The ‘bot, the myth, the legend. G1 Optimus Prime!

My favourite Autobot is Wheeljack. My favourite Decepticon is Skywarp. That being said, the heart and soul of  Transformers is Optimus Prime.

G1, when box art design was pretty much “What You See Is What You Get”.

For the longest time, the only version of his original toy’s mold in my collection was my G2 Optimus Prime.

Much like my G2 Bruticus, basically I skipped over all the reissuesof the G1. I especially ignored the 2008 release when it was attached to the rather ridiculous price tag of $75. Even with the included reprint of the G1 comic (of which I already have the original), the dvd with all three parts of “More than Meets the Eye” (episodes I have multiple times in multiples formats), and the Autobot symbol with sound effects, G2 Optimus and his big honkin’ guns of death was doing just fine for me, thank you.

But as it often goes with collecting, something can come along and change your mind about a piece. This time it was a combination of somethings. First: price drop. Apparently a lot of people weren’t happy with the $75 price tag and by the time I decided to buy him, he was already half that, a very reasonable price for everything that came with him.

Second: nostalgia. I decided that even though I still didn’t need the toy of Optimus Prime only in brighter colours, I did need that trailer. Despite the fact that it disappeared and reappeared auto-magically in the cartoon, Optimus Prime’s trailer is about as iconic as he is. Don’t get me wrong, I love the black, “Optimus Prime” emblazoned G2 trailer. There’s just something about the original that puts a smile on my face.

You’ve got to respect a Commander that carts around his team’s mobile headquarters.

Since it wasn’t included in the instructions for the original Hasbro release, as a kid I never knew about the trailer’s third mode, the “repair bay”. Originating in Diaclone years of the mold, the repair bay mode shows up at about :12 and then the very end of this absolutely awesome original Diaclone commercial,

For the record, I have no definitive idea where I came across the two little Diaclone pilots I own. I know I’ve had them at least as long as I’ve had my G2 Optimus (personally purchased off the Toys R Us shelves in 1993) and I think I might have bought them at a garage sale. Strangely the metal of their feet are not magnetized. In fact, I’m not sure how, but the metal pieces on their feet (or at least they certainly feel like metal) don’t even stick to magnets.

So knock-offs or not, they technically count as the only actual Diaclone-only pieces in my collection. Strange.

Speaking of “the only one in my collection”, Optimus is the only Transformer I bought in the Smallest Transforming Transformers line.

Caution: Depending on your screen resolution, product may appear larger than actual size.

I don’t remember which Botcon I picked him up at, but I didn’t bother hunting down his shortpacked trailer.

Until my most recent move and re-organization of my display, I displayed the G1 reissue set in its box (hence the unapplied stickers) as it sufficiently showed off the trailer that I bought the thing for in the first place. When I went to set up my new Optimus Prime shelf, I decided it was time this guy came out of his packaging and I didn’t stop there. I had another Optimus Prime that had been on display in box.

In 2007, to coincide with the release of the first movie, the PepsiCo “Transform Your Summer” promotion caused me some alarm. I badly wanted the Pepsi Optimus Prime that Hasbro had been selling at certain conventions, but short of buying one off ebay or entering codes from bottle caps to try to win one in the promotion, I was out of luck. Turns out I wasn’t as out of luck as I thought. My core problem was that, Pepsi or Coke, it didn’t matter because I don’t drink soda; at least not soda that hasn’t had some form of alcohol poured into it. Given this, the quantity of alcohol to go with the quantity of soda I would need to drink to get enough codes to ensure a win wouldn’t have been doing my liver any favours. Luckily a friend up at work drinks unholy amounts of soda, specifically Mountain Dew at the time. A pile of bottle caps would show up on my desk throughout the day, untold amounts of codes were entered. Not only was it enough to win, I didn’t realize I had won and kept playing. Shortly after my first Pepsi Optimus Prime showed up in the mail, a second showed up.

Pepsi Optimus Prime owes his origin to a somewhatr roundabout homage. He is basically a release of the 2005 promotional “Pepsi Convoy” from Takara with altered Pepsi logos and decals as well as the shortened smokestacks that have been standard for Hasbro releases. The interesting thing about Pepsi Convoy is that he is presented as being a different character from G1 Convoy.

“Refreshment is the right of all sentient beings.”

