Blurr

Height: 13.5cm (robot); 14.5cm (vehicle length)

Articulation: 24 total points - hinge + swivel neck; 7 points each arm: "Clavicle" joint, double-jointed shoulder, upper arm swivel, double hinge elbow, ball joint wrist; 4 points each leg: Ball joint hip, mid-thigh swivel, hinge knee, hinge ankle.

Colors: Molded sky blue, medium blue, light cyan, black, smoky clear; Painted medium blue, light cyan, white, dark blue, gold, red.

Accessories: Small guns x2, Large rife

Release Data: Released in October 2010 in the US at a retail price of US$11.99.

Author: ExVee

(more...)

There are those who suppose, based on his high-speed history and fast-talking demeanor, that Blurr lacks patience. Those people are wrong. He appears to be always on the move because he always has somewhere he needs to be - delivering a sensitive data packet, or a round of electro-laser fire to a Decepticon squad. When he must wait, he can do so in absolute silence and stillness for hours, until his target is centered in his crosshairs.

I dunno, that doesn't seem to fit most popular depictions of Blurr. Maybe it's an excuse to justify the giant sniper rifle. Not really much to say here. When Blurr was shown off at Botcon, some people seemed glad that there was an alternative so they wouldn't have to buy the toy as Drift. Though in fact I suspect a fair few of those people may have turned around on that stance once Drift wound up being pretty impressive with those swords. Whether it impacted the anticipation for this use of the mold, I'm not sure if it mattered much since Blurr and his wavemate Dirge have come to be the most scarce set of toys from Generations so far. Thankfully case revisions for wave 5 have eventually added a unit each of Dirge and Blurr which may help their availability a bit from this point forward.

Maybe.


Vehicle Mode

Unlike Drift, Blurr comes across as a relatively ordinary car. Though I guess compared to Drift nearly everything looks like an ordinary car. It's a small thing, but that Hasbro did plan ahead to have a much more sanely sized spoiler available for this mold scores big with me. While Drift totally had an aftermarket dumbass version, Blurr's spoiler is much shorter and looks like a manufacturer option. The only thing about Blurr's vehicle mode that'd attract attention is the relatively complex paint job striping the car in increasingly lighter steps of blue, and reaching white in a stripe from the middle of the hood up to the high point of the roof. To Blurr's credit, the very dark blue used to paint in the rear window is a great match to the appearance of the clear plastic the other windows are made from.

Other than the spoiler, Blurr doesn't have any physical differences from Drift in vehicle mode. As sometimes happens with recolors, the parts fit seems a little bit better. The hood panels seem to line up and close tighter together than on Drift, so the gaps are less pronounced. Amazingly, the stored rifle does not introduce any ground clearance issues. Gotta give the designers some credit here for making sure the available space would properly accommodate either weapon. Sadly even with that being the case, it doesn't work to reverse the rifle and stick the barrel out the front for an attack mode.


Transformation

The best part of this recolor is that the ankle struts aren't made of clear plastic anymore. I'm guessing that means that for whatever reason those pieces are on the same sprue as the light-piping elements for the head. Since that was one of the scarier parts of Drift's transformation, it feels more relaxed to transform Blurr. In my case, the windshield seems a little hard to securely tab into the chest, but that may be an individual variation.


Robot Mode

The most obvious body change is the head. Based on the IDW comics redesign rather than the original cartoon appearance, about the only thing in common between the two is the crest atop the helmet being based on the similar "stabilizer" element from the original toy, as well as the Cybertron toy's remolded head. The head has about the same functional range of motion as Drift did, though Blurr's neck seems to be extra stiff for swiveling to either side. Combined with the pointy bits on the helmet and turning the head will probably hurt you more than him.

Much less obvious in this mode is that the holsters are new pieces. The exterior door surfaces are still the same as Drift's, but the internal panels are among the extra sprue's worth of parts planned out for Blurr. It gives a little bit wider opening inside the doors to carry the smaller guns. But while Drift's sheathes did a very good job of firmly holding his swords in place, Blurr's holsters are a little bit too big and so the guns can fall out. Not really a major thing unless you're holding the toy upside-down, but watch out for it.

