Why Headmasters? …why not? JB-01 and JB-02, a.k.a. Headmasters Optimus Prime and Soundwave!

What was originally a slight trickle of 3rd Party merchandise has turned into something more like a spate in recent years. From replacement heads, to replacement limbs, to powerful armor upgrades, I have had some difficulty being able to justify why or why not to purchase these offerings.

My rule is usually pretty easy at a high level: I will buy almost any piece if it helps a pre-existing, official toy become closer to their fictional appearance or somehow makes them a better expression of the character, within reason. The “within reason” is because there are some things I consider too expensive to be worth the enhancements it provides.  For me, a prime example of this are the CrazyDevy.com Devastator upgrade pieces. The combined form is wonderfully articulated and cartoon-accurate but at roughly $30 a piece (and 5 different parts in total, at last count), just not worth the cost. Though “worth the cost” is very, very subjective, and spans a range. The previously mentioned Kup 01 set being the low-end cost-wise, but extreme high-end for quality of enhancement. Mid-range for price, but still extreme high-end for enhancement is the Universe Hardhead upgrade. On the high-end for cost, but also extreme high-end for enhancement are the Wreck-gar Add-On pieces from Maiden Japan from which I made Dregs and Dross.

There are some things that will break my rules right away. If you offer almost anything Headmaster or Targetmaster, I will probably buy it as long as it makes sense to me. For instance, I did buy FansProject’s “TFX-05 Sidearm”, which was basically an updated version of Hot Rod’s Targetmaster partner, Firebolt. However, I did not buy the “Targetroids”, These basically took Hot Rod, Optimus Prime, Starscream, and Megatron and turned them into Targetmaster weapons. I didn’t quite understand the point of an Optimus that turned into a gun and Megatron was already a gun, so that just seemed superfluous.

However, turn Optimus Prime and Soundwave into Headmaster heads and give them their alt mode as well? Sure! Why not?  That is exactly what 3rd party group “Junkion Blacksmith” has done. No, I am not pretending that it makes any more sense than the “Targetroids”, but I still love them.

There’s a whole lot of detail going on for figures that are so small, also, there’s no mistaking whatsoever who these guys are.  As for their alt modes? These are definitely the weakest modes for both of them, relatively speaking, but that the designers managed to incorporate decent alt modes at all is very impressive.

However, the head mode is what Headmasters are all about and those are just splendid. They, of course, function as an official Headmaster head would, and can be used with any existing Headmaster toy.

"Back off or I crush the original owner of this body."

Soundwave is a nice combination of his original G1 toy’s head combined with some of the detailing from his cartoon appearances, such as his red eyes. His eyes have some very nice detailing to them as well. Though his intelligence (9) and strength (8) stats are correct, apparently being turned into a Headmaster head has done wonders for his speed stat, which has gone from a 2 to a 6.

Optimus Prime is a little bit of a mash-up between his classics head and his original G1 Powermaster head. His stats all sit roughly at 8, which is a downgrade for both strength and intelligence, but right on for his original speed stat.

"Thanks for the loaner, Stylor!"

Of course, his similarity to his Powermaster head made everyone ask if he could be used in conjunction with his original Powermaster toy. The answer is a definitive yes! Junkion Blacksmith included a small adapter and slots in the bottom of both Soundwave and Optimus’ head modes. Unfortunately this requires the removal of the baseplate from Powermaster Optimus’ head.

Unfortunately this requires removing the screw from the back of his head. As Powermaster Optimus Prime is my favourite G1 toy, I will not be doing this any time soon. However, to give you an idea of what PowerHeadmaster Optimus Prime looks like, here he is, not attached so much as balanced on the top.

This almost makes me want to buy the Targetroid Optimus Prime to have an all-Optimus PowerHeadTargetmaster Optimus Prime.

An’ that, my lad, is how it’s done — old-school style. Kup!

I’m just gonna start this post right off by apologizing to Kup. I have heavily discounted him as a character ever since I was a kid. To me he was always that “You kids get off my lawn!”, old, know-it-all that every kid hated. His original G1 toy didn’t do much to dissuade me either, with his pudgy, wrinkle-filled face.

Look closely and you will see two 5 1/4″ floppy drives on his chest panel. Technology!!

True to form, however, had I just paid attention, I would have seen that Kup may be a know-it-all, and not up for all the shenanigans of these turbo-revving young punks, but he could also kick some serious amounts of tailpipe. It was all right there in the movie.

