Project Sulaco: Part 3

Part 3: the sequel! Thinking about it, isn't Alien 3 where it all went wrong? I mention it for reasons. 

 

 

As I was no-longer on holiday, my progress was a little bit patchy, but things moved forward regardless. The use of size 11 & 13 beads proved to be a good call, and having tried a few styles of head, I found one I was happy to upgrade to paint prototype. The style was a gasmask and goggles with a radio antenna. This put me in mind of both an insect and the somewhat obscure AD Police uniforms from the original Bubblegum Crisis anime. Although once I had an undercoat on it, it was more of a hippo. Not great that... The body meanwhile was simplified, going for proportionally smaller shoulder pads, a backpack made from a cable tie, and gun receiving a barrel extension.I also started experimenting with Caucasian skin tone again, and around this point I had something of a realisation. I wasn't good enough yet to get a look I was happy with, and I'd been putting this project off as it was less fun than certain other things I was working on. The Stargrave Mercenaries are perfect if you want to do some Imperial Guard or Heavy Infantry on the cheap, but not for my purposes. They are too slight for my green stuff modifications to look right, hence the scaling back of my ideas, and aren't especially uniform. And because it's not going smoothly, it's not especially therapeutic either. So, I decided to pause, and sleep on it. I ended up falling back on something I mentioned in part 1, the secondary market. I’d been reminded of Infernus Squads, a newly-introduced unit specialising in flamethrowers. And, just to get it out of my system:

Hey Beakies! The Burnaboyz called, and they want their zoggin’ gimmick back! That’s a really nuanced and tactical flexible unit you have there too! Does Big Papa Smurf know about that? Maybe don’t tell him, he’s depressed enough already!

<cough>

Anyways, I’d passed on these in the first place as they were too specific a unit and monopose. With the Stargrave minis being an immaculate square peg in a round hole though, I reconsidered these pyromaniacs. Then a had a really silly idea for a chapter. Then I remembered that flamethrowers are a thing in Aliens. Actually, didn’t Ripely basically invent the combi-weapon with a role of duct tape? I digress. So I went for ten of them, and pencilled in some ideas for what to do next. 

 

I’m going to call it there. The Stargrave prototypes did allow for useful practice, but I need to mull things over some more, while I await delivery.

Gunpla: The MD-0031UL Dilanza Sol (HG)

I should probably try watching Gundam: The Witch from Mercury again. I think I just didn't get into the habit after watching four episodes. Sometimes, some media can be perfectly fine, and just not click with you. Still, I have a lot of respect for a series that tries to shake up the Gundam formula, and upsets a lot of gatekeeping neckbeards and bigots as it goes. I mention this because, at time of writing, I have not seen any of the episodes that feature today's subject. Rather, I picked it up for the most shallow of reasons. I was at a convention, and I thought it looked cool. I'm sure I'm not the only person to have done that. In my defence, something that G-Witch is objectively great at is providing varied and distinctive mecha designs. There's a lot of military manufacturers in that setting, and each has a strong character and corporate brand. The odds are, you'll find something that tickles your fancy. 

 

The Dilanza Sol is a product of Jeturk Heavy Machinery, the third Dilanza kit variant released, and the forth kit from that stable. There's a certain degree of Zaku II influence to their work, as the stock colour is green, and there's a pink version, but I don't want to oversell it. Jeturk tends towards big chonky boys with dual shoulder shields on flexible mounts, with integrated weapon storage. The phrase "tried & true" is used in the instructions, that seems reasonable. Jeturk does have a lot of creativity in its AI-based prototype the Darilbalde, but the Dilanza series seems a no-nonsense, no-frills weapon. The Sol variant is notable as for being not so much an improved version, as the undiluted version, the stock Dilanza seen before hand being purposefully limited for use in the school where the anime is set. So, the Dilanza Sol is the black coloured tacticool version to the regular versions "monkey model". Interesting. This sort of detail is what fascinates me about mecha design and world building.

