Transformers: Energon Tow-Line is Something That Exists

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

Transformers: Gobots are Something that Exists

Righty, lets try another doubleheader review. Featuring two repainted toys on a common theme. Well, two common themes. Let’s start with Crasher.

 

OK, let's pull on the obvious thread: Crasher is a Gobot. You may not have heard of the Gobots, but the short version is that they had a console war thing with Transformers back in the day, and lost. Think of them as the Digimon to Transformers’ Pokemon, if Digimon had died a few years into it. I'm long since past caring about that rivalry; I didn't see much of Gobots as a kid, some of the toys were nice, but people can be really effing weird about it. Good robots is good robots, you know? Hasbro, again, short version, it's messy, owns most of the Gobots I.P and thus Gobots turn up occasionally in Transformers media. Often these can be mean-spirited Hi-&-Die cameos, loving tributes, prolonged fanwank by FunPub, or whatever the hell Tom Scoli was trying to do. This has also meant a non-zero amount of toys, mostly in the realm of exclusives. These aren’t super common, the legal aspects and relative obscurity kept it that way, but they are definitely more common of late. Much like Diaclone and G2, Gobots has become another vector for repaints of G1-inspired moulds. This is how Crasher comes to us today, as a former exclusive repackaged for Age of the Primes.

The other thread is that, and I realise certain people may have a reaction to me even raising this matter, is that Crasher is a girl. Yes, a female coded character. Not in the awkward Smurfette sense, but more in the "this character is a girl, so are several others, why are you asking?"  sort of way. This is something that Gobots just did much, much, MUCH better than Transformers. It wasn't until Beast Wars that we got female character toys in Transformers, and truthfully a mere handful since. Gobots did that from day one. Crasher is probably the best known girl, having a highly placed antagonist role like Evil Lynn or the Baroness. As her name implies though, she's a bit more brutish than those examples. This toy is based off the Kingdom Mirage mould, itself a retool of the Siege version I've talked about previously. As such, the figure is basically competent, but not spectacular, robot with a F1 Racer mode and a lot of faux kibble bits. It's a mould that seeks to ape the cartoon model, but does not transform like it. All the modern conveniences are are there, with a more refined altmode than the Siege toy, but loosing the shoulder mounts in the process. The toy uses the Diaclone style head and a buttload of paint to create something that looks great in both modes, approximating the best known Crasher toy as best it can. With three accessory weapons, too. It is not admittedly the best possible Crasher. That would have a new head, a fairly obscure car mode, and possibly require a court ruling. But it is definitely on the realms of good enough, and I'm struggling to think of a modern deluxe that would fit Crasher more, and there is precedent here. The entire reason Hasbro is using a Mirage here is because it worked so well before, way-back in 2008. I just wish mine clipped together better in altmode. I don’t like that longitudinal seam on it, and I found this toy tricky to photograph. Its the white and glossy black.

Pathfinder meanwhile is what prompted me to finish this article as a double feature, as another female Gobot executed as a repaint. This was an impulse purchase at TFN, this being an orphaned member of a multipack, as I hadn't played with this mould before. As I’ve already mentioned femme coding and legal matters, I'm gonna talk more about the toys here, because frankly I have far less knowledge of the character. And, I didn't actually know this going in, it's not actually a good representation of Pathfinder. A friend of mine pointed out, and I made a point of checking, that these blue & yellow colours are derived from a Cosmos prototype, whereas Pathfinder is more grey & black. This originates from a trendsetting eHobby set, which did a lot of stuff like that, skirting around potential legal issues, not using names on the box, but the basic logic here is Pathfinder = UFO. See also: Scrounge. But, we're arguably starting from a worse position than Crasher above.  In 2004, Gobot fans were so desperate for anything that a Japanese-exclusive based off G1 prototypes, with a hint of being Tonka, was the best thing ever. You would not believe how far Fun Publications ran with this idea. But maybe it wasn’t the best thing ever. Because, and this is perhaps a subtle distinction, while Crasher had compromises, it was an earnest attempt. This feels more like Player 2 Colours Cosmos. A new head would have made all the difference. Pathfinder instead makes do with the Guardian logo on a flag/gun.

That said, a new head may not have been practical. This mould is noted on the wiki for it's usually low number of parts and sprues. Originally the Speedia 500 Cosmos was intended to be a Bumblebee retool, but clever design allowed for a completely new toy with the same budget. Reuse possibilities may have been cut out. The base toy is therefore something of a minor marvel, a triumph of necessity driving invention. In so far as basic functions and appearance goes it's got a lot going for it. But it's not without compromises, the hollow forearms being the most obvious. There's also  elements of faux kibble in both modes, the joint and 3mm port count is a touch low and the UFO mode needed some wee castors. You might also find the proportions to be a bit of a marmite; it's very round in robot mode, and feels somehow exaggerated in UFO mode, like a pug. The yellow paint doesn't look brilliant on the blue plastic, but it rarely does, does it? She's pretty good, but one suspects exclusivity may be giving the mould undue hype. Also: a tricky toy for me to photograph. That yellow just eats the sculpted detail.