Kup pulls the tail off a Sharkticon with his bare hands and then proceeds to bludgeon several of them with it; as Hot Rod watches in awe.

What really woke me up to the fact that Kup truly is a battle-hardened warrior, was his portrayal in recent comic book series.

I remember reading some of these issues and thinking that maybe I had missed something. Upon reviewing the movie, I began to see it all, from his first little moment of action– the iconic scene where he jumps on Blitzwing and pulls the triple-changer’s cannon up, causing Blitzwing to miss his Autobot target and hit a fellow Decepticon instead. Kup then does a tidy little dismount as both Decepticons go tumbling down the side of a mountain. All-in-all, a pretty cool scene.

The next thing I remember thinking after reading the comics was, “Oh, cute, because we’re playing up the battle-hardened warrior part, now he chomps on the Transformers equivalent of a cigar?” Then the comics even explained the cigar; after Kup is stranded on a poisonous planet in Spotlight: Kup, he develops a nasty addiction. Prowl — in a morally questionable moment of “executive decision” — replaces this harmful addiction with something called a “Cy-Gar”.

So, for me, lesson learned. Don’t judge a book by its old, leathery, worn, creased cover. This was the perfect time, of course, for Hasbro to announce that they were releasing an updated version of Kup in the Generations line. Now named “Sergeant Kup”, trademark issues weren’t this new design’s only problem. Another was, to be quite frank, his face.

“This is the face I get when I don’t drink my prune juice.”

I can only assume that the designer was aiming for “angry, yelling drill sergeant”, but unfortunately instead they landed squarely in “equal parts terrified-looking and emaciated, walking death”. Seeing a definite gap between the design we had all come to know and love in the cartoon and comic books and what had been delivered, 3rd party creator I-Gear jumped on the opportunity with their “Kup 01″ set.

One of the spiffiest containers for any 3rd party add-on I have ever purchased.

And boy did they jump on it. Each set actually comes with two replacement heads, both absolutely flawless renditions. The first one, “angry, yelling drill sergeant” done right.

“Drop and give me twenty, ya maggot!”

The second head, however, is the pièce de résistance.

Extra guns temporarily borrowed from RotF Brawn.

They actually went and gave him his Cy-Gar!

“I came here for a cy-gar and to kick some tailpipe, and this is my last cy-gar.”

Naturally, I’ll be leaving the cy-gar head on for a while, though the cy-gar itself is terrifyingly small and seems easy to break, so we’ll see how long before I swap it out for the drill sergeant head. Until then, mind-blowingly amazing display piece it is!

It’s Kup when he gets old, and Kup when he gets to be the Transformers equivalent of downright geriatric.

My G1 Kup is the Japanese 2005 Transformers Collection reissue that came with both his Targetmaster partner, Recoil, as well as his original “Musket Laser” (it also happened to come with a redecoed Wheelie for some reason). The Generations release pokes a little fun at the concept of a “Musket Laser” by coming with a “Laser Musket” that is actually shaped like a musket.

To my joy I discovered that Generations Kup can also wield Recoil.

Just like old times, kid!

Though it would have been cooler if we had gotten an updated version of his Targetmaster partner, like the updated version of Nightstick that came with Generations and RtS Cyclonus.

The Transformers Collection reissue has the added larger hole in Kup’s alt mode to mount Recoil.

Because the Targetmaster version of G1 Kup had larger hand holes to be able to hold the standard-sized peg of his Targetmaster partner, the original “Musket Laser” weapon is also modified to have a bigger post. This means it too can fit in either Kup’s hands or on his alt mode. Generations Kup’s gun, however, makes use of the new “C joint” system, to clip on at several points.

Luckily, for those of us that find this a little too… redneck looking (I mean, really? A shotgun affixed to the roof of a pickup truck?), you can also attach Generations Kup’s gun to the underside of his alt mode, where the barrell makes a second exhaust pipe.

Speaking of alt modes, one thing has always bugged me about Kup. His name, if you haven’t figured it out yet, is a play on “PicKUP” as in pick-up truck.

This picture in particular highlights the flaw in G1 Kup’s “pick-up truck” status.

There is no bed or tailgate on G1 Kup. How is he supposed to be a pickup truck? Even a futuristic pickup truck? He’s got far less “pick up” and far more “slide off the back onto the road”.

“In my day, we drove uphill both ways in the snow without beds and tailgates and we liked it!”

