I received my Takara Blackout last week from TFSource. I know your question has been answered, but beyond just spinning freely his rotor actually spins really well. I'd go so far as to say it spins better than any other helicopter TF I've had before. There's a lot of heft in the blades and it spins very smoothly. My non-TF collecting coworker actually commented on it as well.

 

Glad I paid out the $ and got him!

 

  I just read this and LOLed @ work.

 

^ 

I actually fiddled with mine the other day after like a year and a half and while he is really simple, I still love the little guy. He is really well engineered, I love how the front of the copter separates and reveals the head.

 

I'm pretty sure there's a real feedback thread for the Takara version somewhere here.

Anywho, he's been on display since I got him way back when, he's next to Voyager Lugnut and Legend Animated Optimus as the tiny scale section of the Animated display. Other then his size in comparision to the rest of Animated, he's absolutely perfect IMHO. He's fun, he's posable, and he's got character.

 

is there a chance any of you guys here will sell animated blackout to me> I have been searching for ages.

 

How did you get these!?

 

Did this ever get released? I never saw one.

 

Blackout was released at retail in japan and still available at some online stores, or on ebay.

as for the hasbro one, a few samples made it out before he was cancelled for the US.

 

yeah, but ebay is expensive. i'd rather buy a second hand cheaper one from someone int he forum.

 

I just got a Blackout and I have to say he's making me scratch my head about his tail rotor assembly it looks like it might store on his back but if it does it's only place their if you pick him up it just falls out even though there' big circular gap in his back that looks ideal. It's not really going to want to stay on his hand in robot mode either and the only way to easily get him to hold it is to eject the disc and extend the firing lever as a handle for him to hold. but then his disc has no place to go.. and anyway if you use that disc to much it starts to rub the paint off it.

Oh and as for the arms - they move a lot but none of the ways they move come close to being useful. he's fun to look at for sure - but in design engineering terms he fall short in many places. his tail assembly is far to tight in fit as well it makes a frighting snapping noise getting it on an off sort of encouraging you to never ever transform it.

So I guess he will be staying in robot mode and I'll just have to try to not misplace his tail hub part. It's a great shame that they didn't want to do Ultra class Animated toys as he'd really have benefited from being just that little bit bigger too.

 

All righty. I'm guessing you didn't look at the instructions or didn't get them? Or look at the pictures on the box? Or watch any video review. Or look at any pictures when he was released? Or look in the pictures in this very thread?  

You spin the guns around on the arm, fold in the hand, and plug the tail rotor over his arm like a Prime/Movie weapon.

From this very thread, 15 posts prior to yours:

Sadly, for robot mode without using the disc weapon in hand, there's really nothing to be done. Mine is actually behind Blackout on the display shelf as he stands next to Lugnut and Activator Optimus Prime.

 

What are the prices going for this guy lately? He's become a bit of a grail to me.

 

Looks like maybe $60's to $70's shipped:

animated blackout | eBay

animated blackout | eBay

That's not too bad considering he hasn't come out in the states to date. I wouldn't consider an Animated collection to be complete without him.

 

Hmm, these are better prices than i thought he was going for. i'm really gonna have to look into getting him soon.

 

Those prices are not bad at all. Since it is the Takara version he retailed for $49.99 - $54.99 to begin with anyway.