So which is better, Crasher or Pathfinder? The answer is nuanced. Both are exclusive repaints of exclusive toys, and are subject to a degree of hype or confirmation bias. Crasher is definitely the most thorough and earnest of the pair. The base toy however isn't my favourite, and there's signs of mould degradation. Pathfinder is much, much, much lazier as a repaint, but the Cosmos mould is far less common and more interesting as a concept. Both suffer with faux kibble issues, but Crasher has arguably better fundamentals and more accessories. Both are nice, but not the Ironfist & Carnivac nice. I would probably give it to Crasher, but it's a close run thing. Crasher is kinda mid deluxe with a spectacular paint job, whereas Pathfinder is a good/interesting deluxe with a mid paintjob. In any case, Crasher and Pathfinder are something that exists.

Transformers: Legacy United Star Raider Cannonball is Something That Exists

Eh. Explaining this one is gonna be like finding the end of a roll of sticky tape.

The 2006 Transformers: Cybertron Cannonball toy

 

 
OK, Cannonball is a pirate, part of the Star Raider group. He works under Thundertron. The origins of the group are fairly obscure, with thier best known iterations being a line of Botcon exclusive toys, and I recommend Chris McFeely's video on the topic. (It taught me things I didn't know.) This group has been chosen as another repaint/retool centric sub-line to Legacy United, of which Cannonball is one of the first I saw in person. Cannonball is basically a "Dread Pirate Roberts", and this new toy is a goddamn Gordian Knot of retooling, pretooling, and self-referencing. OK, the first Cannonball toy was a repaint of the 2005 vintage Red Alert toy, a deluxe hailing from the last act of the Unicron Trilogy. This chap had first appeared in Armada, had skipped Energon, but had come back for Cybertron, thus having gone from one design extreme to another. Red Alert started out as a big gimmick toy, and ended up as a small toy with an unusual transformation. Which was then a pirate. He wasn't really a direct update of the G1 character, so much as the team medic archetype that inexplicably looked a bit like Robocop. So, even before Cannonball existed, the toy he was repainted from was a bit of an odd duck. The reason why that toy became a pirate was likely that it didn't have the usual number of hands, instead having a gunarm with tool accessories. Which makes him a bit Robocop 3, but he doesn’t fly. Advance to the modern day, we have this toy, using the Skids mould, and pre-empting the presumed/certain Red Alert version. Moreover, this isn't merely a headswap, its a second and substantial retooling, omitting translucent plastics, while largely replacing the vehicle mode and accessories in the process. Its not merely shared engineering, they've reshelled Skids for a second time. I mean, its not totally unprecedented, but its not normal to get a toy that's a double retool and pretool at once. That's definitely something that exists.

 

The vehicle mode is where the changes are strongest. Its wheelbase and overall proportions are of course the same, and it retains the doors from Crankcase, but virtually everything else is new. Its a generic van or minivan rather than a legally-distinct Dodge like the original, but clearly distinct from its mould mates. The emergency services bit is granted by the light bar, but given the Mardis Gras vibe, I find myself wondering what the emergency would be. I mean, with the day-glo skull on the side... Has a rave run out of glowsticks? Mobile DJ? Don't get me wrong, its a great look. Black (p)repaints with metallic details always look grand, and this one clearly does. Its a good time, with numerous 5mm ports and a decorative light-bar and cyberkey bit with a faux kibble scalp on it. Yes, this is one if those Transformers with faux parts to suggest the transformation of an older toy. I can take it or leave it, and it is removable so that’s easy, but I don’t think I would have minded if they used that budget elsewhere. As a van it rolls well-enough, and there’s certainly enough 5mm ports, if having some panel issues on my example. One door doesn’t fit well, but your mileage may vary. Otherwise, its same van you've seen before.

Robot mode is of course achieved in the same manner as the other Skids-reuses. This reveals many familiar robot bits, if nicely presented ones. New elements include the head, the gunarm which I will return to presently, and faux kibble doors on the shoulders. Unlike the light-bar this doesn't add to the effect so much as look odd. I mean, replacing the clip-on wheels with something better looking probably wasn't an option, but maybe taking a lead from some other version of Red Alert might have been a better call. Unlike a lot of retools though, we have a substantial change in play pattern, while retaining the character appropriate shoulder guns from Crankcase. The left hand is replaced with a Diaclone style gun barrel onto which you can mount a hammer or a claw. These even store in the legs, although I find tricky to remove afterwards. This is obviously quite fun, massively characterful, especially on conjunction with the head. Its got a visor, and thus no distinct eyes, but he has what can only be described as a half mask, or maybe the implication of an eyepatch, painted on. So, while the robot mode is definitely familiar, the best is being made of it, and it wasn't bad in the first place. Its got Legacy standard articulation, and all that, with no glaring flaws.

