Grail Find! Headmaster Rodney's white counterpart

If you had asked me a few months ago if I thought I would ever own this figure, I would have told you that you were crazy. The exclusive headmasters are rare enough as it is, saying nothing of their all white versions. But, an opportunity came up a while back to own this guy and the price was so good I just could not pass it up. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

So how does the original figure stack up against the recent KO that was released at the same time as the Headmaster boxset? There are a surprising amount of differences I've found:

KO on the left, real on the right

It becomes glaringly apparent how much the KO is a KO when stacked up against the original figure. I never did this with the colored versions but I should have as the differences are so obvious. Now if I didn't have the original figure I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But in a side by side comparison the KO doesn't have the same amount of detail in the mold and the plastic is of much worse (and brigher) quality. You can really see it in the face here. Under this light the KO looks almost yellowed compared to the original figure. The rivets are also slightly larger on the KO.

I have never seen this guy anywhere other than officially sanctioned TF books so for me this was a once in a decade opportunity. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love reissues because they drastically reduce the price of the originals (although in this case it was a KO and not a reissue). Otherwise there is no way this purchase would have been possible. And I know the term Grail is overused in the TF community, but this time I think this actually qualifies. For me it is a grail when I think I will never, ever own a particular figure then by some happenstance I actually end up with said figure. I feel the same way about VSX.

Transformers Prime....uh Prime.

What a stupid name for a series, I don't even really understand the rationale behind it. I mean, Prime is probably the least featured Autobot in the show thus far, everyone else has gotten a lot more screen time and characterization. But I digress.

So apparently Optimus here never came out in the U.S. I had to get mine from a seller in Canada due to the whole First Edition debacle, along with pretty much every other First Edition toy. Although I got Bulkhead from a seller in Singapore. I've had such a hard time attempting to wrap my head around why Hasbro would go to the trouble of designing an entire line of figures and then scrapping those figures after one run and releasing another set of (some say inferior) molds of the exact same characters! Then a friend of mine pointed out that due to the rising costs of petroleum in the world market Hasbro may have decided that it would be too expensive to continue to produce the 'First Edition' line of figures since they are more complex and from what I have heard slightly larger. Hasbro may have already had the first run of these figures in the works by the time they made this decision so they decided to release them as First Edition only and they would use the less expensive molds for the mainline. Unfortunately this theory fits all the known facts and if it proves to be true, some of the First Edition figures could end up being some of the rarest figures that have had a semi-mass release. Three figures, Bumblebee, Starscream and Arcee, were released in the U.S. and were pretty easy to come by around the holidays but have since disappeared. The other figures in the First Edition: Optimus, Bulkhead, and Cliffjumper only saw release internationally. The two remaining figures: Vehicon and Zombie Cliffjumper have not even seen a release yet and may never reach any market. Only time will tell.

The gun is just an add-on and doesn't fit into the figure anywhere which is just fine with me.

The same goes for the sword which is super bendy and flexible.

The truck mode is very impressive, the arms fold up in a very unique way.

At any rate, from what I hear the First Edition Optimus is superior to the general release version that is coming later in the year. I don't have them both to compare side by side, but I can say Optimus is a very sold figure by himself and fits the animation model quite well. He also scales well with Bumblebee and to some extent Arcee. Since he is the first Voyager class Optimus I have purchased in a while I thought I would show him with the last Voyager class Optimus I purchased...back in 2006.

Pretty much the same size figure.

I feel pretty lucky to have gotten this guy at a good price, eBay just about exploded the day after the First Edition cancellation announcement was made. Although I am hoping this figure does see a wider release so more people can get their hands on it since it is a very faithful and fun interpretation of the character.

Reprolabels makes G2 come alive!

If there is one thing G2 is not about it is subtlety. It seems like the entire line was devoted to garish colors, odd decorations and down right blatant pronouncements ("Megatron Rules!" comes to mind). However it is this 'extreme' take on Transformers (which was present in many early '90's properties) which makes me enjoy them even more. So when I found out about some G2 Reprolabels for Classics figures I knew there was no way I wasn't going to get them.

Currently Reprolabels carries two G2 upgrade sets for Autobots: Jazz and Volt. Jazz of course uses the recent Reveal the Shield mold of the same character. Volt uses the 2010 Revenge of the Fallen Hubcap figure as a base. Fortunately I already owned Hubcap due to his innate similarity with Volt but I had to purchase another RTS Jazz since I only owned one. Usually Reprolabels makes things pretty easy for their customers; you remove old stickers and apply new ones. Except in this case due to the nature of the difference in the designs I had to remove most of the paint off RTS Jazz with rubbing alcohol. This was my first experience removing paint from a Transformer and although daunting at the beginning I was pretty happy with how he came out.

Before...

...and After

My vintage G2 Jazz is looking pretty weary these days.

The new stickers do a great job invoking that G2 feel.

I'm not as satisfied with Volt, but overall he doesn't look bad.

