Scratchbuild: Killa Kans Redux

Here we go, the first major article written in 2024. If you don’t count Project Tankbustas. Got a new document open and everything. Of course, the subject of this article was started in 2023, and I have a SUBSTANTIAL number of posts awaiting publication, one of which got bumped for this one, but here we are.

So with, January coming up, and in desperate need of something to do to balance out Chrimbo, I felt it was time to revisit the idea of a Killa Kans scratchbuild. Yes, it's both predictable and pretentious to consider making scrap robots for fun. Especially in the often stressful and hazy festive period. But it is fun. Also, I've built up my skills since. I'm very proud of my original scratchbuilds, don't get me wrong, but I will admit that those are a touch oversized. So these were intended to be refinements and closer to the official kits. This resulted in me having a tape measure and a reference model to hand. I drifted a little on that, but as with Project Tonks I seem to have found methods that work for me, arising as much from the resources available as any thing. First, I'd intended to make more extensive use of water pistol innards, but these seem to be out of season, so I ended up using beads more and more as I went on. As it turned out, I did have some left, but I wouldn’t find them until base-coating the things because I don’t organise my bitz. Unconsciously, I ended up making Beadbots, the legs of the third being entirely beads and wire. The arms were based off plastic rod, with a metal sewing bar, (I never did find out the proper name for these,) with a flexible material in the middle to suggest cabling. Wire and small beads were used to create pistons, giving the arms an industrial robotics look. At least until I put the klaw or whatever on the end. I did not try to add pistons to the legs as I felt it would not be visually pleasing. While each was based off lids and such, the main bodies of the first two shared a common hip piece, based off toy cars I was no longer able to source. All this leads to three Kans with enough common design elements to suggest a shared origin, although the last I made was the most divergent from the template as I'd ran out of some bits. So, let's briefly look at each in turn.

The first "Bugeye McPinchy" is the one most reminiscent of my earlier work and the GW house style for Orks. It's legs are water pistol triggers, with the generator and exhausts coming from the same place. The initial melee arm I built for this one proved far too fragile, promoting the style of arm described above. It's Grotzooka was the same style that I'd made for the Grot Mega-Tank. Once the limbs were on, and I was confident it would stand without issue, I then dressed the model with bits, going down the ork face route. Much later on, when I viewed the trio as a group, I'd realised the size of each had subtly increased with successive kan. Nothing major, all were close enough to my reference model, but I felt Bug needed a little something to compensate, hence his bosspole made from gears.

The second, "Screwfix" was arguably better received when shared on social media. This name, and presumably it's popularity, came from the big screw fitting I'd added as a melee weapon. Too big? Maybe. Appropriate? Definitely. I mirrored it's weapons versus the first and gave it a monoeye. Due to space limitations this ended up with fewer teeth, with legs being a combination of water pistol bits, beads, toy car wheels, and cable ties. The generator also ended up sitting higher, but that proved to be a good place for a glyph and other greebling.

The third, “Wideboy” was where I went full bead mode, and radically changed the body shape. Here the legs and claw were wooden beads, and its main body was a small jar of a kind previously used as a Tonk turret. This would lead me to omit the bulky generator of the previous two, because it was bulky enough already. He's biggish for a Kan, but not to the extent of the ones I made before. The klaw also required a rethink. I'D initially went for a jcb/digger look, but it wasn't working, so I sliced if off and tried again. I also opted for the Grotzooka to be more of a gun arm rather than mounting it directly to the shoulder. Aware of how much this one was deviating from the other two, I also gave this a monoeye and teeth.

This was fun. I might not need to actually buy models any more at this rate.

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 :) 

Project Tankbustas: Part 2

Righty, part 2.

So, what's a glyph plate? Well, it's the orkish written word, with overtones of graffiti. It's a pictographic language, and while there are some grammatical and phonetic bits to it, most glyphs refer to straightforward concepts like "bike" or "tough" or "git". In a modelling context, these are used instead of transfers or unit markings, and are fun little greeblies that you can add to a build. There are several reasons why I chose these as sculpting practice. First off, these are usually simple designs on a flat surface, something that simplifies their creation and subsequent recasting. We're talking basic shapes, with the acceptance of a certain crudeness, and as its on a flat plate, I'd only really need a one-part mould. Pictured (badly) here are my initial attempts.

