Posts Categorized: All Our Posts

10 Mar 2016

Small Autobot Cars? No, they’re the Axelerators!

G2 USA box-art

The Axelerators are a curious bunch. Released in Europe in early 1993, they – and their Decepticon counterparts The Skyscorchers – were the first Transformers toys to include the new G2 style faction logos, even though this pre-dated Generation 2 itself by a few months. Meaning that technically, the G2 logos predate G2 itself, and are just revised versions of the Autobot and Decepticon logos, presumably in an attempt to look a bit cooler to kids in the early 90s.

G1 EURO box-art

They were of course released very soon after that in the US, with full Generation Two branded packaging, and new artwork (which featured in the Legacy artbook at the cost of the European artwork – a shame) for the card-backs, although their case assortment lost the cool and interesting “Axelerators” and replaced it with the much more generic “Small Aubobot Cars”. The only changes to the toys themselves for US release were the clear pink windshield and light-piping eye plastic giving way to a much less interesting clear grey plastic. For me, the pink plastic firmly identify these as G2 era and my OCD would not sit right having a mixed set, so I had to re-purchase Rapido. Such a shame that the US versions lost this effect, but even with smokey grey plastic this was the first time a Transformer featured light-piping in the US, having skipped most of the Euro 1.5 who would only see release in the UK in 1996, as part of the Machine Wars subline.

European Axelerators with Decepticon equivalents.

They are a lovely, unique set of Transformers that have seen little in the way of affection or recognition, repaints or even name re-purposing, and that – to me – is a real shame.

US versions – smokey windshields.

Let’s take a look at them:

Rapido

Let’s start with the boss of the bunch, and also the most recognisable character from the team. Platoon Commander Rapido (known as Sirius in Italy) has seen a bit more attention than the rest of the bunch, largely due to a 2010 Botcon appearance thanks to Fun Publications, wherein he had a very cool Spanish language profile. He also appeared alongside some of the more obscure latter day G1 characters in Furman / Wildman et al’s Regeneration One series for IDW, giving him an honest to god G1 appearance. Rapido has also seen his name repurposed of sorts for the Japanese release of PowerCore Combiners series.

He has a great head-sculpt, but sadly, his bonnet / hood is so large, you just get the top of his head peaking out like Wilfred in the Beano. Rapido deserves better. Like all of the Axelerators, his faction sticker is oddly coloured, oddly cut, and prone to fading. For the sake of accuracy I present them as factory standard here, but they really could do with G2 Repro-labels adorning them.

The toy of Rapido features a simple, quick and fun transformation, he is unique in his team in that he has a rear engine configuration, but like all of the Axelerators, he retains the engine to gun play feature. Sort of a PowerTarget-Master if you like, but on a budget.

Skram

Other than a few token comic cameos, and an obscure reference I don’t fully understand, Skram has gone largely unloved. It’s a shame, because anyone with the function of Crack patrol deserves to be loved. Or arrested. Skram is alternatively known as Smash or Mercury in various parts of Europe. Skram has a great head sculpt.

Skram is a heavily modified Corvette Stingray, and every now and then you do see someone crazy enough to take a C3 Corvette cut the hood away and stick a massive great engine block through it. Not much to write home about, his transformation is perfectly functional and FUN! Fun is a large part of these guys, as well as crazy colour-schemes.

Hotrider / Turbofire

Released as Turbofire in the US, this is one of those rare occasions when I tend to go by that name rather than the first European release. I’m not sure why, I just think I was first introduced to the character as Turbofire thanks to the old and long out of print Antarctic Press Cybertronian Recognition Guides. His function lists him as Back-up or Supplies and Support, so basically he’s the office bitch and errand boy, the down-side of being a pick-up truck I daresay. His Italian name is Astro, but whatever you call him he has been sadly under-used in fiction.

Some great apps and stickers make the alt. mode really pop, when it could have been just another pick-up truck. I’ve always been sad we didn’t see the CHUG Kup mold used for this guy, but as it was used for Electro, it’s probably best we didn’t get it.

Windbreaker / Zap

Named after the second Spinal Tap album, it’s often been rumoured that his naming was due to the Windcharger trademark being unavailable, this certainly tallies with his unique for the team transformation, where the hood DOES NOT become the robot chest, instead splitting down the middle as part of the robot shoulders. Whatever the reason, it led to him having one of the funniest Transformers names of all time. He function lists him as an Advance Intelligence Scout, and he has an amazing head-sculpt that almost makes him look like a Basic -class Beast Wars toy. Windcharger has a naming problem, picking a different name for almost every territory, going by the names Zap, Folgor, and Rush around various parts of Europe. In Japan, he goes by the name Carzap, despite never having a release… we’ll come to that in a minute.

His alt. mode becomes a Chevrolet Camaro Z28, which, for the time, means it’s exactly the same car underneath the body work as the Fourth Gen Pontiac Firebird, which again keeps in line with the Windcharger theory.

As I mentioned earlier, none of these toys have ever been reissued or recoloured, although they very nearly did, as part of Takara’s planned Block Town range (mixing Lego style building blocks with vehicle toys), as Japan never actually saw the release of these in their original colours. 3 out of 4 Block Town figures have been seen, though the pictures are not great. Gang molding means we can deduce the colours of the fourth figure (if you look, you’ll notice that Windbreaker and Skram have inverted colour-schemes, as do Rapido and Turbofire – gang-molding means two figures are part of the same factory sprue, halving the amount of mold sprues needed to make four figures from 16 down to 8).

