Toy Fun!!
Robert Powers
I haven't had access to most of my Transformers since mid-January of this
year, due to being in Europe 3 months then cat-sitting for a friend for
another 3 months. Most of my stuff has been in storage during that time.
But now they're all re-united in one place, and tonight I'm finally
settled in enough at my new place that I'm trying to sort through them and
get them back into their proper boxes.
The RiD box is close to overflowing; the Vehicons are going to require a
second box to handle all the Scavengers, whose ranks have almost doubled
after BotCon; and I'm not sure what to do with my small collection of
Armada toys. I'm also returning the ones I wasn't able to sell at BotCon
to their former homes (I did unload the Combaticons, Stunticons, Gnaw,
Chainclaw, Air Attack Primal, Noctorro, and the McBeasties), and decide
which ones to pull out for display, since I've finally got a couple of
small shelves that are reserved exclusively for TFs. Right now Sky-Byte
is up there heroically calling for the charge into battle, while the
stooges stand behind him, mocking his efforts. For a bunch of repaints in
weird colors, the Stooges are surprisingly appealing. Maybe it's 'cause I
like the characters so much, but I was happy to buy Darkscream a year or
so after I'd sold off Nightglider. I really do like NS's colors better,
though. And of course Sky-Byte makes me happy just 'cause he's Sky-Byte.
It's been a lot of fun digging through dozens upon dozens of toys.
There's some really spiffy ones that I haven't touched in a while... Beast
Machines Skydive is a good example. He's an interesting and reasonably
stable robot, and he's REALLY cool in his.. um... <grabs taxonomic
dictionary> pelican-monster mode. The translucent orange on his wings is
lovely, especially the "eyeball" bulbs that kind of catch the light and
glow a deep shade of orange. I would absolutely LOVE to see him done up
in grey, blue, red, and gold as Swoop -- heck, make him a 3H exclusive.
Say it's the pre-Windrazor form of the Veteran. Can ya feel the love?
Beast Machines Buzzsaw is another interesting one. I like his aesthetic,
enough so that I wonder why I waited so long to get him (I snagged him for
$2 when Kay*Bee was having their big clearance last summer and I was madly
scampering about buying up Scavengers at every Kay*Bee in the Milwaukee
metropolitan area.) Green and yellow work nicely as his dominant colors,
with that beautiful amber-like translucent orange tail to offset them.
Between him and Skydive, I have to admit that a translucent orange
Megatron might actually be kind of interesting. As for Buzzy, the most
interesting thing to my eye is that he looks like a cross between Thrust
and Waspinator. Seriously. If they hadn't been designed pretty much
simultaneously, I'd swear his bug head was lifted straight from the Thrust
toy's cycle-mode head.
As much as I hate his gloppy-fleshy aesthetics, Sky Shadow has an
absolutely beautiful transformation sequence. It was a lot of fun
figuring it out, since I haven't transformed him in ages and had no clue
how it went. Maybe I won't sell him after all. With the days of
intricate BW complexity behind us (at least for the moment), maybe I
should hang on to every complex TF I've got.
Digging into the G1 boxes gave me the chance to assemble my mini-army of
Bumblejumpercap. I had Tap-Out, Glyph, and G2 Hubcap from BotCon; G2
Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and Bumper have since joined them -- a squadron of
cute. I should probably track down the Bumblebee keychain at some point,
since I traded away my original Bumblebee after Goldbug came out (what was
I thinking?? Beats the hell outta me.) Too bad my chances of scoring a
cheap yellow Cliffjumper or G1 Hubcap are about nill. Did Bumper ever
come out in red? I don't even wanna *think* about what that would set me
back. Heh. I just discovered that I already owned G2 Hubcap before this
year's BotCon. Oops! Well, there's another for the sell-off box....
On a less happy note, I discovered that the mighty Metroplex has suffered
an involuntary amputation of his leg below the knee joint. I found the
pieces from the joint elsewhere in the box... the post that holds the
screw snapped off at the base. A sad fate for a favorite G1 toy. I also
turned him a bit at the waist, and damn, it's *stiff*. I can see how
these things would indeed snap right in two.
Tracks is still a sweet toy -- I adore his car mode. Too bad the legs on
mine no longer stay folded up. I've read about others having this problem
-- is it fixable?
