Studio Series Gnaw (2021)

As has been mentioned a couple of times already in this series, several Transformers characters that first appeared in The Transformers: The Movie did not align with either the Autobots or the Decepticons (although they have often been sold as such for ease of merchandising). Gnaw takes this a step further, in that he often doesn't even have his own name! Instead, The Transformers: The Movie depicts countless hordes of identical creatures called "Sharkticons." Gnaw is simply the name given to one of these minions for the sake of maintaining the standard packaging, which at the time of this character's original figure back in 1986, included both a standard space for the faction (Sharkticon) and a "name" space that would have been visibly empty if no individual character name existed to put there.

"Thrilling 30" Springer (2013)

It has often been said that The Transformers: The Movie cribbed liberally from concepts used in Star Wars. Although it's not the case that everything can be connected one-to-one between the two movies, it's really not a huge stretch. For some examples, Unicron is the Death Star, Hot Rod is Luke Skywalker, and Arcee is Princess Leia. By this analogy, Springer is pretty obviously Han Solo. At the very least, scriptwriter Ron Friedman had one of actor Harrison Ford's roles explicitly in mind. A draft of the movie script actually calls Springer "a very muscular and bantering 'Indiana Jones' type" (go to page 14, bottom of the page, to see the quote).

Studio Series Sweep (2021)

I haven't exactly been kind to Scourge in the past few months. Despite being one of the most prominent of the new characters created for The Transformers: The Movie, I find that he was never given much of a personality. In my review of Scourge's Titans Return figure, I blamed some of that on his being given command of a group of identical troops, called "the Sweeps." But while I find Scourge's personality rather forgettable, the toys he's been given in recent years have been interesting takes on the movie's character model. So, given that Scourge's Studio Series toy was given a redeco (and slight remold) as a Sweep, this seems an opportunity to redress the balance.

Generations Selects Cyclonus & Nightstick (2022)

As was the case with both Scourge and Galvatron, Cyclonus was created when Unicron changed an existing Decepticon's body into a new warrior, but the identity of the Decepticon who became Cyclonus has been the source of debate for many years. Was he previously Skywarp, which would be consistent with Scourge's transformation from Thundercracker, or was he in fact Bombshell, who was the first and most prominent of the two Decepticons seen being reformatted into Cyclonus-like forms in The Transformers: The Movie?¹ Perhaps it doesn't really matter, since (like Scourge) Cyclonus' antecedent is generally assumed to have been dead prior to reformatting, and the subject was never brought up again until self-conscious fan-oriented fiction came along.²

Fall of Cybertron Ultra Magnus (2012)

Most of the original characters introduced in The Transformers: The Movie were actively created for the movie, and indeed had their robot modes mapped out even before toys had been designed for them (very much the opposite of the usual process at the time). Ultra Magnus, who seemed to serve a "red herring" role in the movie as the heir apparent to the role of leader of the Autobots after Optimus Prime was killed, was the exception, in that he was created to be attached to a pre-existing mold, which itself was created for the Diaclone line (as was the case for many of the first couple of years' worth of Transformers toys) as the "Powered Convoy," released in Japan two years before the Transformers themselves began to come out. While the Diaclone "Battle Convoy" came to America as "Optimus Prime," the "Powered Convoy" (which shared the same basic truck cab as "Battle Convoy"... only in white... but came with a new trailer which could combine with it to form a larger robot) became the original "Ultra Magnus" toy.

This feature is not about that original toy, which I haven't owned in many years.^*

Titans Return Scourge (2016)

When Megatron was transformed by Unicron into Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie, he was not the only character given an upgrade. Thundercracker, one the original Decepticon jets, was reformatted into Scourge, although unlike Galvatron having been Megatron, Scourge is almost always considered a new character entirely, and no one seems to care about his having previously been Thundercracker except as a strictly academic exercise. The usual explanation for this is that Thundercracker was dead when his corpse was used to create Scourge, but since Thundercracker was clearly still alive when tossed out of Astrotrain, I really don't see why we should assume he simply "fell offline" while floating in space when Megatron didn't.^* Such are the thoughts of the obsessive Transformers fan....

