Way back in 2009\2010, a distant relative sent me a crapload of G1 toys for Christmas. Amongst them were Metroplex (a truly glorious figure imo), Hubcap (when his Selects got announced I was the happiest man alive) and all three Decepticon Double Targetmasters, who quickly became three of my favourite TFs, even if they weren’t quite as complex or even good-looking as the more intricate Bayformers I collected at that time. Anyway, a decade on the Bayformers have been replaced by a bookcase full of CHUG (mostly WFCT) and I’ve been waiting patiently for Hasbro to redo the guys I had way back when, the original toys having returned to their owner. Quake was picked up from eBay and worked out as an excellent use of the Hardhead mold, and Siege Spinister was probably the best figure of that entire line, and perhaps one of the best in the entire trilogy. Alas, Quake came out before Targetmasters returned as ‘Battle Masters’, and Singe and Hairsp- uh, Shrute were comically hard to find in England. Add Needlenose’s apparent inability to win fan polls, and it looks like it’ll be a while before the entire Double Targetmaster crew is together officially beyond pricey TFCC takes. But that’s why customs exist! I already posted my take on Needlenose and his two Targetmasters, Zigza- uh, Zputty(?!) and Sunbeam, but they were a bit messy, so I had a quick once over and repainted some areas. But the local Entertainer shop was positively heaving with Aimlesses, and I found a Blowpipe for £1 in B&M, so an idea quickly formed in my head - it was time to complete the dang Targetmasters of my youth! Zputty and Sunbeam Repaints of Aimless and POTP Vector Prime (who I chose both for the mold difference, but also because there is a small country’s worth of Prime Masters warming the Entertainer shelves right now.) Things quickly hit a bit of a roadblock when it turned out the Battle Masters have unpaintable plastic arms and legs, so I had to fire a fair bit of sealant at them later on. Fortunately, the gun modes weren’t too effected. Singe and Shrute (Nebulan Armour) These guys actually came out in Siege! But one of them was with the insanely hard to get Skywarp set, and the other never showed up in my local Entertainer, so it was another case of custom madness. I probably should’ve used Blowpipe or Firedrive for one of them, but I had to work with what I could get my mitts on. I lopped off their earpiece thingies for OG toy accuracy, and stuck a bit more to the original colours than the Hasbro ones did (a lot more colour on the arms and legs basically) so I’m declaring these the ‘Nebulan Armour’ editions. It’s just like they’re legit figures! And stuff! Tiptop and Heater It was at this point I went slightly mad with power. To recreate Tiptop’s single barrel, I decided that, rather than just buy a single barrel Prime Master again, I’d take an X-Acto Knife to poor Blowpipe’s cannons, then stack them on top of one another to create a single long barrel! To be fair, it looks a bit neater once painted (although it snapped right off after being sealed, so it had to be reglued) and the orange-purple combination really pops imo. Heater was yet another repaint of Aimless. I shaved his cannon barrels down a bit to differentiate him somewhat, but it’s not the most graceful of mods. Whoops. Like Singe and Shrute, they also lost their ears in the name of toy accuracy. so that’s the team, reunited at last. Very pleased to have finally cobbled together a beloved group from my youth, even if I had to get my hands dirty (or, owing to a mishap with Tiptop’s barrel, bloody) to complete them. Hope you all like them!
I love these. I had Quake as a kid and he was my go to play in the dirt transformer. I didn’t pick him up because it wasn’t the same without the battlemasters/targetmasters. The paint choice is wonderful and the slight modifications really make them look like a new character rather than a straight repaint.