I did manage to do a couple of simple repairs this evening. Weirdwolf's
shoulder joint has been loose, floppy, and non-ratcheting ever since I
disassembled him around 8th grade or so. It was suprisingly simple to fix
-- I took his chest off, and discovered that I simply hadn't aligned the
black gear inside his shoulder properly, and hence wasn't able to tighten
its screw completely. In five minutes Weirdwolf was ratcheting once more.
I also popped all the ball-joint pieces off my chrome-shedding TM Rattrap
and attached them to a new torso that I got at BotCon for a buck
(actually, not even that, since Finback just up and bought it *for* me
before I could even make up my mind. Thanks, Fin!!) The new torso's
chrome is scratched in a couple of places, but it's nothing compared to
the spider-webbing on my old one. Hooray! Rattrap's limbless torso makes
a surprisingly good spaceship/hovercraft/BM Rattrap/idle plaything, as we
found one evening at BotCon. As a spaceship, I figure he's got Crankor
onboard, ordering his crew to "release the caustic chrome flakes!" at
pursuing enemies.
ARG. I forgot how many of my G1s I customized as a kid. I don't mind the
colored-in taillights, headlights, turn signals, etc... but I did a lot of
the robot-mode eyes, too. Which is okay, but I wasn't the neatest painter
in the world. I probably would have tried to sell my Constructicons,
despite all the wear and tear on them, if they weren't so messed up by
Testor's.
A lot of my G1s are alarmingly stiff at the joints. Joints pop and make
cracking sounds when they're moved. I'm terrified something's going to
shatter, crumble, or snap in two.
I wonder if Stampy and LioConvoy will suffer from Gold Plastic Syndrome
somewhere down the line? I hope not; I'm fond of both toys.
Oy. Carnivac's toy still sucks. Did I ever post my review of him?
For a Transformer with no robot mode, Noble/Savage is pretty durn cool.
Took me a bit of figuring and thinking before I could get him all the way
into dragon mode. I love that creepy, toothy, eyeless dragon face. In
wolf mode, you can have him throw his head back to the sky and howl his
angst to the heavens, arms spread wide. Pretty cool. Poison Bite, the
one Mutant I own ($5 at BotCon! Woo!), is also pretty cool, I should add
at this point.
I can't even be bothered to pick up BW's Ultra Primal. IMO, it's the
definative version of the character from Beast Wars -- he was only in his
Transmetal form for ten episodes, and he was starting to get all mystical
and wonky when he went Optimal. If it weren't for that, and for me having
a near-complete set of the show characters, I'd probably sell him off.
I'm finding a lot of BW/BM-era missiles that I don't even remember seeing
before, let alone know which toy they belong to. Meanwhile, I know I'm
missing Blastcharge's missiles... they're probably here *somewhere*, but
I'll be damned if I know where. Ahh, found 'em. They somehow wound up in
the non-Transmetal Maximal box. Also located BW2 Galvatron's long-missing
tail missile, buried at the bottom of the non-TM Pred box.
I've never found Machine Wars Sandstorm to be a particularly fun toy...
but Jackpot's right; his *looks* are beyond reproach. Too bad he's not
more posable. It would have been very simple to separate his legs, which
are joined at the knees -- maybe they would have been too breakable?
Re-issuing G2 Hero Megatron in the G1 colors sounds like a great idea...
till you look at the toy and realize how hokey G1 Prime would look
standing next to him. Ack!! Also, I dunno about that huge awkward baffle
behind his turret. I'd almost be willing to sacrifice the launching
gimmick to improve the toy's looks.
Man, those full-color instruction booklets from the first year toys are
really a class act. No instructions since have come close. And with a
whole panel devoted to urging the consumer to "STUDY YOUR TRANSFORMER'S
TECH SPECS!", you can tell they were really pushing the character aspect
of the toys in a way that hasn't been matched on the toy packaging
since... well... since the mid-1980s, really.
RiD Prime and Magnus were among the small batch of TFs I had at the last
apartment. I was very distressed, when packing them up, to find that two
of Prime's rubber tires had cracked and fallen off. I've only had this
toy for 8 months, fer cryin' out loud! Hell, I've never had this happen
to any of my G1 toys, which of course are much older. Very peculiar.
Hee hee. Transmetal 2 Iguanis. Another I haven't touched in ages. And
another really nice transformation! I'm liking him more now than when I
first got him. I think I'll set him up hanging out with Demolisharrrrrr.
