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 They look like headless chickens.



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



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

http://cgi.ebay.com/Transformers-G1-...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.

[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.

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

[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.

[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.

[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 lol

[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).