Encore 5 and 6 headless chickens

[Mr Ed]

I just purchased Encore 5 and 6 Ironhide and Ratchet from BBTS.

At the time of purchase, I didnt notice their heads were missing. I am amazed they were like that in the 1980's:eek: They look like headless chickens.

http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/4580/p1020203w.jpg (http://img809.imageshack.us/i/p1020203w.jpg/)

However, there is a cardboard cut out of their heads in the Tomy Takara Box.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6522/p1020204x.jpg (http://img21.imageshack.us/i/p1020204x.jpg/)

I noticed on EBAY you can get a third party head but it is quite expensive.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Transformers-G1-Encore-Ironhide-Ratchet-Custom-Head-Set-/270738007177?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f093e2489

So for people who own either the G1 original or Encore reissue, what did you do?

Did the original G1 have the cardboard cut outs?

[gdmetro]

Yeah... the originals were headless- I think only the reissues had the cardboard heads.

The custom heads you are referring to- I bought a set and haven't opened em'.

They basically clip on and are okay, but don't fix the issue of the arms/ with lacking shoulders. A nice thing is that they do store in vehicle mode.

Recently there was a set from gear4toys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcwpOj8EWUE
Here is a review.

The latter set also includes the arms and makes the fig look really nice in bot mode- although it does not store in vehicle mode. I wish they also did some upgrade parts for the legs...

[Hursticon]

Actually, the originals did have faces, in the form of a Black sticker with a Silver face that was identical for both Ratchet and Ironhide - I'll try and find some pics but they were used in the artwork for the original Marvel Comics, well, the first couple of issues anyway. ;):cool:

[Mr Ed]

Actually, the originals did have faces, in the form of a Black sticker with a Silver face that was identical for both Ratchet and Ironhide - I'll try and find some pics but they were used in the artwork for the original Marvel Comics, well, the first couple of issues anyway. ;):cool:


Yeah Dave, the sticker set has black faces! Havent gotten around to putting them on yet.

But I do like them.

Will try and buy Skids, Trailbreak and Hoist next as Encore Re-issues

[Mr Ed]

Recently there was a set from gear4toys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcwpOj8EWUE
Here is a review.

The latter set also includes the arms and makes the fig look really nice in bot mode- although it does not store in vehicle mode. I wish they also did some upgrade parts for the legs...

Thanks, I just checked out the video.

The helmet for both was $20 $USD from BBTS and the shoulder upgrade was $57 USD.

Unfortunately both sold out! So cardboard heads will have to do for the time being.

[Hursticon]

Yeah Dave, the sticker set has black faces! Havent gotten around to putting them on yet.
But I do like them.

Ah ok, sorry, wasn't sure if you knew or not as I took it as Head & Face being the same thing. :o

[Paulbot]

So for people who own either the G1 original or Encore reissue, what did you do?

Did the original G1 have the cardboard cut outs?

I own the original Ratchet and the Encore. I don't use the cardboard cut outs (that weren't around in G1, so either came in reissues or Encore) and am not interested in the third-party heads.

Maybe it's because I have had the Ratchet toy for 25 years now, but it does not bother me in the slightest. That's just how the toys look.

If you want something a bit more model-like, that's what the BotCon and Universe/Henkei toys are for.

[Autocon]

Really? They never came with heads:eek::confused: lol

[GoktimusPrime]

As Hursticon said, the original Ironhide and Ratchet did have heads -- they were the stickers on the seats. And he's also right about early G1 art being more toy accurate... it was only later on that they changed it to what became the standard way of drawing Ratchet and Ironhide with more visible heads. The BotCon Japan exclusive comic "Cybertron Chronicles" (by Ichikawa Hirofumi) featured toy-accurate art.

