General Information: General Images:
*Images and text from Transformers.com: Engage in a mighty Metallikato battle with these two detailed figures! In vehicle mode, convert the mighty AUTOBOT WHIRL figure to a Sikorsky Pave Low helicopter and drop the safety raft from its cargo doors! In robot mode, the raft converts to a blaster! Get ready to unleash DECEPTICON forces with this awesome DECEPTICON BLUDGEON figure! With an extending cannon and spring-loaded “blades” in robot mode, this is one fierce foe! Convert from robot mode to a personnel carrier in vehicle mode and flatten the competition! The battle is on – and it’s heading right for your living room! Figures come with accessories. Ages 5 and up. As part of the "expanded universe" of the live action Transformers movie universe a Toys R Us exclusive two pack was released with a "versus" theme between two masters of "Metallikato". Metallikato is an ancient Cybertronian martial art first introduced in Generation One in the tech spec of the character Bludgeon. Bludgeon was said to be a master of this art and now in this universe it looks like he has competition in the Autobot known as Whirl. Whirl himself is inspired by a G1 character of the same name. Each figure was packaged in robot mode side by side in a "Revenge of the Fallen" box similar to those used for the Voyager Class of figures, just larger.
Bludgeon Images:
Robot Mode: For the most part, the plastic color replacement is fairly simple on this figure. The red plastic from Wreckage has been replaced with brown, the grey with black and the white with green. The exception to this is the head, which is brown instead of black (as a true one to one replacement would have made it). The translucent red plastic has been replaced with translucent purple, both on the robot head and the gun in his torso as well as the blades of his weapons. Bludgeon's paint applications use white and black. The black color is used to fill in a lot of details including the vent details over his shoulders on the back and on his waist. The tubes and machinery details on his waist are also painted black. There is also a black Decepticon symbol on the right side of his chest. White paint is used on his shoulders, feet, chest and face. The face is perhaps the most appropriate use as it makes his face look even more like a skull than it did on Wreckage. I also really like the use of the black color on the vent details, it makes them stand out more and it is a detail that was left unpainted on Wreckage. The brown and green colors are callbacks to the original Bludgeon, who was primarily green and brown as well. However, the shades of brown and green used are much darker here. I really appreciate the way the base colors of the G1 Bludgeon were used but in a way that reflects the more realistic aesthetic of the movie universe. All of Bludgeon's joints are tight and his weapons still attach snugly into both his hands and the holes on the underside of his arms. Something I neglected to mention in my previous review is the ability of his two weapons to combine into a single, double bladed weapon. Simply slide one handle over the other and he can hold the weapon in his hand, on the underside of his forearm or attached to the wheels on the side to form a "spinning blade" weapon. This isn't documented, but it definitely works (the two weapons lock together tightly) and looks really cool. Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
Vehicle Mode: In this form, Bludgeon is primarily green, with most of his brown parts now covered up. You can see a bit of them peeking out on the underside of the vehicle but that's about it. The wheels and the machine gun in the center are black, with green paint on the sides of the wheels. More black details show up on the sides in the from of letters/numbers reading "KN-2764". I would have liked to see a few more decos in this form, especially when Wreckage had such a nice camo design pattern. However, it balances out a bit if you consider Bludgeon gets some details painted in robot mode that Wreckage didn't. The green color does connect Bludgeon a bit to his G1 predecessor since that character was also primarily green, albeit a brighter shade than this green.
