Monthly Archives: June 2016

11 Jun 2016

It’s Always Sunny in Cybertron – Diaclone Countach Vs Badcube Sunsurge / Sentinel Blaze (updated)

In the official corner, weighing in at 3 metric tons; Hasbro Sunstreaker and Diakron Red Sunstreaker, in the 3rd Party Corner, weighing in at a handsome £70 each (if you can find the yellow one), Badcube’s Sunsurge and Sentinel Blaze.

Who will win?: The fans (cliched applause for a cliched answer).

What a time to be a Transformer collector! There is more knowledge and interest in Diaclone than there has been for years thanks to the combined efforts of a huge amount of fan research and investigation into classic pre-Transformer releases, Diaclone V2 releases, a wealth of official Masterpiece repaints (including Clampdown, Red Tracks / Roadrage, Blue Bluestreak, forthcoming Powered Convoy / Delta Magnus, Loud Pedal / Black Tracks and many more) and thanks to 3P companies, we even get interesting gaps filled thanks to releases such as Maketoys Wrestle / Grapple and MMC’s Liger repaint giving us Red Mirage.

Today, we’re taking a look at what 3rd Party have done for us lately, namely; filling a Sunstreaker shaped gap in our collection, and giving us a red repaint too in the process. And because I love ya, we’ll be looking at the original releases as well with a decent sized gallery of comparisons.

Diakron DK-1 – Red Sunstreaker

Shown here is my original Diakron DK-1, a North American release of Diaclone Countach LP500S, originally released by Takara in Japan. The short lived Diakron range featured this guy, Black Ironhide (later released by eHobby as Protect Black Ironhide, an official Transformer) and a Blue version of Trailbreaker (coming soon in future blogs).
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This mold is credited as being the first ever Transformer design, with credit to Kohjin Ohno (our Lord and master), so it’s a pretty important slice of Transformers right here. It was also released in Diaclone as a Police Car type in white, with red detailing on the head and a lightbar. More details here at the excellent TFsquareone blog.

Many Transformers fans consider it odd that eHobby have never released Sunstreaker in red as an official Transformer like they have Tigertrack (yellow Sideswipe), but they’ve not released Sunstreaker either, and the rumour is the original mold for one of his arms has been lost in storage. You might not know is that Sunstreaker’s original working name was Spin Out*, which is a name that the TFwiki (and TFCC) uses as an assumed name for this mold in red. Although the issue does get more confusing below…

Transformers Sunstreaker

Released in the first wave of Transformers in 1984 as Sunstreaker, along with his brother Sideswipe in red, having swapped colours (but you all knew that, right?).

Note the Car Robo sticker on Red Streaker

Adding more nerdy trivia to proceedings; there has oft been confusion over the bios for the two toys, with evidence supporting that their colours and names were swapped. In the very first mention of Transformers in Marvel Age #17, Sideswipe’s description matches Sunstreaker (with references to pile-driver arms and a rocket back-pack), and Sunstreaker is absent replaced by Spin-Out’s description, which matches the bot we know as Sideswipe (shoulder mounted missile launcher). Whether a decision to swap colour schemes created this confusion, or whether the paint swap happened accidentally because of confusion between the two characters, is unknown. We’ll never know how deep the confusion went, and whether these guys are the Zuckuss and 4-LOM of Transformers (SSIRSIY!), but it does appear that way.*

It’s worth pointing out that Sunstreaker does not become a Lamborghini Countach LP500S like his brother, instead he transforms into an unlicensed, unapproved and heavily modified Lamborghini Countach concept car. This seemingly minor detail has a serious knock on effect down the line, as we’ll discuss later.

Diaclone colours and TF releases.

BadCube OTS-08 SunSurge

BadCube was teased some time ago, and the war was on against newcomer Omnigonix, whose ironically named Spin-Out (what, it’s not like Hasbro or Takara ever used it!) recently came out to a chorus of complaints and disappointment. Whatever you think of this figure, he has definitely won the war. So far.