Crappy pic, like I said.

Amazingly, we did actually get a Block-Town Carzap release – one of the most obscure tributes ever – in the 2015 TFCC Subscription Club 3.0. This is EXACTLY the sort of figure I want to see from a Sub service, and for me this alone justified the entire existence of the Sub service (and they give us obscure Action Master figures like Treadshot). The 2015 Carzap was a retool of the Generations Bumblebee / Nightbeat mold with a new head, and amazingly included a small Kreo set with a fuel pump and a totally exclusive G B Blackrock minifigure. How amazingly cool is that?

Although this does lead me to a complaint: half finished sets. It’s amazing that we got a Rapido and a Carzap from Botcon, but how much better would it be to complete the set with a new Turbofire and Skram, and re-use that Carzap head to make a proper Windbreaker figure. Then finish of the Block Town homages. As much as I love the coolness of the Fun Pub / TFCC offerings, I feel we always start a new series before we finish the last, and with them rumoured to be losing their license I feel we have 1/4 of the Laser Rods with Electro, 2/4 of the Axelerators but with mixed colour schemes, and 1/4 of the Turbomasters with Scorch all on his own.

So to date, there is no way of getting an updated version of the Axelerators, and that sucks. but do you know what doesn’t suck? You can get these guys for less than £10 each, fairly easily. So, you know, go to! Then you can decide on their names for yourself.

Just because Hasbro and Fun Pub can’t give us updates of these toys, doesn’t mean no-one will. Last TFCon convention, Fans Project (the other FP) teased their version of these; The Speed Team. Teaser art was shown, and I have heard some interesting things about functionality and play patterns, and I hope these bear fruit when the toys are eventually released, and when they are, you can bet Kapow Toys will stock them!

-CZH / Ceno Kibble / Sid

07 Mar 2016

Grandus Designs

Rear box-art

Collecting can be a curious thing. To outsiders, they may think that Optimus Prime must be the rarest, most expensive and sought after Transformer s there is, similarly with the general public and Star Wars thinking that Vader or Boba Fett are the hottest of the hot. The truth is that yes, while the majority of fans WILL want these figures, so did the majority of kids back in the day, and as such they are easy to find and the majority of collectors will have long had these key “foundation” items in their collections. Sure, a C-10 MOSC Darth Vader 12-back will run more than a loose example, as will a sealed Goodbye Convoy or VSX set, but mostly you have to venture into the obscure to find the true rarities.

The truth is, there are four distinct categories; easy to find items, hard as nails to find items, expensive items, and then ungoldy expensive “grail” items. In my experience, POTF Yakface is one of those expensive items – much like a complete Scorponok or Typticon – that are REALLY easy to find, everyone and their kid brother has had one for sale at some point. Sometimes, much less expensive items are much harder to find at shows, stuff like the Turbomasters or Predator Jets, which don’t sell for much in UK / Europe, can be a real chore to track down. The comic-book world is very similar, but with much more choice available you’ll always see hundreds of different dealers all selling the same “hot” books for hundreds of times the original cover price, while trying to find “unpopular” books with a low guide price value is much, much harder to do. Rarity does not always dictate value.

To get to the fourth category of ungodly expensive items, we’re usually talking about test-shots, unique items, or lucky draw figures. These are things that not every collector can afford, and some collectors just don’t like. For me, test shots mostly hold no real appeal, same with the majority of Lucky Draw toys (although I can always be tempted by black repaints damnit!). I collect mainline toys with a factory finish, and as such I tend to avoid all Gold / Silver chrome toys, resin casts, test-shots, clear toys, or “battle damage” customs, as much because I don’t like them (although I like seeing them in other people’s collections and at shows) as I don’t have the money or space, and every collection needs a cut off. I’ve often felt that a great collection is as much defined by what ISN’T in it, as what is in it.
But if you collect mainline toys and have a sense of completionism about you, the “towards the end of a line and no-one wanted it” syndrome can be a real pain.

Which brings us to Grandus.

Released in 1991 exclusively in Japan as part of the later day Micro-masters “Return of Convoy” subline, this limited toyline featured three major releases with Grandus, Star Convoy, and Sky Garry, as well as the introduction of the combining Micro Masters with Sixliner (all of which were released in the West 10 years later as part of the Universe line and will be featured in a future blog, including the rare chase figures!), and repackaged versions of the Micro Master teams all of which came with numbered Micro Trailers.

The only fiction the line had was in the form of the Battlestars Manga, as the TV show hadn’t been renewed after the single episode of Transformers Zone had failed to gain support for an ongoing series the year before.

You can’t really see from the front, but check out the funky claw hands below.

Despite little to no fiction appearances, Grandus has become one of those extremely hard to find and thus expensive end of mainline toys. A good example, complete in a box can run up to $1,000, but for those willing to hunt around, he can be found a little cheaper sometimes. I got a great deal on mine, who is largely in great condition as seen above, but even then one of the accessories is missing (the missile pod, I’ve had two sent to me but they’ve both disappeared en route strangely, at a cost of $40 each), and the helicopter pad has badly yellowed and will need replacing.

Grandus is a fairly big toy, and certainly chunky. Whilst not up there with Fort Maximus, or even Metroplex, his blocky nature makes his proportions tricky to define and he casts a mirage of being bigger than he really is. Transformed into his rather nifty aircraft carrier (not a patch on the USS Flagg), he might look a little basic, but it serves a purpose I’ll address after the next picture.

