Today, we continue our look at those obscure Euro-era Transformers from 1992.  You should all remember the look at Turbomasters we had last week, and this week we look at their counterparts; the Euro exclusive Predator Jets (who were released in Japan as the Jet Corp, and leaked through to Canada in the Euro packaging).

Like the Turbomasters, the Predator Jets also featured a missile firing gimmick, although the missiles store on the body as bombs, they launcher itself wasn’t part of the transformation and they reused the same generic launcher for each jet.

Rear box artwork – beautiful.

However, that wasn’t the only gimmick for the Predator Jets, they also had the Mega-visor gimmick, which was such a prominent feature that in some parts of Europe the figures were marketed as Scope Masters, which at least fits with the Masters suffix so popular with the brand.  The Scope Master gimmick is a curious one, whereby any of the four Predator Jets can powerlink be clumsily forced into the missile attachment of Stalker or rear-end of Skyquake (that actually sounds worse than powerlink!), upon which a unique image is revealed of the Predators targeting one of the Turbomasters (including the never released and rarely seen potential leader; Hyperdrive).  Stalker and Skyquake come with stock images as well, so you can squint awkwardly through their view-finders even without a Predator Jet attached and see an image.  Stalker’s stock image is pretty cool, a blueprint of Rotorstorm’s helicopter mode with non-so-subtle “hidden” messages to Marvel, Takara, and Hideaki Yoke (Takara lead-designer and Transformers Godfather).

Unlike the Turbomasters and their cameo appearances here and there, the Predator Jets featured fairly prominently in the Last Stand of the Wreckers miniseries, and this has done a fair amount to add to their characters, and furthering interest in this sub-group.  Some of them even managed to survive the carnage of the series!

Catalogue artwork

I know I say this often with the early nineties toys, but these are some of my favourites of all time, so without further discussion, lets look at the toys!

Falcon

Falcon is the first Predator Jet I ever got, and actually the only one I had as a kid, and he is a firm favourite Transformer for me from any time period, not just the early nineties.  Great light-piping really sets this guy off, and gives him a lot of personality.  Released in Japan unchanged as Shadow Jet, alongside Scorch as Fire Road.  At some point in the past, I got excited with my G2 labels and slapped one on him, despite the fact that this is guy is firmly G1, predating the G2 logos introduced with Axelerators and Skyscorchers.

He transforms into a Stealth Bomber, a Lockheed F117A Nighthawk to be particular, which in 1992 was pretty much the most awesome plane of all time (especially if you owned Jungle Strike on the Megadrive / Genesis).  His colours are simple throughout, with a fun and instinctive transformation.  Exactly what I look for in a toy.

Talon

Talon is the advance fighter for the Predators, which probably means he flies a bit quicker than the rest, maybe?  he sometimes goes by the names Griffe, Demon, Bomber, or Moon Jet in Japan.  A very colourful chap with a fantastic headsculpt, like his team-mates his green cockpit and light piping very much fit the era.

He transforms into F-15 Eagle fighter jet, which to me would have been the obvious choice for the character name, freeing up Talon for another character, but alas, ’twas not to be.  His megavisor viewscreen shows ThunderClash, and a few hidden tributes including one to Takio Ejima, who apparently created all of the European toys in that gulf between US G1 ending and Beast Wars.  This makes him a personal God of mine.
You’d hope the really cool bird naming pattern would continue, right?  Unfortunately not…

Skydive

The third member of the team recycles a name from the Aerialbots, so in personal head-canon – which is pretty much Furman penned at this point – they are instant rivals, like Swoop and Divebomb.  Skydive adds very little to the Decepticon ranks by being ANOTHER cold, calm and calculated scientist.  Yawn.  Also known as Hyena (could be a very cool name, if used to create a character personality too) or Pyton in Europe, and goes by Dark Jet in his Japanese Operation Combination two-pack, part of the Destron Jet Corps.

Skydive is very, very purple.  He’s also very ambitious as his Megavisor shows him going for a full frontal attack against all four Turbomaster cars, and damn, he must be low to the ground too!!  Thankfully, it’s nothing his Northrop YF-23 Fighter Jet can’t handle this (I can’t verify that, I just take it as fact, but it sounds Macross-y, so therefore he is cool).

Snare

Okay, it’s a trap for birds.  Not quite the same thing.

Saving my least favourite of the four until last.  he makes a cool looking robot, with a great colour scheme, but his transformation is TOO simple, you literally stand him up and crack the cockpit forward.  Usually with these guys the transformation breaks up the plane a little more, but I guess he isn’t really any different to the rest, it just feels less involved.  He’s still a great toy, and these guys work best as a set anyway!  Goes by the unimaginative Trap in France, and keeps the naming system consistent in Japan with the name Flare Jet.

