Transformers: Age of the Primes Sureshot is Something that Exists

  

I am in no way a completionist. Some Transformers lines I go very heavily into, but generally I only pick up things that are interesting or cheap. Recently though, I gotta say Hasbro hasn't really been doing either. Studio Series is dull. Age of the Primes tried, but seemingly only made one Prime I liked. Cyberworld is at least doing some oddball stuff, but the play pattern doesn't do it for me. Which is the reason why you've seen more third party, collaboratives, and retro Transformers of late, rather than anything "mainstream". Where does Sureshot fit into that? Well, I kinda got fixated on him. Not necessarily because he's good or bad, or that I have a prior attachment to the character. But more because he'd be worth talking about if, and only it, the price was right. At TFN, it was, and so here we are. Read on to find out if he's any good, what the word bellwether might mean.

This article is a sequel to my write up on Needlenose, and the wider issues with targetmaster type toys. I didn't like that figure, I've parted with it, as I felt the designers had tried to turn a cheap and cheerful meal into gourmet food, to mixed results. Spoilsport here, Sureshot's targetmaster, shows few signs of improvement in the time since. He is a straightforward sidegrade to the 80's original in function and articulation, if noticeably hollow. We can have a discussion about toy design versus the assorted character models, if that's what matters to you, but that’s not what I’m doing today. For now, let us agree that this is very-very 80's. But at least he's not made of paint chipping, and has more than one step in his transformation. He is otherwise inoffensive, is not unattractive, and I am perhaps being unfair with my comment about the years since. This set seems to have been twice delayed since Legacy United, so maybe this was designed around the same time. The wiki suggests that these delays may be due to Sureshot's obscurity, but let's put a pin in that for later.

So, is the main event also an 80's sidegrade? No. That would be so weird as to be interesting. Sureshot is recognisable as a modern deluxe with ankle tilts and 5mm ports in the usual places, with the usual animation model bias and looks. He does however feel slightly subpar in terms of build quality. Part of that are some paint imperfections on my example, but let's not hold that against it. Most of that feeling comes from a plethora of hollowness and the plastics used. One review I watched compared this to a Thrilling Thirty release, and I don't think that's unfair. Sureshot does not have a torso so much as a chestplate, which means he only looks solid directly from the front, a flaw worthy of a lesser Cyberverse release from 2012. The colours don't help either; Sureshot is mostly in tones associated with cheese and that looks a bit cheap.  Yellow is always a bastard of a colour to work with, and while it's pretty good in places, the red leicester legs needed something to break them up. Faithful to a fault. But then, there's the spoiler segments, that peg rather loosely into the shoulder ports and thus are a nuisance in both modes. There's also messiness on his back where car bits end up, a product of a fairly novel transformation, which I honestly kinda like. The resulting vehicle form has the same sort of flaws as a robot, but gets the fundamentals right. It's not an especially solid affair, but given that this is akin to a futuristic Baja Buggy I'm more inclined to forgive the gaps. Its not good, especially with the arms out back, but its doing the job, and there was stuff done to get there. So, we have a toy that looks the part in both modes, does the basics OK, but it seems absolutely every corner they could cut, they did. Also, my photography is shit today, I apologise. I think its the yellow.

Is this the same as me saying I dislike it? No, I like better than Needlenose because it does what a Transformer should. Like two distinct modes, an actual transformation, and decent articulation in robot mode for use with an accessory. Where he differs is in the build quality and design compromises, and to be fair, that seems to have become the recurring issue for modern targetmaster types. Sureshot isn't as obviously bad as Quake, he still feels sub-average. The question is why? Could this have been delayed as it had obvious problems, and Pointblank turned out so badly? Was this the victim of repeated budget cuts? Or was this simply the designers not being their A Game to this release? All sound plausible. But there's also the wider context of 'Merica, tarrifs, and oil prices. This is the sort of thing that happens in Transformers every decade or so, a periodic shift in complexity along with inflation. Just in this case it's in opposite directions. We have been here before.

Sureshot is a bellwether, I feel, a trendsetter. The proverbial coalmine canary, a sign of things to come. I suspect that he may represent the average deluxe standard going forwards. Once all the retools and repacks are done, and there's been a lot lately, there may only be toys like this one. That's not terrible, as Sureshot actually gets a lot right, but this is not happy thought. What probably is terrible, is Sureshot's retool Joyride. They've taken an already-questionable deluxe, and turned Spoilsport into a powermaster, loosing any weaponry in the process. And it looks like this.

 

Fucking hell.