As a build, I was pleasantly surprised with the Dilanza Sol. It features no polycaps, a modest sticker sheet, and no redundant parts. While a design such as this one has no real expectation of super-posability or anything, there is an ab crunch and toe joints for subtle but welcome movement. There's also a nice pair of weapons, a gun with a barrel extension plus beam bayonet, and the melee use beam torch. Both use a sliding rail to store in the shields, and have a dedicated beam effect. You can get some good poses with these weapons, with the shields not only having two axis of motion but well-designed joints so there is no obvious weight or balance issue. There are however some cut corners and missed opportunities though. The gun's magazine for example is removable and can also stow in the shields, but as there's just one, there's little reason to. Its skirt armour is also hollowed out on the inside, and nor do you have extra hands. The kit has basically all it needs, a few things which are a touch luxurious, but would have been exceptional had it addressed one of those minor flaws.

As a build I kept this fairly conventional, trying to minimise cut marks and such but then I started getting ideas when it came to weathering. Black is a funny colour to weather, as its already subdued and tends to contrast sharply with things. But, you know, it's the 21st century, and the odds were good there was a solution to look up. As such, I attempted some light dry-brushing of various greys, before a selective application of Agrax Earthshade in the recesses. I also picked out the visor and missile silos with a bit of brushwork. The overall effect isn't bad at all, but it's very subtle in places, and only really works on the grey bits. Does this count as "edge highlighting"? As a technique, this is promising. I'm less happy with the visor, but it's good enough.

.

Job’s a good ‘un.

Project Sulaco: Part 2

Part 2 then… So, I want to take a moment to talk about the base models here, Stargrave Mercenaries. These are by North Star Military Figures, whom seem to do a lot in the way of support for miniature agnostic games as well as their own stuff. I know very little about Stargrave, but I am impressed with their plastics such as these mercenaries. They work out to a quid a model with a vast amount of additional bits like a missile launcher and numerous alien heads. If you want Scifi infantry on the cheap, they are a great choice. The only argument against is that there a realistic 28mm scale, rather than a heroic one. This means proportions aren't exaggerated for the purposes of easier recognition or style. This would be something I'd have to keep an eye on.

My first prototype was mainly about trying to feel things out, so I opted for a model without a rifle pose. I experimented with backpacks made from cable ties, additional armour, shoulder pads and cabling. I lengthened the gun with a bead, before detailing, and then I started on the helmet. I ended up with a vaguely, sort-of, classical Greek or Mandalorian look for it, but the detail was soft. Not entirely happy with it, I decided to put it aside, and try again with smaller amounts of putty. 

 

With this one, I decided to be a bit less ambitious about what I was doing. I picked out a body with a lot of armour, and greenstuffed the legs so it looked more like plating than cloth. I went for a two-handed bullpup this time, lengthened the barrel, and tried to build up shoulder pads. The sprue presented a useful backpack piece, to which I added on some stick-on gems. To use up the putty, I then begun to modified numerous heads, trying to find a look that worked. The initial work on this took about 90 minutes, before deciding to let it cure prior to adding more detail. That detail ended up being attempts at pipework, and a few stick on gems to handle rounder shapes. I found myself leaning towards gasmask analogues like the Zaku II and the Mrk6 "Beakie" style of Power Armour.

I wasn't totally happy with these either, although the gun was satisfactory. The use of adhesive gems showed potential, but the shape wasn't quite there. The shoulder pads were similarly a step in the right direction, and I wasn't quite good enough to get the clean lines I wanted. At least not yet. So I decided to seek out some better shapes, and ended up bringing home some fricking tiny beads to make up for the skill deficit. 

 

I didn’t get too far with these before hitting my cut-off point, but there seems to be some potential there. I just need to experiment more before settling on a style, put as long as I don’t paint them yet, it should be possible to recycle the rejected pieces to an extent. I think I’ll move away from the hemispherical shoulder pad style though. But whatever happens, there’s no rush. Better to run into problems now, rather than rush into them headlong.

More next week.

