Blitzwing is originally a Diaclone toy where he had a dark green tank and grey jet modes.
I can remember seeing Blitzwing in an ancient Argos catalogue when he first came out. My first thought was "2 vehicle modes ????" and then "Why has he got the nose of a plane sticking out of his tank mode???" There are compromises to be made to get 2 authentic vehicle modes unless you have a lot of folding panels. But apart from the Plane nose sticking out the back the Tank mode - about 4 inches long by 3 wide - looks quite good in a nice beige desert colour scheme. The turret turns - unlike a couple of subsequent TF tanks ! - but there's no elevation on the barrel which does extend by about 75% from it's packaged length.
From tank mode fold the rear of the treads out to the sides, and bend backwards so they lock onto the sides of the front of the treads. Retract the tank barrel and pull the turret forward, flip out the plane nose and turn over. Flip down the landing gear and flip up the tail fins.
What we have now is a mainly purple and grey plane (5 inches long by 4 wide) which just happens to have a tank turret underneath it. It bears a more than passing resemblance to the original Decepticon jets. A pair of missile launchers is now exposed in each wing, and once the missiles are loaded they can still be closed up in Tank mode.
From there retract the landing gear under the nose, and flip the nose under the body of the plane - revealing Blitzwing's head. Then rotate the entire wing sections (made, if you recall, from the tank treads) through 180 degrees so the tank side is facing upwards and the missiles are pointing to the rear of the plane - if you turned this the other way up you'd have a tank turret with wings. Pull back on the rear of the plane to form the legs, and then pull arms up from wings, and he can then hold his rifle with his right hand and his sword in the left - the pegs are in the sides of the weapons, and holes in side of the fists so the.
Nice looking robot mode, but limited in articulation somewhat - all he has are the arms turning at the shoulders. He looks a little small against the original Decepticon, so I've got him - and Astrotrain - displayed with Robotmasters Starscream who's almost exactly the same size.
Overall: I think I was expecting worse than this, but he's quite fun.
Blitzwing was first sold in the west in 1985 and in the same year became release 43 in Japan. Blitzwing is the only Decepticon Triplechanger not to get a Classics release in 1991 - the Autobot Triplechanger Broadside is also not released at this time. Blitzwing is reissue 17 in the Japanese series. We all know what the packaging looks like for these but I want to call attention to the inner tray: Blitzwing is mounted diagonally across the box in Tank mode. Underneath him is illustrated a metal road the same width as the tank, with battle damage in front and dirty tank tracks behind. Nice touch. Really must review the other reissues one day ....
A nice extra trooper for your Decepticon forces.