Transformers: Titans Return Triggerhappy & Blowpipe are Something That Exists

The 1987 Transformers Triggerhappy toy

Back when I did that write-up for Scourge, one of the toys I held up as a positive example was Triggerhappy. Two thoughts soon followed. 1) why don't I dig him out?  And2) Is he actually as good as I remember? And so here we are, for a jaunt down memory lane. A wee bit of context first though. While I don't have many especially strong connections to G1 toys, Triggerhappy is a rare exception. He's one of those latter G1 guys that didn't get a huge amount of attention except as part of his subgroup. He mainly served as one of Skorponok's targetmasters, part of a team of thuggish jetformers with guns that turned into little dudes. Like his teammates, Triggerhappy had a sci-fi altmode, but his starfighter form was built around quad cannons, which you could mistransform for use in robot mode. This kinda made his little buddy Blowpipe a bit redundant, it's true. I had this toy and I remember enjoying it at the time. He was one of my guys. The version created for Titans Return recasts Blowpipe as Triggerhappy's head, and we'll come back to that momentarily, but thus far, this is the only revamp the pair ever got. Let's see if it holds up.

 

I realise that while I've done numerous Titans Return based articles over the years, it's probably pertinent to restate the basics after I glossed over it last time. A Titanmaster is a rebranded and modernised take on the old Headmaster concept, where a small robot becomes the head of a bigger robot, while also serving as a pilot or driver for their vehicle form. The fictional implications of this need not detain us at this juncture, it would take a while, but Titanmasters differ from Headmasters in a few ways. They are typically smaller, better articulated, while having peghole and tab connections in the legs for more interactivity. There's also attempts to improve the appearance and proportions of the resulting noggin, like with helmets and such in bigger toys, but it's face isn't concealed or anything while the Titanmaster is off enjoying their independence. Solo Titanmasters can be quite amazing, although the ones paired with larger toys got routine after a while, and Blowpipe is no different. He's not redundant anymore, but not like he got a particularly interesting sculpt nor any paint apps at all, all that saved for Triggerhappy. He does pilot Triggerhappy's altmode quite well, and the two handheld guns can peg together for him to sit on, maybe for use as a gun turret and such.  It's not hugely good, whatever that is, and it’s too bulky for use in Triggerhappy's jet mode. None of this is a negative in the context of the toy, but I should mention the TakaraTomy version, which presents Blowpipe in targetmaster form as well, at the cost of the regular gun accessories. As confusing as that may be, that's probably an objective improvement, but good luck finding that one for a sane price. Siege also did a version of Blowpipe a few years later, and that's probably easier to get a hold of. So Blowpipe is mainly just there, but unless you're a Geewunner or a perfectionist, he's doing the set no harm.

Now then, the Cybertronic spacefighter mode. I wonder if I'm either stating the obvious or presuming your tastes, dear reader, but this is sheer charisma isn't it? The sort of thing that ends up on propaganda posters on a aircraft nerd's wall. Or possibly a Toaplan verticle shooter. Let us acknowledge that it probably isn't aerodynamic, there's unwelcome hollow areas, and there's the old undercarriage junk problem common to jetformers, with his thighs on display. And I do acknowledge that nostalgia is a factor for me here, and I probably imprinted on this like duckling. But this is great, yes. It looks like something made of speed and gun. And here's the thing, it has a port for a figure stand. Lots of Transformers have these, but I usually forget that these exist as I don't have the desired type of stand. Then I remembered that the Action Base I use for Gunpla can work, and tried that, and wow. There's also an assortment of 5mm ports, flip out landing gear, and two pegs on the back end so Titanmasters can stand there. Because of, uh, reasons? Factor in effective use of plastic colours and a variety of paint apps, and you've got a 9/10 altmode.

 

Transformation is another highlight. I don't often talk much about transformation as it often becomes a dry blow-by-blow of the process, but Triggerhappy does do a few novel things. While gun housings and engines do become the arms like on the original toy, the cockpit block spins around to create the torso, with the nosecone ending up on the back. That's pretty clever, and benefits the robot mode in several ways. This style of conversion turned up a lot in Titans Return, not least because Triggerhappy's parts were reused for his teammates, but I don't recall this being done much recently. Maybe they do it somewhere where I'm not paying attention, like Studio Series...

So then, the robot mode. Perhaps not as appealing as the altmode, but ticking all the right boxes. Visually, it's favouring the comic and animation designs over the toy, although not as slavishly as say a post-Siege toy might.  As such, the head uses paint to achieve a red faceplate and yellow eyes look, which reminds me more than a little of Deadpool, although I suppose he and Triggerhappy would get on well. Otherwise he's mostly blue and grey plastic with a top heavy build, but there's like five different accent colours on the go here. I don't know how you would make this look better without a fundamental redesign or hitting diminishing returns. The weaknesses come however from articulation design, and a slight case of Reality Ensues. Due to the transformation, Triggerhappy has what I'm gonna call "Inverted Universal Shoulders". A lot of transformers, when not using ball joints, connect the arm to the body with a rotation joint, where it moves forwards and back. Triggerhappy’s arms however attach at a tilt joint where the arm moves up and outwards for a T pose. See also: Tarn. It's not bad, but it feels the wrong way around. And then you hit the problems that occur from attaching gun barrels backwards to his shirt cuffs and wings to his shoulders. It's definitely something you need to work around, but the obvious solution is to just give him gunhands and then refusing to look back.…

I had a bit of journey rediscovering this one. A lot of Triggerhappy's strengths and weaknesses are shockingly close to modern toys, but maybe he's not quite as good as I remember him being. Hollowness and the arm joints aren't great, but these are still issues that more recent releases can have, and aren't inexcusable. Paint applications and visual design are also on point, and while Blowpipe could have used a bit of colour, today's toys skip details too, and frankly they haven't done Targetmasters better of late, have they? Triggerhappy doesn't have ankle tilts, but he does have angled feet, the option for gun hands, and nails the altmode. The worst thing you can say is that it's maybe too faithful to its source in places, but I'll take interesting weaknesses over mediocrity most days.