Hasbro’s version has some paintjob differences, such as the change to the logo on his shoulder. Also Pepsi Optimus Prime is the same Optimus we know and love, only now able to (and this is a direct quote from his bio), “hook up his fellow Autobots with some free Earth delicacies they rarely get to enjoy.”

Luckily for those that like to keep these guys Mint In Box, the soda bottle he carries is a cardboard stand-in.

So, Pepsi Optimus Prime from Pepsi Convoy back to the original Pepsi Optimus Prime.

Thanks to TFWiki and TFU.info for the image, the closest I will probably ever come to either of these releases.

Only released in North America, the “Pepsi” part only comes from stickers that could be applied to the trailer of what is otherwise just a standard Optimus Prime toy.

One of the things I didn’t realize about the 2007 Pepsi Optimus Prime until I opened him, is that he includes the original, thicker version of Optimus Prime’s gun.

It may not be the convoy (ha! See what I did there?) that some have, but I quite like my little three and a third Optimus Primes.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have just enough to display at least one in alt mode with that beautiful trailer full of nostalgia.

Even with elongated missles and shortened smokestacks, he still puts a smile on my face that goes all the way back to ’84.

He’s big, he’s bad, he might even be battlin’, but this Dudicus is somewhat awkward. Fall of Cybertron Bruticus!

As I mentioned in Jazz’s post, in the Fall of Cybertron line everyone is tremendously more bulky in game form than they appear in toy form.

There’s a million and one real world reasons for this and in my opinion it’s fine in most cases. I find the bulging designs of most of the characters in the game to be too much, I like the slimmer look of the toys. However, nowhere is this difference more apparent than the default combined mode for Fall of Cybertron Bruticus.

One arm longer than the other, his top is spindly, gangly, lanky, awkward; whichever word you choose. He takes the weight loss paradigm a little too far and definitely doesn’t have the impact his game incarnation has.

With the proportions reversed, using Swindle and Brawl for arms with Vortex and Blast Off as legs, things don’t any better.

Also, despite being a Scramble City style combiner, there really is a kind of default with Vortex and Blast Off as arms.

Fortunately you don’t have to do the default transformation for Vortex and Blast-Off.  Unfortunately this lead me to an even bigger disappointment.

One of the best parts about this incarnation of Bruticus is that he has actual hands; unlike a majority of modern combiners, …

Not just hands, but each one has the ability to be either a right or a left arm,  meaning each one has right and left hands — some by simply rotating the thumb piece around to the appropriate angle, some just have two full, separate hands. Though Brawl gets the award for worst, the best hands are actually on Swindle. Vortex’s karate chop/salute hand really annoys me.

From left to right (and worst to best): Brawl, Vortex, Blast Off, and Swindle

So, how to use the best hands when they are both on the guy that is best used as a leg?

Step one, easily extract said hands by removing two screws and sliding them off their bars with Swindle none the worse for wear. Steps two through done; cut some dowel rods, make alternate transformations for Blast Off and Vortex, attach the hands, and voila.

The best hands in the set with a transformation that makes Bruticus a little less lanky.

Any other potential flaws are inconsequential enough that this alone moves these guys from “pretty ok” to “freaking awesome”. Also, falling in the “freaking awesome” category is the packaging for the exclusive G2 themed set.

Adorned with G2 Decepticon symbols and completed with painstakingly accurate original-style box art, the box itself is a masterpiece.

The lettering, the colours, the “Clip and Save!” Bio and Tech Specs, all perfect. One thing the package doesn’t do, is make one mention of Fall of Cybertron.

Why is this important?

Well, fictionally, it means there is no actual tie between this incarnation of Bruticus and the one from the videogame. Yes, the videogame has downloadable content to use the G2 coloration, but it also has a G1 Optimus Prime skin you can use.

So, why should you care?

You shouldn’t. Unless you run the TFWiki, in which case you then have to include the retail, SDCC, and TakaraTomy releases under “Fall of Cybertron” but include the G2-themed release under G1.

I’m still only including these guys on my War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron display. Continuity gives me nosebleeds.

The sum of his parts versus the Dudicus as a whole… your mileage may vary. Fall of Cybertron Combaticons!

With the two “game accurate” (not counting downloadable content) releases being ridiculously expensive — the San Diego Comic Con version initially selling for a laughable $100 and the initial import prices for the TakaraTomy release putting it at $150 before shipping, I went with the $60 G2-themed BigBadToyStore/Amazon.com exclusive. Providing even more odd symmetry to my personal saga of Bruticus, the G2 version is most likely the only one I will keep in my collection. There is a retail version, but as I discuss later, I’m only picking up the rest of them if I find them discounted; in Onslaught and Brawl’s case, heavily discounted.

