Blitzwing (Cloud)

Blitzwing is a Decepticon from the Cloud continuity.

"Chaaaarrrrr- Oh darn! My wallet fell off!"

Blitzwing (ブリッツウイング Burittsuuingu) is a Decepticon who resides in Cloud World's Underground. His inherent Triple Changer abilities are the envy of many Transformers across his homeworld, and have given him some... ideas of his proper place within the Decepticon ranks.

Fiction

Cloud

Blitzwing, consigned to the Underground along with other exiles from Metropolis, was one of many who were inspired by Megatron's call to unify as the Decepticons and take SARA's power from the Autobots for themselves. TFC-D01 His partner was fellow Triple Changer Astrotrain. Lightwave Soon, Blitzwing took part in the initial battles between the Autobots and the Decepticons. TFC-A01

After Megatron's disappearance from Cloud World following his battle with Optimus Prime over SARA, the rudderless Decepticons were forced to turn to Starscream for leadership, a fact not embraced by many in the army, Blitzwing included. Nevertheless, Blitzwing recognized that Starscream was able to unify the Decepticons against the Autobots, making the job easier should Blitzwing achieve his own aspirations for leadership. In the course of battle against the Autobots in Metropolis, Blitzwing directly criticized Starscream's leadership style, including the fact that he was not fighting on the front lines amongst his soldiers. Egged on by this and Blitzwing showing off his Triple Changer skills, Starscream went into battle at attempted using stored energy from SARA to power himself up. This ended up only burning out the new "leader" and Blitzwing took advantage of this, knocking away the failed Decepticon and taking command. Crisis

However, Optimus Prime returned in the nick of time and his leadership allowed the Autobots to whittle down the Decepticons to the point where Blitzwing was forced to surrender. Just as the Decepticon leader threw down his arms, Starscream swooped in with a new body thanks to properly interacting with SARA herself. With his new tank mode, Starscream was able to knock down Blitzwing with one shot. Bidding his rival good night, Starscream destroyed Blitzwing's head with his null-ray cannon. Transfiguration TFC-D02

Astrotrain did not take kindly to Starscream's murder of Blitzwing and later left Starscream to his fate as he was painfully hooked up to Shockwave's Spatiotemporal Transfer System. Lightwave

Toys

Generations (Japan)

Mit der Geschwindigkeit eines Kampfjets und der Stärke eines Panzers!

• Blitzwing (August 31, 2013)
  • ID number: TG22
  • Accessories: Rifle, scimitar, missile

Blitzwing is a modern reinterpretation of his original toy, and transforms into two vaguely futuristic vehicles: a jet with an opening cockpit and back-mounted rocket boosters, as well as a tank with a rotating turret and a spring-loaded cannon that launches its missile when the barrel is compressed. The cannon can be swung out and deployed for use in jet mode. He comes with a blaster and a sword, both of which mount/are held by 5 mm post. He features 5mm ports for his hands, shoulders/vehicle sides, cannon base, and wings, while both weapons have numerous additional posts and ports.

In a nod to his Transformers Animated incarnation, he sports a face-swapping feature, allowing him to switch between a more traditional, visored face, a monocled face (inspired by the Animated character's 'Icy' persona), and a black jack-o'-lantern-like face (inspired by the Animated character's 'Random' persona).

The toy is renowned for one significant design flaw. The first is that tabs meant to anchor the robot shoulders to the chest never solidly lock into place—they are simply too far apart. This makes his shoulder assemblies swing up and out of his chest when the shoulders are rotated up. Pressing the shoulder slots into the chest tabs sometimes works to counter this, but it depends on the tolerances of each individual figure. The problem can be completely eliminated with a little work:

1. For those not wishing to modify the toy itself, spacing material can be affixed to the back of the shoulder piece. This creates support in the back and allows the front tabs to remain in place.
2. Alternately, one can disassemble the figure and lightly sand the screw mounts and inside chest walls on the front half, bringing the back of the figure and the front closer together, and allowing the shoulder assemblies to lock in completely solid as originally intended. This has the potential risk of over-sanding, which prevents the legs from clipping securely to his chest for his vehicle modes.

Blitzwing was retooled into Generations Doubledealer and Cloud Starscream.

Notes

• Cloud Blitzwing is technically consistently colored like the Hasbro Thrilling 30 Blitzwing (no purple stripes on the shoulders), perhaps based on what was available at the time of making Cloud art, but the intention was likely to market Takara's contemporary release of Generations Blitzwing.
• The illustration of "Crisis" shows the design flaw of Generations Blitzwing's shoulders.