Transformers: Legacy United Infernac Universe Magneous is Something that Exists

A contemporary Rock Lords Poster, circa 1986

 

If I'm totally honest, I don't think the Legacy Junkions lived up to the potential of Scraphook. They were fine, don't get me wrong, but I don't think the gimmick was taken very far. I found Junkasaurus a bit disappointing too, even by the standards of fan modes. Magneous, and his fellow Infernac Universe brethren, replace the Junkions for Legacy United, and I wonder how things will play out with them. He's got the same come-to-bits-but-an-actual-transformation gimmick that Scraphook did, if with a lower ratio of removable bits to leftovers. Magneous however does have something that Scraphook didn't, he's a rock. And, if anything, that's a novel look for a Transformer.

It's far from unprecedented though. The old rival to Transformers, Tonka's Gobots, had a spin-off called the Rock Lords. These operated pretty much exactly how you'd expect an 80's toy line to, with the exception that everyone changed into a lump of minerals. Yes, actual rocks, no electric guitars involved. Or Megaman. Now, before I go further, I want to stress something; I'm not engaging with the ancient Transformers/Gobots rivalry here. Such things are petty, stupid, lazy, ignorant, and most importantly, beneath me. I had a few of these Rock Lords back in the day, and they weren't bad. But, in total fairness, if you looked at the Rocklords and asked if they were some form of joke, I could not honestly blame you. I mean I like BeastBox, so I'm not against a robot becoming a shape, but yeah... It's not clear what they were thinking. Magneous, and presumably all of the Infernac toys, have actual vehicle forms though, thus largely avoiding the "But why?” problem. Why? It's because it's visually interesting and you get something that looks radically different from anything Transformers or indeed anything else Hasbro has made lately. Although I assume actual Rock Lord tributes, maybe as some form of exclusive, are only a matter of time. Otherwise, Magneous is a blank slate, with no stated faction and no fictional appearances. Maybe Skybound should fit these into the Energon Universe somewhere. Assuming it's not too modern for them.

 

Magneous' alternate form is a pick-up truck, by way of geographical time. It's mainly two tones of grey stone, with the shape of a machine, but fairly minimal mechanisms. While there are wheel wells, the wheels are all but hidden by rock formations. Its windows meanwhile feature wire mesh, giving a bit of the old Mad Max or Gaslands, which is unexpected, but not unwelcome. The fundamentally stony look of things is very well done; there's no flat panels or hard angles here, more irregular shapes carved by time and smoothed by water. It’s striking in its way, as a proof of concept, or the basis for a Flintstones collaboration, the toy is definitely passing muster. What does count in its favour is that there's only so many things we can compare it to, unlike, say, actual cars. I'm probably being a bit forgiving here due to the sheer novelty of it, but there is a case of visible Head Syndrome on the underside that's not a plus. In terms of play value? It's a good roller, with dedicated tab/slots for it's weapon, including a battering ram set-up I'd completely failed to notice until after posting. 5mm ports are there, but you have to take the dude apart to get at them.

 

Speaking of pulling the dude apart, the armorizer thing. To make another Scraphook comparison, much less of Magneous can be handed to other toys, and there doesn't seem to be any suggestion of part-swapping or gestaults at this time. There's an odd detail I'll come back to, but there's no package art depicting another combination. He ends up missing arms, lower legs, and accessories. The beneficiary of this sacrifice gets a stone hammer, a shield, some arms and a couple of stoney armor bits. It's fine for what it is, if quite vestigial, and maybe in need of longer pegs. To make a broad observation: things almost seem to be going full circle with this whole gimmick. Between this and the Trashmaster mould, these toys are looking more and more like regular Transformers with random bits that come off, rather than accessories that graduated to self-contained toys. I'll let you decide if that's good or bad, but in its defence, I want to acknowledge two things. 1) The parts fit and tolerances seem good to the point being stiff on my example, so nothing detaches from him when it shouldn't. 2) There's enough of Magneous left to get a truck chassis which you can plug guns into, so you can make an artillery thingy. And the leg wheels are detachable for, um reasons? The instructions are unclear.