Kitbash: Ork Boy Upgrades and Such & Such

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. Kinda. OK, funny story. I kinda wanted to talk about the Armageddon Boyz first. Those are the new hotness, or at least the lukewarm hotness. A marked-down sausage roll, if you will? However, I kinda wanted my existing Boyz modernised too, which would be a faster way of getting a rules legal force. So I did them first. But, due to unfortunate circumstances my regular opponent had to cancel, and I had real life issues too. So I didn't get to play or indeed finish them during my week off. But I didn't want to fall behind on the blog,  this has gone from a tangent to it's own article. Lucky you, dear reader.

 

As it stands, I'd imagine a lot of people with pre-existing Ork armies are currently doing busywork to make their Boyz match the new datasheet. For me, this means adding a burna, big shoota, and ammo runt to each mob, while also putting the nob on a bigger base. You may also need to give the Nob a kombi-weapon of some kind, as these now replace the sluggas they used to carry. As I tended to give my nobs big choppas, this is less of an issue for me, but I'm still gonna have one guy as a "counts as". However, with Burnaboyz now gone, and the Nob unit being totally redesigned, I had a few existing burnas and runts ready to go.

The new boyz with big shootas are mainly salvaged from an abandoned killteam project, one based around dakka. They feature four varieties of big gun, one kitbashed, and one metal piece. Meanwhile, the new Ammo Runts were older grot plastics bodged together with assorted stowage. You don't really need much more than a gretchin, a big sack, a some bullets to make an ammo runt. These were then painted in my usual manner, although I did try to mix up the colour choices.  The nobs were carefully re-based by trimming the lip from their 32mm base, placing them atop a 40mm, and filling the gap. This proved be an imprecise method, one with the first base fighting back, and one nob just coming off. It worked alright I suppose, although this did highlight the difference in proportions between old and new style Orks.  It will do.

Up next: batch painting?

Plamo: The Big Mek Dakkarig (Armageddon Release)

 

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. Today, we focus on the only actually new thing in the Armageddon box: the Big Mek Dakkarig.

 

Ordinarily, I'd like to place a model such as this in its proper, or proppa, context, but the Dakka Rig is so new as to almost lack one. It's simply, and obviously, a gatling gun on legs. It's all about the Dakka, it's in the name. Perhaps it will gain said context with the 11th edition codex. I don’t know, I didn’t get the book until this model was done, and its only had rules in general for a matter of mere weeks. It seems to be positioned as a de-facto HQ choice for Dreadbash and Mek-centric armies, as it's the personal conveyance of a Mekboy. Other than putting a lot of bullets into something, it also carries rokkits, but unlike ever other Ork walker, it's mêlée functions are kinda minor. More importantly though, this is very much within my hyper-fixations, which is why I put off doing it until now.

As a build, this is very much in the same fixed pose style as everything else in the Armageddon box, if maybe less irritating due to the larger size. This still is a case where you're gonna need sub assemblies, some gap-filling as it turned out late in the process, most notably with the Mek whom needed painting separately. In three different parts because he's grabbing the controls with both hands. In all fairness though, that's as annoying as any of it got, because a rusty scrap robot is so massively within my comfort zone that it's like a soft cushion. I added a few extra panels, greeblies, and roughed it up, before doing all the major colours in a lazy afternoon.  I find that doing metals is so much more immediately gratifying than infantry, and this project was a gentle confirmation of that. Then came the Mek, and assorted details, before washing and basing. I had wanted to use to a transfer on the banner, but realised too late that I didn’t have a suitable one. So I freehanded a rather-bad “Kan” gylph. That’s the symbol for ork walkers that sometimes looks like a robot doing the robot. It looks more like a cheeky gremlin thing, but its fine.  A bit of whimsy. I also tried using old, dried-out mud paint to make new mud paint, which produced some nice textures. The whole thing came out quite well. And eventually, I got the codex.

As I now have the codex, and it has been collectively discussed to death, how do I feel about it? Well, I'm not fond of how this codex and indeed 11th in general have been communicated. Those data cards I got in the Armageddon box? Aged like milk. The Ork codex looked, if anything, over-tuned, but then news broke of Marines experiencing an even more extreme rebuild, loosing a bunch of units into the bargain. It follows that every faction will receive a similar revamp, but as this is being done via a codex cycle, not the index method, it's gonna take a while. As a result, game balance will be unstable for a long time, not least because marines are half the game. Furthermore, there is a trend for the initial codexs of an edition to be cautious and maybe a little awkward as the designers feel things out. So however impressive Orks look now, it may well be a different story next year. I acknowledge that there is a strong "First World Problems" feel to the above comments, but this is still a very rough transition from 10th, as it's not a clean break. More like unpicking stitches from a wound. It makes me disinclined to any deep analysis until things settle. And they took a bunch of units away too, and faffed with the Battlewagon again. That said, let's talk some positives. I do like the modularity of the detachment system. I mostly play at 1k, so having the vast majority be 1DP is good for me. I like how the designers seem to have gone out of their way to make most weapon options valid, a topic I've had a lot to say about in the past. I don't think they got it 100% right, but it's a lot harder to dislike big shootas now. The presentation is pretty solid, as is the rules language. So, generally a good first impression.