There is no denying that Grandus is a brick. I’m okay with that. It’s a comment that often gets thrown around as a pejorative term to describe the lack of poseability in those early G1 toys. People who’ve come to collecting Transformers later in life, through Beast Wars or even Bayformers don’t have the bittersweet tinge of nostalgia colouring their perceptions, and it can be hard for some people to see the early figures as the charming quantum leaps of toy technology they really were, compared to the modern-day Masterpieces we’re darn lucky to be getting now that many people take for granted. Grandus takes brick syndrome a step further than most, and some people use it as a way of mocking the figure, quoting the normally excellent TFwiki; “He transforms from a short fat box on its stomach, to a fat box with a base sticking out of its stomach, to a fat box standing up. The inventor of the Triple Changer is rolling over in his grave. A terminal point G1-era city-former, he is painfully simplistic and bricktastic in robot and vehicle modes, compensating with … an arsenal of weapons, as well as Micromaster ramp and base modular compatibility”. I think they missed the point completely. Sure, he may be a brick, but he wears it on his sleeve so much it pretty much becomes a play feature, and I believe the Micromaster ramp and base modular compatibility came first. Form follows function, and on this, Grandus wins. Take a look at all the detail inside him.

I sometimes think people forget that Grandus is as much a playset as he is a robot in his own right. If Grandus is a brick, then The Ewok Village is a block of plastic that just sits there, the Kenner Death Star is just a tower with no points of articulation, and the TMNT Technodrome is just a round brick. We do collect toys after all. True, he does only have two points of articulation with his arms, but this still goes one step beyond his Countdown and Sky Hammer contemporaries by being a robot in his own right, not just a playset / vehicle named after the central figure. If that was the case, the Grandus set would have been called Spinner, after his Micromaster companion we’ll get to in a minute.

Take that best Megatron figure we never got!

Not only can Grandus join up with ANY of the Micromaster bases for a myriad of different combination, not only can his motorised features can be powered by Star Convoys tracks as part of his rarely seen base mode, but that’s just his base mode! He can also hook up to Metroplex in aircraft carrier mode, or be dragged along by Dia Atlas, 0r – most impressively – he can also link up with his line mates Sky Garry and Star Convoy to make the Triple Combination Battlestar Attack Base (unpictured as it doesn’t fit in my light box, but once we’ve had a look at Sky Garry and Star Convoy I will show this super mode. This blog is here for the long haul, so comfort yourself with the above artwork for now). So, yeah, eat that Overlord and your awesome but limited use base-mode.

Spinner is the most Brave looking Micromaster I think I’ve ever seen in both modes, moreso than the Micromasters that actually came out in Brave (oh God, he’s on about Brave again – Editor). He’s hardly the first Transformer to use a police theme, but the colouration and the way the shield is framed is straight out of Brave Police J-Decker – don’t believe me? Well watch this space, we’ll be covering Brave more in the coming months.

So that is G1 Grandus, a big hunk of plastic love. Unfortunately, we’ve never had any other toy versions of the Grandus character, and he’s yet to turn up in any Botcon fiction, or even James Robert’s obscurathon feelie comic More Than Meets The Eye. Thankfully, those are not the last bastions for the unloved, Transformers Animated makes up the holy trifector and adopted Grandus with a lovely version of him which, sadly, never saw a toy release. Pictured below was the very first tease of Animated Grandus re-imagined as a sumo-wrestler, released by the awesome Derrick Wyatt on his blog.

Hasbro gave us two of these at least, and I helped see the release of two more, so that’s not bad.

As well as appearing in the Botcon 2012 Animated Sunticon-job comic fiction, Grandus did make it into the actual cartoon itself, along with his official mold-mate retool Dug-Base, officially part of Transformers for the first time.

Wait a minute, who?

Dagbase

From the Brave of Command Dagwon series, Dugbase was a retooled version of Grandus. Like other latter-day Transformers that never got recoloured or reissued, Grandus was repurposed for the Brave line.

Dagbase is an awesome toy, and tends to retail MISB for about 1.5th of the price of Grandus, so for some he is an excellent stand-in if you just really want to own the mold without skipping a mortgage payment, but he’s an excellent toy in his own right and thanks to DJW and the Animated cartoon, you have an excuse to annoy the Brave purists, slap an Autobot faction logo on him and port him right over to your TF collection.

Look at that face! Not only does he look stoic and serious compared to Grandus, but he’s already well equipped to see most 3D movies.

His base mode feels even more city-like than even Grandus with the inclusion of two very Fortress Maximus reminiscent ramps that enable the various trains (so many trains) that make up the Brave line to interact with him, and the accompanying Decoy-esque solid Dagwon figures show the difference in the idea of scale between Transformers and Brave – most of the Brave figures are huge, especially when combined into their final forms where they often can reach Fort Max scale, and each one of the included figures represents a full-size character. Much bigger than a Micromaster base.

Like Grandus before him, Dagbase can also link up to a lot of his fellow Brave toys to make a sprawling city mass, including the obvious TF repaints like Death Garrygun, but also new robots like the HUGE plane Fire Dagwon, who also has a little seen base-mode (again, I will show all of these in future blogs, I can’t show every picture of every robot, in every configuration at once, and we’re building to some of the more obscure stuff).

At a glance, Grandus and Dag-Base look very similar as they have such unique body-types, but actually the differences are quite noticeable; with the feet, hands, faces, back of the head, and accessories (including shoulder mounted traffic lights???) all changed to give them both a unique identity. You don’t see these two side by side that often.

