The Soapbox VII: The Top 10 Transformers of 2008

[STL]

Sky Lynx may have been reissued in 2008 but he was designed in the mid-1980s. The reissue, being faithful to the G1 design, remains relatively unchanged. The strength and appeal of a G1 reissue is its authenticity and historical accuracy.

I never said it wasn't.

But assessing a G1 toy, even a reissue, by 2008 standards is looking at that toy out of context. That would be akin to:
+ Comparing a remastered version of Star Wars "A New Hope" with "Revenge of the Sith" and saying that the special effects in Episode IV are bad compared to 2005 standards.

Unfortunately, context doesn't always matter. It's important at times but others it can be utterly irrelevant. To a small segment of collectors, having G1 vintage toys is a very cool thing but as I've aluded to, the vintage collector is a dying breed. I think that everything realises that it will not be judged in context but by how people respond to it and that in all of its complexities is only fair. People do not sit down 20 years on and try to appreciate the context in which a said movie was made.

They watch it and either enjoy it or not. And I think the same applies to toys. And often there are a number of reasons as why a person likes a toy. I felt in composing my list that G1 reissues could not make the cut b/c while they fulfilled in 2008 a necessary and desirable niche, it didn't have the balance of nostalgia, engineering and fan/fiction appeal that other toys did. So yes, it fulfilled a criteria but it didn't satisfy others in my assessment where I tried to be as unbiased as possible b/c as you can see there are plenty of toys on my personal list that did a lot for me but just couldn't make the cut when I looked at it from a range of other factors..

Woohoo! Lists!
...

1. TFA Lockdown
Lockdown is hands-down my favorite TF figure ever. Sure the alt mode can be a little plain in features but from such a small compact vehicle into an surprisingly unbelievable tall robot mode with nary a kibble or obviously visible vehicle mode parts. Then there's his alien like looks due to his spindly lanky stature and his creepy disjointed hands (which I still believe to be purposefully bent to add to his outlandish character and not a design error). Then we have that cobra like neck lined with spikes/studs that creep over to his back and a skull like face sculpt with some intimidating facial features. Let's not forget the hook weapon just to make him even more outlandishly freaky. I'd gladly buy any and all repaints of this mould.


Phew. That was longer than I expected. Just got swept away with all my thoughts when I got started.

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Great write up too, Stompy. While I'm very very surprised to see you pick Lockdown you've definitely helped me to appreciate the toy more b/c my original position was exactly the same as Gok's. I have too many QC issues with it to care. My legs always pop off no matter what I try and it has a tendency to flop down. But you've made some great points there about its uniqueness. A pleasure to read.