Dave's Transformers Animated Rant: Voyager Wave 3 Lugnut (bomber jet) Autobot Grimlock (robot T.rex) Blitzwing (jet/tank triple-changer) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/TFA/Voyager3 The original Wave 3 assortment was Lugnut, Grimlock, Starscream and Optimus Prime. Later on, Starscream was swapped out for one Blitzwing per case. I'm making a purely arbitrary call and saying that Blitzwing is part of Wave 3, not 3.5 or 4 alpha or 5.1 or whatever the official designation is. So there. CAPSULES Lugnut: The vehicle mode is rather cartoony, but nice otherwise. Okay transformation, but one of the Automorph features causes problems in vehicle mode. Okay robot mode hampered by numerous loose joints. Mildly recommended. $19.99 at Target. Autobot Grimlock: A good Animated-style update of the original Grimlock toy. No real brilliance, but also few significan't faults. Recommended. $19.99 at Target. Blitzwing: Jet mode is a floppy, fall-apart mess. Tank mode is decently solid, if kinda "it has treads and a turret so it's a tank". Robot mode is great. Recommended, pretty much for the robot mode. $19.96 at Wal-Mart. RANTS Packaging: Same as Wave 1. The co-sells on the left side are for the other Wave 3 Voyager plus Bulkhead, and the co-sells on the bottom are Wave 3 Deluxes (Snarl, Autobot Jazz, Soundwave, Oil Slick). The instructions are behind the cardboard inner tray now, not under the right side flap. On Blitzwing's packaging, the side co-sell is of Lugnut and Grimlock, the bottom is still Wave 3 Deluxes. I'm introducing a new feature in my reviews, a list of what I've found to be notable defects, be they bad design, bad redesign (done to get past drop tests), or just stuff that seems to be recurring quality control issues. I'll also present solutions where possible. DECEPTICON: LUGNUT Altmode: Bomber Plane Function: DECEPTICON Thug Previous Name Use: Cybertron Previous Mold Use: None Callouts: (front) "Mechanized auto-conversion!" (upper right) "LUGNUT smashes enemies with his mighty power mace!" (back) "Mechanized auto-conversion!" "Rear stabilizers become power mace!" "Slam base to auto convert into power mace!" "Bombs open to reveal turbolasers!" "Poseable cannon turrets!" Motto: "All hail mighty MEGATRON!" Galactic Powers & Abilities: > Known as the "Kaon Krusher" on CYBERTRON. > Mace is powered by a star core. > Learned dirty fighting in the Grand Arena LUGNUT has absolute faith in MEGATRON, and that makes him one of the most dangerous DECEPTICONS. He is fanatic in his support of the DECEPTICON cause, and unquestioning in his following the orders of his commander. His dedication is backed up by incredible strength, and fighting skills that led to him being feared and respected across Cyberton. Each punch from his powerful hands carries the force of a small bomb, so the only way to survive a fight with him is to avoid ever letting him hit you. Unfortunately, he's almost as fast as he is strong. Packaging: Two twist-ties through to the cardboard tray, two more just through the blister, and a couple of rubber bands around the tail to keep it from popping open. Vehicle Mode: It's kinda like the Cybertron Jetfire mode, a bulky jet with a weird tail section (a flattened X profile) and upward-bent wingtips. But then add in some WWII bomber aspects like multiple turrets (one on top, two flanking the nose) and a "stained glass" sort of multi-pane nose end. Now, put comically bulbous bombs under each wing and an infeasibly large intake scoop on top of each wing...and paint the whole thing deep purple and dark teal (a little lighter than #006666). There's plenty of highly stylized vehicle modes in this line, but this is the first that I'd really call "cartoonish". 8.5" (22cm) long with a wingspan of 8" (20cm). Most of the toy is a deep purple plastic, although there seem to be at least three groups of purple plastic. The tail fins are rubbery purple. A few of the places that need to move (like the piece concealing the head, and some of the robot joints) are a shiny-finish purple. And the rest is matte-finish purple. The nose halves are a clear smoky plastic. The bombs, rear engine covers, wingtop intake grates, landing gear, turrets and some jointing pieces are dark teal plastic. I'll say this for the paint job...while I'm not exactly a fan of purple and teal, the purple and teal paints used are excellent matches for the plastics. There's teal paint on the window borders and most of the topside of the wings, and purple plastic on most of the nose. There's black and poorly-covering yellow hazard stripes on the bombs, red paint on the rear jet intakes, and gold Decepticon symbols on the wingtips. The landing gear folds away, the turrets rotate on swivels, and the bomb fronts can open up to reveal purple plastic Mini-Con ports that the call-outs refer to as turbolasers. Yes, Mini-Con ports. 