And so the great cataloging for my personal and ever expanding Transformers Collection continues!
I pretty much took the 90’s off Transformer collecting, so my collection of original Beast Wars, Beast Machinesand Machine Wars is so tiny I can pop them all in the one post!
(Note: All figures in photographs listed from Left to Right)
Jurassic Park and Tremors – two film franchises that have far more in common than one might think.
Yes the differences between the two franchises are huge; budgets, popularity, settings etc. But when it comes down to it both movie series (having 7 flicks each thus far) are at their core about humans genetically messing with creatures from the dawn of time, before those same creatures then turn around and systematically hunt and kill the humans for their hubris.
Both franchises have their big monsters – the T-Rex and the Graboid respectively. And they both have their flying monsters – the Pteradon and the Assblaster. But what about those mid-sized creatures that love to run down humans for lunch? In Jurassic Park these are the Velociraptors and in Tremors they are the Shriekers.
Note both the Raptors and the Shriekers are fictional. Yes Raptors did actually exist, but they were around the size of large chickens and had feathers as well as scales; they were not 2-meter tall pack hunters that could use doorhandles and change their gender as needed. And Shriekers are completely fictional, the mid-life cycle of Graboids before they turn into Assblasters, which then in turn lay eggs that turn into baby Graboids.
In both film franchises the species in question get genetically modified by humans, as well as attempts being made by humans to train their packs. In the first Jurassic Park film, we find that Raptors have only been able to be resurrected by splicing their DNA with that of amphibians, which not only leads to them coming back to life but also being able to change their gender in order to breed. By the end of the Tremors movies, humans have been messing with the DNA of Shriekers, giving them a ‘Sonic Scream’ that can completely incapacitate their prey.
In the Tremors TV series, it is revealed that the government has secretly been trying to train Shriekers to use their infrared vision in order to find victims in disaster areas. In Jurassic Park, the Raptors have been trained for several different reasons, from being killing machines for the Military to simply ‘lets see if we can’.
So what if these two fictional pack-hunting creatures went head-to-head? The Jurassic vs The Pre-Cambrian –Who would win?
To answer this, we will break down the skills and abilities of both Raptors and Shriekers. Then examine the threat posed by the two species to humans, as well as to each other.
Shriekers vs Raptors – The Stats:
Size & Strength
Shriekers: Shriekers are approximately 1 meter high and 1.5 meters long. They are strong enough to pin down a human and their bite is strong enough to rend metal.
Raptors: Approximately 2 meters high and 2.5 meters long. They are much stronger than humans in all regards.
Winner: Raptors
Speed & Agility:
Shriekers: For such short stubby creatures, Shriekers can exhibit quite a turn of speed, being able to easily keep pace with a human running. They are also able to jump and pivot easily.
Raptors: Raptors are very fast creatures, able to chase down humans that are riding quad bikes and motorcycles. They have great leaping skills.
Winner: Raptors
Dexterity:
Shriekers: Shrikers have no front appendages, severely limiting their dexterity. They however have prehensile tongues, being able to to grab objects in much the way an elephant would use their trunks.
Raptors: Raptors have been observed being able to use their hands/claws to not only grab onto their enemies, but even successfully manipulate door handles and other objects.
Winner: Raptors
Intelligence:
Shriekers: Whilst Shriekers have been mistaken for having high intelligence (destroying cars and communication towers, seemingly cutting off their prey from outside assistance) they are actually considered relatively dense. That said, the army has been able to have some success with training Shriekers, and they have been observed being able to figure out puzzles such as how to reach high objects, which puts them above much of the animal kingdom.
Raptors: Raptors have been shown to have high intelligence (for animals), being able to utilize techniques such as distraction, misdirection, testing & assessing and even tool manipulation.
Winner: Raptors
Hunting/Pack Hunting:
Shriekers: Shriekers are able to utilize heat sensors on the tops of their heads in order to locate their prey. This is highly effective, though can cause them to attack inanimate objects that also radiate heat. Shriekers will emit loud shrieks (hence the name) to alert other Shriekers to potential prey – whilst they have no ears, the shrieking makes them give off more heat themselves as a signal to the rest of the pack. Shriekers can not only hunt and corral their prey by moving in packs, but can also work together to reach prey, such as standing on each others shoulders to reach victims that are high up. Shriekers that have been genetically modified can also subdue prey with a Sonic Scream attack that incapacitates their prey.
