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Dave's Titans Return Rant: Autobot Blaster
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Dave Van Domelen
Oct 1, 2016, 7:50:57 PM10/1/16
to
Dave's Titans Return Rant: Leader Wave 1
Autobot Blaster (Boombox/City) with Twin Cast
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LBlaster
Also have Powermaster Optimus Prime, will review seperately. This set
was one of the earliest Titans Return pictures to be released, and the first
hint that tiny figures would be part of the play pattern.
CAPSULE
$45-50 price point.
Autobot Blaster with Twin Cast: Robot mode is a really good update,
speaker mode is a clever modernization of an obsolete altmode, and the base
mode is pretty good too. Strongly recommended.
RANT
Packaging: No change in Leader sized boxes from Combiner Wars, and the
same general trade dress, making it hard to tell if a shipment has any of the
new toys without pawing through the boxes (a lot of Combiner Wars Starscream
and Skywarp leftovers pushed out at the same time). The triple changer logo
is in the upper left of the box front. The box front art is the usual-for-
Titans-Return bust shot of the head attaching. The cosells on the box bottom
aren't for other Leaders, instead Blaster has Rewind and Stripes.
On the back, the by-size cosells continue to be used, and the battle
station altmode is specifically called "City Mode" on the box back. Inside,
the instructions (which are still hard to read) are a big sheet folded up
behind the inner tray. The trading card is taped to the backside of the
plastic tray.
The PDF catalog has an extended entry for Blaster, but doesn't have a
separate one for Twincast.
AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT BLASTER
Assortment: B5613
Titan Master: Twin Cast
Altmodes: Boombox/City
Transformation Difficulty: 19 steps (robot to boombox), 13 steps (boombox
to city)
Previous Name Use:
Previous Mold Use: None
Weapon: Electrodisruptor
Function: Spy
Motto:
Box Bio: To decode encrypted DECEPTICON transmissions, AUTOBOT BLASTER
links with his TITAN MASTER partner, TWIN CAST. TWIN CAST is a walking
cipher - a bot with the most adcanced cryptography programming in the
universe. He may be small, but he's one of the most powerful AUTOBOT
weapons.
PDF Bio: Blaster is an expert at detecting enemy signals and encrypting
Autobot transmissions. He can conduct communication operations from
anywhere, and he usually goes where the action is. His favorite place to be
is on the front line of any battle. To decode encrypted Decepticon
transmissions, Blaster links with his Titan Master partner, Twincast [sic].
Twincast is a walking cipher: a bot with the most advanced cryptography
programming in the universe. Blaster and his team discover the Decepticons
who have infiltrated Caminus and roll out to stop them!
B: STR 8 SPD 2 INT 8 FRB 7
T: STR +4 SPD +1 INT +4 FRB +3
Yeah, the PDF goes with "Twincast" as one word, which is how the Blaster
upgrade name was spelled in Headmasters 2010. I guess the decision to put
the space in there came after the PDF was approved.
Packaging: 7 ties on the robot, one each on the rifle and blank tablet
(rather than come with an actual transforming Legends figure to go in his
chest, he gets a non-transforming tablet-shaped chunk that becomes a turret
in city mode). The handle is up over the head in-package, but can and should
be folded back for proper robot mode.
Cosells on the bottom are Stripes and Rewind. Cosells on the back are
Loudmouth, Blurr, Sentinel Prime, and Powermaster Optimus Prime.
Robot Mode: Other than lacking the tape deck controls, it's a very good
update of the original. Proportions aren't all the same as the original,
although the only change I'd call a negative would be the chest door sticking
way out in a way reminiscent of Twincast (the Japanese retool, not the Titan
Master Twin Cast). Colors are also really close, main difference being that
the thighs on this toy are black rather than gray. While not holding tiny
tapes in his chest, the clear plastic of the deck door has a molded detail
that evokes a cassette's holes. The helmet is patterned after the G1 toy
rather than the animation model.