Studio Series Wreck-Gar (2021)

When discussing the Quintesson Trooper a few months ago, we showcased a character from The Transformers: The Movie that was technically neither Autobot nor Decepticon. The movie featured several such characters, in several different contexts. Wreck-Gar is another example. Although he has traditionally been sold as an Autobot, and is typically seen aligned with them in his fictional appearances, Wreck-Gar is in fact the leader of an independent group of Transformers called "Junkions."

Buzzworthy Bumblebee Studio Series 86 Kup (2022)

Although the Transformers are nominally robots, they have typically been written more as though they are simply human beings, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say they were written as "generic (but organic) aliens." The point being that Transformers characters are often seen with traits that don't really make a lot of sense on robotic beings (even "living" ones), but which nonetheless help to make the characters relatable to (human) readers. Thus, when The Transformers: The Movie introduced the character of Kup, his main defining character trait was that he was an old guy. An aged veteran with a lot of stories to tell. When your characters are already millions of years old to start with, just how much "older" should they be acting? Best just to move on....

Generations Selects Galvatron (2021)

For Transformers fans, especially those from the original era, the assertion that Galvatron was a new character introduced in The Transformers: The Movie has to come with a caveat. After all, Galvatron is merely an upgraded body and new identity for Megatron, who had been the leader of the evil Decepticons since the franchise began. That said, it has always been convenient to discuss Galvatron somewhat separately from Megatron, and even the TFWiki gives them separate entries (both of which are considerably longer, and require separate sub-pages, compared to entries for many characters without such ambiguity!), so I feel pretty safe including a Galvatron toy in this series.

Missing Link Arcee (2025)

As I said last month, most of the new characters introduced in The Transformers: The Movie had corresponding toys that came out in 1986 (even if, as I suggested earlier, these will likely not be the versions of these characters I'll be featuring this year on the blog). Such was not the case for Arcee, although for rather different reasons than was the case for the Quintesson Trooper. Arcee was not the first female Autobot to appear in the franchise (there were several introduced in a season two episode of the cartoon^*), but she was arguably the most important. Despite the character's prominence throughout the remainder of the era, the prevailing wisdom was that boys didn't want to buy toys of girl characters, and so fans would have to wait many years before official toys of Arcee were finally made available.

Quintesson Trooper (Buzzworthy Bumblebee Troop Builder Multipack, 2023)

While The Transformers: The Movie did the expected job of featuring characters based on toys that either had already come out, or were scheduled to come out in 1986, it also featured a number characters for which no toy was ever expected. However, given enough time, Hasbro has demonstrated that almost any character featured in Transformers fiction has a decent chance of eventually becoming a mass-released official toy.^* So it is with this "Quintesson Trooper," which appeared as a bailiff in the courtroom scene as a very minor character.

"Classics" Rodimus (2006)

As most Transformers fans already know, 2026 is the 40th Anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie. Having done other celebrations of the movie in the past, I've decided to do something different this year. Most of the time I feature a Transformers toy in 2026, I intend it to be a representation of one of the characters introduced in that movie. It probably won't be the toy that actually came out in 1986 (I've featured many of those already), but it will nonetheless be one of the characters first featured in the movie. To start things off, I'm looking at the "Classics" version of Hot Rod.

Authentics Elita-1 (2025)

A generation or so ago, most toys came from one of five major retailers: Walmart, Target, Toys"Я"Us, Kmart, and KB Toys. Any toys sold outside of those "Big Five" were thus often referred to as "market six" toys. While many of the toys sold in these retailers were the same toys found elsewhere (sometimes well after those toys had disappeared from the "Big Five"), Hasbro would even create the occasional toy specifically intended for these more obscure venues. Fast-forward to today, and the reality is that three of those "Big Five" no longer even exist (well, as we established a few weeks ago, there is a Toys"Я"Us operating again, but it's really not the same company), and so the term "market six" became less and less accurate, and finally seems to have fallen out of use. 

