Transformers: Titans Return Sky Shadow Is Something That Exists

Righty, let's try an essay format article about a toy. One where I can tell a story and then chat about its actual merits. I haven't done a proper review in about five years, and I have no intention of being topical. So, let me just try this and see how it turns out, OK?

 

 

The 1989, Japanese exclusive Black Shadow toy

To properly explain what Sky Shadow is, you have to dive deep into the minuate of Transformers circa 1989. By this point the brand was still a big thing, but the cracks were starting to appear, with the American cartoon off the air, and Japan making its own animes in response. This created a vast fictional schism, as while Transformers always had a “do what you want” attitude to continuity, Takara's spin on things like the Headmasters was fundamentally incompatible with Hasbro markets. This also resulted in a number of exclusive toys, and a regrettable subset of the fandom that have the negative traits of both geewunners and weebs at once, but let's try to stay on topic. Sky Shadow's fate in this was somewhat more extreme, requiring yet more context. Originally, he was Thunderwing, a character given great prominence in the Western comics, and featured the Mega Pretender gimmick. This meant you had a small robot interacting with a much larger outer shell, which resembled a He-Man style action figure that the robot stored inside. Supposedly, this was taking the Robots in Disguise thing more literally, and yes, Thunderwing wasn't immediately recognisable as a robot, but he weren't exactly blending in either, so the comics treated the shell like power armour. The “mega” bit, came from the fact that Thunderwing's shell could transform into a jet like the inner robot could, both segments combining, effectively granting him and his casemates 5 modes. It was a fairly noteworthy toy of its day. When Takara decided to release Thunderwing however, they opted to retool the shell to be more robotic along with a black paint job, prompting the name Black Shadow. The name Sky Shadow would come much later. If you're familiar with Thunderwing, or just looked at the image below, you might find yourself a little bemused. Thunderwing had Japanese oni visual elements for his shell, and would not have looked out of place in a Tokusatsu production. It probably needed less explanation in Japan than it needed elsewhere, as it would have dovetailed nicely with the Masterforce version of Pretenders. So why the change? Maybe they found it vulgar, I dunno? Thunderwing was by no means the only toy this happened to as the brand fragmented, however, with the Pretender Monsters and Dinoforce being another good example.

The 1989 Thunderwing toy 

 

Whatever the logic, Black Shadow would then go on to appear in Transformers Victory, the last proper animation of G1. No, Zone doesn't count. I don't want to get too far into that anime, as it would quickly become about the show is an ancestor of Gaogaigar, but he was only in 1 episode. I don't know what actually happened, but this feels like a lot of extra effort for a character that they just didn't do much with. Retooling is a decidedly non-trivial expense, especially if the toy was not planned from the start to do that, like something we'll talk about in a second. Black Shadow would then go onto do basically nothing. It became one of the aforementioned Japanese exclusives, prized for its rarity and obscurity more than anything else. It would ultimately be Western media that brought him back. First, Fun Publications used him in a Trans Tech prose story in 2008. Then, Black Shadow would get notable cameos in the IDW comics continuity in the early 2010s, via fans-turned-professionals like James Roberts and Nick Roche. He was basically there as Thunderwing was unavailable, and died unpleasantly in 2013, but he was a big thing. A "Phase Sixer" to be specific, a person of mass destruction, no less. More importantly, in 2011, Hasbro was doing some comic inspired toys and decided to do both Thunderwing and Black Shadow on the same deluxe class mould, though renaming the latter to Sky Shadow for trademark purposes. This was famously revealed in Thunderwing's instructions, which happened a few times back then. While always a feature of Transformers, retooling and pretooling was coming become more and more common, to the point of ubiquity in with the Prime Wars Trilogy of collector-oriented toy lines. So, perhaps inevitably, Sky Shadow came back. In 2017 as part of Prime Wars, we got another Sky Shadow, this time as a pretool of Titans Return leader class Overlord. As this was also a Japanese exclusive character made (more) prominent by Roberts & Roche, and a fellow Phase Sixer, this completed some vast circle of nerdish obscurity. Takara, now TakaraTomy, was however less interested. They eventually shuffled the deluxe into Transformers Adventure, and never released the Titans Return version. They instead retooled it further into Dai Atlas, another Japanese obscurity that turned up in the same IDW comics, but that's a tale for another time. If you can say anything about Sky Shadow, is that he is mould mates with a select group of asskickers.