 

I’ve focused a lot on the differences here, as I have brought this toy twice before, but Cannonball is very much more of the same. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the base mould was sound, if not exceptional, and effort clearly has been made to differentiate this version. If you have to re-release a Transformer, modifying it as thoroughly as this one goes a long way to justify it. On the other? Well, I getting the vibe of a later Combiner Wars boxset or Power of the Primes release here. Just the slight feeling that an otherwise fine toy is being overused or remixed beyond a sensible point. He’s fun, but I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn't have preferred a new mould. Skids probably should not become another Sideswipe. Thus, should the appeal of being being a Mardi Grass Pirate Van isn't enough, or you have several of these already, you can probably skip Cannonball. If you do pick him up though, I think you'll have a good time.

Transformers: Generations Selects DK-3 Breaker is Something That Exists

You know what? Another Thursday Transformers bonus article! 

  The 1982 Diaclone "No. 5 4WD Hilux" Toy, blue and yellow variants.

 

So, last year, I was at the Brum Toy Fair, enjoying the company of the people I was with, and spending money. I spotted today's subject on discount, and felt tempted. This was a mould I'd completely missed out on during the chaos of Earthrise. I did some more browsing, and made a shocking discovery, loose examples of Hoist and Trailbreaker, the mass market releases, were going for equal or greater money. At that point, the random Diaclone-inspired repaint from a premium imprint seemed like the obvious choice. I'd just pretend that it was "faded comic colours Trailbreaker", or maybe the Shattered Glass version, and I'm sure you'd come to the same conclusion in similar circumstances. Something making that easier is simply that Breaker isn’t a character with any real history, even by the standards of Diaclone tribute toys. This is the first Transformers toy with this name, and his only fictional appearance is to be named-checked as somebody whom died off-page in a comic. Possibly the only trivia of note is the "DK-3" prefix on his name, a reference to Diakron, which was Takara trying to release Diaclone stuff in Western markets mere months before Transformers got going. As such, I’m gonna be spending a lot of time referring to the other uses of the mould, and how they came to effect this one.

 

The robot form is undoubtedly good, if merely Trailbreaker in blue. This is because the original Diaclone toys in this case were simple, one colour, variants of each-other and Hasbro haven't done anything to mix up the formula here. As Trailbreaker is therefore so evident in the toy, this prompts a discussion of character models. So, what often happened with the original Transformers is that their appearance in animation and comics was often wildly different from the toys they were meant to be. When the 1985 toys came out though, something odd occurred. The new character models were often a fair bit closer to the toys, but also retools of the 1984 cast. So while the toys might be near identical, fictionally they definitely weren't. This was weird. Trailbreaker and Hoist were a good example of this, and reimaginings since have had to tread the needle between these conflicting depictions while still being able to release them as the same basic toy. What seems to have gone down with this Earthrise mould is that the designers favoured Hoist, and treated Trailbreaker as the secondary retool. This has the ever-so-slight downside of Trailbreaker having Hoist's "friend-shaped" proportions rather than a heroic build. And, let's be real here, Earthrise was going hard on the whole cartoon accuracy shtick, so this choice was a self-defeating one.

That doesn't really matter as far as Breaker is concerned, he's a blank slate, but I offer the above as context and explanation. Breaker is a big chap, being a head taller and visibly wider than a deluxe of similar vintage. He’s not quite voyager sized, but definitely is edging that way. His gut-to-biceps ratio makes him look more fat than muscular, and in all fairness this is a bit of welcome variation. Not every Transformer needs the mechanical equivalent of washboard abs The blue is very attractive, with vibrant silver and red in the mix. There is a certain degree of overt hollowness at play though, something not uncommon for his vintage, definitely on the notable side here. It's where the impression of size comes from while still being a deluxe. Functionally, he's got a lot of the good stuff, Legacy standard articulation and the 5mm ports are plentiful. Due to a transformation quirk he technically has two sets of knees, which is useful, although the shoulder gubbins do limit the neck. His gun completely covers his fist, giving a nice gunarm, and you can untab part of the backpack to use as a shield. Certainly not a bad robot mode, with both presence and play features.