Surrender your booty, maties! And the witches, too! Ha hah!
Oooo! Hammerstrike! What a sweet little toy *he* is. Almost forgot I
owned him, somehow. Beautiful colors (translucent orange yet again),
beautiful shark mode, and a puzzling, creative transformation. I love how
his legs join together to become his tailfin.
And finally... Silverbolt (the Fuzor one) has been restored to his
rightful place atop my computer monitor. All is right with the world. :]
--
Robert Powers
repo...@uwm.edu ________________________________________
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Ramen Junkie
news:slrnamniej....@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu...
>
> I haven't had access to most of my Transformers since mid-January of this
> year, due to being in Europe 3 months then cat-sitting for a friend for
> another 3 months. Most of my stuff has been in storage during that time.
> But now they're all re-united in one place, and tonight I'm finally
> settled in enough at my new place that I'm trying to sort through them and
> get them back into their proper boxes.
Hey, imagine leaving them for like 8 months while at school. I guess There
are breaks and all in there though. And I do have a few here I suppose,
right now only the Devastator and Defensor knockoffs I bought here.
Zobovor
>I haven't had access to most of my Transformers since mid-January of
>this year, due to being in Europe 3 months then cat-sitting for a friend
>for another 3 months. Most of my stuff has been in storage during that
>time. But now they're all re-united in one place, and tonight I'm finally
>settled in enough at my new place that I'm trying to sort through them
>and get them back into their proper boxes.
Whee! Unpacking is fun sometimes, isn't it? I had a similar experience after
I moved into the new place, but of course my stuff had only been packed up for
a couple of months, at most. All the BW and BM toys were on shelves that I
hadn't touched in a year or more, though, so that's *almost* like having them
in storage that whole time... :)
>For a bunch of repaints in weird colors, the Stooges are surprisingly
>appealing. Maybe it's 'cause I like the characters so much, but I was
>happy to buy Darkscream a year or so after I'd sold off Nightglider.
Dark Scream's "weird colors" are far more tame than Nightglider's in-your-face
orange, though. (I think I actually prefer Stinkbomb over Gas Skunk, though.
The gold is just prettier.)
>I really do like NS's colors better, though.
Which one is that, then? (Please don't say Nightscream. Ugh.)
>I would absolutely LOVE to see him done up in grey, blue, red, and
>gold as Swoop -- heck, make him a 3H exclusive. Say it's the
>pre-Windrazor form of the Veteran.
But... Swoop was never a pelican. I think we can just pass on that idea right
now. :)
>As for Buzzy, the most interesting thing to my eye is that he looks like
>a cross between Thrust and Waspinator. Seriously. If they hadn't
>been designed pretty much simultaneously, I'd swear his bug head was
>lifted straight from the Thrust toy's cycle-mode head.
It might just be a matter of Thrust being specifically designed as an upgrade
for Waspinator, so they share similar aesthetics.
>As much as I hate his gloppy-fleshy aesthetics, Sky Shadow has an
>absolutely beautiful transformation sequence.
I've never figured out what to do with the beast-mode legs behind his head when
he's in robot mode, though. They just don't seem to look good, no matter how I
arrange them.
>Digging into the G1 boxes gave me the chance to assemble my
>mini-army of Bumblejumpercap. I had Tap-Out, Glyph, and G2 Hubcap
>from BotCon; G2 Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and Bumper have since
>joined them -- a squadron of cute.
Where did you get your Bumper toy? I've been trying to score one at a
reasonable price for years now, but it always goes for far too much on eBay.
(If only Fun-4-All would do a keychain version of him. Then I could own the
mold, at least...)
>Too bad my chances of scoring a cheap yellow Cliffjumper or G1
>Hubcap are about nill.
Well, you'd also need a red Bumblebee to fully complete your U.S. G1 Mini
Autobots. (Let's not even get into the Brazilian color variants...)
>Did Bumper ever come out in red? I don't even wanna *think* about
>what that would set me back.
Not in the U.S., he didn't. I think there was a red version in the Microchange
line, though.
>On a less happy note, I discovered that the mighty Metroplex has
>suffered an involuntary amputation of his leg below the knee joint. I
>found the pieces from the joint elsewhere in the box... the post that
>holds the screw snapped off at the base. A sad fate for a favorite G1
>toy.
