It's time for another Room 113 review and this week I want to talk about something which is a bit of an anomaly. I didn't want the rest of this characters team but I had to own this figure.
If this review seems a little rushed it's because it is, my laptop died taking what backlog I'd built up with it, with thanksgiving and then mine and Slicks birthday coming right after it I haven't had much time to get reviews written. I managed to get thre Ultra Magnus review done but it was late, I'm writing this on Tuesday morning aka the day before I'm due to post it! (and I still posted it late! go me!)
So this week I'm going to talk about Legends class Blackjack. He transforms from a sports car, a robot and a chest piece for any of the Optimus/Motormaster CW molds. Blackjack is a nice mix of black and purple plastic with some painted detail picked out in gold. Blackjack is obviously a updated version of the Micromaster of the same name but you take one look at him and he screams Battlecharger. Supposedly the mold was originally going to be Runabout/Runamuck but you don't have to worry if you still want them you can get them from Japan as long as you're willing to pay the price for the pair of them (one not so expensive, the other one is a million publishing figure so he's hella expensive).
So this week I'm going to talk about Legends class Blackjack. He transforms from a sports car, a robot and a chest piece for any of the Optimus/Motormaster CW molds. Blackjack is a nice mix of black and purple plastic with some painted detail picked out in gold. Blackjack is obviously a updated version of the Micromaster of the same name but you take one look at him and he screams Battlecharger. Supposedly the mold was originally going to be Runabout/Runamuck but you don't have to worry if you still want them you can get them from Japan as long as you're willing to pay the price for the pair of them (one not so expensive, the other one is a million publishing figure so he's hella expensive).
As a car Blackjack looks pretty good, he's got plenty of hints of modern sports cars but he doesn't look enough like any particular model in a clever copyright dodging move. There's some nicely sculpted detail on show. You can store his weapon on the back of the car, it gives him a mahooosive spoiler,
, I'm not a massive fan of how it looks with it attached. It's out of place and it's maybe a touch to big for it. Strangly when they remolded this figure into Rodimus the giant spoiler works. Rodimus needs that spoiler no matter how ridiculously over sized it looks.
Usually I don't mention how the transformations work on each figure but I want to mention it for once. When I first saw Blackjack I thought he'd pretty much be the standard car transformation with the rear forming the legs and the front of the car forming the chest, ends up the whole front swings over to the back and the chest is formed by the rear wondow. It's a neat trick and makes a nice change.
In his robot mode Blackjack has some extra detail work revealed, yet again it's all nicely sculpted and some of it is picked out in gold paint. He's got standard articulation for his scale, ball joint shoulders, hips and knees and jointed elbows. His head is just on a swivel joint, it'd be better on a ball joint but it's OK. His head has a nice look to it but that's more because of his Battlecharger origins, old schoool Blackjack had a face, not a faceplate but I don't hold it against him.
The axe weapon is something I do have a problem with. It's big, it's way to big for him. It makes a lot more sense for his last mode.
In his robot mode Blackjack has some extra detail work revealed, yet again it's all nicely sculpted and some of it is picked out in gold paint. He's got standard articulation for his scale, ball joint shoulders, hips and knees and jointed elbows. His head is just on a swivel joint, it'd be better on a ball joint but it's OK. His head has a nice look to it but that's more because of his Battlecharger origins, old schoool Blackjack had a face, not a faceplate but I don't hold it against him.
The axe weapon is something I do have a problem with. It's big, it's way to big for him. It makes a lot more sense for his last mode.
Lets get into it, chest armour mode. It's the most complicated transformation you'll ever have to deal with, here's a hint, start in car mode. peg the axe into the holes on the roof. Done. Ok it's not complicated in the slightest, it's massively dissapointing. All of the other Combiner War legends (well the ones who aren't just repainted legends figures) do something to form their "combiner complimentary" modes. They don't do anything massive or mid blowing but at least they're not a car with it's spoiler in a different place. I suppose the bright side is I wont be using him with Menasor (well not this version anyway). As I've said on the show, multiple times (you probably got sick of me saying it in fact) is that I'm not getting the Combiner War Stunticons due to the fact I've got the Fansproject versions. I don't have any real attachment to Menasor so I don't want multiple versions of the same character, unless it's Bruticus, give me all the Bruticus! I should add I'll be getting the Generation 2 Stunticon boxset when that lands and at that point I'll have a second Blackjack who will be a chest piece. There are some alternate armour transformations out there on the web, I might use one of those when the time comes.
Let's wrap this review up. Blackjack is a good figure and I recommend that you pick him or one of his repaints/remolds up. Though if you get the Rodimus it might be worth noting that you can't peg his spoiler axe in to look like his traditional spoiler placement.
So that's this weeks review, I'm not sure who's going to be next, I'm starting to run out of things to review.
Let's wrap this review up. Blackjack is a good figure and I recommend that you pick him or one of his repaints/remolds up. Though if you get the Rodimus it might be worth noting that you can't peg his spoiler axe in to look like his traditional spoiler placement.
So that's this weeks review, I'm not sure who's going to be next, I'm starting to run out of things to review.
Stu "Darkageis" Murray is a founding member of The Old Oilhouse, a lifelong transformers nut and collector of Sentai and Kamen rider in most of it's forms.
He sometimes takes epic trips and tells tales of these sagas often.
When not watching people in spandex fight each other he paints miniatures, go HERE to take a look.
He sometimes takes epic trips and tells tales of these sagas often.
When not watching people in spandex fight each other he paints miniatures, go HERE to take a look.