 

 

The robot mode is functional as well as interesting. Articulation is about typical for Legacy, if the neck being a bit limited, as its just a simple swivel with a slight tilt. The joint design is otherwise complete, notable features being the technically ball jointed wrists and soft-locking knees, both arising from the transformation. Magneous features a stony axe/crossbow, and can use his backpack/roof as a shield, so he's got the robot playpattern down. As such, with the basics covered, I can talk about the looks, which continue to be distinctive. Magneous is not a robot disguised as a rock, rather he is a rock that is also a robot. The sculpt is almost entirety stone textured, sometimes mirrored, sometimes asymmetrical, but always stony. What stops this from being a stone monster, and instead a Transformer is the chest design, featuring two wheels and a regrettable amount of open space. That's definitely a weird bit to be visibly hollow, the robot mode otherwise doing OK on that front. Proportionally, this chap looks like a stocky brawler, faintly reminiscent of Bayverse Ironhide by way of He-Man techno-fantasy. (He-Man also had rock people, it seems to have been a zeitgeist thing.) It looks like someone chipped one of his horns and he was too hyped to notice. There is character, yes. There is another odd design choice to go with the chest though, the removable forearm panels that look like carved feathers. These ordinarily remain on the forearms, concealing the 5mm ports, but the instructions highlight dedicated tabs for them to act as fillers for the calves. While welcome, this does make wonder about future releases, as a friend of mine pointed out, a leaked Infernac toy, has a certain feathery look to him too.  But, this is idle speculation, and that guy is a rock helicopter, it's uncharted territory. This element does however highlight Magneous' general lack of 5mm ports, which was a non-issue in truck mode, but more noteworthy here. The designers seem to have prioritised the overall look of the toy here, so you can't double him up with another similar toy, and that's a bit of a shame. 

 

Overall, I'm quite charmed by Magneous. He is a breath of fresh air, and while there is a nostalgic element to him for me, the Infernac mob is a rare flash of creativity in a very nostalgic brand. Mind you, if you put aside the visual aspect, say if rockformers aren't your thing, Magneous is fine but not exceptional. There's no shortage of carformers, and the armorizer functions feel a touch tacked-on. He's definitely an interesting piece, but he's up against some strong competition in wave 1, many as equally weird. Ultimately, he is something that exists, but it's good that he does.


Also, It's a crying shame that the Detritus name was taken....

Project Sulaco: Part 1

OK, time to introduce a new project then.

 

This one arises from several assorted shelved or abandoned ideas, the most recent of which being custom spacemarines. Before I decided to work on Project Tankbustas, I'd considered converting loyalist marines into traitor marines with green stuff, horns, tentacles, icons and so on. It looked fun as a change of place from Orks and scrap metal, but the costs of doing so was prohibitive. You would have thought, even with inflation, you'd be tripping over cheap beakies on the secondary market, but no. Going further back, you may recall my dalliance with Xenos Rampant and my attempts at human scifi infantry and vehicles. That had progressed to point where I was trying to nail human skin tones, unsuccessfully, but then 40k 10th edition happened so I got distracted. When Project Tankbustas was nearing completion, I was very aware that I need something to do lest my brainworms act up, remembered the Stargrave models I had unbuilt. One thought led to another, and this lead to Project Sulaco, a numerically small force for my Orks to fight in Xenos Rampant games. Something I could introduce people to the game with, practice sculpting with, and hopefully perfect a method for skin at the same time.

What are these gonna look like though? Well, obviously like Beakies, the idea of genetically engineered soldier in powered armour is a fairly common concept. See also the Brotherhood of Steel from the Fallout franchise. Or the Terrans from Starcraft. Or the Hero’s Duty game from Wreck-it Ralph. Or the Mobile Infantry from Starship Troopers. But mainly the novel and cartoon series for that last one. You know, macho warrior types walking around wearing/somewhere-inside a large amount of metal, often with fascist leanings. The ur-example as far as old people like myself are concerned though is the 1986 film Aliens, and its Colonial Marines. These were allegorical to the Vietnam war to an extent, but have since become the baseline against any scifi soldier will be measured. Hence this projects name, and overall vibe. A tribute to the film, a thematic reference, rather than a 1:1 recreation.

