General Information: Images:
*Images with asterisks and text in italics from Transformers.com:
Most of the time when people think of rescue vehicles, machines like police cars and ambulances come to mind almost immediately but there is another component of course: air support. In the case of the Rescue Bots the air support is Blades, an Autobot who transforms into a helicopter. This isn't the first time a Transformer was named Blades. This goes back to Generation One where the helicopter based member of the Autobot "Protectobots" team was named Blades.
Robot Mode: Looking at the body, the theme continues. The top part of the chest looks like the top of a suit, with folds near the shoulders that almost look like fabric. The torso design has layered rectangular designs, tubes down the side and a huge sculpted Autobot symbol in the center. His arms look nice and bulky, giving him a look of strength, something not always common in aerial based Transformers. His legs are somewhat thin since they make up two halves of the vehicle's rear section, but there are distinct feet and ankle sections that keep the figure nice and stable. The "cute" section of the design is largely based on proportions, particularly the head. Proportionally speaking it's quite large, but if you shrunk it to about 2/3 the size I could easily see the proportions working out to about a "regular" Transformer figure. He's got big feet too, but that's hardly unusual for Transformers. Blades is cast in light grey, orange and translucent blue plastic. The majority of the plastic is light grey with the other parts in orange. The dome behind the robot head is translucent plastic. Paint applications are done with a liberal amount of dark grey, orange and a spot of yellow. The grey is used for a large portion of his legs, fists, shoulder joints, th elower par tof his face and the tubes on his chest. It's a great contrast and looks great against the orange and light grey. The yellow is used to color his eyes, but since the visor section is so big it's quite a bit for eye detail. There's no articulation to speak of on this figure as is typical for Rescue Bots figures. However, he does have holes in his fists that allow him to hold the vehicles/equipment found in sets such as the Microcopter. I do find myself wishing the figure would have had elbow articulation built in (since the transformation precludes having shoulder articulation). It's not a deal breaker, but definitely gets some points taken away from the figure.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode: This simple type of transformation has a lot to do with the design philosphy behind the Rescue Bots. The idea of each of these figures is to have a child focus on using a certain set of motor skills, but not overly complicated to the point where they're folding panels around and swinging limbs left and right. Here, the motion being emphasized is rotating a knob, and in that respect the figure is very succesful. The gear system that is behind the transformation works very smoothly. It really simulates the visual effect of a character transforming by himself.
Vehicle Mode: You can push the rotor to spin it. In vehicle form, you can still connect one of the tools to Blades' fist to give him extra equipment in vehicle mode.
Final Thoughts:
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As long as Transformers have been around, there have always been sub-lines of toys dedicated to a younger age group than the main toy line. In 2011, the "Rescue Bots" line takes this role. Focusing around Transformers working with humans on rescue missions using equipment ranging from helicopters to rocket packs. Unlike previous attempts such as "1-2-3 Transformers" and "Go-Go-Gobots" however, this line actually includes Generation One inspired characters in it. This line is firmly aimed at the younger set (ages 3-6 according to the packaging), so I'll say right away that older collectors may find it a bit lacking by their standards.
