TFC Toys Hercules: Mad Blender

 

 Mad Blender is an interesting figure. The Mixmaster and final entry in TFC Toys’ Hercules group, Mad Blender is, on the surface at least, an amalgam of Structor and Dr. Crank, and as both of those are good figures, Mad Blender should be as well.

Not that this article wants to get started with a “should,” but it does, in the least sinister way imaginable. Mad Blender is a good figure, no doubt, but depending on how you look at it, it’s also a little bland.

The robot mode is really good. Again, borrowing or combining elements of both Structor and Dr. Crank, the short story on Mad Blender is that it is sturdy and attractive, offers a fair amount of posing options, and presents the Armada/Energon/Cybertron aesthetic. The figure serves as a leg for Hercules, and so has a waist joint that allows the figure to rock from side to side. The joint, as with Structor, serves as an ankle for the combined form, and the side to side movement it affords the individual robot is kind of odd, but the joint is generally tight enough that it does not end up being a problem: Mad Blender does not just flop to one side or the other, so it is pretty overlookable. It would have been nice if Mad Blender and Structor were able to compress over this joint, the way the smaller Ares figures do, so as to lock this joint in place but that was not part of the design here. It’s not a big deal, or even a deal really, but the joint doesn’t offer much to the robot mode. What is pretty nice is the inclusion of ratcheting shoulders, a by-product of transformation, that allow Mad Blender to lift his arms out to the sides. The rear paired wheels of the alt mode flip around the shoulders but don’t get in the way of anything, which is nice. A really serious issue with teammate Neckbreaker is the fact that the alt mode shovel is almost always impeding movement or posing in the robot mode, so this set of figures is no stranger to alt mode parts being in the way. But on Mad Blender, the wheels don’t present an issue. They can be positioned several ways in the robot mode as well, and are mounted on moving arms that connect to the robot shoulders, so they are easily moved out of the way regardless of starting position. Again as with Structor, the combiner port is plainly visible, but on Mad Blender it serves as an attempt at replicating Mixmaster’s characteristic hood, but it doesn’t quite succeed in this. But all it’s actually trying to do is be a start.

Mad Blender on his own feels like half a figure, and that is because so much of the mass and complexity of the toy is found in the mixing barrel, which detaches from the back and splits apart into nine individual weapons. The smaller barrel parts can be attached to the figure at various points, including pegs on the previously mentioned combiner port, which completes the trademark hood, more or less. The eight smaller, blocky blaster pieces connect around a large plastic rod which, only after much deep thought on the matter, is revealed to be a long blaster, like a sniper rifle or something similar. There are also images floating around of the mixing barrel parts attaching to this rod to form some kind of blaster tree, but personally speaking, that doesn’t look good at all. The eight barrel blasters can be wielded by other team members as well, making Mad Blender kind of the weapons supplier on the team. The only problem with these blasters is that they pair up to complete a section of the mixing barrel, so they are generally opposite parts. There are not two of the same kind that face the same way. This is illustrated in the picture of Mad Blender decked out in all of them, as the paired blasters connect to each other in a male/female fashion. It can be seen in the picture that each blaster has a corresponding piece that it would plug in to. But, the parts have to all come together and form the mixing barrel, so each blaster has essentially a top and bottom half. This results in a lack of symmetry when the blasters attach to the figure, and it really would have benefit from a more symmetrical look. The long center rod/sniper rifle is cool, but the handle is a big green piece of plastic that anchors one end of the mixing barrel, so that also is not the best cosmetically. Realistically, these are cosmetic complaints, and in a practical sense the parts all serve their purposes well and effectively, so for whatever it’s worth, that’s what it’s worth.

Alt mode is, of course, a cement mixer, and it’s cool. The barrel spins. The truck itself is a long, flat affair, like Dr. Crank, and the robot waist/combiner ankle joint allows the cab of the truck to angle away from the rest of the body, like it’s making a turn. It doesn’t do much other than that, but it’s fun. Honestly, there is not much to say about the vehicle mode, as it is perfectly competent, but really lacks flash. It sort of simply is. It doesn’t have any problems like Neckbreaker’s alt mode, but it isn’t as nice looking as Heavy Labor or Structor’s; it’s kind of plain, like Exgraver’s. One pretty cool detail is the lights on the top of the cab, adding some detail to a rather undetailed vehicle. That is the real issue with the cement mixer mode: there’s just not anything happening. There’s not much detail, there’s not much that it does, nothing is wrong, but everything is a little plain.

All of the mixing drum parts do offer options, no matter how silly.

The blandness of the figure is its biggest weakness. An overall good toy, like the other Hercules members, but Mad Blender is lacking the things that made Heavy Labor and Structor and Dr. Crank such winners, whatever that unnamed thing is. Character, maybe? Everything about Mad Blender is plain, and his trademark beat really does seem to be the mixing drum that breaks apart into weapons. That’s fine, really, but the figure itself is a little lacking for it. It’s sort of puzzling, because Mad Blender does exhibit much of what makes the best figures in the set so good; it’s just not able to make them make him that good. The weapons that make up the mixing drum, being asymmetrical and all, are also a strike against the figure overall. He also bears little resemblance to his G1 counterpart, and that detracts from this toy as well.

This is the accessory that holds all of the weapon pieces.

But, you can’t form Devastator without two legs, and the same goes for Hercules. Mad Blender is good and fun, and looks good with the rest of the team. But on his own, he is too plain to be anything exciting. Certainly, a competent figure is something to be happy about, and Mad Blender is certainly competent. It does feel that the primary focus of the design is that drum of blasters, and that the figure was a repurposed Dr. Crank that is included in the package to store said weapons, and since those pieces are only so-so in terms of success, the enjoyment of the figure is based on how much one likes the barrel gimmick. It's fine, but it could have worked out a bit better. The result is that Mad Blender is often a better figure in memories or when contemplated after time and distance away from him than he is right now, in hand.