HAHA! I love the jetpack mode!
Makes him look like the Rocketeer. I guess that makes him the Bot-keteer  

 

With G1 figures, I'd really like to track down a Cosmos one of these days, I liked him a lot as a kid cause he turned into a UFO and I was really into space and stuff like that at the time. I'd imagine hes not hard to come by, maybe they'll reissue him since they rereleased gears and warpath.

 

Yea, he's not hard to come by at all. A quick search finds him for around $9. He's a very simple figure, with not a lot of breakable parts. I have two of them. I purchased both at thrift stores. He's quite easy to find. But, there was already a reissue, (along with a recolor.) So, it is possible that it does get reissued at some time in the future.

But, if I really wanted him, (A third time.) I'd just spend the $9 on him at like TFland.com.

 

“Me and what army...
I’LL SHOW HIM WHAT ARMY!!!”

 

Restored to displayable condition.



This one's been in the family for a long time. I'm happy to see him almost as good as new again.  

 

I love this mold, so much playability in a small toy.

 

Shiny!

 

I love the colors on this guy

 

I got more Pretenders! The last 2 to round out the first wave of the originals came into my possession. After these, I think I’m good for awhile as the later ones are a lot more expensive. We’ll see, but for now I wanted to share my next one with you all. It’s the Autobot Pretender vehicle/robot, Gunrunner.


This is an excellent foil to the Decepticon Roadgrabber. The vehicle is an awesome 4x4 that’s loaded for bear. It has the same gimmick as Roadgrabber too where the turret has the ‘pom-pom’ action when it’s rolling. So many weapons on this beast, Gunrunner seems an appropriate name. The inner robot is pretty sweet too.

I glammed him up a bit with some Toyhax scraps, but Gunrunner has a very solid looking inner robot. The headsculpt is very nice and I like how the vehicle rockets can attach to his arms to use as cannons. I don’t know if the next option was in the original instructions, but I thought it was a pretty cool bonus.

Being that he acts as the ‘landing gear’ in his alt mode, Gunrunner just kind of acts like a stump for the detachable turret to sit on. But I thought it would be cool to bulk up his bot mode by having the turret/jet pack attached to the bot mode. It does limit his arm movement, but it really gives him a nice silhouette. I feel like this allows the robot to contribute more to the overall purpose of this set.

Now, in the actual alt mode, Gunrunner may be just a lump under the jet, but he’s a good looking lump. This is a really cool jet mode. I gave him a couple more faction symbols on the wings and the canopy. Really makes it pop more. No ‘pom-pom’ action in this mode though.



Gunrunner can even sit in the vehicle mode. It’s a little awkward. You have to leave his legs folded up for him to fit well enough to close the canopy, but it works. And I just wanted to note that I really like that the original stickers are still on this set. They’re still in really good shape too. But it’s all mostly for the outer vehicle, so I felt the inner robot deserved some love.

This set is a lot better than I thought it would be. It’s hard to pick a favorite between Gunrunner and Roadgrabber. The Pretender vehicles are really fun with lots of playability value and cool options for interactivity. Highly recommended if you’re into the late era G1 toys. Just try to find one that’s complete so you can get in on all the fun.

 

Just as a headsup, your picture doesn't seem to be showing.

 

Plasticos IGA Transformers "Pipes" - white torso version (1987)



All the best
Maz

 

I recently managed to get ahold of a working Galvatron figure after a couple years, but most, if not all of his stickers seem to be in pretty rough shape. I was planning on getting some reprolabels for him but I didn’t know how much the value would be affected if I were to replace the stickers. Does anyone know how much the value would be affected?

 

Bit of re-issue Starscream.

 

If he has shit stickers, there will be no negative value effect in replacing them. It's nearly always easier to sell a clean vintage figure with zero stickers than tatty rubbish stickers, worse case you can always remove repro labels.

But why worry about resale value if you prefer the look of a fully restored and cleaned up figure? It's not exactly a rare piece to begin with. Make it how you want it and enjoy it.

 

If there's one thing I've learned here it that you can do whatever you want with your toys.

Reprolabels have made mine better. It's awesome to see my old toys renewed.

 

Hopefully it's not something that will be an issue for you in the future, because improving him how you would best enjoy him in your collection is where the true value lies. If you come to sell it one day, the new buyer can of course replace the applied stickers with vintage stickers if they see fit. Galvatron isn't a massively rare G1 toy anyway, so making one look great for your collection shouldn't bother anyone  

All the best
Maz

 

Thanks for the input. A but new to vintage figures so I’m not too informed on certain things. Appreciate the help

 

I finally picked up a vintage Hasbro G1 Kickback with the yellow chest, because with all the orange chested reissues around, it's been hard to try and communicate why the vintage European Ceji Insecticons were special with their boxart-accurate orange chests. No longer!



Also, look how much taller the Hasbro version's wings are compared to the Ceji!

All the best
Maz

 

Kickback is underrated. I love his bot mode