Transformers: Titans Return Scourge & Fracas are Something That Exists

 

Let's do something a bit different today, and talk about obsolescence. Some toys just get made redundant by later releases. Sometimes you just need a do-over, and if a character has been off the shelves of five years, they're probably fair game. The problems occur when Hasbro chases the stupidest of stupid design goals, and cycles too quickly. Case in point, we probably didn't need another set of seekers this soon. Today's subject matter is one such obsolete toy, Scourge, from the highly-regarded Titans Return line.

 

Appearing in the 1986 movie, Scourge was a bearded and seemingly self-replicating villain, its complicated and I can’t be arsed to discuss that now, with a something of a vampire vibe. As such, he's had numerous toys, although it wouldn't be until 2020's Studio Series release that we got a version considered to be definitive by most. I've not got that one, but I've got no reason to think they did a bad job with it. It's probably the best the character will ever get at mass retail unless Hasbro wants to go extra hard for an anniversary or something. This Titans Return version was an earlier attempt, coming after a largely superior TF2010 release, although that one wasn't trying for cartoon accuracy. TR Scourge was, for many people, the first serious attempt at doing a G1 version, because nobody likes to count the Titanium version. However, baked in at conception, was a conflict. In Titans Return, almost everyone had the same my-head-is-also-a-little-guy-that-drives-my-alt-mode play pattern. And Scourge never was a Headmaster, but he was sometimes a Targetmaster though, with his little gunbuddy Fracas now forming his head. So geewunners were a bit split on that and similar choices. The toys from Titans Return that have aged best either didn't have that concern, or were generally so well made it just didn't matter. Scourge unfortunately isn't in either category.

 

This toy is actually a useful case study for the weaknesses and teething troubles of Titans Return wave 1, not for it being terrible so much as embodying those problems all in one place. The key gimmick suffers from two angles, a flawed neck clip and an oddly proportioned faceplate that seeks to retain that characteristic headpiece/gun. As result, he looks weird, like he's either wearing techno earmuffs or his face doesn't fit his skull, and nothing is especially secure so he rattles like a bobblehead. He also has that early TR tendency towards obnoxious block colours, manifesting here in a very blue robot mode with equally blue weapons. Aggressively blue, almost, but at least they painted the face on Fracas. You might be asking if TakaraTomy fixed any of this, they as often went out of their way back then to make these toys as G1 anime as possible? Doing retools, adding targetmasters, and reshuffling accessories and such? Well, they fixed the colour issue, but not the design issues. It's also worth mentioning that, even with those cosmetic improvements, Scourge doesn't rate as that good a deluxe by the standards of both Titans Return or modern Generations. This guy predates things like ankle tilts as standard, omits a waist joint due to the transformation, and he certainly isn't a Triggerhappy or a Topspin.

So, this lad kinda sucks. Yes, the altmode seems OK, but that's only because you can't see the underside. Or the backend. Its largely a matter of laying his beheaded body flat, and wrapping it with his cape. He was carried by G1 nostalgia and that stopped with the Studio Series version. It just doesn't seem to have been a huge priority for the design team, and given the extent to which his engineering was reused were in later releases, the lasting contribution of this toy was as spare parts. By all accounts, it shelfwarmed to buggery. And still does, if my Toy-Fu experiences are anything to go by. But is it totally without merit? No. You've got two guns, these combine if that's your thing, two usable modes, and the wonderful Titans Return play pattern. The shoulders are pretty good, if you want faint praise to damn it with. So, it's mainly just something that exists, but at least its consistent in it's mediocrity.

Transformers: Titans Return Shuffler is Something that Exists

 

 The 1987 Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers Shuffler toy

 

One thing I enjoyed immensely, but has basically vanished from modern Transformers, is the idea of a pocket money toy. Maybe its inflation, maybe its the focus on collectors, maybe its Hasbro treating everything outside of Generations to be shovelware, maybe it's all three. But we don't really get fun for a fiver any more, the closest thing lately being those targetmasters Rise of the Beasts had. The best example of the concept was, perhaps paradoxically, in Generations, as part of of Titans Return, with what are known as the "solo Titanmasters". These started out life as a concession to reality. Titans Return was a modernised spin on the Headmaster concept, where little dudes became the heads of bigger dudes and drove their altmodes. This tends to offer much play value, but you have problems if you loose the head, hence the solo releases. Spare heads on a blister card, basically. The designers however things pushed further by adding an accessory vehicle in the pack, allowing the little guy to be more than just a head, and providing another weapon for larger figures. This was, almost without exception, a joy. Its also the main difference between Hasbro and TakaraTomy on the toyline. TT just didn't sell Titanmasters by themselves, instead splitting up those components for use in other price points. They were trying make the toys better fit their market and their version of Headmasters fiction. Umm, OK, sure, if that's what you have to do. But you did the solo release thing in the 80’s, so why not? The TT versions are undeniably nice. But it gets weird when Hasbro does a Japanese tribute toy and TT doesn't release it. Shuffler is one such example, and honestly the lack of a Japanese release for him seems contrarian. Guys seriously, all you had to change was nuffin.

So who, or possibly whom, is Shuffler anyway? Its not an unreasonable question to ask, and answering it helps with the word count with respects to a rather simple toy.  He has almost no fictional presence, but he and his kin are noted for being the black-market-human-organs sort of expensive to obtain, as a Japanese G1 exclusive. Part of the Autobot Master Warriors, Shuffler is the elephant one, and presumably his titanmaster power is that he never forgets. As a titanmaster, Shuffler now operates a touch differently from the original toy, with the elephantine bits refocused onto the accessory vehicle. 