9" (23cm) tall and a mix of bright red, light gray, black, and yellow
for the most part. Bright red plastic is used on the bulk of the torso and
pelvis, the shoulderpads, and the bulk of the forearms. A slightly different
red plastic with some metalflake to it is used for the tape door triggering
mechanism. Light warm gray plastic makes up the handle (sticking out the
back in this mode), the armor skirt pieces on front of the thighs, the boot
panels, and the feet (but not toes). Black plastic on the back and core of
the helmet, the upper arms, fists, thighs, toes, and the large speaker cone
details on the sides and backs of the boots. The non-transforming tablet
stored in the chest as a placeholder is also black plastic. The Titan Master
covering helmet is clear colorless plastic, as is the window on the chest.
The deck door itself is bright yellow plastic, and the piece inside the chest
that holds the tablets is also bright yellow.
The helmet is painted metalflake red, a little darker than the plastic
but not too bad a match, with the visor part silver except for a thin slit
left clear to show...the forehead of the Titan Master face, oops. The actual
eyes almost peek out from under the visor. Details on fronts of the
shoulders are painted silver with bright blue and yellow, similar to the
stickers on G1 Blaster's shoulders. Metalflake red (same as the helmet) is
used to print details on the armor skirt pieces that match the stickers on G1
Blaster's upper thighs. Dark gunmetal paint is used on the pelvis (a
callback to the rubsign on the G1 toy), the molded speakers on the shins, and
the speaker-top details found on G1 Blaster. Note, none of the shin details
end up as speakers in boombox mode, they're just there to make it look like
the G1 toy. Speaking of which, while the toes don't fold down on this toy,
there's toe-shaped indents at the bottoms of the shins with blue and red
paint on them. There's yellow paint on the backs of the shoulders, and the
Titan Master face is painted silver with yellow eyes. And to finish off the
G1 fidelity, a big red on silver Autobot symbol on the chest.
The head turns very well, this was definitely a better job of
incorporating the idea of a helmet than happened on Galvatron (I don't really
believe the theory that Galvatron was originally a Combiner Wars toy refitted
for Titans Return, FWIW). The waist does not turn, the tablet in the chest
gimmick takes up too much room to allow for a joint there. Shoulders are
universal joints ratcheting both ways, elbows are ratcheting hinges with
smooth swivels right above them. The wrists bend inward for transformation,
but it's not too useful for posing. Soft-ratcheting universal hips and hinge
knees, smooth swivel just below the hips. The ankles are hinged front to
back but have very little range of motion. They also are ratchet hinged side
to side, and there's a black plastic piece that fills in the gap created.
Pressing a button on the left side of the torso top opens up the chest
compartment so you can put in the dummy tablet or a regular one. It's a bit
snugger of a fit on the Legends ones.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, and there's a 2mm peg on the shoulder on
the same side as the tape deck button, so he can carry a second Titan Master
around as a shoulder angel. There's also a 4mm square hole in the belly
button, doesn't seem to be used for anything. There's a 5mm peg hole on the
back, intended for rifle storage in boombox mode.
There's a 5mm peg (not peg hole) sticking up on the right side of the
head, which doesn't seem to have any use. I suspect that this was only put
in as a pre-tool for Soundwave, who will need the peg for his shoulder
cannon. There's another 5mm peg on the butt, likely for storage of
Soundwave's shoulder cannon in boombox mode.
While clearly inspired by the original Electro-Scrambler, this rifle
doesn't have a spot for an ear bud (yes, that's what the huge hole in G1
Blaster's rifle was for) making it more compact. The stock is shorter and
slimmer as well, resulting in more of a carbine look...although the scope is
a bit incongruous on a carbine. Single piece of black plastic 3.75" (9cm)
long, good symmetry on the mold (i.e. there isn't an obvious "hollow side" to
it). I'm not sure if it's intentional, but it's possible to clip the dummy
tablet on top of the scope and have it stay in place, although it's just
loose enough that it's either unintentional or was abandoned at some point
and the mold changed enough to eliminate part of the connection.