Released at the beginning of 2016, this somewhat divisive figure is a complex little beast. Some people dislike the chest-cheat, with his windshield and alt. mode roof hiding away in favour of a smaller, arguably more screen accurate chest-plate. I’ve heard at least one fan derisively accuse SunSurge of looking like a young girl with big feet in a push-up sports bra, and I have to admit a certain Humberto Ramos influence in the feet, but in a way that works for me. Is there a better way to do it? I feel it’s very subjective. Omnigonix tries to follow the original G1 transformation in that he uses the alt. mode windshield and roof as his chest, but some feel this looks too big to achieve that animation model aesthetic that the Masterpiece line is veering towards.

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Sometimes called Rubik’s SunSurge by sarcastic people like me, he can be tricky to transform, but I should point out that it is possible to transform him out of the box without instructions, as I did it twice. Thankfully, these guys are packaged in alt. mode (yay!) which means the first transformation is a lot more fun than trying to compact it back down, which can be very tricky indeed.

Sunsurge with MP Tigertrack

Stuck in the middle with you!

I don’t think anyone can argue with the results of the alt. mode, it’s pretty much exactly what anyone would want. It scales perfectly as a Lamborghini with the official MP Sideswipe, and perfectly nails the custom / modified rear engine / scoop look of the G1 toy. A lot of people complain about the back of the car, I address that in the Sentinel write-up below.

G1 and BadCube

There are plenty of options with this toy as well, the weapon stores on the alt. mode for a modified attack mode, exactly like we’ve seen across the MP line – I love this feature as it adds a lot play value, not to mention stops people like me losing parts. As well as this, we get spare parts, so you can swap out chromed parts for subdued painted silver parts for the spoiler, wheels, and engine scoop. Great value and attention to detail.

G1, BadCube and Henkei

Badcube Sentinel Blaze

Released very recently indeed by BadCube, we get the lovely Diaclone homage I wanted from the first time I saw SunSurge teased. The red is perfect, and he fits in with the rest of the MP line effortlessly, and makes me glad I committed to a separate Diaclone MP subline.

Some people complained about the back of the car, but to be honest, it’s absolutely no worse than the original 1984 release which I include for comparison.

Badcube in weaponised mode.

Few display these in alt. mode (which is a shame as they are beautiful) and fewer still display them in alt. mode facing backwards. I suppose an argument could be made for lack of real world accuracy, but this modified Lambo does not exist in the real world. And even if it did, I doubt it would become a cool-ass robot. Yes, reality sucks.

Maybe Repro Labels can help?

Conclusion

Are these acceptable figures to use for Sunstreaker / Red Sunstreaker, or is it merely a stand-in? I guess that depends entirely on your subjective point-of-view. Traditionally, I’m not a fan of cheats, and the radiator grills in both MP01 and MP-10 both annoy me, but don’t stop me owning the figures, and I barely hear people complain about those, yet many TF fans complain about this guys cheat. For me, I’m thankful that BadCube committed to this look, rather than compromising with a midway cheat, this way, we have the best of both worlds (if you can get past Omnigonix’s QC and bad reputation).

All the yellow

I absolutely adore this toy, it looks brilliant in both modes, gives us one of those fantastic key Ark characters we sorely need to stop our MP Sideswipes from getting lonely. We need this toy.

But what happens if and when we get an official Sunstreaker? Sadly, I think we know the answer from most fans. First though, I don’t thing we can count on Sunstreaker being an inevitable MP release, Takara have had a license agreement with Lamborghini since the very start of the new MP cars line-up, so why no Sunstreaker? As I’m sure many of you are aware, there is a possibility that Lamborghini (who are VERY protective of their LUXURY brand) will refuse to license an unsanctioned modification as an official product, and Takara wouldn’t be able to do it without their approval. Sticky territory. As a silver lining, perhaps we should look to the Super Deformed QT release of Sideswipe, which is fully licensed by Lamborghini – how is Sunstreaker different from a deform?