Now, as was pointed out to me after the fact, (Hi EarthmanBrick,) green stuff isn't ideal for doing the hard lines of a glyph plate. This is certainly true, the prototypes looked a little bit soft, although I found the process to relatively quick, and a useful learning experience. I also discovered new and interesting ways to fuck up the recasting process as I was rushing. Once I'd corrected this, I decided to pick out the ones I liked best, recycled some others, and took another swing at it.

The second batch used slightly larger backing plates, but less putty. I flattened it out more, smoothed it more, and applied a craft knife for hard lines. This worked better than some of my initial attempts, although I will admit to getting some of them right the first time. By this point I'd also successfully retrieved some milliput copies, producing some usable pieces, but I found myself thinking that I'd got a little ahead of myself. Between the detail being lost and the time investment, it was becoming apparent that producing copies wasn't efficient. So, I decided to put the blue stuff aside for now, and maybe come back when mould making was more justified.

Overall? Useful practice.

Scratchbuild: Grot Mega-Tank

 

So, the idea for this started percolating in early December, when Project Tonks was coming to its conclusion. I was trying to slow down, as it was the holiday period and I work in retail. I still felt the need to do something though, as modelling projects are therapeutic for me. After some mulling over, I was reminded of a recent video by one EarthmanBrick, whom had recently done a Grot Mega-Tank, and decided to one myself. I'd amassed a substantial selection of suitable spares that I could use for such a project, and provided that I kept focus, this would be nicely relaxing. This project would be completed in the middle of December, during my usual blog break, with this write-up obviously being published later on.

So what is a Grot Mega-Tank? Well, as the name implies, it's a Grot Tank, but bigger. They often evoke interwar-era multi-turret tanks and dieselpunk landships in design, although made of scrap to an even crappier standard than the orkish usual. These are another creation by GW's Forge World arm, although given the recent website revamp, you can be forgiven for not knowing that. I wonder if Forge World is going to be shutdown in the near future... Anyways, Mega-Tanks are beloved by kitbashers and scratchbuilders like myself, although they aren't quite as meme-worthy. I suppose this is largely due to the smaller tanks having a critical density of popular weapons like rokkit launchers, and a Mega-Tank carries less of those per point. It's current rules are also, umm, interesting. There's an obvious cut & paste error regarding the twin big shootas that nobody has bothered to fix at time of writing, and the mega-tank's extensive supplementary weapon options have been amalgamated into one generic weapon set. So, I'm probably not building this for game performance then.

 

My initial thought was to create a basic hull, then the turrets before free-forming the lot together. Here my bitsbox came good with a much abused "Mr. Psycho" toy, from the old Craig Charles run of Robot Wars. This had a lot of applicable detail even if the scale wasn't 28mm, and once I'd added some big wheels out the back, the size was right. Regretfully, the plastic was aged and brittle, I suspect Gold Plastic Syndrome, and attempts to remove its friction motor caused the underside to shatter. I was able to fix this to an extent, but the front right track still shows the scars. The assorted turrets where made from lids and spare gubbins, with the two largest turrets being more intricate. When I came to attaching them I had some second thoughts though. While I don't plan as such, I found myself not feeling it. So I went away and thought a bit more about what look I wanted, before going for a more landship style. I retired the two big turrets, they're OK, just more suited to a Battlewagon, and built two ones with more of a wedge shape. Something vaguely reminiscent of a battleship, ya know? The twin grotzookas therein were then revised. I'd wanted external scrap bins and tubing to feed the barrels, as opposed to merely cramming the barrels with offcuts, but space was tight.  Then I remembered the Grotzooka you get in a Killa Kan kit, and replicated the shape with top-loading guns. The effects a little like an airbrush, or a kazoo, but it's obvious what they fire. With the matter of armament resolved, I then started adding armour plates and other surface detail. I also added an "observation tower" to go with it's somewhat boaty vibe. Having checked my measurements several times, painting then proceeded in my usual manner.

All-in-all, I’m quite happy with how this turned out. Its overall character and vibe is different from my assorted Battlewagons, while looming over my assorted Grot Tanks. Its pretty mega, versus your average gretchin, but ends up smaller proportionally than my ork crewed vehicles. I’m especially happy with the Grotzookas, but less so with the icons, although I had a few ideas in that direction. Good times, but I think I’ll hold off on making another for now.

