Transformers: Titans Return Blitzwing

 I occasionally wax nostalgic on here about Transformers experiences from my childhood, and this article on Titans Return Blitzwing is going to begin in just that way. I remember a kid in my second or third grade class had G1 Blitzwing (the only Blitzwing at the time) and let me see it during recess. Man, that toy blew my young mind in terms of what I’d later know to be engineering and design. The transformation scheme was out of this world, and the toy changed into three distinct modes. THREE! Amazing. I didn’t add a G1 Blitzwing to my collection until many, many years later, and now I feel I have a hundred of them. (In truth, there are only three in my possession: an original, the Platinum Series reissue from two years ago, and an eHobby Overcharge.) Blitzwing has gotten a handful of updates over the intervening thirty years, the most recent being in the Generationsline, which was a real mixed bag of a figure. So, it falls to Titans Return to produce a version of Blitzwing that works all around, in both alt modes and as a robot, while presenting a transformation scheme that effectively creates and then hides all three forms. How well does it do?

Grave Consideration: Transformers Titans Return Titanmasters

By now we’ve had months to experience the Titans Return line and its gimmick of everyone being a Headmaster. I have repeatedly said that I have no interest in head swapping among these figures, as the idea of it doesn’t make sense. I’m not current on the lore of this line, if any exists, and so I don’t know if there has been an official address of this, but what are the Titanmasters?

Transformers: Masterpiece Exhaust

 

  

Finally getting a chance to get around to some recent(ish) Masterpiece acquisitions, and I am super happy about this one. One of the rare Masterpiece Decepticons that isn’t a Seeker, Exhaust is a repaint of the Wheeljack mold, based on the G1 "Marlboor Wheeljack" variant figure, a toy long sought after and attained by deep pocketed collectors. A sort of controversial figure, the G1 toy sported a deco that was based on the pretty recognizable Marlboro cigarette box design, and was never widely released (if it was released at all) worldwide. This makes Exhaust something of an oddity, and a sort of random entry in the Masterpiece line.

Coffin Shaker: Anthrax – Volume 8: The Threat Is Real

Summer is here and the Coffin, despite what appearances may suggest, is bustling with activity. A full slate of articles are in the works, and a ton of pictures have been taken, with a lineup of figures to be photo’d awaiting. There’s also a spate of records that I want to look over. But, rather than do any of those things right now, I want to talk about Anthrax’s 1998 album, Volume 8.

Anthrax is the member of the “Big 4” that probably shouldn’t be there. Honest to god, I don’t mean that as an insult or a slight. While Anthrax was indeed one of the original Thrash metal bands they were also the quickest to divest from that league and start doing things differently; again, not a slight. Their debut Fistful of Metal with the exception of the classic jam “Deathrider” is more a NWOBHM record than a fully formed Thrash piece, and of course, to the chagrin of many at the time, Anthrax was first to deviate from the formula with the rap/metal combo effort “Bring the Noise” with Public Enemy. While the band did issue some undisputed Thrash classics with efforts like Among the Living and Spreading the Disease, the New Yorkers were also the first to shift gears for more crossover pastures with State of Euphoria and then into groovier territories in the 1990s. This is only my opinion, but a band like Exodus would probably fit better as the fourth Big, while Anthrax I think gets that seat because of chronological seniority.

But anyway.

Transformers: Titans Return Broadside

 

Usually, there is some kind of lag in toy distribution that affords me a bit of a cushion in terms of trying to get articles out for toys that are already widely available. Titans Return Broadside by now has been showing up everywhere.

Broadside is the forgotten Autobot triple changer, the guy always standing in the background of the photo that focuses on Springer while politely including Sandstorm. Those other two got figures –pretty good ones too – in the last iteration of the Generations line, and Broadside finally got the upgrade treatment in the current Titans Return line. His designation on the G1 Autobot roster was that of air and sea assault, as his alt modes are a jet and an aircraft carrier. His vehicle modes were problematic because of the pillar of G1 logic, mass shifting, which allowed Cybertronians to shrink or grow depending on the needs of the situation. Thus, Soundwave was a giant robot who could turn into a tape player that would not only fool humans but also be picked up and carried by them, and Megatron was the same except could turn into a handgun wielded by Cybertronian and human with the same degree of ease. Broadside shifting large as an aircraft carrier, and less so as a jet, but for the sake of realism, I seem to recall that in his few (singular?) cartoon appearance(s), he was a larger than standard robot. Even the writers of the G1 Transformers mythos seemed to grasp the pure absurdity of Broadside, and gave him a character that was both afraid of heights and motion sick, making his alt modes a Kafkaesque mash up of discomforts.

Transformers: Titans Return Sixshot

 

 Leader class Sixshot is a figure that I had a hard time figuring out my feelings on. The first Leader class toy from the Titans Return line that I purchased, Sixshot is a six changer: a robot with five alt modes. The issue with Transformers that possess more than two modes is that the more things a figure is asked to do, the worse it tends to do them. This is something that is a real characteristic of triple changers: they are good robots with one generally strong alt mode, and a second alt mode that is what it purports to be if you squint at it just right. Sixshot is asked to do a whole lot.

Star Wars: The Black Series AT-ACT Driver

It has been a while since I’ve devoted any time to Star Wars figures, and I do have a few of them to address. So, what better for a Saturday morning than to look at the Target exclusive AT-ACT Driver from Rogue One? A repaint of the Scarif Trooper, this figure should make for some fairly easy conversation.

Who could forget that memorable scene in Rogue One where, for less than a second, we got an in-cockpit shot of an AT-ACT, the Imperial All Terrain Armored Cargo Transport, and were treated to our first glorious split second look at its driver? In true Star Wars figure fashion, that split second of screen time lead to a toy.