Blurr And Hyperfire - Generations Titans Return - Deluxe Class Figure



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There's been some ...less than positive feelings expressed towards a couple of the decos Hasbro has put on early Titans return releases. In no case has that been moreso than Bluer - I mean Blurr. And it's not undeserved. Blurr is a sea of dark turquoise, a color that seems to fall between people's perceptual ranges where nobody can agree on just what color it really is. Or at least so the absurdly protracted message board discussions I've observed led me to believe. It's not a very Blurr color, but on its own that doesn't have to be a problem.

I'm not personally super thrilled with this color choice, because to me it looks like if you took a plain blue and then discolored it with age. There's something just a little offputting about that particular color value. Again, to me in particular. Everybody seems to have a little bit different take. But back to my point. This color wouldn't necessarily be a problem if it was used together with other colors. But virtually the entire toy is cast in this color or a derivative. Look at the back, and there's no painted surfaces. Just the one solid, vaguely unattractive color. This is terrible.

Worse still, the big areas of paint for the robot mode serve to make the shins this color again, just a couple shades darker.

The clear plastic in the chest is trying to be the same color, as close as clear can get, anyway. And the painted frame is the only thing breaking it up at all.

It's difficult for me to even comprehend this deco. Why the color is both so wrong, and why there is so much of just that one color uninterrupted over almost all of the toy. But I have good news. The deco is the only significant bad thing about Blurr.

The sculpt is interesting. There are nice patches of surface detail spread around that provide visual interest in the deco's stead. I'd love to see them be highlighted in color, but I'll take what I can get right now.

The overall shape and build of the body is very G1 Blurr. If the Drift retool from the 2010 Generations line wasn't to your taste, this sculpt ought to hit the right buttons.

Even bits of that detail sculpting pitch in. The back has a couple sets of vents sculpted in where they look like thrusters. You know, to help propel Blurr even faster. That also helps the hinged connector piece work a little bit better, since it can look like its own extra booster unit instead of being left as an extraneous piece of useless hardware when the shield isn't here.

I could do without the flaps under the forearms, but that's really a small complaint. Honestly, if I could pick any one thing about the design to change, I'd want something to cover behind the canopy in the torso, to hide the hollow space.

Though if you want to get silly, there are things you can do with that space...

Much like Skullsmasher, Blurr has a hinge at the shoulder that acts in the absence of the ball joint being able to raise to the sides, at only the cost of constantly being hit in the head by a jet engine.

The bicep swivels are a bit tight, and because of imperfections on the mushroom peg, are a little clicky in random spots. And you get good elbow hinges.

And swiveling wrists.

The waist swivel is smooth, and forward hip range is decent.

To the sides the legs can raise basically to horizontal. Getting it to balance using that can take a little doing thanks to the slant of the feet. The thigh swivels have about the same feel as the biceps, but with a smoother movement.

The knees are the best single hinge knees so far, getting a V bend instead of the typical 90 degree stop. The toes hinge up, but that's a transformation thing and really of no help to the robot mode.

Blurr is another one of those cases where it seems better to have the Titan Master's head going in the plug backward. Blurr is a little bobbleheady normally, and installing Hyperfire this way seems to firm that up a fair bit.

This is the first such instance we're looking at, so check out the opening chapter of Annoying Extendables! Blurr's wind vane fin thingy is represented, and its a moving part that you pull up. But the tolerances need to be pretty spot on to keep it from sinking back in. It doesn't work that well on my Blurr, unfortunately.

Hyperfire has a decent amount of paint, an irony when you consider what it's attached to.

The shins and arms are both painted, and the face has two paint colors. Fairly impressive, actually!

The antenna thing doesn't impact the tiny bit of articulation the Titan Master has, and in fact if you leave it extended, it'll compress in automatically when you unfold Hyperfire's legs.

For transforming, you can have all of Blurr's accessories stay attached the entire time, no partsforming required. Well, unless you're counting the Titan Master which I don't.

It's important to fold the legs up first. The arms will block them off if you try to wait until later.

And don't forget to unfold the vehicle mode rear hood ornament thing from Blurr's right leg while you're in there.

Pop the canopy up now. It'll be really difficult to get out from its robot mode position later. Flip up the seat back, too!

Fold the nose piece up and snap it in place. That'll hold the canopy from getting pushed back down as well.

The arms secure to the vehicle body in a couple of spots. Make sure they settle in or else the car mode won't align right.

Also, hang on a sec here. Just a note for going back to robot mode. You should lift up a bit on the flaps covering the hands before trying to fold them back. They peg shallowly in to the hand holes, and lifting up on them gets them where they can smoothly pull free of the hands.

Blurr's vehicle mode is definitely Blurr's vehicle mode. The major addition of the seafoam surfaces helps the look a lot compared to the robot mode, though the entire back half is still basically one single uninterrupted color.

Unlike Skullsmasher you don't really have any moving parts. The driver seat is here, and that's about all.

There's also a gap between the back of the canopy and the car body, which doesn't look all that good if you ask me.

Okay, so there's nothing to particularly do with this mode, but that doesn't mean there's nothing interesting. Some care was put in to making Blurr look like he's hovering. With no wheels on the outer body, and the primarily visible parts of the car looking raised off the ground from many angles, there's a decent illusion of a levitating vehicle.

Underneath are small, very free spinning wheels close to the center line. They let Blurr glide along pretty effectively, contributing to the illusion that's been built up. And if you look close underneath, part of the robot mode's backpack thruster array is here and oriented to look like part of the lift and propulsion system. Again, a nice level of detail that has some internally logical presence. If only the same amount of thought had been put in the deco.

Blurr has a... uh... I'll be generous and say attack mode, which will be a good bridge over to the accessories. Take the nose section off, clip the sides of the car back together, and then plug the upside down nose piece in one of the side ports. Sit a Titan Master in there, and you're set.

I don't even know. This is in the instructions, but I am at a full out loss to see why anyone would think this is something this should do.

This unit can stand on its own as a gun emplacement, which seems slightly more reasonable.

The nose piece can be pegged on the arm as a shield, though not in the most useful position.

It can stay clipped to the back 100% of the time if that suits you better. There is no essential need to remove it at any point, and it tabs very securely in case that's what you want to do.

Blurr's gun can also remain pegged in the shield even in storage.

If you want a storage option with a little more utility to it, you can plug it in the forearm port, too.

And in case you're interested in having a bigger weapon, Blurr can pose easily holding the shield by its side pegs with the gun attached. Either as if to carry the gun station around, or inverted as some kind of heavy artillery or whatever you want to imagine. Laser drill, maybe? I could see - wait, no. Laser JACKHAMMER. Yes, that MUST be it!

Blurr's one true flaw, the appalling anti-deco is all the more frustrating when you spend time with it and realize that it's otherwise quite nice. Very solid build, and even the major part of the vehicle designed to come off as an accessory can just be left where it is and instead form a backpack and be out of the way. Blurr is a figure that I want to like a lot, but the color, and the absence of any contrast or detailing is super hurtful.

It's good news in a couple ways though. Knowing that it doesn't have any design or material flaws at this stage means the TakaraTomy version ought to be close to perfect with its more realized deco. It also means when the mold comes around again with some retooling as Brainstorm, that'll also be a nice, solid toy. I just wish I could say something more positive about Blurr than "it makes me excited for every use of the mold that's not this one."



ReviewerExVee  
DateJuly 11th 2016  
Score 7 stars (7 out of 10)  
Reads8543


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