A character so powerful he punched his way backwards into G1! Glorious! Lugnut!

Engrish can be very funny sometimes. When Takara was announcing the Japanese Animated toy releases, a rather oddly named listing showed up for “Ragknights”. Animated had been out for a while in America, so all of the available toys and characters had been revealed. This name — whilst not too odd for a country that has used the names ”Kirk” and “Alan” for Transformers — didn’t really line up with anyone we were aware of. Then some Japanese-reading Transfans provided the actual katakana for the characters name:

ラグナッツ

(pronounced Ragunattsu)

What was being incorrectly transliterated into English as “Ragknights” was actually “Lugnut”.

Lugnut joins Armada Tidal Wave and series-mate Blackout in that long list of Decepticon titans with immense powers and inversely proportionate intelligence. As Foghorn Leghorn would say, “That boy’s as strong as an ox, and just about as smart.” (which, in Lugnut’s case, is probably an insult to the intelligence level of oxen.) Lugnut is fiercely loyal to the Decepticon cause in general, and to the glory of Megatron specifically.  However, he also joins Blackout and Animated Bulkhead in having a toy that, despite being a Voyager-class, is rather small.

Part scale comparison, part reason to show See-Through Prime again.

The standard Animated level of cartoon-accuracy is there, but — once again, just like Blackout — a sizeable chunk of his alt mode’s tail is removed to form a weapon. In Lugnut’s case, however, this weapon is even less useful than Blackout’s one-shot-and-it’s-useless launcher. Having only one attachment point high up on the handle means that his toy can’t actually wield it as anything more than a very elaborate, dangerous looking walking-stick

Shown is the "Atomic Lugnut" repaint. I normally don't buy straight repaints, I just happened to find this one on sale for $12.

With the cancellation of Animated, Lugnut would have retreated into the background but, keeping with the theme of surprisingly, delightfully random choices that have become a staple of the Reveal the Shield/Generations line, Lugnut was called up to duty for an homage.

Even though he is an homage to an Animated character, being released in the Reveal the Shield line meant that this particular incarnation was meant to exist as a G1 character. This was then further solidified when the exclusive comic book that came with the Battle in Space set actually featured a scene that placed RtS Lugnut at the original Battle for Autobot City from the 1986 movie. Lugnut had punched himself backwords into a place in history!

Speaking of punches, Lugnut’s signature weapon is his P.O.K.E., the Punch Of Kill Everything. Focusing an explosive charge in his fist, slamming his fist into anything then results in a positively ridiculous discharge of energy. The shot above is only the beginning of the P.O.K.E., the next scene is usually a crater the size of Detroit.

 Originally just referred to as “Explosive Punch”, the title of “Punch Of Kill Everything” or P.O.K.E. was a fan-adopted term that was then made official by series writer Marty Isenberg. Though the Animated Lugnut is capable of doing a mediocre P.O.K.E. pose,

The superior level of articulation on the new RtS Lugnut means he does a far more dynamic version.

The toy designers even included spring-loaded, extendable fists on the RtS toy that simulate this energy punch. Über homage!

Animated Lugnut’s alt mode is, as best described by TFWiki, a “retro-futuristic bomber”. RtS Lugnut incorporates more from the “Atomic Lugnut” repaint than the original, including the sharkmouth decals along the nose, adding his own details like a more realistic paint-scheme and his name spelled in callsigns on his wings and tail.

Of course, that’s probably more to help him remember his own name than anything else.

Offer him oatmeal and he will probably crush your head like a grape. Animated Blackout!

"Diabeetus!"

There. Sorry, I had to get that out of the way first. My absolute favourite thing about this guy is his disturbing resemblance to Wilford Brimley, of Quaker Oats and Liberty Medical commercial fame (oh yeah, plus a whole boatload of great movies like “Cocoon” too).

"First person to mention oatmeal gets strangled by my mustache."

“The largest Decepticon among my ranks and, before the advent of the accursed Project Omega, the largest Cybertronian ever protoformed.”

~Allspark Almanac II

That description sets him up,  Animated Blackout, that is, not Wilford Brimley, to follow a recent trend in Decepticon heavy-hitters. He is described as being intimidatingly large, frighteningly good at destruction, and capable of single-handedly annihilating entire squadrons of enemies. However — like the ‘bot he is an homage to, Movie (2007) Blackout, as well several others — for such an overwhelming character, his toy is decidedly underwhelming in stature. For Animated Blackout insult is then added to injury when he shows up in the cartoon itself with bulk roughly equal to his fellow Decepticons, not impressively large at all, really.

