With the latest Botcon release we get the ‘Shattered Glass’ exclusive release which sees the roles reversed in this universe. In this world it’s the Autobots who are the bad guys and there leader is the heartless and cruel Optimus Prime, meanwhile the Decepticons are the good guys and are led by the Heroic Megatron.
 
Botcon Blurr is an Autobot bad guy in this Botcon exclusive set and he is a slight remould/repaint of Armada Blurr (Who was also repainted in the Universe Line as Swerve and then again in Cybertron as Blurr) but this time he is using the ‘Cyberton’ version of the mould which had slight different workings on the arms. In the original Armada/Universe versions the two guns can connect to the arms via a hole/peg function. In the Cybertron/Botcon version however they both use the newer version of the mould which doesn’t have this feature and the guns just seem to fall out of the hands all the time because of this. It’s strange why Hasbro released the figure using this mould considering they would repaint the face area but use the older mould on the hands.
 
The vehicle mode is just beautiful and looks fantastic, the color of the vehicle with the lightening design over the car just makes it all look amazing. The paint work on the vehicle is fantastic and the colors match perfectly against each other from the blue/black/silver and tinted orange windows. The guns still attach to the back of the vehicle mode and the back section seems to be were the engine is located but it’s also were the vehicle modes ‘Planet Key’ attaches into. It seems rather odd for Hasbro to use the ‘Planet Key’ function on some of the Botcon Characters while others don’t seem to have a purpose or that use it all such as Evil HotRod or Optimus Prime. The key attaches into the back of the vehicle mode and the sides flip down to act as a type of wing mode for the vehicle (Think Back To The Future 2 and you get the idea) and this also brings the guns down for use as well.
 
Robot mode looks good and Hasbro have thankfully given us a new face for the figure rather than just a plain old repaint which sadly seems to a trend with Hasbro. The face looks battled damaged and ruined, from what the Bio says it seems Optimus Prime took Blurr’s battle damaged body and selected him for his army. Ratchet repaired Blurr to a point, such as slamming a metal plate over one of Blurr’s damaged eyes rather than just trying to fix it.
 
The body seems to be the same as the previous moulds which is sad because while the arms have freedom of movement and can rotate it appears the legs are still stuck and can only stand straight. The legs can move left and right but cannot bend at the knee joints or the hip area. The back section of the vehicle mode also hangs off the back area of the robot mode which just seems like Blurr is carrying a load of extra weight on his back like a huge camping ruck sack.
 
The packaging for Blurr is just shit, for a start it’s not in the Shattered Glass Boxset which usually starts at around $700 to begin with! And that’s IF your lucky to get it that cheaply. The other problem is that since it’s a Botcon Item it will cost a damn lot and also Blurr just comes in a clear bag and that’s basically it. He does come with instructions and a bio card but for something which is costing a damn lot you just feel ripped off by Hasbro over this.

Botcon’s are basically Hasbro only items and it seems obvious why Takara don’t do items like this because it would piss most fans off more than anything else. Takara do have exclusive items but nothing on the scale of Hasbro’s Botcon items and you really do wonder how Hasbro can justify the price on these Botcon items because they cost so much and yet all they really end up being is just plain old repaints of previously released figures done in other lines. Optimus Prime for example was released in the Classics/Henkei line and usually can sell for about $30ish but the Botcon version which is just a standard repaint seems to cost over $250 all on its own when its just a repaint of Classics/Henkei Optimus Prime. An ok figure but way to much for a figure that would have only been about $10 if it were a standard release. A must for only serious Botcon collectors really considering the price range on these things