None more so than the aircraft carrier mode, which for Dagbase becomes more of a, uh, well I’m not sure what you’d call it exactly? As I mentioned earlier he tends to interact with trains moreso than anything else, but I can’t see how this could work with trains. So let’s just call it a battle platform and move on.

Overall, I prefer Grandus out of the two. I think Dagbase has some great features and I like a lot of his remolded bits, and his ramps, but there is something about the colouring on Grandus that I love. His little claw hands give him some much needed personality where the headsculpt fails him a little, and the huge 371, a reference to his Japanese release number (C-371) really adds an extra layer of nerd appeal for me. And what can I say, I love huge, sprawling base mode cities.

Grandus’ mold wasn’t the only thing recycled for the Brave line, his working title of Iron Baron was also repurposed for Thunder Baron and Road Baron. Those crafty peeps at Takara never let anything go to waste. Including their designs for Super Rodimus Prime, which we will get to one of these days, but not just yet…

Thanks for checking out the blog!

-CZH / Ceno Kibble / Sid

03 Mar 2016

Who’s next? Deathsaurus. I should have Geist.

Deathsaurus, or Dezarus as he is sometimes known, is one of the most well-known of the Japanese exclusive characters, released way back in 1989. The character has become fairly well known in the West after the releases of the Transformers: Victory DVDs and his appearance in the IDW comics.

Despite no mainline love or appreciation, no 3rd party representation (yet!), a cancelled Robot Heroes figure, a token Kreo fiction offering (not even a toy), and a few PVC and Kabaya toys, Deathsaurus did at least see a limited release in the US through the very first Fun Publications run Botcon back in 2005, as part of the Descent Into Evil boxset – although he is merely a repaint of RID Megatron, and other than a new headsculpt he’s not vastly different from the original Megatron toy release.

Let’s have a look at the original G1 Takara toy.

Looks pretty good overall…

The flaws become more obvious from the rear.

Deathsaurus’ toy is one of the most intimidating looking Decepticons from the original G1 toyline, moreso than Megs and Galvatron IMO. He looks like a commanding leader, and one not to be messed with. Although I do wish his visor could be removed.

He comes packaged with a very meaty blaster with double’s as a flail-mace – if only it wasn’t a solid molded piece (c’mon Venksta, surely this is a no-brainer even with a limited audience) – at least it comes with two pegs so it can be held as a melee weapon, should you want it to. Like all good melee fighters, Deathsaurus comes with a big, bad-ass shield. He’s not the first Transformer to come with a shield, but one that actually transforms into something other than kibble or a chest-plate for a combiner is pretty cool, and it saves the beast-mode tail just hanging off the back of the robot.

Let’s look at his companion figures. The ill-named (I shouldn’t pick on Takara, they might just have lost something in translation) Tigerbreast and Eaglebreast. Tigerbreast is the one that looks like a Winged Lion, and Eaglebreast is the one that looks like a red flying rectangle with wings. Eaglebreast features some of the most commonly lost parts of any Japanese TF toy with his little black guns, and although my Deathsaurus is mostly authentic, the guns (one of which broke during the photoshoot for this blog) I have with mine are resin replicas.

The animal partners are one of the coolest parts of this set, and as well as being independent animals, they can also double up as chest-partners with Deathsaurus, similar to the Liokaiser team, though quite what advantage is gained other than an aesthetic one is open to interpretation. They also feature a third mode, as super unrealistic looking suitcase guns.

In alt. mode, Deathsaurus still looks pretty bad-ass for a G1 Decepticon, although when people mention he looks like a mutant space chicken, it’s hard to get that image out of your head (thanks TFwiki), to me, he’s a sort of Mecha-dragon thing, one that probably had a fight with Godzilla at some point, but I don’t know nearly enough to comment on Godzilla without risking the ire of the Zillamaniacs (whatcha gonna do when 160,000 tons of radioactive reptile run wild on you!!!!). The stunning chrome head and die-cast feet really make this guy pop, and give him a nice weight too.

Deathsaurus never had any repaints or remolds in the Transformers line, so if you want this mold, your choices are limited.

However, the mold did eventually see a re-use from Takara, albeit as part of the Brave cartoon toyline. A lot of Transformers fans will have no doubt heard of Brave, even if they’re not 100% sure what it is. When Transformers was all but done in Japan, and with Hasbro turning their focus to G2 and then the Beast lines with Kenner, Takara teamed up with animation company Sunrise to make an all new toyline and TV series independent of Hasbro and the Transformers brand, one which ran from 1990-1999, before Takara once more returned to the Transformers line for Car Robots in 2000. Many of the original G1 / Diaclone designers still worked for Takara, and kept working on giant toy robots, ones which in many ways continued the style started by the latter day Japanese toys like Star Convoy and Star Sabre. Brave is an odd mash-up, outright lifting concepts and toys wholesale from Transformers, other-times borrowing from un-used concepts such as with the “Powermaster Rodimus Prime” concept for Duke Fire, and some times doing completely their own thing like Exkaiser and J-Decker, but which you’d swear blind could fit right into a Victory or Zone collection. And are those heads Optimus Prime? The toys often look that way.

Although the figures are often blocky and simple, the emphasis is on combination, and on the Super Robot style of them getting bigger and better the more they combine. It’s a fun and simple play pattern, and just unique enough to make them stand alone from the Transformers, whilst still aesthetic similar enough to display right alongside them. In my toy room, I feel comfortable displaying Brave toys with my G1 collection, whereas the Beast Wars figures and Animated have such a unique look I keep them displayed separate.