Size discrepancies aside — what? Scale issues in Transformers?!? Noooo. — this is a great figure with only one actual drawback; coming at the very, very tail-end of the Animated line he was only made available in Japan and had to be imported. Basically, this meant that he cost me twice as much as he should have, kinda like a certain flying Optimus Prime from the same line.

One of things that I think contributes to his shortness is that a good portion of his alt mode’s tail detaches to form a disc-firing weapon for his robot mode.

Impressively sized weapon, but only good for one shot? Hmph.

Now, this is the one case of Animated where you can’t say that he is cartoon-accurate, but that’s not a complaint. As you can see in the screen capture above, he only appeared in the cartoon itself in his Cybertronian mode. His toy is actually assumed to be cartoon-accurate to the never-produced fourth season of Transformers Animated, in which Blackout would have received a gunship helicopter earth mode, furthering the homage of his namesake from the 2007 Movie.

The rotor on his alt mode is actually free-turning; not a ill-engineered, built-in, spring-loaded gimmick that only manages to succeed in stopping the rotor every fourth or fifth revolution that plagues so many alt modes incorporating propellers. This thing actually turns.

You can just imagine the WhupWhupWhup sound as he hovers over the battlefield scanning for the next victim to crush.

So, even though he serves as a constant reminder of the wonderful series that should have been allowed to continue but was cut off with no real explanation offered (no, I’m not bitter, why would you say that?), he is an absolute must-have for any Animated collection, if only because he’s just such an adorable machine of death.

Animated Blackout by Fujisaki chan

Yes, friends, act now; destroy Unicron! Kill the Grand Poobah! Eliminate even the toughest stains! Wreck-gar and the Junkions!

As I said in yesterday’s video post, my favourite scene of Transformers: The Movie (1986) is the Autobot’s crash-landing on Junkion, the planet of junk. After detonating two-thirds of their spaceship in a desparate attempt to escape Galvatron and his Decepticons, Ultra Magnus and a small band of Autobots found themselves on a planet-sized collection of debris.

Much to their surprise, however, this was not an uninhabited pile of debris floating through space. This was home to the Junkions. A nearly indestructible race of Transformers composed mostly of pieces of their surroundings, their primary source of communication is snippets from Earthen T.V.

"We talk T.V. You talk some T.V.?"

Though mostly easy-going and very ready to fight on the side of good, despite their goofy appearance and demeanor, it’s best not to take the Junkions too lightly. As TFWiki points out, “It’s probably a good idea to just not mess with the Junkions, as everyone who does seems to die.” Leader of this ragtag group of literal motorcycle hooligans is the mustachioed Wreck-gar.

Voiced by Eric Idle, of Monty Python fame, Wreck-gar — and the Junkions in general — have often been accused of being what’s wrong with the 1986 movie; their completely nonsensical existence proving too goofy for the cynics in the audience. I, however, found them to be a joy. Unfortunately my love of the character didn’t travel over to the G1 toy. Boxy even by G1 standard, it just has none of the character embodied in Wreck-gar. The bigger crime? The toy doesn’t even sport his trademark goatee and long, flowing mustache! Unacceptable.

This is why the announcement that the Reveal the Shield line was going to finally do Wreck-gar some justice made me positively giddy. This toy does oh so much better at capturing the spirit of Wreck-gar than the G1 toy could have ever even hoped to. Eyes chock full of mischief, a huge grin, and — best of all – the return of the ‘stache.

"Happy motoring. Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

After his appearance in Animated had gone the garbage truck route, RtS Wreck-gar took it back to the original’s alt-mode, a motorcycle. A portion of Wreck-gar’s back wheel and his exhaust pipe can be removed and unfolded to become an axe. Then the sides of his front wheel assembly separate to allow the wheel to swivel forward and create the arm mounted shield he sported in G1.

"You check in... but, you don't check out."

As an added bonus, his toy designers also built holes into his motorcycle seat that correspond with the pieces on the underside of his… well, his crotch. This means he can ride himself, or rather, two toys of this mold can be used as motorcycle and rider together. Of course, this allows you to recreate one of my favourite parts of my favourites scene: when one junkion in robot mode is riding another in alt-mode. When they crash, the rider transforms into a motorcycle and the other transforms into robot mode and they switch.