On that ominous note, how do these new incarnations stack up against the originals?

Onslaught is the biggest disappointment for a lot of people. Though most say he is a disappointment because he is a deluxe release, not a larger, perhaps Voyager release, I disagree. Him being the same size class as the rest of his squad makes perfect sense to me for a number of reasons, primarily the fact that he does not appear much larger than the other Combaticons in the game.

Most important for me, his arms lack shoulder articulation which is just inexcusable in a modern Transformer. Also, they missed an easy opportunity by not allowing his gun to attach to his back in robot mode, like it does in combined mode.

My own biggest complaint against Onslaught has to be his mess of an alt mode, especially considering how straightforward the original Onslaught’s alt mode was.

Chief among my complaints are that his robot mode arms and hands are just a little too visible and his alt mode is missing most of its mass in the back. With its missing rear middle section, this Onslaught clearly stole his alt mode from G1 Kup.

From my least favourite we move on to my own personal biggest disappointment. Brawl shares Onslaught’s issue of having way too much hanging down in the back in robot mode. Though the reason he is my biggest disappointment out of the set isn’t even the toy’s fault directly. He has two cannons instead of one, his head is all angles instead of the boxy helmeted look, and… yeah, there’s just nothing really Brawl about him at all. Given that Brawl is my favourite G1 Combaticon, this make me sad.

Also, in the War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron world the hover tank is done absolutely to death already. They managed to pick the most boring design of all to give to Brawl.

Moving away from the two slight disappointments, there’s the three designs I like the best in the set. Swindle is really good from the front and actually comes off slightly bulkier in the upper torso than his game model.

Much like his sleazy sales-based personality, it’s all a front. (Haha! See what I did there?) Turning him around reveals a robotic skeleton.

His alt mode is really well done, this is helped along tremendously for me by the fact that his alt mode is the basis of my second favourite level from Fall of Cybertron. In Chapter VII: Belly of the Beast, tearing along at breakneck speeds under the Autobot Energon Transport endeared this little “Assault Transport” to me.

I not entirely sure what it is, but there’s something I really like about Blast Off’s design.  Unlike Brawl, Blast Off’s head is clearly an update of the original.

The fairing of his humongous engine forming his shoulders gives him a very distinct silhouette.

In fact, I liked him enough that, when I saw his retail release at a discount, I grabbed him so fast it would make your head spin.

I have to say, his alt mode being almost 50% engine is grand.

My favorurite of the Fall of Cybertron Combaticons is easily Vortex. Not so coincidentally, my favourite level in the game is Chapter VI: Death from Above a.k.a. “the Vortex level”.

As my favourite, it didn’t take much for me to buy his retail release.

The reason he’s my favourite, though, as I pointed out in my post about the game, is Vortex’s alt mode was the best thing about the game for me. The toy does a wonderful job of capturing that.

I wish there would have been some sort of alternate transformation that mimicked the video game’s booster flight mode.

The other thing I am wondering is why they gave two swords to the guy with four blades already permanently attached to his arm. I like to think that Blast Off and Vortex end up on missions together quite a lot (like the one in Chapter VI) so they swap weapons.

Overall, out of the five Combaticons, there aren’t really any I would call outright failures and as display pieces they all work.

All together, I can easily imagine them as an elite Decepticon squad. Well, assuming they all lived through that last battle that sent Bruticus spiraling off into space and potentially hurtling back to Cybertron from orbit.

Speaking of whom, next up, Fall of Cybertron “G2″ Bruticus: is he big? is he bad? is he… battlin’? (What does that actually mean?)

A mighty post (or three) for a mighty metamorphin’ Dudicus. The Big, Bad, Battlin’ G2 Bruticus! (Oh, and Ruination too.)

First, I apologize.

Second, watch this:

Third, I apologize, especially if that was your first encounter with the infamous “Dudicus” G2 rap. That was brutal (NO! That was Bruticus!) but the more I watch these old G2 commercials, the more I realize how awesome they are. Sure, “awesome” in the “so bad it has looped itself back into greatness” sense of the word, but awesome nonetheless. What, ultimately, does this have to do with the rest of the post? Nothing.

Moving on.

