I am becoming more and more tempted to pick up a Starscream.


I have PotP Grimlock currently in transit, somewhere between the US and here. Then I may grab Starscream if he appears at retail in a sale somewhere.

As for pre-orders, currently my list is:

LG Overlord
LG Blitzwing
LG Autobot Clones
LG Decepticon Clones
LG Greatshot (I think)

That's it off the top of my head. MT Thunder Manus is in the "to buy" list, along with Wei Jiangs Ultima Guard and almost every Power of the Primes is coughing up.

 

Oh my days. Today is horrible and brutal and I hate it already. I woke up at 7:44am, instead of 7am. I really can't wait for it to start getting much lighter much earlier. It's funny, I used to be soooo good at getting up early because my ex was sooooo bad at it. I'd get up early to make sure I got her out of bed on time. Now I've only got myself and the cat to worry about all discipline has gone out the window. Also it is pissing it down, so that can fuck off too. And finally I don't want to be at work, with stupid deadlines bearing down on me that I'm procrastinating about by posting on here.

Until the PotP wave 2 pre-orders go up, my virtual shopping basket is looking quite bare. The only stuff I've got coming down the line is LG Blitzwing (can't get on with the Hasbro toy accurate face) and the MMC Thunderclash. To be honest, it feels quite serene. Almost like I'm in control of this here collecting habit.

@Large controversial opinions indeed! I'd expect nothing less, you wonderful maverick.

 

Nothing on order as yet but I'm certainly on the look out for the £15 TR Sixhsots appearing in B&M recently. I wouldn't mind also picking up a TLK Legion Megatron too, they're only £2.99.

I also discovered that hzj401 on eBay has the new NBK Constructicon, Dump.

However, they'll all have to wait until pay day later this month as we are skint (xmas and all that).

 

Ok, so we'd had Headmasters and had, largely, bought into the Hasbro mandate that this was the next amazing must have evolution of the franchise. I mean, it must be right? After all the UK comic ran Transformers as the main strip AND the backup strip. And there was this VHS called 'The Rebirth'. It all seemed so confident and it was beyond doubt that Transformers would go from strength to strength.

Rock on 1988!

...

Right, well...ok. The cartoon is cancelled, at least in the west, we get Pretenders and the comic shrugs and gives us nothing more than a bit of hype on the cover. This is the future?

Pretenders were a concept that if I'd been a few years younger I would have swallowed up wholeheartedly. Like, the inner robots have cockpits so does that mean the human disguise shells are like super massive? Can the shell ride inside alt mode? If so, how does the robot shrink inside? Like I say, when I was younger I'd have just shrugged and gone with it, after all I didn't ask any questions about Soundwave and Megatron when I was little. Of course, it didn't help that the fiction seemed as confused as I did. In the half-hearted comic (they didn't even bother strong arming Furman into writing something this time) the Autobot shells were giants. Like, why?!?!?!

Cloudburst was one of the four '88 Pretenders I saw in my youth and he felt like the one that Hasbro really wanted you to buy. And that's kind of fair enough because he kind of embodies everything that is both great and awful about Pretenders. But let's talk awful first. It's so much more fun to be shrill and judgemental.

His shell looks like a fat kid in a romper suit. With a BDSM kink. Seriously, how'd he find his mum's whip? All the Autobot shells suffer from this. All bloated looking in their space suits with those eyes painted in such a way that they look like wide eyed pre-teens. And at time when I was getting used to the (relative to the time) super-articulated Action Force (aka G.I.Joe) figures, to get something that only has shoulder articulation is as lame as lame can be.

And the alt mode is really, really bad. He tucks his legs up and he's kind of a jet. It's another thing that all the Pretenders suffer from. Some wear it better than others but none of them wear it well. It's a far cry from the early Diaclone days, with its very faithful real world vehicle modes that took priority, at least in terms of design, over the robot mode.

If you're a fan of Pretenders you're probably throwing stuff at the screen by this point, but if you've been nodding in agreement I'm probably about alienate you too. I really like the robot mode. It's just so much better proportioned and articulated than what we'd been used to seeing in Transformers up to this point. And, as I've already alluded to, by 1988 I was getting a taste for well-articulated toys. Sure the articulation is still pretty basic, but it's amazing how much of a difference being able to turn your head and bend your knee makes.

So as we got towards the midpoint of Titans Return and started contemplating what the third part of the Prime Wars trilogy was going to look like there was two, amongst many other, questions that kept coming up; what happens to the Titan Master price point and how could you update the Pretender gimmick for the Generations line. 'Prime Masters!' came the answer.

Now, I was a late adopter with the Titan Masters but fell hard for them. Because of that I almost feel predisposed to liking these guys. They have that same little tactile joy where you can change them back

and forth and fiddle with them without even looking - as if they were some sort of fancy executive stress toy, but I can appreciate how those that love Pretenders will resent having their old favourites reduced to something about the size of my thumb.