 

Breaker's altmode is a made-up and blocky camper van, one not dissimilar to the Toyota 4WD High-Lux of the original toy. That backend area is the main area of functional difference between the Hoist and Trailbreaker iterations of this mould, with Breaker obviously using the latter. Like all good remoulds, this does change the character of the vehicle, although this does end up benefiting the robot mode more. Breaker does not feature compatibility with the short-lived airlock system, but he can instead have his gun on top like an actual turret. As opposed to just plonking what is obviously a rifle on the vehicle for storage, or otherwise stowing it. Earthrise toys dialled the 5mm port thing back a touch, so having the turret option is welcome. You can also fudge it between the front wheels, if that’s your thing. The overall appearance of the van tends towards realism, but not from all angles. The dark colour palette helps a lot with the serious vehicle bits, but there's a lot of robot on the underside in contrasting bright colours. The hands are very obvious and ground clearance is minimal at best. On the plus side, translucent windows and headlights. Well, I say its a plus, I have a doubt. There is substantial use of translucent plastic in the chest area, which becomes the front of the van mode. I assume this is where they made up the difference for the toy's larger footprint, as opposed being to more selective in the use of such plastic. Or just simply just casting the whole bit in matching blue and just painting the damn windows. It's a breakage concern as the wheels connect to directly to that famously brittle plastic, and these wheels attach via mushroom peg. Of course translucent plastic isn’t an inherent negative, and this toy certainly does not have colour matching issues, so your mileage may vary. It could be fine. Then again, if you're a toy designer, and you're gonna do the entire front end in the stuff, only the paint it? I'd say you were probably doing things the wrong way around, and I hope you've taken preventative measures.

While Breaker is clearly something that exists, I want to like it more than I do. As a repaint of a mould I missed out on, Breaker does have value. And he is a nice blue. The base toy meanwhile seems to suffer with some unforced errors. I wonder if Hoist was somebody's pet project, because the mould is too specific to him, and, sorry to bang on about it, the use of translucent plastic like this is something they know not to do. I certainly feel I got my money’s worth, don't get me wrong, but if you just want a boxy carformer, or merely a Diaclone tribute, there’s other options. I mean, there's another Selects version of this mould on the way now, and, as near as I can tell, they've removed translucent plastic completely for that.

Transformers: Buzzworthy Bumblebee Creatures Collide Set is Something that Exists

Hmm, I may have to keep on posting Transformers on a Thurday, got a bit of a backlog. Anyways, one of these days, I need to write about the "Buzzworthy Bumblebee" line. As the name implies, this is a line entirely about the very-very over-exposed Bumblebee character, although it's since become more of catch-all for various exclusives and reissues. As you might imagine, this has given me repetitive strain injury from rolling my eyes, but then something magical happened. I saw Iin a shop one of the Buzzworthy multipacks on discount. Deep discount. A pack of 4 deluxes originally 90 odd, sold at 45, and finally reduced to £12.98.

Obviously, I said yes to that. I was thinking it was daft not to, and if I didn't like any of it, gifts/donations were an option. Now, I could do an in-depth breakdown of each toy here, but I feel that would get boring pretty quickly. These are principally repaints of better known characters/toys, and the cadence of the discussion would be quite similar for each. So, I'm going to try to keep this to a paragraph for each before tying it all together in the conclusion. 

 

Not making the best first impression, Preadacon Skorponok is the weakest of the set. He's a 90's toy colours variant of the modern Kingdom toy, rather than a separate character, so not a huge amount of creativity going on, and the basic execution wasn't great in the first place. The robot mode is fine, a good approximation of the CG model with an optional head based off the old "mutant head" gimmick. He's not doing much of the 5mm port thing, but he is using in his claws for a set of decorative missiles and his Cyberbee. His beast mode legs are kinda just there, but the scorpion tail is articulated. The bad stuff starts with the transformation, which I found counter-intuitive, finicky, and ultimately doesn't do a great job of hiding the robot bits. One entire leg ends up stowing into the tail, not actually concealed, and it hampers the tail articulation. His head meanwhile sticks out on the underside. Also his joints are on the loose side, tolerances seem a bit off with this one, and a lot of him is translucent plastic. That said, the scorpion mode did grow on me, this being one of those toys that ends up appearing bigger in altmode, and there's some nice organic texturing on the bug bits. I don't think I can honestly say that this a great toy. I find myself comparing it to a RID 2015 warrior class toy which did the scorpion thing better, while the deco is outside of my nostalgia bubble and not especially interesting. Mind you, he's far from the worst in modern Generations, and I can see myself displaying him with the spare head.