Fully licensed and approved!

Ultimately though, I do not believe that an official MP disqualifies a 3P offering. I can’t see how MT Hound or MMC’s Mirage homages can be beaten, and I’m someone who replaced MP09 with Carry and kept Quakewave over MP Laserwave.

With the releases of MP Ironhide and Ratchet, and the initial images of Inferno, it seems that Takara is going fully towards show accuracy, rather than maintaining the real world / toy / animation model balance that the line originally strove towards. If this is the case, then there is totally a place for more comic / toy accurate interpretation of characters for people like me.

Even if we do get Sunstreaker officially, and it totally blows us all away and has that magic “Eureka!” moment we all crave from MP, I dare say at the very least I will keep Sentintel Blaze at the absolute minimum, so I can have the best of both worlds with official and 3P, like I plan to do with Wrestle and MP Inferno, if Inferno somehow convinces me to part with the amazing Hellfire.

What more could a toy collector want than that?

BadCube Sentinel is on stock at Kapow right now! Go to, and secure your Diaclone repaint future!

*Spin-Out naming clarification thanks to the immense knowledge of Maz! An excellent article here covers Marvel Age #17.

09 Jun 2016

Ultra Magnus G1 Comparison – Plastic Vs Rubber

Several people have voiced outrage about presumed cost-cutting measures on the Masterpiece line, the drop down to plastic tyres seems to rankle many collectors, and while I understand there may be practical reasons behind the change, I have to say I miss the smell of rubber tyres, and the overall higher quality feel they provide.

However, these sorts of cost-cutting measures are nothing new. Metroplex had running changes removing rubber wheels, Powermaster Prime was significantly simplified compared to Takara’s Ginrai, and figures like Octane and Astrotrain were simplified after their initial prototypes. For me though, one figure stands out above all the rest; the running changes seen so often on the later 1986 versions of Ultra Magnus.

As a kid, I only ever had, or knew about, the unpainted, plastic wheeled, cheaper Ultra Magnus. I was never really a fan of the toy or the character growing up. My opinions on the toy changed pretty rapidly once I found out that the original release was of a much better quality across the board.

In this article, we’ll have a side-by-side comparison showcasing the difference between the second run UK release of plastic wheel Ultra Magnus (always on the left), and the initial release (always on the right). For the sake of this article, we’re using the 2002 reissue as a stand-in for the original release, as they are identical toys except for a couple of changes on the missiles and shorter smokestacks.

Be warned, this is probably my most nit-picky article yet, but it was actually requested by someone in a Facebook group as they had no idea of the different release.

ULTRA MAGNUS VS ULTRA MAGNUS

If we look at the two figures dead on, the only really noticeable difference is in the helmet, and it’s lack of paint detail.

A two-piece cast which is then glued together, the head is the most defining part of the character, and without the paint it’s really hard to even consider the figure Ultra Magnus. For me this is the biggest sin of the set.

Unfortunately, this was also carried over onto the “White Prime” cab section of Ultra Magnus. A shame, because the first run on the right had the same paint detail as Takara’s Powered Convoy, the toy which pre-dated Ultra Magnus, and was intended as a powered up version of Convoy, rather than a new character all in himself. How different would the cartoon and animated movie been had the writers decided to save this power suit for Optimus Prime, maybe even using it as the suit that restores him to life at the end of the movie, and leads to ultimate victory? We’ll never know.

To the character of Ultra Magnus, this detail doesn’t matter to much, but as a kid, it makes the toy a whole extra character in it’s own right, rather than the sad, dead-eyed white Prime that ~~ruined my~~ slightly inconvenienced but made very little overall difference to my childhood.

While we’re up top, look at the difference a little bit of perspex can make. I’ve always felt the removal of the windshield weakened the overall look of the alt. mode, and hurt the White Prime mode, although not as much as the paint. At this point, let’s just be glad they bothered to give us the small hands for the cab section at all!

