Love it!

Santa Claus gave me a Prowl that I opened up on Christmas morning 1984. Like yours, the windshield on my Prowl broke. I was playing with my Transformers on the stairs (don't know why) one day when I accidentally bumped into Prowl and knocked him down the stairs. The windshield broke off as soon as it hit the tile in the front hallway. I was devastated but I vowed to fix him some day. Fast forward to when the G1 re-issues came out - I bought a G1 re-issue Prowl just so that I could take the windshield off of it and fix my vintage Prowl with it. I made good on my vow to Prowl. Here he is today:



Let's see your Prowls!

 

This is the Takara 00s reissue that replaced my original 84, which I foolishly got rid off years ago. It was complete and unbroken too; a real gem.

 

My apologies. Got distracted the past few days by my sister-in-law’s wedding out of town.

But now, the grand finale to A Parade of Predacons: Day 6

THE PREDAKING!!

 

I acquired this guy’s head, arm gun, and sword. I was not prepared for how massive he is compared to the other teams.

 

Nor was I prepared. Truly massive for a G1 Combiner. And all the die cast makes him a very hefty bot. But so freakin cool still.

 

@Superquad7 and @Swoop Dogg

I have a similar story.

G1 Prowl was the first Autobot car I bought -- I had gotten Soundwave, Twin-Twist and Thrust as a gift, then bought some mini-vehicles (Gears and Brawn) and then saved for Prowl. And as we all know, the roof on the Fairlady is a weak point. And mine, too, broke. I also tried glue and though it kind of worked, it wasn't solid enough. Then during play someone stepped on the gun, breaking it. With so much already broken, I tested what a friend assured me was possible: rotate the lower legs further...he was wrong, and those windows broke as well. But broken or not, Prowl remained an important toy

Several years later we got several Mexican figures in Europe. Outside of Skywarp, Thundercracker and Bluestreak that I had never seen before (and thus were bought alongside with Trailbreaker that I had missed), I also got a Smokescreen for one purpose only. My father who was a model kit builder (1:48 jets) used parts of Smokescreen to repair the far more important and better looking Prowl (sorry @Maz), and gave him stickers from either Smokescreen or Bluestreak. Of course, should've waited a year or so for the European Goldbox Classic reissues.

Here he is alongside the later reissue, which is one of the very few G1 reissues I got.


If I remember correctly, the roof, rear windows, upper legs and upper arms come from Smokescreen and were painted.

Outside of the story, I also kind of like Prowl having the spoiler on his feet. Have considered painting the doors, but I never went through with it.

 

Hey gang! Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place, I'm new here.

I recently picked up this G1 Gears on ebay, and now that I have him I'm unsure if he might be a KO. I was wondering if your fine selves would lend your expertise.

Essentially, he has some mold flashing on the inner edge of his left (stage left) headlight. This is the main concern, as I've never had a G1 figure with any flashing. Upon doing some research, I've found plenty of images etc of the figure that appear to have flashing in the same spot, so it seems it's not just my copy, but I've not been able to find any word on whether it's a common thing with the toy or the hallmark of a KO.

I'm convinced he's not a reissue, as he has the G1 copy stamping.

Thanks for your time!

 

If you wouldn't mind. It's his right leg.

 

sorry bud, I can only find the left at the moment. I'll send you a pm if the right one gets found

 

No worries, thanks for looking!

I'm still in a stage of going through the stuff I found.

 

Seems like an unusual pairing huh? Consider this...



These two figures were designed and released only two years apart. Late 1991 for Star Convoy and early 1993 for G2 Megatron.

G1 Optimus and G1 Megatron were from Diaclone and Microman respectively, completely different lines. Other than Action Masters, this was the first time in the history of the franchise that these two characters got a redesign at a similar time, but these are much larger with a fairly similar chunky aesthetic and they transform. Limited articulation aside they are great fun toys and for an extra tenuous link they're both powered by AA batteries.

Sure, PM Prime got a redesign in 1988 but there was no Megatron to go with him and in Japan he was a different character entirely. Eventually in 1994 both Megatron and Prime shared a case assortment for the first time, but again in Europe these were Archforce and Sureshot, two Robots suffering from serious Leadus Apotheosis.

G2 Laser Prime was another great redesign but like G2 Optimus (reissue of G1) he's a little small to go toe to toe with G2 Megatron, I always thought he worked best against Dreadwing.

So for my money, these are great and natural enemies that display so well together. Just 18 months apart but separated forever by the gulf between G1 and G2. I would love to see G2 Megatron reissued in a G1-esque Silver/Grey Deco to give a nice option for a G1 non-gun large Megatron figure.

 

I finally got something that was on my want list for a long while: convention exclusive Pretender Megatron. Now, Fortress Maximus can be a Pretender, like his brother, Grand Maximus. I just need to take some isopropyl alcohol and remove the Decepticon logo.

 

Is it worth sticking an Autobot logo over the Con logo? That way should you ever sell it (unlikely but life happens) you can easily restore it to factory settings? That's what I did.

 

Ok, I checked my own original G1 Gears and my Japanese book box reissue.

Neither had flashing. Seems like it would be very unusual for an official product; however, my G1 did have a slight imperfection/indentation on the same headlight as yours, so I guess it’s possible.
My reissue is flawless.

What’s throwing me off is the lack of stickers. I’ve heard sometimes KOs don’t have them, or provide a sticker sheet for normally factory-applied stickers. Of course it’s not proof, it could still be an official with the stickers removed. I’m leaning more towards it being a KO, but don’t take my opinion as gospel.

 

Thanks for the reply dude.

From what I can see it seems very common for the figure to have some sort of imperfection on that headlight, which makes me feel a bit better.

As for stickers, I can see from a bit of residue on the plastic that he had at least originally had his chest sticker. The stomach area is pretty clean, but it would seem odd to have had one and not the other.

 

In honor of Halloween I figured I’d post this. My self and a childhood friend from about 1987. I was Coptur he was Prime. Amazing waist passed for costumes back then!

 

Why is the Prime head upsidedown?

 

I was like: "Cool outfits! But... That's not Prime's head...?! Hold on..." *looking at photo upside down* "Why is his head upside down...?!"  

 

Don’t really remember, probably just kids being silly, was only 6 when it was taken.

 

It would be amazing if the people who licensed the rights to make the costume made an upside down mask by accident. I'm guessing there was no top or bottom, just the mask front.