Dave's Throwbot Rant:

     Blaster

     Blaster is an oversized Throwbot that combines with Flare and Spark to
form the Super Throwbot Fusion.  While I found Blaster at a couple different
Meijer branches this weekend, the two smaller ones were not out yet in my
area.  Looks like they're going to continue shipping Ski, Scuba, Torch and
Turbo, but replace the other four original Throwbots in the caselots with
Flare and Spark.  Millennia and Blaster are in larger Technic boxes, so they
ship in different cases.

CAPSULE

     Blaster is more expensive than any two Throwbots, but is he worth it?
Well, at worst he comes close.  Very well-proportioned (the catalog pics do
not do him justice), fun to build and very poseable.  Recommended.  $14.99 at
Meijer. 

RANT

     When you start building this figure, the instructions have you join the
legs together.  My initial reaction to this was, "Ah, crud, there goes
poseability."  But it turns out this connection is only intended to be
temporary, to help keep things together while you build up to the hips.
     Blaster is yellow and black with a few grey bits, and stands 7" (18cm)
tall at the head gear.  The core of his torso is identical to Ski's, with the
large gear and the worm-drive connection so that the head can be tilted.  His
facemask looks like it was originally robotic like Millennia's, but then was
shattered in some conflict.  Extra pieces expand the torso out nicely,
although because of mirror-image issues with the extra torso pieces used, the
shoulderpads/wings don't settle in equally far on both sides.  There's one
rubber band used in this design, and it helps hold one of Blaster's throwing
discs onto his abdomen.  I find using his black disk for this instead of his
yellow disc gives better color balance to the figure.  Both arms have good
shoulder and elbow jointing.  The left hand is another "wing" piece, and it
can be moved around to scoop up foes.
     Blaster's right arm is an interesting piece of work.  It terminates in
two back-to-back shoulder pieces.  The default position is to have his two
throwing arms facing opposite directions, forming what the Mania Magazine
calls his trident.  However, the throw-arms can be positioned in many ways,
including the appearance of a big Grimlock-style double blaster.  As a
trident, it is 8" (20cm) long.
     Blaster's thighs are each made from two separate limb pieces with their
own sockets at either end.  This lets you not only bend the leg, but twist it
with very good joint stiffness.  His ankles are hinged so that his feet
(Throwbot head parts) can flop up and down.  A peg inserted at the heel
limits the range to a "realistic" one, but the joints are loose so you can't
really stand him unless his feet are in one of the two extreme positions.
     Finally, as mentioned before, he has a yellow disc and a black disc.
The yellow one has 7 dots lit and shows Blaster charging.  The black disc has
6 dots lit and shows Blaster, Spark and Flare rising from the flames of an
impact crater, silhouetted by the fire.

     Overall, a rather neat toy.  A little expensive, but better value for
the money than Millennia.  Costs as much as a Mega-level Transformer, and
when you get tired of it you can build something else out of the pieces.

     Dave Van Domelen, has put up a sort of storyline for Throwbots at his
page, http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/Lego/