Posts Tagged: takara

14 Jun 2016

Diaclone Dia-Attacker / Grandstand Converters Zetanoid

As strong as a Diamond, as fast as a Cyclone; Diaclone!

Seems everyone is going Diaclone mad with the release of the Diaclone V2 series. Good! About time.

The earliest releases of Diaclone were quite different to the later Car Robots series that we know and love from their eventual licensing agreement and development with Hasbro, they were of a more science fiction bent, featuring the good Diaclone drivers and their (seemingly occasionally sentient) vehicles and armour, fighting the Evil Waruder Empire, some of whom later became the Insecticons (a name later used in Transformers for the Botcon 2015 Waruder set of Waspinator repaints). zetabio

We all know how early Diaclone and Micro-change figures were re-packaged, re-imagined and re-branded and released as Transformers in 1984 (if you’re unsure as to the who and the what, click here), what is perhaps less known is how some of the early non-TF molds of Diaclone were released in the West, fully licensed by Takara and put out by Hayes Ltd in 1981 as part of the Grandstand Converters line, which contained a mash-up of various toys from a multitude of different lines.

The most common of these is the Diaclone Gats Blocker which was released in the Grandstand line as Alphatron, but other releases included a Microman vehicle which was included as Deltrian Tracker, one of the Waruders which was released as Siclonoid, and some of the more savvy of you may have noticed Omega Supreme in different colour scheme parading around as Omegatron, this was duel-licensed from Tomy / Toybox for UK release in Converters, and may have been the reason that Omega Supreme did not get a UK release. Over time, we’ll take a look at all these guys, but today we’re taking a look at a latter-day Grandstand Converters figure from the second range; Zetanoid.

Zetanoid / Dia-Attacker

Any of the green packaged Converters range are from the second range which was made in much smaller numbers, and it is speculated that it may be harder to find than the original Diaclone Dia-Attacker release. Released in 1985, the packaging only features a date-stamp for 1981, but this is referring to Takara’s original copyright date for the mold. The packaging is pretty disappointing, with the same image on the back and front of the packaging which really wastes the potential of showing exactly what the toy can do, and a generic throwaway story and profile on the side of packaging that offers less insight and character into the Converters background than the (uniquely British) little comics on the back of Space Raiders crisps.

The differences between Zetanoid and Dia-Attacker are minor, heck, even the inner styrofoam containers are identical. The most glaring omission from the Zetanoid set are the Diaclone drivers, these were absent from most of the Diaclone re-releases (including the Transformers range). The missiles are included (although long since lost in my version), and a running change seems to be that the head-crest that comes with Zetanoid is now yellow, rather than the original Diaclone chrome plated, though I have seen evidence of both releases with the Gig and Takara releases. The chrome on the toy often wears, and reveals all the molded plastic underneath to be the same yellow as the head-crest, so whether some of the head-crests just escaped the chroming process by design or accident is unknown. Another common defect is the chest stickers, which are prone to wear and cracking on the flexible plastic material.

The toy interacts well with the Diaclone drivers as seen above, and you can swap the (slightly too large) fists out with the little vehicle pods for extra playability, although sadly the vehicle pods and fists don’t seem to store well in the missile holes. You can also rotate the fists and seat a Diaclone driver in the back of them, which looks a bit odd, but explains the slight over-sized-ness of them.

The head sculpt is awesome, channeling more than a little bit of KISS’s Peter Criss. It’s one of the most distinct faces in a line note-worthy for it’s awesome head designs. Purely subjective, but I’ve always felt Takara’s robot faces are what gave Transformers the edge over Go-Bots in making us invest in these characters for 30 plus years, and these same faces are evident all the way back to early Diaclone, all the way up to latter-day Brave toys.

A look at a release packaged with the Diaclone drivers, missiles, and two head-crests, in yellow and chrome.

This is one of the examples of early Diaclone which actually transforms, rather than pulling apart into separate components like Gats-blocker, Dia-Battle, or even Robot Fortress X. The transformation is basic, fold the arms under, put the cod-piece / cockpit forward, rotate the head back section forward into the chest section, and swing the legs backwards rotating the wings in the process. Ta-da!