But I'm not one of them. I think this is an ingenious solution to the problem, and I'm happy to see the design team reach a similar solution as Simon Furman did in his IDW days, with the shell being armour that an actual transformer fits in, rather than some sort of weird flesh suit. I particularly love that the inner robot peeks through the visor. I think I'll miss some of the diversity of the Titan Master designs, but I know that I'm going to love lining up all twelve of these guys. (PLEASE GIVE ME LONGTOOTH!)

Of the first three Prime Masters I think Cloudburst is probably the weakest of the three. There's something kind of bland about his design, at least compared to his wave mates Skullgrin and Metalhawk. I will say that I'm really happy with the paint apps on this guy, from the little blue face on the inner robot to the detail on the armour. I hope this level of detail is maintained. We're getting fewer Prime Masters than we got Titan Masters, so hopefully the budget will be robust enough to accommodate the extra paint apps throughout.

While the whole Prime glyph thing is nowhere near as much fun as the great facesculpt's that Titans Return allowed, they are kinda cute. I think Cloudburst might be the only one with even a hint of the hot foil stamping I seem to remember being one of the mooted features of these dudes? The gun mode is pretty cool and I find these Autobot Prime Master guns looks particularly sweet when plugged into any of Fortress Maximus.

I'm not sure I buy into the whole 'one of the gods of Cybertron is hanging out in this diddy wee armour' schtick. But that's ok, I don't need to buy in to enjoy these dudes. The wave one Prime Masters are off to a pretty cool start, but I've got to say that I'm really looking forward to wave three!

 

I wanna like that twice, mate. That is pretty much my feelings about these lads and the original Pretenders as well. The paint apps on these tiny dudes are a cut above my expectations. Maintain that and the sculpt work and my money is theirs.

Fucking lovely read, that.

 

What did you say ? It's Barry time.

Oh, how I know the feeling. "She's gone ! Let's not do anything !" "For a bit."
Be careful though, my bit is still running !

Courage et des bisous.

I know right ? Isn't it strange, this soothing feeling ? Let's sink into this pleasure for a while.

Ha!
I Knew it!
Honestly I'm the first surprised by it. It's not like it's a very good toy (I don't even want to transform him)(which is sad), but yeah, those goofy proportions... I somehow managed to look at them in a very amusing and smooth way. I do like it ! He's special, let's say.
I bet Windblade likes it.

I wouldn't want to disappoint you, dear freebooter.


Addendum:

My thoughts, souvenirs, about G1 classic Pretenders:



About the POTP Pretenders:

 

Spent twice as long as usual crawling in traffic to work, the rain brings the idiots out in people.

On order for this year so far:

TR Ramhorn (ID Toys, should’ve been delivered back in November)
LG G2 Megatron
LG Windblade
LG Overlord
Metroplex (Paid for, awaiting delivery)
LG-EX Grand Maximus
LG-EX Great Shot
MP Dinobot
FansToys Rouge

And put me down for some wave two POTP when the pre-orders are announced...

 

I did wonder if that Ramhorn from ID Toys was a real, tangible thing. I think @Master Disaster (another NP postcode local) might be having the same issue.

 

MP-39 Sunny doesn’t require any cheat and can do a pretty dynamic The Run (but not The Face though  ).

 

Cheers Jon! I saw some worrying hints that the wave 2 guys might be getting less paint apps but I hope they're wrong. Bludgeon and Octopunch are big deals for me, and I'm going to be a proper whiney brat if they scrimp on the detail on those two.

Close! I actually have a leopard print dressing gown.

And you never do!

There's a perverse bit of me that really, really enjoys someone coming along and saying 'I love this goofy toy that everyone else has a downer on'. Perhaps it's some sort of reaction to that weird mood that's prevalent in this fandom, the snarky, horrid, 'comic book guy', 'has-blow', 'all 3p is a bootleg and your collection is full of bootlegs' snide-ness that comes out at the drop of a hat. I'll buy into your brand of joyful enthusiasm any day of the week, my sweet! I didn't start collecting toys again to be a fucking misery about it!

YEAH BWOI!

 

Now then, @motorthing, don't be relying on me just because I'm obsessively compulsively checking up on the Kapow site whilst extrapolating wildly! Amazon Slugslinger was a lucky fluke, I'm unreliable narrationally!  


@barry 'tis the season for S.A.D. I've currently got a cold sore'd nose and a real propensity for hibernating at the moment. It's been an utter bugger & a mighty effort just getting out of bed recently, not through any kind of real depression but general comfort, warmth and the ability to perceive how cold it is and how shitty the weather is from said bed. Like you say awaiting a bit more blessed light and brighter days. (And Wave 2 still.) Hope you gets more brightness in yer life soon, brah!

