The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

[GoktimusPrime]

Seaspray is coming in an upcoming wave according to US retailer listings, finally. I doubt if Hasbro do Hubcap he will be mass market since he is too easily confused with Bumblebee. I actually got my G1 Hubcap from an Ebay seller that had him listed as "G1 Bumblebee". But only paid like $10 for him around 2010. The seller had no idea what she had.

Clearly not. Hubcap is very different from Bumblebee. G1 Bumblebee is a VW Beetle while Hubcap is a Porsche 924. Pretty much the same body as Cliffjumper, only with a much smaller spoiler.

Fallback is a Reveal the Shield figure, IIRC.

But whether or not that toy is Movieverse or G1 is open to debate... even moreso than Sea Spray or Bludgeon, because it's just a repaint of Revenge of the Fallen Brawn, so there isn't even authorial intent. Also, TFwiki states:
"...before Fallback was mentioned in an Ask Vector Prime Facebook post, it was plausible that the Fallback toy was actually a new form of Generation 1 Outback."
I don't know the post in question (and there is no link to it), but this seems to imply that Ask Vector Prime ruled out RtS Fallback as being part of G1 and as part of the Movieverse.

[prjkt]

I'd like to see Takara do a special Fire Guts Ginrai with the LG Ginrai/Godbomber moulds, maybe even with transparent plastics ala SDCC Sentinel Prime

[Sinnertwin]

I'd like to see Takara do a special Fire Guts Ginrai with the LG Ginrai/Godbomber moulds, maybe even with transparent plastics ala SDCC Sentinel Prime

That would be la bombe, along with a nucleon quest version

[GoktimusPrime]

I went and compared the number of Transformers in G1 with realistically based alt modes vs those with fantasy alt modes and listed them year by year. These are alt modes which are either:
* a actual real thing of specific make and model (e.g. F15 Eagle, Lamborghini Countach, Walther P38 etc.)
* based off a real thing of an undetermined make (e.g. dune buggy, hovercraft etc.)
In other words, robots in disguise (from a realistic/Earthen POV). Anything that didn't fall into one of those categories were deemed as "unrealistic" and not included in the count. So here is how G1 pans out year by year...



Overall view:
G1 started and ended with 100% realistic alt modes.
The lowest was 1987 with the introduction of Headmasters, Targetmasters, Technobots, Terrorcons etc. - all with unrealistic alt modes.

Things to consider:
* 1985's proportion of realistic alt modes drops to 52%, but the unrealistic alt moded TFs are things like Dinobots, Insecticons, Deluxe Insecticons, Jetfire, Shockwave, Omega Supreme and the second year Decepticon Jets (while their fuselages are F15s, the rest of the design are fantasy based). Oh, and Cosmos.
* 1989-90's proportion of realistic alt modes have jumped to 67-68%. Most of those are Micromasters, which do pump up numbers. Conversely, Action Masters were counted as having no realistic alt modes (since they have no alt mode at all) for 1990's count.
* 1991 yielded the lowest result. Bear in mind that the bulk of this year's range were Action Masters and Action Master Elites.

Interesting to note that the final year (or half a year) of G1 gave us 100% realistic alt modes prior to the line switching over to G2 (which was 87% realistic-moded in its first year).

[griffin]

What 1993 toys were not packaged (or considered) as Generation 2?
Both the Generations book and Soundwave's Oblivion don't have anything after 1992 for Generation 1 by Hasbro or Takara.

[GoktimusPrime]

For the purposes of this count all G1.5 toys (i.e. 1993 G1 toys later repackaged as G2) were simply lumped as G1, since they began as G1, and G2 toys are those which were only ever sold as G2 in 1993.
e.g.
1993 Pyro/Spark = G1 ∴ included in the 1993 G1 count
1993 Grimlock = G2 ∴ not included in the 1993 G1 count

I know that the "G1.5" toys can count as either G1 or G2 depending on packaging, but as I said, this was just for the purposes of this project. Even if I listed all G1 and G2 separately, I'd still end up with the same result for G1 since I'm not looking at G2 here.
e.g.
G1 Pyro = counts
G2 Spark = doesn't count
...either way I'd only count Pyro/Spark once.

I'm not personally interested in doing this beyond G1.

P.S.: Although the Generations book does list the 1993 G1 figures in the G2 section, the book does explain that these toys started off as G1 figures but were later repackaged and sold as G2 (p.078). The book also lists both the G1 and G2 names where relevant, and also shows both variants where relevant.
e.g.1 - If you look at the photos of the Axelerators (p.079) you can see that the robot mode photos are all the G1 figures with their pink transparent parts, whereas the photos of the Axelerators in vehicle mode are G2 versions with the smokey black transparent parts.
e.g.2 - If you look at the information about the Obliterators on p.081 you'll see that although the names written in English show their G1 names (Pyro and Clench), not their G2 names (Spark and Colossus). But the Japanese text above shows both their G1 and G2 names; i.e. パイロ/スパーク and クレンチ/コロッサス respectively.
There's further information where relevant under some of their text entries, and there's another text blurb which further explains these differences on the bottom of p.082. It even shows the G1 Axelerators in vehicle mode so that you can see their G1 pink windows compared to their smokey black G2 windows back on p.079.