You can also choose to store the fists in the arms whilst in vehicle mode, it does limit the playability of the vehicle pods which can also plug in under there. As well as the two smaller pods, the larger vehicle which sits on top of the vehicle mode and stores on the back of the robot mode is detachable (although sliding a vehicle on top of 30 years old mint chrome is never fun and always a risk), and this gives an extra dimension of playability.

It’s a fun toy, although I feel the lack of Diaclone Drivers hurts the release, in a same way that as a kid I always felt there was something missing for the driver seats and cockpits of the early G1 toys.

Diaclone Release

Rear of box, Gig release

It seems a collectors work is never done; whilst researching this article I have seen photos and evidence of a black and purple knock off of this mold, which I now really need. Sigh.

Thanks for reading, and if you want to get onboard with the new Diaclone V2, keep an eye on the Kapow! website for those, and the unofficial Perfect Effect offerings.

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).
E-20160308_202941

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.

31 May 2016

MC04 Mini Car Robo 02 – Whatever happened to Bumper?

When you say Transformers, the first names that pop into the general public’s heads are Optimus Prime and Bumblebee (as well as the big three on the Con side of the street), if you push a bit harder they might be familiar with the name Cliffjumper too. Ask them who Bumper is, and you’ll likely get a blank face.

Used with permission, thanks to the Diaclone Genome Project. Check it out!

That’s because back in 1984 Bumper – or Bumblejumper as he is sometimes known (both portmanteaus of Bumblebee and Cliffjumper) was never officially a Transformer with his own name and identity from Hasbro or Takara, although he was packaging and sold as one. He did officially appear as a Transformer in South America, as part of Brazil’s licensed Estrela toyline, where he was available in four different colour-schemes (white, blue, green, and yellow), where he was known simply as Sedan.

The general consensus is that unsold stock from the various Diaclone and Micro-Change lines was repackaged as official Transformers (hence the rare but existing Red Tracks in MB packaging), but this left poor Bumper with no place to go and he was repackaged on either Bumblebee or Cliffjumper cards (although the former is hearsay, with no carded ones known to have been discovered).

In today’s article, we’ll look at two fairly recent additions to my collection, and explore the history of the character that elbowed his way into the TF fandom.

Bumper (Transformers, yellow) and Sedan (Estrela, Blue)

The robot mode is pretty much what you expect if you have ever experienced the vintage Bumblebee or Cliffjumper toys… charming and fun, and every bit the cheap end of the 80s toy spectrum. Back then, there was a toy for every price point, and this is what made the line so inclusive and expansive. Nowadays, there is a toy for every price point, but they’re usually the same character in different scales.

The transformation is text-book G1, easy, fun and intuitive. Why they even felt the need to print instructions on the card back seems off to me, but I guess it covers the toy companies from any broken toy complaints.

The alt. modes to these Mini Autobots seems to confuse a lot of fans, especially the ones who abide to the “holy scale chart”, Bumblebee never transformed into a VW Beetle, and Cliffjumper was never a Porsche 924, rather they were super deformed penny racer versions of these alt. modes, otherwise G1 Cliffjumper would be the same size as the G1 Jazz toy, and MP collectors need to realise that Bumblebee is only in scale with our childhood memories of the vehicles as the Beetle has a larger wheelbase and overall length than a Lancia Stratos.

To that end, this guy transforms into a Super Deform Penny Racer version of a Mazda Familia.

Bumblebee, Bumper, Cliffjumper

Yellow Cliffjumper, Hubcap, Bumblebee, Bumper.

Overall
Originally I wanted this guy in blue, because there are quite a lot of yellow bots already in the minibot line with Yellow Cliffjumper and Hubcap, however, once I got the blue version (which I promptly faction logo’d up much to the chagrin of Estrela collectors), I really wanted the yellow one too.