Deathsaurus was reused, and recoloured as Red Geist. With no re-tooling. The crest on top of the head actually looks more at home with the Brave toyline than it did on the original Decepticon figure. Curiously, the figure only came with Tigerbreast, and no Eaglebreast.

While it retained the diecast in the legs and chest parts, the alt. mode head sadly lost it’s chrome finish, and the wings definitely feel like they’re of a cheaper finish than the Transformer original.

A1(2)

The Brave toy of Red Geist can go for $400-500 itself, so it’s not really a cheap substitute for a Deathsaurus who, on occasion can be found for a similar price-point for those patient enough to scavenger hunt for parts. I was very lucky to find a loose version, even if mine has a Venger like chest-plate, however, my preferred use for display is to swap out the Redbreaster figure (there’s that awesome naming structure again) for the unloved Decepticon Eaglebreast, I think it just makes the Red Geist toy look slightly more unique (and I really have no problems seeing TF logos on my Brave toys either).

Red Geist with Eaglebreast looks like a natural fit to me.

Animation model comparison, the Red Geist toy needed a bit more retooling ideally.

Red Geist is not the only Geist in Brave, there is also Dino Geist who was released as a brand new mold, but he used to run around with Dinos whom bore a slight resemblance to the Dinobots, such as Ptera Geist – Swoop, Thunder Geist – Sludge, Horn Geist – Slag, Armor Geist – Snarl. It’s a shame these were never released, I always picture the KO modified dinobots in my head when I think of them.

Overall, I’m a big fan of Deathsaurus and Red Geist, they are solid toys with a lot of fun features. I especially have fond memories of flying back from TFCon in 2014 with Deathsaurus as carry-on luggage, as I didn’t want to risk him in the suitcase, and I remember the look of scrutiny on the face of the Stewardess as I told her it would be better if I shoved him under the seat in front of me because it’s worth a bit. As much as I like the toy itself, it’s a lasting reminder of the awesome people I’ve met in the Transformers community, who are willing to hunt out and build up a really fine MIB example of a really rare figure for me, at a sensible (open to interpretation) price. I wouldn’t have half the collection I have now if it wasn’t for the good friends I’ve made in the fandom, and even if I did, they would not mean as much to me.

Man, I love Robot Chicken.

Several TF characters saw recycled use in the Brave TV show, even if not all of them got figures. Over the next month or so, I’ll show some more comparisons between Transformers and their Brave counterparts right here on the Kapow! blog. Stay… not tuned… erm, tabbed? Ctrl + D’d? Keep an eye open.

28 Feb 2016

Check out my Laser Rod!!!

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Today we’re going to take a look at what I think are four of the most under-rated figures in the history of the Transformers brand; the Laser Rods.

These figures came out in the second year of Generation 2 in 1994, and known as the Illuminators in the UK, these figures featured a number of features which were a first in the Transformers market, and as such these figures act as vital stepping stones in the legacy of the Transformers brand, where nearly all figure ranges add something to the rich tapestry and have bought us to the present, where we take many such features as light-piping and poseability for granted.

Before we get to the toys, I’ going to share some rare imagery from a Transformers Generation 2 style guide. Style Guides are issued so licensees can ensure they keep to the company style, providing license holders with approved images and pantone codes to ensure everything matches up. Not always easy when the packaging art and character names change from the US to Europe. This covers a wealth of G2 characters, and I will crack this out from time to time if it is relevant to a subline we’re looking at. This is a brief and incredibly nerdy look at a niche aspect of the fandom, some people will love seeing this, others will skip ahead to the toys. Both are fine.

Style Guide Cover, you don’t see these often, though I’m sure a lot were issued.

Black and white line art of Electro and Hotrod (Jolt), full colour at top of page

Let’s start by taking a look at the Decepticons.

Sizzle

Sizzle is a Decepticon (no relation to the G1 Sparkabot), although you wouldn’t know it because none of these figures are actually branded with any logos, which is very odd because the majority of G2 figures usually feature a mixture of G1 and G2 logos, and at the very least a branded tampograph with the logo and faction name. Known under the name Fireball in Europe, but I tend to go by the US names on these guys for some reason.
Like all of these figures, the engine and the hands can light up when you press a button, hence the Illuminator / Laser Rod branding. All of my figures have long since had the batteries removed to preserve the innards of the bot, but at last check, they worked just fine.

His alt. mode is a Ford inspired hot-rod, and for the record is one of my favourite vehicle alt. modes of all time, although I feel he needs MUCH bigger tyres on his rear-end.

Jolt

Second up, is his fellow partner in crime Jolt, the first Transformer to use this name in the history of the brand, before Minicons and Bayformers came along. He’s also known by the really unimaginative Hotrod in Europe (no relation to the future Bot who would be Prime). If he looks minty fresh, it’s because I only tore him free from his cardboard prison a year or two back and he’s been behind glass ever since.

Jolt transforms into another Ford inspired custom hot-rod car, although others think he bears a resemblance to a Chrysler Prowler.

Volt

Moving onto the Autobots, we have Volt, who sports a slightly different look in his toy form to his packaging pictures as his roof suddenly became his chest, possibly just to vary the line so there weren’t three ‘bots with hood chest designs in a four ‘bot line, but it does mean that the Autobot Laser Rods have roofs for chests and both the ‘Cons have hoods for chests, so there is an easy “how-to-differentiate” guide for these un-faction-logo’d ‘bots. It’s maybe of note that the European versions of the Autobots both kept their American names.