Eeg. Sorry to hear it. I've been having some really good luck fixing a great
many of my G1 toys lately... I'd be willing to repair him for you if you ship
the broken parts to me.
>I also turned him a bit at the waist, and damn, it's *stiff*. I can see how
>these things would indeed snap right in two.
My Metroplex actually *did* snap in half at the waist not too long ago. I
think it was the result of twisting the internal screw too tightly; if you get
into the habit of rotating his upper body counter-clockwise every time you
transform him, then after a while the pressure on the plastic will be too much
for him to take. (I had the same problem with Transmetal Megatron, whom I
haven't gotten around to repairing yet.) If I were you, I'd disassemble the
toy now and loosen that screw before he snaps in half.
>Tracks is still a sweet toy -- I adore his car mode. Too bad the legs on
>mine no longer stay folded up. I've read about others having this
>problem -- is it fixable?
Yes, assuming the springs inside his legs aren't broken. They're not actually
springs, though--each leg has a little "V" shaped metal flap that fits inside a
groove, and locks the legs in place when you transform him. Even if it's
broken, you can probably fold it in half and use one of the broken halves in
the same manner.
>I did manage to do a couple of simple repairs this evening. Weirdwolf's
>shoulder joint has been loose, floppy, and non-ratcheting ever since I
>disassembled him around 8th grade or so. It was suprisingly simple to
>fix -- I took his chest off, and discovered that I simply hadn't aligned the
>black gear inside his shoulder properly, and hence wasn't able to
>tighten its screw completely. In five minutes Weirdwolf was ratcheting
>once more.
I used to take my toys apart as well. My Weirdwolf was actually laying in
pieces at the bottom of one of my toy boxes until a year or two ago when I
finally got around to putting him back together. (I took out most of the gears
in his arms and legs, though, since I didn't like how tight the ratcheting
effect was.)
>ARG. I forgot how many of my G1s I customized as a kid. I don't
>mind the colored-in taillights, headlights, turn signals, etc... but I did a
>lot of the robot-mode eyes, too. Which is okay, but I wasn't the
>neatest painter in the world.
I swear, Rob, you and I would have been best friends if we'd known each other
as kids. I did precisely the same thing, though mostly my materials were
limited to permanent markers. (Many years ago I gave my beat-up Red Alert the
spoiler pieces from a junker Sideswipe, and painted the spoiler with White-Out
so it would match. Er, sort of. I spent part of this afternoon scraping all
that off so I can paint him properly.)
>I probably would have tried to sell my Constructicons, despite all the
>wear and tear on them, if they weren't so messed up by Testor's.
Heck, I'll buy your Constructicons off you. They can't be in any worse
condition than mine are, paint or otherwise. :)
>A lot of my G1s are alarmingly stiff at the joints. Joints pop and make
>cracking sounds when they're moved. I'm terrified something's going to
>shatter, crumble, or snap in two.
Which toys? I've found that taking them apart and cleaning out the joints can
help sometimes. (A long, long time ago, I took apart Fort Max's arms and
discovered that Hasbro actually added some kind of lubricant to his joints. It
was a pretty gross discovery, until I figured out what that slimy stuff
actually was. Ick.)
>I can't even be bothered to pick up BW's Ultra Primal. IMO, it's the
>definative version of the character from Beast Wars -- he was only in
>his Transmetal form for ten episodes, and he was starting to get all
>mystical and wonky when he went Optimal.
You need to get Ultra Primal, dude. He's still one of my all-time favorite BW
toys. The chest-pounding gimmick, the arm-twirling gimmick, the flip-out guns
in his forearm, the flip-out shoulder cannons... he's so much fun.
>I'm finding a lot of BW/BM-era missiles that I don't even remember
>seeing before, let alone know which toy they belong to.
Same happened to me. I think that's the one problem with BW-era toys having
built-in weapons storage... there's really no need to memorize which weapons go
to which toy, since the toys are fully-armed at all times. (Some of the ones
that had me stumped for a while were the missiles to BW Scorponok, Ultra
Primal, BW Bonecrusher, B'Boom, Blastcharge, Strika, Triceradon... and a blue
missile that I didn't even think *went* to a Transformer until I realized it
was Cryotek's.)
>I've never found Machine Wars Sandstorm to be a particularly fun toy...
>but Jackpot's right; his *looks* are beyond reproach.
Oh, but I love his transformation. His toy transforms in exactly the same way
I imagine his animated form would have, had there been one.