Overall, I’m very happy with these guys, and the conditions I got them in and the prices I paid make them seem especially good. There are apparently KOs of the yellow one now doing the rounds, so buyer beware on that front! If the price is too good to be true and the condition way too clean, have a real think about your purchase.

Dear Takara, please make this in yellow with a new head as Bumper please, k, thanks.

As technology advances and toys get more and more real world in alt. mode and more and more anime accurate in robot mode, it might seem there is little place left for the concept of Transformers converting into super-cute deform versions of vehicles. Some might argue that modern day licensing might even back it harder to do, as brands get super protective of their IP and likenesses. That’s probably why I’m so happy with the current QTF line from Takara, licensed deforms which harken back to the original Mini-Autobots from 1984. Masterpiece Bumblebee is great, and for a lot of people is the definitive Bumblebee we all wanted as a kid, but for me, the QTF line takes me back to the earlier, more innocent days of the TF line, where various toylines were shunted together to create a loosely-fitting range. If you’re interested in seeing more of the QTFs, comment on this article and we’ll see about making them a future focus.

What makes Bumper very intriguing, is his absolute lack of any further product. He was fully embraced as an all new character in his own right during the Dreamwave run of comics, but he’s been used very little since then. We’ve had no new official updates, and no reissues / Encores, and we live in a world with 60+ Bumblebee repaints between 2007-2011 when a new head sculpt could have meant another character, and this in a time when even Scrounge is getting an official toy!

Does what it says on the box

True, we have had a few offerings. Impossible Toys had one last shot of glory with their attempted minicar range which featured a very true to the original but with articulation Bump that somehow didn’t quite work.

Small, inconsequential, yellow.

iGear had a Bumper scheduled called Fender, which was cancelled before we was even announced (click here for more about the fate of iGears minibots), and making use of all those Bumblebee repaints, Renderform released an add-on ki;t RF-009 Bump Scout, which gave Bumper his first ever update back in 2011, during the halcyon days of CHUG.

RF007 Bump Scout

So what do you say Hasbro / Takara? About time we get an official Bumper or what?

Thanks for reading as always, and while we’re waiting for Takara to do something with Bumper, you can console yourself with a plethora of Bees over at the Kapow main page.

23 May 2016

Galaxy Shuttle Vs Thunder Dagwon (who will survive?)

Galaxy Shuttle is one of the most well known and popular of the latter day “Victory”-era Japanese Transformers, even gaining popularity and traction in the West where he has had zero fiction appearances. As such, he tends to be a very expensive and hard to acquire item, with even average condition loose versions of the toy selling out within minutes of the doors opening at even the biggest Transformers conventions like Botcon.

Stupid flap creases!

Why is this?

Maybe it’s because he is really, really good! A very solid latter-day Transformer which relies on very few gimmicks, other than his ability to transform from a really cool robot into a really nice Space Shuttle mode. No Pretender shell, no Micro-Master companion or launcher, no third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh mode, no head / breast / target / power mastery, no Action Mastering,; just a solid toy. Such a solid toy that he was also snapped up by Gig for the Trasformers line a year later, and then retooled and re-released as a Brave toy six years later in 1996 as part of the Brave Command Dagwon line.

Galaxy Shuttle

Shuttle Robo as is sometimes known (as he was called in his first appearance), was released in Japan in 1989 under the designation C-326.

The robot mode, as mentioned before, is big, bulky and stunning. It’s no wonder he was later used for Brave as he in many ways looks more like a Brave figure rather than a Transformer, except for that awesome face that screams Heroic Autobot. He is a big toy compared to others of the time, whilst obviously not being as big as a city-bot, but that’s because his character is a big robot in the show as well. Unlike Blast Off or Astrotrain, this guy is a space shuttle capable of carrying huge robots inside him which doesn’t shrink down to insane sizes in robot mode.

His transformation is a joy, everything moves instinctively, but annoyingly his wings do get in the way sometimes. You can pop them off to make the transformation easier, but repeated popping on and off of the wings tends to cause stress marks to the softer plastic material holding the wings in place, and it has been known to perish and crack on a few unfortunate cases.

That’s not paint scratching… it’s from re-entry.

