Transformers: Legacy Bulkhead is Something That Exists

 

 

The toy in question

 

So, this is a sequel of sorts to a previous article, where I tangented briefly about why the "Prime Universe" toys looked like they did. That is, in a toy line where things were suffering for their fidelity to old cartoons, Bulkhead & co. were reinventions, and this made little sense. We currently don't have a complete answer to this, so I expect this post to age poorly, but we have enough to put together a plausible theory. Either Hasbro has gotten so G1 fixated that all toys need to match that style, something all too easy to believe, and/or these are moulds intended to pull double duty, and pushing for the Prime style would undermine that. Knockout is a retool of Studio Series Jazz, Prime Arcee is suspected to be a pretool of an obscure G2 dude called Road Rocket, but the jury is still out on Bulkhead, today's subject matter. There's a minor detail that hints at something, but I'll come back to that later. For now lets talk about the big lug. Oh, and this is going to be slightly more of a review than usual, due to the subject being so new.

The original 2008 vintage Animated Bulkhead toy.

Bulkhead is one of those rare characters that isn't a G1 original, and still made a big mark on the franchise. Created for Transformers Animated, Bulkhead was typical of the high quality characterisation and voice acting of the show. Big, clumsy, good-natured, naive, but smarter than he looked, Bulkhead was dwarfed only by the size of his heart. People loved him, and he looked like an excellent hugger. When Transformers: Prime rolled around, the writers ended up recreating the same archetype, and thus Bulkhead came back. Here he was more of a professional soldier, rather than a civilian in over his head, but the lovable oaf dynamic remained. There were of course, many toys of each, and then nothing. Kinda. Something rather curious happened with the live action films. They looked to be doing the same again, creating a big fat green transformer for Age Of Extinction, a soft reboot for the bayverse. But that ended being named Hound, after a similarly green, non-threatening Autobot with a jeep altmode whom was the original "big brother" character in Transformers. As it stands, Bulkhead probably dodged a bullet, as AOE Hound was a hateful murderbot like many of the bayformers, and people would not have been accepting of that. Maybe somebody vetoed the idea in time? Or maybe they just wanted to secure the trademark, who can tell.  One thread running through all three characters is to be a big green voyager-sized toy favouring fun, and I'll even give AOE Hound credit for his excessive level of dakka.

 

The 2011, "First Edition" Prime Bulkhead toy

The 2014 Generations Age of Extinction Hound toy

Regardless, if we look at Legacy Bulkhead's vehicle mode, we are reminded of that Hound, not Prime Universe Bulkhead, or indeed the original Bulkie. Even the the removable tarp/shield section that will dominate so much in this article seems to have been drawn from the “Movie The Best” version of that Hound. It probably should have been some-kind of heavy duty off-roader, rather than a military truck. This sets the tone for the entire toy TBH, making things angular and blocky where they should be friend-shaped. Of course, I should mention that a military motif is not totally out of character for Animated Bulkhead, he turned into a wheeled APC that was sherman green, but, and it feels somehow hypocritical to make this comment, but that's not the name on the box is it?  Further confusing matters is the thing which actually drew me to the toy: mini-con functionality. This made everyone go "hang on, are we getting some actual goddamn Unicorn Trilogy in Generations?“, which turned out to be true in a big way with the titan class Cybertron Metroplex. Whom, most unexpectedly, doesn’t have mini-con functionality due to it being cut on cost grounds. So, what’s going off? I would like to present a theory. Japan did something quite unusual back in day, when they did Prime. They changed the play patterns, introducing a model kit like feel, with little partner robots that you built. These were called Mini-c..... No, Arms Microns. Micron is the Japanese term for mini-con, and Arms Microns are a very similar but mechanically different thing. Is that why those posts are there? Someone confused terms? Another thing all too easy to believe. I would really like to know, what, if anything, this toy shares parts with. That tarp section and exposed feet make me wonder.

 

 

 Idle speculation aside, its a perfectly serviceable truck form, if one that doesn't roll that well due to the wheels using mushroom pegs. Ground clearance isn't great either, but its not unattractive by any stretch. Its also noteworthy for having full weapon storage, where things integrate but are not mandatory. This is unlike a lot of recent toys, where accessories either don’t store, or are vital to the altmode. You can completely conceal the weapons in the back end, where they act as another securing tab, or just leave them off, and enjoy the flatbed. The transformation is however where start questioning things again. Said tarp does not need to be removed, but it can be, and it obscures the whole leg assembly that honestly feels a bit of a throwback. Its not bad, its actually more involved than it looks, just weirdly basic after several years of growing complexity. Also, lots of translucent plastic.

