Weekly Transformers Feature: Super Counter Arrow

As I mentioned when discussing Go-Bot Bumblebee, Hasbro released a number of small toys created to scale with Hot Wheels-style cars and racetracks during the tail end of the Generation Two line in 1995. As Bumblebee itself attests, Hasbro was determined even then to get the most out of these molds by releasing them in new color schemes as other characters. But that's only the beginning of the story for these molds!

When the Japanese company that handles Transformers, Takara, decided to create the Car Robots line in 2000, they took the opportunity to re-use a number of old molds, such as the Go-Bot molds. These toys were then re-used in America as part of the (nearly) all-repaint Robots in Disguise line in 2001. The Indy racer Go-Bot, originally called Double Clutch and then repainted into a new version of Mirage in Generation Two, was called "Counter Arrow" in the Japanese Car Robots line, but Hasbro took the opportunity to re-lay claim to one of their old Generation One trademarks by calling the mold Mirage again for Robots in Disguise. This particular toy, however, was never released in the United States, and thus is not Mirage. But neither is it just "Counter Arrow." Let me explain.... The Car Robots/Robots in Disguise fiction started what has since become a trend in other Transformers franchises. Whereas it used to be that a recolored toy almost invariably represented a different character, Car Robots suggested that certain recolors represented a "powered up" version of the same character as the original color scheme. Although this was never demonstrated with the Counter Arrow/Mirage character in the cartoon, this was clearly the intention with the Japanese exclusive set of recolors that included this red version of the Indy racer mold, as each toy in this series was called "Super (insert the Japanese character's name here)." Hence, this toy is "Super Counter Arrow."

This toy wasn't actually released during the course of the main run of the Car Robots line, either, but actually came out a couple of years later, in 2003. Both Hasbro and Takara found that the "Spychangers" (as the Go-Bot molds were now commonly called) made for excellent recolor fodder. Hasbro released several clear and/or differently-colored versions of these molds mostly as exclusives through KB toy stores, and Takara released several entirely different clear and/or differently-colored versions of these same molds on their own. Each one of the ten (or more, depending on how you count them) distinct "Spychanger" molds were eventually released in multiple color schemes across various lines by the time the toy companies finally stopped.

Perhaps the molds were finally destroyed from so much use. But who knows? These smaller toys may well have been able to take more abuse than some of the larger ones (we've been definitively told that larger molds created specifically for the Car Robots era have since been used beyond capacity), and if Hasbro has proven anything, it's that they're more than happy to milk a few more recolors out of an existing mold if they think the new colors will sell. And there are always plenty of Hot Wheels-style racetracks out there....

Weekly Transformers Feature: Topspin

When the idea of transforming robots began to become popular in the early 1980's, it didn't take long for the toy designers to experiment with the concept of self-transforming toys. The Jumpstarters were released in 1985, part of the second year of the original Transformers line in the United States, but their origins go back a year or so earlier, to the Diaclone line in Japan, where these molds were released under the name "Baku-Ten Attack Robo." As best as I can tell, "Baku-ten" translates into "Blast Flip," which is an accurate enough description of how these toys work.

But first, the part you have to do yourself. As the first Transformers-related toys to be designed to change form on their own, it's no surprise that these toys are very simple. Topspin is featured here, but Twin Twist features exactly the same design and transformation. Fold the toy in half to create something that's basically a vehicle because the instruction booklet tells you that it is. That's all there is to it! Fold in half, and you're done.

Well, obviously that's not the big selling point of the toy. The big deal is that this thing's supposed to change forms on its own, right? To achieve this, pull back on the vehicle to trigger the spring-loaded wheels underneath, and let it go. The toy will roll forward on the floor until a catch (seen here on the toy's chest) is released, causing the legs to swing forward. Ideally, the legs should hit the ground with enough momentum to cause the robot to stand up and stay there in robot form, ready for battle. Well... almost. You do have to add the weapon yourself, of course.

Of course, all that assumes that everything works the way it's supposed to. Unfortunately, as often as not, the toy falls flat on its face rather than stand up like it should. Also, kids often had a tendency to try to change the toy back into robot mode without letting the wheels release that catch, causing the catch to be broken on many specimens. For this reason, Jumpstarters are easily mocked as Transformers toys. However, I really do think that any Transformers fan who appreciates the Generation One era ought to have at least one of these toys. There's the historical aspect, of course, being the first self-converting toys in the line. They're also incredibly cheap to get a hold of, because Hasbro apparently made a lot of them, and these toys aren't ones that most people have been holding on to all that tightly (just take a look on eBay, where Jumpstarters can be found for less than $10, even after shipping has been added). If nothing else, I think they just are good for a laugh, since even if watching the toy fall over doesn't amuse you, watching your cat chase after it is bound to be fun!

