I bought a parts lot off eBay a while back, and there are a few parts that belong to figures that were redecoed with very similar color schemes on their weapons. I have none of these figures for reference, and it's impossible for me to tell by looking at a computer screen. If you guys can answer a couple questions for me, though, that might help me narrow things down...

1. Energon Rodimus and Energon Checkpoint... Both have clear orange accessories, but are they the exact same shade or is there a variation?
THEY'RE PROBABLY THE SAME - thanks, Prime Noble

2. Energon Downshift and Universe Downshift... Both have clear red accessories, but are they the exact same shade or is there a variation?

3. Alternators Meister and Alternators Shockblast... Both have an engine/gun with gray pieces, but are they the exact same shade or is there a variation?
THEY'RE THE SAME - thanks, heltskelt

4. G1 Rodimus Prime and TRU Commemorative Series Rodimus Prime... Are there any discernible differences in the rifles? Any mold variations?
YES THERE ARE - thanks, engledogg

 

I had Rodimus and still have Checkpoint. I didn't see any difference between their guns.

TFWiki might be a help to you if you type in the Character name and scroll down to the toy section of the character.

 

Thanks for the reply about Rodimus/Checkpoint. Much appreciated!

And believe me, I tried using TFWiki... plus tfu.info, Transformerland and Fred's Variations. Between the four I was able to identify most of the parts I bought off eBay, but the parts above are so similar that pictures don't help, and I didn't see any descriptive language that cleared things up one way or another.

 

I'd say you're safe enough with the other weapons particularly Rodimus Prime.

 

try a facebook group, I don't think anyone here knows the answer

 

There is a slight mold difference between the G1 Rodimus Prime and Commemorative Series Rodimus Prime Photon Eliminators.

Images courtesy of shmax.com.

G1 Rodimus Prime Photon Eliminator:


G1 Rodimus Prime Takara Reissue Photon Eliminator (which should be identical to the G1 version):


Commemorative Series Rodimus Prime Photon Eliminator:


The mold differences seen on the Commemorative Series version are circled in red below:

On the original, there's a vertical ridge towards the front of the gun that seems to have been removed from the CS version (1) and (2) some black plastic was added to the middle of the CS version of the gun.

Regarding the missing vertical ridge, I wanted to make sure it was missing on both sides (since the guns compared above are positioned in opposite orientations). I found a YouTube video in which the missing ridge can be observed in the YouTube video below at the 2:54 mark (side note: the added black plastic can be seen, as well).

Seems like a trivial change to make, I guess it could be that they assumed it was an error on the original and smoothed it out for the reissue?

As far as the additional black plastic goes - I'm guessing they added it for increased strength to make it harder to snap the gun in half.

Hope this helped.

MIKE
engledogg

 

Mike, thanks so much. This was extremely helpful!

 

Only two questions left... thanks for the help thus far, everyone!

 

Just compared the exhaust weapons on my Alternators Jazz and Shockblast. They’re identical.

 

Awesome, thanks a lot!

 

With the downshift there seems to be no difference and/or The energon ones seem a little bit darker.

 

That's pretty much why I'm turning to you guys, in the hope that someone has both figures and can compare them side by side. Because honestly, there's simply no way to tell by looking at online photos, and tfwiki.net doesn't say one way or the other if the weapons are the same or different.

On tfu.info, the weapons photos of the two figures are the exact same photos, presumably because they consider them to be identical:

Energon Downshift missile (tfu.info)


Universe Downshift missile (tfu.info)



Granted, if you look at the photos of each in vehicle mode on tfu.info, the weapons look the same:

Energon Downshift (tfu.info):


Universe Downshift (tfu.info):


However, if you go to tfwiki, neither of them looks like the shade of red in the tfu.info photos: the Energon figure looks distinctly magenta, while the Universe figure leans toward pink.

Energon Downshift (tfwiki):


Universe Downshift (tfwiki):


Adding another wrinkle is the fact that the tfu.info photos of Superlink Downshift look similar to the pinkish weapons of tfwiki's Universe Downshift:

Superlink Downshift missile (tfu.info):


Since I don't have either of these figures, the only way for me to know for sure what I've got is for someone who owns both versions of Downshift to look at their pieces side-by-side. If they're reported to be the same, then I know what I've got. If not, then it falls to me to get in front of actual specimens to compare with my missile.