The actual robot/head bit is typical of its kind. Shuffler’s robot mode features a balljointed neck that becomes the neck joint of his head mode, balljointed shoulders, and conjoined legs that move at the hip and knee. This is upgraded articulation versus the original headmasters, and in a smaller size. Its not spectacular posability, but it is pragmatic possibility; Shuffler is at that sorta size where designers have to think seriously about choking hazards and breakages. Shuffler features two pegholes on the underside of his feet, plus an angled tab/heel-spur, allowing for a rock solid connection onto other toys, so he's disinclined fall off base modes and such. The robot mode has a unique headsculpt, not a given with these, but it and the robot mode in general lacks paint. This is an area where TakaraTomy consistently is better than Hasbro, and the most obvious sign that this is a budget release. Granted, the head is a point of friction, so you don’t want that much paint on it, but something for the eyes or chest would have been nice. 

The head mode is, once again, typical of the Titanmaster. You ball up the robot mode and the head holds together via friction. This scheme is common to all titanmasters, the main variation being the faceplate that personifies the head, which can have a rather different design aesthetic from the rest of the sculpt. As these plates were only screwed in, there was/is a cottage industry in 3rd party faces, which is outside of my remit today, but I just wanted to mention it. Shuffler's head form is proportioned to fit deluxe bodies, and features three different colours of paint app. Its a good noggin.

 

If we bring the accessory vehicle into things we get three more modes, although in two of them Shuffler is an optional extra as he just stows unobtrusively in head mode rather than doing anything structural. The elephant mode, aka the main event, is a simple affair with little useful articulation, but has a neck and trunk joint thanks to the transformation. Its simply but nicely presented too, with paint around the shoulders and painted eyes. Shuffler just kinda goes in the belly, and remains there for the weapon mode. While not so much an elephant gun as a handheld missile pod, its quite convincing and top three for the price point. I just which there was paint picking out those missiles. The tank mode meanwhile ends up with a rotating turret, with Shuffler plugging into the back tracks, so he's slightly more involved there, if still somewhat optional. You have to grade for the price, but there's no bad mode here.

 

Shuffler is both an excellent case study of the solo titanmaster play pattern, and a great toy on his own terms. However, as a late wave release he's hard to obtain, and TakaraTomy just had to be weird about it. All they had to release it as is, maybe with a few more paint apps, and they would have had a winner. But no, they had to break the whole play pattern, an unforced error. Shuffler is not just something that exists, he's a rare, and totally unambiguous, example of Hasbro beating TakaraTomy at their own game.

And Alchemist Prime isn't bad either.

Transformers: Titans Return Seaspray is Something That Exists

Its a given that in an ensemble action/toy franchise, one big enough to have it's cast in the dozens, they will be a dude whose job it is to have the seaborne adventures. It makes sense, there's entire genres of fiction exploring such things. The thing is that this often a gimmick, and an isolating one. If you have a dude whose whole thing is that he's tishman or summat, logically he's not gonna be great on land, and if people join him in the sea, you run the risk making somebody else look naff. TV Tropes calls this phenomenon "This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman", and it's Seaspray's fate. Appearing in season 2 of the Sunbow show, Seaspray was one of the "suddenly there" characters, one with a distinctive manner of speech, and a couple of highlight episodes, but not much else. But I had that toy as a kid, and do so today actually, so here we are. I do occasionally have my irrational favourites.

This isn't the first time I've written about Seaspray, actually. I did so a worryingly long time ago as part of my "Radical Regenerations" format. That toy was made during a period when Hasbro was much more willing to totally rework a character, something much less common these days, barring the recent Wheeljack hoo-hah. That toy made Seaspray a much bigger chap, not unreasonably as hovercraft are actually pretty massive, but still kept his fundamental dorkiness by giving him flippers & scuba gear. Today's subject is somewhat closer to the source material, but isn't anywhere near as slavish as the modern crop of deluxe minibots, which Seaspray will no doubt join eventually. Titans Return brought plenty of G1 characters back, but modernised, remixed, and made to fit the line-wide gimmicks. This Seaspray is therefore a logical progression, drawing from both animation and toy sources, while doing stuff he explicitly didn’t do before in the name of play value. 

 

This is most evident in his vehicle mode, which is obviously more detailed than the original toy, but also more angular. Even allowing for the rarity of hovercraft, it's obvious who it is, but they've added a touch of white up front, and tampographs like the old toy stickers. The use of yellow meanwhile is slightly more prominent, with black merely being paint, rather than a shadowy hollow. What seems to have been a passenger area on the original has been reimagined as a missile launcher, and is is the first of several removable oddities. The launcher is secured by three small tabs and like TR Brawn, the larger one, needs to be removed for transformation but also has detail underneath so it's no biggy if it goes missing. The blue propellers and rear underside are also removable for no obvious reason. While the above are basically harmless curiosities, what is less forgivable is the exposed head. While I suppose you could argue that this is a nod to the original toy, the actual reason is that is Seaspray dedicates a lot of internal space to a Titan master compartment, and I am 1000% sure that they could have had the head fold away without that. The hands are also hanging out in the back there, and there's no castor wheels, which are downers but not actually deal breakers by the standards of the time. Overall its quite a charming little vehicle mode, especially if you pair him with a solo titanmaster. This is an area where the TakaraTomy version possibly has the edge, as ole TT didn't do solo Titanmasters, and remixed their parts into other releases. Thus the Japan release of Seaspray comes with some deco differences and a little headmaster-type dude called Lione, whom invites a lengthy tangent I've cut from this article.(Short version: TakaraTomy got weird and broke the play pattern, thus undermining a love letter to their past work.) If you can get that version, it's probably quite nice, but it's not the clear winner that some Japanese versions are.