The resulting robot prompts a similar feeling. A sense that it is an actual toy, not a simpified masterpiece-alike. Something from the before times, like maybe when Generations when it was happy to mix things up in the name of fun. That said, its fundamentally a good and attractive robot mode. Bulkhead inherits the welcome innovations of the past few years, without falling into dumbass self-sabotage in the name of show accuracy. It is perhaps not the Bulkhead, but is a valid Bulkhead. He's got ankle tilts, and all the articulation you'd want in an absolute unit like this. His wrecking ball is as beautiful as a blunt instrument can be. The chaingun and tarp/shield are welcome additions, which have a modular weapon thing going on along with the ball. Depending how you count, there's a substantial 16 ports in play, including strange places like the wheels. There's a lot of functionality here. This toy wants you to play with it.

My point? Only that Legacy Bulkhead is something that exists. And he's not bad, just a toy of a kind we haven't had in a while.

Plamo: The Griffin GRF-1S (BattleTech, Catalyst Game Labs)

My days of painting BattleTech models seem to be coming to a middle. At the time of writing, I've done up 17, not counting test models. Today's subject is however one we've seen before, the Griffin. As you may recall, this was a model I was unhappy with at the time. As I have since moved onto full collecting, I decided to give it another go, as the first of a new lance I've pieced together from eBay and such. Expect to see its squad-mates in the coming weeks...

 

Obviously, I've talked a bit about this one previously, but before I start nattering about shades of green, I suppose further context won't hurt the word count. The Griffin, as part of the whole Unseen business, was based on the Soltic H8 Roundfacer from Fang of the Sun Dougram. This explains the glass canopy and broadly human shape when compared to later, home-grown designs. The canopy look is not something I'm a huge fan of, BTW. Yes, this is a valid stylistic choice, especially with non-humanoid designs, and you can claim magic space glass, but it looks fragile to me. This origin also explains a weapon fit I'd call unbalanced. Categorised as a sniper, the Griffin carries a Phased Plasma Gun (PCC), which as weapons go is a fairly intimidating one. The thing is, its a single shot doohickey with a lot of waste heat, and a minium range. Its secondary weapon is a long range missile rack (LRM), which compliments the PCC, but also doubles-down on its weakness. You don't really have a close range option, nor an option for volley fire. Unless, you happen to be using the optional quirk rules, where upon it can ditch the PCC and punch like Mohammed Ali. I see myself using this in concert with mechs of comparable reach and/or slightly more varied gun selection.

This model was stripped via the Dettol method, which revealed how stupidly thick the original canopy paint was. It also prompted a new base, as the original wasn't looking that great. Things came out much better this time, although there's something about the head area which I just don't get on with, the curved surfaces I think. I also mixed up the paint scheme as I went, using the AK Lime Green in two different ways as the plastic fought back. It just came out dirtier than I would have liked, and the glass still isn’t perfect, but its still a clear improvement over my first try.  Which even accounting for my bad camera skills...

 

 

Transformers & The Argument Against Generation 1 Character Models

So, this post mainly exists to express a thought that's been rattling around in my head for a while now. This thought is that Hasbro has got itself tied up in a knot about "cartoon accuracy", and this is actually becoming a negative for the toys in question. This is most evident in the Masterpiece line, and the modern Generations that ape it. I will now spend some time talking about how we got here, before going onto why its bad. Not bad in an “actual problem” sense, but more of a “something which I love is digging itself into a hole” sense. I just have things I’d like to say. 