5mm holes with a thin peg in the center. If you have a couple of Skyblasts (from the Requiem Blaster team) you can mount them as missiles. This is meant to work with his power mace weapon, but it does make Lugnut the world's biggest Mini-Con. ;) [Later note: Oops, Skyblast has the wrong sort of connector at his base, never mind.] Transformation: Well, he has the Jetfire-style arm transformation, the bombs are just his forearms (I can see someone, maybe Matt Moylan, doing a cartoon in which Lugnut drops his bombs and then transforms to find he has no forearms) and the wingtips just sort of fold back. Flipping up some panels on the sides lets you pull the legs down from the rear fuselage, and folding down the top of the rear fuselage triggers an automorph that flips Lugnut's head out and releases his nose halves to fold back to the sides. The power mace can either be left on the back, or detached and placed in either hand. WARNING: His Power Mace has a live hardpoint! It will not transform unless it's plugged into his hand or has a Mini-Con attached. Trying to force it will just break the toy! Once the hardpoint is plugged in, tapping the bottom of the staff on a hard surface (or just pushing in the little rod on the bottom) will make the tail unfold into a sort of flanged mace head. Robot Mode: Hulking and cyclopean, but he suffers from Bulkhead Syndrome, in that he has a lot of width but not as much height as he should have to be in scale with other toys. He's only 5.5" (14cm) tall but also 5.5" across the shoulders. Definitely the point-down-triangle body plan. The face is a piece of teal plastic attached to the purple rotating bit, with dark clear red lightpiping that really doesn't work even with a laser being shined in the back. The thighs, knees, toes, heelspurs, elbows, hip joints, knee joints, part of the shoulder joints and the bottom of his mace are teal plastic. Everything not already mentioned is purple. There's not-very-covering yellow hazard stripes on the power mace on the parts normally covered by the teal cowling pieces, red dots painted on the sides of his head, a purple "mohawk", and a gold Decepticon symbol on his chest. There's some black paint on his abdomen, around his head, and on the edge of his "pants cuffs". Neither the head nor the waist turn. The shoulders are somewhat restricted ratcheting universal joints, although the shoulderpad mount has its own ratcheting swivel which improves range of motion. Upper arm smooth swivels, double-hinge elbows, and the claws open up by sliding some purple bomb fins forward (which can be a little tricky to manage). The hips are smooth universal joints and there's a smooth swivel just above each smooth hinge knee. The toes and heel spurs have joints for folding away, but these aren't particularly useful posing joints. The turrets now on the sides of the chest can still swivel. The angle of the feet is such that he's meant to stand with his legs slightly spread apart. Oh, and having Powerlinx ports on his palms means he can hold hands with Armada Hoist. And it will be GLORIOUS. Defect List: The swivel joints in the thighs and upper arms are very loose, but they're pegs that can be fixed by popping them out, adding a layer of something (superglue or nail polish topcoat) and reassembling. The "out to the side" hinges on the hips are a touch loose, but not so easily fixed. And given the bulk of the upper body and of the forearms and the power mace, loose swivels and hinges are a Really Bad Thing. The port side cockpit half won't snap into place in vehicle mode, and it might not be fixable. Some report that closing it first and then the starboard side will help lock it, but not on mine. Nor does the other order help. Gumming up the teal struts a bit with nail polish top coat seems to have helped mine. [Later note: I've been pointed at a screw inside the left side of the chest, that holds the trigger in place for the cockpit window half. If it's been tightened down too far, the trigger can't "set", making the window pop out easily. If you loosen it a little it'll have the play to catch properly. However, after I did this, there was still a 1-2 millimeter gap. It'll stay mostly closed, but not all the way closed.] Also, while not a defect, the power mace's locked trigger can lead to breakage. Overall: It looks nice, if cartoonish, but suffers significantly from a number of design flaws. Things that should be tight are loose, and things that could stand to be looser (like the hinges opening the claws) are too stiff. AUTOBOT: GRIMLOCK Altmode: T-Rex (according to the box, although T.rex is more correct) Function: DINOBOT Leader Previous Name Use: G1, G2, BW, RiD/Universe, Alternators, Classic Previous Mold Use: None Callouts: (front) "Snapping jaws!" (upper right) "GRIMLOCK torches DECEPTICONS with his flame breath!" (back) "Flames pop out of sword!" "Snapping jaws!" "Removable jet of fire breath!" Motto: "Where are DECEPTICONS? Me GRIMLOCK getting hungry!" Galactic Powers & Abilities: > Fire breath can melt granite. > Created on Earth. > Just as strong as MEGATRON. GRIMLOCK more than lives up to the reputation of his Tyrannosaurus Rex mode. Ill-tempered, powerful, and always ready for a fight, he loves to throw his weight around. He likes the way the ground shakes as he stomps around, and the way people scatter when he roars. He's happiest on DINOBOT Island, where he can stomp and roar to his Spark's content, shattering trees with his tail, and breathing jets of flame into the sky. Every once in a while, though, he prefers to find the biggest, most powerful DECEPTICON he can, and smash its chassis to pieces. Packaging: Three twist-ties all the way through, two more just to the plastic blister. One more tie holds the sword onto the blister. The instructions do not show how to use the sword for flaming breath, I think you're just supposed to jam the hilt in his mouth...there doesn't seem to be any pegging. Dinosaur Mode: A somewhat chunky (I wouldn't go so far as to say "chibi") robotic Tyrannosaurus rex with a serious underbite. While he has a more G1-ish body shape, he's clearly built along the modern interpretation of the T.rex with body held horizontal. If nothing else, the head can't pose properly for an old-fashioned tail-dragger pose, plus there's some big gaps on his flanks that get mostly covered by the thighs only if he's in horizontal-torso configuration. The tail's a bit stubbular, though. Overall length is 8.5" (22cm) from jaw to tail tip, and while height is variable depending on exact pose, it's about 4.5" (12cm). Mainly medium gray with gold and dark red accents, plus some black parts. Most of the visible parts in this mode are made of medium gray plastic. There's light blue lightpiping, and a sort of pale not-very-metallic gold plastic on the teeny forelimbs, on the claws of the feet, and the tip of the tail. The root of the tail and the middle section of each hindleg are black plastic. There's also some visible black joints and connectors. The "flame breath" sword is made of clear orange plastic. There's gold paint on the neck plus accents on the butt, hips and elsewhere on the hindlets. There's a dark red (about the same as Ratchet's red) stripes on the upper torso, plus "jewels" on his hips, "spats" on his feet and some bits at the root of his tail. There's a silver Autobot symbol on his left hip. The sword has black and gold paint on the hilt and crosspiece, and a sort of black fading to red-translucent paint on the "solid" parts of the blade so it looks like magma. Gaps are an issue here. From underneath there's really nothing covering his chest, and his robot head is peering out. And there's big gaps on the flanks, only mostly covered by the thighs. The hips are slightly restricted ball joints, there's hinged knees and elevated ankles, swivels in the mid-foot (remember, he's digitigrade or "chicken-legged", so the false shins are really part of his feet). The forelimbs really don't move, they just fold together on transformation joints (although this does let him rub his claws together and do a Montgomery Burns impersonation). No articulation on the neck or tail. However, if you press down on a button on the back of his neck, the jaw opens up, and it snaps closed on a spring when you let go. The spring is strong enough to let him hold his sword in his mouth as a sort of flaming breath, but there's no peg for it to attach to, suggesting