Name: Blurr
Series: Titans Return
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Cybertronian Hovercar
HOVERCAR MODE
Height: 4.5cm Length: 14.5cm Width: 5.5cm
A sleek blue hoverer, with two prominent outriggers on either side and a sort of air scoop on top towards the back - Blurr closely resembles the G1 toy albeit in a darker blue. The hood and the fronts of the outriggers are painted a lighter blue and there's a sort of sky blue in the centre around the canopy. The air scoop is a much darker blue. The basic colour blocking is a good match for G1, despite the difference in shades. There's an Autobot logo stamped on the back of the hood, just in front of the canopy. The entire rear half lacks any paint, so it may look too sparse for some - though I don't mind it. Overall it's a nice colour scheme, but I would have preferred the main shade match G1 - it's not that close, sadly.
Sculpted detailing is decent, if mostly just generic. Blurr's meant to look sleek, so it's appropriate that most of the sculpting is minor and blends into the background. There are jet engine outlets sculpted into the back end of the outriggers, just as on the G1 toy, which is the most notable aspect.
There's a fair amount of play value here. The canopy lifts out and his Titan Master, Hyperfire, can sit inside. Hyperfire is cast in the same blue, with silver painted arms, black painted boots and light blue on his face. Other Titan Masters can also pilot Blurr. His silver handgun can clip underneath the hood ... or on the outside of either outrigger, if you want (though it looks awfully unbalanced). There are three small plastic wheels underneath allowing Blurr to roll quite well.
A solid vehicle mode that ticks most of the boxes. The shape is definitely Blurr and the play value is good for a deluxe. The choice of blue is much deeper than G1 (and the G1 cartoon, if anything, make him lighter!), and that's my main gripe here. Some may find the back end sparse as there's no paint applications, though I don't mind that at all.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Open the canopy, pull out Hyperfire, fold up into head mode. Fold down the setback, close the canopy again. Unclip the front halves of the outriggers (his arms) and pivot out. Lift out the underside of the rear - to the sides - fold out the rear to form boots. Split the boots, fold away the air scoop (it ends up inside the right boot), close the underside to form his boots, flip out his feet. Stand him up, fold the hood down onto his back (there is another option I will come back to), push the chest in properly. Collapse the outriggers in to form his arms, rotate them down and fold the tips back to reveal his hands. Attach Hyperfire as his head, lifting out the crest. Give him his handgun and you're done.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 14cm Width: 6.5cm
Again a blue robot - the lighter blue is now only on his face and the hood piece. The sky blue is visible on his chest and there's another slightly deeper sky blue own his eyes (which is easy to miss). His boots are painted a slighter deeper blue than the main colour - so close it's easy to miss - but it _does_ match the colour of the G1 toy's boots well. There are some silver and red painted details on his boots (but not the Autobot logo on *top* of the glass as in promo pics), rounding out a rather spare looking paint job. It's actually not that sparse, both the choice of an almost-the-same shade on his boots gives that look. Again, the colours don't closely match G1, but they do actually look good in their own right.
This is a very nice looking robot mode, even if it's a little monochromatic. The crest on top of his head - which is a signature aspect of the character - set him apart from all the other Headmasters of the line, the general shape is great and there's a _lot_ of sculpted detailing here. The engine outlets sit on the outsides of his boots and look good there. The backpack formed by his hood is out of the way, visually.
Moving onto the play value, that hood can actually also be detached and plugged into either forearm or held in hand as a shield, like that of the G1 toy - although that toy could only hold it in hand. The forearm configuration looks more natural (and useful), but it's good we have both options. There's also the option of deploying a small "ski" thing on it, and using it as a sort of sled for Hyperfire, but of course this leaves a headless Blurr (or hoodless car) awkwardly aside.
Poseability is good. The head and hips are ball jointed, while his shoulders rotate and lift out to the sides. His knees and forearms are hinged with rotators and his waist turns through 360 degrees. There's no fist or ankle movement, while the feet _can_ fold forward on the transformation joint for some "step" posing. He's very stable too - even with the backpack on. The extending crest on his head is also surprisingly stable considering it lifts _up_ and relies on friction to stay there.
Choice of colours aside, this is a great robot mode. Good play value, great poseability, good sculpt and well... it's very much Blurr. I quite like the colour scheme, but yeah it's something of a departure from his G1 colours & the paint job looks sparse.
VARIATIONS
The Legends version, released in Japan, has very cartoon accurate colours - and a lot more paint to achieve that - which extends into pieces that rub against each other during transformation. Titans Return Brainstorm, Arcee and Nautica share the basic mould (though all are retools in various ways).
OVERALL
A really good transformer, with two strong modes, excellent engineering and play value in both modes. On the one hand he's held back by colour choices - which make him less G1 accurate and give the impression of being underpainted - and on the other hand the colour scheme is still very vibrant in its own right and has character. I don't mind the choice of colours, even if I would have preferred the G1 colours. Even with the colours being off-model, I still think this is a great update to Blurr - 9.5/10
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