D-306 Darkwings Gift Set

Out of all the Japanese exclusive Transformers, Darkwings is one of the less desirable due to the fact that it really isn't that different from the American release; so it follows that there are probably more of these available out there than say, Minervas. But that doesn't mean it isn't as cool or unique as some of the other exclusives. Now Dreadwing is the American counterpart to Darkwings, made up of Dreadwind and Darkwing. Of course Darkwings is actually the combined form made up of the individuals Hydra and Buster. With so many darks and dreads and wings it is very easy to get confused and it took me a long time to be able to sort them all out. Even now I still get a little confused.

Yes, more European G1 Exclusives; they just keep on coming.

I believe I am starting to delve into some really obscure characters here but I guess that is the only real way to grow a vintage collection. Hell, I used to think of the Action Masters as obscure too but I could probably list 90% of them off the top of my head if it were really necessary (on a side note, I find this situation kind of funny. I mean when in life would it be really necessary for me to list off Action Masters? I've often thought of situations where my life could potentially depend on my Transformers knowledge though. I can see it now: a man has a gun to my head and tells me I'm dead if I can't name every G1 Transformer in order. These are the strange types of incentives I use to maintain my knowledge :). ANYWAY; I got these two obscure G1.5/G2 guys the other day, Talon and Staxx.

Talon is the jet and part of the Predators, who are commanded by Skyquake. Skyquake was repainted and released in the US as Starscream as part of the Machine Wars line. Unfortunately the US never received any of the other Predator molds other than Stalker. The smaller jets like Talon here have a neat feature that you can plug a tab on the underside of the jet into either Stalker's giant missile or Skyquake's fuselage and it changes the battle scene you can see through the scope. I attempted to obtain a photograph of this feature however I nearly dropped everything in the process and decided it really wasn't worth it. One other note about Talon is his weapon is completely made of Gold Plastic. I have decided not to even attempt to make Talon hold his weapon for fear of the weapon crumbling in my hands.

Man, he is looking evil!

Staxx looks like he could be made of Gold Plastic, but fortunately he is not. Staxx is a Power Master (not Powermaster, mind the difference) and is one of the very last G1/G1.5/G2 figures produced. As a result his robot mode leaves a lot to be desired. He is basically a Battlecharger that doesn't transform automatically in that he has a strong pull-back motor. I honestly don't have a lot to say about this figure, I really only got him because I am a crazy G1 completionist. As if to taunt me, the seller of the figure included the top of his card which shows the other three crappy Power Masters. Yes I will purchase them at some point in the future and no I probably won't enjoy it.

Reminds me of Rorschach for some reason

Dare I say Staxx is the best looking of the bunch?

However all these figures are filling up my European shelf quite nicely. Less than six months ago I only had five European figures and now I've at least doubled that. It is amazing what you can do when you finally focus on something!

And yes, I know Staxx is erroneously with the Autobots, to be rectified shortly.