Up next: Probably some Boyz.

Plamo: Primaris Intercessors (the Armageddon ones)

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. Here, I’m trying some beakies.

It is a self-evident truth that everyone involved in 40k, will have, at some point, painted a space marine. It's just a thing that happens, like playing Ryu in the latest Street Fighter game or buying white sliced bread. I'm not gonna say I have hard numbers, but when half the game, a majority of starter sets, and the entire Horus Heresy setting prominently feature marines, it's a thing that happens. Invariably, these form the basis of somebody's first army, and/or sold on to bulk out someone-else's force, and/or sold on to start the cycle anew. And just as invariably, those marines are the basic troops choice of the time, in this case, Intercessors. AKA the unpopular and "boring ones". Marine players always seem to have a bit of resentment towards their rank and file. I suspect part of it is, is that basic marines aren't great at killing other marines, which is most of the game. Although that may be changing soon. Or everyone just runs to the cool stuff that kills other stuff best. Good thing these are a modeling project first.

As I said way back when I started Project Legs11, I was concerned about pacing and burn out. At time of writing I had been working on the Armageddon box for about a month, and had done some of the more interesting Ork stuff, but the impending Ork releases gave me pause. I had time off for TFN, so marines instead. And just the Intercessors so I get a handle on the Crimson Fists colour scheme. I had some problems though with assembly. One leg somehow vanished, another had a breakage, so I opted for a squad of five rather than ten. Lest I loose my temper and undermine any therapeutic value in this. This largely proved to be a good call, at least until I managed to glue one to the table. And then the “big real life issue” hit and my  motivation basically evaporated, my progress becoming slow and irregular. So, as a mental health maintenance exercise, this was something of a washout. I'm not a fan of how these went together, and I'm not really looking forward to the Boyz.

 

Anyway, I eventually got over that. I'd done some research, and Crimson Fists looked to be a fairly no-fuss colour scheme, that might work with my preferred trench brown undercoat. I opted to overbrush Kantor Blue on the model, it's like dry brushing but less selective, before going in to pick out specifics like the undersuit and gun. The backpacks were kept separate until after the overbrush to simplify matters. Once the big colours were done, and some the fiddly bits, a Nuln Oil wash was applied, followed by a light drybrush of Macragge Blue, and basing. This worked well enough, I suppose. As a colour scheme test. In so far as getting a table-ready standard. When marines consist mainly as one block colour, as they do here, the main difficulties become getting that colour right, and the fiddly bits. I’m not totally happy with the blue, but its fine as first attempt. But the fiddly bits were just kind of annoying. That’s why I skipped transfers and squad markings at this stage, as in addition to the transfers being a limited resource, I didn’t want the hassle. My style is, perhaps, a bit sloppy for marines. That said, if I wanted hassle-free models in one block colour, I’d have probably chosen something from the Silver Drybrush Brigade. The point was to mix things up, after all, I can get better. I’ll hopefully come back to these at some point.

I wrapped this in mid-August, shortly after my decision to pause the blog. In between that and publication, the hype cycle for the new Ork Codex finally began, long after that leak. And then much of it leaked before the preorder. By the time this goes up, the codex will have been out for 24 hours, I got mine at closing time last night, and we’ll all have a solid idea of what’s happened, but its clear the Orks have been reworked from top to bottom. As have the marines. The implications of all this will be massive. I'll decline to comment more deeply than that just now, as I'm not able to match the news cycle, and I don't want to just parrot the opinions of other people. And I got sick of rewriting this bit. Commentary will follow once I've actually read it, but I do like what they've done with the Kans...

