Still got nothing for Blaster, but I'm moving on! Leader-1 Infamous for his nicotine-stained yellow teeth, his volleyball-shaped head, and his complete lack of gravitas, Leader-1 is the kind of leader that wants to be everyone's buddy. Was once a high protector along with his then-friend, Cy-kill before being promoted to a sort of leader-supreme role by popular vote. And on a personal note, I think he has it out for Smallfoot. He keeps assigning her to dangerous missions alone. Anyway, dude's a F-15 fighter jet. Near as I can tell, the F-15E is the most modern variation of that jet. They're all being replaced by F-22 Raptors, but the F-15s will be in service at least until 2025, so they're still very much viable, and Starscream from the Bay movies already turns into a F-22. What do you think?
Next up: Rest Q As far as puns go, this is one of the more unusual names on the list. Okay, so Rest-Q like Rescue. But. . . Rest Q?? I'm not sure what the Q could stand for. I'm sure nothing, but what *could* it stand for? Quarantine? Q as in Q from the James Bond movies? Maybe someone at Tonka (or Hanna Barbera) really liked the crazy ol' inventor? I don't know. Well, the original Rest Q is a pretty generic looking ambulance. A large, white van with little in the way of detailing. Let's step it up. No longer a full size van, I think Rest Q should be a Critical Care Unit. Bigger, beefier, LOTS of decals and details that break up the all-white look of the original while still being a white truck. Plus it looks cool all lit up at night (though I'm sure that's true of any emergency vehicle when the light hits their reflective decals). Yep! I'm quite happy with this one. And NEXT!! is Scooter, but we've already done him. NEXT!! Jeeper Creeper Like Hound, this guy turns into a U.S. Army Jeep. Easy solution would be to update him to the current model of Jeep being used by the Army. YAY! I found some info about this thing! ARMY jeep info I don't know, but the tan color might distinguish him from Hound a bit. Of course, everyone would say he's ripping off Swindle then. Either way, it's good. What do you think?
Pathfinder Pathfinder was cool. She always came off as the real 2nd in command to me, not Turbo or Heatseeker. I'm not sure how many appearances she made, but I seem to remember that she was around a lot. And whenever she showed up, she seemed like the kind of person that took command (when Leader-1 wasn't present). Oh yeah, and she turns into a UFO. What to do with that... Well... you're not going to believe this, but I found something that could work for Pathfinder. Something real. . . sort of. I tried finding some sort of plane or other aerial vehicle that resembled a UFO and came up with the SkyLifter. Skylift article It says they've made a couple miniature models, but no full-size one yet. So this thing is a giant inflated balloon basically, but nothing says Pathfinder can't still be made of metal and just resemble it. Seriously, who's going to go up there and check? I figure the crane could retract and she could step on the thrusters to hit speeds impossible to match by an actual SkyLifter. Get an actual alt mode and retain the functionality of her previous one. . . . . Or this may be one time where she should stay as an actual UFO with no Earth-based counterpart. What do you think?
Yes! Well. . . I'm trying to make them a little cooler anyway. Next up is an easy one. Night Ranger Guy turns into a Harley Davidson motorcycle. So easy. *looks at his alt mode* GAH!! What did they do?! OMG, no, no that's not how a Harley is supposed to look! Ugh, let's find something better and quick. So it looks like he's a touring bike with the big front end and the saddle bags. If we're going to do that, then I prefer the. . . 2011 Harley Davidson Road King Classic Not much to say. It's got that classic look that I like with all the new advancements in tech. And it's blue and Night Ranger is blue too. What do you think? And one more: Spoons SPOOOOOOON (s) !!!! I had this toy as a kid. One of my first Gobots. You'd think the forks would be on his arms and he'd be able to use them like blades or something, but someone thought it would be cool if he had knife-boots instead. It still works, though maybe it's not as cool. Gives him lots of stability at least. Oh, and check the name. He's a FORK-lift, so let's call him "SPOONS!" Oh the irony. There's so many jokes that can be made with that. So anyway it looks like he's just a warehouse forklift, not a super heavy duty one. Even his RoTF counterpart, Deadlift, keeps him as a warehouse forklift. So I did a little looking and I've come up with 3 possible candidates. 1. Traditional The classic warehouse forklift look. Nothing wrong with it. 2. Jumbo Size Gotta' admit, I do like this thing. Just looks tough. 3. Industrial Size! Looks more narrow than the 2nd one, but I like the lift arm. Looks pretty cool mounted on the side like that. And a full protective cage? Awesome. I don't know. I'm kind of leaning towards this one or #2. What do you think?