 

Stage 1: Prototyping. The modification of at least one Stargrave miniature into a powered armour style via greenstuff and kitbash work. Also begins the search for satisfactory method of achieving human skin tones, and a colour scheme. I may spend several weeks on this bit, I have some diverse ideas, but not a strong mental image.

Stage 2: Rank & file. The creation of two squads of five marines, or two units of Elite Infantry in XR terms. This may include the recasting of custom bits, but we'll see. Assuming stage 1 is successful, this might be more time-consuming than actually difficult, but I don't want to rush it. Probably two weeks.

Stage 3: Sentry Guns. Yeah, these are the automated guns from the Special Edition of Aliens. I expect this a brief affair, possibly run alongside stage 4. Although I haven’t quite decided if I want these to be fixed weapons or mobile drones. Definitely Mechanoid Support Infantry in XR terms. Probably a week, or run concurrently with stage 4.

Stage 4: The APC. Yep also a direct lift from Aliens. I'm unsure the extent to which this would be a scratchbuild or kitbash, but I'm thinking blocky passenger vehicle, which is also the army commander. Remember that bit where LT Gorman watched everything go wrong via the marines' personal cameras? Yeah that, but hopefully working as doctrine intended. In XR terms, this would be a Transport Vehicle with Transport(10) and Line-breaker. I've sourced a few vehicles already, plus some tracks, so I'll see how I feel on the day.

Stage 5: The Powerloader. As mentioned, this is going to be more of tribute than a direct adaptation, but I do want have a clearly civilian/industrial mech piloted by a woman. Out of deference to Ripley, I'm going to have to source some female heads for the operator from somewhere, and I'm not doing the "boob-plate" thing. Rules wise, it would be a Softskin Civilian Walker. Physically? A Killa Kan but much neater. There is a Stargrave version of the concept that exists, but I want to make my own.

This should be fun.

Project Tankbusta: Part 7

 

Righty, I think we can call this the finale.

So, with the squad as a whole looking pretty good, I moved onto painting. This is probably the least interesting part of the project, as I have honed in on techniques that work for me. I'm sure I will eventually try more involved methods for orks, but I start from the assumption that whatever method I use has to be time and energy-efficient. If you have to paint dozens of the bastards, you need a way that neither bores you or drives you mad, and that's something I’ve struggled with, historically. So I went for my usual method of drybrush, wash and stippling. Painting the eyes on the squigs was something of a pain, but I got them done.

With that briefly addressed, now to review the project as a whole. The entire point of this was to build up my greenstuff sculpting skills, and I think I can honestly call that a success. I've earned my "Beginners Merit Badge", and in organising the project how I did, I didn't bite off more than I could chew. Progress was bumpy around the Das Clay stage, I admit, but I think my overall approach was sound. There are still many things I need to learn, with full humanoid figures and faces being somewhere in the future. But I feel I can get there. I didn’t have that before.

By coincidence, I actually have this week off, so it won’t be long before I start the next project. Expect an introduction this Thursday. 

 

 

BeastBox: BB-6CS Rhinoceros is Something That Exists

Do I have to explain BeastBox again? Righty, mechanical beasts that compress into boxes? Very collectable? 15+ age bracket? No? Oh, click here then. OK, let’s have a quick chat about a BeastBox I got last year. Amazon had it on a coupon.