>Re-issuing G2 Hero Megatron in the G1 colors sounds like a great
>idea... till you look at the toy and realize how hokey G1 Prime would
>look standing next to him. Ack!! Also, I dunno about that huge
>awkward baffle behind his turret. I'd almost be willing to sacrifice the
>launching gimmick to improve the toy's looks.
It would be pretty easy to trade the air-launcher for a more traditional
missile launcher, I think. I mean, his cannon's already long enough to house a
missile that would conform to current safety regulations. (I'd prefer to see
the Hero toy repainted in green to look like the first G2 Megatron tank,
though.)
>Man, those full-color instruction booklets from the first year toys are
>really a class act. No instructions since have come close.
I didn't get into Transformers until 1985, so the first time I saw one of my
friend's instruction booklets from '84, I was totally blown away.
>And with a whole panel devoted to urging the consumer to "STUDY
>YOUR TRANSFORMER'S TECH SPECS!", you can tell they were
>really pushing the character aspect of the toys in a way that hasn't
>been matched on the toy packaging since... well... since the
>mid-1980s, really.
Yeah.
>RiD Prime and Magnus were among the small batch of TFs I had at the
>last apartment. I was very distressed, when packing them up, to find
>that two of Prime's rubber tires had cracked and fallen off.
Same thing just happened to me a couple of weeks ago. The toy room is right
next to the laundry room, and I expect the humidity from the dryer was probably
the culprit. Or not, judging by how often this has happened to other people.
It's really distressing.
--
Zobovor
Go on the ZMFTS Scavenger Hunt and win toys!
http://members.aol.com/zobovor/index.html
Suspsy
For a bunch of repaints in
> weird colors, the Stooges are surprisingly appealing. Maybe it's 'cause I
> like the characters so much, but I was happy to buy Darkscream a year or
> so after I'd sold off Nightglider. I really do like NS's colors better,
> though.
Me too. I find they've all got superior colour schemes than their TM2
counterparts. Soooooooooo glad I got 'em when I did.
>And of course Sky-Byte makes me happy just 'cause he's Sky-Byte.
Well, yeah. And again, MUCH better colour scheme than TM2 Cybershark.
Beast
> Machines Skydive is a good example. He's an interesting and reasonably
> stable robot, and he's REALLY cool in his.. um... <grabs taxonomic
> dictionary pelican-monster mode.
Quetzalcoatlus northropi, actually:
http://www.pangeaworld.it/pangea/image/Quetzalcoatlus.gif
The translucent orange on his wings is
> lovely, especially the "eyeball" bulbs that kind of catch the light and
> glow a deep shade of orange. I would absolutely LOVE to see him done up
> in grey, blue, red, and gold as Swoop -- heck, make him a 3H exclusive.
> Say it's the pre-Windrazor form of the Veteran. Can ya feel the love?
I've always liked him, except he is kinda floppy in both modes.
> As much as I hate his gloppy-fleshy aesthetics, Sky Shadow has an
> absolutely beautiful transformation sequence. It was a lot of fun
> figuring it out, since I haven't transformed him in ages and had no clue
> how it went. Maybe I won't sell him after all. With the days of
> intricate BW complexity behind us (at least for the moment), maybe I
> should hang on to every complex TF I've got.
Sky Shadow kicks ass. He's a freaky lizard/dragonfly who transforms into a
Predacon statesman. Do not even think of selling him.
> For a Transformer with no robot mode, Noble/Savage is pretty durn cool.
> Took me a bit of figuring and thinking before I could get him all the way
> into dragon mode. I love that creepy, toothy, eyeless dragon face. In
> wolf mode, you can have him throw his head back to the sky and howl his
> angst to the heavens, arms spread wide. Pretty cool.
I always found his lack of eyes in dragon mode rather unnerving (I guess he
uses his ears and nose to guide himself). Extra points for making his dragon
mode totally unlike TM2 Megatron's, except for the red.
Poison Bite, the
> one Mutant I own ($5 at BotCon! Woo!), is also pretty cool, I should add
> at this point.
You've only got one? What's the matter with you, man? At least get Soundwave
as well; he's not only a cool toy, he's also the best example of name reuse
EVER. Seriously.
