Bee today

 

I was severely tempted by G2 MP Bee.

 

The Primes of life.

 

A ghostly guy today

 

Right, a big lad today. I went on for much longer about this guy than I expected, so spoiler tagged for ease of scrolling.

I tend to think of myself as a fairly typical UK G1 fan. Aged between five and ten in 1984. Watched the cartoon the few times it was on as part of 'The Wide Awake Club' and had 'Arrival from Cybertron' on VHS. Read the comic religiously week in, week out. It was a very different experience than the U.S. one, where the cartoon was more readily available and the comic wasn't the main thing. Certain characters that Bob Furman/Simon Budianski would barely touch would get starring episodes in the cartoon and us lot over the pond would be in this peculiar situation where we had some iconic toys that barely got a look in as far the fiction went, none more so than Metroplex.

Metroplex was an amazing concept. An Autobot city! Obviously the limitations of toy manufacturing meant that he was really just a pretty decent garage for minibots and combiner limbs. I can appreciate how he's a hard sell for a writer. The mere act of interacting with the other characters requires some logistical problem solving. He got one, admittedly quite impressive, scene in the UK comics and even then he was saved as a last resort. But as a toy he was pure gold and in the winter of 1986 it seemed like every Transformers fan I knew got Metroplex for Christmas.

Spoiler

And he was such an exciting thing. He came with so many bits and pieces, some of which even combined to form a robot?!?!?. I spent most of Christmas Day with this guy. The playability factor of this thing was incredible. Optimus Prime had seemed pretty fucking cool the year before, what with his trailer which turned into a little repair platform and roller, but he didn't compare with this. In my hand it had that tactile addictive quality of a rubicks cube; I just didn't want to put it down. Changing it through all the modes, experimenting with in between modes, different configurations, driving scamper round and launching him from the chest. It just came with so many bloody options. They'd take the idea to its limit the following year with Fortress Maximus.

But let's go through them systematically. In his robot mode Metroplex stands tall above most of the rest of the others, though Magnus and Galvatron come close, and is easily stockier than either. He's still an impressive and iconic looking robot and his legs, in particular, were really well articulated. We've all made Metroplex do the splits. His chrome face has a certain haunted quality that's unique even within the Diaclone designs. As most folk know, Metroplex was one of the last Diaclone designs as he was intended to form the 'Free Combination' line along with the 'Special Teams'. Looked at as a complete line Metroplex and the combiner teams make an impressive little subline. It's a pity more wasn't made of their relationship to each other.

Metroplex is one of those ones where I can't achieve full objectivity and nor would I particularly want to. There's loads of things about the robot mode I could pick fault with, such as the peg in hands, but doing so would be disingenuous. I love this guy. I love that I can pose him with his little nuclear family or I can rip six gun to pieces and arm Metroplex up with shoulder cannons and massive, fuck off, torpedo like guns with firing bullets. I can have him all civilised and polite or I can pop out his chest rockets and the flip round shoulder cannons. If I want to go totally wild I can start plugging Aerialbots into him because....so that he...well, I can. And that's enough.

I should give Sixgun and Scamper a bit of attention. Six gun makes an incredibly awkward robot. I think I only ever wanted to put him together when I as bored and wanted something to occupy my hands for a minute. It's a great little added extra but it's hardly the most memorable feature of the set. Scamper I always wanted to like more. With his sinister looking robot mode and his really rather cool car he should have been a great little addition, but I think it's the fact he was all just black did him a little injustice. Just a few stickers here or there would have made such a difference.

I never had a great affection for the battleship mode. It was cool that you could roll it around on its rubber wheels (I had the rubber wheel/chrome leg version and was always glad of that), and I definitely made the most of that in the one room of the house that had wooden floorboards. It's the least convincing mode of the three and the one that seems to fit least well with other Transformers. But man! That city mode. I still think it's amazing. It's such a smart, economic design. It makes the most of the robot's fairly simple design and unfolds and sprawls out, attaches all the little extras and suddenly it's a convincing Cybertronian building with towers, ramps and helipads. They improved on the 'city' detail when Takara re-released this as Metrotitan, with the little lights that the stickers represented, giving it the feel of a city (Come on. A city block at best) at night. This was definitely the mode that had the most play value and that 'added value' extended to those underappreciated mini-bots. Suddenly there was a level of interactivity that they were crucial to.