In robot mode, positive trends continue, although relatively few new visual elements are revealed. The main difference is the reveal of his yellow legs, as the transformation has similar-if-remixed beats to the original toy. Overall appearance and proportions suggest a dorky awkwardness, with each foot almost being as big as his torso, which, TBH, was the brief. The missile rack gives you some options here, leave it on for Sunbow chubbiness, or take it off the for 80's toy look. This leads us to, in possibly the least likely sentence I will ever write, Sea Spray's interesting forearms. The missile rack doesn't use a 5mm peg, instead it uses one of the tabs to connect near the elbow. 5mm fist-holes remain for compatibility, but it's an honestly clever idea. Both forearms also feature a coded reference to Alana, his one time love interest. It seems he got her name tattooed on him, as befits a sailor, although spelt wrong. Possibly he was drunk, again befitting a Sailor, and many tattoos start that way. So, it's a toy with character, then, where's the downside? Well, articulation is adequate rather than great. Those feet don't really have much in the ankle. 

 

 

My point? Only that Titans Return Seaspray is something that exists. He's probably not the best in his line, but is he fun. 

 

Transformers: Titans Return Brawn Is Something That Exists

So today, we're looking at yet another Titans Return toy, one made fascinating by its mere existence. Sorry, Titans Return just generates a lot of material like that.

So, with the 1984 Transformers cast, you'll often find they fit one of two categories. Category 1 is a character so fundamental to the franchise its difficult to imagine thier absence, often because the character is so memorable or just lends itself well to different interpretations. These are the characters that drive stories and universial nostalgia. Category 2 are the supporting cast, the dudes which are merely there, the ones that despite 40 odd years and multiple toys, never seem to leave an impact. The one sentance biographies, if you will. These characters are easy to spot, thier wiki pages usually take form of "x was there when" repeated over several pragraphs and continuities. Both categories get seemingly endless new iterations though, which is a little tiresome after a while, especially if its a blank slate like Windbreaker, Sideswipe, or Boba Fett. A good example of Category 1 is Soundwave, he always makes his presence felt. His minions? Category 2, although Ravage does better if he's verbal that day. Today's subject, Brawn is definitely a Category 2. His gimmick is that he's tiny but strong, but he's almost linterchangeable with any number of autobot cars. Possibly his only claim to fame is as Megaton's first onscreen kill in the 1986 movie. Closely followed by that one comic where he went insane, so maybe he does better than some?

The 1984 Brawn toy

Anyway, advance to 2016, and it's Titans Return, and in a prolonged homage to the Headmasters line, everyone is some form of Titanmaster, or a titanmaster-adjacent toy. This was great as a play feature, as it made every toy its own playset, more or less. The heads of larger toys detached to form thier own robot, which could then drive the vehicle modes, crew weapons, or populate base modes. You could even get spare heads, via the solo Titanmaster price bracket, if you lost one. These featured small accessories for the tiny Titanmasters to interact with, and we're both quite cheap and extremely cheerful. With the exception of Nightbeat, I won't hesitate to say that they were all great. Spare tiny head dude, vehicle for it to ride, or combine with, and it's also a gun. Win. Brawn came into the line here at wave 2, and us another charming toy, with a slight side order of "pardon?".

Wiki image here used as the toy is titchy and hard to photograph

Titans Return featured many Headmaster characters, but from the outset it was very clear that just about anyone could be Titanmaster, regardless of previous toy status, hence Brawn. I did attend a convention panel which touched on this, it seems the original idea was for the solo Titansmasters to be new characters, only for somebody to want brand recognition instead, which is immediately obvious if you look at the wave 1 moulds.  Its a shame that we didn't get any new blood, but with Brawn it's a little harder to say. He's got a 4x4ish tracked-jeep altmode, the colours work, and his individual robot mode does resemble his G1 toy a bit. On the other hand, Brawn was never associated with tracked jeeps that become hover bikes that also become big guns. He did more punching, while being a landrover. As a pocket money toy Brawn is however quite nice. All the modes work, and a fairly big deal in context, and the face is spot-on. These guys often had a weak mode somewhere, they had 5, something had to give, but Brawn does not. At worst, the head is one of those where the faceplate doesn't quite conceal the robot bits. Is he as good as Shuffler? No, but he's top 5 Titanmaster material, easily. However, as is typical of Western releases, there's not a huge amount of paint other than on the head, so the entire set looks plain. If you want more paint, you could go to Takaratomy, but, the daft beggars broke the play pattern so they could pander to the G1 Animation crowd. They didn't release solo Titanmasters, and instead reshuffled them as accessories for other toys. Thus the tracked jeep ended up being repainted blue for Brainstorm, and the little guy ended up an exclusive. Sorry, I'm not seeing that as worth the trouble.

The other Titans Return Brawn

So, assuming you could find them at retail prices, solo Titansmasters like Brawn were a great time. Titans Return generally was. However if the solo Titansmasters were usually great, the Legends, the next size up, were often uneven by comparison. Half were attempts to create ye olde cassette gimmick, presenting some unconvincing and blocky triplechangers. The other half had to carry Titanmasters in some way, often resulting in design compromises. These toys weren't big enough to do the head swap thing by themselves, so thier attempts to fit the play pattern felt a touch vestigial. Brawn materialised in the last wave of this price point, and true to form is a category 2. He's not bad by any means, but surely the design team can do carformers in thier sleep, and this one cuts some corners. Pre-empting Earthrise Cliffjumper by 4 years, the legs rely on a removable "shield" piece to complete the vehicle mode. Fortunately, some redundant sculpting means that it's not the end of the world if you loose it. The Visible Head Syndrome? Less tolerable. The robot mode is more of a success, capturing the stocky look the Cartoon model had while modernising. It benefits from extra joints in the hips and shoulders, which compensates for the fixed waist, so the guy moves well for someone apparently made of boxes. It's another good mould, possibly not the best in his pricepoint, but I can see him shortlisted with Gnaw and Rewind.The japanese version of course has nicer paintwork. But enough fluff, you know where this is going...