> I can't even be bothered to pick up BW's Ultra Primal. IMO, it's the
> definative version of the character from Beast Wars -- he was only in his
> Transmetal form for ten episodes, and he was starting to get all mystical
> and wonky when he went Optimal. If it weren't for that, and for me having
> a near-complete set of the show characters, I'd probably sell him off.
For some reason, I've never felt an urge to bother with Ultra Primal. Part
of it's because I felt turned off by how ginormous he is in comparison to
other BW toys. I realise this is necessary in order to house all his
gimmicks, but I really liked how, for the first season at least, Primal
didn't tower over all his troops. He was actually one of the shorter ones.
> Re-issuing G2 Hero Megatron in the G1 colors sounds like a great idea...
> till you look at the toy and realize how hokey G1 Prime would look
> standing next to him. Ack!! Also, I dunno about that huge awkward baffle
> behind his turret. I'd almost be willing to sacrifice the launching
> gimmick to improve the toy's looks.
Meh. I like RID Scourge's air pressure missile; I want more toys with that
feature.
> RiD Prime and Magnus were among the small batch of TFs I had at the last
> apartment. I was very distressed, when packing them up, to find that two
> of Prime's rubber tires had cracked and fallen off. I've only had this
> toy for 8 months, fer cryin' out loud! Hell, I've never had this happen
> to any of my G1 toys, which of course are much older. Very peculiar.
Yikes. I should probably check on my own Prime, but that means having to
pull about twenty toys out of the display just to reach him. And it's not
like I play with him that much anyway. I'm honestly starting to wish I'd
skipped Prime and gotten Team Bullet Train instead.
> Hee hee. Transmetal 2 Iguanis. Another I haven't touched in ages. And
> another really nice transformation! I'm liking him more now than when I
> first got him. I think I'll set him up hanging out with Demolisharrrrrr.
> Surrender your booty, maties! And the witches, too! Ha hah!
Still don't understand why that toy's not more popular than it is. And on
that note, when in HELL are we gonna get to see "Primeval Dawn"?
> Oooo! Hammerstrike! What a sweet little toy *he* is. Almost forgot I
> owned him, somehow. Beautiful colors (translucent orange yet again),
> beautiful shark mode, and a puzzling, creative transformation. I love how
> his legs join together to become his tailfin.
Great toy. Just wish he hadn't been used as a third-rank Sharkticon in
"Betrayal."
Sure, 3H, rub salt in the wound, why dontcha? /B)
Susp
"The ocean depths conceal all intentions." -Hammerstrike
Paul Segal
>
>>As much as I hate his gloppy-fleshy aesthetics, Sky Shadow has an
>>absolutely beautiful transformation sequence.
>
>I've never figured out what to do with the beast-mode legs behind his head
>when
>he's in robot mode, though. They just don't seem to look good, no matter how
>I arrange them.
I fold them so the feet just hang over the concave curved edges of his
beast-neck-panels.
-Paul Segal
Email: aster...@yahoo.com ICQ: 24024819 AIM: asterphage
Something about the internet makes me very angry~!
Things that rule:
Vernor Vinge, Soul Coughing, GaoHunter, Dr. Octagon, God Zenon, Cibo Matto,
G-Gundam
Robert Powers
Behold! On 28 Aug 2002 01:34:21 GMT, Zobovor <zob...@aol.com> did speak:
>Whee! Unpacking is fun sometimes, isn't it? I had a similar experience after
Especially when you've actually got a little bit of room to spread out
for once. My last two rooms were *tiny*.
>Dark Scream's "weird colors" are far more tame than Nightglider's in-your-face
>orange, though. (I think I actually prefer Stinkbomb over Gas Skunk, though.
>The gold is just prettier.)
I really don't remember much what Stinkbomb's colors were like. I had
to check once just to see if he really was repainted for Gas Skunk; I
recall I liked GS better. That orange chrome, y'see. Again!
>>I really do like NS's colors better, though.
>
>Which one is that, then? (Please don't say Nightscream. Ugh.)
Meant to say DS. Darkscream. Pretty gold and oddly fitting sea blue.
>But... Swoop was never a pelican. I think we can just pass on that idea right
>now. :)
What're you TALKING about?! Are you smoking a big huge crack
rock? Don't you remember "War of the Dinobots"?
CHIP: "But for the other Dinobot... how about giving the Autobots a little
extra flying power? A pelican monster!"
SPARKPLUG: "Stega-whatses and pelican-whosis? Is there anything you don't
know, Chip?"