As the serial number implies, Rhinoceros is one of the older BeastBoxs and therefore one of the simplest. He’s also a rhino, but I think that’s implied. He's not penguin simple, more akin to JoJo, but not Meerkat or Mega-Dio complex. This makes him nice as a fiddle toy, although there's a few things about him that didn't make for a great first impression. Rhinoceros here has accessories which store. This is good. You get a key in the manner of a wind-up toy, and a blaster sculpted in the style of a frog sticking its tongue out. Both are hugely characterful, which is good, but storing the key is inexplicably annoying. It just about fits in one compartment, but if you don't fit it in right, it's not coming out again without a tool. There is a tendency for it to catch on some tabs in there, and generally rattling. This is bad. It probably didn’t help my mood that I misplaced the key at one point, delaying this write-up, although it did eventually return from Narnia. The frog blaster meanwhile feels a little extraneous; I think its meant to go on the inside of an open side panel, but it looks a touch weedy. I feel they could easily have moved the peg along to make it a flip-out concealed weapon thingy. There's also a pair of 3mm-to-5mm port conversion pieces, which go unexplained in the instructions and presumably are there to assist with add-ons sold separately. That's not a negative as such, more that I’m missing something. 

 

Putting aside the above, what's this Rhinoceros like then? Well, he's a toy that's more about the act of transformation than necessarily having an action figure that is also a box. The conversion is based on some pleasingly intuitive and tactile actions: the head folding into the chest, the "saddle bags" moving out of the way, and the legs moving to peg together. Surprisingly, the horns cause the eyes to rotate as you fold them up, a nice touch. Like I said, this is a fiddle toy, and it's pretty good at it. The individual modes are fine, if not the most tcompelling I've written about. Box mode is OK, benefiting from the Rhino having a lot of flat panels, if producing a forgivable underside gap where the legs are. The actual rhinoceros mode is nice too. The colour scheme works, a chunky/techno vibe from the sculpt. Its face has an opening mouth, and what I can only describe as the expression of a lawful neutral herbivore. You can open his mouth though, move his ears, and adjust the horn to move his eyes, thus changing his expression. Posability meanwhile is there, with ten points, plus what you can do with the head area, if not exceptional for its bulk. Each leg is ball-jointed at the main body, but the neck is fixed, and the shoulders are jointed in an odd fashion.

 

So, how do I feel about this white & grey un-moisturised unicorn? Well, I’m kinda… he’s OK. I’m slightly meh about the accessories, but he’s a decent robo-rhino, that’s satisfying to mess with. Its just that’s he’s not as fun as JoJo. Given that I got him half price, I really can’t complain, but he’s not something that excels. More something that exists...

 

Project Tankbustas: Part 6

Aye-up, it's the home stretch.

Following the mixed results of the previous week, I opted to slap some paint on my prototype squig. The idea was to see how well the details came through with my painting techniques, mainly dry-brushing and washing. The simplicity of the sculpt didn't necessarily suit those techniques, so I'll have to work on that, but it worked OK. I did chance upon an easy way to do pupils, using a push-pin with the merest hint of black on it. Reactions to "Blep", as I named him, on social media was quite positive, with occasional comments relating to his big eyes and the need for decaff. It's definitely got character, but further refinement was needed. 

 

 

After a brief-but-unsuccessful attempt to make a spacemarine from beads and putty, brainworms again, I started on the bomb squigs proper. These were built as a pair, using the construction style as Blep. The eyes here were stick-on gems, and I raided my bitz box for spare rokkits and grenades; both as a time-saver and to help them match the team. These ended up a bit thicker in the legs than intended, but otherwise were improved across the board. I added more fur to break up the plain surfaces, added butt cheeks for the same reason, god help me, along with straps, fuse wire, sacks, and mounting points for the explosives. The expressions on the faces ended up being a bit daft again. In fact, I’d describe them as having gone horribly right. One looks like a properly toothy little bastard, and the other one having an awkward smile worthy of a retail worker. Building up the details was an iterative process, and I still have much to learn, but I felt this went well. Certainly good enough for what amounts to a pair of reminder tokens. I then proceeded go back to the tankbustas proper, giving them another look, and added a few more details. I ended up calling these “Frodo and Samwise”.

With this, Project Tankbustas nears its end. Its just a matter of adding texture to the bases, and then I can think about painting. And the next project.