I never realized how small the laser rods actually were.

I'm always on the lookout for new figures that could be converted to Neo-G2 figures, especially after the Botcon 2010 set. I only have one other right now which is Mindset, so I am hoping for an upgrade to make him look a little less movie-ish.

Mail Call! Big bunch of Tech Specs!

Thanks to a recent sale by Wheeljackslab on eBay I was able to get almost all of the rest of the tech specs I needed for my collection. I daresay now I am only missing four. I've been working on my tech specs for a long time now and I had never seen any of these come up before, so it was really great to get all these knocked out in one fell swoop.

Tech Specs:

Sky High
Legend/Kmart Grimlock
Action Master Wheeljack
Hot Rod Patrol
Missile Launcher
Snarler
Crankcase
Military Patrol
Gutcruncher
Roadblock
Action Master Shockwave

And I'm only down to one Instruction booklet: Fort Max. I just don't know if I want to drop $100 on it, that is a lot of coin!

Congratulations Flywheels!

My good buddy Flywheels over at Random Toy Reviews had his Transformers collection featured on local TV last night! They've uploaded a video online for those who don't live in the area to check it out. Here's the link:

Carolina Camera Transformers Collection

Congrats to Flywheels on making us Transformer fans look so good!

TFC Neckbreaker and Madblender, Hercules is complete!

It has been an exciting ride, and unexpectedly short! When we first learned of the release schedule for the six members of the Hercules combiner these final two figures weren't even due until March and April. So imagine my surprise when they showed up at my doorstep two months ahead of schedule. I really must commend TFC Toys for not only sticking to their schedule and releasing everything ahead of time, but for providing excellent customer service throughout this entire process. As many people know Heavy Labor's waist has a fatal flaw that eventually destroys the ratcheting mechanism inside. Neckbreaker comes with an entirely new waist for Heavy Labor since attempting to fix the existing one usually destroys part of the figure. In the same vein Heavy Labor came with a replacement shovel for Exgraver because there was also a fatal flaw in the original shovel which caused stress and eventual breakage. Throughout the entire process they have refined their methods and produced a very high quality product on par with any other official figures I own. I don't believe we'll ever see a better representation of Devestator in both the combined mode and individual robot modes. Hercules feels exactly what a modern Devestator should be, not that unholy monstrosity that came out of Revenge of the Fallen.

Neckbreaker and Madblender hold up amazingly well when compared to their original counterparts. Neckbreaker deviates from the design a little more, but appropriately. Madblender is almost a completely faithful homage to Mixmaster, except of course that his mixing barrel splits into eight pieces as mountable weapons.

I need to reprolabel my Bonecrusher, he's naked.

"SUPAH MODE!!"

I am also really pleased with the final Hercules combined mode. The figure is very stable, all the individual members connect very well, and there are no extra parts to keep track of (except maybe the hands). Although the figure can't be picked up by its head (a usual indicator of combiner strength), he is still very sturdy and holds up well with handling. He also has a wide range of motion and a lot of articulation which is something the original was sorely lacking. Finally, this guy is huge. Like bigger than Primus huge. I always found it odd that he was supposed to be the strongest and biggest combiner figure in G1, but his toy was most certainly the weakest. It falls apart if you look at it wrong. But this figure takes care of all that. He towers over every other classics figure, but still feels like he fits in. He is appropriately larger than Fansproject Bruticus and Superion.

His face also calls back to the original figure while still giving us a nice classics style update.

I really like the built in symmetry of this figure. Combiner figures by nature usually don't have a lot of symmetry due to being made up of different types of robots, but TFC did a nice job of making the forearms match each other bringing as well as appropriately weighting the figure with a large right shoulder to balance the crane of Dr. Crank. Of final note is Hercules' weapon. Each figure came with one small purple and red gun, all of which combine into a purple superblaster and a translucent red superblaster. I like the purple one myself so I'm using that one with my figure, but the 12 individual weapons allow for I don't know how many different combinations.

Old and New

I never really thought anyone could top Fansproject in terms of quality and execution, but due to figures with solid construction and ease of transformation, TFC has proved they are in it for the long run and are the new top dogs in my book.

1985 Japanese Transformers Catalog

I love some interesting paperwork, especially when I've never seen it before. So when I got Astrotrain the other day an unexpected bonus was the 1985 Japanese catalog packaged with him! Since almost all of the 1985 Japanese transformers are identical to their American counterparts I don't own any of them and thus have never had any opportunity to own this particular piece of paperwork.

