Protectobots: Blades

 Blades is a carry over from G1 Transformers Protectobots and like his predecessor he is still a helicopter but this time Blades is a Coast Guard rescue copter. His primary colors are red and white in vehicle mode. He has the words rescue stamped on his sides stating he is a rescue vehicle. The one thing I do not like that much about him is for a rescue vehicle he has missiles on his body instead so it makes him look more brutish than rescue. 

 Blades robot mode is slim and agile. in robot mode he is also primarily red and white. Being a repaint of Alpha Bravo is one of the reasons he has missiles on his body. As a warrior he would need some sort of weapons aside from his gun he comes with but it doesn't really make sense about the missiles. He is articulated at the shoulders with a ball joint, a bicep swivel, hinged elbows, a ball jointed head, waist articulation, ball jointed hips, swivel thighs, knee joints. For a combiner joint he has a good range of articulation. in this mode his rotors flip up and look like sword blades peeking up over his back. 

 Like all appendages of the combiner series Blades can be either be an arm or leg, as a leg there isn't much along the way of articulation and he doesn't make much of a strong looking leg in fact he is a very skinny and weak looking leg. As an arm he is much better looking he has double jointed elbow for Defensor and his connector port adds another pint of articulation for a shoulder joint. and then there is a joined thumb and a peg where his hand fits in as a rotating wrist joint. 

Protectobots Rook

Rook is a replacement for the deluxe class Groove who was the motorcycle in the original G1 release. Rook is a six wheeled S.W.A.T. armored vehicle. His primary colors are white and blue, with yellow ans silver accents for the vehicle lights and silver for the windows and motor. In this mode Rook is a squat powerful looking brute machine much like a tank without the turret on the top. Rooks weapons can attach on his 5mm ports that he has all over his body. There are two ports on the back of the vehicle mode one on his hood area and another in the front bumper where his silver gun thing can attach and act as a battering ram type weapon. The Defensor hand/foot can be used as a weapon too, for Rook the hand/foot that has the mini guns on the tip. You can fit two of the guns on the back of Rook and make him have heavy weapons on him. 

One mode that Rook can take aside from his vehicle mode is a leg or hand for Defensor as you saw in the last review. The leg mode for this character is very simple just fold down the bumper and lift the front hood section and flip up the connector port and then attach it to the desired port for Defensor.  











Rook's robot mode is an armored bot that looks like he is wearing a helmet guarding his face and also wearing a lot of armor. His paint scheme is completely different than his vehicle mode, in bot mode he is primarily black and blue with white legs and arms. Rook is a very thick bot with broad shoulders and a thick waist and his knees and feet are also thick like he is wearing a very strong armor. He is articulated at the shoulder on a ball joint, mid bicep swivel, a hinged elbow. The head is on a ball joint, he has waist articulation because of his transformation, ball jointed hips, mid thigh swivel, single jointed knees, and a slight ankle pivot. Rooks hands have a neat but also stupid design to them instead of 5mm ports on the tops of his hands like all other Transformers he has them on the front of his hands so his weapon goes in there like its a stabbing device instead of a gun or whatever it is. But if you really get creative you can take two of the Defensor hands and put them into the ports of Rooks hands and give him monster hands, he looks a little goofy but its kinda neat too. 

From the robot mode to the arm mode for Rook as well as the other appendages of Defensor is just a little bit of a Transformation. As an arm Rook makes Defensor have a really thick and muscular arm. To counter that he would have to have someone like First Aid as the other arm. I prefer to leave Rook as a foot that way it is evened out a little for Defensor. But as the arm he is double jointed at the 'elbow'. I like that the scramble city design for these is still in relative effect. 

I like Rook as a Transformer I just wish Hasbro would get on it and release Groove like Tomy/Takara did in Japan.  