Scrapheap, a remold of Wreck-gar, was announced as part of an extremely pricey e-Hobby exclusive 3-pack. I thought my poor Wreck-gar might have to be rider-less — no way I was plunking down the cash for the 3-pack, no matter my love for Junkions. Then, an absolutely brilliant custom parts maker that goes by the name Maiden Japan showed up on the TFW2005 boards with a thread titled “Wreck-gar Custom Add-on Parts”. Handpainted, custom pieces, he offered a dizzying array of choices — a new head with six colour possibilities, an add-on chest with six selections, an add-on set of spiked shin and shoulder pieces with a cartoon accurate axe in six colour possibilities and two axe choices, and last, but not least, a cartoon accurate, updated spiked wheel shield!

"Whoa! Watch where youre putting that thing. Someone could lose an eye."

The combinations seemed virtually endless. I finally narrowed it down: I would order three Wreck-gar toys and enough pieces to modify two of them into other Junkions. Then I needed names. I thought that the best trash-related names had been taken over the years; Scrapheap, Junkyard, and Detritus being examples just from within Transformers. But then I hit on names for my Junkion creations. Introducing: the Junkions brothers, Dregs and Dross!

Super Rubble Bros. (Dregs on the left and Dross on the right.)

Now Wreck-gar has himself a little Junkion army to command!

Spikey, pokey, stabby fun.

There’s also all that fun rider and motorcycle action too.

"Stop, thief! No welcome-wagon "Hello Stranger" with that new coffee flavor for you! Offer expires while you wait; operators are standing by."

The best thing about that shot is that Dregs is actually balanced on his own in that one-footed running pose.

Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong!

Ironically, today’s post about the inhabitants of the planet of junk is being delayed to tomorrow because of a mess I have to clean up. In the meantime, here’s the inspiration for this week’s posts and my favourite scene from the 1986 Transformers: The Movie, in which our intrepid Autobots meet Wreck-gar and his Junkions!

“I am Wreck-gar! I *dare* to be stupid!” Animated Wreck-gar!

I have said, many times, that Transformers Animated is a joy. The reason it is such a great Transformers line, for me at least, is two-fold.

First, when I saw the animation designs, my immediate reaction was a smug, “Ha! Good luck turning that into toys,” to which Hasbro and company replied, “Challenge accepted.” They then proceeded to create toys that were not just remarkably cartoon accurate, but some of the most fun and dynamic Transformers of any line.

Second, Story Editor Marty Isenberg and Art Director Derrick J. Wyatt understand the importance of the history of the Transformers franchise. This series somehow manages to remain completely unqiue while being positively neck-deep in homages from Generation 1 (American and Japanese), Beast Wars, Beast Machines, The Unicron Trilogy, and Transformers (2007). 

Animated Wreck-gar is an absolute bundle of homages in and of himself. He is, of course, an homage to the G1 character of the same name introduced in the 1986 movie — right down to the mustache and goatee. Originally they even wanted his Animated incarnation to be voiced by his original movie voice actor, Eric Idle. Unfortunately Mr. Idle was busy with the Broadway musical Spamalot. Their solution for this was just grand, they got “Weird Al” Yankovic to voice him instead. This instantly turned Wreck-gar into a double homage, as Weird Al’s song “Dare To Be Stupid” was the soundtrack to the introduction of Wreck-gar and his fellow Junkions in the movie.

Then, throughout Animated, he continues to be a — quite literal — grab-bag of references. His alt-mode is now much more apropos for a robot made of scrap and junk, a garbage truck.

Despite the change in alt-modes from a motorcycle in G1 to garbage truck in Animated, in the scene when he first meets Bumblebee and Ratchet, he throws a number of items at them — he’s quirky like that — including a motorcycle that looks a lot like G1 Wreck-gar’s alt-mode.

In place of the axe-weapon from ’86 are now two odd scissor-bladed melee weapons, which store away and then slide out from the back of his alt-mode.

This is really the only part of the toy that really doesn’t add anything. Granted, it doesn’t take anything away, it just seems like an odd choice. As with the rest of the Animated toys, his robot mode is perfectly cartoon accurate in style from his TV-set head to the fact that he wears the trash bin from his alt-mode as a backpack.

Facial hair is the right of all sentient beings!

Normally Transformer toys wearing a good portion of their alt-mode quite obviously on their back is a bad thing, but in Wreck-gar’s case the cartoon actually provides an explanation for it.

