Tuesday, 22 September 2020

Another Public Service Announcement

Having acquired Studio Series Blitzwing this last weekend, it didn't take me long to notice something slightly adrift with the figure. No, not the lack of paintwork or the strange choices of accessory storage: a minor assembly error.

If you take a look at any of the cgi images of Blitzwing from the Bumblebee solo movie, you'll notice that the fins on his shoulders are angled backward. They're also larger and feature red paint, but let's ignore that for the moment. It appears as though the fins are angled forward on the toy so they can be folded a bit more flush with the body in vehicle mode... But they also feel a little floppy, and the sculpted detail on the shoulder doesn't seem to line up as well as it ought:


There's a distinct forward tilt at the joint, and the panel lining at the base of the fin isn't quite in line with the line on the grey shoulder mass. It's not far off, but just enough to look bad when coupled with the mismatched angling of the base of the fin with the joint socket it sits inside. The 'back' of the joint rises above the level of the socket, while the 'front' is sunk well below it.

Thankfully, the fins aren't pinned in place, so pop 'em off, swap 'em round, and you get this:

Suddenly, everything seems to line up properly - more than that, though, the fin almost clips into place in this position, and the joint is nowhere near as floppy as it was with the fins the other way round. They're still too small versus the CGI, and of course there's no red paint on either side, but it looks far better generally.

The only downside is that, in jet mode, the fins now butt up against the shoulder section's transformation hinges in jet mode, where they used to fold in behind them. It actually doesn't look too bad, though. In fact, considering how much robot junk is under the wings already, it almost looks intentional - like a part bridging between the jet's body and the supplementary engines hidden under the wings:

I'll obviously get into more detail about this figure once I have the opportunity to set up my light tent and take some better photos, but I'm genuinely more impressed with Studio Series Blitzwing than I'd expected to be, even having seen some video reviews.

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