When Titans Return rolled around, they decided to reboot all three of the Decepticon triple-changers, Astrotrain first, then Blitzwing, and finally Octane... but on the Autobots' side, they wisely chose not to attempt a new Springer, because the version we got for the 30th Anniversary of the brand was damned near perfect. Sandstorm was therefore unlikely also, as the existing version was derived from the same mold. Broadside, though, hadn't appeared again in the toyline since the barely-transforming triple-brick from Generation 1, and so seemed fair game.
Of course, a robot that turns into an aircraft and an aircraft carrier was never going to be a simple propostion - for one thing, how do you solve the issue of scale between the three modes? - and, somewhat predictably, the toy started to attract scorn from the very beginning... But is it really that bad?
Jet Mode:
Let's start with the most contentious of the three modes: the alleged 'jet'... Before I start, though, note that the first thing I did when I got Broadside out of his box was to switch his tail fins and stabilisers round so they actually face the right way in jet mode. Nothing annoys me more than 'backwards' fins used as a means of making a jet or spacecraft look 'more Sci-Fi', particularly as cover for other shortcomings.
That out of the way, it cannot be denied that aircraft of all kinds tend to be the most difficult to turn into effective robots - the wings and nose frequently end up being relegated to 'backpack' status rather than being active parts of transformation, and far too many TransFormer planes are actually robots stuck on the underside of a plane, and the two can be separated without either part losing any structural integrity...
...So, much respect to Broadside's designer(s) for attempting to create a reasonably believeable jet silhouette using parts that also need to create an aircraft carrier and a robot. Moreso, when you consider that this same basic structure also created the robot lion/spacecraft triple-changer that is Titans Return Alpha Trion - a figure I avoided like the plague because the 'lion' mode is laughable, the 'spacecraft' mode is clearly a placeholder for Broadside's aircraft carrier mode and the robot... is just about passable. So here, in place of a dubious robot lion, we have a dubious jet. Its main wings are tiny, it's back end is ridiculously chunky, there are gaps everywhere and - no surprise to anyone - there's a distinct absence of landing gear.
In all honesty, though - and focussing on the fact that this is a triple-changer - this is hardly the worst aircraft the TransFormers line has ever produced. The front two thirds are actually pretty reasonable (if you ignore the squared-off flap below the nose), and it's really only the mess of barely connected chunks at the back that lets it down. The two raised sections at the back - which could, conceivably, be some sort of Macross-style FAST Pack tagged onto the jet - are separated by almost a full centimetre of space and don't really connect with the main body of the jet on the underside - they're almost like Star Trek-style nacelles on their angled limbs, and their connection to the chunky wing pontoons is perfunctory at best, with large, awkward spaces all around.
A better colourscheme may have helped, as the distribution of red and two shades of grey isn't exactly in Broadside's favour, and the use of translucent blue plastic for the wings and tailfins makes almost no sense. Coupled with the flimsy, poorly-aligned and detail-disguising stickers on the former, the end result is underwhelming. Making matters worse, a lot of the 'detail' on show is actually just the reverse of panels that go to make up the upper surface of the aircraft carrier, so what detail there is looks like an afterthought... and for very good reason: that's exactly what it is. If they'd pitched it as some sort of spacecraft, they could probably have made a go of it, but as a terrestrial aircraft, this 'disguise' is an abject failure. On the upside, the colour matching between the grey painted red plastic and red painted grey plastic is actually very good, the only mismatch being the glossiness of the red paint versus the red plastic.
The jet's cockpit opens up and accommodates Blunderbuss comfortably, and even features a tiny control panel at the Titan Master's feet. The frame of the canopy could have used a bit of paint, but this is a common enough omission (it's not painted on Takara Tomy's TF Legends version either) and looks OK. I like the translucent blue panel behind the cockpit, which resembles the co-pilot's section of a cockpit, but actually features a small amount of robot chest tech detailing, sadly disguised by an Autobot insignia sticker.
Broadside's only weapon - a translucent blue Titan Master bath with a gigantic laser sticking out the front - can be plugged in to the central red section toward the back. Basically, it's plugging into his groin, and it's blatantly obvious that it's just plugging into his groin, because the back end is obviously just the robot's legs in a weird cyber-yoga position.
I don't hate this mode as much as many folks online seem to, but nor would I deny its shortcomings... it's disappointing to see one mode of a triple changer treated with such obvious contempt, after the awesome version of Springer we got just four years previously. It probably looks enough like a jet to pass for younger kids, but the same could be said for the G1 figure... and haven't we moved beyond that? It's the kind of vehicle mode that you can look at and think "another few weeks in development and that could have been better...". What's quite odd about the way Broadside is constructed is that the way the front of the central chunk grows out from the nose either side of the cockpit, ending with a vertical cross-section as if it's expecting to line up with the wings... but the wings are on chunky pontoons that are too low and entirely the wrong shape to line up... almost as if the nose section was intended for an entirely different model.