The dummy tablet is mostly meant for city mode, I'll describe it
there. Other than the dubious rifle mounting, the only way for him to have
it outside his chest in this mode is to clip it onto the handle.
Transformation: Fairly obvious going to boombox mode. The helmet stows
in the back (but not the Titan Master), arms lift to the sides and stow the
fists, and then the legs lift to the sides and the boots unfold to make the
speakers. It's a little tricky getting all the panels folded properly and
tabbed together, but it doesn't really require consulting the instructions.
Undocumented feature: that slot on the dummy tablet that sort of clips onto
the rifle is actually a place to store the robot-mode Titan Master, so it has
somewhere to go in boombox mode.
City Mode is pretty much doable just looking at the box photo too,
pretty obvious when starting from boombox mode. The connector ramps pop off
really easily when trying to deploy them. The tablet slug clips onto the
handle as a command seat (DJ station), at first it doesn't look like it would
be very stable, but it holds well enough you can pick up the entire base by
the DJ station.
It's more or less possible to collapse the thighs into the boots and
otherwise stay in robot mode, for a chibi-Blaster (Billy?) mode.
Getting back into robot mode is pretty simple and easy, although the
boots take a little finesse to get put together just right. They don't lock
together, instead depending more on all the hinges being in the right
positions so they stay folded at 90 degrees. There's a few ways you can
leave something in the wrong spot and it's not obvious, but it keeps one of
the hinges from quite making it.
Boombox Mode: While there's definite callbacks to the cassette tape
player altmode, this seems to be intended as one of those portable speaker
sets that a phone can be plugged into. In this case, the "tape" door opens
to reveal a slot where any of the tablet minions can be inserted, just as
some speaker sets have a slot to hold your phone. Assuming it's supposed to
be otherwise to scale, I'd guess it's about 2/3 the size of the thing it
pretends to be. Rather than the puny little speakers on G1 Blaster, this one
has speakers nearly as tall as the case, 2.5" (6.5cm) in diameter. It does a
pretty good job of avoiding too much robot kibble, really just the sides
where the undersides of the feet are visible. The back isn't quite flat (the
fanny pack sticks out), but the panels on the back do look plausibly like the
back of a speaker set, including vents for air circulation. The underside
has the robot shins, so I guess that's a bit kibbly.
8.5" (22cm) wide, the body is 3" (7.5cm) tall, 4.5" (11cm) to the top of
the handle. The handle is wide enough for three fingers of my hand, so a 50%
bigger "real" version would have an adequate handle for full grip. The
handle isn't quite tall enough for a Titan Master to stand under it on the
one peg there, there's nowhere to really keep Twin Cast. The front facing is
more dominated by gray and black, with red relegated to top and back. The
only new paint is dark gunmetal on the top of the handle.
On the back there's four places a USB can be plugged in all the way, and
three more with the right shape but insufficient depth. There is, of course,
a headphone jack, because Cybertronians recognize a viable and durable
technology. There's also a 2-pole power cable connector socket. No HDMI,
though, nor Lightning.
City Mode: Well, it has a lot of guns, but it also has a lot of details
that look like speakers, plus the DJ station on top, so I figure it's as much
dance floor as frontline weapons platform. There's 15 pegged places for
Titan Masters to stand, plus the seat in the DJ station, so a pretty big
dance party can get going here. The tape door becomes a balcony with the
rifle pegged into place on it, there's some antenna arrays that unfold from
the left heel and a speaker stack on the right. The main speaker panels have
slightly different detailing on the deck sides, maybe intended to evoke force
field generator coils. One of them has a DANGER label on it, and there's
dark gray paint on the recessed details.