Generations Metroplex was our first 'Titan Class' toy, and what a whopper he was! Just that bit taller than the original G1 Fortress Maximus, previous owner of the 'world's tallest transformer' crown, his size was his main selling point. And it's not a cheap gimmick. As a citybot he finally towers over...well, everyone! And it's not just some oversized brick. This is an incredibly well articulated figure. Hips, thighs, knees, wrists, elbows, shoulders, waist and neck. Even fingers! I picked up a 2nd hand one via one of the trusty Facebook selling groups and thus it came without Scamper or stickers, which is a real pity as both would greatly enhance the lad no end. There's some key points where he looks very bare without the stickers, such as the control tower under his chin. On the upside mine came with some of the nice 3rd party upgrades like a new head with a metallic face.

It's a great design. An update that is easily recognisable as the original but isn't slavish to it. It's only when I really put the G1 toy next to this that all the divergences really jumped out at me. We've got the black helemt with the red ears, the boob missiles and ramp, the funny knee pads. He comes with a lot less guns though, and the guns were a key feature./ We have two, far less versatile, shoulder cannons that are chunkier and shorter than the originals and one big red whopper of a gun that covers as both the torpedo style red guns and the red cannons that fixed onto his back. His proportions are very different too. His arms are massive. Popeye style. His torso tapers more dramatically than the old lad and his thighs are tiny too. It certainly works, he is a well-proportioned figure, but it's a distinct departure.

The battleship mode I'm still not that into, in fact I think this might be weaker than the original. The black runways are a...logical touch but I don't actually like them. I'm cheap, shallow, and nostalgic, so I want them to be white. The little repair claw is a nice touch, but the tiny waist makes the whole thing look funny. It would have been great if it could have compressed down to make a more solid mode...that I wouldn't have liked much anyway. Yeah, alright. Fair point.
Oh, but the city mode! The city mode is great. Chronologically, I reviewed Titans Return Fortress Maximus before this and he was my first experience of this mold. Now, I think Metroplex kicks the crap out of Max at every turn but in citymode he really rubs his face into the ground. Trivial complaints: the ramp could actually go all the way down, the waist could compress down to make something more solid, the legs sprawl a bit too much. Now that unimportant stuff is out the way, let me just rave about this. It's fantastic! The guns make excellent Cybertronian spires. A deluxe vehicle can drive under the knee caps, the helipad! It's big enough to get a big chopper like T:30 Springer on there. There's so many little spots for your legends figures to hang around or man the armaments. And it just looks so good. Everything that was great and fun about the 1986 model but oh so much bigger.

I can't believe I waited so long to get this guy. I was focused on G1 and Masterpiece when this came out. I'm delighted I have him now and I can't wait to make him wrestle Trypticon.

 

Planet X Vulcan/Grimlock for today:

 

Universe/Classics Onslaught

 

This guy. An absolute mini-Masterpiece in every way but name.

IMG_1550 by Kevin Gorman, on Flickr

 

TLK Slug--a very nice deco--and this one's dino forelegs actually tab in nicely in robot mode.

 

Gimme a kiss

 

Henkei Prowl

 

IF-EX20R Wing of Tyrant (Starscream):

 

MP Road Rage!

 

Beast Wars TM Megatron today.

 

Combiner Wars Mirage.

 

MIB Multiforce Landcross

 

For today, Legends Skrapnel and Reflector from a Chinese reproduction run. It's a fun toy.

Most of the issues stem from the unpaintable plastic used for the arms, thighs, and bug legs, mainly some molding flash on the bug legs and some surface distortion(?) (most prevalent on the arms). Aside from that, the entire toy feels solid and, after trimming the mold flash, looks fine (save for the odd metallic flake in the POM whenever present).



Slightly mistransformed to get those pincers up.

I really need to catch up on my Insecticons.

 

Protoform Optimus Prime from the TRU TLK deluxe Optimus Prime 2-pack. I've never been a big fan of the movie toys but I can't put this guy down.

 

Wow! Still in one piece!

 

I bought him back when he was new on the shelves from TRU back in the day as an adult collector. He's never been "played with", just transformed a handful of times and put on display. He's one of the lucky ones.