Weekly Transformers Feature: Cosmos (Generation One AND Universe)

This coming Monday is the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. I'll have more to say about that on Monday, but for this week's Transformers feature, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on one of the more explicitly space-oriented characters. Having settled on Cosmos, the question then became "which Cosmos toy should I feature?" I finally decided that neither toy is especially complicated, so why not do both? Generation One Cosmos is represented by the images on the left, while Universe Cosmos is featured in the images on the right. As always, you can get a larger view by clicking on each individual image.

The original Cosmos was part of the same series of Mini Vehicles that gave us Seaspray in 1985. He transforms into a fairly stereotypical (if green) flying saucer. His Tech Specs indicate that Cosmos was primarily used as a communications satellite, and that he would have to remain in Earth orbit for long periods at a time, contributing to deep feelings of loneliness. I really don't remember that the old cartoon (nor the comics, really, but Cosmos didn't really show up much there) ever indicated either Cosmos' communications function nor his loneliness all that much. He certainly wasn't depicted as just "being in orbit all the time" like Robots in Disguise Movor was (I considered doing Movor this week, too, but didn't want to distract from the space-focus by having to deal with the other Ruination team figures, and Movor's pretty boring on his own). For the 2009 Universe updated version, Cosmos' flying saucer mode gets a tail fin in back (replacing the thrusters that you really can't see anyway in the picture on the left) and some strange alien lettering that we're told spells Cosmos' name in Cybertronian, but unlike Banzai-Tron, the lettering used here doesn't actually resemble any pre-existing Cybertronian alphabet yet designed.

Like most of the other 1985 Mini Vehicles, G1 Cosmos has a robot mode that kinda-sorta looks like he's got two legs, but really ends in a single "unifoot." The placement of the heat-sensitive rubsign only serves to highlight the fact that Cosmos's feet are forever bound together. Universe Cosmos corrects this issue by giving the toy two distinct feet, which are actually quite poseable, in theory, but it achieves this poseability by using ball-and-socket joints that are among the loosest I've ever seen on a Transformers toy. I have yet to successfully transform this toy without a leg (and often an arm, as well) popping off. I'm also not particularly thrilled by Universe Cosmos' arms, since the fists are eternally locked inside the casing, making them rather useless. G1 Cosmos may have had to do with eternally-straight thruster-fingers, but I find them quite a bit more believable that the new look, which reminds me of a person wearing a long-sleeved sweater that's really too long for their arms. Still, one has to respect the attempt, not to mention the apparent difficulty of getting us an updated Cosmos toy at all! (There was a previous attempt that didn't make it past the prototype stage) Good luck finding this toy, though. I've only seen it for sale once, myself, and that was at a Rite Aid that charged an exhorbitant $8.99 for toys of this size (roughly twice what I'd have paid if I could have found it at a Toys R Us or a Target). Even the dealers at BotCon didn't have the toys of this wave (except for one, and I don't recall seeing Cosmos even at that one). If dealers can't find a toy, you know they haven't been distributed very well!

Weekly Transformers Feature: Seaspray

When I started college in 1992, the Transformers toy line had been "dead" for nearly two years. I knew nothing, as of yet, about the fact that Generation Two would be hitting the shelves in just a few short months. So far as I knew, the very concept of "Transformers" only continued to exist in the minds of fans like me ("It never ends!" as Simon Furman infamously said at the end of the letter column of the Marvel comic book). I was therefore extremely surprised to find Seaspray sitting on the pegs of a local Woolworth's while in Asheville that Fall. Needless to say, I snatched the toy up immediately!

Finding Seaspray at a retail (not second-hand) store in 1992 was doubly surprising, since Seaspray was released as part of the second wave of Mini Vehicles in 1985. By all rights, this toy should have been bought years before! It's almost as though the toy was just waiting for me to find it.

I've said a number of times before how scale is a bit inconsistent with Transformers toys most of the time. If you look closely at the vehicle mode here, you'll notice a door in the very back of the white portion. If that door is considered large enough to fit a human being, and if Seaspray is supposed to transform without any size-changing involved, he'd have to rival Omega Surpreme in height! As it is, he's pretty consistently depicted as being one of the shorter Autobots.