Predacon Skywasp is obviously a Waspinator in new colours, although it's slightly more creative than the above. The colours are taken from a cancelled exclusive, by way of a Diaclone-inspired Botcon toy with a name too generic to trademark so they made him a beast wars tribute to Skywarp. Waspinator was possessed by Starscream that one time, and has had jet modes, so it's not really a stretch to have another seeker involved. As colours go, it's definitely striking with those blood red wings and eyes, but when it comes to wasp mode this doesn't do much for the organic realism. Wasps can be all kinds of colours, but not this specific scheme. I took a moment to check. Your mileage may vary on that point though, it certainly doesn't look bad in wasp mode, just toyetic, and that may be what you want. Otherwise, I'd say the basics are here, with little to apologise for. There's siege/Legacy standard articulation, a splattering of 5mm ports, more than most beasts in Kingdom, weapon storage, and an alternative humanoid head, as another nod to the mutant face thing. It's just with Waspinator, things got swapped around for the TV show, and the mutant face is considered his usual one. There's been a few Waspinator remakes over the years, and I don't quite know where this sits in the rankings, but this seems decent. I mean, I'm not a fan of the robot bits in wasp mode, but lots of beast formers have that problem. Less subjectively, one wing likes to pop off and there's a few cut marks that stick out. 

 

Ransack is the most modern of the toys here, the largest overall, and perhaps the one with a disproportionate amount of the paint budget, as there's an awful lot of translucent plastic painted over. Ransack is actually a G1 original, one of the larger "Deluxe" Insecticons, but you'd be forgiven for not knowing that. The toy wasn't a Takara original, and that seems to have meant no cartoon or comic appearances in the 80’s, or much after. Ransack here is a headswap pretool of the much better known Kickback, something which the Legacy release telegraphed with two otherwise inexplicable sword accessories. Ransack therefore looks an awful lot like Kickback in both modes, and only becomes more so if you apply the alternative head. (Said head goes unmentioned in the documentation, and seemingly exists as a toy-accurate head for Legacy Kickback.) Due to a quirk of design the robot mode and bug mode head are the same thing, just at different angles, so the rounder head is doing the heavy lifting here, although the swords do become a butt extension for bug form. As the mould is basically a 1983 design upscaled and given modern joints, Ransack isn't doing anything especially clever, but they aren't failing at it either. There's probably a third party "not-Ransack" out there that more faithfully updates the 80's original, but in so far as headswaps go, this is entirely acceptable. Decent robot mode, three weapons, not quite the right bug mode, but close enough. 

 

And finally, after a trio of bugs, we have a beetle. Autobot Goldbug was undoubtedly the most desirable of this set, although as a retool of Earthrise Cliffjumper, also the most familiar to me. Who is Goldbug? Well, he's Bumblebee after an emergency repair job and reassignment to the Throttlebots, which obviously didn't stick, but I did have that toy back in the day. The point of interest here is the fully licenced Volkswagen Beetle car mode, which like the boombox version of Soundwave seems to be under some sort of exclusivity arrangement. This is only the second time we've seen this specific toy released, while the original Cliffjumper variation has seen five releases. As a base mould, Cliffjumper was pretty good. A shame about the back-end of the car being a partsforming bit, but pretty good regardless. This means that Goldbug benefits from a strong foundation, I.e. a pleasingly involved transformation and a huggable shape, but if you're not a big Herby and/or Throttlebots fan it's more of a sidegrade than a slamdunk. The new vehicle bits omit 5mm ports, a tangible loss, with the instructions presenting a decidedly compromised alternative for weapon storage. Goldbug retains the modular bazooka/waterski/twin-blaster/random-greebly thing, and as fun as that is, it's very specific to Cliffjumper. Mind you, it looks great in gold, caramel, black, and blue, and the play value is there. Definitely worth a look, but it's very easy to overpay here.

I mean obviously, I didn't. But looking at the eBay listings, a few people have.

The Spare Head Three...

Conclusion

As I lucked out as got this set for 13 quid, it's honestly a little difficult to judge it from any sort of value-for-money metric. I could have had any single one of these for that price and feel quite happy about it. Hell, it was reduced from £45, and that's an objectively good deal as deluxes go for 25 each these days. That leaves broader creativity commentary, and whether or not something has an overt problem. On the overt problem front, only Scorponok has issues. He's not terrible, the vast majority of Generations isn't, but with his engineering and QC, he's in the "fine for now" tier. In terms of grander commentary, I'd say this demonstrates the issues that can occur when moulds are designed to be a specific character, but then reused for different ones. If you do a new head and new paintjob, or if the character is somewhat generic like a seeker, you're usually OK. That largely isn't the case here. For example, Goldbug, as mentioned, has the same accessories as Cliffjumper. These were based on memorable scenes in the Sunbow cartoon, so great for the mould original, but Goldbug never used them, and truthfully Cliffy-J didn't use them more than once. Maybe some small arms for all the other minibots would have been a better call? You could also make the case that Goldbug doesn't actually match his character model; and given how anal-retentive Earthrise was about such things, it's noticeable. You can make similar observations about the other three.

Ultimately, the Creatures Collide set is a multi-pack through and through. There's one you probably want most, but also one you don't, with two you're probably neutral on. As the toys are generally good ones, your choice will likely be based on your budget and how it fits into your collection. I got absurdly lucky with the price, and that three of the moulds were new to me. Regardless, the Creatures Collide set is something that exists. 

