Transformers Animated Blackout
Conflict.
All our favorite bad guys love it. It’s fuels war, business and high school. It ends friendships and businesses relationships alike. It’s apparently one of the reasons we lost season 4 of the great Transformers Animated series; Hasbro and Cartoon Network couldn’t come to terms.
More than any other attempt since the original series, Transformers Animated really embodied the best of Generation 1. The characters were true to the personalities we remembered, the alternative forms were correct (Autobots were cars, Decepticons were jets), and the writing was a mix of childish humor and adventure. The only problem people had was the style of the art, but we quickly got over that after watching the first few episodes. Story is king.
Sad to say, it didn’t last. It was announced that the planned fourth season was never going to air. I felt exactly like I felt when Robert Jordan died and left Wheel of Time hanging. Argh argh.
But at least we still get the toys.
Blackout is one of those that we didn’t see after Hasbro decided to pull the plug on the toyline that went with the series. Included among those are a Bumblebee with a Jetpack (or hydro-pack), the triple-changer Megatron and several others. Some like Cybertron Ratchet, Arcee, and Hot Rod saw release as Toys R’ Us Exclusives. Others, like Blackout, were worked into the subsequent Takara Japanese line.
The character was one of several that didn’t have a Generation 1 counterpart, having been introduced in the 2007 movie. The Animated toy has the same alt form, a heavy helicopter, but with a decidedly organic, anime-ish feel to it, almost caricature.
The toy is in it’s vehicle form in the package (probably because it’s too oddly proportioned in it’s robot form). It’s box is the same as Takara Ironhide’s, with the same basic design but with different colors and photos in the back. I’m completely impressed with the product photography on these boxes, with a mix of practical and digital effects. The post work on the photos isn’t too heavy, so you can see that it’s still the same figure your getting, but the effort into putting them in a diorama and adding fire effects is amazing.
To read more about Blackout, click HERE.