The reason why their heads are like that, for those who may not know, is because in the original Diaclone toy line where they originated from, Ironhide and Ratchet weren't so much piloted "mecha" in the sense that most of the other Diaclones were, but more like big power armours (more like what Ripley used in Aliens)... they were operated by Diaclone pilots as ancillary mecha for the main fighting mecha -- carrying munitions and what not for the others. Here (http://diaclone.net/orid/dia037/03722.jpg) is what "Ironhide" originally looked like piloted by Diaclones.

Here's a comparison between G1 Ironhide and Movie Ironhide's faces:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/ironhide_faces.jpg

Same comparison with Ratchet
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/ratchet_faces.jpg

Comparison between G1 Ironhide and Ichikawa's toy-accurate art:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/g1_ironhide.jpghttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/avatar_ironhide.jpg

Toy-accurate art used in early G1:
http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/3/33/Ratchetg1first.jpg
http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/e/e3/Ironhideg1firstappearance.jpg

--------------------------------------

I have original G1 and Encore reissue Ironhide and Ratchet (as well as Rescue Ratchet and Protect Ironhide) -- I don't use the cardboard heads... they look silly IMO (heads are too high and the shoulders end up sitting too low). But like Paulbot, the original heads don't bother me as that's what I grew up with. And quite frankly, the toys came first so they're more accurate anyway. ;)

But I did try the heads on when I first got my Encores (and didn't like it) -- but here's what they look like with the heads on:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/Sydney%20Meet%20January%202008/sydmeet0108_11.jpg

[Gutsman Heavy]

I like the g1 faces, reminds me of tron for some reason.

[UltraMarginal]

I recently bought both encore's from chopstick9558, he was gentleman enough to include the older style custom heads for them, the shoulders are a little low but i think they look pretty good.

as mentioned above the original toy has a sticker that shows a face, I think they took a lot of good liberty's when designing the animation model for these guys.

[griffin]

Looking at where the shoulders are on the toy (below the windshield), and the way the original Ironhide & Ratchet were first drawn on the Techspecs and in Issue one of the Marvel Comic, the windshield isn't their chest, it's a blast shield for the head (which is represented by the seat, but wasn't drawn that thin in the comic of course).

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, that's how I used to play with them as a kid -- and I used to pretend that they had a kind of HUD that constantly fed them live visual information (much like seeing Tony Stark in his Iron Man armour in the movies :)). When I was a kid I would draw Ironhide and Ratchet with their cartoon-like heads, but with toy-accurate bodies, so the heads sat behind the windows. ;) Many many years later we got War Within Ironhide (http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs6/i/2005/078/d/0/War_Within_Ironhide_n_Bee_by_dcjosh.jpg) which did just that! :D (great minds think alike and fools seldom differ ;))

[Sky Shadow]

This mould is by far the greatest from 1984 if not the entire GeeWun era. For the price of an Autobot Car one got a robot and base that turned into a realistic vehicle. I don't know why alien robots should need to be anthropomorphic anyway, but since the toys were first released as Transformers nearly three decades ago, they have always had heads and faces, and if it weren't for cartoon-indoctrinated misinformation, this headless/faceless fallacy would not keep rearing its ugly you-know-what.

[kup]

I have the 3rd party heads and although they are very well sculpted, they don't fit the G1 figures so I don't use them. The proportions look to wacky with them on so I prefer stickers.

[Mr Ed]

I have the 3rd party heads and although they are very well sculpted, they don't fit the G1 figures so I don't use them. The proportions look to wacky with them on so I prefer stickers.

i thought those heads fitted well?

[kup]

i thought those heads fitted well?

From a visual aesthetic I mean.

[liegeprime]

I use the third party heads for both my vintage G1 and encore figures. It takes getting used to it, coz the shoulders tend to look sooo low but I prefer having it, and its nice that I dont have to remove the heads coz it folds down .. sorta transforms with the rest of the figure and is well tucked in Alt mode. Even gave 1 set to a friend and he was pretty happy with it as well.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, the problem with add-on heads (be it the legit cardboard ones or unlicensed sculpted ones) is that the rest of the body ends up sitting too low, so the new shoulder line has no arms, and the arms look like they're coming out of the ribs.