Cloudburst was always m favourite of the Wave 1 Pretenders, Waverider & Landmine (the latter of which I owned) were basically yoga-loving robots with guns stuck on for Alt modes. Yeah, Landmine did have wheels but I felt sold a pup that they lacked the sweet tread design of his artwork. Plus Hasbro QC seemed particularly sloppy at the time with the very common issue of his soft plastic fist splitting & cracking due to the robot mode gun handle being a smidge too large (and sturdier plastic). For how skinny the robots were the shells seemed a bit unnecessarily portly and, as an Action Force/Joe figure owner, the articulation didn't impress me, such a simple transformation and no elbows? My Starcom dudes have the same articulation, and they're only an inch-and-a-half high!
But Cloudburst?
Yeah, he was still a yoga lover but his gun integrated in a nice way that extended his jet nosecone for a (to wee Chris's eyes) more nicely proportioned jet AND you could flip out his wings in robot mode seeker-style for a 'flying robot mode', and whips were cool, Indiana Jones has a whip (Smol Chris was a bit more innocent, and hadn't quite grasped the crux of the strange appeal of Catwoman but, boy, did he like seeing Julie Newmar when she cropped up in an episode!)!
Plus, I never owned him myself but got to play with my mates a few times so there was also the tantalising so close but so far of not-actual-ownership.
I think it could have been Landmine that kept me from buying him myself actually, the truth is it's lost to the mists of time I don't really know.

I'm loving the Mini-Pretenders resurgence and, down the line, if they got a reuse as headmasters with deluxe bodies and shell weapons like the way I've cobbled Metalhawk together I would be entirely up for that or the same scale but the inner robots were little flip-n'-change micro machines-ish dealies (because teeny-tiny vehicles and bots that scale would be ideal for populating base bots AND I could see them extrapolated to still simply-transforming wee "Action Masters" with larger converting vehicles at Deluxe or maybe even up to Voyager or even Leader (Countdown, you KNOWS it!) scale but I digress.
Cloudburst is the dullest this far though. I'd have been more forgiving if his gunbarrel had mimicked his G1 gun but, while post-Predator I drew gatling guns on pretty much everything, I find them a bit generic now but, yeah, Skullgrin wins as best self-contained PM (Metalhawk's lure is that, swapped out, he's the most 'proper' Pretender now).
I am glad that the 3mm fists have allowed me to express his kinky side with Lego accessorisation, though I wish I hadn't had to paint so much of his torso to sort out his deco, and, yeah, about that "hot foil stamping", with the write up on the process stating it could be used for shmancy fancy metallics or even holograms thePrime symbols look, well, pretty much painted standard, whatta gwan ahn dere?

You & @Large are wrong about Screamer though he's mah BOI! Except they should have made his Primemaster connect a proper cockpit you could put a PM in in either mode and see inside there, instead of them godawful flippy-flaps!

I don't mind the jet platform boots, sky romper stompers that really look like they have the thrust capacity to believe a giant robot can fly whether in jet mode or not!
They tried too hard to serve two guv'nors by slapping foily toy details on a perfectly fine sculpt (oh, and the forearm guards should've been gang-moulded with the grey bits)!

 

I'm confused

 

For real, right? This too shall pass and come March and April I'll be up and at 'em at 6:30am doing sit ups and talking the cat for a walk round the park. Or something.
And same to you, brother man! Shall we go halfsies on a load of natural light bulbs?

I love reading about why folk loved a certain toy when they were wee. Maybe that's obvious from my rambles. It's always a joy to read someone going deep on it.
I should say I think PotP Cloudburst is only boring in comparison to his two wave mates. I really think he's totally brilliant!

Hey hey, let's not tar @Large with the same brush as me. You two are pretty much leading the screamer cheerleading squad! More power to the both of you.

 

Not trying to bag on the Big Fella or lumping you together in the naysaying, I just disagree that he's any worse than an Aerialbot and about his floofiness but it already seemed a bit of a wordy post to get into it, and I meant to hyperbolically (and humorously) express and contrast my outright enthusiasm in shorthand to what read (at least to me) as @Large's somewhat more ambivalent like/rationalisation. Perhaps S.A.D. thinking has coloured my interpretation of his words?

 

Wait !

*translate lumping*

Oh.

Neat.

I'm in !

(and it's ok, the aerialbots thing was humorous too. I mean, like that altmode underneath) (love your enthusiam about him) (I can get behind ! I really like the bot mode)

 

You need to translate 'lumping' but have no problem with 'floofiness'?
*Interesting*  

 

Floof is universal.

 

I just had 3 floofies this morning.

 

I genuinely read you both as being really enthusiastic about him, and loved it! But on a second reading I totally see what you were responding to.

So while I'm this frame of mind and shuffling off the 'Student Number Planning Exercise' to one side, I went off to look at my beloved Terrorcons. I think I love the Protectobots best. Ever since those first 'Special Teams' ads started coming out in early '86 it was always Hostpot and co that I was drawn to. But if I'm brutally honest I really do think the Terrorcons were best 'scramble city' style combiner (Predaking's a whole other story). Those freakish alt modes. I think they're the only guys I display in their alt mode, rather than their robot modes. They were a cut above their peers.

And I think that might wind up being as true for the Prime Wars combiners as it was for G1. I mean just look at these two! Blot's face! Rippersnapper's teeth! I really can't wait to get my hand on these and doo all the comparison shenanigans. I think they might wind up being the highlight of the entire PotP line.