Whirl Images:
Robot Mode: The other piece that was modified from the original sculpt is the accessory included with the figure. Blackout included a mini-Scorponok figure, but I guess an evil mechanical scorpion isn't particularly friendly looking or rescue oriented. When Evac was released Scorponok was replaced with a life raft that would double as Evac's weapon in robot mode. This accessory is really cute, with rounded edges and a tent like structure in the center presumably to protect anyone betting their life on this device. Underneath the tent you'll find rounded lines that replicate the appearance of inflated plastic sections along with seams in between them. The joy of this raft is that in this mode you turn it over and swing the handle down to create a weapon. It turns out that part of what this raft has been floating on are missiles, with machine guns sandwiched in between! I have to admit to have gotten a good laugh about this. It's a bit absurd but it also plays into the irony of having a good guy rescue helicopter also serve as an instrument of doom for Decepticons. Whirl is cast in four plastic colors: dark blue, light blue, black and translucent red. The dark blue makes up most of his body, with the light blue taking second place on sections such as his legs. Black is found on smaller parts such as his hands and his head. The translucent red comes into play with his visor eyes. Most of the blade weapon is dark blue, with the rotor blades cast in black. Many of the paint application colors mirror his plastic colors. Dark blue, light blue and black are all found on the robot mode. The light blue parts have dark blue paint on them and vice versa. This creates a nice pattern, especially on his legs and shoulders where the paint applications help create small patches of detail that are distributed throughout his body. Yellow and gold are two colors that show up mostly on his upper body. On the center of his chest is a yellow patch with a black Autobot symbol painted onto it. The windows on his chest from the vehicle mode are painted gold, adding some nice metallic paint flair to his color scheme. Light blue is used on the helmet portion of his head, which contrasts very nicely with the black plastic that makes up the lower portion of the head sculpt. The color scheme described above is largely inspired by Whirl's G1 counterpart. That figures' primary colors were also a mix of blues along with a red eye and some yellow details. I really appreciate the effort the designers made to try to work in all the various G1 colors into this figure in some way, shape or form. As a homage, it looks really nice. All of Whirl's joints are right in this mode, thanks in part to a few of them being ratchet joints instead of just simple ball joints or hinges. This is especially important for his primary action feature in robot mode: his blade weapon. Attach the blade weapon to the pegs on his shoulder and attach the peg under the rotor engine into his fist and he is holding a rotating blade weapon. Stability in his joints (especially his arms and legs) is very important to allowing this weapon to properly attach without tipping the robot over to one side. It is neat that the designers paired him with another character with blade weapons, creating a martial arts versus set up that is different than the average boxed set and fitting for both characters. Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
Vehicle Mode: In sharp contrast to Blackout's grey coloring, Whirl is a very strong dark blue in this form. Unlike the robot mode where the light blue broke up the colors a lot, almost all of his armor plating is dark bue in this form. He also has silver and black plastic in this form as well. Light silver is used on the pods mounted on the sides of the vehicle and darker silver on the front of the tubes near his rotors. Black plastic is used for the rotor blades themselves and the tube sticking out the front of the vehicle. Paint applications are minimal, with the windows all painted silver and those on the sides outlined in yellow paint. More yellow appears towards the back, wrapping around most of the tail section. On the tail section is an Autobot symbol printed in white on each side with the letter/number combination "N073A0" next to it. So much for disguise! Still, the colors work very well together and harken back to the colors of G1 Whirl. All of the gimmicks in this sculpt still function including pushing the grey piece in the back to rotate the rotors and the button that opens up the cage in the back to release his rescue raft. Also, while it makes zero sense in the context of the character, you can still attach Scorponok to the underside of the figure to have the character's claws spin while the rotors do the same.
Final Thoughts:
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The original Bludgeon was a Pretender. That means he was a robot with an outer layer of armor that resembled an ancient samurai warrior. The Pretender "shell" had a very distinctive skull face that gave it the appropriate level of creepiness for a bad guy. The actual Bludgeon character himself was a robot that transformed into a tank. This made Wreckage an ideal figure to redeco as Bludgeon. The vehicle mode of an 
Whirl is named after a G1 Autobo who also transformed into a helicopter. Whirl was never featured in the cartoon show, but he did make several prominant appearances in the G1 comic book as part of a team of Autobots known as "The Wreckers". In reality, the toy that was used for G1 Whirl's toy was licensed from another Japanese toy line, but its likeness was not approved for use in animated form hence his absence from the animated program. For this exclusive, the designers used the base sculpt of Evac from the 2007 movie toy line, who was a redeco and retool of 