What someone should do perhaps is to make a cartoon-like head that attaches to the Diaclone seat-cavity inside Ironhide and Ratchet -- making it look similar to War Within Ironhide in that regard. Best of all you wouldn't necessarily have to remove the head to transform them to vehicle mode -- yeah sure, the heads would be visible in vehicle mode, but that's already always been the case with their original G1 heads anyway.

What you could do is cut off the Encore cardboard or 3rd party sculpted heads and attach them to the original G1 faces, that way they'd cover up the original heads, but they'd still behind the windows which wouldn't make the body look "deformed". And they'd still keep that G1 toy-accurate charm (:)) - something which War Within used with Ironhide and Kup, suggesting that somehow the "old" Autobots have the windscreens in front of their faces (War Within Ratchet has his windscreen on his back since he's technically not one of the "oldies" like Ironhide and Kup :p). In fact, I've noticed that Generations Sergeant Kup (and thus I suspect United Kup would have this too) has a small window sitting in front of his head. Nice. :)

[bowspearer]

I actually love the fact that these two Encores were very poorly received. I just scored both of them from Hong Kong for $20 + shipping. Made a great stuffer in with a MOSC Talon, as well as replacements for my 2 Classics versions which are sun yellowed like nobody's business.

I actually find that I have mixed feelings about the encores, specifically Ratchet.

I'll get into the bad first. The palms on Rathcet. On the Classics and original versions, they used a sticker. Sure, it eventually got lost but when it was new, it at least looked like a sold white square and blended in well.

While with the encore version, they made a step in the right direction by painting the palms in white, they probably needed another 2-3 coats of white on there for it to be effective. As it stands, it honestly looks transparent.

In terms of engineering, it would have been great had they altered the turret gun slightly to allow for clearance under the van when the gun is stored there in vehicle mode (1-2mm would do it easily). Much like every other release of the mold, it cannot roll when kitted out in vehicle mode.

However these are minor complaints in light of what they did do right (something which going back to at least the Classics release, Hasbro didn't) was that they actually made both launchers fire.

Honestly, with how unpopular they are these 2 are a no brainer to buy. They're still great toys, but not only that; depending on where you buy them, if members here have kids who love G1 toys, it's a great way to give them something decent without breaking the budget.

EDIT: To clarify, when I said these were a no brainer to pick up, I meant on eBay. I'm probably "preaching to the choir" here, but comic shops and the like will charge you upwards of $70 each for these guys. eBay in comparison usually has them as a pair for no more than $30-40+shipping, making them great little package stuffers..

[bowspearer]

This mould is by far the greatest from 1984 if not the entire GeeWun era. For the price of an Autobot Car one got a robot and base that turned into a realistic vehicle. I don't know why alien robots should need to be anthropomorphic anyway, but since the toys were first released as Transformers nearly three decades ago, they have always had heads and faces, and if it weren't for cartoon-indoctrinated misinformation, this headless/faceless fallacy would not keep rearing its ugly you-know-what.

Allow me to risk a lynching here by pointing out with the whole head debate that if you really wanted to be critical, Prime's head is practially a V-shaped crest off him effectively being T(ruck)-Gundam anyway :p. So where do you draw the line?


Err... that makes no sense to me :/
Care to elaborate?

Sure, in short, prices are market driven. These guys are fantastic G1 toys as people have pointed out, but because they haven't been popular, prices have fallen through the floor on them, meaning you get great G1 reissues, but for around the same price, if not less, than what the originals went for. Heck when my mother bought me the original Ratchet when he was in a stack of Autobot Cars at the front of K-Mart, he was $20- double what I paid for each of these guys.

In short, great toy, made incredible value due to unpopularity sending prices through the floor.

Like I said, a total no brainer.