Blackout is a Decepticon from the Animated continuity family.

Not Shown: The fleeing US Army.

Blackout is a monstrous brute of titanic proportions, larger than any other Decepticon. Few have survived an encounter with this hulking behemoth and lived to tell the tale, but those who have survived have added his story to Decepticon lore, which tells of him single-handedly obliterating vast numbers of Omega Sentinels, before finally falling himself at the Great War's end.

His feet are equipped with seismic energy dischargers, reverse-engineered from an oddly-misplaced Cybertronian named Crasher, which allow him to force nearby electronics to shut down with a single stomp.

And we're not kidding, he can destroy Omega Sentinels well. Real well.

Fiction

Animated cartoon

Voice actor: Bumper Robinson (English), Kenta Miyake (Japanese), José Carlos Guerra (Brazilian Portuguese)

During the Great War, the Wreckers were a major problem for the Decepticons, operating behind their lines as a commando unit. Megatron created the Decepticon Heavy Brigade, of whom Blackout was a member, specifically to hunt down the Wreckers. When they finally met in battle, the Wreckers were all destroyed (including their vessel, Zeta Supreme), and Blackout was the only survivor on the Decepticon side. He continues to wear the Brigade's symbol on his shoulders, partly to honor the fallen, and partly to announce that he's a Heavy Brigade all by himself.

Later in the war, on Velocitron, he destroyed Delta Supreme, who had been rebuilt into an artillery platform. During the climax of the war in the Battle for Iacon, Blackout destroyed Beta Supreme and Eta Supreme. Beta Supreme managed to inflict catastrophic injuries on Blackout, however, and he took hundreds of cycles to repair. The AllSpark Almanac II

Now to the server, I mean... space bridge.

Blackout, along with the other members of Team Chaar, assaulted a space bridge in an attempt to capture it and conquer Cybertron. During the battle, he descended from above, sending Rodimus Prime flying and disabling the Space Bridge with a massive shock wave. After being berated by Strika for his mistake, he apologized and reactivated the Space Bridge with another shock wave. Later, he retreated from the looming battle against the Cybertron Elite Guard under the orders of Megatron and Strika. TransWarped

The Cool comic

Hatredcopter.

As Optimus Prime and Blackarachnia found themselves engaged in a rare tender moment, Blackout unwittingly ruined it by knocking the top of a skyscraper off in helicopter mode (burying Prime in the rubble). Annoyed, Blackarachnia asked what he was doing there and Blackout explained that he was being pursued by two tenacious Autobots: Jetfire and Jetstorm. Blackout attempted to strike the twins with a buzzsaw, but they dodged his attack and swooped in for close-quarters combat. Blackout was unable to defend himself against the two small, quick Autobots, thanks to his unwieldy bulk. The twins then combined into Safeguard and fought the Decepticon bruiser-to-bruiser. Blackarachnia and Lugnut abandoned Blackout to face the Autobots alone, realizing that the battle had become too hazardous. The Cool Episode 4

Having escaped The Elite Guard, Blackout later rejoined Team Chaar in space, secretly observing Team Athenia's battle against a Rock Lord. The Cool Extra #2

Toys

Animated

Diabeetus. (TakaraTomy version)

Hasbro Blackout. This didn't happen.

• Blackout (Voyager Class, 2010)

• ID number: TA-20
• Release date: May 22, 2010
• Accessories: Disc, launcher
• Known designers: Tomoya Miyake (TakaraTomy)

Released only in the third wave of TakaraTomy's Animated toyline, Blackout transforms into the Earth-based helicopter form Blackout would have taken if Season 4 had been greenlit, rather than the beetle-like airship he appears as in "TransWarped." During transformation to robot mode, connecting his pelvis into his torso automatically spring-releases the turbine fan behind his head. The instructions neglect to show that the over-the-shoulders missile rack can be folded back in robot mode, although it is shown on the packaging and in the picture here on the right. His tail-rotor assembly features a pressure-launched disc shooter, firing his rear rotor-blade; this entire assembly can be snapped into place over either of his wrists in robot mode.

He has a similar issue to Lugnut and Bulkhead's Voyager toys where, despite having a lot of mass to work with, it mostly goes into his width, kibble, and weapons, resulting in him being unusually short and squat (shorter than many Deluxe toys!).

Though he was developed with a Hasbro release in mind, that release was ultimately canceled. Thanks to this new exclusivity, Takara's Blackout tends to go for hefty sums, even compared to the generally-high aftermarket prices of Japanese Animated toys (and really, Animated toys in general).

Based on test-shots, the Hasbro version would have had different deco on the eyes, and the usual differences between how the two companies handled the faction symbols (aka, Hasbro would have done his in un-outlined gold). At least one of the Hasbro Blackout test-shots ended up in reviewer hands in 2009 before the figure was ultimately canceled.^[1]

• More information on Blackout at TFU.info

Notes

Kommander Sorscha and her warjacks.

• Blackout is an homage to Blackout from the 2007 movie. The Takara figure includes a character sheet of Blackout that mentions said homage, complete with images of the movie Voyager figure, misspelled as "moive".
• According to Derrick J. Wyatt, Blackout's modified Decepticon sigil signifies he is the Decepticon Heavy Brigade.
• Blackout looks like Wilford Brimley. However, Wyatt says he does not sound like Wilford Brimley (he sounds like Lurch), but he does suffer from "low-octane oil."^[2]
• Blackout is armed with 4 Zander Cannons zander cannons, and galva conductors in his particle blasters. He also has astro blasters and a "seismic energy disruptor".
• In the second Japanese title sequence to Transformers Animated, there are two of him. This doesn't make sense to us either, but it does follow tradition.
• Blackout is the basis for the Transformers Cards-originating character Grinder, the BotCon 2011 lithograph-originating character Venom, and the "Stunti-Con Job" advertisement-originating character Bugly.
• Initial proposals for BotCon 2011 included a redeco of Animated Blackout into an Animated version of Shokaract.^[3]
• The Wiki had a non-final version of Blackout's model as his top image for 11 years; notice the incorrect symbol on his shoulder, wrong colors on his cannons, legs, fingers, feet and neck, less vivid reds and missing detailing on his crotch. Just where this unfinished model came from is currently unknown, as it is not the version in the AllSpark Almanac II.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Blackout (ブラックアウト Burakkuauto)
• Mandarin: Yūnxuàn (China, 晕眩, "Vertigo")

References

1. ↑ YouTuber Peaugh's review on the Hasbro version of Animated Blackout in 2009. Not to be confused with his review of the TakaraTomy Blackout in 2010.
2. ↑ Post on Derrick Wyatt's Formspring account
3. ↑ BotCon 2014 attendee report