Rainbow Shield/Shining R.A. Arms Microns (2012)

This time of year, I often try to find something to feature that can tie in to the holiday in some way. I'm not always successful, but I do think it's worth the effort. There's nothing specifically "Christmas-y" about the toys I'm featuring today, but they're among the more colorful Transformers out there, and when I looked at them, it put me in the mind of colorful lights around a Christmas tree. It's not a lot of justification, but I'm going with it.

Legends Missfire (2017)

From the first appearance of the gimmick, the Targetmasters have been closely related to the Headmasters. Besides the fact that the two appeared practically simultaneously in 1987, the gimmicks are obviously similar. Headmasters included tiny partners that became the robot's head, while Targetmasters included tiny partners that became the robot's weaponry. This added play value to the toys, even if the actual implications of such partners never made much practical sense (efforts in the contemporary fiction notwithstanding). It was inevitable that these play features would eventually return to modern Transformers lines, especially with Generation One nostalgia forming such an important role in these lines. In America, the Titans Return line was designed such that the vast majority of toys released had the Headmaster (now renamed "Titan Master") gimmick. This uniformity extended even to characters that were never Headmasters back in Generation One, including several Targetmaster characters. When TakaraTomy released their versions of these toys, they opted to more fully homage the characters as they originally appeared, which typically meant that characters such as Misfire (sadly misspelled on both the package and in the instructions with an extra "s") became both Headmaster and Targetmaster!

Coming Soon - Not Your Father's Autobot: A Transformers: Generation 2 Comic Book Podcast

Coming in early 2021!

Not Your Father's Autobot: A Transformers: Generation 2 Comic Book Podcast. Hosted by Mark "G.B. Blackrock" Baker-Wright and Nick Wright (co-host of The BitGeek Podcast).

Listen to the podcast promo here!

Background music is "Untamed Land" by Electronic-Senses, and may be found on Pixabay, which provides royalty free music, free for commercial and non-commercial use.