 

 

That said, about the modelling side. The Boyz unit got a lot more complicated, but thanks to that earlier leak I'd got a lot of the necessary gubbins together to update existing units, and expand the newer Armageddon Boyz. There is a grand kitbash tradition to draw on here. Big Shootas are pretty easy to do; if you don't have a whole Ork with one lying around, you just put a barrel extension on a regular Shoota. Rokkits are doable if you have a tube and/or suitable bead for the warhead. Think bazooka or panzer faust. For the Ammo Runts you need a grot and a sack or box of some kind. Burnas are a touch trickier, but if you have a humie flamer, some wire and an oilcan you are probably OK. Or you can just use Burnaboyz now they’ve been sadly removed. I will. What ultimately defied my bitzbox, and possibly everyone, was the Boss Nob. And indeed the dedicated Nob unit. Through a deeply curious oversight and/or suspicious marketing choice, these don't carry sluggas anymore. Only the assorted kombi-weapons and kustom shootas which had been unpopular in 10th ed because they blocked out all of the melee options. In terms of boss nobs, this would be an easy errata, or a modest inconvenience for what I already field. I tend to use boss nobs with two-handed big choppas, and that’s still a legal option. But Nobz Mobz got a complete rewrite, and so a complete rebuild there is obviously needed. I’ll do the boyz first.

 

 

Up next: The Dakka Rig, the codex, and probably some boyz.

Plamo: The 30 Minutes Missions Tecprot 01

I will admit to having a bit of a streak of disappointing/troubled mecha projects of late. Nothing terrible, but little that provided a sense of achievement or therapeutic relaxation. So I thought, fuck it, back within my comfort zone for a pallet cleanser. Just before I moved on to other things.

 

The Tecprot 01 is yet another 30MM mecha, so you probably should know what to expect by now. Especially as it features the first generation joint sprue and a very Alto look to it. It's a touch less technically impressive than the Iglight, but it's notably bulkier without noteworthy loss in articulation. The vibe is muscular rather than just big, an important distinction as this 01 variant is very cop coded. It's a two-tone blue riot cop, with a transparent riot shield, and some plugin armour bits. The proportions suggest all-round fitness rather being top-heavy or security guard fat. It's not dissimilar to the Alto, and not as heavy as a Rabiot, think a slightly rounded middle ground between those two. It also features grenade launcher, hinting at tear gas, and an additional visor which folds down, but no Roy Roy sadly. A truncheon would have helped with the vibe TBH. It's 02 variant by the way is in military green with a sniper scope, and trust me I could talk for days about the politics of that comparison, but let's stay on topic. I really like how the shield is executed, it's easier to pose than the Levinix shield as it has a handle, although the weight of the shield proved troublesome during photography. Maybe thicken that handle and wrist joint? The translucent aspects in general work nicely, although I'm less fond of the grenade launcher being cast in blue. All in all? A pretty good, no fuss robot kit.

I did my usual weathering job here, using a selection of metallic paints. I picked out the grenade launcher, assorted vents, and thrusters, before applying an ink wash. I avoided the translucent segments where possible, people would be more inclined to clean those. Turned out pretty good. With a rather noticeable backside.

I will admit to moving that later on...

My Time at TFNation July 2026

 

OK, maybe this is gonna be a bit different. At time of writing, its Monday, not long back from Birmingham, and I’m thinking how I should write up this convention. I've been back and forth; I actually rewrote this at one point. Normally I do a paragraph summary or similar, mentioning what I did each day, and how my travel was. Maybe I would make references to (attempted) socialising. And maybe I talk about how it was on the Toy-Fu table. And all those can be easily touched on, and fit previous patterns. But mainly what happened was that I was both very-very preoccupied, and very-very busy. There’s an ongoing real life thing that I can’t really go into just now, a family matter. This was playing on my mind for most of the Saturday, despite my best efforts to not to let it spoil the event, and pull my weight. What also happened on the Saturday was that Toy-Fu had the best day ever, at the busiest TFN ever. So, very busy, stressed, and distracted, all while trying to do a good job. What helped with all that was friendship. Thank heavens for my friends, especially those that I shared the matter with, and the generally good vibes of the TFN crowd. Ultimately though, my convention experience largely was the stall experience. Not the first time that happened, now that I think of it, but between the demand, we were a person short, and my own feelings, I was more aware of it happening. So, I’m not going to go into the convention experience here, as most of it for me was either trapped-in-my-own-head or doing my bit for charity. If you took at look at the Unicron Trilogy or Beast Wars sections, the odds are I served/loomed-over you. Or tried to sell you that Beast Machines Cheetor. A net positive on the weekend though, and we did some good on the Toy-Fu stall/aisle/annex/Solemnace Galleries. And people were generous too, with their donations.

As is traditional though, I got stuff, and I will now give a few comments on my haul. Definitely more cars and actual Transformers than I was expecting...

Upper/center: Transformers Energon Landmine. Yes, Transformers Energon now counts as retro. Why this guy? Well, A) he turns into a combat engineer vehicle, and B) look at him. 

Center-left: Transformers/HotWheels GT-Scorcher. Probably the best of the 2nd wave of these collaborations, although I’m not sure if he’s Bone Shaker good. 