Although the 1985 Mini Vehicles are a welcome departure from just being "car" modes, most of them (all except for Beachcomber) have one "deficiency" in common. None of them have separate feet in robot mode! The robot mode more or less looks humanoid, as if two separate legs are present, and this is borne out by the package art (as seen above), but the feet are eternally fused together in a single piece of plastic. Ah, well, this is before posability was considered quite as important as it is today, and I really can't complain.

Weekly Transformers Feature: Energon Arcee

As I mentioned back when I reviewed BotCon Elita-1, "female Autobots" are a bit of a rarity. Of course, being robots, the very concept of Transformers as even having gender is a bit of an oddity, but whether it makes sense or not, most continuities suggest that there are male Transformers and female Transformers, with female ones being quite rare (there are female Decepticons, but they're even more rare!). Perhaps the most prominent female Autobot in Generation One was Arcee. But, to this day, G1 Arcee has still never been given a mainstream transforming toy (there was an exclusive made for BotCon 2001, although quite frankly this toy bears little resemblance to the character she's supposed to represent). In fact, if you only count mainstream retail releases, it took even longer for Hasbro to make any transforming Arcee toy than it did for them to make a Unicron!

The first transformable Arcee available at retail was made for the Energon line in 2004. Arcee turns into a motorcycle, a mode that has since been used for other Arcee toys, and it seems that these toys get repainted to represent other "female" characters quite a bit. In fact, including the BotCon 2005 toys, this particular mold has been reused no fewer than six more times! I'm not at all clear on why a motorcycle is particularly "feminine," but there you go.

Although Energon Arcee is not actually intended to be the same character as Generation One Arcee, the homage is clear enough. Both Arcees have a predominately pink color scheme, and clearly "feminine" curves, including an... *ahem* enhanced chest. Energon Arcee has some of the wimpiest hands I've ever seen on a Transformer (at least, among those that actually have dedicated hands). They almost seem put on there as an afterthought, and aren't really any good for much anything. All in all, this toy is most definitely not what I would consider a movement toward gender equality.

Energon Arcee is a member (in at least some accounts, the leader, perhaps to offset that gender inequity problem) of a subgroup called the "Omnicons." Unlike Generation One, where a "-cons" suffix was a clear indication of being allied with the Decepticons, "Omnicons" are Autobots (there were rumors before Energon started up of this group being called "Omnibots" — no clear relation to these guys — but that name apparently didn't clear legal). "Omnicons" were intended to be unique among Autobots for their ability to work with and shape Energon into tools and weapons. The transparent red star and other similarly colored parts with Arcee are intended to represent such Energon. The stars (called "Energon Chips") could be attached to other Energon Transformers to represent being given a power-up, which the other parts could be rearranged in various ways. Arcee's Energon parts are intended to form a kind of crossbow, but the design of the figure is such that the only way Arcee can actually hold it is to hold it way out to the side and take a wide stance with her legs. Even then, she's rather liable to falling over, so I feel fortunate that this shot turned out so well!

Weekly Transformers Feature: Brakedown GTS

We've discussed enough Transformers toys by now that the issue of repaints (or, perhaps more properly, redecos) should be no surprise to the long-time reader. Repaints are just a fact of life for Transformers, as Hasbro seeks to maximize its investment in designing and creating molds by issuing toys from these molds in different colors. It has become increasingly commonplace to expect that a mold created for a line will be reused at least once before the line itself is even finished, let alone later for a separate line such as the original Universe line, which consisted entirely of repaints.

Unlike many repaints, which are often designated as new characters (or given the names of characters from long before), Brakedown GTS (released in 2006) is simply an "upgraded" form of the original Brakedown from the 2005 Cybertron line. I can't tell what "GTS" is intended to mean within the context of the Transformers story, but my best guess is "Gran Tourismo Sport." GT often refers to "Gran Tourismo" on a number of high-performance vehicles in the real world, and I've found at least one instance where the full "GTS" is used, and it apparently means "Gran Tourismo Sport" there, so there you go. It's a bit flimsy, but it's the best I've got.

Anyway, one of the particularly interesting features of Brakedown GTS is that although it's "just" an upgrade for an existing character within the Cybertron line, the toy is also an homage to a Generation One character, namely Kup (who we discussed in a "younger" form just recently). This may make more sense if I point out that Brakedown was an "old guy" character in Cybertron (complete with facial hair to drive this point home!), and Kup's G1 personality could also be almost entirely summed up as "the old guy." In fact, there are indications that the powers-that-be at Hasbro were considering calling this toy "Kup" at one point, before deciding to keep Brakedown's name attached to it. This has led to more than one fan deciding to place this toy in their "Classics" collections as "Classics Kup," although I prefer to keep Brakedown with the Cybertron toys as intended. The colors may say "Kup," but there really isn't much else about the mold that does. Yeah, Brakedown's an "old guy," but even Kup didn't have facial hair!

