Transformers: Generations: Titans Return Leader Blaster & Twin Cast

There are a few things I need to say about the Titans Return line.

First off, the trading cards.  Hasbro made a big deal that they were doing real trading cards and not just a picture with no meaningful back.  I guess they tried, but in the then end, they failed miserably.  The cards suck.  There are only four ratings instead of the eight that nearly all other tech specs have had for 30 years (when we’ve actually had tech specs).  There is no quote or function, and the only bio is a couple lines on the back of the package, they didn’t even bother to put it on the card.  Hasbro fails again.  What else is new?

Secondly, what the fuck is it with Hasbro that they need to focus on only one theme at a time?  Why are we getting Targetmasters and Powermasters as Headmasters?  It makes no sense.  Worse yet, the two Targetmaster converts, Blurr and Scourge, both have awful paint jobs (or I should say, barely any paint jobs at all).  They put all the work into the real Headmasters and just mailed it in on the Targetmasters that they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.  As usual, they half ass everything, just like with Combiner Wars, where they ended the line without doing Terrorcons, Predacons, Seacons, Monster Pretenders, G2 Protectobots, and G2 Constructicons (in both colors).  I mean, they still could do those as box sets next year, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Thirdly, the Titan Masters.  Why can’t they be consistent?  Apeface, Brawn, Nightbeat, and Terri-Bull are named for the actual characters they are the heads for instead of the actual heads they represent.  Clobber and Skytread could theoretically be the Headmasters for Grimlock and Flywheels.  This makes no sense.  Pick one way of doing it.  It would make far more sense to name them for the Headmaster and not the character they partner with, as we are only getting the Headmaster.  Related to that, it really sucks that we aren’t going to get any real versions of the Headmaster Juniors or Headmaster Horrorcons.

Finally, the Headmasters are freaking tiny.  G1 Headmasters were way better than these, and had the ratings meter on the chest gimmick that they didn’t even try to reproduce.  Another thing that sucks is that the heads of the Headmasters are articulated.  This makes it so that the larger robot heads are articulated, but also makes it hard when plugging them in to Titan Masters vehicles.  G1 Headmasters were so much better, but that’s true of most G1 toys.

Anyway, on to the review.

Twin Cast

Titan Master: Twin Cast is the name of the Japanese Blaster Repaint.  I don’t hate using his name as Blaster’s Titan Master.  It’s better than most of the non-Headmasters turned Titan Masters.  But, if you’re going to use an existing character like this, then use his colors.  Blaster’s head sculpt is simply not Blaster.  It looks pretty cool, but is meaningless without the helmet on him.  They made Twin Cast look like Blaster which is stupid.  Paint him like Twin Cast.  How hard is that?  It’s not a great stretch of logic.

Blaster

Vehicle Modes: His cassette player mode is pretty good.  I’d have liked a little more of a G1 look for him, but it’s not bad.  He has a black plastic box which doubles as a “cassette” (more on that later) and a vehicle for Twin Cast when Blaster is in cassette mode since there is no way to put Twin Cast inside Blaster.  As to the base mode, well, most Transformers base modes suck.  I mean, Trypticon looks cool, but there isn’t much too him.  Metroplex and Scorponok aren’t very good.  Fortress Maximus is awesome, but it’s because of how enormous he is.  (I’m talking about the G1s, to be clear, though Generations Metroplex’s base sucks too.)  Smaller bases are completely lackluster.  Blaster is no exception.

Robot Mode: Blaster looks awesome!  He’s truly amazing, definitely the best version of Blaster since G1.  Now, you can put the Legends Class “cassettes” in his chest one at a time.  I find this idiotic as they are not cassettes, they are cell phone/tablet hybrids.  If they wanted cassettes, the they should have made them cassettes.  That does nothing to take away from how amazing Blaster looks in robot mode.  His head sculpt with the helmet is awesome.

Overall: Blaster is an absolute must.  I look forward to him being remolded into Soundwave.

Thanks for reading!