Once in vehicle mode, he really shines. You can interact with the Micro-Masters play pattern in a couple of different ways, and you can even open up his cockpit to pop a Micro-Master pilot in there, which does make me wonder why they didn’t include one with him to increase the value of the package and bulk out an already close to bloated line.
There have also been rumours that Galaxy Shuttle was originally supposed to come with a launcher of some type, but I’ve never been able to confirm that, as it’s very hard to search for that without getting assaulted by Richard Branson propaganda.

I can’t decide which I prefer, so have both.

You can also pop open his cargo bay doors (his arms basically) to add a further bit of play value, and his weapon stores nicely, becoming his tail-fin in shuttle mode.

He also interacts nicely with the Countdown base playset, as seen above and below, with his rear blasters molded to fit in place of Countdown’s booster rocket.

Thunder Dagwon

I’ve always loved this dual packaging design that you can find on some Brave, with a solid package art piece on one side, and a window showing you the toy on the other. This is something Joustra Diaclone toys did very well and I’d like to see it more often in today’s toys.

Technically, Thunder Dagwon is actually the combined form of DagThunder and Thunder Shuttle, but most people refer to this guy on his own as Thunder Dagwon.

And all new mold DagThunder is included in the package, comprised of Thunder Rai and his Thunder Bike, but they are in a completely different scale to Thunder Shuttle. While they’re a cool addition to the package, they just store on the back of the figure and don’t really affect the look of the figure like other combining Braves, so I rarely combine them and keep them separate. I should also mention that T’Dawg here comes with another spear weapon, not pictured, as I removed it from the figure when i took it to a nerd meet-up for safe-keeping, and I’ve promptly lost it.

DagThunder

Thunder Rai on his Thunder Bike

The figure has some extensive retooling, in robot mode this is most noticeable with his new head sculpt. Not everyone likes his head-crest, and it’s very removed from the Transformers aesthetic, I’ve even heard it described as a curled up gold poop sat on his fore-head, which I think is a tad unfair. However, it’s no argument that Thunder Dagwon does look a lot more angry and threatening than his Autobot counterpart.

His new chest required that Takara change the entire cockpit canopy, introducing a swivel joint so the flashy chest is contained within the cockpit in alt. mode, but this obviously gives him a very different look in alt. mode as well. Other than that simple twist of the cockpit, and the folding of his ears away, he transforms exactly the same as Galaxy Shuttle. Only easier.

Why easier?

Well, they have completely changed his wing attachments, almost making them a fixed double joint which allows for slightly better rotation and clearance, meaning they’re never in the way during the transformation. Which is great as they can’t be removed. I also prefer the wings on Thunder Dagwon, as they are more space-shuttley, with Galaxy Shuttle having molded gun detailing on his wing-tips, seemingly just to make it harder to find good condition examples in the future.

Some say the additional front wings do detract from the space shuttle mode a bit though, meaning you’d need to do a hybrid of the G1 and Brave toys to get a perfect Space Shuttle look for the real nerds out there. You know, the sort of nerds who’d appreciate this designation on the tail-fin.

Nerds like me.

Overall, I actually prefer Thunder Dagwon, I love the head, the over-the-top chest, the more stable wing transformation and wing accuracy, and I think the flash of colour and ostentatious chest makes him really stand out. Hard to do against a wall of other over-the-top Brave toys.

That’s not to take anything away from Galaxy Shuttle, as both are great toys. I’ve actually wanted Galaxy Shuttle for years before I eventually got him this year at Botcon, whereas Thunder Dagwon just… sort of happened, I guess. The scarcity and value of Galaxy Shuttle (not to mention the difficulty in finding an un-yellowed one) means that acquiring one is an event, even for the most jaded of burnt out toy collectors, and this too-many-a-grail piece would be a stand-out choice in any collection. I can definitely see why it is so popular.

But I’m not done yet… that’s not all the secrets that Thunder Dagwon contains. The sharp eyed amoung you might have noticed a difference in Thunder Dagwon’s gun in the pictures above. The grey cover on his weapon does more than just make his gun look different, it enables another one of those lovely over-the-top Brave combinations I enjoy talking about.