Volt transforms into a 1934 Ford Coupe inspired custom hot-rod racer.

Electro

Fresh out of the packet and that knee joint looks fragile…

Finally, we come to Volt’s brother, Electro . Interestingly, the Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide states that Electro doesn’t suffer from GPS like a lot of other old figures, but I guess the figures were only 8 years old when that book was released, because as you can see…

This can happen. Here’s one I broke earlier. Electro often transforms into a broken pick-up truck.

Luckily, I carry a spare in case of this eventuality. Here’s a look at the Japanese packaging (complete with paperwork for nerds like Maz), this figure has never and will never be transformed by my hands, but I did take him out of the packaging and risked EVERYTHING for this photo-shoot. You’re welcome.

One of two figures I display in packaging.

Electro also has the dubious honour of being the only member of the team to be “re-imagined” for the modern age, thanks to the Botcon 2013 souvenir pack. It’s a nice figure, and probably a better use of the mold than Kup to be honest. At one point I had the Hasbro Asia Swerve repaint, and the Botcon 2013 Hoist, and a spare Kup, which I was going to customise into the Laser Rods, but it felt like them sharing a single mold would cheapen them.

So, earlier I talked about some of the unique points of the Laser Rods. So what are these? Well, for one, three of them had unique names at the time they were made but this wasn’t that unusual for the first decade of the brand, they all had unique molds which have NEVER been reissued to this day (very rare, considering how many cut and paste repaints were released in the Universe toyline), they had a unique electronics feature which involved unplugging the LED and plugging it in elsewhere (primative maybe, but functional), light-up weapons, light-piping, but more than that, these figures were the first Transformer figures to feature ball-joints. Okay, sure, the waist section lets this down a bit as it’s held on by a rubber band similar to GI Joe or Action Masters, but the ball jointed legs and highly poseable arms meant these guys could strike poses that were unseen before them, and with awesome (and uniquely molded) melee weapons, without this step, would we have ever have gotten to Beast Wars levels of poseability.

What else? Did I mention weapons storage?

Okay, they’re not the first Transformer to do this by any means, the Axelerators did it very well the year before as did their line nemesis’ (nemesi?) / evil equivalents The Skyscorchers. But these were figures where the weapons were integrated into the transformation. On the Laser-Rods, these swords are additional parts and quite sizeable too, having them store under the figures is a nice touch, and again, a stepping stone towards the weapon storage as standard Kenner bought us with Beast / Machine Wars.

I often hear Transformers fans complaining about Generation 2, because they didn’t like the colours (which are often no more garish than G1 a lot of the time), when mostly I think they don’t dislike it, they just prefer the G1 they grew up with to the G2 they have no affection for. I often say that every Transformers property, whether you love it or loathe it, offers something new to the franchise; The Bay movies bought us Blackout and Barricade, the Animated series Lugnut and Lockdown, even Cheetor and Hot-Shot contributed to the idea that Bumblebee’s character could evolve over time. No re-imagining contributed more to the evolution of the toys than Generation 2, and the Laser Rods stand to me as some of the finest examples of G2 figures. Bold, brash, creative, and unafraid to take risks, even if they mean that rubber bands snap, plastic breaks, and light features fail. They say there is no waste in science, because even a failed experiment rules out one option, and along with that theory, every risk that G2 took was an extra step towards the toys we have and love now.

Bravo Laser Rods, we salute you!

24 Feb 2016

I Predict a Rescue Force, with Liokaiser comparison pictures

One card-backer to rule them all…

Following on from my post at the weekend about the glorious Japanese exclusive Liokaiser, today, we take a look at the incredibly phoned-in European Rescue Force set.

Reducing the range count from six to just four figures, and doing away with their Breast Warrior companions and weapons, the Rescue Force makes for an odd release in 1992, at a time when – more than any other – it really felt like Hasbro really were not making an effort. I suppose we should be glad we got these at all, because even with all the compromises involved with their release, it’s still more than America got, as these molds have NEVER been released in the good ol’ US of A. But at the same time, here in the UK we never got Blaster, Trypticon, Omega Supreme, Perceptor, Sky Lynx, the Deluxe Insecticons, half of the first range of Pretenders (this might be a positive) so… I could go on.

Despite the cut-backs, Hasbro did pay out for new weapons to be molded, which gives these guys a bit more character and a look more unique to them. They were released with weapons in red, and later in silver, with subtle face-paint differences between the two releases (gold to silver). There are also packaging variants as well. These variations don’t tend to go for vastly different sums, as a lot of collectors still don’t focus on latter-day Euro stuff, but then, of course, there are some that do…

Let’s have a look at the Rescue Force together.

The robots look great as a team, loads of positive, bright Autobot colours. And no, my OCD doesn’t sit well with not having a matching set of weapons, thanks for noticing.

Despite my Hasbro-didn’t-make-an-effort sentiment, I do actually really like these guys, I think they look great as a team of four robots. But mostly I like them for the oddity of the time and place in Transformers history, and because of their connection to Liokaiser.