...see? Canonical evidence!
>It might just be a matter of Thrust being specifically designed as an upgrade
>for Waspinator, so they share similar aesthetics.
I really wonder if that was intended for Waspinator all along, or if it
was purely somethign dreamed up by Skir based on the toys and situations
he was handed. I'd very much lean toward the latter possibility -- but
then comes Buzzsaw, who seems like such a bridge between Thrust and
Waspinator. I dunno. Something to ask at BotCon, if we ever get the
appropriate Hasbro people present.
>Where did you get your Bumper toy? I've been trying to score one at a
>reasonable price for years now, but it always goes for far too much on eBay.
Dunno. He was part of my Christmas Transformer set in 1984, along with
Optimus Prime and Spoons the Go-Bot. And heh, I forgot how one of his arm
holes has lost its threading, meaning that arm comes off rather easily.
>>Too bad my chances of scoring a cheap yellow Cliffjumper or G1
>>Hubcap are about nill.
>
>Well, you'd also need a red Bumblebee to fully complete your U.S. G1 Mini
>Autobots. (Let's not even get into the Brazilian color variants...)
Tell me about it. White, green and orange Bumblebees sure look cute
but not to the tune of a couple hundred bucks. Yikes! That's one thing I
liked about Tap-Out and Glyph -- they kinda cut into that little niche a
bit, making odd recolors of the molds a bit more affordable.
>Eeg. Sorry to hear it. I've been having some really good luck fixing a great
>many of my G1 toys lately... I'd be willing to repair him for you if you ship
>the broken parts to me.
Hrm! Let me take a better look at him this week.
>haven't gotten around to repairing yet.) If I were you, I'd disassemble the
>toy now and loosen that screw before he snaps in half.
Probably a good idea. Will try it. Ditto for Track's metal tabs.
>I swear, Rob, you and I would have been best friends if we'd known each other
>as kids. I did precisely the same thing, though mostly my materials were
>limited to permanent markers.
Those big broad-tipped things? So it's more like you painted their
entire face red or blue? /:]
>so it would match. Er, sort of. I spent part of this afternoon scraping all
>that off so I can paint him properly.)
>
>>I probably would have tried to sell my Constructicons, despite all the
>>wear and tear on them, if they weren't so messed up by Testor's.
>
>Heck, I'll buy your Constructicons off you. They can't be in any worse
>condition than mine are, paint or otherwise. :)
>
>>A lot of my G1s are alarmingly stiff at the joints. Joints pop and make
>>cracking sounds when they're moved. I'm terrified something's going to
>>shatter, crumble, or snap in two.
>
>Which toys? I've found that taking them apart and cleaning out the joints can
Track's arms are the ones that come to mind offhand, when you swivel
them out from underneath his car mode. Hoist has similar problems. I had
a hard time getting Tote's legs to fold back over into van mode, too.
>You need to get Ultra Primal, dude. He's still one of my all-time
>favorite BW toys. The chest-pounding gimmick, the arm-twirling gimmick,
I *have* him... I just don't find him all that amusing to play with.
Pretty much the same problem as Air Attack Primal -- too big, too
simplistic, too arms-become-arms and legs-become-legs. And I just don't
care much for motion gimmicks.
Funny story... I actually got him, Drillbit, Armordillo, and
Bonecrusher, and maybe one or two other BWs out at the time, in trade
for... a bed. Yes, a bed. Hey, it was only a hundred buck bed, and I
didn't want to have to move it across the country. The guy who'd been
subletting my apartment for the summer had kinda gotten into BW a little
bit from all the toys I'd left in the place, and bought a few, but didn't
want them THAT badly. So when I returned at the end of the summer and was
moving out my stuff for good, we agreed that he could keep the bed in
exchange for the BW guys. Not a bad trade, IMO.
>Primal, BW Bonecrusher, B'Boom, Blastcharge, Strika, Triceradon... and a blue
>missile that I didn't even think *went* to a Transformer until I realized it
>was Cryotek's.)
Heh. The last two of my mystery missiles turned out to be TM2
Megatron's.
>I didn't get into Transformers until 1985, so the first time I saw one of my
>friend's instruction booklets from '84, I was totally blown away.
I think they're also partially responsible for the perpetuation of the
Blue Bluestreak myth, foisting the image onto people who didn't even own
the Bluestreak toy. Really, of all the toy specs to show...