As the Prime Wars Trilogy comes to a close, Hasbro is releasing three special figures, one from each part of the trilogy. For Combiner Wars, we get Blast Off, returning in his space shuttle form!
Blast Off comes with a special version of Prime Master Megatronus and comes in a special book style package.
Megatronus has already seen a regular release in his Bomb Burst Pretender Shell with wave 4 of the Prime Master figures, but this Megatronus is molded with clear red plastic, giving him a more ominous look.
Blast Off himself is a very minor retool of Takara’s Unite Warriors Blast Off, essentially with reversed arms so that he doesn’t have his derpy budging chest (Which was my biggest beef with the toy).
Blast Off’s coloring is spectacular. My other issue with Takara’s version was that they used a weird, tan/chocolate brown, which I understand was mostly cartoon accurate, but looked horrible. The G1 toy of Blast Off, in the dark military brown looked so much better, and this does too. He also has G1-styled tampo-graph detailing on his chest, which is great.
I never had an issue with the original Combiner Wars Blast Off. Even his lack of new head sculpt wasn’t a problem for me, but now that the new version is here, I have to admit, I really do like having the unique design. He also comes with the unique Hand/Foot Gun Takara designed, and while it has silver paint, I don’t feel it draws extra attention on Bruticus.
Shuttle Mode look looks quite nice, and retains the purple detailing that made the original toy stand out so much. His blaster stores under the nosecone of the Shuttle and forms the landing gear, which is a very nice touch.
BOTTOM LINE:
While I would have been fine if this Blast Off we never brought to light, I’m quite happy him. While Gloss Black is a horrible choice for painted parts, the rest of Blast Off is really nicely done, specifically the shade of brown the used, which is nearly G1 perfect. Bruticus fans will rejoice at having a proper shuttle arm again I’m sure.
Pax Cybertron 