12.5 (31.5cm) wide, 5.25" (13cm) tall, 5" (12.5cm) deep not counting the
rifle sticking out in front. The only plastic colors really made visible in
this mode are several bright red joints, the black cannons that fold out from
the forearms, and the light warm gray connector ramps on either side. A
clear colorless panel folds up inside the tape door balcony, strictly
speaking it was always visible, just not obvious. :) The cassette hole
detail now looks more like a targeting reticle if you flip it up on its hinge
rather than leaving it as a balcony floor. The dummy tablet (same size as
the tablet Legends toys) is a single piece of black plastic with silver paint
on a trio of "speaker cone" details in front.
Articulation is minimal. The cannons made from the robot forearms can
rotate a little, plus elevate and depress (the left arm cannon on mine has a
floppy joint so it only points down), the pegged-in-place rifle can traverse
a bit, the DJ station can elevate by tilting the handle back, and the
connector ramps on either side can lift up on hinges. The floor of the deck
door balcony can flip up on a hinge.
It can't connect to Fortress Maximus on the side or in front without
adding third party stuff. The one low ramp on Fort Max lacks enough room to
get anything close, and the other two ramps are too high to connect. Several
people are working on Shapeways ramp extensions, or you could place Blaster
up on a box to get it high enough for the side ramps of Fort Max. There's
extra ramp connector spots on the backside on what was the robot's fanny
pack, but they're way too low to connect to Fortress Maximus's shoulder ramps
and no way it's fitting in the gap with the lower ramp. There are, however,
two rampless connectors on the back of Fort Max's base mode, so this can
connect in back to form part of a U-shaped fortress. (Here's a picture,
http://www.dvandom.com/images/blastermax.JPG )
In addition to the 15 single or dual pegs for Titan Masters, there's
five 5mm peg holes (one in the balcony, two on the DJ station, one on each of
the outer deck corners). The handle continues to block the 5mm shoulder peg
in this mode, making it fairly useless.
All in all, a good base mode.
Titan Master: He's named Twin Cast, a clear reference to the blue retool
of Blaster in Japan called Twincast, but he looks like a tiny copy of
Blaster. Maybe we should call him Billy instead. His chest has the tape
deck molding, although it's not painted yellow, and he has speakers molded
into the shins. In pretty much every way it can manage, this is a mini-
Blaster mold.
Head, torso front, and arms are bright red plastic. Legs and faceplate
are black plastic. The Titan Master's face is painted silver and the eyes
are VERY sloppily painted blue on mine. Just splotches of blue in the
general vicinity of the eyes. I may just repaint the face and do the eyes in
robot-mode yellow.
As a head on its own without the helmet, it doesn't really look
Blaster-ish, but I can't figure out if it's meant to be a reference to any
other character (which would let the faceplate be reused without retooling
for someone else).
Overall: Nice turnabout, releasing this first, since the last several
U.S. mass release Blaster toys have been Soundwave retools or redecos. I
like this in all modes, about the only way to make it qualitatively better
would have been to include an extra ramp piece that could let it connect
anywhere on Fort Max, not just the back.
Dave Van Domelen, will at least do a capsule for Quickshadow next, then
either PMOP or the wave 2 tablets.
Autobot Blaster (Boombox/City) with Twin Cast
Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LBlaster
Also have Powermaster Optimus Prime, will review seperately. This set
was one of the earliest Titans Return pictures to be released, and the first
hint that tiny figures would be part of the play pattern.
CAPSULE
$45-50 price point.
Autobot Blaster with Twin Cast: Robot mode is a really good update,
speaker mode is a clever modernization of an obsolete altmode, and the base
mode is pretty good too. Strongly recommended.
RANT
Packaging: No change in Leader sized boxes from Combiner Wars, and the
same general trade dress, making it hard to tell if a shipment has any of the
new toys without pawing through the boxes (a lot of Combiner Wars Starscream
and Skywarp leftovers pushed out at the same time). The triple changer logo
is in the upper left of the box front. The box front art is the usual-for-
Titans-Return bust shot of the head attaching. The cosells on the box bottom
aren't for other Leaders, instead Blaster has Rewind and Stripes.