So what about todays subject then? Well, Sky Shadow benefits a lot from his colour scheme of black with shiny metal and red highlights, with greys contrasting. He's not just a black repaint, he's actually very colourful, as befits a toy of his price bracket. While much is shared with Overlord, the pretooling is both intense and very localised, as while the lower-body/tank is the same, almost everything above the belt-buckle is different. The jet mode is entirely distinct from Overlord's, not featuring the detachable cockpit block, instead coming with a little drone thingy that evokes his original altmode. This mode also features a seat for his Titanmaster Ominus, probably not a fun dude at parties, and a mounting clip which allows for the tank to be carried underneath. Yes, its a little undignified, but Overlord can't do that. The base mode he gets out of this jet isn't bad either, as such things go, being tangibly different too, and the colours again being an asset. Meanwhile, the robot mode is quite satisfactory. There's a presence to it, and it poses well enough. However, a weakness common to the Titans Return leaders was acceptable, but not memorable, articulation with lots of big ratchet joints. Sky Shadow is part of that trend, the transformation and Titanmaster functionality placing limitations, and if he'd just had something more in the wrists, it would have helped a bit. Overall, there's lots of fun to be had here, Titans Return was great at that sort of thing. Its not about being absolutely faithful to the source, as with modern Generations, its about being good to play with. The only actual flaw on my example is involves the drone and its movable peg, which comes off at the slightest touch. I also note that the arms feel a bit hollow, but not to the point of being worrisome.

 

 

The oddest thing about Sky Shadow is that I actually like this toy than I did Overlord, and Overlord is much better and more memorable character. Part of that is maaayyybbbbeeee that Overlord felt like a near-miss? Fine, but not a slam-dunk? Like they updated the original toy, but didn't add the finishing touches? It would have been nice, if technically difficult, for the tank turret to turn, for example. Even the modestly retooled Japanese version feels a little off. Sky Shadow has however benefited from being a leader class pretool. Yes, he doesn't do exactly what he did before, but he's only gained play value versus all his previous versions. And it all looks unified, and does what it does well.

 

I just think he's fun.

 

 

Gaming: An Introduction to Super Robot Wars

 

 

So, something I've been mentioning, but never fully explained is Super Robot Wars (SRW), a long established series of video games about to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary. These first appeared on the Game Boy platform, but has since appeared on numerous consoles of Japanese origin. Its a cultural staple, although licensing issues have largely prevented it from having any impact in the West. Typically, these are Strategic Roleplaying Games, played on a big map, taking turns, with a vast unit variety. I mean, think about it. There's a great many giant robot styles, reflecting a different technology level and artistic approach. SRW can and always will find a way to make a mecha and its pilot distinct. This leads to the series' biggest effect on the discourse, the categorisation of mecha into “Super Robots” and “Real Robots”. In these games, Super Robots are big, cartoony, heavy hitters that stride into combat soaking up damage. Real Robots however are more sensible and rely more on dodging. However, its not the machine that's important, the pilots have their own special abilities which have a huge effect. And there's usually a character creation element too, so the nominal protagonist is to your tastes. What I'm saying here is that there is depth.

 

Of course, the main appeal is fan pandering. The series as a whole takes the same approach to crossovers and characterisation as Lego does. Characters are recognisable, although the art style tends towards the “super deformed” style, with their backstories intact, but any obvious sources of contradiction are glossed over and ignored. If anything, there's a fan-pleasing sense if humour to events, as jokes get made and "mistakes" of the source material get corrected. Did your fave die tragically? The odds are one of these games will let you fix that. Imagine for a second some kind of massive spy B-movie, featuring James Bond, The Man From Uncle, two different iterations of Charlie's Angels, Jason Bourne, John Wick, The Fast & The Furious, Atomic Blonde, and Austin Powers. Imagine Blofeld meeting Doctor Evil and discussing scalp care. Imagine James Bond, any Bond, teaming up with the Angels. Imagine someone saving Daisy. That's the appeal of a Super Robot Wars game. Its your favourite character appearing on the map, their theme music playing like a wrestling promo, the voice actor delivering the battle chatter, and kicking arse along side your second-fave, with the personalities just bouncing off each-other. It is, simply, amazing. 