I hope Hasbro does do more Gobots into Transformers like they did with Botcon Bugbite, TFTM Fracture and ROTF Deadlift. I'm a sucker for G1 expansions.
Royal-T was one of the GoBots that none of the writers really did their homework on. His Tonka blister card states that he's a Guardian, but he flip-flops in practically every appearance. In "Escape From Elba", he was a Guardian, but not exactly thrilled about it. He and Street Heat get hypnotized by CyKill into helping him take over the prison. In "The GoBotron Saga," he's clearly a Renegade, seen with Blockhead and the others beating up on Turbo. He's in a couple other episodes but never in any significant capacity. I don't think he's a member of the council...speaking of the council, I wouldn't act like that's any kind of stable canon. With the exception of Zeemon and Leader-1, they really seemed to just pick a few random GoBots to fill out the chairs. I could be persuaded to accept Spay-C (vice president, governor of the moons, etc) and Hans-Cuff (cheif of planetary security) though. A good episode for Blaster's characterization is "Invasion From the 21st Level." He's characterized roughly equivelent to Wheeljack. Engineer and inventor, with a little more "real bots program in Assembler" and a little less mad scientist. He's also in one of the Epic Champions books, I think it was "The Hideaway," where Leader-1 astrobeamed him in from GoBotron for some mathematical theory to prevent the Renegades from opening a black hole on Earth. In "The GoBotron Saga," though, he was the dunce firing missles in the middle of the prison that caused the cave-in that freed Fitor. I think he was also in "Renegade Rampage," but Scooter was the one who figured out how to get through the shield before Tricetti exploded. Yeah, they were a little inconsistent with Heat Seeker too. Sometime he's on the council or important...look at the way he calls out Leader-1 in "A Wolf in the Fold." More episodes seem to go for Hotrod as a jet, including "Invasion From the 21st Level" and "Escape From Elba." Actually, "Et Tu CyKill" really made me take another look at whether Turbo is really a second in command either. He was just a miner that happened to be in the right/wrong place when CyKill and Leader-1 had their falling out. No other episode really ever even hints at that background, probably because the flashback story was produced really late in the series. Pathfinder's pretty competent every time they put her in an episode. They tried to play up a rivalry with Crasher in "Quest For Roguestar," but that kind of went by the wayside in favor of Crasher versus SmallFoot ("Trident's Triple Threat" and "Speed is of the Essence" in particular, along with "Terror in Atlanstis" if the original storyboard has been followed). She should really just stay UFO though, never really liked change for its own sake.
Now you, sir, know your Gobots! I am impressed. Good points about Pathfinder (and everyone else you mentioned). Aside from that AirLifter, there's really nothing that would fit her that I know of. I think maybe the UFO is the way to go afterall. Any ideas for Blaster?
Next up: Waterwalk Never heard of this guy. A Renegade that turns into a Cessna seaplane that eerily reminds me of the plane Michael Caine flew in JAWS: The Revenge. I'm not really a plane guy (I think I've said that a dozen times now), but I did manage to find a current model of the Cessna that looks serviceable. 2011 Cessna 206 Stationair. Yeah? Yeah? I think so, yeah. Who's next? Flip-Top According to the wiki, he's a SH2-Seasprite, which has been retired since the original airing of the Gobots. The current model being used by the NAVY is the MH-60R Seahawk. Good enough for me. A couple cool little facts about this thing, taken from Military.com Cool. What do you think?
how about the newer Tomahawk TF figure Tomahawk (2010) - Autobot - www.tfu.info he had some gobotesque qualities the first time I saw him, I thought of the vintage gobot warpath Warpath - Renegade - www.tfu.info I like you other comparisons, good updates to most maybe Pathfinder could be a stealth fighter now, just more rounded ends??
All you need for an updated Zeemon is to take Botcon Rapido, clean off the G2 crap, and add a firebird decal to the hood. If I ever get up the money to chase down more expensive exclusives, that's the first thing I'm doing. I think Legends class repaints would be a great idea as well. Hell, ANYTHING to expand the Classiverse Legends a bit.
I was trying to stay away from alt-modes that had already been used by TFs, but it seems a bit harder when it comes to flying vehicles. Like, if I want to update some guy with the most current helicopter mode, there's only so many being used by the U.S. today and chances are good that TFs have beaten me to it. So for Warpath there, I think it works. *EDIT* I was just reading the TF wiki article on Tomahawk and it says he's a slightly futuristic mix of the Eurocopter Tiger and some helicopter from the anime Patlabor. With that in mind, why not just make Warpath the Eurocopter Tiger? Yup Yup! Authentic! Which brings me to my next problem. Street Heat Here's a guy that turns into a Camaro. Now if I were to just update him to the most current model Camaro, we'd have Bumble-Bay. The new model Camaro is so closely associated with BB, that I don't think I'd want to use it for Street Heat. Oh what to do, what to do? An older model Camaro? I'm not a big fan of the 80s models, which SH is based on. Maybe like the 68? Or maybe the 2010 Challenger as a modern counterpart to the Camaro? Not sure. Any suggestions?