Bruticus was one of those that I hunted down during G2. Of the G1 combiners I had only ever wanted to complete the Combaticons. However, despite my best efforts, I was only ever able to get my hands on my favourite Combaticon, Brawl. After acquiring the G2 ‘bots, I used it for years as an excuse never to go back and get the G1 versions. Providing an odd symmetry between then and now, I still only have G1 Brawl.

It was therefore somewhat ironic that when G2 originally hit Brawl was the only one I was unable to find. It would be years later that I would specifically hunt down a G2 Brawl to complete the set. I am missing Bruticus’ right fist so he has a stand-in for now.

Just when my “Oh, I already have the wonderfully day-glo versions, who needs G1?” excuse was about to wear out, along came Robots in Disguise to provide me not one, but two new choices of the molds. I went with the easier to obtain Hasbro release, named Ruination (one of the best Transformers names of all time) over the more cartoon accurate Takara release.

One great thing this mold did was include a hole on top of Mega-Octance’s alt mode cannon to store the ramp that comes with Mega-Octane. A couple years later, as I was again considering picking up the G1 version, Ruination was repainted and released as a Walmart exclusive.

The following year saw yet another repaint and release as a Walmart exclusive — swapping the unified black, white, and grey camo for a desert theme – but by this time my patience for the mold had run out. Heck, I still hadn’t mustered the wherewithal to finish my G1 set. Some day I will go back and get the other four, though I am still kicking myself for not biting the bullet and picking up the 2009 Encore release.

The individual toys are alright, by G1 standards. Along with the name of their comined form, Ruination, the Robots in Disguise release brought some of the most He-man sounding names to the Transformers universe. Case in point, Ro-Tor, the repaint of Vortex.

Case in point number 2, Movor, the Blast Off repaint. Both Vortex and Blast Off have the best arm articulation, but lack any leg articulation.

The normal-sounding Rollbar, previously an Autobot name, was used for the repaint of Swindle; a block with no real useful articulation.

With an also relatively normal-sounding name, Armorhide, was the repaint of my favourite, Brawl. Granted, he suffers from arms that don’t reach past his chest.

The one name that I go back and forth liking and disliking is the Onslaught repaint; now named Mega-Octane. He also has relatively good shoulder articulation, he shares his squad’s lack of any useful leg articulation.

Arguably, the best part about most of the Combaticons are their alt modes.

Being Scramble City style combiner, he can use the aforementioned ramp to create a “Base Mode”.

As far as military vehicles go — and especially military vehicles being used as alt modes for bad guys — the tank is a pretty obvious choice. One of the reasons Brawl is my favourite of the Combaticons was the particular choice of tank, the Leopard 1, has always been a favourite of mine even with the decidedly G2 Megatron-ish paint scheme he got as part of his own G2 release. Of course, once you add his extra weaponry, he really starts to live up to his bio, “Resistant to most conventional artillery, noisy, irritates everyone and is blusteringly belligerent. He’s a terrifyingly effective warrior with enormous strength.”

Swindle’s alt mode should be considered the short end of the stick.

However, mounting his weapon on this otherwise innocent looking jeep suddenly makes him far more effective in battle.

In truth, it is actualy Blast Off that you should feel sorry for.

“Aristocratic and aloof, disguises his long distance loneliness.”

Awww, poor lonely space shuttle dude. Almost makes you feel sorry for the guy, that is until you get to this sentence,

“Cruelly efficient at raining destruction on Earth.”

If I had to pick a second favourite after Brawl, it would definitely be Vortex.

Though it is certainly not for his plain SH-2G Super Seasprite alt mode, but for the weaponized version of it.

Like I said, I am definitely kicking myself for not grabbing the Encore release of the G1 version, but I’m sure I’ll get around to filling in that particular gap one way or another. In the meantime, enjoy this awkward family reunion.

So, what happens when you take these guys and give them a full on videogame-inspired update? Next up, Fall of Cybertron “G2” Combaticons!

Un-FoC’ing-believable. Fall of Cybertron G2 Blast Off!

A billion points if you can figure out, from the picture below, the issue I am trying to resolve to get my Bruticus post up…

Here’s a hint: notice anything missing?

*sigh*

Still too cool for school. G2, Kreon, Bot Shots, and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Jazz!