[M-bot]

Tw/Inferno. An unintentional (I swear!) #deskbot pairing.

[GoktimusPrime]

Video: Some guy in China attempts to have an Autobot insignia shaved into the back of his head...

[FatalityPitt]

Response to this thread

The Jumpstarter gimmick rarely worked the way that it was supposed to, with the toys often falling flat rather than landing on their feet, or sometimes the toy wouldn't trigger properly after its roll.

Yeah, I wasn't a very sensible child back then. When that Topspin toy was in my possession, I used the "jumpstarter" gimmick to simulate Topspin running down or drop-kicking smaller transformers (like Micromasters) - i.e. I crashed Topspin into other Transformers. Admittedly, I did the same thing using Wideload (the Throttlebot) with the pull-back motor gimmick... Those were the days.

But he'll always be a member of the original Wreckers! He also met a pretty gruesome death at Megatron's hands in the Time Wars... as many Transformers did (little wonder that the Autobots and Decepticons who managed to make it out of the Time Wars alive allied themselves as the aptly named Survivors). Wreck and Rule.

I don't hate Topspin as a character at all, and I don't even dislike him; he just never caught my eye. It's the same as how I feel about G1 Sunstreaker from the cartoons. Sunstreaker appeared in the battles, he says a one-liner, shoots his gun, that's it.. Oh and he plays a movie alien in "Hoist goes Hollywood", but that's all I remember him for. To me, Topspin was sort of the comic book equivalent to that. Can't really blame the writer at the time, since there were so many characters, and most Wreckers stories (except the most recent one) usually winds up looking like the "Springer Show" - Springer was usually the main hero or protagonist.

[GoktimusPrime]

Continued from here. Note: This is a discussion about e-Hobby's original prices as set by e-Hobby themselves, not inflated prices set by retailers.

E hobby items are always going to be over priced,

I've been collecting e-Hobby Transformers since 2001 and I've noticed that it was only in recent years that their RRPs have started getting bad. Initially their prices were actually quite good and often comparable with their standard mass release toy's RRPs.

e.g.
TFC11 Astrotrain = 3000JPY / eHobby Proto-Colour Astrotrain = 3000JPY
TFC17 Blitzwing = 3000JPY / eHobby Overcharge = 3000JPY
TFC06 Megatron = 5980JPY / eHobby Megaplex = 6000JPY
...etc.

I've only purchased two eHobby TFs in recent years (as I find the figures less appealing to me, and the increased pricing has further turned me off them), which were Generations Magnificus and Cloud Megatron.
UN-15 Autobot Perceptor = 2415JPY / eHobby Generations Magnificus = 6025JPY
RD-20 N.E.S.T. Bludgeon = 3800JPY / eHobby Cloud Megatron = 6410JPY (I've since sold off Cloud Megs)
Even as someone who's been able to collect eHobby TFs at RRP I've given up on them as I just cannot justify their prices now.

Although in relative terms for Japanese consumers 5000JPY for Convobat isn't too bad considering that LG34 Wipe retails for 4000JPY and Convobat does come with an additional Headmaster figure which Wipe doesn't. Although 4000JPY for the LG Headmasters is already overpriced IMHO. I only bought LG Weirdwolf as a souvenir from my last Japan trip. It was an expensive impulse purchase (and as Tets can confirm, I did whinge about the price at last year's Osaka meet ). Cos Deluxe Titans Return figures retail here for $30 tops, and the little stand alone Titan Masters for $10. Now the LG Headmasters only come with just the drone/vehicles of the Titan Masters, not the additional Titan Masters themselves. So for example, LG Weirdwolf gives you the equivalent of Deluxe Wolfwire with a repaint of Apeface's drone, but not Apeface! So let's say that the drone has a value of $5, cos it's really just half the set. That's a combined value of $35, yet 4000JPY converts to roughly AU$50. So I paid about fifty bucks for the equivalent of Wolfwire plus Apeface's drone but no Apeface! At least I didn't have to pay for postage for Weirdwolf.

Now Convobat is giving us the equivalent value of TR Mindwipe with a complete Titan Master set, so the equivalent of AU$40. But of course, 5000JPY is about AU$60. I know that I'm fortunate in that I'm able to obtain eHobby Transformers at RRP, and I don't mean to take this for granted, but I just cannot justify paying $60 before shipping for a toy with the core value of $40. And I already own two versions of the original Convobat (Hasbro and Takara*), and I own the CD-ROM repaint of Convobat... and I own TR Mindwipe... I really cannot justify getting this toy.

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*The toys are identical, only the packaging differs.