Okay, I got it. How's this for Street Heat: Yeah, it's an artists' rendition, but still a real car. Not sure what year it's supposed to be, but the more rounded fenders make me think it's 70s or 80s. Or with a big ass intake like SH has: A bit older, and not as rounded as the pic up top, but still pretty badass. The intake is especially ridiculous and mullet worthy. Maybe a combo of the two? The car from the top pic with the intake from the bottom? Also, he needs a mullet in robot mode
I was double dog dared by 138 Scourge of TF Views to come up with something for Scorp. Here's what I got. SCORP At first I was thinking, dur! Robot scorpion! But maybe that's a bit too easy. Maybe we should go the Airachnid route of having a robot mode with scorpion characteristics and a proper vehicle alt-mode. I think I like that idea. If a spider-woman can turn into a helicopter, then Scorp can turn into something too! So thinking about it. . . what kind of features does Scorp already have? Tank treads, scorpion tail, pincher arms. So I'm thinking, a bulldozer with a backhoe attachment could work! But then I remember we already have Energon Scorponok stealing all those ideas. Nothing says we can't also do that, but let's see if we can't get really creative here. Okay. . . thinking. . . oh hell, I should've linked to his page first. Scorp - Renegade - www.tfu.info So now everyone can get a good look at his beast mode. It's a futuristic, mechanical looking scorpion. Very stylized. Very sleek. Very low to the ground. No, a bulldozer won't work AT ALL for this guy. I look at his beast mode and think aerodynamic. A bulldozer is anything but. Maybe a sleek sportscar with really big front fenders, that would convert into his scorpion claws for bot mode? So here's the first suitable thing I came across. The Scion FR-S Concept. LOOK HOW MEAN THAT LOOKS!! And the headlights are a dead ringer for Scorp's beast mode eyes! Doing him like this, I think the tank treads would have to go. He could still have car wheels for feet in robot mode. TFs have shown us that it can be done, so I see no problem there. The front fenders, while big and curvy, I feel could be even bigger. I can totally picture some scorpion claws hiding in there. There's a really good side-view pic of the FR-S that shows off just how big and curvy the fenders really are here: Video: Scion FR-S Concept shows off its curves — Autoblog So what do you think? Is it up to snuff? And here's a few new ideas submitted by Automan2000 of the Allspark: And here's one more from me: VAMP I'm skipping to this guy, because he's (she's?) freaking cool and turns into the freaking batmobile. And by complete chance, I found the perfect REAL-WORLD car for him/her. Check this out: The 2010 Citroen Survolt Concept Car. Oh yeah! Here's a ton of info on the thing: 2010 Citroen Survolt Concept - Car News, Pictures, Price and Specification on Lincah.Com But if you just want to see it in motion, check out this short video: YouTube - Citroen Survolt driven by autocar.co.uk‏
Wrong Way I used to have this guy. He was a pain to transform. The legs were the tricky part. On the show he was a complete moron, with literally no sense of direction. I remember one episode where the Guardians and Renegades were facing off, and Cy-kill was standing no more than 50 feet away from Wrong Way, and WW was frantically shouting, "Where is he?! Where is he!?" Leader-1, of course, pointed him in the right direction. He is the Gobot embodiment of the old Looney Toons idiot, saying, "Which way did he go?! Which way did he go!?" Ahh, so anyway, he turned into a kickin' Apache helicopter. The most current version in service is the AH-64 D, so that's what I'm going with. Check it out: Apache Block III Program: The Once and Future Attack Helicopter And next up is: Scratch Another Guardian and a Ford Bronco. Coolness. Don't remember ever seeing him on the show. So let's just skip right to the alt mode. Um. . . so apparently this is the 2012 Ford Bronco. Erm . . . not sure I like it. I guess it might kind of grow on you after staring at it for a while? Hm. . . you know, I think it does. It's starting to look less horrible now. Okay, I'm good with this. What do you guys think?
I know Copter was already talked about, but I’ll re-mention him again on a type of helicopter I would like to see him be redone as, who wouldn’t want to see as a transforming chopper a HU-1 Huey Gunship.