 

While a Super Robot Wars games may not offer any great innovations in the realm of Strategic JRPGs, this is only because it has been around for a very long time, and set a few conventions. These games can be very refined, with examples from decades ago having the kind of quality of life features that honestly surprised me. Even the attack animations that so characterise the franchise, can be turned off for the sake of time. There are however two broad problems. The first is the barrier to entry, because, as mentioned, these have remained Japanese-only titles almost exclusively. The only real exception are the  two Super Robot Taisen games, aka Japanese for wars,  two obscure western releases on the Game Boy Advance featuring original, rather than licensed, characters. This leaves an interested player with the choice between fan translations, or tracking down the Asian Switch release of Super Robot Wars T, which has English text, but no Western release. I've used pictures here from the SRW GC game, via fan translated emulation, which is an older example, but fairly representative of things. The other broad problem is that any SRW game takes a bloody long time to play, which ain't great if its featuring a series you don't like. You get lots of content, but a lot of text too, and they usually don't offer much outside of combat. Although the sense of humour really is something else...

 

 

 

Then something happened that caused me to rewrite the ending of this article, and bring it forward. Super Robot Wars 30 is due this year, and will be on Steam. Against all odds! Woo!

 

Gunpla: The MS-09R Rick Dom (HGUC)

I can get a bit "armchair general" about Zeons assorted Mobile Suit programs, which was a messy contest between multiple factions and reality. Part of it was obviously the need for merch and concerns about viewing figures, but imagine the following. You've invaded Earth, but found your super weapon, the Zaku II series, isn't working as well there. As WMDs are now off the table, you need to make a better version for land combat. At the back of your mind, two things are troubling you. The first is that you are in a stalemate with a power that has 30 times your industrial capability, while the second is that the Federation must be working on their own version of the Zaku. The latter fear is soon proved fully justified by the first episode of the Gundam anime. So what do you do? The answer was deploy the Dom series, a popular design that probably came too late. 

 

 

Now, if we're just talking raw numbers, the Dom was a dramatic improvement over the Zaku series. Its was tougher, better armed, and faster due to its hovercraft system. However, there were issues. Physical armour was about to be devalued by beam weaponry, and the war was about to be move back into space, prompting the Rick Dom variant as a stop-gap. Also, as a result of a certain video game, I've never been keen on the Dom's bazooka as a general purpose weapon, if only for ergonomic and rate of fire reasons. You don't need that to destroy a GM or your average Feddie tank, so it prompts questions as to what Zeon thought they were facing. Well, presumably the ol' RX-78-2, but bazookas aren't ideal for agile targets. The Dom also features some "transitional" attempts at beam weaponry, with what amounts to a nipple-mounted flashbang grenade, and the Rick Dom's externally powered beam bazooka, which incidentally is an "expanded universe " addition.

So, that's 300ish words on the lore, how is it as a model? Well, it's a prestige kit from 2006, so they put a lot of effort in, but you can tell its an older product. Colour accuracy is high, featuring transparent parts, a moving monoeye, but the scattering beam gun requires a sticker. There's multiple hands, of a 3 part style, but they don't look great due to gaps and seams. You have the option to build a vanilla or Rick styled Dom, but it's not something convenient to switch after assembly. Posability is about what you'd expect of something whose feet are as big as its torso, possibly better than it looks, but nowt earth-shattering. Following a lens mishap, I opted for the beam bazooka, which I will admit is a touch daft and a little heavy for the arm joints. I then did a bit of light panel-lining.

Overall, this kit feels just a little outdated. There's definitely nice touches like the shoulder armour, and the overall effect is great, but the weaknesses are definitely things that are in the nuisance category. There are probably nicer Doms, but that's not its fault, to be fair.