this is something not designed into the toy, just tacked on by the box copywriters. So I'll talk about the sword more under robot mode, since it's really just an accessory for that. Transformation: In essence, it's the G1 transformation, although instead of revealing fists by sliding up the false shins, instead the middle segment (the true shin) slides partway into the shoulder/thigh to shorten the hindlegs into robot arms. Also, part of the back of the dinosaur folds round as heels, making the feet less hollow than the G1 version. The robot chest actually slides up and clicks into place (plus the dino neck/head kibble pegs onto it to keep it from sliding back down), so that his hips can be farther back in dino mode without giving him a weird robot proportioning. :) Robot Mode: 6.25" (16cm) tall at the head, add a bit more for the "wings" sticking up behind his head. And if you thought the dino mode had a big jaw, the robot mode is an orthodontist's nightmare. :) A lot more dark red gets added to the mix (including a "Dormammu collar" of the stuff) and gold. The head, thighs and elbow region are black plastic. There's light blue lightpiping, and colorless clear plastic in a panel over the chest (with some circuitry detailing molded in it) and on the shoulder ball pegs. The torso core, including abdomen, and the pelvis are made of dark red plastic. The claws on the hands are pale gold. The upper arms, forearms and boots are medium gray plastic. The back half of the upper torso is black plastic, and the front half is painted completely over in gold, but I *think* it's medium gray under that. Most of the paint apps here are thigns visible in dino mode, although the context changes a lot. There's a silver Autobot symbol on the clear chestplate, the "spats" are now knuckledusters, the gold on his dino butt is now gold on his robot toes, the red that was at the root of his tail is now his kneecaps. There's a few bits of black paint on the abdomen. The head and waist both swivel smoothly. The shoulders are somewhat limited ball joints, which can compensate a little for the lack of an upper arm swivel. The tall shoulders tend to get in the way of the winglets in the back if you try to keep them folded forward. Hinge elbows, swivel wrists, and the fingers and thumbs can fold closed on hinges. The hand joints are not counted on to hold the sword, though, which pegs into the palm. Reasonably stiff universal joint hips, hinge knees, swivels below the knee. He also has the same sort of "knees can bend sideways" transformation joints as Ratchet does. There are no motion gimmicks or automorphs to screw up joint stability, all the gimmicking relates to the sword (and while it involves the right wrist, it doesn't mess up the wrist any). The sword is 5.5" (14cm) long and plugs into the palm using a rectangular version of a live Mini-Con hardpoint. A tab inside the peg is tripped by a smaller tab in Grimlock's right palm to make extra flames spring out along the length of the blade when you rotate the wrist. He can hold the sword in the left hand, but it won't trigger the flames. Pulling back on a tab on the blade itself makes the flames retract. Trying to get the flames out without poking the tab inside the hilt is a good way to break something. You can see inside the mechanism of the sword, which is basically a "tree" of flames that get pushed out the sides of the blade when a central shaft is pushed out of the hilt by a spring. It generally looks pretty cool, although it could have stood to continue the darker paint onto the last couple of chunks at the tip. The black fading to red paint on the "solid" parts fades completely before the last two bits. Defect List: Some people have reported that when sliding the upper arm together in robot mode, the black piece either won't go all the way inside the shoulder piece, or makes things bulge dangerously. Mine doesn't have that problem, but it does require significant pushing to get the arm snapped together that last bit. If you have this problem, fixing it is not trivial, since the shoulder piece is held together by glued pegs in addition to screws, and you'll need a Dremel or similar tool to carve out extra clearance. The neck area in dino mode can be a little flimsy, but that's mainly a matter of figuring out how to get all the tabs in place at the right time. Overall: It doesn't really try anything astounding, settling for a solid update