There are some third party add-ons that purport to improve the look of jet mode, but it's really a bit of a lost cause unless you only really want them to give Broadside his original G1 gun and axe.
Aircraft Carrier Mode:
It's this mode where Broadside's resemblance to TR Alpha Trion becomes rather more obvious because, aside from being extremely flat, and having an entirely different back end, this 'aircraft carrier' is basically just Alpha Trion's spacecraft mode with a different paint job. This mode is where Broadside feels 'right' in every respect except scale - not only is he an aircraft that turns into a traditionally seagoing vessel that carries aircraft (yeah, OK, the name may have given that away), but the toy actually comes with a set of dinky Aerialbot jet modes to plug onto the many Titan Master pegs on his main deck.... So, come on, Hasbro, how do these scale with the Titan Masters who also make use of those pegs... or the one who sits in the control centre/mast when transformed into its 'throne' configuration? Which is the 'right' scale? Are the Aerialbot jet modes and Blunderbuss both to scale, making Blunderbuss one of the largest Titan Masters? Or is Broadside's seagoing form actually substantially smaller than a real aircraft carrier, and the dinky jet models are tiny drones rather than the real Aerialbots?
But let's put such trivial concerns aside for a moment and look at Broadside's carrier mode on its own merits. The main deck is nicely detailed - panel lines everywhere - and painted a decent shade of functional 'battleship grey'. The main runway and the numbers on the prow are stickers... and I strongly suspect they ain't going to last long. All of the stickers meet up with at least one transformation seam, and they were peeling straight out of the box. What's all the more frustrating is that the stickers cover sculpted landing strip details, so paint would have been far more effective anyway. Going by the sculpted detail, there's meant to be a second runway, leading straight off the prow of the vessel - indicated by straight, sculpted parallel lines featuring repeating 'arrow' details - but this is neither painted nor stickered as such.
The control centre - which folds up from one of Broadside's arms, roughly speaking on the starboard quarter - is instantly recognisable and seems more-or-less to scale with the Aerialbot jets. Shame it wasn't cast in the translucent blue plastic, so absence of paint could have been used to indicate windows, but it looks OK as-is. One subtle detail I rather like is that nets have been sculpted in to the protrusions from the rim of the main deck - particularly where there are pegs to attach the mini-Aerialbots or Titan Masters - a genuine feature of aircraft carriers, intended to catch equipment and personnel unfortunate enough to get blown overboard. There are also hints of lower decks protruding on both port and starboard quarters.
The main problem with this mode is its singular lack of features - the translucent blue bath/gun can plug into a hexagonal port just fore of the Autobot insignia or in ports on the outsides of Broadside's arms, now forming the sides of the ship, but that actually has a negative impact on the look of the vessel. Now, granted, the main 'features' of an aircraft carrier tend to be its largely flat, featureless main deck and the fact that aircraft can take off from and land on it... but this is a TransFormers toy, and I'd have hoped for a little bit more, even just a couple of extra guns that could flip out from the many sculpted panels around the ship.
What it does have - perhaps an attempt to make it look as if it's floating - is a set of fold-out struts, to raise it over the surface it's standing on. The single strut at the front is stable enough, but the two that fold out roughly in line with the control centre don't quite fold out all the way, and are inclined to fold back in if Broadside is jostled in any way.
Also, as briefly mentioned above, the control centre can transform into a throne for Blunderbuss to sit on, but this just raises those questions about scale all over again, so it's probably safest to leave the control tower in place.
Robot Mode:
While G1 Broadside was a slim brick in all three modes, and robot mode in particular looked like a few robot parts barely protruding from a box, this one takes a more IDW-inspired route, making him a hulking brute of a robot, almost as wide as he is tall. Due to the conflicting evidence of his two alternate modes hanging off various parts of his anatomy, it's difficult to give his robot mode any real sense of scale, even next to other Voyager class robots from the toy line. However you look at him, though, Broadside looks very powerful. His shoulders are massive blocks, the left featuring the aircraft carrier's control centre and mast, the right possibly wielding some form of missile launcher, going by the sculpted detail. The forearms are large boxes with flip-out fists, the thighs are chunky and the lower legs are enormous (made more so when the jet's tailfins are in the stock configuration, as they stick out further). The torso tapers inward from wide chest to trim waist to protruding groin, though the effect of this is limited somewhat by the large plate of aircraft carrier hanging off his back as a cape, giving him a broader silhouette all the way down.