Shuttle wears his branding proudly!

Yes, while Galaxy Shuttle contains the ability to port onto Countdown for a shuttle launch aesthetic (don’t ask where the solid fuel boosters are), Thunder Dagwon contains the ability to re-create another slice of real-world awesomeness from the Space Shuttle era. Rather than the usual Brave robot combination, this is a vehicle combination, one that’s too big for me to photograph in my light box or more traditional brick-work setting.

Yep, Thunder Dagwon uses his weapon clip to “combine” with big bad Fire Dagwon, a huge cargo plane. This is very cool, and the connection is so strong that you can hold the plane upside-down and Thunder Dagwon isn’t going anywhere! Fire Dagwon is himself a massive beast of a robot, one who follows the traditional mecha formula of combining with another robot, Power Dagwon, to make an EVEN BIGGER robot; Super Fire Dagwon.

I’m in a Dagwon sort of mood. Maybe we’ll take a look at that next week…

Thanks for reading!

-Ceno

11 May 2016

King of Braves Gaogaigar FuRyu & RaiRyu

First things first, if you missed the April blog about HyoRyu and EnRyu, click here, as it gives you a bit of background information on the Brave toyline, if you’ve been to that one article before, you might want to check it again as I’m about to update it a little.

The toys we’re looking at today are remolds of the HyoRyu / EnRyu molds, released by Takara at the same time in 1997.

These were two of the hardest Brave toys I’ve ever had to hunt down. It took me ages to find the red and blue versions, and I was very pleased when I found MISB Takara examples in the US, despite the postage. That’s what led me to hunt for the companion pieces to finish the set.
After months of scouring eBay, Yahoo Japan, various Facebook pages, conventions here and abroad and generally bugging people, a fellow collector and friend of mine asked me to identify a few figures he didn’t recognise which he’d gotten in a bulk Energon / Cybertron lot. Boom! There these were!
Thanks to the awesomeness of some people in this fandom, he gave them to me at a great price in an exchange. Thanks Paul!

The first thing you might notice is the difference in packaging. These enclosed cardboard boxes contain the figures in their robot modes, and were produced by Sonoking. The quality is slightly poorer than the Takara equivalents, mostly in the quality of the joints which feel slightly looser, but in many ways make the toy easier to manage, and the plastic does feel slightly cheaper. From a personal POV, I prefer having these in Sonoking as I have the best of both worlds with their brothers in Takara packaging, and a different language catalogue too!

FuRyu

FuRyu in green and – like the others – has been slightly retooled to make him unique. In robot mode, his head sports a spiffy logo, identifying him as an “air” type, with each of the four robots having elemental powers. I know literally nothing about Brave as a show, or the characters, I just LOVE the toys, because of their roots to Takara. Below is a bit more information lifted from the Wiki page to give you as much background as possible, wiki info italicised.

In humanoid form, the mixing drum is back-mounted, but can be angled up over the shoulders. He attacks with Fēng Dào Dàn (風道彈) missiles and wind blasts fired from the mixer. Capable of flying with the mixer Jao Dan Ji (攪拌槽). FuRyu uses his chest dial far more often than any of the others (with RaiRyu a close second) – each level of power appears to have a totally different effect.

Has a similar personality to HyoRyu, and is considered the older brother.

Got all that? Good. The chest dials refer to both the show, and the toy, which can change their dials to reflect a story element.

Looking at his alt. mode, which the Wiki informs us is GGG Super-AI Vehicle Machine, model number GBR-6. FuRyu’s vehicle form is a cement mixer; we can see that he has the most unique alt. mode and to me the most visually interesting out of the set, it even does a good job hiding his head attachment.

RaiRyu

Okay, some of the facts below from the wiki are quite cool, I quite like the idea of a robot on a hoverboard who can’t land. RaiRyu also has a cool lightning logo on his head.