Raptors: Raptors are able to use their speed and size to quickly take down most any prey that are smaller than them. Raptors are excellent pack hunters, able to corral their prey by approaching from multiple directions at once, or using one member to distract their prey whilst the rest of the pack sneak up on their quarry from other sides. Raptors understand using cover and will use long grasses and bushes to disguise their approach.
Winner: A draw
Physical Offensive & Defensive Capabilities:
Shriekers: Shriekers have strong bone jaws that are able to slice through tough materials such as metal with ease, as well as feeling no ill effects from biting through objects that are hot or conducting electricity. They are able to use their tongues to grab an object/prey. Genetically modified Shriekers can unleash a Sonic Scream, causing major damage and incapacitation to their prey. All Shriekers have a hard bone carapace over their heads, making their heads all but impervious to attack
Raptors: Raptors have long thick spurs on their hind legs which are able to rip through flesh with ease. Raptors have claws on both front appendages, able to grab and tear at their enemies. Raptors have a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, able to rend the flesh from their prey. They are fast and highly agile, able to run and leap in order to attack or escape.
Winner: Shriekers
Lifecycle:
Shriekers: Shriekers are the pupa stage of the lifecycle of Graboids and emerge from Graboids generally in groups of 3 to 6. Shriekers only live on average for 24 hours after which, if they have ingested enough food, they evolve into Assblaster – flying creatures that are similar to Shriekers in many respects. Given their relatively short lifespan in their Shrieker form, Shriekers do not have the longevity to learn new skills and operate mainly from instinct. Shriekers are asexual, and by ingesting enough food are able to ‘vomit’ up another Shrieker which will grow to full size within a few hours. By reproducing in this manner, a small group of newly born Shriekers can become a pack of overwhelming size within a very short period.
Raptors: The Raptors, due to having their DNA spliced with that of amphibians, are able to change their sex if there are too many of the one gender, facilitating being able to breed more efficiently. Raptors lay eggs and will not only protect their nests fiercely, but even hunt down stolen eggs over vast distances to retrieve them. Once hatched, baby Raptors follow the species normal life cycle.
Winner: Shriekers
Shriekers and Raptors – versus us and each other:
Shriekers & Raptors vs Humans:
In both movie franchises there have been plenty of humans who have been ripped apart by these two predatory species. But which is best at taking humans out?
Shriekers: Shriekers can run as fast as a human and have enough body weight to pin one down. They can kill a human with one bite from their powerful jaws, can hunt humans via the mammal’s body heat, and can overwhelm humans by multiplying their numbers exponentially. They have enough cooperative skills that they can work together to catch their prey such as tunnelling or standing on each other’s shoulders to get humans that are out of reach. They can shriek in order to alert other Shriekers of a human’s presence, and the genetically modified Shriekers can subdue a human in seconds with the Sonic Scream. Once a Shrieker has evolved into an Assblaster, they can attack from the air.
Shriekers are able to be tricked very easily by the disguising of body heat. By keeping solid objects between themselves and the Shrieker, or otherwise lowering their outer body temperature by the use of special clothing, humans can become essentially invisible to Shriekers and avoid them easily. Shriekers have strong bony skulls that can protect them from damage, but the rest of their body is susceptible to gunfire. They can also be killed by bladed weapons being stuck down their throats.
Raptors: Raptors are much bigger and faster than humans so have the speed and strength advantage. They are intelligent enough to escape pens and traps created by humans, as well as work their way into human strongholds. They have refined hunting instincts and are able to use a wide variety of tactics to take humans down – everything from using natural cover and distraction techniques, to corralling humans from different directions at once to cut off all escape. Once caught, humans have no chance of survival in a one-on-one confrontation given the Raptors claws, spurs and teeth.
Raptors are susceptible to gunfire and other weaponry, including shock sticks. With enough elevation, Raptors have no way to reach a human.
Conclusion: Both creatures are deadly to humans. Raptors are the more skillful and refined predators. Shriekers are arguably more dangerous, however are outwitted far more easily. A draw.