Where Drift excels remarkably with ability to pose with swords, Blurr doesn't turn out so amazing. Obviously, every original point of articulation is still there and there's nothing added to get in the way of moving those joints. But the thing is, it doesn't take a lot of unusual bending to hold and point a gun. It will always be nice to have a Transformer with such extremes of posability, but for making use of the specific accessories Blurr comes with, they're really not contributing very much. They help out when using the giant rifle, no question. But as fantastic as was Drift's ability to make good sword poses, that the accessories themselves deny the same potential in Blurr tends to make everything feel less interesting.

Blurr's paint operations are allocated differently from Drift, and by accentuating different details helps to differentiate the appearances of the two toys. Plus Blurr is packed out with three different and really nice shades of blue. If nothing else, he's really pretty to look at. It makes me wish somebody with better color sense had designed Drift so he could have possibly been more than just dull brown and plain white with a few red streaks.


Accessories

-Big Gun

Most sources are agreeing to call this a sniper rifle, and while it seems to be missing details like a high-power scope or other appropriate targeting mechanism, generally speaking sniper rifles are the only rifles you're likely to find of such length short of tearing a deck gun off a ship. The easiest truth is that Blurr's rifle bears only the vaguest passing resemblance to any kind of real gun.

Anyway, stood on end, the rifle comes clear up to Blurr's neck. The rifle is of fairly stiff plastic, but even so this particular rifle has a slight bend to the right. In a smaller piece it probably wouldn't be noticeable, but spread over a few inches it becomes more clearly evident. The forward grip hinges to either side, and both it and the trigger grip share the unusual shape of Drift's sword handles - meaning that newer figures with partly-open hands may not be able to hold these weapons effectively. Closed, block-fist figures should have a better time working with them if you're set on trading any of Blurr's guns out.

This is the only weapon that makes really effective use of the specialized articulation the mold has, and even then just in the two-handed configuration. Even if this is intended as a sniper rifle, I'd more easily see Blurr racing through a battle field using it more like a small cannon. Besides, can you actually envision Blurr sitting still long enough to be an effective sniper? Just in case you can, the small guns can tab in near the end of the barrel to make a bi-pod to prop up the rifle for stability and extended waiting periods. Or you can fit them backwards and make some kind of crazy triple-barrel rifle.

Unlike Drift's Sword of Awesome Huge Coolness, Blurr's rifle snaps into the back clip at one point and doesn't slide up or down. So while the second clip is still present on this use of the mold, it serves no function.

-Small Guns

These are a little more ordinary. They're unusually narrow and long for Transformers weapons, but that's more a concession for utilizing the designed storage spaces. They actually most make me think of a small pistol-grip combat shotgun, though missing things like a stock or magazine. No moving parts to be had here, and fortunately these are short enough to not have any visible bend off center.

They fit into the door holsters grip-up, and as noted earlier sit a bit loose in the slots. The tabs along the top of either gun also force them to only fit correctly on a specific side, much like Drift's swords had to specifically be left and right. The barrel diameter being less than 5mm, you can actually thread the barrel through Blurr's fists and have him hold these guns two-handed as well. They also have the odd-shaped grips, so the same open-hand problems may occur.


Closing Remarks

What made the mold exceptional as Drift was its unusual degree of ability to pose with swords. Blurr's guns don't offer the same chance to show off the figure's moves, so if this is your first version of the mold it may not seem to live up to the hype.

The deco is flashy, but not a lot worse than normal sorts of racing stripes real cars get stuck with. However, this degree of paint makes errors more likely, and while I've personally seen three examples where the paint operations came out fine, I hear this may be the exception rather than the rule. But weighed against the scarcity of this assortment it may well come down to a case of take what you can get.

Between the range of new parts and creative deco planning, Blurr and Drift manage to be fairly distinct from each other. The mold plays completely differently with each set of accessories, so I think this is definitely a case to get both uses. If you can FIND Blurr, of course. I can't call Blurr Excellent, but if only interacting with the accessories on an "average" level is the worst thing I can accuse the toy of, I'd say that's Very Good.

Now, if a third use of the mold rolls around, I'd probably have to think a bit harder about picking that up. Unless they find yet some new way to pull out the awesome using only the existing parts...

-ExVee