I’ve already established that Jazz is the coolest cat you know, no matter what dimension. I think Jazz would most likely be my favourite Autobot were it not for Wheeljack. Of all the dumb things I did early on in my Transformers collecting, not picking up G2 Jazz ranks up there with my most regretful. Seeing him on the shelf with his mind-blowing new paint scheme was just too much for my still G1-centric mindset.

Judging by a lot of the online auctions I have seen out there, Jazz’s new sticker set proved somewhat challenging for kids. Or at least I hope it was a kid that did this.

To fill this hole in my collection for now, I broke down and bought a cheap Reveal the Shield Jazz and ordered the G2 Jazz upgrade stickers from Reprolabels. Moments after receiving the stickers in the mail, the news hit the internet that the very unlikely choice had been made to release an official “G2 Jazz”.  This, naturally, annoyed the heck out of me because I am not a customizer in the least and Reprolabels’ G2 Jazz set required using rubbing alcohol to remove actual paint applications from Jazz. I would much rather just buy an official release and be done with it.

So, boo.

Then it was announced that G2 Jazz would be in a set and an exclusive.

So, yay!

Then it was announced that the price would be surprisingly reasonable.

So, boo.

Then a picture was released.

So… wait, what the heck is that? Nothing against the deco, per se, but that is not even somewhat G2 Jazz. My choice to go the semi-D.I.Y. route now seemed to be a very, very good choice.

As I said, I’m not customizer. I would like to say that removing the red line across the bottom of the front bumper was intentional, but it was actually removed accidentally. I considered getting paint and tape and putting it back, but I actually think I’m ok with it. It pulled attention away from the other added details, and this rainbowed wonderfulness is fine without it. Granted, it wouldn’t be G2 without a big, brightly coloured gun with overly elongated missile sticking out of it.

He still looks amazing in robot mode, still one of the best designs of recent years. Most of the deco ends up on his back in robot mode, so he’s definitely going to get displayed in alt mode; sporting speakers, of course.

This guy isn’t the only Jazz to hit my collection since the last Jazz post (which is pretty impressive considering there were already five different Jazz toys in that post). At this year’s Botcon, free Kre-O sets were being given away and thanks to some trading with an awesome friend (Hi, Rebekah!), I ended up with Jazz rather than a second Prowl — or was it Mirage?

Of course, all I wanted was the Kreon, the construction set itself didn’t even warrant building the alt mode and has joined a growing pile of Legos for playing with in imaginative, none-instructions-directed ways.

Next up is another dose of Jazz rating an “OMG!” on the adorable scale. Naturally, the ever-popular culture maven was given a release in the new Bot Shots series.

His alt mode is very reminiscent of the original “Penny Racer” style G1 minibots.

Which brings us to the most recent Jazz, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Jazz. Like a lot of the characters in the game that were turned into toys, Jazz is pretty much as close to his game model as you can get.

The only thing his toy is missing, is the sense of bulk his game model has, but that would have been difficult to achieve in while still keeping his alt mode streamlined.

His alt mode keeps the sleek lines of his traditional mode but dispenses altogether with the concept of being a passenger vehicle.

He also is one of the rare toys that doesn’t look goofy with his weapon mounted on his alt mode.

I’m assuming that’s just because Jazz is as inherently cool as he is.

Jazz Dance Party!

Speak loudly and carry a “big stick”. G2 Megatron!

Listen… to the voice of doom!

Despite being the most monotone, dullest, least doom-inspiring voice of all time, he does try to follow that up with his “Big Stick”,

Actually, all things considered, G2 Megatron might be the least fearsome incarnation of the Decepticon commander. Just look at that face.

With his impish almost-smirk, he is at least an original mold. Amidst a swath of splendidly garish repaints, Megatron is one of the few to receive an all-new body. This is due to the fact that by 1993 his previous toy, with its Walther P-38 alt-mode, was darn near illegal to release in the United States. Instead, they turned him into a nice, safe tank. A really big tank too. Granted, a really big tank done up in purple and green camouflage.

G2! Yay! Of course, I had already been setup to accept his transformation into tank form by the G.I.Joe comics that served as an intro into Marvel’s Transformers: Generation 2 comic book series. Toy-wise, with no leg articulation to speak of and very little in the way of arm articulation, G2 Megatron’s robot mode is something of a brick. G2! Yay!

Still, his large size makes him an intimidating brick. Also, his gravity-fed, multi-shot cannon is a whole lot of fun.

Definitely one of my favourite pieces of G2. If you don’t have him already, he is worth tracking down. If not the original G2 version, you can probably find his Takara repaint Beast Wars II‘s “Duke of Destruction” Megastorm.