<deep breath>

If we go back to the start, that is 1984 with the Sunbow/Marvel cartoon, we will note that the characters on screen don't necessarily line up with the toys they are supposed to be. Most character models, that is to say the basic blueprint and guide animators would use to draw the characters, were drastically simplified versus their toys. This isn't like how it is with GI Joe, or He-man or similar, where you're taking a human being in odd clothes, and presenting them in different mediums and its not a direct translation. No, Transformers tended to have radically different robot modes from their toys, a big thing as it was the robot mode that defined the character. And character was important, as Transformers was/is a multimedia effort in the vein of Star Wars, and this was a world children were meant to invest in. Why the deviation then? Well, any number of reasons, such as the complicated origin of these toys, but the realities of low budget animation were probably a big one. There is a certain degree of complexity where it becomes unworkable to animate something, and with dozens of toys with wildly different proportions to each-other, Transformers hit that barrier immediately, so everything needed to be simplified. Other media, notably package art, did not necessarily follow this style, although things got consolidated as time went on. For an example of this, I'm not going to go for the obvious low hanging fruit, like Ironhide, or the outliers that were actually pretty good, like Shockwave, or the broader brand unity that Transformers grew into. You can go to the wiki for such things. I will however present the well-known series mascot Bumblebee in toy and cartoon form.

Yes, there was a red Bumblebee toy. Just ignore it, we've got a lot to cover today.

However, this did not continue as time passed. Technology improves, priorities change, oil prices rise. Its an ebb and flow thing, but stuff like the above are now the exception, not the norm. Of course, unavoidably, people will ask why we can't have a toy that looks the 80's cartoon but actually transforms? A "cartoon accurate" one, as it were? Because its often wildy impractical or stupidly expensive to try. The hard truth is that the character models from that time where not designed as 3D objects that changed with internal logic and attempts at technical realism. They were designed to be drawn by an over-worked and under-paid animator in under 10 minutes. This does not however stop the toy designers from trying, god bless ‘em and sometimes it works really well. Some characters do OK, solutions have been found, but some others seem to be trapped as disappointments because somebody keeps favouring their overtly flawed G1 character models. Thus we get toys that either have massive kibble issues or flat-out cheat, which have become more common since the War for Cybertron trilogy started in 2019. Since then, there was a definite move towards mini-masterpieces that favour the Sunbow animation style, especially around the point of Earthrise and the 1986 film getting into Studio Series. For the most part, these were well-received, Hasbro’s efforts paying off off with some legitimate classics like Earthrise Optimus Prime & Cliffjumper, but also notable instances of partsforming, and faux kibble. If you are unfamiliar with these terms, partsforming is where a Transformer comes to pieces to transform, and faux kibble is when a robot mode has decorative vehicle bits that aren’t formed from their vehicle mode. While not inherently bad, these are often viewed as a negative or cheating by people whom like to transform their toys, like myself. Then we had the proverbial canary in the coal-mine with Earthrise Arcee. Now, Arcee invites a prolonged tangent about sexism, but for now let us concern ourself with the fact she didn’t have an 80’s toy, and attempts to replicate her animation appearance in plastic form tend to be mixed successes at best. This however was a new low.

 

Before I go further, I want to stress something: you don’t need my approval to enjoy what you enjoy. It would be normal to purchase the above toy, and appreciate it as it is. I’m not here to bring you down. However, by the same token, it is not unreasonable for me to point out they’ve prioritised the animation look over the titular transformation aspect of the Transformers toy. I would have liked to enjoyed this toy too, but they sacrificed everything for the appearance of the robot mode. You may as well have had a non-transforming figure at this point, and that’s fine, they were called Action Masters, but I’m just going to gesture towards the brand name. This design philosophy is what Hasbro thinks we all want, where the extent to which something resembles an old cartoon is more important than how it plays and transforms. For a less extreme example, see also: Earthrise Ironhide.

Now, lets talk about the new Transformers: Legacy toyline. While thankfully moving out of the G1 bracket to play in other continuities, Legacy is very much continuing this trend. Blitzwing, a triplechanger,  a tranformer with two vehicle modes, was the toy that inspired this article. It is so committed to capturing the 80’s animation, it actually creates faux kibble, the aforementioned fake vehicle bits, to replicate mistakes. To quote the wiki:

• Like the majority of new season 2 characters, Blitzwing's character model was designed with only a front-facing image of his toy for reference, requiring the designers to invent a rear-view design from virtually whole cloth. Blitzwing's rear-view model misinterprets how many details visible from the front are supposed to work: instead of the tank turret that is supposed to rest on his back, he instead has a sort of "jetpack" which incorporates both his jet-mode engines (which are actually supposed to be his feet) and his wings (which are supposed to be part of his shoulders). His tank barrel does not even protrude from this backpack, but is instead shifted to emerge from the back of his head.