Front

Back

It is actually quite stunning, and I'm surprised to see that they started the 'vs.' concept so early (the whole booklet is based around it). Other things of interest: Red Alert and Trailbreaker are 'switched' with Red Alert being with the '84 Autobots and Trailbreaker appearing with the '85 ones on the back. Gears and the entire cast of '85 minibots are missing from the catalog (I presume this is because they weren't available in Japan at the time). Soundwave appears to be using the Soundblaster mold (the cassette compartment looks like it has room for two tapes) although this is mind-boggling as Soundblaster wouldn't even be released until 1987. Thrust, Dirge and Ramjet are missing for some reason that I can't explain. And of course Omega Supreme, Jetfire, the Deluxe Autobots, Deluxe Insecticons, Shockwave and Jumpstarters are completely absent as these figures couldn't be sold in Japan under the Transformers brand since they belonged to competing companies with a large presence in Japan. Fortunately that wasn't the case for America.

Also of interest is the fact that the catalog shows both Cybertrons and Destrons on each side, not just one like the American versions. As far as I know this was changed in all subsequent years so that it was just Cybertrons on one side and Destrons on the other.

D-48 White Astrotrain, another Space Shuttle!

As I have often mentioned, one of the best things about reissues is they make prices of the figures they are reissues of much more reasonable. I can't imagine what the the G1 toy landscape would look like if Optimus Prime or Starscream had never been reissued since the 1980's. Prices on those figures would be through the roof! In fact, I remember even in the late 1990's before a lot of the reissues had come out prices were already high. Fortunately today it is relatively easy to obtain a copy of the original G1 cast at a reasonable price (and in many cases the figures have been improved such as proper visor colors on Trailbreaker). At any rate, in 2004 the once rare and difficult to find 'White' Astrotrain was reissued by Takara as part of their TFC line. It was subsequently released in the United States in the Hasbro Toy Shop online store.

Which one is which?

Japan released the white version of Astrotrain as part of their original 1985 lineup in an attempt to make all the figures have real life vehicle modes. In 1986 Takara released the regular color Astrotrain that we are all more familiar with. When I discovered the Japanese exclusive Transformers in the late 1990's this was one figure that caught my attention immediately. I've always been a sucker for good repaints, and a real-world accurate Astrotrain fits the bill nicely. Personally I haven't seen too many purple locomotives, but I have seen plenty of black ones. And the all white space shuttle with NASA stickers really seals the deal. Of course Takara and Hasbro couldn't use the NASA stickers with the reissue to due copyright so they used ASTR in the NASA lettering instead.

I think I'll call you Endeavor and Discovery.

As you can see the older Astrotrain is a little yellowed from time, but the pictures make it look a lot worse than it actually is. In person it is barely noticeable and while photographing the figures for this post more than once I had to look at the copyright stamp to see which figure I was handling. 1985 Astrotrain shows a Japan copyright while the 2004 version shows China.

 
I know this figure isn't high on many peoples' lists (hence the excellent deal I got on it!) but in my ever-continuing goal of ridding myself of all reissues and only using original figures for my collection it was a big one for me.

Reissue, Original and Hasbro versions.

C'mon guys, giant Decepticon symbols make us less conspicuous!

Still don't see too many purple shuttles these days either.

After watching the new reality show Toy Hunters...

...I am intrigued to say the least. This show debuted on the Travel Channel last night. It is basically like American Pickers but with toys instead of antiques. The show follows toy dealer Jordan Hembrough around as he tries to haggle local toy collectors for figures he can resell at NY Comicon. Since only a pilot was filmed I have no idea if the show will be picked up for a full season; I imagine that is up to the network based on how many viewers were watching last night.

The show isn't bad per se, however there were definitely moments that were pre-arranged or staged for the cameras. I find it a little too convenient that on the very first episode Jordan just happens to come across the rarest Star Wars figure in existence. Not only that but he also comes across the rarest Thundercats figure in existence! I can't blame them for needing to hype it up a little bit, but that type of discovery just isn't sustainable for a multi-episode show. There just isn't that much out there of that high value. On the plus side we got to see inside the Tomart Warehouse and Jordan got to talk to a lot of previous Kenner employees, some who actually designed the toys themselves.

I was surprised at some of the values of the figures. Maybe it is just because all I have ever dealt with are Transformers, but many of the items he was haggling over didn't even crest the $100 mark. Even the production sample Batman from the Kenner employee himself only sold for $45. This just reaffirms my opinion that collecting Transformers is one of the most expensive toy hobbies out there.

I do hope this show gets picked up for a full season, while I find Jordan a little brash I do enjoy seeing all the figures and learning more about their history. However I must point out that the host doesn't really have a deep familiarity of certain lines (he called MASK a precursor to Transformers) for which I can absolutely forgive him because of his wide breadth of knowledge. I understand not everyone knows the back story on Transformers, maybe they should call me in as an expert :-) It became clear that Jordan is a child of the 70's and not the 80's when he was drooling over Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica figures.

While no Transformers were featured last night (except for one lone RID spychanger Optimus Prime in a half second shot) I do predict that if this show is picked up Transformers will spotlight heavily on it. I'm not sure if it will re-run any more but I'd be willing to bet anyone who missed it can check it out on the Travel Channel's website.

Hmmm, look at that, two posts in one day. Usually I don't have enough to talk about.