 

Also, the week after? I heard Game was offering this has as part of a "2 for £20" offer. Because of course it would :) 

An Introduction to 1:55 Scale VF1 Valkyrie Transforming Robot Toys

Right, its New Years Day, so its time for a special article. Today’s subject is very close to my heart, and I spent a bit of time on it. So.. probably no-one will read it… but I’m doing it anyway. 

 

The VF-1J in Battloid Mode

So, dear reader, I feel I need to stress some fundamental truths to you about the anime industry and the merchandising it feeds. All anime, but especially TV anime, is on some level about selling merchandise. Yes, all of it, including your absolute fave you feel is truly art and above such things. Including Cowboy Bebop. Where shows differ is the extent to which they are overt about this, and how well they judge their audience. Mecha animes tend to be very much about this, for reasons that are so self-evident I feel that it would be an insult to you to list them here. There is however a catch. Mecha merch is not necessarily about getting a flawless representation in miniature. That was something that Gundam and gunpla largely did, but it's not a universal rule. Rather they want to sell you something that more represents the idea of the giant robot or its pilot. Something you can get from a gatchapon machine and hang from a key chain. Think Funko Pops. Or possibly a hugging pillow if you have no self-respect. I can imagine a more serious -minded collector being repelled by what I just wrote, but it's how it is. There is a market for high end collectables, there most definitely is, but that's not THE market, it's merely A market. With transforming robots though, they kinda hit a catch 22. The idea of such a thing is that it changes shape, which presents design challenges. And what can happen, especially in the 80's, is that they take a toy and make it look rather better on screen than it is in plastic, or you end up with something that absolutely was not created with plastic in mind and there's some designer somewhere openly weeping into their coffee as they try to figure it out. It's something that can cause problems even today, and it's often easy to tell when a company is new to that whole transforming robot thing. It's also why you see collectables that advertise "perfect transformation" that cost serious money, or less commonly "simple change" that cost less and are an implicit admission how difficult such things are to make. However, in 1982, Takutoku went and made something that was ahead of its time. A toy that was, as near as it made no difference, an ideal representation of its source material: the 1:55 scale Valkyrie from the seminal series Super Dimension Fortress Macross. The gold standard of transforming jet toys from the 80’s. Arguably unmatched until the 90's. Still keeping pace with toys even now. Bootlegged to hell and back. The big chunky monkey. Known to Transformers fans as “That awesome toy that became Jetfire.”. Known to, <sigh> Robotech fans as the Veritech. The goddamn 1:55 scale VF-1 Valkyrie.

The 1984 Transformers Starscream toy

Now, a lot of the credit for that probably goes to mecha designer extraordinaire Shoji Kamamori, the main creative talent behind Macross. He was/is quite prolific in his field, working in toys as well as animation. Notably, he had a hand in Diaclone, working on a fair number of the cars that would become the Autobots. One thing he did not work on though was the F-14 jet toy that would become Starscream. The way I've heard it told, (Hi Karl,) he took a look at that and felt he could do better. This could easily be viewed as youthful hubris, or possibly a fandom legend. Except, as the rest of this article will demonstrate, he absolutely did. Kamamori is a massive aircraft nerd that likes to use papercraft and lego to perfect a transformation. As a result, the difference between the chunky monkey, Starscream, and the vast majority of contemporary Transformers toys is night and day. In fairness, it's a much larger thing than your average Transformers G1 toy, and it's size was probably dictated by the materials technology of the time, but, yeah. Today's article is going to feature two different versions of the mould, specifically the VF-11J (TV version, two head lasers, greyish) and the VF-1A (Do You Remember Love? version, one head laser, brighter white). These are later reissues by Bandai, circa 2001, bloody hell, these now count as retro themselves, whom had picked up the rights after Takutoku folded. While obviously not as ideal as an original, with some minor pieces missing, collecting Valkyries is not a task for the faint of heart or light of wallet, so I'm going to work with what I have. By coincidence, I obtained these within months of each other, both are the personal birds of the lead character Hikaru Ichijyo and both lack the clip for stowing the gun on one arm. I've declined to apply all of the stickers on the TV version, and I'm missing the swappable heatshield on the DYRL version. I have the missiles on their sprues however.

