 |
 |
 |
 |
|
By Daniel Suh
Depending on whether you go by the cartoon or the comic, G1 Shockwave was either a bootlicking caretaker or a coldly logical badass. Now we have Energon Shockblast, who between constantly mouthing off to Megatron and killing several Autobots in cold blood, has shown himself to be his own badass.
Artillery
Mode: The first of Shockblast’s alt modes is a mobile
artillery cannon. This bad boy measures about 27.5 cm (11.8”) long
and is primarily purple, silver, black, and military green, with translucent
green panels on the main gun and metallic gold, silver, bronze, and blue
accents. On each side of the turret section is a translucent green panel
with a large purple “M” painted over it. There’s also
some faint silver airbrushing on the treads and twin rear guns. A moulded
Decepticon symbol is at the right side base of the cannon and a spark
crystal is mounted on the turret.
It’s hard to say whether this mode is extremely lame or extremely
cool. On the one hand, if you look at it
for more than five seconds, it looks less like an actual vehicle and more
like Shockblast in a rather painful yoga position. OTOH, it rolls pretty
well on five small wheels and has a heavy wedge-shaped battering ram on
the front, a HUGE (15 cm[6”] long) main cannon that elevates nearly
60 degrees, and twin rear guns. Both the cannon and the smaller guns are
mounted on a fully-rotating turret, however, rotating it too far in either
direction will cause the vehicle to fall over from the sheer weight of
the main gun.
Shockblast’s main cannon requires two AAA batteries. His single missile is black with a translucent warhead. Insert it all the way into the barrel, then begin pushing the large black trigger forward. The three translucent blades on the cannon will open up and you’ll hear a bizarre “charging up” sound, kinda like what a 50s’ era sci-fi robot would make. Push the trigger all way, and the three small solar panels on the gun open up (check out that pretty gold vac metal!), the barrel extends, the missile launches well over a metre depending on the trajectory, and there’s a firing sound. Needless to say, it’s a pretty damn cool firing sequence.
Satellite
Mode: This is the mode we’ve seen Shockblast employ
thus far on the show, and it’s VERY cool. Measuring 35 cm (13.8”)
long and 30 cm (11.8”) wide, this Decepticon spacecraft looks quite
capable of annihilating entire cities from orbit. And unlike the mobile
gun, this seems like an actual, distinct alt mode, one that requires a
reasonable bit of transformation. It has seven vac metal gold solar panels
(three on the cannon, four on the wings) and an eighth gold solar panel
on the underside of the small gun turret. It also has what could be construed
as bronze-coloured 16-shot missile pods on its wings (especially since
it’s really clear from the show that this isn’t an actual
satellite). Finally, there's a peg on Shockblast's forearm for attaching
Energon weapons or Mini-Cons.
Transformation: Fold up the solar panels, swing
down the arms and legs, and rotate Shockblast’s head
around.
Robot
Mode: Standing 19 cm(7.5”) tall including his antennae,
Shockblast is . . . fantastic. Simply, utterly fantastic. Without question
the best damn G1 homage in Energon to date, combining elements of the
old and new in one beautiful package. He’s got that familiar camera-like
head, with pointed antennae and that sinister single translucent green
eye staring blankly but penetratingly. Hold him up before a strong light,
and the effect is almost chilling.
Shockblast’s articulation is second to none. Antennae, head, neck, shoulders, left elbow (two joints), thumb, waist, hips (ratchet joints), knees (swivel & hinge), and ankles. Early on, there were fears that his enormous cannon arm would hinder stability and poseability, but I can assure you all that this isn’t the case. Between his numerous joints and extremely large feet, Shockblast can in fact attain a wide variety of active poses. His hyper mode consists solely of opening up the two solar panels on his back. He also has pegholes on the top and bottom of his left hand for attaching Energon weapons.
Overall, Susp Sez: Next to Energon
Megatron, this is easily my favourite Decepticon toy. An absolutely
superb toy, one of the very best ever. If you can’t enjoy Shockblast,
then, well, you’re just plain weird.
“Sorry, chump! This is the end of the line!”
-Shockblast