The landing gears on these guys are great, it’s a small detail, but they can be often over-looked on jet Transformers, but they always help, especially with ones carrying honking great missiles, or with Megavisors strapped underneath them.  Snare works well with his reverse wing configuration offering something new to his alt. mode which separates him from his team members a bit, but I can’t help but feel his shoulders and arms are a lot more visible than his team-mates, which somewhat ruins the lines of his Grumman X29 fighter jet alt. mode.

****

As with the Turbomaster cars, the Predator Jets were the four Decepticon figures not recycled for Machine Wars, this is largely thought to be because the missiles included would not pass US safety tests.  A real shame for the US who missed out on these molds altogether, but also a real shame for all of us Transformer fans as we’ve never, ever had these figures re-released in any other paint deco, whereas the larger Predators were released not only as Machine Wars, but also for the Universe toyline as King Atlas and Soundwave (with missiles and launcher removed – it wasn’t that hard to figure out, was it Hasbro?).

As well as zero reissues or recolourings, these guys have had zero re-imaginings, no TFCC, no sub service, no e-hobby, heck; not even a hint of a third party update.  C’mon guys, sort it out! At this point I’d even take Combiner Wars Aerialbot repaints (with Skyquake as the central body, and Turbomasters with Thunderclash as the core, which is halfway doable thanks to Venksta’s custom parts).

So, in conclusion; yeah, I love these guys.  While I love the name Predators, do I secretly want to adopt the name Scope Masters?  I do.  Predator Scope Masters, maybe?  Lets try that for a bit.

Thanks for reading!

-Siddly Kibbly Hazard

Every now and then, I need a break from Transformers (but not for too long), and one of the other items I like to collect are the Kotabukiya Bishoujo figures.  There are few cohesive collections you can get that include Marvel and DC characters in similar stylings, one of course is Lego, and another is the Bishoujo line of vinyl statues.

Limited of course by an absence of male characters in this female only range, Kotabukiya have occasionally used iconic male movie figures in female form, most notably with the Ghostbusters (soon to be all female anyway), Men in Black, and Freddy Krueger figures, and they also venture into other licensed properties such as Star Wars, Metal gear, Tekken, Street Fighter, and Mass Effect.  If you want a badgirl / goodgirl collection at great prices, you can do a lot worse than these awesomely fun and highly stylised figures.

Some people may think this is the case here, at a glance, but Wanda Wilson is an in-continuity version of Deadpool from Universe 3010 (which may or may not still exist post- Secret Wars), who first appeared in Deadpool; Merc with a Mouth #7 in 2010, expertly presented here as Lady Deadpool.

She is splendidly represented here, in this fine sculpt by Shunya Yamashita, with a perfectly thought out display base.  Exactly what you need, nothing more.  Stunning.

Needs more pouches.

Accessories include two swappable heads, a spare mask, a detachable pony-tail, and a patented Deadpool grenade.  If I had to pick a lone fault with this, it would simply be that the swords and hilts are sculpted detail and are not retractable, this and a few extra posing hands would have opened this figure up for a lot more potential poses.

The next figure coming in the Marvel Bishoujo ranger is Cosplay fan favourite Spider-Gwen, I’m looking forward to it.
Lady Deadpool is in stock and available from Kapow Toys right now, and plenty of others are still available, including personal favourite; Zatanna.

The only time these guys have ever made a cover!

This week, we’ve been looking at The Turbomasters, click any of the below for links to the individual articles.

BOSS
SCORCH
FLASH
HURRICANE

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at the Predator Jets, and we’ll finish these subsets by looking at the larger Turbomasters and Predators; Rotorstorm, Thunder Clash, Skyquake and Stalker.

We need your feedback, did you like this weeks approach to the articles with a look at each individual figure, or do you prefer when we group subsets together into a single article.  Let us know by leaving a comment.

Thanks
-Kibble

This is the final part of our week long look at the Turbomasters cars, although you can expect a recap and group shots at the weekend.  By now, you don’t need to read the next few paragraphs, but for those of you who came in late, a little house-keeping:
They are firmly G1, sometimes known as Euro G1.5 and occasionally mistaken for G2 figures.  Some people know a few of the molds from Machine Wars and even the Universe line of repaints, but not all the molds have been re-used.

The Turbomaster Cars for instance, were released in 1992 in Europe by Hasbro, and they were also released by Takara as part of the Operation Combination series in Japan later the same year, but they never saw release in the United States, ever, blah blah blah why are you reading this for a fourth time?  Skip ahead, and to date have never had any repaints, retools or reissues.