Forget RiRFiB, we’ve got FiPRiNTBF (Frenzy is Purple, Rumble is Nowhere To Be Found) G2 Frenzy!

I originally missed the entire G2 Go-Bots line. Well, to be more precise, I didn’t miss them so much as purposefully avoid them when I saw them in stores. My reason for actively shunning them?

That’s Soundwave. Sound. Freaking. Wave. Not to mention that they did roughly the same thing with Optimus and Megatron. I was so affronted by the names of characters that I loved from G1 being so callously applied to transforming Matchbox cars, I turned up my nose and headed down the aisle. It wasn’t until 2001 and the Robots in Disguise line that I would learn how awesome these little toys actually are. Now called Spychangers, their depiction as a squad of tiny ninjas, each with a “special jutsu”, in the cartoon made me love them so much that I would buy the original ten Robots in Disguise releases, the eight re-released ones that came with Tiny Tins, the first round of clear plastic KBToys exclusives, and the second round of clear plastic KBToys exclusives. At that point I had pretty much put them on display and moved on, occasionally grabbing some of the Universe repaints that I missed. At Botcon this year I grabbed the Universe Spychanger Optimus Prime/Prowl and Spychanger Ultra Magnus/Ironhide double packs for super, super cheap which must have put me in a Spychanger mood. I was stopped in my tracks by a carded, brilliantly purple version of the Hot Shot mold (haha, yes I realize G2 came first, but it will always be the Hot Shot mold to me.) After getting over the gaudy, sparkly wonderfulness of it, I chuckled when I noticed the name on the bottom left.

“Need some help there?”

When I went to look up the G2 Go-Bots, I quickly realized though I spurned the G2 Go-Bots I had seen, I actually did miss a good portion of the line originally, those being the first versions of the molds. The Hot Shot mold, which was the Frenzy mold, after having been the Megatron mold, was actually the Blowout mold.

So, Frenzy was purple. What colour was Rumble? Unfortunately, Rumble never made it. Of course, Rumble would get his revenge on Frenzy for this years later as part of the Alternators line. G2 Rumble was to be in a wave of six all-new molds but they didn’t make it out by the time the line was cancelled. Four of them, including Rumble’s proposed mold would eventually see release as Spychangers. The Rumble mold would be released as Side Swipe.

“Do I know you?” “No, but you almost did.”

Not my favourite of the Spychanger/Go-Bot molds (that honor goes to Crosswise/High Beam), much like Hot Shot’s flame deco, it’s Frenzy’s paintjob that really sells him.

Especially in alt mode.

Wow.

Looks like I’ve got an old line with a new appreciation to keep an eye out for.

I do not think it means what you think it means. Windbreaker!

In the list of names of Transformers that cause laughter, Windbreaker runs neck and neck for first place with Erector. I hardly think that’s fair considering if Windbreaker should be made fun of for anything name-wise, it’s that he shares a name with a type of jacket. I have yet to hear “Windbreaker” and think ”one-who-breaks-wind”, but what can you do? Children will be children.

When I went on my previously mentioned hunt for Scoop I noticed that the same guy had a really good price on a mint-on-sealed-card G2 Windbreaker as well.

As a general rule, I don’t buy sealed items. Mostly because the price is too high for a toy that I will inevitably open. Transformers are meant to be transformed; for me, my collection is a tactile thing. I don’t collect MIB because a Transformer in a box is only half a toy (or in some cases one-third or even one-sixth or one-tenth of a toy.) There are some that agree with that sentiment so much that they buy at least two of every toy, one for robot mode and one for vehicle. I fall somewhere in between the MIB folks and the multiples buyers. Like I said, for me it’s a tactile thing. It’s not just the fact that they are two toys in one, it’s the fact that they transform from one toy to another. My collection is as much a monument to the engineering of transforming as it is to the individual toys themselves.

But I digress.

Specifically this toy was such a good price because, whereas the toy was both mint and sealed, the packaging was definitely not mint. The card had gotten water damage at one point and had warped and turned brown. It was most easily seen on the cardback.

For as little as packaging means to me, I do have to admire the carded G2 toys. Rather than simply adhering the plastic bubble to the front of the card, having the bubble somewhat askew and going all the way through the card makes for a very nice presentation of the toy itself.

Of course, true to form, that admiration lasted a very short time once my very bright orange order of toys arrived.