of the G1 design. But this is not a bad goal to have, and he has a nifty sword. Watch out for the defect mentioned above, otherwise it's a good toy. DECEPTICON: BLITZWING Altmodes: Fighter Jet, Tank Function: DECEPTICON Berzerker Previous Name Use: G1 Previous Mold USe: None Callouts: (front) "Triple Changer!" (upper right) "BLITZWING confuses the AUTOBOTS with his changing faces!" (back) "Two launching missiles!" "Three quick-switching faces!" "Rotating Turret" "Triple Changer!" (gee, just not as enthusiastic about the turret?) Motto: "Whoooo! I'm freaking out!" (odd, since his Ahnuld face is shown above the motto) Galactic Powers & Abilities: > Sometimes changes to tank in midair, and crashes. (This is a power?) > Likes to freeze, then melt his opponents. > Has trouble flying in a straight line. (Again, how is this a power or ability? Should be "Galactic Flaws & Liabilities".) Even by DECEPTICON standsards, BLITZWING is totally insane. He's got three personalities packed into his cyberium-steel chassis, and he argues with himself almost as often as he argues with other DECEPTICONS. The only person he listens to without interrupting is MEGATRON, because all three of his personalities are terrified of the DECEPTICON commander. He carries a superheater cannon and a hyperfrost emitter to burn or freeze his enemies. Packaging: Man, this is the most dinged up box I've ever bought a non-clearanced, non-knockoff toy in. And yet the toy survived. It's packaged in jet mode. Two twist-ties through all the way to the card, and four more only through the blister tray (two on the jet, two on the missiles). The missiles can be removed without undoing the ties. Another twist-tie holds on a mini-blister that protects the tailfins. Both of the ties that go through to the card are invisible from the top, going only through the undercarriage junk, so you have to detach the whole blister to free the toy. Four rubber bands wind in and around so insidiously that you have to cut them AND pretty much pull the toy apart at most of its transformaiton joints to get all the bands out. Easily the most annoying packaging since 20th Anniversary Prime, and the result is a toy that's practically a pile of disassembled parts by the time you're done. I got one report that the toy is slightly mistransformed in the package, but by the time I got mine out it really didn't matter. [Later note: apparently the biceps are on the wrong sides, which makes the two vehicle modes fit together less well, since they peg off the centerline. Pop the arms off above the biceps (it's just pegs), remove the screws at the elbows, use a knife to carefully separate the forearm halves just enough to slide the biceps piece out. When you're done, the flexion slot on the biceps should be facing outward in robot mode, and the arms are a little closer to the body.] Jet Mode: It's an F-14 Tomcat, more or less, with tank treads on the underside. And it's floppy as all get-out, with nowhere near enough pegs or tabs to keep things in place. You just sort of carefully set things in place and then don't touch it again. Kid play value in this mode is virtually nil. 7" (18cm) long if you just count the clearly jet parts. If you load the flame missiles into the tank barrels that stick out the back, the total length is 9.5" (24cm). It's a swing-wing design, with a wingspan from 4.75" (12cm) to 6.25" (16cm). The color scheme is mostly ghost gray and a matte Decepticon Purple, with some black and red bits. The nosecone and the fuselage right behind the cockpit (aka the robot mode helmet) are rubbery ghost gray plastic. The main fuselage and wing roots are rigid ghost gray plastic, as are some details along the center and rear. The wings and tail (both vertical and horizontal bits) are slightly metallic purple plastic and so are the cannon/thruster tips. The tank treads and much of the undercarriage junk is black or very dark blue plastic. There's a few bits of very dark gray plastic, but they're mainly robot mode stuff and will be covered there. The cockpit is made of a clear plastic that seems to be nearly black...I can get just enough laserbeam penetration to know it's meant to be clear of some sort. There's some slightly metallic purple paint accents on the wing roots and around the cockpit, a very good match to the plastic. There's a gold Decepticon symbol printed on the cockpit window and some little bits of red on odd wing details (which become the vision slit in tank mode). Black paint is used extensively on the wingroot area. The sides of the treads are painted ghost gray, a reasonable match to the plastic color, with purple accents. I'd talk about articulation, but it pretty much all articulates whether you want it to or not. The swing-wings are intentional, though, and I suspect the two flaps ahead of the tail are supposed to represent deployable air brakes or something. [Later note: You can get a little more stability than I initially thought, but it's still not great. There's pegs on the turret piece (underside of the tail) that go into half-holes on the soles of the feet. At least in mine, it's more of a "resting place" than a secure connection, though. Additionally, you need to make sure to rotate the cannons so that the triggers are on the outside, or they'll prevent the pegs from even resting in the holes. But there's still not enough real pegs to hold this mode together, and the entire nose is floppy. To see the pegs, check this pic: http://www.dvandom.com/images/tfablitzpeg.JPG and then my fix with Apoxie Sculpt at http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/tfablitzpegfix.JPG ] [Another later note: The nosecone section is not actually pinned to the body, it's one of those snap-bumps-into-dips connections, and can be popped out pretty easily. THAT is why the nose section is so loose, this is not the sort of joint that can really be made solid, although you can gum it up a bit. Also, the bumps are from a clear pinkish-red plastic pin that connects the robot collar to the rest of the nosecone, a plastic type not found elsewhere. Oh, and I tried taking apart the nose section, but it's glued in addition to being screwed, and I didn't want to cut it apart.] Transformation to Tank: Fairly intuitive, oddly enough. Mostly a matter of tucking and folding everything you can to make it more compact. It's a bit tricky getting it all in place and pegged, but it's not hard to be more solid than the jet mode. You can either transform the turret as per the instructions (the barrels may pop off a few times in the process), or leave them pointing backwards for a more anti-aircraft feel. The turret spins 360 degrees, so it works either way. Tank Mode: A purely fantasy tank mode, the jet took precedence in design. The treads are flattened irregular triangles (rounded off, of course) and the center of mass is way back towards the rear of the tread unit. You can clearly see jet elements in there, but they did a good job of at least turning the wings into sloping front armor thanks to some hinges. In addition to the turret, there's what look to be smoke canisters on the front "fenders" and on the rear flanks (aka front wing roots). 4.25" (11cm) long, 3" (7.5cm) wide, 3.25" (8cm) tall. It's like a cute little Gunbound tank. The turret is ghost gray plastic with some metallic purple paint on the back. The barrels are black plastic with purple plastic tips. The front armor is purple plastic with red vision slit. Most of the rear body is ghost gray plastic. Treads as in jet mode. It rolls somewhat poorly on four little dark gray wheels. Most of the toy is still just held together by joint stiffness (such as it is) rather than pegs, but the compact shape holds together better simply because there's fewer projecting bits to knock into. The turret turns with a faint ratcheting click, but does not elevate. The barrels pop off pretty easily, though, did I mention that? :) Transformation to Robot: Pretty straightforward, but susceptible to some missteps. Pull the treads out into lower legs, pop out the feet. Unpeg the turret assembly and the wing sections pull out to the sides as shoulders, with arms coming along for the ride. Flip the head up. Re-peg the turret, adjust bits to suit. Little purple bits spring out from the forearms to give them more thickness, a tiny bit of automorph. The tailfins need to be separated a little to let the backpack peg on all the way. An undocumented feature in here, actually. The wings are designed to swing forward so that their leading edges are facing front rather than out to the sides, but the instructions and box photos show them held back. Swung forward they look more like elements of a cloak, fitting for the icy persona. You can't actually leave them connected to the back, though. Robot Mode: He's got inverse Bulkhead Syndrome...teeny tank, big robot. :) 7.25" (18.5cm) tall