Transformers War for Cybertron Kingdom – Blaster and Eject review

There’s no doubt Blaster would be the drip king of the Transformers. He’d be all about the slime with his fellow Autobot Jazz. Those terms are well beyond my era of being cool, but I’m confident Blaster would know even if modern kids would scoff at the idea of lugging around a boom box in a completely unironic manner.

Blaster has been on my wish list for the War For Cybertron line for awhile especially as I’m building up the Transformers: The Movie cast. Blaster had some great moments in the first half of the film, but for some reason he had to sit out the rest of the film.

Thankfully his exile doesn’t extend to the fantastic WFC line as this looks to be yet another definitive take on a beloved 80s Autobot in a far more affordable line than the Transformers Masterpiece series. Crank the volume up to 11. It’s time to see if we’re rocking with Blaster or sending this relic online.

Packaging: Blaster gets the Voyager class designation of the Kingdom branding. We’re seeing Hasbro use a lot less plastic on the packaging. That means very little of the figure is shown through the window. It’s an admirable goal to help protect the environment, but I’m worried this is going to make it harder for collectors to spot flaws, missing parts or swapped out pieces.

I do love that the packaging allows for a much bigger picture of Blaster in both his robot and alt mode. The side package picture hasn’t been changed, which is kind of weak since I always think it’s cool to see the new characters incorporated into the larger collage art.

Over on the back, we get pictures of Blaster and one of his cassette sidekicks, Eject, in both modes with a helpful illustration of how Eject works with Blaster. Poor Eject didn’t get incorporated on the main package artwork. I still miss the bios with the stat breakdown of the characters.

Likeness:  Blaster had one of the cooler designs of the second wave of G1 characters. I always liked his half helmet plate, as it made me think Blaster was wearing his hat to the back.

A neat aspect of Blaster’s design is how it improves on the aesthetics of Soundwave. His speakers are prominent on his legs and the tape deck setup on his chest looks more modern.

You see how he becomes boom box, but there’s some clever design elements that make Blaster such a fun figure. His right hand is sculpted so he can hit the tape deck button and sic his cassettes. I wish this were an articulated finger instead of being permanently outstretched. A bigger aesthetic gripe is the open arms.

Ideally, Hasbro would have engineered some sort of setup to have them enclosed so we didn’t see the inner workings of the arm.

Eject is a simpler figure with transparent frame components with see-through shoulders, arms and legs.

It’s a different choice and Hasbro probably could have just made those pieces solid, but he does look cool with direct light on him.

Alt Mode: Blaster’s alt mode is a boom box as he’s Soundwave’s counterpart among the Autobots.

In that same vein, Eject is one of the cassettes that fits into the Blaster’s tape deck.

Transformation: Blaster isn’t overly complex and can be switched to boom box mode in 20 steps.

In an encouraging sign, I didn’t have to run to YouTube for help with Blaster and could just follow along with the instructions. Even better, once I had his transformation down he was pretty easy to do back and forth.

Eject is even easier as his transformation is so simple and instinctual, I didn’t even need to check the instructions.

Scale:  Blaster is tall. He’s just a bit shorter than Ultra Magnus, who is a leader class figure.

While his G1 figure was tall, it was always surprising that the cartoon tended to make him a standard height from most of the Autobots. Now, he’s looking down on most of his fellow Autobots.

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Paint: The Kingdom figures haven’t had a lot of problems in terms of the paintwork and Blaster and Eject don’t break the trend.

My Blaster figure has a little red overspray along the face plate, but that was about it. That’s good considering red and yellow don’t always play well together with oversprays. Both the red and yellow are striking with bright hues that help him to pop.

Eject’s gold accent points are clean and his tiny head didn’t have any paint issues that I could see from a regular distance.

Articulation: Blaster was portrayed as a more athletic and agile Autobot. Must be all the breakdancing? He’s got a pretty decent center of balance and doesn’t topple over easily with a mere touch like some other Autobots. His tight joints also aid in him staying very stable in various poses.

Due to the overall weaker foundations of the figures, Blaster is a little top heavy, which mainly just impacts running poses.

In another nice touch, Blaster’s tape deck opens thanks to a spring-loaded setup. The only slight problem is if you’re not paying attention you’ll push the latch and open the deck without much effort.

Blaster has:

• neck
• bicep
• ball-jointed shoulders
• elbows
• wrists
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hips
• thighs
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankles

Accessories: Blaster doesn’t have a ton of accessories, but you’ve got to consider Eject when factoring in Blaster’s accessories so that’s a major one. Still, I wish Hasbro included Rewind, Steeljaw or Ramhorn for multiple cassette options.

He comes with his larger blaster. It’s got some nice detailing.

And in another nice touch, the rifle can be plugged onto the back on Blaster in boom box mode.

Worth it?  I got Blaster on sale cheaper than the standard $29.99. I don’t think that’s a bad price for him considering you get two Autobots and a very cool alt mode.

Rating:  9.5 out of 10

 I wish those arms were enclosed somehow, but in every other meaningful way this is a tremendous figure and a great modern take on classic Blaster.

Where to get it?  Blaster is now getting a repackaged version as part of the Legacy line, which helps if you missed the original version. If you strike out at retail, you can always grab him from Amazon, GameStop or Entertainment Earth.

As an Amazon Associate and GameStop/Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.