Megatron ain't gonna have no mery for Nemesis Prime. I'm taking all bets....

 

New Video up! Chromedome/Rewind!

 

I dunno, I recon you'd just about get away with the siege head.
You'll just needs to work out the best way of making it it compatible. I think the universe figure is definitely superior (so long as you don't mind it not being toon accurate).

 

"Sunstreaker had expected a hard contest; Megatron was a citizen of Tarn, and here in this arena he had the advantage of fighting in front of a home crowd. But something else was wrong...terribly wrong."
From 'State Games', from the 1985 Transformers Annual.

 

New episode up! Tailgate/Cyclonus

 

A Jazz that has still yet to be topped:

 

United Artfire with Reprolabels.

 

That’s random gun with comes with KO OS CW Powerglide

 

"If it's a fight they want, Sunstreaker, we can give it to them!"
From The Transformers#2 'Power Play!"

 

TFCC 2010!

P/CP and Hot Rodicyclonis!  

Crazy how time flew by.  

 

Selects repaint of Kingdom Cyclonus when?

 

Tracks: what, he can never replace me. I'm gorgeous.

Wheeljack: happened to us, it could happen to you too

 

Crazy how that Generations Tracks scales with Siege/ER... I remember thinking he was a really short deluxe back in the day.  

 

Even if I end up loving Kingdom Tracks (I'm 99% sure I will), I'm never getting rid of that RTS one.

 

You know, for such a massively significant Transformer, Sunstreaker sure did get the short straw in the comics. Ripped in two by Shockwave in the 5th issue of the US comic and then didn’t show up again for five years. Poor guy. I’m aware that he got a bit more time in the cartoon, but you know…I didn’t really see many of them in the UK. C’est la etc.

One of the reasons I hold Bob Budiansky in high regard is those little subversive ideas he got into those early character bios. Making Sunstreaker, and to a lesser extent, his brother, a vain “cold-blooded” sociopath when he’s one of the good guys is a simple but effective hook and goes some way to selling the whole story as being about war, rather than just goodies and baddies. Something that got lost pretty quickly.

So yeah, I didn’t really get a sense of this guy until ‘Perchance to Dream’ came along and promoted the current ‘Classics’ reissues. I definitely remember that cover with Sunstreaker admiring himself in the windows of the building, though I probably skimmed through it to re-read the ‘Bix Barton, Master of the Rum and Uncanny’ and ‘Tales of the Deadman’ strips running in 2000ad (Prog 666, no less). He got a lot more attention in Furman’s IDW run, where he was famously turned into a Headmaster.

Now, I probably don’t need to tell any of you, my learned friends, why Sunstreaker is so historically significant. He was, of course, the first ‘car to robot’ Transformer made for the Diaclone line. Or to say it with fewer qualifiers (and unfortunately probably tempt out some of the pedants), he’s the first Transformer. THE. FIRST. TRANSFORMER. That’s kind of a big thought. Like when you’re a kid and someone explains infinity to you.

And, to be fair, it kinda shows. Those legs are kinda basic (shut up. He can roll on his feet wheels) and the arms are crazy. His fists come down nearly all the way to his ankles, which is hardly surprising when his elbows almost start round his hips. And those hands. Big, chunky, plastic, things that can shoot out his wrists. No holes to hold a weapon. That’s just not how the rolled back then. If you’re lucky you could have a rocket to shoot out instead of a hand.

But he still manages to be a very handsome bot. Which is due, in no small part, to that excellent head sculpt. It’s one of those heads that’s worth rotating 90 degrees to fully appreciate the profile. At the risk of sounding a little too sensual here, there’s such a sensitive curve to his cheek. It’s quite rare on a TF.

But, arguably, the star of the show is the vehicle mode. That bright yellow Countach, with the big, sexy looking engine on the back, is simply stunning. And is a wonderfully, robust little toy. It’s very basic when compared to other Diaclone cars, and is certainly simpler looking that the later Sideswipe Countach, but is no less charming for that. The transformation is kinda nutty and it’s hard not see some choices that seem unusual in retrospect, such as that black flap on the undercarriage and the odd way the driver’s seat forms round.

