Name: Bludgeon
Faction: Decepticon
Function: Electric Warrior, Master of Metallikato
Decepticon Bludgeon was nearly destroyed by a fight with Metallikato master Autobot Whirl. Forced to retreat and hide, he scanned a new vehicle mode and disappeared into the Southeast Asian jungle. He is desperate to prove himself against and Autobot, however, so he has caused just enough chaos locally to attract the attention of Ironhide. Now he lies in wait for the Autobot, ready to spring his trap and destroy his victim in an instant.
Alternate mode:
Bludgeon indeed has had an hefty upgrade. As previously reviewed, the Whirl vs Bludgeon pack, Bludgeon was simply a deluxed sized blade master, still impressive, but merely a repaint of a previous figure. The reformatted Bludgeon is now a voyager class sized tank, which is more appropriate as continuation of the character from the Pretender days to the tie in with the next generation. In “jungle tank mode” Bludgeon is loaded with details, from the tank turret and the cannon, to the mounted machine gun to the dual missile launchers attached to the sides of the turret. He resembles a Japanese Type 90 tank, which makes sense for the toy line. Aside from the details and rotating turret, the tank has rubber treads as well.
Robot Mode:
Bludgeon’s robot mode is a great tribute to the G1 version as well as the comic version of the toy. Mixing the old and the new, Bludgeon looks somewhat like this concept art. The figure has nice robotic samurai feeling to it, with helmet, shoulder chest and leg armor, and especially the samurai long and short sword. One of the features I like about the figure is the hidden show sword compartment opens from the turret to reveal the sword sheaths. The long samurai sword tucks into the cannon to form the cannon barrel and the small sword tucks into a sheath that is completely hidden in the turret chamber.
The transformation is relatively straight forward and there is not much kibble under the tank as you can see in the picture. Nice thing about the hilt of the sword is that it tucks in snugly and is not made of soft plastic. Bludgeon has various articulation points which enable poses including the double clutching samurai sword.
Overall, I was rather pleased to add the figure to my collection. The price was $22 USD and I found the figure at Target. Bludgeon is part of the new Revenge of the Fallen 2010 wave NEST Global Alliance. I think the only thing that could have improved the figure would have been a better head sculpt, as the current sculpt has a samurai helmet, and is supposed to be a skull with red eyes, but the top of the face is the only thing that resembles a skull at all. The bottom of the nose down to the chin tier off into almost tusk like protrusions, with hallow cheek bones and a handlebar for a chin. Everything else on the figure is spot-on, and I can overlook the weak head sculpt because the original G1 figure was not that impressive in my opinion either. What comes to mind for me when I think of Bludgeon is the comic book villain who was just crazy enough to try to kill everyone.