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.