Transformers: Legacy Evolution Autobot Medix is Something That Exists

Bloody hell, another white retool article got pushed back. Who'd have thunk it? Hang on, I've been sitting on this for at least four months... OK, lets call it a bonus article. Here we go folks!

The 2016 Playskool Heroes RescueBots Medix the Doc-Bot toy

 

OK, so Medix is a bit of an odd duck. He might be called a canon immigrant or a transplanted character, in that he's a G1 version of a transformer from a different continuity. Medix hails from the RescueBots sub-brand, which is not something I'm knowledgeable of, but can be summarised as "Transformers for the very young". This toy is however not the Medix; Legacy is/w not getting the actual RescueBots characters until 2024 with United, still in the future at time of writing. Rather, this is the version of Medix you could make at a Botcon 2016 custom class from the Combiner Wars First Aid mould, being one of several colour scheme variants availible. Incidentally, I was there, I made a Ratchet and got paint on the floor. Anyways, this places Medix as part of a wider Legacy trend of having exclusives referencing other, often rather obscure, exclusives, but hey, at least they aren't doing dumb shit like making popular characters hard to find. Earthrise, I'm looking at you. So, Medix is, like so many of the toys I've written about, a blank slate whose conceptual history and obscura of the toys is more interesting than the actual character. So, why did I get this then? And not discounted either? Well...

There is something so delightfully transgressive about taking a character whom is not merely a healer by definition but a healer in a show for the preschool audience, and then giving him enough weaponry to satisfy an Ork. And the daft thing is that it didn't have to be that way. What seems to have happened here is that they wanted to have a lightbar for the vehicle mode, which only makes sense, but instead of making a new one, they went to the Elita-1/Minerva mould and decided to throw in the guns from that as well. Perhaps the particulars of the accessories mould itself prevented them from just using the light bar, who knows? As a result Medix is toting a total of 4 handguns and two shoulder cannons. This guy officially a Protectobot, but I wonder if he tried out for the Wreckers only to be turned down because they thought he was too keen. 

 

This frankly excessive amount of dakka can be stored in the vehicle mode, although this is where the eccentricities of the toy begin to be felt. It's primarily based on Crankcase, a toy I haven't got around to handling yet, whom was a "reshell" retool of the Skids mould. This changed the almode extensively, and introduced a new play feature in the removable grill/gun while shifting round the 5mm ports a bit. As such, the vehicle form is even more boxy and has been equipped for off-road work. That's a good fit for a paramedic or first responder vehicle. The colours and decals look good too, if a bit messy around the spare wheel. Unfortunately, the use of the battlemask style head from the other version of the mould leaves an unslightly gap and sunken area on the hood. It doesn't help that the front wheels are have that unfortunate clip design where the plastic colours don't match, and things generally don't seem fit together as well as I would like. It rolls, fulfils the visual brief well, and you can do silly things like peg multiple guns into the light bar at once. Ultimately though, it's an altmode that works best from a distance, like some otherwise attractive individual whom had to put on a lot of concealer this morning.

The robot mode does a bit better. Generally speaking, a Legacy mould with a nice paint job and a lot of guns makes for a good time. From a design perspective though, it's interesting where you can see the push and pull of retooling. So, the original version of this mould sought to replicate the forearm guns of the original Skids toy, while adding a minor combination feature for the accessories. The ports remain for this, but only one of the accessories, a pistol that looks awkward by itself. What Crankcase added in its place was a removable chestplate affair, with the frontend of the car coming off to become a gun. This reveals a chest design closer to his 80's toy, while some regrettably small shoulder cannons lurk in the back kibble. As gimmicks go, it's a bit Top Gear, you know, ambitious, but rubbish. I'm not a huge fan of the modern habit of designers to have panels come off as alleged accessories, although I will give it credit for not being a shield. On the subject of accessories, the 5mm ports have been remixed a bit. The somewhat bulkier upper arms on the outside, which is more useful, if moving the ports on the lower legs to the calf area. This is an inversion of the original, and I dunno, feels like a two steps forward, one step back situation. To make a further comparison with the original, there's the matter of the backpack. The retooling results in a larger backpack, but to facilitate the whole triggercon tribute it locks in two places, so between that and the grill gun, you've got options for the visuals. So you got a nice chunky robot with some nice paintwork and lots of guns, although the colour choices do highlight hollowness and such in the mould.

