Who is your favourite Fuzor toy?

[GoktimusPrime]

The thing that bumps Silverbolt down my list now is something that's always bugged me about that toy -- the hips. They just don't lock together very well and are highly prone to coming undone during toy play. Having said that, I really love the overall aesthetic of that toy as well as he can either shoot his missiles as ranged weapons or hold them as melee weapons. Although it is kinda weird how he can't really aim at where he's shooting since this wing tips either point up or sideways (the cartoon gave his wings forward articulation but the toy never had it). I just make him bow down so that his wing tips point forward and fire.

Arctorro's gonna hate me for this, but Noctorro was the one and only Fuzor that I never bought when these toys came out! Yes, I even bought Injector but not Noctorro! Noctorro always looked kinda bland to me. Injector is sinfully b'ugly, and I kept on laughing at that pegwarmer every time I saw it... but eventually Target had it on sale and part of me went, "Go on... I dare you!" Injector really is just a stupid toy (JMO, apologies to the one person who voted for him ). I did eventually get Noctorro from a collectables fair, so my Fuzor collection is complete. And I don't mind Noctorro either, but I must admit that I was never interested in buying one in stores.

Also bear in mind that I was a uni student with a significantly less disposable income compared to an adult in full time employment (although on the flip side I was still living at home ). I did buy all the other Fuzors plus all the Transmetals (plus a few BWII toys), so that was already stretching my more limited budget thin.

[Arctorro]

Arctorro's gonna hate me for this, but Noctorro was the one and only Fuzor that I never bought when these toys came out!

lol

Nope, not even slightly. I actually understand completely. I also got Noctorro to try and complete the set (still gotta finish that at some point ) and was a bit unsure about him.

It was playing with him later on, trying to figure out if I liked him, that I realised that he could most likely swing through the trees like a monkey as well as fight in the air and on land. That really fired my imagination! Plus the spring-loaded gimmick didn't, for once, ruin the toy for me. No other BW toy sparked my imagination like Noctorro, that's why he quickly became my fav.

Now I need to dig him out of storage and sit him with my Mutants. Bugger, what box is he in...

[Deonasis]

I like Injector for his absurdness but i really enjoy the transformation of Sky Shadow with his feet up at his neck and tail/head.

[SuspectimusPrime]

Only had the Universe version of Silverbolt. What a crazy deco. Though he held together well with none of the issues Goki seems to have experienced.

I might have bought more as a kid (or an adult) if more characters were introduced. The cartoon used one actor for each character, giving each character lots of air time and really succeeded in character development. They could have reused some of those actors to introduce Fuzor side characters that are only around for 1-3 eps before leaving/killed off.

Fuzors could have been Actionmasters to me. Essentially undesirable toys, but their inclusion in the comics as side characters makes them cool even if they're only given a few lines/panels to show a glimpse of an interesting character, leading to me chasing their recent transformable updates (like Axor from the Lockdown mould).

[GoktimusPrime]

I like Injector for his absurdness

With a head that looks like either a fish swallowing or regurgitating a monster's head, it's pretty much a joke that writes itself.

Fuzors could have been Actionmasters to me. Essentially undesirable toys, but their inclusion in the comics as side characters makes them cool even if they're only given a few lines/panels to show a glimpse of an interesting character,

The Fuzors were also similar to Action Masters in that they did dominate the line. In 1998 there were only two kinds of Transformers that you could buy: Fuzors or Transmetals (not including Machine Wars, which did shelf warm for years in Australia but were essentially an import (of excess stock) from US 1997). One critical difference between Fuzors and Action Masters though was that Fuzors still fundamentally functioned as Transformers. They could still transform (as weird as their alt modes are). And their line dominance didn't serve a devastating blow to Transformers, it did the opposite in contributing to the "Transformers Renaissance" that revived the franchise. In 1990-91 Action Masters similarly dominated the line. You basically were either purchasing an Action Master or a Micromaster (excl. Classic reissues). And we know that Action Masters were basically a kick to the nards for Generation 1.

A good toy is one that succeeds regardless of its canonical appearance, not because of it. If you look at a lot of people's comments about why they like Fuzors (and Beast Wars in general), it's due to the merit of the toys. How much would you care about Action Masters if they'd never made any canonical appearance at all?

[SuspectimusPrime]

You basically were either purchasing an Action Master or a Micromaster (excl. Classic reissues). And we know that Action Masters were basically a kick to the nards for Generation 1.

I don't consider them at the same level of desirability (giving Fuzors a 5/10, whilst AM a 1.5-2/10), but I think of them as the same in terms of their arrival - at the end of a line, with design inspiration, new engineering ideas, budgets, time etc all running thin and the toy company just needing to come up with something fast that 5-up's the existing line in coolness to sell plastic. Going garish or out of the world seems to be popular (AM, Fuzors, or Beast Hunters).

A good toy is one that succeeds regardless of its canonical appearance, not because of it. If you look at a lot of people's comments about why they like Fuzors (and Beast Wars in general), it's due to the merit of the toys.

The stand-out feature of Transformers toys against other transforming-toy lines for me is the ability to achieve a realistic alt mode which effectively disguises the robot - in alt mode the less robot bits the better, and for the robot mode the more robot-like it looks the better. Achieving one very different form and going to another is all the designer's ingenuity - which was what compelled me as a kid to pick up my first BW figure, Dinobot. Fuzors broke the rules a bit as you're given an almost completely made up form in which you can essentially take engineering shortcuts (no better example than Injector).

How much would you care about Action Masters if they'd never made any canonical appearance at all?

I've never cared for any Action Masters prior to reading the first 80 issues of the G1 Marvel US comics, despite having Starscream and Jackpot (and another guy in a green chopper) as a kid (I had G1 Starscream and never understood why toy engineering took a step backwards with the AM Starscream). This was early in my uni years and at the time I was reading a lot more history and took on a great interest in the stratagems used. What the fiction did do for me was build up a huge interest in Krok (which motivated me to search for a MISB carded version of him on/off for a number of years, until the TFCC FSS repaint of Generations Megatron was released). The depiction of Krok was a clever piece of toy-marketing and became the hook, line and sinker for me.

Leaving it here before the the topic is derailed!