The Mecha Hack: 4 Ideas for Realer Real Robots

So, here's the thing, say you want "realism" in your Mecha Hack. That's realism as a design motif, not an actual function of the rules mechanics. It's a simple game, and giant robots are not realistic in any serious sense. But you mean realistic as in "not a Super Robot, a Real Robot". The next question is how realistic? Oh you mean militaristic? Gotcha. Well, the first thing you do is look at the Gundam franchise and throw most of it out. While the original series was a trope maker, one thing it did not do was apply the idea of a “squadron” well. In a real world military, vehicles of different types are not deployed together as a unit. Its a matter of logistics and practicality, the vehicles have to be able to keep pace with each-other, do the same tactical role, and as simple as possible to supply. You can see hints of this with antagonists, but the famous White Base has a mixed unit of a melee specialist with a bazooka, mid-range artillery, long-range artillery, and whatever you count the core block vehicles as. To be fair to Amuro & company, they were just refugees playing the hand they were dealt, and we're dealing with matters of drama, but this arrangement was fairly influential. This sort of thing however isn't Gundam's invention or fault. We are talking some seriously foundational storytelling dynamics. Think Journey to the West. Think Fellowship of the Ring. Think Five-Man Band. As a result, most mecha animes are often only Mildly Military in tone and execution, I.E. something outside the usual framework and without the attitude of a professional soldier, and obviously merchandise driven, like most anime is. If you want something that at least looks broadly sensible you have to go a bit more obscure, like Votoms, Gasaraki, Front Mission, and the outlier that is is Gundam: The 08th MS Team. This article presents some ideas on how to do that in The Mecha Hack, presented in a clickbait format.

 

Idea 1: Use Maps and the Optional Rules

While not specific to the Real Robot genre, there is a serious-mindedness that is common amongst its proponents. Just using a map will add a more considered and and technical feel, but would require more preparation from you as GM. The Mission Manual meanwhile presents a megaton of optional rules which could be layered onto a campaign, specifically Environment Templates and Hard Mode. Ammunition is an obvious one, as are Fire Team tests. On-foot skills may also be a good fit for smaller scale mecha settings. Try to aim for thematic, rather than tiresome, however.

Idea 2: Modifying Chassis

A basic tenant of the Real Robot style is for everything to be a mass produced item, often with a comparatively small number of main designs. The quickest way to introduce that feeling of uniformity is to simply have one chassis, letting pilot types and modules do the heavy lifting. You just need to ensure your chosen chassis does not present an obvious balance issue in bulk. Having a squad of strikers for example would hamstring the reactor mechanic without a modification. So, that's what I did for a game, I took that ability out and replaced it with stuff from other classes. modules and weapon qualities to create the feel of unified team, but each having a speciality.

Idea 3: Modify Level-ups

Following on from the above, you could change how a mecha levels up. It's far from unheard of for a generalist mecha to be customised for a specific person, so even if the basics are common, people can specialise in more subtle ways than new Chassis Abilities. There's a whole trope about it, the Ace Custom. So, while things like Hit Die could remain fixed, the other stats may level up differently. So, you might use the brawler as a base, but allow players to be "Scout Specialists" and level like a scout.

Idea 4: Command and Supply Vehicles

A concept that pops up occasionally is the idea of a non-humanoid support vehicle. Say a truck loaded with sensors to guide the Mecha, or supplies to assist. This might be an NPC, but then again you do get people whom enjoy playing support/healer/Auxillary, so here's some rules for that. This inspiration here is mainly the example in 08TH MS Team, although the modules lean on Front Mission.

 

Support Truck Chassis

Hit Die D6 Damage Die D4 Reactor Die D6

Levelling

Roll your hit die to gain new hit points. Roll to see if attributes increase, rolling twice for System and Presence. At levels 3, 6, & 9, gain a new module.

Starting HP

1d6 + 3

Proficiencies

Light Ranged Weapons, Light Amour.

Starting Equipment

Comlink, Defensive Turret (Light Ranged Weapon), Light Armour.

Sensor Boom

You gain Advantage on System tests to detect Distant and beyond-distant foes. You also gain Advantage on Initiative tests, provided at no foes are Close or Near.

Target Designator

See the Auxillary's Reinforce ability.

Support Truck Modules

Weapon Rack: You have stowage for weapons and shields, equivalent to 6 hands. You or a friendly Close Mecha may retrieve and henceforth operate a single piece of equipment with a Use action.

Emergency Repair Beam: As a Use action, immediately repair 1HP to all Close friendly mecha. Mecha with no AP remaining also gain a 1AP as well. Roll your reactor die.

If you do end up using these rules, please let me know how it turns out.