Transformers Movie Toy Review: Blackout

With the Transformers movie scheduled to be released on the 4^th of July, there are many action figures that are being released prior to its opening. One of the action figures is Blackout, a military Pave Low helicopter that transforms into a giant robot. Blackout is a Voyager Class Transformer that retails for $19.99 at most locations. Blackout is a Decepticon.

Blackout is really good in vehicle mode with no real flaws to speak of. He is a nice size, but is not to scale with any of the other Transformers toys. Blackout comes with a miniature Scorponok figure that fits into a cage that's on the back of the helicopter's fuselage. There is a button that opens the cage so that the miniature Scorponok figure can be dropped from the helicopter. There is also a button on the tip of the tail on the back of the helicopter that spins the top rotor blade.

Along with Blackout interacting with the small Scorponok figure that's included, Blackout can also interact with the large Deluxe Class Scorponok figure that is sold separately (or sold together as a Toys R' Us exclusive). You can attach the large Scorponok action figure to the bottom of the fuselage on Blackout, and then when you press the button that makes the rotors spin on the helicopter, the button will also make Scorponok's claw-like hands and interior turbine-like chest spin as well.

One aspect of Blackout that could be a problem for some is that he's pretty complicated to transform. There are a lot of parts to move to get him from vehicle to robot mode and so he may not be the best of gifts for a small child.

Blackout's robot mode isn't as good as his vehicle mode, but it's not bad. There is a good range of motion on all of his joints. Despite the fact that he has massive shoulders, his shoulders still move just fine and aren't really blocked by anything like some of the other figures. The paint application is a little spotty but not too bad overall. His face could have been better, in that there was no paint applied to it, just a black ink wash. If they had painted his face it would have added to the positive things about this figure. His eyes are red plastic tubing that would glow with a light behind them, but because there are parts behind his head, the light doesn't really fall through them the right way, so they don't really glow well at all.

When Blackout is transformed into his robot mode, the back end of the helicopter hangs down from behind his head. This creates a sort of tripod, so when he is transformed like this he has no problem standing. Some people have said that this detracts from his design. Actually, I think that it kind of looks like a cape. Luckily the back comes off and can be used as a weapon. When it comes off you can put it in Blackout's hand as a giant weapon with spinning-blades-of-death. The rotors in weapon form are called a Spinning Blade Grinder on the package. It is a rather impressive weapon and if it weren't so cool, it could be considered overkill.

When Blackout is in robot mode, he is a little smaller than other Voyager Class Transformers, yet he is a little bigger than the Deluxe Class. I think the reason why he is smaller in robot mode than the other ones is because when he's in helicopter mode he is as long as the box size for the Voyager Class, so there is no way the could have made him any bigger. The size is okay though, because overall, he's a really good action figure.

One cool feature of Blackout's robot mode is that there are pegs on both of his shoulders that you can attach Minicon Transformers to. And that brings me to the only disappointment of this toy. The Scorponok figure that comes with this Blackout figure is just a cheap hunk of plastic. Considering the fact that Blackout is smaller than the other Voyager Class Transformers, one would think that they could have made Scorponok a Minicon. Instead he's just two solid parts of plastic with the only moving part being his tail, which just springs down. There's no paint job on the miniature Scorponok either, just dry brushed black paint.

As for Blackout, I think he's the best Transformers helicopter that I've seen. The price tag might make some people not buy him, but I think he's worth every bit of the price, even with the sub-par Scorponok figure.