Where the G1 toy was a grey box perched atop a red box, the Titans Return remix distributes the colour far more evenly, adding a lighter shade of grey for the thighs, biceps and fists. His chest is red plastic with the grey central part, around the faux-cockpit, painted in, and the grey landing struts for his carrier mode almost work as pale grey pec-piston detailing. He doesn't have any of the weird, multi-colour tech detail implied by the G1 figure's leg stickers, but he does have lots of panel detailing sculpted into virtually every surface, and the jet's wings can be made to flare out, cape-like, from the backs of his shoulders for a bit of extra colour. Between those and the slab of aircraft carrier hanging off his back, he certainly has a higher cape quotient than I've seen on a TransFormer since Dark of the Moon Sentinel Prime.
The unfortunate side-effect of having flipped his jet mode tail fins and stabilisers round is that they don't connect properly on his shins anymore, and the end result is rather untidy lower legs and partially covered feet. Then again, from what I've seen, when they do connect as intended, they stick out quite far and look pretty odd... Neither strikes me as ideal, frankly, I'd have preferred it if they could have folded outward, flat(-ish) against the legs
As with a lot of these Titans Return figures, the 'handgun' - featuring a large cavity designed to accommodate a Titan Master figure - is overlarge and unwieldy, even in the hands of a figure as bulky as Broadside. This being his only accessory makes it all the more disappointing and frustrating. I understand the thinking and the logic behind these weapons - they're designed to be tagged onto the base modes of other figures - but a standalone figure surely deserves a weapon they can wield on their own, like most of the Deluxe class figures and - let's face it - other triple-changers like Octane. On the upside, the weapon can be mounted on either shoulder via a 5mm port, though this leaves the long barrel sticking out quite far ahead of Broadside... and, no matter where it's mounted, it still looks like a bathtub with a gun sticking out of it.
Blunderbuss' head mode is both an excellent update of the G1 Broadside head sculpt and a generally good looking Titans Return head - it's a fairly brutal and generic-looking robot head, but it suits the bulky frame of the larger robot perfectly. It works well enough on its own - with full rotation on the Titan Master neck joint - but, at the touch of a button on his belly, the standard gimmick of the Voyager class figures deploys - in Broadside's case, what looks like an additional pair of launchers springs up either side of his head. It think this is the only example of this feature that actually improves the look of the figure (except perhaps TR Alpha Trion/Legends Lio Convoy, but I haven't bought either... yet...) so the reduced range of rotation is a small price to pay.
Titan Master Blunderbuss
Blunderbuss is one of the super-lucky Titan Masters who just happens to be molded in not two, but three colours of plastic. Unfortunately, what he may gain in plastic colour variety, he loses in detail work as he's also one of the completely unpainted Titan Masters.
I should probably pay a bit more attention to these figures, and get an idea of which ones share parts but, frankly, the Titan Master gimmick was never Titans Return's selling-point to me... and in many cases, I'd probably have preferred to be able to buy the character without the gimmick.
As I mentioned at the start, I've switched the small fins/wings round to favour jet mode rather than robot mode, but that doesn't actually affect transformation a great deal. The fins aren't quite so cooperative in aircraft carrier mode, and all the flappy bits look terrible in robot mode but, personally, I'd rather that than backwards fins in jet mode, even if I virtually never see jet mode. Getting between modes is smooth and simple enough, with various bits and pieces reconfiguring around Broadside's central mass and, while getting him into jet mode isn't what I'd call intuitive, the most complicated part is probably remembering to swing the shoulders down level with the waist for jet mode - that, or accepting that, yes, that's what the finished 'jet mode' looks like. Carrier mode is largely a simple case of straightening out the robot parts, then tabbing panels together to form a flat surface. Broadside certainly ain't the most complicated triple-changer on the market... or even in the Titans Return line... but he is strangely satisfying, for what he is.
This basic mold probably isn't one of the best Voyager class structures, with more bits hanging off it than just about any other figure but, on the upside, the bits hanging off the back don't get in the way of the arms and the bits hanging off the arms don't clash with any other parts (or, if they do, can be moved out of the way to minimise it). Broadside has more effective ankle joints than just about any other TR figure, since his transformation effectively gives him an upper and lower ankle bend, though he only has a small amount of hip rotation and no ankle tilt, so the double-jointed ankle isn't as useful as it could be. Also, as is almost always the case these days, with fists that fold into the forearm, he has no wrist rotation.
I never picked up any of the G1 Autobot triple-changers because all of 'em were rather crappy... Having picked up Thrilling 30 Springer, I didn't then pick up Sandstorm because it was essentially the same toy with a few new parts and a sunny colourscheme. I also have the FansProject version of Springer and, for quite some time, considered picking up their awesome take on Broadside, which avoided the scale argument entirely by being 100% sci-fi in all three modes. I have to confess I have developed a soft spot for Hasbro's flawed update... it's unashamedly a brick in one vehicle mode, unrepentently lumpen and crap in the other, but has a hulking, powerful-looking robot mode which - in my opinion - makes up for all of that.
Broadside is very much a "your mileage may vary" sort of figure, and he's obviously nowhere near as good as Thrilling 30 Springer... but then, what is?
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