With the exception of things like the ‘Selects’ stuff and outliers like Crosshairs, I think we’re past the days when a redo meant that Chromedome would get repainted as Getaway. These days it feels like the ‘second’ use is developed so closely alongside the ‘primary’ that those terms become kinda meaningless. Compare Siege Magnus and Galaxy Upgrade Optimus. It’s not like one of them has all the distinctive original character features and the other carries all the compromise. That traffic now flows in both directions. And that is certainly true of how they’ve got Sunstreaker and Wheeljack out of the same mold. In fact, it was a month or so after the reveal that I finally copped that they were retools/shared engineering/redos of each other. It’s satisfyingly inventive.

So way back in wave 1 of Siege we got Sideswipe. Getting his brother felt inevitable. It was just a question of when. ‘Nearly two years later’. Look, if it doesn’t have a question mark it’s a rhetorical question, ok?

I looked and looked at the early reveal photos of this guy and kind of agonised about this guy. Mainly his head. Did he really have a soul patch? Was it squint? Yes he did and no it wasn’t.

I find Sunstreaker incredibly frustrating in hand. He takes odd design cues that aren’t derived from either his toy or his animation model, the soul patch being not the least of which. And then there’s the mis-matched, two tone yellow on him. It’s frustrating. He feels like a compromise, where perhaps if they’d invested a few more resources they might have come up with more elegant solutions. “Nah, give him some weird mirror car feet. We’ll be fine. No, he doesn’t need a gun. We’ll call his engine his accessory” I can’t help but wonder if some crucial resources got diverted away from some of the Deluxes in favour of big ticket numbers like Sky Lynx, Scorponok, and Unicron.

But despite looking a bit off, Sunstreaker is a perfectly able little figure. His proportions are nice and he’s well articulated and poseable. He could suffer to have a bit more clearance around his shoulders, allowing him to fire the gun he doesn’t come with off to the side. Thank heavens for a waist swivel!

So there was much speculation about the relationship between ER Wheeljack and this guy. Observant souls, looking closely, began to muse that these two might share a mold. I, myself went from doubting to being convinced, to doubting again, to being somewhere in the middle. Finally getting them both in hand makes for a very interesting comparison. While sharing some (remarkably little) engineering, these two don’t share a single part (I’m sure someone will feel compelled to say find some wee piece here or there and say ‘actually’ but I’d encourage that reader to hold their piece). What’s really cements it is the fact that Sunstreaker actually stands taller than Wheeljack. They’re totally different figures. I don’t think you could even describe this as a ‘partial’. At best you could call ‘re-cad’ (TM @Bob Schoonover).

It’s when you transform Sunstreaker that you really feel this conceptual ghost of Wheeljack. At every available opportunity it’s the same. And yet when you hold the two vehicle modes together they feel just as different from each other as the ‘bot modes. I think I’d feel more positive about such creative solutions if it wasn’t for the other problems I’ve mentioned.

The lambo mode has all the same problems as the ‘bot mode; perfectly serviceable but nothing like either of the models available, and with a whiff of ‘that’ll do’. The most annoying thing is that I feel like I have to massage the roof to get it to align properly. Also, one can’t help but look at the two big holes at the back and conclude that, once upon a time, he was meant to come two spoiler parts like Wheeljack (these ports are in very different places to Wheeljack’s, so I’m sceptical they’re an artefact of the re-cad).

Wfc has given me so many ‘definitive’ versions of characters that I’ve been able to tell myself I’ll never need to buy another Megatron, or Sideswipe, or Cliffjumper. And while Sunstreaker isn’t crap, I’d replace him in a flash if something just a little better came along. Harsh verdict for such a vain bastard.

 

Nice picture! How did you get Kingdom Cheetor and Optimus Primal early?

 

New episode up! Pipes, Trailbreaker, and Skids!