Gaslands: Scratchbuilt Buggy

I've actually had the opportunity to finally play Gaslands a bit of late. Been teaching a few people, and I received a generous gift of scenery at one point. Folks seem to like my models, and it's nice to actually experience the game. As a modelling project though, Gaslands has however been on the back burner. I don't really need to make more cars, at least until/if/maybe a racing circuit forms at my local gaming centre, and I've made so many that it's not hugely engaging. Then an idea hit while I was at work: I realised how I could make buggies while changing price labels. Buggies are amongst the cheapest rides in Gaslands, but also something tricky to source. Your average charity shop or toy aisle is pretty certain of having mundane cars and sports cars. But a dune buggy? Not so much. These are smaller, open plan and tend to trade roofs for a roll-bar. Think Beachcomber, but more so. An engine, a lightweight chassis made from scaffolding, and wheels. They are usually less solid as a design than the famously robust diecast car is, which is possibly why you don't see them about much. My realisation was that if I got some dirt cheap cars, specifically a twin pack of plastic ones with cartoony proportions, I could make those into buggies. Just rip the shell off, build a new chassis atop the wheels, put an engine looking bit out back, roll-bar, and then add some resin ork crew. Job's a good 'un?

Well, as it turned out, yeah. My brain worms had me working on this idea of a Saturday evening, and while there was a certain amount of hot glue and bodging, things came together quickly. My bitz box presented some toy car innards for seats, and a resin bit that made for a good engine block. That cut out some faff, although getting the crew to fit was a matter of trial and error. Making the roll-bar was also unexpectedly swift; I threaded little segments of q-tip onto some scrap wire, which allowed me to reinforce it and test fit it without going mad. By the time I called it for the evening, all the key elements were in place, ready for the finishing touches, and then paint. I went for Evil Sunz, aka Idris, with the tires putting up a fight. I probably should have sanded them a bit. That said, it all worked out.

Generally, I'm quite happy with this. It doesn't quite have the fine detail of an actual toy car, but I'm sure that would come with practice. At present, this is more an exaggerated "heroic scale", the sort of detail easily understood in play. I probably made things difficult in jumping straight to exposed crew too. I could have probably have got away with a little mesh box or similar for the crew compartment, which I'm inclined to try for the next one. 

 

 

Jobs a good 'un. 

 

 

Transformers: Retire Studio Series

And now, an old man yells at a cloud...

 

Things tend to rattle around in my brain. I’ll have an idea, run through it, write some of it down, and, on occasion, shelve it. Sometimes you don’t like the first draft, or you forget it in favour of more interesting things. Sometimes, the article gets unpacked after I remember it, or I feel that I need to fill a slot. So, here we are today, with an article that’s a bit of both. An article whose conceit may be both tritely obvious and inflammatory. I put it to you, dear reader, that Studio Series no longer serves a distinct purpose, and is in fact merely an imprint of whatever collectors line Hasbro is doing that year.

Studio Series Cogman, 2019

So, context and history. Studio Series is part of the all encompassing Generations block of collector aimed Transformers. It's stated goal was to appeal to fans of the live action films with high fidelity, premium toys matching the big screen as much as possible. Studio Series kicked off in 2018, the films having been an ongoing concern for a decade or so at that point, so there was definitely an audience for such a thing. More over, there was something of a need for do-overs. The original bayverse designs were infamously complex, which was something the toy people took a while to overcome. Some characters weren't well-served or lost in the shuffle. As time progressed, Hasbro opted to divide movie stuff into two, simple merch for kids, and more complex stuff for serious toy fans. The latter evolved into Studio Series, offering the chance of a do-over for some many characters. Studio Series was a fundamentally good idea then, catering to market I personally wasn't in, but entirely justifiable. The first toys appeared shortly after The Last Knight line wrapped up, actually inheriting a couple of moulds, the titanmaster-based Nitro Zeus and Cogman moulds. This was something of an odd blip now I come to think of it. The entire headmaster thing was something cut from the film, so it's kinda odd that they were in Studio Series. I mention it as it I need to bring up a fundamental point about Hasbro Transformers, which explains that and many similar oddities. Generations, be it Studio Series, Legacy, Kingdom, Earthrise, Siege or whatever, are all ultimately the same toy line. It's melange, spread across varying price points and imprints, but still ultimately from the same place and matching product numbers. I know I bring that up whenever I do opinion pieces on toylines, but it is vital context. So, other than those two early reuses, Studio Series was generally fulfilling it's brief, jumping up and down the timeline like Generations usually does. As mentioned, I'm not a movie guy, but they were doing good work and things people wanted. I mean, doing Devastator as a team of eight, spread across the deluxe, voyager and even leader pricepoints? That's pretty awesome.