• Additionally, the character model for his tank mode was evidently based on a mis-transformed toy, as it orients the entire body of the tank backwards, with his jet cockpit being at the front, visible below the tank's barrel, instead of at the back.

OK, here's the Legacy robot mode.

 

And here’s that tank mode in Legacy.

 

So, the jet cockpit, if it has to be visible in tank form, not that it should, needs to be facing the back. That’s how the actual 1980’s toy worked. Instead the toy designers spent plastic replicating that nosecone upfront, with a faux kibble bit to complete the effect. They purposefuly made the tank less convincing, and thus a less good triplechanger, so they could be more cartoon accurate. Towards that goal, they also gave the robot mode its own decorative wing backpack, while the actual wings became the legs, as well as the numerous flaws that can arise from doing a triplechanger, which are notoriously troublesome projects. Please allow me to hammer this point home: for Legacy Blitzwing, the designers prioritised an old character model over other key aspects of the toy, said model being intended to sell a toy from the 80’s, and which was fundamentally wrong in the first place. And then they added some hulk-hands to justify the price point, which look fun, but don’t fit the 80's style they were aiming for. Does this not seem to be a daft way of doing things? Here's the jet mode, if you think I'm being hyperbolic.

However, Legacy’s worst offender is however possibly the biggest show-piece in the line: The Stunticons and their combined form, Menasor. While the individual members largely stayed on model back in the day, Menasor was a frequent victim of animation mistakes where the limbs were not formed from the individual robots, and looked more like the combiner was wearing them like some form of cosplay. Not the model was especially close in the first place, as the default resembles a more singular robot whose arms and calves are also cars, rather than five vehicles as one. Just for comparative purposes, take a look at Defensor, Devastator, etc, you’ll see what I mean. Muddying the waters further was the Stunticon leader, Motormaster, whose truck & trailer altmode presented a scale issue with rest of the team, and Optimus Prime whom presented an obvious rival. Thus, the Stunticons in general are a problem whose solution is one that cannot please everyone, because the cartoon model deviates so strongly from both the actual toy, and itself, depending on the studio. Combiner Wars took at swing of at this, and produced a middling result which suffered from engineering problems. A do-over was not unwelcome.

And then Legacy sought to copy the cartoon, including the mistakes.

<sigh>

So, these chaps don’t combine. Not properly. Its more like you dress a skeleton formed from the trailer, with each of the four limbbots being optional. Motormaster meanwhile transforms into the truck cab, and has faux kibble feet that look like a plush slipper version of that altmode. If another robot toyline had done this, we’d be calling it out as bad design. It defeats the object of a combiner team if four of the members technically don't need to be there. They looked at the cartoon, then they looked at the third party scene, and thought this was a good idea to go with. Why? Because nostalgia appeal was more important than making the toy actually transform and combine. Cartoon accuracy first, where said cartoon lacked consistency. I think that’s a bad call.

And, on the other end of the scale, if you’re gonna go this far for the Stunticons, why do the “Prime Universe” toys look like they do? I’m not complaining, but, why? Cost-cutting?

 

In Conclusion

Ultimately, none of the above matters. None of it. Its a toyline, if you like it, buy it, if you don’t, don’t buy it. I’m not a completionist, and I’d happy to see other people happy. But I’d like it more people realised how self-defeating this this design approach is. You say you want cartoon accuracy? OK, I get it, but there’s a cut-off point where it becomes a negative, and we’ve gone past that point. Ultimately what’s more important? A bad toy with a great likeness, or a great toy with a bad likeness? Personally, I want the great toy. 

 

(Images in this post are Hasbro stock photography and/or are sourced from tfwiki.)

Plamo: The ON1-K Orion (BattleTech, Catalyst Game Labs, “dubious”)

As you may have observed, its taken me some time to settle on a colour scheme. This is probably a matter of me making things difficult for myself, and possibly having the wrong mindset for it. My experience is mainly Orks, which is usually a matter of being numerous and/or rusty. I can take a bit more time with these. And also its time to mix it up a bit. Monotone looks a bit dull, even if I've got a theme. So, I took a step back, and decided to work on one by itself with a more involved paint scheme.

