420 Blaze It! Lockdown is always high!

Why?

Because he’s so tall.

Harharhar.

…

I’ll see myself out.

Vehicle mode

This thing is both adorable and menacing. The Animated aesthetic makes him look much less harsh than his ROTF reimagining but as far as Animated goes, Blazing Lockdown is pretty brutal. Black and gold flames suit him very well. The neat thing is this doesn’t feel like some random repaint. The paint scheme feels like something Lockdown would rock in the show.

Kudos to the engineers, the car mode has no annoying kibble whatsoever. Even the underside is relatively clean. Some people like to nitpick that you can see the head through the windscreen. It’s true but it doesn’t bug me.

For playability, Lockdown rolls on all four wheels just fine. The undercarriage is very tidy so there’s no problems there. His engine block can be taken off but it can’t deploy the EMP blasters in this mode. That’s weird.

Transformation

Based on how different the car mode and robot mode look, I thought the transformation would be complex if not difficult.

Nope.

It’s actually quite simple and it’s amazing to me you could get such a big difference between modes with such ease.

Robot mode

Wow. Blazing Lockdown is tall. Like seriously, why can’t Hasbro make all their Deluxes this tall? It’s nuts.

Blazing Lockdown is not completely show accurate in sculpt but it’s bonkers how little of him hints that he can transform into a car. The only obvious thing is that he has tyres visible on his legs. Also, the paint isn’t accurate but it’s very Lockdown. Black and green is for when Lockdown is a bounty hunter. This is for when Lockdown is a chainsaw murderer. Brutal bro.

Blazing Lockdown has a ton of articulation. His head has swivels in two different places for starters. His arms rotate as well as go in and out at the shoulders. He has double jointed elbows. The lower one is a ball joint, so he swivels there. His hands swivel inward for the transformation. He has a waist swivel. The legs go in and out as well as rotate at the hips. He has thigh swivels and knee bends. Lastly, his toes can bend downward.

Gimmicks

Lockdown’s main gimmicks involve his weapons. The chief one being the engine block/EMP blaster. Plug it onto the top of the removable car hood and put it on Lockdown’s arm. Press down on the engine block and the EMP blaster cannons deploy on both sides! It’s a fun and show accurate gimmick.

Lockdown’s next weapon is a new one made just for this repaint. Instead of a hook, you get a chainsaw! It’s a decent size and is molded nicely. The chainsaw plugs into the front of the hood. It’s either for jousting in car mode or a hand replacement in robot mode. It’s a nice extra that Hasbro didn’t need to include but did anyway. Nice one!

Toy or collectible?

Lucky for the kids! Blazing Lockdown is still affordable enough to be a good fit for them! I say affordable but MISB he’s about the same price as a Siege Deluxe class. I personally got a great deal on mine loose and complete for RM30 ($7.50).

Adult collectors who are nostalgic for Animated should definitely get Blazing Lockdown. He’s a great figure with great paint. Even if you’re not completely onboard with the Animated aesthetic, you should give Lockdown a shot because:

1) He’s an all-round great Transformer.

2) He’s one of the tallest, if not the tallest Deluxe Transformers ever produced.

Closing

This is a fantastic mold to begin with. Giving it a great new colour scheme and a chainsaw make me like it way more than I thought I would.

If you don’t have a version of this mold yet, you won’t regret getting this one even though it’s not show accurate. It’s very pretty and suits Lockdown just as much as his actual on-screen colours.

Also, in my humble opinion:

Chainsaw > Hook.