Studio Series 86 Grimlock, (and an awful Wheelie), 2021

Mind you, simple reality would soon catch up with Studio Seried. Come the time of the Bumblebee film, not even two years after Studio Series started, Studio Series had already made a significant dent in the bayverse roster. As much as I like that film, Hasbro seemed less invested this time around, and wasn't going as hard on the merch. So Studio Series stopped being purely about nostalgia and do-overs, and became the premium bit of a movie line for a while. And it immediately fucked up. The initial three toys for the tie-in, Bumblebee, car mode Shatter, and helicopter mode Dropkick, we're based off outdated character models and thus had an only passing resemblance to the film. This defeated the entire point of Studio Series. And maybe they should have put the line on hiatus then, but they didn't. Instead they did two things. First off, they remembered the 1986 movie was also a film, so they could do actual Generation 1 characters too. Its the Generations Grabbag again, its things spilling over. Then they chose to do a toy for each character featured in the Cybertron scenes of the Bumblebee movie, a few brief minutes of fanservice with G1-adjacent designs. Because that was what we needed, when Earthrise had been fully G1. And Cyberverse was doing G1 but YouTube. And Kingdom being half G1 stuff. For Studio Series to alternate between actual G1, and characters that looked G1, but had mere seconds of screentime originating in reshoots.

The mainline Voyager class Rhinox toy, 2023

In all fairness, I did like that Brawn. Anyways, like I said Studio Series and Generations are the same thing. Anyways this continued for a bit, until we catch up with the near past. Studio Series would bide its time for a while, doing the most G1 of G1 stuff, until the new film happened, Rise of the Beasts. This had been subject to delays and reshoots, and was a little bland as movies go. Toyline mishaps also happened, as its arguable star Mirage was largely forgotten, in favour of the usual suspects. There was also two sets of "proper" movie tie-ins, one doing fun stuff like battlemasters and Studio Series releases seemingly benefiting from the delays. For some reason, the deluxe and voyager price points were present in both, competing with each other. Why?! Did the delays mess things up so bad? Was Hasbro trying to double dip and got the timing wrong? Regardless, ‘beasts came, did pretty much everybody, and went with an almost spectacular lack of lasting impact. Even the TFNation dealers room was noticeably light on beasts stuff, and that should have been a gimme. I mean, that might just be my experience, ancedotes are not evidence, but I suppose the box office wasn't great was it? If it had took, we'd be swimming in beastformers. That's another story though. Then we got some video game stuff, the so-called Gamer Edition, which are, um, not top tier? Then we got the reveals that got me writing this the first place, way back in November, the toys based on concept art. Which, by definition, aren’t on screen.

Stock image of Concept Art Megatron, unreleased at time of writing

So, where do I stand on this? Well, I feel conflicted. The concept art Megatron is honestly fascinating as a piece. It's what could have been, and is a triplechanger, so it should be fun to mess with. If I saw it on sale, I'd be tempted. Then again, and this is the autistic bit of my brain talking, what is Studio Series for if its not slavishly matching media? Doing a concept art toy in Studio Series is a contradiction in terms. So what I'd suggest here is either a pause or a rebrand, or some combination of both. Studio Series has had a good run, but the bottom of the barrel is not only visible, but showing scratch marks. You could rebrand it as "boutique" or similar, and concentrate on the difficult and interesting. Or, you could retire it for a year or two, let people grow to miss it, and come back with fresh eyes. Or they could just continue as they are, just treading water until the next film comes out. And with that, eventually, they’d have to think about doing Skids and Mudflap.

And no sane person wants that.