To answer the obvious question, Brawn can indeed interact with Brawn, and things get memetic and suggestive very quickly. Brawn can ride in Brawn's jeep mode, and need not be removed for transformation. Brawn can therefore always be inside Brawn like something horribly symbolic. Brawn can also weild Brawn's gun mode, and while Brawn is a hair too big, Brawn can just about handle it. That's what she said. You can also mount Brawn's Jeep mode on top of Brawn's Jeep mode, for Brawn on Brawn action. 

 

 

Sorry.

My point? Well, Titans Return Brawn is something that exists. Twice. I'd make the case that we may not needed one, let one two, but each was a success in thier classes. I actually grew to like both more as I wrote this, which is odd as I only started this for the joke potential. 

 

 

Transformers: Titans Return Alpha Trion Is Something That Exists

What I find inspires me to write these blog articles is the trivia and history of a toy. I don't mean the lore, although I can certainly talk about that. No, more of its oral history and context. How I remember it, what it's like when I take it off the shelf, and what a wiki dives reveals. I then write several at once, and ask twitter to decide for me which of the several I should post. They chose this one.

 

Alpha Trion's wiki picture

So, context. Alpha Trion is by far the most famous character/toy I've done a deep dive on, but originally he had no toy at all. He was a supporting character in the Sunbow Generation 1 cartoon circa 1985, left on Cybertron with some resistance fighters, acting as an aged mentor to Optimus Prime when the narrative called for it, and his death proved no barrier to this. One assumes that somebody thought having an actual toy fulfill this position would harm sales, so Alpha Trion was created from whole cloth. A similar character exists within the contemporary Marvel comics, Emirate Xarron, and you still occasionally get versus arguments. For my money, Xarron was handled better. Both also lacked an actual altmode because of reasons, which has obviously been a barrier to toy versions, although Alpha Trion has done better here as he was on TV. Following a failed attempt by convention licensee 3H, Fun Publications succeed with their version in 2007. Here Vector Prime, another famously old dude, was retooled into Alpha Trion, which becomes important shortly. Circa 2010, Hasbro was laying down rules for important chunks of Transformers lore, something that would see fruit in the "Aligned" continuity and Power of the Primes. The specifics of these need not detain us, its a long story, but one effect was to elevate Alpha Trion from "very old dude and mentor" to "mythologically old dude and multiversial singularity".  This didn't really stick, and shortly after it stopped sticking, we got some actual mass market Alpha Trion toys, following a near miss in 2014, when he lost out in Japanese fan poll to choose a mail-away release. The first was a repaint of Minimus Ambus because Takaratomy had to be bloody weird about things, and the next was a completely new mould in 2016. It looked like this. 

 

 

 Seriously.

 

 

Suffice to say, people weren't expecting that. Alpha Trion was many things, including a fighter in his younger days, but a buff barbarian was not one of them. The dude was relatively skinny once you accounted for the cape. Its like someone did a version of Cohen the Barbarian, minus 50 years. Or Ragnar Blackbane in purple. Nor was he a lion or a flying aircraft carrier spaceship with a lion motif. Not that he was anything before. You can deduce the thought process behind this. They wanted to pay tribute to the convention toys, and they took design cues from the Aligned version for the robot mode. Then somebody wanted all voyager class toys to be triplechangers, and for every mould had to be somehow retoolable. This is how we ended up with this inexplicably hench geriatric, he's a pretool of the rather big triplechanger Broadside, this also influencing one of his altmodes. That said, the Funpub convention toy is another clear inspiration, given that it also was a powerfully-built swordsman, and the Titanmaster Sovereign is clearly Beta Maxx from the same convention set, and thus the Mini-Con Safeguard. That toy also gave Alpha Trion a flying altmode, while the lion seemingly comes from the cancelled 3H version. So, I can see what they were aiming for. That's a lot of deep cuts, mixed with pragmatism. Its just, one wonders, if a retool of, say, deluxe class Scourge would have been better received. Something more like the proposed 2014 mail-away version. I mean, that would possibly would have looked too bulky for Alpha Trion, but it's less of reach than the beef mountain here.

So what's he like as a toy? Let's start the obvious, this dude has a presence. The robot mode is a real eye-catcher, the dude just looks huge in a high fantasy kind of way. There is a simply excessive amount of paint. It's not even immediately obvious how he transforms, especially as the lion bits look like a pelt of a slain animal. It is my whimsy to imagine that if this chap has a holomatter avatar, it is Brian Blessed. The sword is similarly impressive, and I get the feeling that Alpha Trion is no samurai or jedi. No, this chap is more like a Dark Souls boss, with simple, telegraphed attacks, but Primus help you if he connects. Mind you, part of that is the functional but not especially great articulation, he's got a lot of joints but a few omissions due to triplechanging. He also does have a 3-barrel blaster, which the Titanmaster can sit in, if that's a plus. The other two modes perhaps aren't as successful, but they generally come across as distinct from each-other as the focal point changes. The lion mode draws your eyes with that big silver mane and front claws, while the spaceship thing goes blocky and foreshadows Broadside. It's not a perfect effect, but enough moves so you avoid obvious flaws like, say, a train with wings, or Octone's jet mode. Where it falters however is with is with the arm/shoulder area. The lion ends up with limited motion in the front legs, nothing in the neck, and paws that like to detach, while the ship needed something to suggest engines. Both modes do have play value, and are pretty striking to look at, with Sovereign's cockpit area being a highlight. Word to the wise, there are two tiny tabs where you can mount the gun on top.