On the back, the by-size cosells continue to be used, and the battle
station altmode is specifically called "City Mode" on the box back. Inside,
the instructions (which are still hard to read) are a big sheet folded up
behind the inner tray. The trading card is taped to the backside of the
plastic tray.
The PDF catalog has an extended entry for Blaster, but doesn't have a
separate one for Twincast.
AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT BLASTER
Assortment: B5613
Titan Master: Twin Cast
Altmodes: Boombox/City
Transformation Difficulty: 19 steps (robot to boombox), 13 steps (boombox
to city)
Previous Name Use:
Previous Mold Use: None
Weapon: Electrodisruptor
Function: Spy
Motto:
Box Bio: To decode encrypted DECEPTICON transmissions, AUTOBOT BLASTER
links with his TITAN MASTER partner, TWIN CAST. TWIN CAST is a walking
cipher - a bot with the most adcanced cryptography programming in the
universe. He may be small, but he's one of the most powerful AUTOBOT
weapons.
PDF Bio: Blaster is an expert at detecting enemy signals and encrypting
Autobot transmissions. He can conduct communication operations from
anywhere, and he usually goes where the action is. His favorite place to be
is on the front line of any battle. To decode encrypted Decepticon
transmissions, Blaster links with his Titan Master partner, Twincast [sic].
Twincast is a walking cipher: a bot with the most advanced cryptography
programming in the universe. Blaster and his team discover the Decepticons
who have infiltrated Caminus and roll out to stop them!
B: STR 8 SPD 2 INT 8 FRB 7
T: STR +4 SPD +1 INT +4 FRB +3
Yeah, the PDF goes with "Twincast" as one word, which is how the Blaster
upgrade name was spelled in Headmasters 2010. I guess the decision to put
the space in there came after the PDF was approved.
Packaging: 7 ties on the robot, one each on the rifle and blank tablet
(rather than come with an actual transforming Legends figure to go in his
chest, he gets a non-transforming tablet-shaped chunk that becomes a turret
in city mode). The handle is up over the head in-package, but can and should
be folded back for proper robot mode.
Cosells on the bottom are Stripes and Rewind. Cosells on the back are
Loudmouth, Blurr, Sentinel Prime, and Powermaster Optimus Prime.
Robot Mode: Other than lacking the tape deck controls, it's a very good
update of the original. Proportions aren't all the same as the original,
although the only change I'd call a negative would be the chest door sticking
way out in a way reminiscent of Twincast (the Japanese retool, not the Titan
Master Twin Cast). Colors are also really close, main difference being that
the thighs on this toy are black rather than gray. While not holding tiny
tapes in his chest, the clear plastic of the deck door has a molded detail
that evokes a cassette's holes. The helmet is patterned after the G1 toy
rather than the animation model.
9" (23cm) tall and a mix of bright red, light gray, black, and yellow
for the most part. Bright red plastic is used on the bulk of the torso and
pelvis, the shoulderpads, and the bulk of the forearms. A slightly different
red plastic with some metalflake to it is used for the tape door triggering
mechanism. Light warm gray plastic makes up the handle (sticking out the
back in this mode), the armor skirt pieces on front of the thighs, the boot
panels, and the feet (but not toes). Black plastic on the back and core of
the helmet, the upper arms, fists, thighs, toes, and the large speaker cone
details on the sides and backs of the boots. The non-transforming tablet
stored in the chest as a placeholder is also black plastic. The Titan Master
covering helmet is clear colorless plastic, as is the window on the chest.
The deck door itself is bright yellow plastic, and the piece inside the chest
that holds the tablets is also bright yellow.