He's not heavy, he's (most of) my alt-mode.

This is where the “quite literal” part of “quite literal grab bag” comes in. In the cartoon, he has the ability to pull a seemingly endless supply of items from his trash bin. Some do have use, like a string of christmas lights used to tie up a brainwashed Bumblebee, (while singing “Wrap the bot with strings of garbage! Fa la la la la, la la la la!”, of course). Most, however, are not so useful; like an accordion (itself an homage to his voice actor, the accordion-playing Wierd Al.)

Overall, he is a stand-out character and a super-fun toy within a line of outstanding toys. Just messing around with him to take these pictures has made me even more excited for June, when Animated invades Botcon!

I am Wreck-Gar! I am only good for one thing... BREAKDANCING!

Huge, emotionless, with no weaknesses and no interests other than conquest. G1 Bunny ears! (Or Cyclonus, if you prefer).

“Cyclonus was a small time demon.”

This was the response when Floro Dery, the… idiosyncratic design supervisor also responsible for designing Cyclonus’ partner-in-crime, Scourge, was asked if he had any special insight or “trivia behind the character” Cyclonus.

I kind of like it.

Cyclonus has never been a ‘bot I have given any consideration, due to my late introduction to the 1986 movie, this remains true of a lot of the Decepticons introduced in or after that point. That is, until I got his Generations toy.

Phenomenal light-piping, look at those menacingly glowing red eyes.

This update awakened a love of this character I never even knew I had. Massively powerful, remarkably effective (not a word often applied to Decepticons), and inexplicably loyal (also not a word often applied to Decepticons), Cyclonus might just be one of my favourite Decepticons of all-time.

"One joke about Trix cereal and I obliterate your planet."

First released in 1986, Cyclonus’ most conspicuous feature is that he pretty much has rabbit ears.

Despite his prominent protuberances, I really like this toy. Just like Scourge, he’s decently articulated for a G1 toy, and has very distinctive facial features. His Generations toy captures all this character splendidly. So much so that, though I very, very rarely buy repaints for the sake of repaints, when the Battle In Space 2-pack ”Anime accurate” repaints were announced, I knew I needed to have it.

Here’s where Cyclonus leaves Scourge in the dust, however. Rather than Scourge’s flying bathtub design, Cyclonus has a very cool, sleek spaceship for an alt-mode.

Also, here’s where Cyclonus’ Generations incarnation beats out Scourge’s. In 1987, both Cyclonus and Scourge were re-released with some slight retooling to accomodate Targetmaster partners. Cyclonus’ new toys have included an updated version of Nightstick, his Targetmaster partner. To top that off, an undocumented feature allows Nightstick to either be held in Cyclonus’ hand or — folding his hand in — you can mount Nightstick directly on his wrist (in an homage to how Targetmasters were presented in the Japanese Headmasters series.)

Nightstick himself is also a nice little update, giving the little guy some much needed articulation.

Included in the picture is G1 Nightstick, but don’t be thrown by the Autobot symbol. I don’t actually own G1 Cyclonus’ partner, Nightstick, but I do own the absolutely identical (except for the Autobot symbol) Targetmaster partner of the Autobot Ricochet, who also happens to be named Nightstick.

Guns, guns, and guns.

The two G1 Nightsticks may or may not actually be the same character; despite one working for the Decepticons and one the Autobots.

However, they are not to be confused with Nebulan, the Autobot partner of Artfire that looks exactly like Nightstick, or Nightstick, the partner of the Autobot Stepper, that looks nothing like the original Nightstick.

Glad we got all that sorted out.

Fearsome, fearless, and absolutely fabulous! G1 Scourge!

“Scourge is the most fearsome and implacable hunter-destroyer created by Unicron from the wreckage of dead Decepticons.”

Scourge’s original Transformers Universe entry makes him out to be the ultimate tailpipe kicker, mess with him and you are bound to end up on the scrap-heap. Scourge’s first appearance was in the animated Transformers: the Movie when the grossly gigantic, planet-eating Orson Welles, errr, I mean Unicron, reformatted a badly damaged Thundercracker into Scourge, the hunter, with his pack of trackers, the Sweeps.

Wait… back that up for a moment. Ok, the G1 cartoons were notorious for endless amounts of animation errors and Transformers: The Movie was no exception in the slightest. Obviously that is the reason for what appears to be hot pink fingertips on our otherwise menacing terminator. Heck, in that picture, the index finger on the right hand isn’t even coloured in. Definitely an animation error.