When you get down to it, the voyager price point in Titans Return wasn't that good. The design team just wasn't ready for triplechanging headmasters that had to pull double duty, and while these weren't necessarily terrible, they weren't Thrilling Thirty Springer. Most were made obsolete by later releases too. However, the odd thing is that Alpha Trion has aged far better than the rest of his kin, simply because it went in a new direction. It is ultimately a toy of earnest ambition, whose only actual sin is over-ambition. You look at that robot tell me it isn't awesome. Tell me why a lion-spaceship-barbarian isn't up your street. Of course, this got serious push back from Sunbow purists, and I can see the argument. No, this isn't the Alpha Trion we know, and for his first western toy, they should have been more conventional. Given how Titans Return in general played out, I'd make the case that they weren't actually trying to be faithful to 80's era animation though, which is not a flaw. Just a different set of priorities. They tried to make the old guy exciting, and we got a good toy out of it. That said, Takaratomy seemingly agreed with the purists, and skipped him, instead opting to retool the toy into Leo Prime. TT had gone full G1 animation for their releases, so this wasn't a surprise, but I'll admit that Leo Prime does look pretty cool. There was also an Alpha Trion in Power of the Primes, but you'll forgive me if I don't take that one seriously, and one toy in Cyberverse. He looks a little familiar...

Cyberverse's 2019 Alpha Trion Toy

My point? Well, just that Titans Return Alpha Trion is a toy that exists. And, sometimes, going in a fresh direction is exactly what we need.

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.

 

 

Peak G1: What next after Titans Return?

Before I begin, let me state this upfront: I SELL TOYS. Toy seller. Capitalist scumbag. OK? That's my bias, please keep it in mind.

I have a concern. Its been bugging me for a while. Not a problem, but a potential one......

Its probably a self-evident truth that we are in something of a golden age for Transformers collectors, or to be more precise, Generation 1 kids. The people from the 80's. Yes, fans argue about paint applications, parts count, or IDW's latest crossover, but we've been in a privileged place since about 2013. While collectors lines have historically been infrequent filler or fragmented, sandwiched between movies and cartoons, we've had a largely uninterrupted run since the Thrilling Thirty line. Combiner Wars was, all things considered, a complete success, and Titans Return looks to be matching it for the most part. We've had characters and concepts return we never thought we'd see again, to the point where the Third Party option has almost become obsolete. Combiners work so well they probably can't be bettered at retail with Titanmasters, nee Headmasters, much the same. And its all so G1 its almost unbelievable. I mean, Japanese exclusive character Black Shadow is on his second Hasbro toy now. Sextuple-changer toy Six Shot is basically the G1 toy with articulation. And because Hasbro has been keen to use every big name lately, its easier to list a character whose head isn't a little dude that one that isn't. Or similarly wasn't part of some bigger dude last year. At this point however, we must now face an unfortunate fact. We are now scraping the bottom of the barrel.

We have hit peak G1.

Peak as in scalp, perhaps.

Now, what do I mean by that? And what is G1, if you are unfamiliar with the term? Well, "Generation 1" is the fan term used to refer to the original Transformers toys circa 1984 until the sequel Generation 2 in 1993. Like most fan concepts, there's some debate as to precise definition, but a lot of people default to the most recognisable media, the 1980's cartoon, especially the bits before the movie. You know, the Ark, the 80's lots of cars, jets, oil, and then suddenly Dinobots and Combiners, and so on. How correct this is depends a lot on where you stand and what you encountered first, but suffice to say, there's a lot more to the brand than two series of cartoons. The fundamental difference between Hasbro and TakaraTomy, the two companies which partner on Transformers, also involves this term. Hasbro takes a relaxed attitude to continuity, is quite happy to switch between toys, cartoons, comics or just make stuff up, but they do tend towards the cheapest option. Takara meanwhile will do absolutely all it can to make something match the 1980's cartoon, which has earned them some serious brownie points lately, if not without the periodic oddity. Takara usually defaults to a direct sequel to those cartoons, and the high-end Masterpiece line is their baby. By comparison, Hasbro has been far more eager to embrace new media, as evidenced by the numbers of IDW inspired toys that now exist. Hasbro is about toys on shelves, not necessarily collectors, but that aspect is there, while Takara is more the other way around. Yes, my point is still some distance away, but this is context we need to establish.

Right now, we have Titans Return out, which has endeared itself to more or less everybody, essentially being the headmaster concept modernised, with a better name. And how its been treated by each company reflects the above. Hasbro has taken a very relaxed approach, having both toy bios and somewhat truncated IDW comic event. TakaraTomy tied things back to the G1 cartoon, reshuffled the solo Titanmaster to other sets, thus being more G1 although more on that shortly. But regardless, there's a very strong 80's nostalgia thing going on. This is possibly the last big “Hey, I remember that in Woolworths” option they can take however. After the Headmasters, the cartoon ended, the toys went places a lot of fans want to dismiss, before the brand largely died. As far as mass market nostalgia goes, G1 might as well have ended circa 1987, only to resurface for Beast Wars in the 90's. And the next toy line, Prime Wars, is being teased. What's it gonna be about?

Pause for effect.


Now, of course G1 didn't end then, but there was a period there when the brand went from "pop culture staple" to "hey, they still make those?". And actually memorable or popular concepts from that period seem thin on the ground. After Headmasters comes Pretenders, whose play pattern was completely ignored until very recently. Here, some simplistic robots could be inserted into hollow figurines with typically 2 points of articulation. These could be very visually varied, and the shells could eventually transform too, but the concept was dropped, and has yet to be revisited by the brand proper. A third party company and Fun Publications have experimented with shells. Bludgeon is a legacy character too. But its nothing people have been clamouring for, and nor have gold rushing third parties been filling that gap like they did with combiners. And after the Pretenders, we just find variations on older themes, and stuff we definitely have modern versions of. Micromasters? Well, there's all kinds of legions, cyberverse and minicons. Obscure combiners? We've gorged ourselves sick on those. Actionmasters? Um, Mighty Mashers and those really expensive statues? Targetmasters?Well, Takara seems to want to revisit the concept with their releases of Hot Rod and Kup, but a vast majority of those characters are now Titanmasters. Plus, approximately all of the solo Titanmasters and a sizeable proportion of minicons do that gimmick already. Nostalgia gets another blow due to the fact that East and West also diverged sharply at this time. The Japanese cartoons continued on their own after 1987, and the fictional differences are immense. The Japanese versions of Titans Returns toys are not "G1 accurate", in the sense that they are closer to the cartoon you remember, although they are lovely. They are accurate to a Japanese anime you probably didn't know existed until you got the internet. Western collectors will of course enjoy these, but the general public? Less so. Why do you think the “Breast Force” got a limited edition Combiner Wars boxset rather than a full release?