Weekly Transformers Feature: Heatwave (and Nexus Prime/Nexus Maximus)

I'm about to write a sentence that neither I, nor anyone who knows me even a little bit, ever thought I'd have to write at the beginning of a blog entry.

If you came here looking for something pornographic, you've come to the wrong place.

I'll explain why it became necessary to write that sentence in a bit. First, let's get down to the business of talking about Heatwave, the most recent Transformers Collectors' Club (TCC) incentive figure. Heatwave arrived in the mail just as BotCon was starting up, and I'd already committed to two straight weeks of BotCon-related material, so the Heatwave feature simply had to wait until now. Heatwave is a redeco of Energon Barricade, and transforms into a mobile weapons battery (not all that dissimilar from Flak, actually).

Like all of the other club incentive figures since 2005, Heatwave uses a considerable amount of clear plastic. I'm actually quite fond of this kind of plastic, in terms of making for attractive and unusual toys, but I have to admit that I'm beginning to be a bit concerned about comments that the clear plastic is more brittle and prone to breakage than the plastic used on most Transformers toys. I guess I'll just have to be careful.

Heatwave is final part of a club combiner figure, made of the five club incentive toys released so far. Unlike the other toys, which featured no remolding whatsoever, Heatwave was given a new remolded head for the combined form, which is called "Nexus Maximus," and this gets to why I had to include that disclaimer at the beginning of the article. When TCC was creating this figure, they had intended it to be given a name with "Prime" in it (possibly "Nexus Prime," for example), and they even included a "Prime" reference to the combiner a few years ago in the club comic story, which has been building up to the introduction of this character ever since 2005. But as with all Transformer names, TCC had to clear the name they wanted with Hasbro, and they had to submit several alternatives, in case their first choice didn't work out for whatever reason. At least one other name they submitted included the word "Maximus" (I think it was "Maximus Prime," but won't swear to that. We weren't allowed to audio record the forums at BotCon, where this information was revealed). Hasbro has apparently become rather protective of the "Prime" name these days (after all, Optimus Prime is their most iconic Transformers character), and they said, in essence, "Well, we see you've got this word, 'Nexus,' and this word, 'Maximus,' so we'll let you use 'Nexus Maximus' as the name of your character." What Hasbro apparently did not think to do was do a Google search on the name to see if anything unsavory would come up. Pretty much the same day that "Nexus Maximus" was revealed to the general public, it was pointed out that the top listing on Google for that term was not a Transformer, but rather was the kind of item you might find in a XXX store. Definitely not safe for work (and there's no way I'm gonna provide a link)! The damage was already done, and there was really nothing left to do but tell Transformers fans, "hype up 'Nexus Maximus' (the Transformers club character) all you can, so that it will show up at the top of the Google searches!" (Actually, it was implied at BotCon that Hasbro did do a Google search, but we were told that they routinely do such searches with the "SafeSearch" feature turned on. Even if this is true, such a search by definition would exclude any such "unsavory" matches, so I reassert that they therefore did not think to look for anything like that. Perhaps they do the searches to see about possible trademark conflicts? Honestly, I'm not sure why else they would do a search if not to see if the name identifies with something they don't want a Hasbro product identified with!)

Like all Energon-era combiners (from which all of these toys originate, in terms of the molds used), you can swap out the limbs in any configuration you want (or even replace a limb with another Energon combiner mold figure). The configuration above is actually not the one suggested by the instructions that come with Heatwave (which tells you where to put the limbs, but not actually how to transform the limbs into the "limb" configuration! The TCC provided a link to instructions at one point, but the closure of the club means that link no longer works, and it was not archived by Archive.org. Sorry!). Instead, I've opted to combine Nexus Maximus in the formation that the club comic depicted him in a couple of years ago, when the only hint we had as to the combiner formation was a crude "cave drawing" on an ancient wall (of course, that "cave drawing" uses the Barricade mold's original head, rather than the one created for Nexus Maximus). Call it "personal preference" if you want. I just like it better.

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UPDATE:  As of September 27, 2009, it has been reported that the name of the combiner as featured in the Official Transformers Collectors Club comic is Nexus Prime, in keeping with the original intention.