The toys in Fighter Mode, Top: VF-1J, Bottom VF-1A

Let's start by talking about the Fighter mode, possibly the form which has aged best. There's lots of good planey detail going on, definitely pushing into scale modelling territory. It's an 80's fighter jet made in the 80's and it's fulfilling the brief nicely. The cockpit bubble is translucent, there's folding landing gear with some serious springs in them, the wings move, with either stickers or decals picking out details and markings. Aside from colours, the main difference between our two subjects is the Battloid head, which pokes out on the underside. This is maybe a little undignified, a big deviation from the lineart, but this isn't a Transformer with an expectation of disguise, rather it's a weapon of war, and having some lasers is arguably justifiable. The other deviation is the presence of big diecast swingbars to facilitate transformation, but that's somewhat more forgivable as more recent attempts have also struggled with that area. These have signifcant amounts of metal in them, with thick plastic, and the transformation is not based on tabbing together so much as big eff-off ratchets remaining tight. This means that these toys can suffer if a joint starts wearing out, but otherwise you'd have to seriously try to actually break something on one of these. Generally, the Fighter mode is pretty good today, and was all-but-ideal back in the 80's, but there is one missed opportunity: weapon storage. The Gunpod can't store on the underside, and the landing gear lacks the nessecary ground clearance even if it could. 

 

 

The toys in GERWALK Mode, Top: VF-1J, Bottom VF-1A

The Gerwalk mode is probably the most iconic of the three, a transitional step between the Fighter and Battloid forms. This makes the Valkyrie function a bit like an attack helicopter with arms, and if that doesn't sell it to you? Well, watch the first ever episode. This mode is maybe a touch awkward to achieve, you have to fudge the shoulder joints into a position that feels less than natural. Once there, we start to see features I'd more usually talk about in the robot mode section, I.e. articulation. The legs are jointed at the hips and knees, with simple but heavy duty ratchets for a total of 4 points. You aren't gonna get anything especially dynamic out of them in this or Battloid mode, but that's already more useful posability than entire Transformers toys of similar vintage. Starscream could only move his arms up and down, for smegsake. Speaking of arms, the arms on this do better. These are still big ratchets and swivels, but there's four points in each arm, and honestly that would be quite acceptable by modern standards, if unremarkable. A wrist swivel would have made it great, but, again, this is more useful articulation in one limb than ENTIRE G1 toys. There are some quirks relating to the Gunpod mind you. The hands are moulded with a distinct trigger grip for the right, but a closed fist for the left, which is a touch limiting. The Gunpod has a missile launching gimmick, the most obvious sign this was an actual toy as that's not how it worked on the show, but at least they disguised the trigger as a scoped sight. Also, as mentioned, I'm missing the clip that allows you to stow the gun on one arm. All in all though, you have the visual appeal of the Fighter mode, but with functional articulation, and a firing missile. 

 

 

The toys in Battloid Mode, Top: VF-1J, Bottom VF-1A

The Battloid mode, AKA battle-android, AKA robot form is also very good. It carries over the positives of the previous two forms, while still having its own character. A lot of that is to do with the head and how the top of the fuselage forms a chestplate. It's got a heroic build, perhaps more so than the source lineart, but basically no jet kibble. If you have a later reissue with an optional heatshield, another bit I'm sadly missing, you can conceal the cockpit bubble and push the effect further. Valkyries such as this edge ever-so slightly into that zone where the robot form is so convincing that the uninitiated might honestly not realise it transforms into something. Yes, there is the frontend of a jet there, but do you really want me to make another Transformers comparison? Kindly scroll back up to that stock image of Starscream again. See? Don't make me post a picture of Ironhide or something. On top of that, you get decent posability in the arms, a neck joint, with the lower body being limited, but joints are there. They did all this in 1982. I mean, 1982!

NINETEEN.

EIGHTY.

TWO.

Conclusion

There is probably a better timeline where the Macross franchise isn't in a legal quagmire, and wasn't imported piecemeal into the West, to be used in other franchises. Maybe we got these as actual, proper, Macross toys. Maybe Harmony Gold imploded. It couldn’t happen to people more deserving. It seems a tragedy that this wasn't better known and more widespread, even with its acknowledged status as a classic. When it comes to likeness and posability, these toys and their basic design outperform the majority of their contemporaries, and while transforming with the most minor of cheating. While obviously showing its age, it has aged gracefully, like some kind of metallic George Clooney or Carol Vorderman. If you like giant robots and/or 80's toys, consider tracking one down. 

 

 

 

The Intro to SDF Macross

MegaBox: MB-12 Landbreaker is Something That Exists

So, when I was getting into 52Toys’ BeastBox, something on my radar was the Landbreaker set, a pair of box/construction vehicles that combined. This sort of thing is very much in my area of interest, but I held off due to the price tag, which is the rough equivalent of a leader class Transformers toy. After a while, the price was right, and here we are. And its, well, something. There’s a lot to talk about here, so I’m going to do a paragraph talking about the set as whole, before addressing the vehicles separately, and then combining. If you want the short version: I was predisposed to like this, and while having some preventable flaws, I liked it rather a lot.