Free! Free of your plastic prison after almost 20 years!

Ugh. Stickers. I forgot about the “joy” of stickers. However, one stickering session later, I had an orange and bright blue old school Chevy Camaro with a little more detail, like headlights.

Albeit, now also with pink taillights.

The stickers were cut rather poorly. Most obvious was the pink chest sticker that, thanks to the two circles, is quite obviously cut far off center.

This mode highlights my favourite thing about Windbreaker — aside from his very G2 colour scheme — his headsculpt. I had never seen Windbreaker’s toy before and didn’t realize that the orange and bright blue Chevy Camaro was hiding such a great headsculpt.

For such a little guy, he also has some of the best light-piping.

I am quite happy for the turn of events that made me need to hunt down Scoop and inadvertently stumble upon this splendid toy. Also, thanks to sporadic appearances in the Botcon 2010 comic, Windbreaker will now take his place proudly on the shelf with the other G2 and G2 Generations figures.

Growin’ up is hard to do, especially when your teammates flat out refuse to let you. Goldbug!

In the 1986 Marvel comics crossover between G.I. Joe and the Transformers, imaginatively titled G.I.Joe and the Transformers, a case of mistaken intentions (a hallmark to this day of Marvel comics) has unfortunate consequences for Bumblebee.

Three issues later he is brought back in a newly created, more powerful body and declares,

Umm, alrighty then, Goldbug. Good luck on that respect thing.

Anyway, the following year Goldbug received a toy with a very distinct blue version of his original faceplated G1 toy headsculpt. Unfortunately — despite the “dignified” new name — this toy was a Throttlebot, falling somewhere between the simplistic small-child focused Cyber Slammers and Gravity Bots lines sold for the recent movie. About a year and a half later, when the Classic Pretender toyline was scheduled for release, the comic book writers had to get Bumblebee back into his original body. Having been deactivated half a year earlier by a superpowered Starscream, it wasn’t too difficult to have Ratchet rebuild Goldbug,

But why did Ratchet rebuild Goldbug back into Bumblebee? Was that the only schematic Ratchet had on hand to go off? Was there some sort of restriction due to how quickly he had to rebuild him?

No, Ratchet just liked old Bumblebee better than new Bumble-Goldbug-bee. For no other reason than “personal preference” Ratchet negated Bumblebee’s one attempt at “growing up”. That was effectively that for Goldbug.  Ironically, G2 Bumblebee would be a little bit of an homage, intentional or not, being a literally Gold Bumblebee.

Another homage came in the form of Takara’s 2010 rerelease of United Bumblebee, also in shiny gold. I skipped over it as between Hasbro and Takara it was the fifth use of this mold for Bumblebee. I would almost regret that decision when two different 3rd party groups announced they were releasing upgrade heads to turn your gold United Bumblebee into Goldbug. Then, just before the release this year of Beelzeboss’ (the folks that did the awesome Cliffjumper upgrade head and weapons) “Growing Pains” set BigBadToyStore suddenly had the shiny gold UN-07 United Bumblebee in stock and for a price of $30! For an import at all, that’s pretty darned good, for a two year old import, that’s great, so I jumped on it.

Unfortunately the shiny gold paint used is prone to scratching and this toy has scores along the hood due to being packaged in robot mode.

Still, even with that flaw, he makes for a splendidly blinged-out Classics Goldbug, a figure we most certainly won’t see out of Hasbro due to Bumblebee’s new status as the flagship character of the Transformers brand. Of course, I say that but thanks to the somewhat recent IDW comics, Goldbug in their universe has been established as a completely different character unrelated to Bumblebee. Though this approach is understandable, it is a little bit disappointing in its disregard for the origins of the original Goldbug.

IDW, helping make this picture make a little more sense.

Beyond his stint in the Marvel and now IDW comics, Goldbug did make one more fiction appearance resulting in another wonderful toy.  In an interesting twist, as part of the Botcon 2008 Shattered Glass set we get our Evil Autobot version of Bumblebee in the form of “an upgraded form and a new identity as Goldbug”.

Based on the Cybertron Hot Shot mold with a suitably blue new head mold, somewhat ironically it appears it took going evil for our intrepid young Autobot to actually grow up and get some respect from most of the other Autobots.

Also, with the theme for Botcon 2012 being the invasion of the Classics-verse by the Shattered Glass folks, this right here could very well happen some day.