvel characterization, even if nothing else about him follows his comics looks.

He does have a couple tricks taken from Soundwave, namely a right hand sculpted with a button-pushing finger, for the row of four on his stomach, and an amusing “buttflap” from a piece of his alternate mode.

That, and the folded-up black handles on the sides of his lower legs are the only altmode parts hanging off of what’s otherwise a very clean box-man.

For colors, Blaster is extremely red, with grey legs, and some black bits. It’s an extremely primary-colors, Autobot hero red, nice and pleasant. He’s also got some silver paint, blue eyes, and a chest that’s colored yellow (with an Autobrand), over a transparent blue window, that’s got enough going on to make it not look empty when it is empty.

He’s also not missing any articulation, another thing I was expecting to be budgeted out. It seems like he doesn’t have ankle tilts, until you realize a chunk of each lower leg can break out, and that’s the tip of the iceberg on a figure that’s got all the expected post-Siege joints (his wrists dip instead of swivel, due to his transformation). It’s enough to make him nice and expressive, and stable, too, thanks to his big feet.

For extra stuff, first, there’s his Electro-scrambler, the one he never shuts up about. It’s here, it’s cast in black, it’s sculpted nicely, and has the weapon’s very specific shapes, like the scope and handle. It’s missing a little nub on the front of the barrel, though probably for safety.

He’s also got a lot of weapons ports on him! He’s got 11 total, between his limbs, back, and the bottoms of his feet, and I’m glad, so far out from Siege, they still do this, and that you can still ludicrously kit him out with whatever -Izers you’ve got. His electro-scrambler’s also got ports on either side of it, so you can give him compound weapons.

Finally, Blaster’s got a springloaded chest, like Soundwave, but the button’s on his stomach instead of shoulders. Opening and closing his tape deck is a satisfying motion to repeat over and over again.

And what’s in there? Why, Eject!

Here’s the thing: Instead of being solid blue like he originally was, Eject (who comes packaged in “cassette” mode) is mostly transparent blue, because, apparently, he’s on the same sprue of plastic as Blaster’s tape door. In other words, we’re probably not going to see a solo release of this guy, since he literally has to come with Blaster.

So, like the rest of the Micromaster cassettes (or, rather, mini-cassettes, though they’re even smaller than that), Eject is really a Rectangle of Stuff, instead of what he’s supposed to look like, though there’s a couple of sculpted circles that can help you pretend. They’re kind of hard to see, since they’re unpainted on the transparent blue, and the gold paint where his torso is (and the grey plastic on the back side) are much more eye-catching.

Still, despite not really looking like one, he serves his function really well, and fits easily in Blaster’s chest, something I appreciate when Soundwave’s Decepti-tapes sometimes had awkward, door-jamming fits (and yeah, it is because Eject’s exactly the right scale. I checked, and some of the ‘Cons can also jam Blaster’s door).

One thing he’s missing is the small flip-out pegs that let you plug the tapes into weapons ports on figures, and have them act as shields, but I like, never did that, so I don’t miss the feature. A feature I do appreciate, compared to the last humanoid cassette tooling, is that his head’s hidden in this form.

Eject’s transformation is basically just rotating his arms and legs out, and flipping out and rotating his head. Prying his head out is the only real challenge, but even that’s only kinda fingernail-pryingly tough.

So, while his tiny robot mode’s almost exactly the same height as the Frenzy/Rumble tooling, he’s noticeably more proportionate and less squat, even if his forearms are kind of kibbly.

He’s topped with a headsculpt that, rather than being animation-accurate, seems to be based on his G1 mold-mate Rewind’s appearance in IDW’s More than Meets The Eye and Lost Light comics, minus the little head-mounted camera he had.

I don’t blame them, that’s the biggest role Rewind’s had in anything, so it makes sense to go with that sculpt.

For colors, Eject’s still all translucent blue, with some gray limbs, gold on his torso, and an orange face, with blue eyes. Importantly, despite the clear plastic, he doesn’t feel fragile, like Studio Series 86 Jazz’s backpack did. It helps that each joint is at least 50 percent opaque, as opposed to clear on clear.

Speaking of his joints, Eject has poseable knees, hips, elbows, shoulders, and head. The elbows, in particular, place him above the Frenzy/Rumble tooling. However, here’s his flaw: He’s really bad at standing up. No heel spurs means he flops easily. It’s possible, it’s just a bit more frustrating than it should be.

Still, I’m just impressed he’s here, and the fact he’s noticeably an improvement on the last humanoid cassette on top of that is a nice bonus.

Siege (and Legacy) Soundwave had/has no tapes out of the box, so his tape deck gimmick is wasted, and I’d assumed Blaster would be the same, so having the full play pattern right there is great.

Transformation

Anywho, back to Blaster. He’s got a similar transformation to Soundwave, where you hide the head, compress the arms, rotate the waist, and fold the legs around him.

The big difference is that he has a bunch of panels hiding in his legs that you unfold, and they’re used to cover up a bunch of the front of his boombox mode. It can be a bit of a challenge to get the whole leg-and-leg-panels-assembly to snap into place, as there’s a bunch of different pegs you need to get lined up, but it’s doable. Additionally, you can clip his weapon upside down on the back of him via a tiny dedicated tab, which actually manages to keep it in place, unlike the tiny tab on Studio Series Brawn (reviewed here). Either way, once you’ve solved the matter of his legs, it’s a quick transformation

Boombox mode

Okay, this is nifty. Again, Blaster is, surprisingly, bigger than Soundwave, and more substantial.

Everything on him clips together to turn him into a big slab of red and gray plastic, in a satisfying way. At the same time, he’s undersized when compared to actual boomboxes. This is most obvious in the handle on top of him, meant for hands to carry him, but too small for anyone to actually do it.

Still, this scale model manages to be kind of endearing. It helps that it’s a surprisingly clean alternate mode, too, with the robot parts visible from the rear being fairly compact, especially if you leave the Electro-scrambler off (though I, again, appreciate the storage).

A big draw for me is just how detailed the whole thing is in the front, with a ton of tiny dials and knobs sculpted into the front of the boombox, along with the speakers.

And the new deco really helps. He’s still red, gray, and black, with the same yellow and clear blue tape door, but all of the buttons and speakers on his front are picked out in black paint, and it really adds a lot to the look.

In this mode, he’s got the same tape-ejecting feature, which makes me realize that the miniaturized scale of this boombox seems to be lined up to the idea that Eject is a shrunken-down normal-sized cassette tape.

Outside of that, Blaster’s still got weapons ports on him, seven overall, including two new ones on his handle, as well as two pegs on the back of him, for mounting accessories with the opposite connection.

Still, I’m most happy with him when I just hold him in my hand, and flick the tape door open and shut.

Overall

They didn’t have to go this hard on this guy, but they did. I got him to fill a slot on my movie shelf, and he kind of snuck up on me with his quality. I was ready for him to scrape against the limits of the price point, and feel chopped down (especially after that happened to Legacy Laser Optimus Prime), but that didn’t happen here, and it feels like they went above and beyond in his creation

He’s got a big, chunky, bendy robot mode, a detailed miniature boombox mode that’s oddly satisfying, and he comes with a well-designed tape companion. And, well, I got to the end here and realized I couldn’t really identify anything substantially negative about him (outside of Eject being kind of hard to stand up_. Blaster might, honestly, just be one of the best Kingdom and Legacy figures released (though the latter line’s a bit young to call that). So, yeah. I’m surprised to say it, but get one if you can, the quality will sneak up on you, too.

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