Center-right: Transformers/HotWheels El Segundo Coupe. Not bad at all, but undermined by some Q.C issues. Named for a city in California, apparently.

Center: Transformers Age of the Primes Sureshot & Spoilsport: I’m not gonna say the set is that bad, but its not selling really the deluxe pricepoint. I got them cheap though.

8 O'clock: A decoy Galvatron gifted by a generous and talented person whom does not use social media.

7 O'clock: A Skywarp badge gifted by the generous and talented @jakelab.bsky.social.

6 O'clock: An adorable sticker by the talented @claudovel.bsky.social, themed around chili sauce and Ratchet.

5 O'clock: An extremely adorable Grimlock key-chain, also by the talented Claude.
 

Some of these may end up as blog articles, I’ll see how I go. I am running a bit behind. On that subject: HOUSEKEEPING.

Due to the aforementioned prolonged real life matters, I will shortly will be pausing blog updates. An article will go live on Sunday the 16th as usual, after-which updates will halt, and regular service will resume on September the 6th. Hopefully things will have stabilised by then. I need to take some pressure off from somewhere.

Cheers for now. 

Transformers: Energon Tow-Line is Something That Exists

 Hey, its TFNation weekend! Here's a Transformer.

 

While I will no-doubt be buying more this weekend, I've been considering a clear out of my Transformers collection. A modest downsize. I’m trying to be more financially responsible, and my interest is on a bit of an ebb. That said, such an exercise is always good for reminding you what you actually value in your collecting. These days I find it's not so much the characters, as the toys themselves and a sense of novelty. You have to have a very good writer and a very fresh take for me to latch onto a specific iteration of a Transformer, and that hasn't really happened since Siege started. That's probably indictment of the state of transformers media, but truthfully, some of the toys I've enjoyed the most spring from lines with terrible media. Or toys that frankly have no media presence to really speak of. Like Tow-Line. Tow-Line is a weirdo.
 

 

Tow-Line, he of the inconvenient hyphen, hails from Transformers: Energon, the 20th anniversary series. He didn't appear in the famously awful cartoon, the comic was canceled, and had only a token Japanese release, so he's largely a blank slate. Tow-Line is a homage to some 80's concepts, but like a lot of his line, it's not a direct interpretation. There was always some remixing going on, as opposed to today, where apparently everything must be screen accurate at all costs. Here we have the play pattern of the Diaclone vans that became Ironhide and Ratchet, while also taking visual elements from Skids, a less well known minvan dude. But it also has the visual stylings and line wide gimmicks of the time. Preempting the Missing Link releases by two decades, Tow-Line separates from a TV van into a robot and a battle platform, a feature so rare as to be basically unique. And obviously it led to a couple of G1-inspired Botcon releases. But he can also do the Energon Star thing, Mini-Cons and binary combination common to Autobots of his time. Including, with himself, becoming some kind of a robotic centaur. Like I said, Tow-Line is a weirdo. But this is something so often absent from more modern toys, not merely replicating, but adding.

Does this make Tow-Line a great toy, or failing that, a good one? Well, I would point to some weaknesses in the execution that suggest this may have benefited from a second pass or a larger price point. The accessory isn't great, it's a translucent block that when unfolded looks more like a metal detector than an actual weapon. It got posable sensor dishes, although the translucent material is a worry there, and this dates from a time when missile launchers were standard issue, so it's not great. Its also worth saying that you only get the one accessory, meaning one half of this affair can go looking a little plain. Granted, this is from a toyline that's big on interactivity between releases, but it would have helped if there was was two, more conventional, guns instead. The robot mode isn't bad, but has odd proportions, and omits the waist joint for combination purposes. It is otherwise a pretty decent deluxe equivalent with a lot of character, functional articulation, and memorable play features, like combining with himself. It doesn't quite match your typical Siege style deluxe when it comes to posing, but it is not as limited as some of it's kin, and has nothing to apologise for when it comes to visuals and paint.  My example is play worn, dusty, and is starting to demonstrate the downsides of translucent plastic, but has a presence. Because he’s a weirdo.

All in all, Tow-Line is an interesting deluxe, made charming in spite, and because of, it's flaws. There's clearly something in there for the Geewunners, but it's not chasing Sunbow. There's new ideas. Are all of these ideas flawlessly executed? No, but nothing that counts as a net negative. He's good on his own terms, and he gets better if you've got other Energon toys. He's a weirdo, but he's my weirdo, and you don't get many weirdos these days. I mean, the Thirteen Primes tried, but they didn't pull it off. So I'm probably not parting with this one.