The helmet is painted metalflake red, a little darker than the plastic
but not too bad a match, with the visor part silver except for a thin slit
left clear to show...the forehead of the Titan Master face, oops. The actual
eyes almost peek out from under the visor. Details on fronts of the
shoulders are painted silver with bright blue and yellow, similar to the
stickers on G1 Blaster's shoulders. Metalflake red (same as the helmet) is
used to print details on the armor skirt pieces that match the stickers on G1
Blaster's upper thighs. Dark gunmetal paint is used on the pelvis (a
callback to the rubsign on the G1 toy), the molded speakers on the shins, and
the speaker-top details found on G1 Blaster. Note, none of the shin details
end up as speakers in boombox mode, they're just there to make it look like
the G1 toy. Speaking of which, while the toes don't fold down on this toy,
there's toe-shaped indents at the bottoms of the shins with blue and red
paint on them. There's yellow paint on the backs of the shoulders, and the
Titan Master face is painted silver with yellow eyes. And to finish off the
G1 fidelity, a big red on silver Autobot symbol on the chest.
The head turns very well, this was definitely a better job of
incorporating the idea of a helmet than happened on Galvatron (I don't really
believe the theory that Galvatron was originally a Combiner Wars toy refitted
for Titans Return, FWIW). The waist does not turn, the tablet in the chest
gimmick takes up too much room to allow for a joint there. Shoulders are
universal joints ratcheting both ways, elbows are ratcheting hinges with
smooth swivels right above them. The wrists bend inward for transformation,
but it's not too useful for posing. Soft-ratcheting universal hips and hinge
knees, smooth swivel just below the hips. The ankles are hinged front to
back but have very little range of motion. They also are ratchet hinged side
to side, and there's a black plastic piece that fills in the gap created.
Pressing a button on the left side of the torso top opens up the chest
compartment so you can put in the dummy tablet or a regular one. It's a bit
snugger of a fit on the Legends ones.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, and there's a 2mm peg on the shoulder on
the same side as the tape deck button, so he can carry a second Titan Master
around as a shoulder angel. There's also a 4mm square hole in the belly
button, doesn't seem to be used for anything. There's a 5mm peg hole on the
back, intended for rifle storage in boombox mode.
There's a 5mm peg (not peg hole) sticking up on the right side of the
head, which doesn't seem to have any use. I suspect that this was only put
in as a pre-tool for Soundwave, who will need the peg for his shoulder
cannon. There's another 5mm peg on the butt, likely for storage of
Soundwave's shoulder cannon in boombox mode.
While clearly inspired by the original Electro-Scrambler, this rifle
doesn't have a spot for an ear bud (yes, that's what the huge hole in G1
Blaster's rifle was for) making it more compact. The stock is shorter and
slimmer as well, resulting in more of a carbine look...although the scope is
a bit incongruous on a carbine. Single piece of black plastic 3.75" (9cm)
long, good symmetry on the mold (i.e. there isn't an obvious "hollow side" to
it). I'm not sure if it's intentional, but it's possible to clip the dummy
tablet on top of the scope and have it stay in place, although it's just
loose enough that it's either unintentional or was abandoned at some point
and the mold changed enough to eliminate part of the connection.
The dummy tablet is mostly meant for city mode, I'll describe it
there. Other than the dubious rifle mounting, the only way for him to have
it outside his chest in this mode is to clip it onto the handle.
Transformation: Fairly obvious going to boombox mode. The helmet stows
in the back (but not the Titan Master), arms lift to the sides and stow the
fists, and then the legs lift to the sides and the boots unfold to make the
speakers. It's a little tricky getting all the panels folded properly and
tabbed together, but it doesn't really require consulting the instructions.
Undocumented feature: that slot on the dummy tablet that sort of clips onto
the rifle is actually a place to store the robot-mode Titan Master, so it has
somewhere to go in boombox mode.
City Mode is pretty much doable just looking at the box photo too,
pretty obvious when starting from boombox mode. The connector ramps pop off
really easily when trying to deploy them. The tablet slug clips onto the
handle as a command seat (DJ station), at first it doesn't look like it would
be very stable, but it holds well enough you can pick up the entire base by
the DJ station.