As a group in alt. modes, they look really cool too, and the new weapons make for at least one fairly unique looking alt. mode with that one character. You know, him. The blue tank looking one. Sorry if I can’t name him, but Hasbro NEVER BOTHERED TO! Instead, they packaged them marked merely as Rescue Force and Autobot. They were not alone with this, the 1992 European non-combining yellow Constructicons (subtly different from their G2 cousins that soon followed as they featured no weapons and a bit more grey detailing, and of course no combining parts). The reason why? Cost-cutting. All the Rescue Force shared the same backing cards, same with the Constructicons. They’ve since acquired Western names of a sort, but I won’t spoil them for you yet…

I seem to remember Toy Fu (toy retailer who donate to charity) had a few sets of these MOSC back at Auto Assembly 2009 for just £45 and at the time, I skipped on them because they just didn’t look appealing, as they are quite blocky and I had zero affinity to the characters. I since regretted not buying them, but thanks to various lovely people in the fandom who’ve given me toys from their own childhood, I have since acquired a loose set for even less then that, and I’m very happy to have them in my collection (with slight “battle damage” and all).

So, lets take a look at the individual figures and compare them to their Japanese counterparts.

First up, we have the dramatically named Rescue Force himself alongside Leozack. It’s largely presumed that Rescue Force is the leader of his respective group, probably because he has the prime naming of the group and, I imagine, because Leozack was the leader of his group. Nothing exists in a vacuum.

Some great jet modes, even if their canopies are more susceptible to damage than Goose’s head in Top Gun. While the plastic quality and joints feel of much better build quality on the Japanese figures, there is no denying that the colour schemes on the Heroic Autobots absolutely pops, even if the colours are maybe more generic and overused in the franchise than Liokaiser’s varied palette.

Next up, we have Tank Guy alongside his counterpart Killbison. Haha, just kidding, he’s not called Tank Guy, his name is much worse. It’s Rescue Force 1. FAB.

As mentioned earlier, at least the new weapons give the alt. modes on these guys a real distinct look, softening the look of the good guys whilst going uber-aggressive with the villains. Even if their heads are visible. There was much discussion when photographing about which way was supposed to be the front and which way the back of these tank alt. modes, I’ve always felt like the solid feet end looks more like the back of a tank, but in retrospect, there is a very good chance these are facing the wrong way. Tank turrets rotate, so I’m over it.

The third member of the Rescue Force is the imaginatively named Rescue Force 2, from the Dave Allen school of numbering things. Pictured here with Jaruga. I do have a stickered version of Rescue Force 2, but he was not available for this photoshoot due to other commitments (I don’t know which box I put him in).

It’s worth noting that while Jaruga should have small missile launchers (repro parts en route), the good guy character features much more aggressive weapons in a complete inversion of Rescue Force 1. As cool as Jaruga looks in black, the crisp white and blue contrast of Rescue Force 2 works equally well.

Last but not least we have Thunderbird 3, I mean International Rescue Force 3, I mean Rescue Force 3. Yes, the names are awful, and even the really unimaginative naming-pattern puppet show could figure out a decent name for the drill tank (The Mole). Although calling a TF character The Mole could lead to a really unimaginative IDW spy story-arc.

The drill-tank is my favourite alt. mode of the Rescue Force set, and is one that really looks better than it’s Breastforce counterpart Drillhorn in my humble opinion, and the weapons do add an extra degree of threat to an already dangerous looking alt. mode.

And just for the sake of completion, and because I feel bad these molds haven’t been show-cased in this blog, lets have a direct comparison between the alt. modes of Guyhawk and Hellbat from Breastforce.

So that’s Rescue Force, the new weaponed, non-combining, four part, un-named set that don’t come with chest plate animal partners despite showing them in chestplate mode on their packaging artwork.

Wait, did I say non-combining? Because it would have cost even more to remold them, Hasbro just left in their combining parts. Why they didn’t release the other two parts is anyone’s guess…

Believe it or not, an obscure European sticker album mentioned the combination and christened it Big Rescue Force.

Lame. Less Rescue Me and more Kill Me.

However, do you remember those various KOs we discussed in the Liokaiser blog? Those are not completely without merit…

Take two part crappy KOs…

…Add one-part decent customiser who removes crappy stickers and adds new ones and improves the detailing / facepaint…

…And voila!!! RESCUE TIGER!!! (caps lock and bold totally necessary)

Yup, this custom has been done by a few people online, and is a massive improvement on the “official” Big Rescue Force mode. This particular custom is the work of and named by Spurt Reynolds, a wonderful UK customiser and repro part caster who did a great job with this custom, chosing the name due to the combined mode head-sculpt and giving the black and yellow “caution” stripes a secondary meaning. A custom which will no doubt inspire a hundred others.

So there we have it, the Rescue Force team, who have had even less fiction and updated figures than Liokaiser, who at least got a fiction cameo as a Kreo figure. Will we get a TFC re-release in these distinct colours? Will they include the full team of six or just four? Will we get a proper combining team akin to Rescue Tiger? Who knows, but two things are certain; 1) If TFC make them, Kapow Toys are sure to stock them, and 2) The idea of a combining Rescue Force is in the fandom’s collective consciousness and not going anywhere.

Amazing fan art by Joshua Burcham, check out his art at Deviant Art.

20 Feb 2016

Liokaiser Chiefs!

One of the most interesting and intriguing sets from Transformers Generation 1 is the Japanese exclusive Liokaiser set. Released in 1989, and having never been reissued (bad KOs are available, in a variety of sources, including one with Doubledealer for an arm?!?), the team featured in the Transformers Victory cartoon, but still to this day have never had any western media appearances, and as such they remain largely unknown in the West.

Nasty undersize KO with Doubledealer arm.