Other than the name, of course.


Sorry, went on a bit of a tangent there. Anyway, with all that dismissed, only two nostalgia tugging options remain for the Prime Wars toyline to exploit. The first is to beastformers, like say the original Predacons, and ideally moving onto the Beast Wars continuity. There seems to be some hint of that with both Hasbro and Takara, with recent fan polls and Masterpiece releases, not to mention Third Parties. The trouble is, actual organic beast modes have not been a thing since about 2008, while mechanical beasts have been hovering around Prime and the bayverse for some time. It may be that the toy factories think this niche is being filled, or don't want to risk confusing John Q. Public, whom probably thinks all Transformers turn into machines. Which leads us to option 2, just keep on recycling G1 concepts forever.

Which, as you may have noticed, is already happening.

While the nostalgia driven, and popular, Combiner Wars gave us 5 classic teams, a big chunk of it was legacy characters remade into combiners despite there being perfectly good versions already. We had two waves of that, plus a general dusting. Titans Return has evidence of this right out of the gate too, with a lot of 1986 movie characters, tapeformers, triple changers and what not. Its also devoured most of the Target' and Powermaster characters, so depending on how you want to count, its hit 6 major gimmicks in one line. There are arguably no new characters either, the closest thing being Sentinel Prime, and some heads which now have an independent existence.

And don't forget, we've had neo-G1 in some way since since 2007ish. Maybe its time to homage something else.  Just rest it for a bit. Maybe more of this?

Oh, don't look at me like that. Just saying.

Images Copyright Hasbro etc.

Remembering Transformers: Armada

This article has its roots on twitter, mainly collecting articles by @inkybauds, but also thoughts that have been bubbling away in the back of my head. While I am old enough to have experienced Generation 1 first hand, the first Transformers toys and media, I'm not wedded to the concept as many fans, and TakaraTomy, seem to be. I'm more than happy to enjoy the new iterations of the brand, the new spin of things, without immediately comparing it to a toyline or cartoon only slightly younger than I am. This leads me to the seemingly very unpopular opinion I wish to discuss, I like Transformers Armada. I liked it at the time of release. I like it now. I like those Armada toys I still have better than the G1 toys I still have. While I am enjoying Titans Return, probably more than you are, I am more interested in those infrequent Armada homages and remakes, than revamping everybody from the 80's. The latest cartoon accurate Masterpiece release? Not my thing. Combiner Wars Armada Megatron? My thing. The only thing more my thing than that thing would be a continuation of Transformers: Animated. Today, I will ramble about why.

Context

Unpopular with fans at a time when Hasbro had money trouble, Beast Machines marked the end of the beast era proper. And, by extension, the original Transformers continuity. The planned sequel, Transtech, was dumped and while its replacement was worked on, a stop-gap measure was needed. This was quickly provided by Takara, whom had their own problems with the brand in the late 90's. For the new millennium, they produced “Car Robots”, a new continuity(1), featuring a mixture of new toys and toys previously unreleased in Japan. This did feature beast modes, but in a purely antagonistic manner, and the proportion of beastformers declined over time. Hasbro rebranded it as “Robots in Disguise”, and played up the references to the original continuity in the redubbed cartoon. It worked very well. Unfortunately, while Robots In Disguise proved to be a far greater success in the West than in Japan, one aspect that was less popular was complexity. Those few original designs featured where often shellformers of an infamous kind, or needlessly complex, and parents complained. It seems this filtered through to the design studios at some point, and ended up influencing what was being worked on. Like RID, the new series would be another new continuity, paying tribute to the Generation 1 concepts and reusing names, but was doing its own thing. It would also have a Japanese cartoon that would be redubbed. But more importantly, it would favour simple, colourful and blocky designs for kids to enjoy. Intricate transformations and balljoints basically disappeared, replaced by unique play features, again, for kids. This would be activated by tiny transformers called Mini-Cons, paired with each full size toy, or sold in teams like the old Micromasters. This is what was called Transformers: Armada.

It didn't go down well with people, but it also so sold so well they couldn't make toys fast enough.

 Demolishor & Blackout, a typical 1st wave Armada set. Not pictured: everything they do.

This design approach was of course the complete antithesis of what much of the older fandom wanted, and in those early days of the internet, boy did we hear about it. Beast Wars kids, having been raised on complexity and balljoints, were less than impressed with the simplifications being made, and the absence of beast modes. G1 purists, initially cocky that vehicles were back in fashion, were less than impressed at another new continuity that reused names but was otherwise indifferent to 80's homages. Later releases would help placate both groups, but a series that favoured new kids over old collectors? This always gonna annoy people, and actual children LOVED it. All the while this was going on, the internet was slowly breaking down barriers between east and west, while anime was the new hotness, so another aspect of the fandom was acting up. Not only was there derogatory comparisons to Pokemon, there would prove to recognisable differences in both toys and the cartoon, nothing significant, but enough for people to feel superior about imports and fansubs. Some of my first experiences of the fandom as an alleged adult was viewing endless moaning about bricks, bad dubbing and missing paint apps. I didn't necessarily agree with the tone of these discussions.

 A comic from 2005, its audience older collectors, published by Fun Publications.

