Scourge, along with Blurr, is part of the first wave of Titans Returns figures that were not originally Headmasters. Scourge is a bit of a funny character in terms of picking up “new versions”, because his character’s ability allows him to make clones of himself. Or maybe it’s just that he commands clones of himself, whatever the case, there is a justifiable reason to have many Scourge toys.
Unlike Blurr, who is kind of the star of the wave, Scourge is possibly the worst figure of the first wave. The problems are less with the basic design however. This Scourge, like Blurr is a nice update to the original design, as basic as it is. Scourge is the classic example of a Shell Former. He is essentially a robot wrapped in the shell of the parts of his space boat mode. Both modes are accurate representation of the G1 Scourge, but his transformation is pretty simplistic.
The real problems are with the basic design of the figure itself. Specifically there are a lot of reports of looseness in the head connection of the Headmaster giving him a bobble head. He also has a pop up head crest similar to Blurr, though it is also prone to being lose and doesn’t stay up very well.
One minor little nitpick on my part, his pretty sleek Space Boat mode is broken up a bit by odd panels on the bottom of the front. These panels only serve to fill in the gap on his legs, and just sort of hang off the vehicle. It really feels like this could have easily been engineered better to remove the panel kibble hanging off an otherwise clean vehicle.
That aside, he’s also just sort of boring. The vehicle is just a wedge with a bit of kibble on top, it’s accurate, but it’s not particularly exciting.
Titans Return Scourge isn’t an awful toy, he’s just not particularly exciting, and is prone to some issue that can be irritating. With exciting animal options in the Decepticons, or the really well done Blurr, I wouldn’t make Scourge my first choice of the line.