at the head. If the missiles are loaded and the barrels pointed up (they can fold down to get out of the way), the total height is 9.5" (24cm). The color balance is mainly ghost gray in the core and black/dark gray on the forearms and boots, with slightly metallic purple mixed in. He's a fairly standard cockpit-chested jetformer, although the tank treads let him have much beefier legs than would otherwise work. The head is visually inspired by a desert tank corps helmet, with goggle-like shapes on the top and a "skirt" around the back and sides evoking the way such helmets were usually work with a cloth to cover the ears and neck. The front flank smoke dispensors end up on the shoulderpads as missile racks. The pop-out forearm bits and knee joints are metallic purple plastic, joining the visible vehicle parts. Shoulders, upper arms, head, most of the torso, and thighs are ghost gray plastic. The helmet is rubbery ghost gray plastic. The lower legs, feet, hands, most of the forearms, the elbows, hip joints, collar area and a lot of hte internal workings are black plastic. Much of the torso is painted metallic purple with some black accents that make it look like he's wearing a broad-lapeled military jacket, and his thighs have jodphur protrusions, they really do a good job of making him look like a Nazi tank commander under Rommel. The goggles are black, the gold Decepticon symbol ends up on the abdomen. Other than on the faces, the rest of the paint apps come from the vehicle mode. He's got a Man-E-Faces sort of gimmick, where turning a dial on the back of the helmet rotates one of three faces to the fore. However, the mechanism is very stiff. The three faces are a lantern-jawed Ahnuld Schwartznegger parody with an exaggerated chinstrap, a monocle-wearing pointy-chinned German Aristocrat sort, and a sort of jack-o-lantern-ish crazy face. I call them Ahnuld, Monocle and Crazy. :) Ahnuld is associated with the fire powers, Monocle with the ice powers, and Crazy with whatever he feels like at the time. [Later note: the helmet will just pop off, making it easier to fiddle with things to make the dial work better.] Ahnuld has a red sunglasses-style visor and his face is a slightly reddish violet. His mouth isn't painted in, it really calls for the gaptooth (a fairly simple mod that a lot of people are doing). Monocle has a red right eye and red left monocle-style optic, and an icy blue face. Crazy has a black face with red visor and jagged mouth zigzag. All three have the chinstrap unpainted. The helmet can turn either with or independently of the head, so unlike a lot of face-swap toys, he has the ability to look around. As with most jets of his general transformation, his waist does not turn. The shoulders swivel and have a limited ability to shrug up on a hinge. There's an upper arm swivel, double-hinge elbows, and his open-palm hands can fold inward on hinges to slap people around or go limp-wristed. The combined jointing lets him cross his arms indignantly across his chest, put his hands up to his mouth in girlish glee, play karate warrior, or cover his pelvis in shame. The hips are soft-ratcheting universal joints, there's swivels above the knees, and the knees are hinged for transformation such that they can bend a full 180 degrees. The toes have a decent range of motion on transformation hinges, allowing for some pretty extreme stances. The toy can sort of store the missiles by cramming them into slots in the backs of the boots (thanks to James Tamoush for the tip). It doesn't seem to have been intentionally designed, though, just a happy accident, and it doesn't always work (it works on both of the legs on James's, but only one leg on mine). It woulda been nice if he came with four missiles, storage issues be scuppered. Two flame, two ice, so you could make the attacks fit the persona. Defect List: The entire jet mode is a defect. It's just too floppy and doesn't connect solidly much of anywhere. The barrels pop off too easily in either mode. Overall: Let us not speak of the jet mode again. The tank is decent, if of the "slap treads and a turret on something and call it a tank" variety. But this toy's real purpose is to be the robot mode, which is very good. ONLINE CONTENT: All three just get the box bio note and GP&A. Dave Van Domelen, likes how each personality of Blitzwing can assume a pose that fits the face, although a forearm swivel would have helped.