The gimmick for this series (other than Transforming, of course) was missiles!  Lots and lots (and lots, seriously) of missiles.  Their rivals are the Predators (sometimes called the Predator Jets, who we will be looking at next week) also has the same gimmick, but with much more generic – and fragile – launchers.
Hurricane

Hurricane, or Tempest as he is sometimes known, is my least favourite of the Turbomasters.  In robot mode, he feels a bit too flat and 2-dimensional, possibly because of his flat-chested approach to bonnet-chesting.  Given that the majority of his alt. mode is cast in clear-pink plastic and painted white, it’s not uncommon for very obvious paint wear on his most central feature in robot mode, and because of the nature of white edged stickers on white plastic, it’s very easy for his chest decal to look aged very quickly. The way his arms transform mean you have to line them up real good, as they don’t clip in and sort of float in place, leading to arm-sag as in the photo above.

His alt. mode is actually pretty cool looking as a Le Mans styled Porsche analogue, and probably his best feature, although having his weapon point and fire the opposite direction to the rest of the team is a bit odd, but I guess he’s handy in a chase.  His robot mode is also very, very obvious under that pink plastic.  Still, he is a charmingly fun toy, even if the end result isn’t quite to the level of the rest of his team.  His decals are quite flashy, with a zig-zag flash on his chest and lightening bolt flashes down the side (conspicuously absent on my clean unstickered version), with all the FLASHES you’d think maybe they’d pick another name for him, like, oh, I don’t know… FLASH?

Hurricane was released in Japan as Checker Road, alongside Moon Jet, a repaint of Predator Talon.  He was completely unchanged, but to me, these twin-packs are the coolest way of collecting these amazingly fun subsets, as resealable box packaging with Earth killing polystyrene beat out card-backers that tear up all the artwork when you open them, and as such I’m still tempted to invest in a second set of some of my favourite characters.

Like the rest of his Turbomaster brothers, Hurricane has very little fiction going for him.  Booooo!  I always love to see my obscure favourites get some love and attention, so maybe I will bug Roche and Roberts about this at TFNation this year.

Japanese side of packaging

Part three of our look at the Turbomaster cars, today, we’re looking at Flash, then a recap and group shots at the weekend.  A bit of background; they are firmly G1, sometimes known as Euro G1.5 and occasionally mistaken for G2 figures.  Some people know a few of the molds from Machine Wars and even the Universe line of repaints, but not all the molds have been re-used.

The Turbomaster Cars for instance, were released in 1992 in Europe by Hasbro, and they were also released by Takara as part of the Operation Combination series in Japan later the same year, but they never saw release in the United States, ever, and to date have never had any repaints, retools or reissues.

The gimmick for this series (other than Transforming, of course) was missiles!  Lots and lots (and lots, seriously) of missiles.  Their rivals are the Predators (sometimes called the Predator Jets, who we will be looking at next week) also has the same gimmick, but with much more generic – and fragile – launchers.

So then, Flash is it?

Flash is a big red robot, with a very G1 head crest and a doors as wings silhouette which is very reminiscent of the 1984/1985 Diaclone cars – especially with the tried and tested bonnet for chest look – with the exception his arms come down from the door rather than resting in front of them.  As with all his team-mates, his missile launcher comes with extras which can be stored on his body.  Low on points of articulation, but high on style.

His transformation is simple, but effective, and hits that fun transformation sweet-spot we all enjoyed as kids.  In vehicle mode, he look very similar to a Lambourghini body-type, but with almost a chibli style in the front end.  The pointless and out of place blue fins and yellow doppler go-faster stripes give him an extra chunk of character, and you’ve got to love the aerodynamic missile launcher on the back.  The split down the windshield is a bit of a distraction, but cannot be helped with the nature of the transformation, but at least the paint to plastic colour match is very tight.  As is the way with Transformers, he is another vehicle to have the culturally re-appropriated Phoenix style hood decoration.  Just for once, could we maybe get this on a Pontiac of some kind?  Please?

Like his Turbomasters buddies, he doesn’t get much love.  A few cameos here and there, a pack-in comic where he is called Breakneck, an unfinished dangled plot-thread in the Dreamwave comics, and a Japanese release where he was known as Spin Road, and came packaged with Dark Jet, the Japanese version of Skydive (a Decepticon Predator jet who we will see in detail next week).

Rear box art for Japanese release

Hopefully by now, you’re starting to appreciate this simple little subset.  Come back tomorrow for the final figure; Hurricane.