Liokaiser is the combined version of the Breastforce (which was coincidentally the name of my stag-do group), featuring six all new molds, this Breast Master / Target Master combiner is the closest we ever got to the Go-Bot Puzzler style of combination, wherein all of the parts needed for combination are included within the individual member’s robot forms, with the exception of his head.

Not the best condition box, but certainly acceptable.

Stunning rear box artwork as always.

That’s £17.15 for those keeping track!

They also released these guys separately, but I managed to pick this box-set up last year, unstickered, almost cherry, mint in box, with paperwork, and only missing the two small missile launchers from Jaruga / Jallguar.

Amusingly, in it’s day this figure failed to sell well in Japan, like a lot of later-day Transformers, especially villains such as Dezarus, and while very difficult to find in the collector’s market for less than four figures (not including decimals), they often have multiple store price reduction stickers on them.

Let’s take a look at the guys.

Leozack is the leader of the pack, transforming into a F14 Tomcat fighter plane. But wait, what is that cool looking beast thing next to him? Only a bloomin’ Breastforce Warrior (Beastforce, surely?)! Little pint-sized triple changers that transform from animal sidekicks to weapons to chest-plates! Leozack’s partner is Lionbreast, who becomes the Lio-Cannon when used as a weapon.

Next up is Drillhorn, along with his partner Hornbreast, who becomes a lovely Drilltank. Hornbreast becomes a generic blaster, and is having a doglike wee in this photo.

Above we see Guyhawk, alongside Hawkbreast. Guyhawk transforms into a Mig-29, and his partner is a hawk (duh!) who can also become a Hawk Cannon blaster… obviously.

Above we see Hellbat and his mate Batbat, okay he’s called Kōmoribreast and he can become the Kōmori-cannon, but I think he needed a more anglicised name. Hellbat becomes a rather nifty Dassualt Rafale jet fighter, apparently.

Next up is the GPS scare-mongerer Killbison, who actually isn’t half as bad as a lot of the gold toys from the 90’s, which is a relief. Still, caution is urged as he’s more expensive than G2 Electro or BW Randy. Killbison becomes an anti-aircraft tank, and his little mate Bisonbreast becomes the Bison-Blaster! Because, you know, why not?

Last but not least is Jaruga, or Jallguar (depending on your preference – I use Jaruga more often than not, probably because of the Metronome DVD translations), his little buddy is Jaguarbreast and becomes the unimaginatively named Jaguar-cannon weapon, you know, when he’s not spending his time attached to Jaruga’s chest.

Interestingly, in the Victory animated series, there was a seventh member of the Breastforce; Deathcobra, but he died at the hands of Hellbat and he never even got so much as a toy. In my opinion, this is EXACTLY the sort of thing that third party guys should be focusing on; obscure on-screen characters that never got made. Unfortunately, I think he’s so obscure, few would know who he is.

Pretty cool huh? Let’s have a better look at those Breastforce Warriors, and see how they interact with their partners.

Amazingly detailed little fellas, all with so much character.

This is the team together, with their Breastforce Warriors as Target-Master style weapons. It’s a great play feature which I like a lot, but I have to admit, I prefer them as chest armour, as seen below…

And this is the team together, with the Breastforce Warriors as chest-plates, where they become armour according to the bios! The real-world equivalent of this is strapping small animals onto your chest before having a firefight against The Expendables. I don’t think they’d stop many bullets, but maybe the distraction would buy you a few extra seconds.

Let’s move onto Vehicle modes.

The alt modes rock! Almost as much as the fun, instinctive transformations, a hallmark of G1. These figures have superb engineering overall, and there are no corners cut. Even the two jets who comprise the shoulders / arm who look similar at a glance are actually very dissimilar, it’s not just their jet modes that differentiate them, the entire robot modes are mirrored to enable this unique combination.

Boom! Money shot!

In hand, he is truly one of the most stunning of the G1 Combiners. Unlike the Scramble City / Special Teams toys which have an amazing play-pattern, Liokaiser is a fixed-limb gestalt, easily up there with the likes of the original Diaclone Devastator and Raiden molds in terms of design ingenuity, with way more playability than those or the mighty Predaking. The interesting and varied alt. modes, coupled with the amazingly fun Breastforce Warriors make this one of the most unique combining Transformers to ever come from Takara.

One of the things that is especially intriguing about the Breastforce, is how little has been done with the characters in the 27 years since they were created. Fun Pubishing included a Leozack figure as part of their attendee souvenir packs for Botcon 2009, and a few names were re-appropriated for Kreo, but that’s about it. Even third party companies have been slow on the uptake, but at least TFC are finally releasing their versions, with Thanatos in stock and others available for pre-order at in the Kapow web-store.

Moving forward, we will look at comparisons between the TFC and the G1.

If you’ve ever read any of my blogs, you might be familiar with my annoyance at the contempt and cost-cutting I feel Hasbro have sometimes shown towards the US / European market. Whether it was the unpainted, plastic part, non-windsheilded version of Ultra Magnus the majority of us got in the UK, or the general massive step-down in quality Powermaster Prime received compared to it’s Japanese Takara Ginrai counterpart, then keep an eye here: I mentioned earlier that Liokaiser wasn’t released in any markets outside of Asia, and while that is strictly true, four of the molds were recoloured and re-released in Europe as part of the obscure G1.5 era between the end of G1 in America and the launch of G2, but with many of the bits that made these guys so cool removed. We’ll take a look at Rescue Force next week, and I’ll show you direct comparisons between them and the Breastforce.

Written by C Z Hazard / Ceno Kibble (pick one, he can’t).