Smokestacks detail. Okay, ignore the size disparity as the original release had normal length smoke-stacks, but the one on the right is clearly a nice chrome plated part. The late 1986 onward release merely had generic white plastic, with a top coat of silver paint. While they had that out, it’s a shame they couldn’t hit the blue helmet (oo-er missus).

Wheels. Plastic on the left, chromed with rubber tyres on the right. I’m not sure why, I’ve always loved rubber tyres on my toys and even as a kid I saw it as a mark of real quality. Maybe if Optimus Prime and the other Autobots always had plastic tyres it wouldn’t have caught my attention, but after the quality of the first two years of G1, I felt this very noticable. Ultra Magnus has ten tyres, which are very noticable in alt. mode and on White Prime, that’s a lot of time lost by factory staff putting rubber tyres on chrome wheels.

Ugh, where to begin. First, lets look at the rubber tyre at the top of the one on the right, it has a sort of tab protruding 2 mil or so from the center (better picture below). This provides extra stability for the figure in combined mode, and helps kids line up White Prime when inserting him into the armour, and takes some of the weight and stress out of White Primes headlights / hand pegs. I distinctly remember this as a kid, so I’m sure someone at school had the first release. Why would Hasbro change this? Well, tooling and producing 10 identical wheels is cheaper than tooling and producing 8 and 2 different, and reduces the risk of bad factory QC down to the wrong wheel being installed.

Again, chromed parts have been replaced with white plastic, this time completely unpainted, which really hurts the can section and the alt. mode. It also affects the stability of the figure because…

…well, I’m not sure if it’s because the plastic is cheaper, but the teeth tend to wear down much, much quicker on the all plastic version on the left. The spring holding the whole mechanism together is noticeable less coiled and thus weaker on the plastic version. As a dealer, I’ve bought in hundreds of Ultra Magni over the years, and floppy legged white cabs are very, very common. Even beater G1 Primes tend to have a bit of stability at the hips, even if the knees are trashed.

Metal feet (not a dancing penguin Rob Halford voiced animated movie) on the right, versus plastic feet on the cheaper second run. Does it make much of a difference? Actually, it probably helps reduce damage during play having the plastic (as we say with Binaltech Vs Alternator), however, the extra metal does add some stability to the figure in White Prime robot mode.

Summation

It’s easy to see Ultra Magnus massively differs from his Diaclone predecessor Powered Convoy in that Hasbro never intended for the cab section of Ultra Magnus to be used as a character in his own right. Indeed, in the cartoon and the comics, his cab was swallowed whole by the trailer (as seen in the stunning Masterpiece release above) rather than being a power suit with additional armour (a look that was introduced during the second Dreamwave miniseries in October 2003, and then the concept was utilised for Fans Project’s first full figure; City Commander).

Because of this, I believe Hasbro felt it made sense to minimise the attention to detail on the cab section and reduced the cost to maximise profits, it’s very sad that along the way the paint was also removed from the helmet, as this had a knock on effect of really damaging the look of the figure in combined / powersuit mode. However, the White Prime robot mode is heavily featured right on the front of the box packaging (albeit without face paint), so again, it is weird they would change even a secondary aspect of the figure that drastically after it’s initial release.

Ultimately, cost cutting will always happen. I personally think the move to lower part counts and simplified figures combined with gimmick-Master of the month helped path the road to G1 cancellation, however no toyline formed in the eighties was expected to last more than 3-4 years, so the fact we’re even here 32 years later suggests that maybe Hasbro knew what they were doing.

Original 1986 first run (Made in Japan) with large smokestacks and 1986 second run (Made in Macau).

Last but not least, let’s get real nerdy.

The original 1986 Rubber tyre release of Magnus is marked as Made in Japan, the reissue of it from 2002 is marked Made in China, and of all the UK available second run plastic tyres I’ve checked (three today), all are marked Made in Macua. All of them are date-stamped 1984 – the year of the original release of the mold. If you find any with different markings, please comment below.

