I recently picked up the Hasbro reissue of Blaster from Amazon, and the Takara reissue of Twincast from a collector friend locally.
The box on Blaster has the looks, but the cardboard is SUPER-thin, like too thin so prone to warping, tearing or being damaged in the mail.
On the front – the classic toy based art – and more on the back with one of the wonderful murals that littered the back of G1 boxes and really enticed your imagination with a world of excitement.
On the sides of the boxes, some nice product shots that show off the toys. Note here the top flap on the Blaster box can’t even hold it’s own weight, so just sitting there it’s already causing a small tear and detoriating. The Takara box has normal thickness cardboard, the creases are from handling.
On the top of the boxes a nice visual of how to transform the toys. Well more an idea of it, it is not terribly helpful, and you could break the handle doing it that way.
Out of the box, and this is the most pristine, complete, non broken Blaster I have ever had the fortune to own. As you can see I have several Blasters, from my childhood junker that was broken and second hand when I got it, to a more recent less damaged one I got just a few years ago.
On the rear we can see Blaster’s telltale ears that are snapped off on the majority of vintage ones. Mainly as the design flaw has them hanging out past the edge of his back, if you lay the toy down vigorously or dropped it – snap goes those ears.D
A comparison with my Takara reissue Soundwave (I also have a vintage Soundwave that I’m giving away now to a mate) and Titans Returns Blaster in front with his boom box mode.
Up close with the reissue on left, and the typical vintage sticker wear and broken ears on the right. I didn’ break them, but received it like that.
The other fail point on Blaster is the handle, often snapped or entirely absent on vintage ones, you can see on the new one (left) how it hangs down if you don’t fold it in, now imagine a kid running around with or dropping that. Goodbye handle!
A wide shot with reissues in bot mode, two vintage blasters in the rear, titan blaster in front and a vintage cassette. The lion dude whose name I forget but I’ve had for about 25 years. The outer tape cover I think is from some other reissue, or might have been a spare with my reissue Soundwave perhaps.
Out of sight, and standing up to fight, Blaster and Twincast with their gorgeous non-faded color schemes and no floppy joints or sticker wear. It’s the first time I’m seeing these things in person despite still owning my childhood beater since about 1987-88.
Ready to jam or pop ‘n lock at any time, these thumping beats ain’t no crime.
There are many fan pictures online of large toys holding Blaster or sitting him on their shoulder boom box style. So I had to try it before I give one of these Blasters away to a friend. The main one from my collection is being replaced by the reissue. I’d like to keep it, but hey let’s share the wealth I always say.
A quick look at Twincast’s box, his two tape buddies are recolors of Ravage and the Lion dude, who now has tiger stripes. Actually it’s the reverse if I pay attention to the box art. Black lion, orange Ravage, don’t ask me why he’s brown on the box art. These two will get their own article when I get all my tapebots together for some photos.
On the rear of the box, Headmasters era art along with Horrorcons and Monsterbots. The revised legal mumbo jumbo sadly blocks out the bottom of the art, including the mighty Scorponok bottom left. But I have a big glossy hardcover book with all the box art anyhow, plus you can always find high quality scans of majority G1 vintage box art over at
to enjoy or download. Click on any image (at the link) to see them full screen.
There we go, much better, now you can see the art that was hiding under all that ugly text.
For a follow up I guess I better do a quick article on Blaster and Twincasts appearances in animation.
That’s it for this brief look at my reissue Blaster and Twincast.
THE TRANSFORMERS MULTIVERSE 