Having missed the beast saga entirely, this aggro passed over my head. Those Armada toys I did get seemed light years ahead of the G1 toys I had in the attic, and while that's probably a sampling error, let's think about why that was. Your average 80's Transformer could only move its arms up and down; in Armada that was the entry level for Mini-Cons. G1 toys, especially the early ones, had lots of easily lost bits that were vital to the experience; in Armada that was limited to missiles and guns. G1 toys were sometimes held up to be more realistic and less kiddy; I was around for the Micromasters and Pretenders. Armada toys were regarded as “Play Skool”, I was amazed they sculpted detail now, rather than using stickers. It would be Transformers Animated before I truly started collecting again, six years later, but it was Armada that got me buying the occasional toy and paying attention to the fanbase. If I'm thankful for the series for anything, its that. 

 The Space Mini-Con Team, a notable set of Mini-Cons. Not pictured: their combined gun mode.

Being Fair

There were of course good reasons to dislike Armada though, and it would be intellectually dishonest of me to pretend otherwise. The supporting cartoon was pretty poor, and the western version only made it worse. Animation mistakes and “gotta catch em all” plot lines abound, although its generally accepted things picked up in later arcs(2). The comic fared better, and featured some G1 pandering, but it was a Dreamwave production, so your mileage may vary. As for the bits that matter, the actual toys, some were not well-received at the time or aged well. This was reinforced by Armada being in the habit of releasing recolours with a frequency not previously seen, and as the same character, rather than a seeker style new personality. And, even accounting for the marmite factor, its hard to disagree with much of the criticism for the toys. For an example, I refer you to noted youtubist TJOmega and his Plastic Addict series, where Armada toys did tend to turn up. Here's his harsh-but-fair analysis of the infamous Side Swipe toy. This probably ruins my argument.

Yeah, he's less likely to do caustic/comedic reviews these days. Check out the Random Reviews.

Anyway, having some bad toys and weak media is not the same as having a bad line though. Other Transformer lines have done similar and worse. Armada's play pattern was a good one, and while not everything worked, the colour and variety made up for weaknesses. The undoubted reason for this was the tiny Mini-Cons themselves. Not only did they make great pocket money toys, they basically turned larger toys into playsets. You can see shades of this in the modern Titans Return line, where having a small partner robot has made the vehicle mode more fun. Mini-cons could and would trigger just about anything, in either mode, so there was always something to do. These tiny dudes were also very visually varied, not always being humanoid, and they've aged very gracefully too. Compared to modern toys of a similar size, they hold their own, these toys introducing level of complexity and articulation, yes, the same traits the larger toys lack, which has yet to be truly bettered. Some were also headmasters, some were targetmasters, some combined, some had gears, some had missiles, one was AN ACTUAL BICYCLE, the list goes on. Mini-Cons proved to be so good, the concept not only persisted in Armada's two sequels, but in completely new moulds for Classics, Universe, Power Core Combiners, the Japanese version of Prime, and the Thrilling 30 bit of Generations. Basically, Mini-Cons rock, and haven't stopped rocking since 2002.

Also, Armada has a notably good video game adaptation. I just wanted to work that in somewhere.

The Big Things

Are the larger toys as good? That's less clear cut. If you are on board with playing with your Transformers as opposed to merely posing them, there's plenty to recommend. Armada toys always do as much as they can, as uniquely as they can, and they pre-date modern cost cutting trends. There's no end of missiles, spring-loaded mechanisms, geared mechanisms and electronic gimmickry, if that's your sort of thing. Treadheads got Megatron and Demolishor. The seekers were back, with this iteration of Starscream having enduring popularity. Cool cars abounded. There was a faction switching toy that was also a double headmaster. Optimus Prime got two different power-up partners. Megatron even got one, the generally awesome Tidal Wave, a massive toy based around three different combining ships. Play value can easily match a tranformer from any other line. Articulation is not a strong point, but many toys feel only a joint away from being fine. That having been said, three toys do stand up above all others as examples as both of the Armada ethos and answering the articulation complaints. 

 Tidal Wave & Ramjet, an impressive toy from wave 4. Not pictured: everything they do.

The Beast Wars repaints! You know, the recoloured transmetal moulds they put out as they couldn't make actual Armada toys fast enough? Because they actually sold really well?

Ha ha, just kidding. Good toys are they, but that isn't why I'm here. Coming at number 3 is Hoist, an excavator whom was retooled into two different Beast Wars characters. Coming at number 2 was the Supercon release of Optimus Prime, known as “Bendy Prime”, whom will probably be on display until I die. And at number 1, there's Unicron.

Yes, Unicron. The star of the 1986 film. Rendered in plastic, as what must be the single greatest act of fan-pandering ever made in the brands history.

Yes, even more than the Masterpiece line.

 Unicron, A.K.A mecha-satan. Not pictured everything he does.

While, as mentioned, I don't venerate G1 as much as other people, there was a huge hit of nostalgia for me with this one. Unicron was explicitly tied to the film which I loved as a kid, and was a huge part of a comics too. And not to put too fine a point on it, Unicron was incredible. And he still is. Gigantic, but articulated down to the fingers. Endless sculpted detail. Many gimmicks. A missile launcher of such complexity and noise that it scared my Grandad's dog, and no, it wasn't aimed anywhere near her. Even the haters had something nice to say about Armada after that. And this toy has been released four times, later versions replacing the head with something more G1, with a platinum edition on the way.

Conclusion

Armada doesn't get enough respect. Its never quite overcome the bad impression that the cartoon made, and fans always react badly to a Transformers series doing something different. The fact is though, the brand would be in a very different state without Armada selling so well. We'd probably find ourselves like He-Man or MASK or whatever, known, but no-longer relevant. Sometimes a hard reset is needed to keep things fresh. Armada got two direct sequels, and that success eventually allowed for the Classics line of 2006 and the modern films. And more importantly than that, the toys aren't as bad as some claim, its just they are designed differently.

If you are tired of G1 remakes, and want a change of pace, Armada is the toyline you should look at.

Foot notes

1. Uhhh, its complicated, just go with it for now 
2. A direct comparison to G1 cartoon is very tempting. Maybe another day.

Images not by me are copyright of Hasbro etc.