This model has its origins in an eBay listing of dubious provenance, and might charitably be called a factory second if we don't want to use the phrase "knock-off". I'd used it for colour testing previously, and nearly kept it with its last paint job, but I felt I could do better. Fictionally? The Orion is another centuries old legacy design of the heavy category. Its basically there to just dish it out and take it. Visually? Its got a lot of that asymmetric brutalism that you see in mecha from the "pre-clan" period. It's not a repurposed anime design, so its not especially humanoid and perhaps a bit janky, but it does definitely look like a bad day that's about to happen to someone. I like the ugly thing, although I have no idea what the deal is with the left arm.

I'd decided to go for a two tone green scheme this time, combining techniques used in my two previous projects. This evokes both the Zaku II and the Scopedog, though its fairly generic TBH. The Orion's odd design also means that I needed to get creative with it, while the AK Lime Green needed some toning down. It seems that paint works best as an accent or highlight when paired with another green. I also opted for grey feet this time, with the brown retained for detailing work. The base was also somewhat more involved, and an example of restrictions breeding creativity. This model lacked a base, so I ordered what proved to be one intended to be used with the older metal battletech models and thus was wrong. I used green stuff fill in the cavity, and decided, fuck it, to attempt a textured base. You can just about see it under the grass I over-applied. The missile rack also a minor area of issue, and I don’t think I can sort that out without stripping the paint again.

 

All in all, this came out pretty good, and the imperfections don’t really matter on a brute like this.

 

Plamo: The Inner Sphere Heavy Lance (BattleTech, Catalyst Game Labs)

Following on from the Striker Lance, and in the need of something to do while self-isolating, I decided to get myself some more battlemechs. While these were unfortunately delayed, I went for the opposite end of the scale this time, with the Heavy Lance. With such a name, I went in the expectation of some absolute chonkers, but its a slightly more nuanced situation. You can’t call anything here “light”, but we have a team of misfits with narrow roles in the broad theme of breaking face. A Task Force X, almost. I’m told, if we’re going by tonnage, this all averages out to a “Heavy Lance” though. Anyways, in terms of painting, this were achieved in broadly the same manner as the last lot, but with eye towards a darker green. As such, I used Vallejo 70.95 Military Green, 70.850 Medium Olive, and finally a touch of 70.833 Ger. Cam, Bright Green. I also tweaked the basing method a second application of Agrax Earthshade in places.

First up: the BNC-3S Banshee. It was probably the most time consuming of the set, as this model was quite large, featured a significant canopy area, and was in need of some clean-up prior to painting. As a weapon of war, its also something of a comeback kid. Its another ancient design which was considered under-gunned even in its day, which lead to an enduringly bad reputation. Eventually however, the Draconis Combine gave it a major refit as demonstrated here, and then it gave a good showing versus the Clan Invasion. This makes it akin to the Blackjack, although TBH the original Banshee loadout was a bit bum to even my inexperienced eyes, so its not quite the same situation. Having gone from a punchbot to having loads of guns, this Banshee is largely about being a bad day for the world at large. The main barrier to painting this was the large visor, and some slight mishaps at the inking stage, but I think it came out good. And like Master Chief.

 

Now, there's a tendency in BattleTech for small recon units to be named for insects, the most famous being the Locust. The GHR-5H Grasshopper however weighs 70 tons and seems to ascribe to the ironic school of naming. In truth, most of that weight is jumpjets and heatsinks, so it does hop a fair bit. Its got a decent selection of weapons too, and exists mainly to stomp flat any scout mechs that may appear. Generally a good model to paint, too. Its gangly appearance lending itself well to my revised dry-brushing scheme.

 

If the Grasshopper was a misnomer, the HCT-3F Hatchetman has an almost deadpan name. Its got a big hatchet, which it aims to insert, violently, into the nearest face. Its has other things too, so it can shoot stuff before the face chopping, but I feel that the face chopping is the important thing. Its inclusion here
is as a bodyguard, I think. This was a slightly more awkward model to paint, the hatchet and head being tiresome to work around. I will admit that that I kinda forgot about the AC10 area, but otherwise it came out fine. It was a good opportunity to play with metal effects on the blade.

 

Speaking of bodyguards, this seems to be the CN9-A Centurion's entire deal. Specifically designed to escort missile-boats like the Trebuchet, its got a nice spread of weapons, and can shoot at things approaching from behind. Its probably the closest to a generalist here, although in terms of painting, the only thing of note was the visor.

I think I’m getting the hang of this now...