My point? Only that Medix is something that exists. And while a notable distance from being bad, and definately on the good side of average, this is more a curiosity than a must-have.

Project Tankbustas: Part 1

OK, lemme start out with a brief look back at Project Tonks, what worked and what didn't. As exercises go, that was quite therapeutic, and I am now entirely confident in my ability to make little tanks. As I was working to a self-imposed schedule of weekly updates though, I found myself getting a bit frustrated when something disrupted my plans, and on a couple of occasions had to put the breaks on, lest I speedrun the whole thing. I still need to work on this "self-management" business, especially as my day job has featured a store refit overlapping with the Xmas rush. Not fun. So with this being a new year, I feel I can spare the energy for something a touch more involved. I'm going to give 28mm scale miniature sculpting a proper try.

Stock Image of GW’s Tankbustas

Let's talk Ork Tankbustas. They are Orks, and they bust tanks. Who ya gonna call? Its not a complex topic. Unfortunately, Tankbustas are one of those units that suffer under the yoke of Finecast, and the "exactly what's in the box" convention of 10th edition. They are therefore a squad of 5, three with rokkit launchas, including the Nob, one with twin rokkit pistols, one with a tankhammer, and two Bomb Squig models/tokens. That isn't an ideal load out for their stated job, and you can't scale them up so as to get a critical mass of dakka to start seriously worrying tanks. As such they are not hugely good, and not great as models either as Finecast famously sucks. This does however present a good candidate for the skills I want to practice for this project: miniature sculpting. I've dabbled in this before, but never that deeply. But I have more confidence these days, and numerous scratchbuilds behind me. I'm pretty sure I can do this. And it's more up my street than airbrushing or 3d printing. As with Project Tonks, I see this playing out incrementally, starting simple, before going full sculptor later on. So here are the stages as I see them right now.

Stage 0: Preparation and research. Looking up videos on YouTube, getting the raw materials together and such. Obviously I did this over chrimbo.

Stage 1: Glyph Plates. As a warm-up, the creation of orkish glyphs via sculpting, followed by the creation of a single one-part mould to mass produce them. The target number is four, with the idea being that should I make too much putty, I can use the excess here. I have similar moulds already, it’s handy to have such things for other projects.

Stage 2: Rokkit Lads. The modification of two older style Ork Boyz to carry rokkit launchas, and one to have two rokkit pistols. This involves new weapons, stowed rokkits, and additional details like helmets or targeters etc. This would be a mix of green stuff sculpting and plastic tubing as appropriate, with some minor kitbashing.

Stage 3: The Nob. A conversion of an older style model to carry a rokkit launcha. This will require GSing and converting along the lines of stage 2, but will possibly be more challenging as Nobs don't usually have such a weapon. Said weapon also needs to be somewhat "extra".

Stage 4: The Tankhamma Lad. The modification of an older style Ork boy to wield a two-handed hammer made from explosives. If stage 3 didn't involve a lot of careful cutting and repositioning of plastic arms, stage 4 most likely will. Using putting to fill gaps in the flesh and muscles is fairly likely.

Stage 5: Squig prototypes in Das Clay. As a material, Das Clay is well suited to experimentation, so I can get my eye in before going for the serious modelling putty. The aim is to make at least three of the little blighters, starting large and getting smaller each time as I refine my technique. This will probably a couple of weeks, as I've not tried sculpting a whole figure before. Note that these are not bomb squigs at this point, just regular ones. I'm trying to nail the look of the little bastards before strapping them with rokkits and such.

Stage 6: Squig prototypes in green stuff and or milliput. As above, but with actually good materials. Possibly these could be used in other contexts, but we'll see.

 

Stage 7: Bomb Squigs in green stuff and or milliput. The actual sculpting job, I also expect this to be a multi-week affair as I need two of them. Due to their nature, these will also feature explosives, but given stages 1-4, that shouldn't be too bad. 

Stage 8: Painting. Need I say more?

When this post goes live, I actually have some time off, so I expect have something for you next week. Ciao fer now.

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