Defending Cybertron

TRANSFORMERS COMBINER WARS DEFENSOR

Defensor of the Combiner Wars Story line is one of the many combiner figures we are getting last year and this year. Defensor is made up of 5 figures, one voyager sized one whom is Hot Spot the body and fire truck, then four deluxe class figures, Streetwise, the cop car and limb, Blades, the helicopter and limb, First Aid, the ambulance and limb, and the addition for the new series is Rook, the SWAT vehicle and limb. In the Generation One series one of the other limbs was Groove the Motorcycle but due to his size and that for some reason Hasbro decided to use Rook instead of Groove Tomy-Takara is releasing a Groove over in Japan and it is unknown if we will see him here in the US or not.

Defensor is the thickest of the three Combiners released so far, and by thick I mean the width from shoulder to shoulder, he far surpasses the width of Menasor and Superion. He is not the tallest of the three, Defensor is shorter than both Superion and Menasor. 

 Defensor has some really great articulation. He can move at the head via a swivel, no looking up or down unfortunately. He has hinged shoulders, with really strong ratchet joints for upward movement. Due to the figures being deluxes their elbow joints become doubled, he can also rotate at the elbow. His hands are on a peg that plugs into the wrist of the limb he is using as a hand, his fingers are grouped together so he only has open and close articulation. He has no waist articulation, because of the base body being Hot Spot. His hips are with ratchets and can also swing out so he can do the splits. His knees are hinged but he only has one joint there. There is no ankle articulation but he can twist the foot. All in all he is very articulated and I am supremely pleased with this figure. 

 Because of each figure being an individual piece the paint on them can vary but as I have looked over my figure several times he has very great paint applications. Defensors primary colors are blue, black red, and white but it is broken up and sporadic because of all the individual pieces being painted their own colors. 

 The weapons of Defensor are Hot Spots two guns combined as a giant sniper rifle as a kicker and a 'silencer' on the gun I added Rooks gun to it to make it even longer and more awesome looking. The shotgun that comes with Streewise is another weapon that can fit in Defensors hands. then there is Blades gun which I put on Rook whom is acting as his left arm. And the axe that comes with First Aid is just on his leg. 

In closing I really love this figure and cannot wait until they make more of the other combiners that I do not have. In my collection I have Superion and Menasor. Next I will get Devastator. Coming out next year is Optimus Maximus, Sky Linx and Bruticus. It is going to be a great next few years for Transformers.

My next review will be of Rook. I will for the next few reviews I will review the other limbs of this combiner and show their arm/leg modes and also Hot Spots torso mode.

Big dumb and awesome

ToyBiz, Marvel Toys who the fuck knows who made this gigantic piece of awesomeness but it was and is a great figure. This was what ever that companies name is/was when they made the Independent Heroes lines. Pitt was the first series BAF they had and he was the one most every fan wanted. I sure as shit wanted him, not because I was a fan of the comic, fuck I have never read any Pitt comics, but the figure was and is mother fucking awesome. Pitt was split in six parts packed with six different figures.

Pitt is as wide as he is tall which makes him massive. He is one of the most wide BaF's ever made for his size. He is about 8" tall which makes him damn near as wide. Pitt is primarily grey with blue torn pants silver chains on his ankles, wrists, waist and across his chest. He has a black colored vest on his back. Pitts hair is long and black and done in a rotating pony tail. His eyes are red, blood shot red. Pitt has a wicked smile on his face with very white teeth that are painted very well. The silver on Pitt's chains across his chest are rubbing off on his chest under the vest and leaving silver marks. There is a black wash on Pitt's jeans that make them look dirty as well as on the chains.

Pitt's articulation is a ball jointed hinge so he can look up and down. he has ball jointed shoulders. Single hinged elbows but the size of his arms limits his range of motion. His wrists are hinged with a swivel joint. Each one of his fingers is articulated in two places once on the knuckle and another on the upper digit. He has ab crunch and a waist rotation. His hips are ball jointed so he can do the splits, his hips swivel, he has single jointed knees, ankle rotation and hinge at the foot, his toes are articulated, so he can kinda stand on his toes.



















Like I said at the beginning of this review Pitt is an amazing character and the one thing I did not say is that my best friend Tyler gave him to me knowing how much I wanted him when he was doing a massive clean out of some of his figures. So Tyler thank you very much for one of the many center pieces of my toy collection I display the Pitt with pride and happiness knowing he is sitting right there as one of my lords of my shelves.