Jeffrey Prime (2016)

7 years ago, we said good-bye to Toys "Я" Us. At that time, I picked up this toy, a Japanese-exclusive, one of the surprisingly-few examples of a Toys "Я" Us-branded Transformer item, as a memento of the chain. It has hung quietly on a hook on my computer desk ever since. I never really intended to keep it in its package. I seldom do, anyway. Toys are meant to be played with, as I often say. But this toy is more of a symbol, certainly. So, for 7 years, it just stayed on the hook....

...Until now.

Thrilling 30 Sandstorm (2013)

About mid-way into 2013, Hasbro started (perhaps prematurely?) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Transformers franchise (which started well into 1984) with what they called the Thrilling 30. Toys were released as part of already-established Generations line, revisiting characters from all of the various aspects of the franchise to this point (not just "Generation One," although it's undeniable that those characters were given a bit more attention than other specific lines that came later, and which had been on toy shelves more recently).

G1 Strafe (1987)... and a Few Namesakes

If you were to ask most Transformers fans, specifically ones who have followed the franchise during the 1980s and have continued to do so to this day, to name all of the G1 combiner teams, the odds are reasonably good that they can remember all of them (and even if they somehow forget the Pretender Monsters or some groups of toys that never came out in the US, they're all-but certain to identify all of the "Scramble City" teams, as well as Devastator and Predaking). That said, even those fans are likely to stumble if you ask them to name all of the combiner team members, especially those who came out after 1985. The reason for this is apparent enough. While the combined forms, themselves, likely were featured on the popular cartoon of the era, the members often were only name-checked once, if at all. Thus, an individual like Strafe, whose G1 package art is seen here to the left, is frequently forgotten....

Legacy Jhiaxus (2022)

The third time, as it happened, was indeed the charm.

The first official Jhiaxus toy, which I reviewed a dozen years ago, was a repaint of a Beast Machines figure, and looked nothing like the character created for the Transformers: Generation 2 comic book, either in form or coloration. But even though it was little more than a name slapped on a seemingly unrelated figure, the fact that the comic had already been ancient history for a decade at that point meant that few Transformers fans ever expected to have another opportunity to see the character in toy form, so we snatched it up.

Transformers: The Last Knight Cybertron (2017)

While I'll never be a fan of Michael Bay's live-action interpretation of the Transformers franchise, I've had little trouble accepting that the popularity of those movies has meant that a lot of toys got released that would never have been done, otherwise. This toy is an excellent example. While it's true that the mold already existed (and has already been featured here), released back in 2006 as Primus, this 2017 repaint was created simply to meet the increased demand for toys that came out of the then-latest feature, The Last Knight. Specifically, this toy was released under a "Mission to Cybertron" banner as a Toys"R"Us exclusive.

Toxitron Collection Cloudcover (2023) and the "Lost" Generation 2 Toys

So, it's been a couple of years, but I'm back with a semi-regular posting schedule. I'm hoping to have at least a post a week for the time being, although posts won't always go up on Fridays so that I can properly recognize anniversaries and such on the proper date. Also, I'm trying to be a bit more diverse than just writing about Transformers for the time being (although it did seem appropriate that my first post in so long should make clear that Transformers will remain something this blog should be known for). You'll see what I mean as more posts appear in the coming weeks.

Not Your Father's Autobot - Episode #12 - Transformers: Generation 2 issue #12

For this, the final episode of Not Your Father's Autobot, we're discussing Transformers: Generation 2 issue #12, cover dated October, 1994. This issue can be found reprinted via the Transformers: Rage in Heaven paperback, which may be purchased via Amazon. Listeners may also wish to try to find a copy of either the collected paperback or the issue itself via eBay (purchases through these links do not support the podcast in any way).