In robot form, he uses the dumptruck’s scoop as a shield. RaiRyu can also use the scoop as a hoverboard for flight. Unfortunately, he has the same unfortunate habit as EnRyu does: the inability to land correctly after aerial deployment. Unlike EnRyu, RaiRyu does not overcome this difficulty. Has a similar personality to EnRyu, and is considered the younger brother.

As GGG Super-AI Vehicle Machine, model number GBR-7. RaiRyu’s vehicle form is a dumptruck, and he attacks with lightning. In vibrant yellow, you might think this guy would have been better in place of the blue crane type, but that’s just the Transformers fan in you! The add-on for dump-truck is fairly boring, but it works, and helps give him his own identity.

GekiRyuJin

The Symmetrical-Docked form of FuRyu and RaiRyu. More offensive in nature than ChoRyuJin. Its trademark attack is “Shuāng Tóu Lóng” (雙頭龍 Two-Headed Dragon), which fires two mobile beams of energy in the shape of dragons. This attack is powerful enough to penetrate Zonder defense fields with nearly no effort, but gentle enough to retrieve Zonder cores without damaging them. Can also use FuRyu’s powerful self-destruct bomb as an attack, as in FINAL. The only member of the Mobile Unit whose desperation attack (namely, the bomb) is usable in Symmetrical-Docked form, and the only one to remain Symmetrical-Docked during his last scene in FINAL. Uh-huh.

When in Symmetrical Docking form, the mixing drum takes the place of the forearm used by the other three Ryu brothers. [FuRyu] Carries a powerful (self-destruct?) bomb in the compartment in his leg that, in the other Ryu brothers, would house the “hand part” – though it is not revealed until FINAL.

Combined, I think these look great. No question I prefer the combined colours of Choryujin, but I much prefer this combined form. The working missile launcher cement barrel looks awesome, and even the “boring” dump-truck accessory makes a decent shield. Much more integrated than the crane and fire-ladder, which I don’t even use when displaying the combined forms. It’s also nice to see how much attention to detail is included in the Anime, referencing a left-over compartment in the toy used to store the combined hands for FuRyu. Very obscure, but fun.

Other modes.

Just for fun, I pulled the two in half and mashed them together. Because of the way they are designed, this is the only way to join the two and still have the heads attach. A shame, as I would have enjoyed seeing a Yellow and Red Grapple / Inferno mash-up. Because I’m a nerd.

Interestingly, the show recognises these as two distinct characters. They really did pay attention to the toys when they put this TV show together.

GenRyuJin

Result of Symmetrical Docking between HyoRyu and RaiRyu when their SympaRate exceeded 200%. This level was made possible when one or both of the robots were charged by “THE POWER”, a mysterious energy taken from the planet Jupiter. His abilities include “Aurora Illusion” (which makes illusory ice copies as decoys) and “Thunder Blizzard” (which functions like Xiang Tou Long).

When GenRyuJin uses “Thunder Blizzard” in tandem with GouRyuJin’s “Burning Hurricane”, the result is called “Maximum Tou Long”.

GouRyuJin

Result of Symmetrical Docking between EnRyu and FuuRyu when their SympaRate exceeded 200%. This level was made possible when one or both of the robots were charged by “THE POWER”, a mysterious energy taken from the planet Jupiter. His main attack is “Burning Hurricane” (which works like Xiang Tou Long).

When GouRyuJin uses “Burning Hurricane” in tandem with GenRyuJin’s “Thunder Blizzard”, the result is called “Maximum Tou Long”.

More than anything, this attention to detail makes me really want to watch the show.

Seriously guys, check out some of the Brave toys, they are excellent! Some of my favourite toys ever made, which spiritually feel closer to the origins of what I started collecting, than the modern toys I still enjoy collecting.

King of Brave Gaogaigar catalogue

King of Braves Gaogaigar reverse

Many thanks to Kapow Toys for giving me the opportunity to talk about and discuss such wonderful toys in a forum which can reach many people. There are no links on this entire article for the site, they are merely helping to spread the word and inform people about the weird and wonderful niche corners of our fandom, so thanks guys!

-Ceno / CZH / Sid