Name: Aquablast
Series: "European" G1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Engineer
Alternate Mode: Sports Car
Thanks to Tiby for loaning me Aquablast for this review.
CAR MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 11.5cm Width: 5.5cm
A very dark green sports car, Aquablast has a bubble canopy and rounded hood to match. Most of the body is a solid dark green while the hood is a painted dark green. The front two thirds of the canopy is transparent yellow while the rear third is painted a solid yellow - and a very bright, "tennis ball", yellow, at that. The spoiler is silver with a yellow bellow on top for his gimmick. There are some black and red "danger" stripes on the sides of his spoiler and doors while the tyres are black with chrome silver hubcaps. There's a bright yellow sticker on the hood, sporting a G2esque Decepticon logo. The colour scheme is good in theory, since the dark green is something different, but that mismatched tennis ball on the back end of the canopy just ruins it.
I'm not sure if Aquablast is based on a rear car model, but he looks more or less like he could be. Naturally the yellow is far from realistic, and the silver spoiler is purely fictitious since it's part of his gimmick. Sculpted headlights (which are transparent yellow, if you look closely) and taillights along with a bump on the hood make me suspect his based on an actual car, although I have no idea which.
Aquablast is a member of the Decepticon team known as Stormtroopers (a name which no doubt reminds of Star Wars), and the central gimmick is a water-squirting mechanism. There are small silver nozzles on the front of either side of his spoiler, which shoot water stored in the yellow bellow at the back when the bellow is compressed. It's not a terribly impressive gimmick although it works reasonably well. There's a secondary gimmick based on the painted hood. If Aquablast is himself shot with warm water on the painted bonnet - presumably by an Aquaspeeder (the Autobot version of the Stormtroopers), his bonnet will turn yellow. The changing paint is unimpressive, and the greens are notably different to the point where I'd rather they left out the colour changing gimmick, but the water shooting is good enough.
While the gimmick isn't much really, the dark green is a nice idea and there's a hint of real car here. The play value ends up being good for the era, but the choice of tennis ball yellow paint on half his canopy really hurts - it ruins what would have been a fairly decent car mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Detach and set aside the spoiler. Fold out the rear, which will split. Pull the doors out to the sides as arms which will cause the hood to flip over. Clip the hood into place as his chest, fold the rear right over to form his boots. Rotate the front of the canopy up, fold down his head. Pose the arms, place the spoiler between his hands as a weapon.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10.5cm Width: 7.5cm
A dark green robot with navy blue forearms, a black head with transparent yellow face and transparent red on his thighs, groin and collarbone. The colours sound worse than they are since much of this toy is very dark. The tennis ball yellow is now his feet, and while I'm still not a fan of the shade, they do work as feet. The face is roughly T-shaped, and has an excellent lightpipe (as is the case for many toys of this era); below this T are gold cheeks. The Decepticon logo is now on his chest. The silver weapon rounds out a somewhat muddled colour scheme which manages to look reasonable despite using two different transparent plastics and that awful yellow.
His bodyshape is questionable - the boots are huge and, unsurprisingly, are dominated by the yellow feet. His chest sticks out a long way at the top, and there's giant gap between this chest and the red collarbone. He's stocky and wide. It's not a total disaster, but this is below the standard of most Transformers, and lags behind toys of this era.
The play value here centres on the gimmick, which is to be expected, I guess. Unusually, Aquablast must hold his gun in both hands. There are posts on either side of the spoiler which plug into the insides of his hands (there are no holes on the top of his fists), and he'll basically hold this weapon at hip height. The bellow can again be compressed to fire streams of water out of both nozzles. The green paint - now on his chest - will again change colour if splashed with warm water. The poseability is limited to his elbows lifting up to 90° and the shoulders lifting out to the sides a little.
A limited robot mode with an unusual, somewhat restrictive, weapon. The colours are muddled but still look respectable. The shape is off, and while the lightpipe is great, it's the highlight of a pretty disappointing robot mode.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
One of the weaker Stormtroopers, Aquablast's dark green is poorly complimented with tennis ball yellow and a transparent red in robot mode which doesn't really need to be here. The car mode is nice aside from that stupid yellow, the gimmick is okay but doesn't really sell him while the robot mode is poor despite a nice lightpipe. Tricky to find now but not a toy I'd recommend hunting down - 5/10
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