Alrighty. Not an animation error then. For no reason I can find, in the cartoon, the tips of Scourge’s fingers are hot pink. It doesn’t come from his toy.

"Nope, not even vaguely pink."

Not that I have anything whatsoever against a killing machine making a small effort towards expressing his inner drag-queen, far from it; the Decepticons were always much more enjoyable when they displayed a little personality. Why do you think Transformers Animated works so well?

Most of the subsequent fiction artists have chosen to ignore the pink altogether, giving Scourge hands of all one colour or another. Whomever did the colours on Scourge’s Targetmaster entry in Dreamwave’s profile series More Than Meets The Eye went a different direction, giving Scourge blood-red fingertips instead.

Likewise, whomever designed the colour-palette for the new Generations release of Scourge decided to go with a shade of red for this particular homage to the cartoon. Incidentally, the Generations toy’s weapon is actually two guns that, combined together, resemble Scourge’s Targetmaster partner, Fracas.

"Stained red with the blood of my prey."

G1 Scourge is actually a very recent acquisition for me. I never had much connection to his character and his toy — while serviceable by the standards of the day — isn’t all that impressive. He does have decent arm articulation and has functioning knees. What really makes his robot mode worthwhile for me is his face. Scourge has a rather sweeping mustache and a goatee, evil red eyes, and a menacing scowl. The only place his Generations incarnation fails is in the eyes — light-piped blue rather than the toy and show-accurate red. Other than that, he matches all the detailing of the G1 while providing one of my favourite updates in the Generations line so far.

As slightly unimpressive as G1 Scourge’s robot mode may be, it is still leaps and bounds ahead of his alt-mode. Alternately referred to as a Cybertronian hovercraft, a “scouring vehicle, a marauding automotive mode”, or perhaps a flying bathtub, it nominally functions as a spaceship. Generations has taken this and translated it, rather brilliantly, into an earth mode that works, a Blended wing body aircraft.

To get Generations Scourge into his rather inspired choice of alt-mode is a complex, yet somehow intuitive transformation sequence, including storing his weapons inside of his wings.

His arms are a serious piece of toy engineering genius. They pull out at the forearm, rotate separate from the upper-arm, and slot back in to form his jet engines.

Well, this is the reverse of what I just described, but you kinda get the idea.

Just in case all that wasn’t quite enough, they threw in two more cartoon homages, one pretty cool and the other profoundly grand. First, somewhat displayed on his G1 toy as well as almost all of his fiction appearances, in robot mode his wings are shown to be almost cape-like, wrapping around him like a bat’s wings. His Generations toy’s wings can be unfolded and wrapped around him… somewhat.

But I have saved the best homage for last. In G1, Scourge had a rather peculiar habit of extending his head while in alt-mode.

Peekaboo!

Floro Dery, the rather eccentric design supervisor credited as having designed Scourge, stated in an interview that this was because,

“The heads stick out because the idea is like a regular fighter plane. You can see just the head of the fighter pilot.”

No idea what that means, but – never ones to let logic get in the way of a good homage — the toy-designers included an extra joint that extends his neck in Generations Scourge (though undocumented, the extension serves no other purpose).

"What? It gets stuffy with your head stuffed into your tailpipe all day."

Voltron!

As much fun as these individual lions may be to play with, the combined mode is the reason for this toy.

There's a lot of sharp, pointy bits in that family photo there.

So, here he is, the mecha of the hour, the one, the only, (Lion-Force) Voltron!

Wonderfully articulated, Voltron is the only guy cool enough to be able to stand with my Transformers.

There's a lot of sharp, point bits in that shot too.

Adding to the cool factor, of course, is that rather large, very stabby sword of his, which he can actually dual wield.

"Say hello to my leetle friend."

I absolutely adore this figure. I am cautiously optimistic about seeing what they do with the new Voltron show set to air later this year, and more importantly, what they do in the way of new toys. They have already announced ”Classic Voltron” toys. At roughly $30 for each lion, the completed Voltron will stand between 2 and 3 feet tall! As impressive as that sounds, I’ll probably just stick with my one “classics” Voltron toy because…

Ok, so the smart folks have already figured out that this was just a week-long April Fool’s joke, I am not switching over to Voltron — Transformers remains the one collection to rule them all. Of course, we’ll be back to Transformers next week. Coming up we have two of the most dangerous Decepticons ever, at least according to their toy bios.