Thanks to Kapow for hosting these blogs and providing some of the figures, various Magni including the forthcoming Original Animation / Powered Convoy colours Delta Magnus – the subject of a forthcoming comparison blog – are available here.

02 Jun 2016

Maketoys Pandinus – Gallery and Initial Thoughts

Photos by Kodimus Prime

Knock Knock. Who’s there? Not ‘Nok. I already said who’s there?

The first I ever saw of this guy was a one page picture in a Maketoys catalogue back at TFCon 2014, then I was lucky enough to see the prototype at Botcon 2015. I was sold on the very first picture, not just as Scorponok has some fond childhood memories for me, not just because I’m a Maketoys 100 percenter, but because it looked awesome.

I’m a huge fan of both Maketoys Utopia and Dystopia, as well as Planet X’s maiden offering Genesis, can this big boy measure up?

First impressions say: YES!

The first thing a lot of people notice is that the shipping case is actually the box packaging, there is no smaller full-colour packaging inside as there was with Utopia, Quantron or Nero Rex, but some retailers mitigate this by poutting an outer shipping case around the shipping box. However, once you’ve opened the box you have a heavy, solid build, with some great joints which is instantly impressive!

A little assembly is required as he is packaged between modes to cut down on space (the box is big enough already thank you), you have to attach those huge feet pistons to his lower legs as this gives him extra stability, and you need to attach the tail which requires a single screw to hold it in place – thankfully Maketoys has already inserted the screw partially into the hole, which makes locating the correct screw-hole very easy; a genius touch as some people hate any assembly. No small screw-driver included as there has been with releases with BadCube Sunsurge or KFC Transistor, which is a shame.

I also have to point out that the lack of screw-hole covers is also a minor annoyance for a figure of this size and quality, as screw-holes in his shoulders are fairly visible. Sure, he’s a little more hollow in places (mostly the claws) than I would have liked, but with this and the screw-hole covers, I have to ask if maybe we were spoiled by the almost perfection of Utopia?

If it seems like I’m nit-picking; I am. This is a huge chunk of change for any collector, but also one of the most rewarding collecting experiences I have ever had (taking me right back to 8 year old me opening up Scorponok who took me an entire Summer to save up for), I want anyone who commits to the figure to know exactly what to expect so they can make an informed choice.

Mucking about with this guy is GREAT FUN. The joints are heavy, but never hard work or panic inducing. The poseability and balance is stunning (although looking at those Humberto Ramos feet, I’m not surprised), and unlike say, Genesis, Pandinus has no problems holding out this arms in any direction with weight on them. Joints. Are. SOLID! (solid as a rock) I’ve also had him balanced on one foot ready to crush any small bots that try to run around him, with no problems.

The fact that you can remove the claws to have actual hands is a nice gimmick on paper, but in hand it completely changes the figure. For the better? Not really better or worse, just different. It actually creates the illussion of a change in posture; Pandinus stands somehow taller and less hunched without his claws, giving him a leaner, younger look. It’s great to have options!

His tail is wondrous, big and in your face, and a perverse twist on the classic faction logo. I love it. The shoulder cannons are huge, and the floating knees are engineered so they never get in the way. Weapon wise, the rotating barrel in his gun is a great touch, and his claw-shield is MASSIVE. Special attention has to be given to his head, as what is Scorponok without a Headmaster? Aggressive, mean, a perfect visor, and a little Padawan-esque rat tail (surely Pandinus is the master here). And a compact little triple changer all on his own to boot!

I’ve still not gotten past the awesome robot mode, and I want to take a week or so to get fully immersed in the toy before I can give you my full feelings on this impressive behemoth. But wow. Just wow. Check back next week as I cover the transformation and alt. modes in full. Thanks for reading.

Other figures in the Maketoys Citybot scale are available for pre-order at Kapow, Pandinus has sold out already. Check the site regularly and stay tuned to social media for updates.