Name: Blackout
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: MH-53 Pave Low Helicopter
Thanks to Tiby for loaning me Blackout for this review (I have since acquired Blackout).
HELICOPTER MODE
Height: 3cm Length: 9.5cm Width: 3.5cm, rotorspan 9.5cm
A grey chopper similar to the full sized, Blackout, Blackout's cockpit windows are painted a matte black while the six blade rotor is a solid black, along with the smaller rotor on the tail. The engines, refuelling probe and pontoons are painted silver. While this is a fairly simple colour scheme it roughly matches what we saw in the film, despite the low level of detail.
Ironically this is a better chopper shape than the larger toy in some ways. Firstly it doesn't have that awkward and loose cage under the tail for the Scorponok accessory. Secondly, the problems at the front caused by the automorph slipping teeth aren't an issue, since Legends don't have automorphs. Of course, we lose quite a bit of detailing at this scale, but the gun and refuelling probe at the front are both present. The tail piece is a little loose, but gravity keeps it in position, as opposed to pulling the cage out of position.
Play value is minimal as you might expect. The rotor spins quite well considering that it's made of two collapsable pieces. There are no wheels underneath, but Blackout has been designed to lay flat on the table, which I appreciate. The tiny tail rotor also spins freely.
A good chopper mode, even if the silver probably could have been darker. The colours work and this is a good representation of Blackout at this size - as Legends go this is a great chopper mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Pull the rear sections of the underside out and rotate back to form boots. Swing the rotor back, fold up the tail - the rotor ends up forming a three-pronged backpack. Split the cabin and fold down to the sides forming arms and revealing the head.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 8.5cm Width: 6cm
A grey robot with pale black thighs and upper arms, Blackout has a black chest which is fairly similar to the original, although it's not quite the false front I would have liked. There's some silver on his shins and face while his eyes are red, as in the film. His fists are moulded within the chopper nose halves, but sadly they're unpainted. The paint mask here generally pretty good for a Legends toy, save for the lack of paint on his hands - it does a great job of making this robot look like that in the film, despite having a vastly different transformation to the larger Blackout.
There's some simplification as you'd expect, but the shoulders are quite well replicated and the head is similar to the full sized version. The arms end up with some kibble on the outsides - the cabin halves - but overall he does okay. Even the blades on his back resemble the semi-folded blades seen in the film. The backpack is smaller than on the bigger toy, since there's no gimmick housed there.
The poseability is quite limited for a toy with six ball joints. The ball jointed shoulders provide most of the poseability, since the elbows hinge sideways. The hips and knees aren't much use, since the knees can't swing back and the footprints aren't large enough for the poses offered by the hips. So we have lots of ball joints, but only swinging arms.
While this mode isn't as strong as his chopper mode, it's not a loss either. Blackout is more static than I'd like, but he still looks pretty good and the paint job is quiet clever. The sculpt is decent, and he lacks that cheap feel that we see on many Legends toys.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of, although there is a Desert Blackout repaint. Legends Grindor is a repaint of Blackout.
OVERALL
A cool chopper mode and a good robot mode make this a worthwhile Legends mould. Other than the unpainted hands, I have no real complaints. Overall, Blackout's paint job is above average for a Legends toy, and while he's simple avoids that stupid Scorponok cage of the bigger toy, so this is a Legends toy worth picking up - 8.5/10
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