The Studio Series assortment began as a celebration of the film characters from the Michael Bay movies, but has since expanded to encompass The Transformers: the Movie, another theatrical release. This means that, at least theoretically, any character who appeared on-screen in the 1986 movie is potentially eligible for inclusion. But, what's Hasbro to do when a character with a major presence, like Blaster, already got an updated toy during Kingdom in 2022? Why, release it under the Studio Series banner in slightly different colors, of course!

I got this guy direct from Hasbro Pulse, having preordered it on my birthday, March 7th. I like that it only took a month to arrive.

Believe it or not, I don't always go out and purchase every single minor color variation that Hasbro produces. Um, I can't think of any at the moment that I've skipped, but trust me, they must exist. Anyway, my point is that I normally wouldn't have gone after Studio Series Blaster, probably, as the Kingdom release was perfectly fine. But, the translucent version of Kingdom Eject really, really bothered me. He was being treated like an energon weapon, not a character in his own right. Admittedly, he's not a terribly important character (he didn't even get any dialogue during the G1 cartoon), but this release was attractive enough for me to want to update my collection. I didn't buy a whole new Voyager-class toy just for the accessory pack-in, what are you talking about?

This release reminds me a lot of the retro reissue of G1 Blaster, which also got a redeco intended to closely match the G1 cartoon.

So, from an aesthetic standpoint, Studio Series Blaster is distinctly different from Kingdom Blaster. All the black plastic (his rifle, biceps, upper legs, and boom box handle) has been swapped out for a charcoal grey, which is more in keeping with his animated look (black toys were almost never colored pure black in the show, because then you couldn't see the black pen lines used to draw the characters). The robot toes are also painted a medium grey. The shade of red plastic used on the toy is slightly less orangey, a little less like the G1 toy and a little more like the Sunbow animation. The rectangles on his shoulders are no longer painted black, bu the twin circles above each foot, unpainted on the Kingdom release, are now painted red. His robot face and forehead are now an off-white color instead of metallic silver. Pretty much all of this was in service to achieving fidelity to his animated look.

The tape deck door gets special mention here, since they created a new deco to mimic the design on the window from the cartoon. It's sort of a stylized cassette, with a Kermit the Frog pupil shape that vaguely suggests the presence of a tape inside the deck. The tape deck window was previously translucent, as it was gang-molded with Eject, but now it's opaque blue that's been painted grey in the relevant spots.

Tape deck mode has some new paint deco to improve its look, with additional grey paint on the spots on the bottom front of the boom box where the G1 toy's hips and upper legs originally were. None of the sculpted detail is painted black any longer, with only one of the two volume knobs now painted charcoal grey (the G1 version was asymmetrical and only had the one knob). The boom box handle also gets a bit more paint so that the entire handle is grey except for the center grip. All in all, I really like the look of the Studio Series version better. He just looks more like the Blaster I remember.

I think the tooling for Blaster's electro-scrambler gun might have been fiddled with slightly, since it fits very tightly in his hand now. It's not loose like it was with the Kingdom release.

Eject is now entirely opaque plastic. He still has the dark grey upper legs and arm connectors and backside, but the head and forearms are painted an eggshell white, which brings him closer to his cartoon appearance. They even gave him the grey face mask, orange face, and blue eyes, which must have been incredibly hard to paint correctly. He's also got a tampographed Autobot symbol on his chest. There's a little pentogram-shaped spot on the mold that seems like it was always intended for one, but he didn't get this tampo for the Kingdom release. The impressive sculpted detail is actually easier to see on the opaque version, since it doesn't get lost in the tranlucency.

So, obviously Hasbro's goal when designing a toy is to be able to sell it as many times as possible to maximize profits. I had zero interest in the Shattered Glass version of Blaster, but I did pick up Twincast, mostly because I really wanted Rewind. I can't believe they suckered me again and got me to buy this toy a third time! But, I really do love it when they get these toys to look like the cartoon. Generally speaking, the closer they get to Sunbow, the happier it makes me.

Zob (now I really wish I had a couple of little yellow guns for Eject. I think I've seen some third party versions on eBay...)