TRANSFORMERS: Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1 - BLURR

 TRANSFORMERS:  Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1

"The faster it is, the better I like it." - Blurr, 1986.

AUTOBOT

Name - BLURR

Function - Data Courier

Series Debut - 1986 / Wave 3

Sub-Group - None (1986), Targetmaster (1987)

BACKGROUND...

    Blurr is a fast moving, fast speaking Data Courier for the Autobots.  His ability to travel faster than the speed of sound makes it easy for him as a messenger, taking information back and forth between different locations.  Always moving, his teammates say that he is a "close descendent of a Cybertronian race horse".

    Blurr transforms into a Cybertronian car.  As he zips from location to location, he leaves a blurred image.  In his robot mode, he carries a shield and uses an electro-laser rifle.  Ironically, a blast from this weapon will leave the enemy motionless.

    After the Decepticon take-over on Cybertron, Blurr was one of the Autobots stationed at Autobot City under command of Ultra Magnus.  In 2005, he fought in and survived the Battle of Autobot City.  Immediately following that battle, he accompanied an Autobot team into space in an attempt to try and stop the planet-killer - Unicron.  Unfortunately, his spacecraft was attacked and his team crash-landed on the planet of Junk.  

    The planet's natives - the Junkions, attacked the Autobots, thinking they were hostile.  Blurr was there when the two factions realized they were not enemies and subsequently broke into a large dance party.  Now allied with the Junkions, they took to space again.  The Autobots were able to defeat the Decepticons AND Unicron as well as reclaim Cybertron.  

    Sometime later, a group of Autobots crash-landed on the planet Nebulos.  To battle a Decepticon threat, a high-strung, teenage Nebulan named Haywire underwent the "Targetmaster process".  This gave him the ability to transform into Blurr's electro-laser weapon.  Blurr could carry the weapon as a robot, or he could attach Haywire to his hood for use in vehicle mode.

MY THOUGHTS...

    With his extremely fast speech, hyperactive manner, and blurred movements, Blurr was an interesting character.  Unfortunately, he was seriously under-utilized.  His ultra-fast speed was never used for really anything other than talking fast.  In fact, I remember watching the Five Faces of Darkness cartoon and there was some kind of race being held.  I immediately thought they would use Blurr.  They didn't.  They used Jazz instead.  Very strange!  As a Data Courier, it would have also been cool to see Blurr whisk information from long distances in a flash.  This never happened either though...

    I liked Blurr!  He was a character with a lot of potential.  His robot mode was cool and unique with his antennae on his head and the shield he carried.  His Cybertronian car-mode was great with it's sleek, futuristic look!  It definitely gave the impression it could drive faster than the speed of light!

    Unfortunately, the G1 figure was a little flawed in that his arms could become loose and then would droop to the floor in car mode.  Also, the fragile pegs on his shield had a tendency to break.  If either of these happened, his car mode wouldn't look right.

    Blurr is represented in this write-up by the Studio 86, Movie Edition, of the character, released in 2020.  He looks pretty accurate to the Movie appearance of the figure and the flaws on the original character were corrected!  This is a great version of the figure!

Autobot cars from the 1986 catalog!  I remember being shocked there was only 3.  The previous years had many more!

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    (Information on the character's lore was taken from the Sunbow Transformers cartoon series, including the Movie and the figure's original Tech-Spec.)