Prime Spotlight: SXSToy R-02 Overclocking

Prime Spotlight presents: 

SXSToys R-02 Overclocking

By Stygian360

Bottom Line (**** stars- <out of a possible 5>)


Introduction:

I’ll just say it; I’ve never been a Blurr fan.  His character on the G1 cartoon had perhaps the most annoying cartoon voice ever and for a landscape rife with cartoon voiceovers that could very easily grind even the heartiest teeth to powder that’s saying something.  Also, his character was essentially two colors- blue and a lighter shade of blue.  This made for perhaps the most uninteresting color scheme imaginable.  Lastly, he never really did much of value on the cartoon and was pretty much relegated to ‘uninteresting Transformer does something’ on each episode in which he appeared.  So, when SXS announced plans to do their version of Blurr I was less than excited.   Not only was there zero nostalgia there on which to build a foundation of good will, the version they were choosing to do- his Cybertronian alt mode and no version of his robot mode that I’m familiar with- I was more puzzled than elated.  That said, now that I have Overclocking in hand I can only sing his praises.  So, does he do a good job of erasing John Moschitta’s awful scattershot G1 voiceover from my mind?  Let’s find out.


Articulation:

Better than I was hoping for, I’ll just start there.  Anytime a figure I wasn’t expecting much from blows me away I’ll definitely doth my hat to it, and Overclocking deserves as much ‘dothing’ (is that a word?) as I can manage.  He’s got all of the requisite swivels, pivots, and joints you’d expect from a standard third party figure plus a few surprises; like really good ankle tilts and hip/leg swivels.  All of his joints are nice and tight as well.  The one concern area is the somewhat loose wrists, which one hopes will not become a problem down the road.  Why would they?  After all they only hold his gun and make his all-important gesticulating movements.  The very same movements that could signal his fellow Autobots to safety or, if they broke off in mid battle, could mean certain death for all involved!  Seriously though, the aforementioned wrists don’t interfere with holding weapons or any other functionality fortunately, but again may be something to keep an eye on or at the very least treat with care.


Paint:

Well, there’s not much here.  I think he has a grand total of roughly two paint apps- silver on all of his exhaust vents and on several pistons near his neck/head.  Otherwise he’s molded in color.  Having silver paint on his face would have been a nice touch, but it also would have ruined the G1 feel that SXS is going for.  Sometimes less is more and at other times less is less.  In this case I’d say it’s a clear case of the former working in favor of the whole.  Had they gone crazy with paint apps it wouldn’t be Blurr, and since this version of the character is more interpretational it might have been more dangerous to stray too far from what’s expected.


Transformation:

His transformation is fairly simple and straight forward, but definitely manageable and not vexing.  That’s probably the best way to describe what’s going on with this figure.  The one area of concern for some might be creating the ‘sluice tunnel’ on his back in bot mode that allows his head assembly to slide back on pivot joints, but otherwise he should be a fairly straight forward and fun transformation.

 
Bottom Line:

Overclocking surprised me on many levels- all of them good.  No one gets me to like a character I’ve formally found lackluster without really trying their best, and to that end SXS has done a wonderful job in convincing me that, under the right conditions, Blurr can actually be cool.  In other words I’m officially a convert!  That’s not to say that I’m now a fan of John Moschitta’s voiceover, but hey you can’t ask for everything all at once.  Ultimately this figure is well deserving of a purchase.