It's more or less possible to collapse the thighs into the boots and
otherwise stay in robot mode, for a chibi-Blaster (Billy?) mode.
Getting back into robot mode is pretty simple and easy, although the
boots take a little finesse to get put together just right. They don't lock
together, instead depending more on all the hinges being in the right
positions so they stay folded at 90 degrees. There's a few ways you can
leave something in the wrong spot and it's not obvious, but it keeps one of
the hinges from quite making it.
Boombox Mode: While there's definite callbacks to the cassette tape
player altmode, this seems to be intended as one of those portable speaker
sets that a phone can be plugged into. In this case, the "tape" door opens
to reveal a slot where any of the tablet minions can be inserted, just as
some speaker sets have a slot to hold your phone. Assuming it's supposed to
be otherwise to scale, I'd guess it's about 2/3 the size of the thing it
pretends to be. Rather than the puny little speakers on G1 Blaster, this one
has speakers nearly as tall as the case, 2.5" (6.5cm) in diameter. It does a
pretty good job of avoiding too much robot kibble, really just the sides
where the undersides of the feet are visible. The back isn't quite flat (the
fanny pack sticks out), but the panels on the back do look plausibly like the
back of a speaker set, including vents for air circulation. The underside
has the robot shins, so I guess that's a bit kibbly.
8.5" (22cm) wide, the body is 3" (7.5cm) tall, 4.5" (11cm) to the top of
the handle. The handle is wide enough for three fingers of my hand, so a 50%
bigger "real" version would have an adequate handle for full grip. The
handle isn't quite tall enough for a Titan Master to stand under it on the
one peg there, there's nowhere to really keep Twin Cast. The front facing is
more dominated by gray and black, with red relegated to top and back. The
only new paint is dark gunmetal on the top of the handle.
On the back there's four places a USB can be plugged in all the way, and
three more with the right shape but insufficient depth. There is, of course,
a headphone jack, because Cybertronians recognize a viable and durable
technology. There's also a 2-pole power cable connector socket. No HDMI,
though, nor Lightning.
City Mode: Well, it has a lot of guns, but it also has a lot of details
that look like speakers, plus the DJ station on top, so I figure it's as much
dance floor as frontline weapons platform. There's 15 pegged places for
Titan Masters to stand, plus the seat in the DJ station, so a pretty big
dance party can get going here. The tape door becomes a balcony with the
rifle pegged into place on it, there's some antenna arrays that unfold from
the left heel and a speaker stack on the right. The main speaker panels have
slightly different detailing on the deck sides, maybe intended to evoke force
field generator coils. One of them has a DANGER label on it, and there's
dark gray paint on the recessed details.
12.5 (31.5cm) wide, 5.25" (13cm) tall, 5" (12.5cm) deep not counting the
rifle sticking out in front. The only plastic colors really made visible in
this mode are several bright red joints, the black cannons that fold out from
the forearms, and the light warm gray connector ramps on either side. A
clear colorless panel folds up inside the tape door balcony, strictly
speaking it was always visible, just not obvious. :) The cassette hole
detail now looks more like a targeting reticle if you flip it up on its hinge
rather than leaving it as a balcony floor. The dummy tablet (same size as
the tablet Legends toys) is a single piece of black plastic with silver paint
on a trio of "speaker cone" details in front.
Articulation is minimal. The cannons made from the robot forearms can
rotate a little, plus elevate and depress (the left arm cannon on mine has a
floppy joint so it only points down), the pegged-in-place rifle can traverse
a bit, the DJ station can elevate by tilting the handle back, and the
connector ramps on either side can lift up on hinges. The floor of the deck
door balcony can flip up on a hinge.
