Dave's Rescue Bots Rant: Scout Wave Something Or Other Blurr (race car) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/123/RBScout4a Yeesh, a week after I review Salvage and the new Optimus Prime, I find what seems to be an entirely different case lot that includes the new Optimus Prime and the Blurr reviewed here, plus maybe Blades, or maybe there was another case with Blades, Chase, and Boulder. Random access toys, man. Blurr is another of the Rescue Bot Recruits, like Salvage. CAPSULE $10 price point, but I found it for $6.97 at Walmart. Blurr: Another statue, but good automorphing transformation. Worth picking up if you can find it for $7, not so much for $10. RANTS Packaging: Same as Wave 4. Art doesn't really match the toy, and it goes beyond paint apps...the art has an open faceplate and a different shape of spoiler, plus no roof vent on the chest and totally different molding on the shoulders. And, of course, plenty of paint disagreement as well, but at least the prototype photo on the back mostly agrees with the actual toy (only difference is that the photo includes some neon green airbrushing on the spoiler, but the toy does not). RESCUE BOT: BLURR (no epithet) Altmode: Race Car Function: Rapid Response New rescue recruit, BLURR, races to the rescue! It's worth noting that this doesn't really look like any previous Blurr in either mode, nor does it strongly resemble any of the purple race cars or sports cars in Transformers history. Well, there's a very slight resmeblance in car mode to Cybertron Megatron. Robot Mode: A somewhat stumpy figure with bulked up shoulderpads (rear fenders) and wide feet (front fenders), not really the sort of body you'd expect from a Blurr. The spoiler sticks up behind the robot's head, and the car canopy piece looks like an apron. The head is molded with a large visor and chinguard that covers the mouth, so only a narrow slice of face is visible. There's two molded Rescue Bot symbols, on the spoiler and on the abdomen, so he's realllly proud to be a member of the team. 4.5" (11cm) tall at the head, 5" (13cm) at the spoiler, and mostly deep purple and white with some light gray, sky blue, and neon green. The spoiler and a lot of internal struts are light gray plastic. The backplate and wheels are black plastic. Everything else is deep purple plastic. There's a lot of gloss white paint on the head (face sliver, ears, center strip of helmet), chestplate, and feet. Interestingly, rather than worry about careful masking, they painted more purple over parts of the chest and feet, so there's purple paint over white paint over purple plastic. The wheel hubs and visor are neon green, the apron windows and foot headlights are light blue. There's silver on the toes, the part that's the front "bumper" edge. No accent paint on either Rescue Bots symbol, but the package art has the chest one done in neon green. No articulation at all, it's a statue. Can't even really wiggle the arms without automorphing. The hands can hold 5mm pegs, for what it's worth. Transformation: Pull forward on the spoiler, everything transforms. The arms tuck to the sides, the legs pull together and the toes point down, the chestplate slides up to hide the face. Pulling the spoiler down/back reverses the process. At least if it's going to be a brick, it's good to be a "clever automorph" brick. Vehicle Mode: While the driver's compartment makes me think of a LeMans racer, when I ran pictures past a car but friend, he pointed me at the current generation of Pike's Peak racers, which have most of the design elements of this toy: weird scoop front end, big spoiler, rood scoop, and some even have the wasp waist. A number of Pike's Peak designs do start from LeMans-style bodies as well. Given the terrain around Griffon Rock, a Pike's Peak racer would certainly be a good design to work with...I've seen the Pike's Peak track in person, and it's pretty insane (yay, no-railing hairpin turn at the 13,000 foot mark with several hundred feet down before anything might stop you). The color balance is a little off, it really needs the white paint on the rear fenders implied by the package art. The silver at the front end sort of balances the unpainted light gray spoiler. 5.25" (13cm) long. While the front end is only held in place by springs, it's not a problem during regular "roll around on the floor/table" play. When you pick it up, though, it feels pretty loose. Customization notes: A few bits of neon green (close to standard Constructicon Green) would not be amiss, but there's so much difference between the art and the actual mold that any attempt to make the toy match what I presume is the animation model would be pointless. [Later note: http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/RBBlurr.JPG reverses the arm patterns to fit the mold, but the extra white really helps with the visual balance in both modes.] Overall: Well, it's nice to have them expanding past the core six again (the four actual Rescue Bots and loads of copies of Optimus and Bumblebee), but this one feels like it wasn't quite ready to go. Like they changed their mind about how it should look in robot mode, but didn't bother adjusting the toy. Still, decent if you can get it for $7. Dave Van Domelen, got an order from HTS today as well, and may try reviewing some of it during surgery recovery to see how pain medications affect his critical skills....