 

The two vehicles, Mole on left, Groundbreaker on the right

Aside from the combination thing, which was my main reason for wanting this set, there are a couple of features not found in any of the 52Toys stuff I've previously written about. First off, they have opening and detailed cockpits, reportedly capable of sitting pilots from the modern Diaclone reboot. I don't have the ability have to test this currently, but I suppose that's cool, there is some stylistic overlap there. Then there's the 5mm pegs to connect the limbs to the main body, in a weaponizer- adjacent kinda way, like modern Junkion Transformers. The instructions encourage you to mix & match in ways beyond the two stated combinations, which is fun to do in a sort of "fan mode" way. For example, I did work out that Groundhog can take Mole's limbs and still make a decent box mode, but the reverse does not seem to be the case. Maybe I'm missing something, but I should point out that the other combiner MegaBox are based on the same 5mm port system, so there's options. On the downside, the cutmark problem that Black Getter had is back and still kinda sucks. This is most obvious with the white marks on the blue/grey plastic, which is the sorta thing that should been caught during quality control procedures. Or outright prevented at the test shot stage. The set is a little rough around the edges due to that and a few other minor annoyances. Nothing a bit of touching-up couldn't resolve, and worse things happen at sea, but this ain't a model kit, is it?

Mole, AKA Code 1, is the one I like the best visually, but also the most finicky, and having the worst of the QC issues. As a construction vehicle akin to a high-tech JCB, I adore it. It's hitting all the right industrial notes in safety orange. It's something while not real, has that verisimilitude; it looks like something that could exist, and honestly could be dropped into almost any near future setting without issue. The arms each have 7 major joints, the claw obviously adding more, moving in a very industrial way. It's wheelbase is interesting too. It's the most sci-fi bit of it all, with each pair of wheels being jointed in three places. You can adjust its ground clearance, and the main body is similarly jointed, so the entire thing can rise up like a cobra. The flip-side to that is that the Mole is largely made of joints that feature that blue/grey plastic I mentioned above. Also, I easily get confused putting this into box mode as you can fold it up several ways that feel valid up until the point where it suddenly isn’t.

Groundhog, aka Code 2, isn't as visually pleasing to me, but is more even as an experience. This is because it seems to making the most compromises for the combined form, but is more foolproof and has a lot of character. This vehicle gets around with a single wheel and a set of purely decorative tracks. These tracks are on the small side I feel, fairly disproportionate compared to the arms/legs, but they have these oh-so adorable set of joints so they can be extended and posed. Meanwhile you get a set of limbs with arguably better motion than the above, but topped off with a bigger claw and a chainsaw. And the box mode does not confuse me, and also is achieved in a manner that looks like it could work in real life. As its a simpler design, the limbs just fold up onto the sides, and I can certainly imagine this being delivered on a trailer to building site. So, that's all good stuff, although after messing with for a while, it's quite easy to see that this dude becomes something else. 

 

So, onto to combination. The instructions describe two ways, a combined vehicle form, and the robot form, aka the main event, aka Landbreaker. This is facilitated by another 5mm peg, with the robot mode feeling quite intuitive to achieve. The vehicle mode is less so, it feels more like a happy by-product of the aforementioned modularity, than a distinct form. I'm put in mind of one of those big asphalt laying machines that make motorways though, so it's not without an appeal. The combined robot form is however nice. Possibly greater than the sum of its parts, even. It's not without its weaknesses, a lot ends up on the back, and the leg pilot must hate his job, but the fundamental strengths of both parts come through. I'm going to use that fancy word “verisimilitude” again. It's hard to make a combiner look technically feasible at all, it's very much a super robot genre thing. Landbreaker however looks both unified and almost as sensible as it's individual components. It's got that near-future realism to it, and it's honestly amazing that the designers pulled it off. A big part of that is the "head" which has a webcam-looking sensor on it that moves with a universal joint. It looks like something a construction robot would have, not necessarily humanising it, but thematic and expressive. It also poses like a boss, repurposing all those joints becoming the most unexpectedly agile robot I've handled of late. It's got pretty much everything you'd want or need, even working in the connector as a waist joint and ab crunch. It's still got that serious robotics feel to its movements as its entirely swivels and universal joints but I honestly don't know what more could be added. Mole is largely made of joints, so you can get a lot in the upper body, and Groundhog is far from a slouch too.  It looks great, poses well, and can kick people with a chainsaw. There’s an awful-awful lot to like.

 

In addition to being something that exists, Landbreaker is something that is quite awesome. I don’t know if its the best thing 52Toys has done, I don’t have the experience to make that judgement, and there’s some petty annoyances, but… yeah. This does a lot of stuff right, comparing favourably to Transformers toys, while having that 3^rd party flair, but also very much its own identity. I keep on finding new stuff to like about it. Consider this a recommendation, and if in doubt, there’s a purple and green version.