Fortunately Takara/Tomy has picked up the slack with their adaptation of the Animated series, giving the obsessive fans like me one more chance to fill the holes in our collections.
[i]Blackout[/i] is one such example, originally introduced very briefly in the show's third season & scheduled for a toy release that would add some much-needed muscle to the Decepticon forces.
Blackout in Vehicle Mode is an attack helicopter. We can ignore the fact that the character never took on an Earth-based form in the series because-yet again- Animated has chosen to incorporate another element of the Transformers multiverse, specifically Michael Bay's Movie-verse. And in that regard Blackout as a chopper makes perfect sense.
The vehicle design is pretty good with a rather impressive arsenal- six gatling guns plus a few missile launchers. As with most helicopter-transformers the rotors occasionally have trouble staying attached.
Blackout in Robot Mode is a solid fighting force, bulky and heavily armed. Articulation is very good-full movement in arms, legs and waist. He also sports minor articulation in the fingers, which I like. It disappoints me that we couldn't get rotating wrists but IMO that's not a deal-breaker.
A couple people have made some derogatory remarks about Blackout's face, namely comments along the lines of "Robot Wilford Brimley." I'm not sure I see the resemblance but its still funny.
This is arguably Blackout's signature weapon; his Vehicle Mode's tail rotor becomes a disc-launcher. Nice change of pace from the regular swords or cannons but it does disappoint me that the tail rotor can't fit anywhere else in Robot Mode.
Overall I'm pretty satisfied with Blackout (though as a lifelong Animated Addict that cannot be a surprise). He's a solidly-designed mold with a large amount of play value. Everything I could want from a Transformer toy!
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