It can't connect to Fortress Maximus on the side or in front without
adding third party stuff. The one low ramp on Fort Max lacks enough room to
get anything close, and the other two ramps are too high to connect. Several
people are working on Shapeways ramp extensions, or you could place Blaster
up on a box to get it high enough for the side ramps of Fort Max. There's
extra ramp connector spots on the backside on what was the robot's fanny
pack, but they're way too low to connect to Fortress Maximus's shoulder ramps
and no way it's fitting in the gap with the lower ramp. There are, however,
two rampless connectors on the back of Fort Max's base mode, so this can
connect in back to form part of a U-shaped fortress. (Here's a picture,
http://www.dvandom.com/images/blastermax.JPG )
In addition to the 15 single or dual pegs for Titan Masters, there's
five 5mm peg holes (one in the balcony, two on the DJ station, one on each of
the outer deck corners). The handle continues to block the 5mm shoulder peg
in this mode, making it fairly useless.
All in all, a good base mode.
Titan Master: He's named Twin Cast, a clear reference to the blue retool
of Blaster in Japan called Twincast, but he looks like a tiny copy of
Blaster. Maybe we should call him Billy instead. His chest has the tape
deck molding, although it's not painted yellow, and he has speakers molded
into the shins. In pretty much every way it can manage, this is a mini-
Blaster mold.
Head, torso front, and arms are bright red plastic. Legs and faceplate
are black plastic. The Titan Master's face is painted silver and the eyes
are VERY sloppily painted blue on mine. Just splotches of blue in the
general vicinity of the eyes. I may just repaint the face and do the eyes in
robot-mode yellow.
As a head on its own without the helmet, it doesn't really look
Blaster-ish, but I can't figure out if it's meant to be a reference to any
other character (which would let the faceplate be reused without retooling
for someone else).
Overall: Nice turnabout, releasing this first, since the last several
U.S. mass release Blaster toys have been Soundwave retools or redecos. I
like this in all modes, about the only way to make it qualitatively better
would have been to include an extra ramp piece that could let it connect
anywhere on Fort Max, not just the back.
Dave Van Domelen, will at least do a capsule for Quickshadow next, then
either PMOP or the wave 2 tablets.
Zobovor
Oct 1, 2016, 8:49:20 PM10/1/16
to
On Saturday, October 1, 2016 at 5:50:57 PM UTC-6, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
>(Here's a picture,
> http://www.dvandom.com/images/blastermax.JPG )
Who is the red guy who looks like Combiner Wars Ironhide only with a Titan Master for a head?
>(Here's a picture,
> http://www.dvandom.com/images/blastermax.JPG )
Zob (wondering)
William A. Rendfeld
Oct 2, 2016, 10:17:55 AM10/2/16
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Dave Van Domelen
Oct 2, 2016, 1:01:38 PM10/2/16
to
Channel (my perennial OC since the mid-90s) with Titan Master Tuner.
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/TRchannel1.JPG
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/TRchannel2.JPG
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/TRchannel3.JPG
Dave Van Domelen, figured Channel should hang out with Blaster since
he's also a comms guy.
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/TRchannel1.JPG
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/TRchannel2.JPG
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/TRchannel3.JPG
Dave Van Domelen, figured Channel should hang out with Blaster since
he's also a comms guy.
Zobovor
Oct 19, 2016, 8:34:13 PM10/19/16
to
On Saturday, October 1, 2016 at 5:50:57 PM UTC-6, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> I don't really believe the theory that Galvatron was originally a Combiner Wars
> toy refitted for Titans Return
It's not a theory. It's a fact stated in an interview with Emiliano Santalucia, the guy who designed the toy for Hasbro.
> toy refitted for Titans Return
Zob (if anyone would know, Swindle...)
Ramen Junkie
Oct 20, 2016, 8:20:21 AM10/20/16
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"cockpits" filled to become combiner toys. Most of the beasts could be
remolded a bit to become Abominus and maybe other beast combiners, with
a combiner peg slotted into the current Titans Returns cockpit area.
--
Ramen Junkie
Supreme Dictator for Life, alt.games.final-fantasy
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