Shrieker vs Raptor in a Fight – One on One:
Raptors have it all over Shriekers in terms of their size and speed. If a Raptor is able to get past the Shriekers protected armoured head, it will easily be able to shred the Shrieker to pieces by grabbing it with its claws, then using its thick foot spurs and sharp teeth to eviscerate it. However, Shriekers are able to easily bite through solid metal with their bony jaws as well as grab their prey/enemies with their prehensile tongues. With one single solid bite a Shrieker could easily decapitate a Raptor or sever a limb. So the argument could be made that going head to head a Shrieker would win, but if a Raptor can dodge the Shriekers tongue and that first bite, the Raptor would easily destroy its smaller rival.
However in both franchises Raptors and Shriekers are shown to be genetically tampered with, and in the final movie of the franchise, it is shown that Shriekers now have the ability to emit a Sonic Scream. As long as the Raptor doesn’t completely take the Shrieker by surprise, which it shouldn’t be able to do even with cover do due to the Shrikers infrared vision, then the Shrieker can easily subdue a Raptor with its disorienting scream, then rip the Raptor to shreds with its huge jaw before the dinosaur realises what’s happening.
Conclusion: A Raptor has more chance of killing a Shrieker in a one-on-one fight, however a genetically modified Shrieker would completely destroy a Raptor.
Shriekers vs Raptors in a Fight – Pack vs Pack
Raptors are more intelligent than Shriekers and live far longer, meaning they have the capability to learn how to handle Shriekers from previous stand-offs (assuming any Raptors survive). It is conceivable that the Raptors could work as a pack, using one of their own as bait to distract the Shriekers whilst the rest of their pack picks off the Shriekers from behind.
However the above technique would probably only result in a few Shriekers getting killed before the rest realise what’s happening. Once they do the remaining Shriekers should be able to, via their jaws and screams, make short work of the Raptors. Shriekers also have the strength of numbers. Raptors have been shown in the movies to hunt in packs of up to 6, whereas with enough food around the Shriekers can not only grow to huge numbers relatively quickly, but also quickly replace any killed members of their pack. If half the Raptor pack is killed in a battle, they have to wait for their offspring to grow to adulthood to fight, whereas if even one Shrieker lives, it can quickly repopulate its pack within a matter of hours, with Shriekers who live long enough turning into airborne Assblasters to which the Raptors would have no defence.
Conclusion: In Pack vs Pack, the only possible way for the Raptors to win would be to somehow take the Shrieker pack by complete surprise and kill every single one of them as quickly as possible. In every other scenario the Shriekers win.
So who is the overall Winner?
Genetically Modified Shrieker
Overall we have to give it to the Shriekers. Yes, Raptors are bigger, stronger, faster, smarter and have the talons, claws and teeth to back it up. But Shriekers can reproduce quickly and asexually, use infrared vision to hunt prey, have a bite that can rend metal and the genetically modified ones can use a Sonic Scream to subdue most anything or anyone. If you combine those factors with their armoured heads and prehensile tongues then the Raptors, essentially big clever lizards, don’t stand a chance. In this competition of the hunters, Jurassic loses out to Pre-Cambrian.
Do you think the above comparisons between these fictitious creatures are accurate? And would you be interested in a potential T-Rex vs Graboid comparison? If so pop it in the comments section below!
And so it begins, the great cataloging for my personal and ever expanding Transformers Collection!
And what better place to start than where the whole shebang kicked off – G1! Listed sequentially, and with accompanying photographs, here is the G1 Decepticon toys I have amassed over the last 35+ years.
Transformers Generation One Decepticon Collection
(Note: All figures in photographs listed from Top Left to Bottom Right)
And so it begins, the great cataloging for my personal and ever expanding Transformers Collection!
And what better place to start than where the whole shebang kicked off – G1! Listed sequentially, and with accompanying photographs, here is the G1 Autobot toys I have amassed over the last 35+ years.
Transformers Generation One Autobot Collection
(Note: All figures in photographs listed from Top Left to Bottom Right)
Since pictures of the The Transformatorium have begun to circulate on various social media around the globe, I get asked a lot of questions. Much of the time, these are questions I have been asked many times before.
This picture tantalizes the curiosity!
So to address this, I put the call out on FB and Twitter for people to put forth their queries that I could answer in a Frequently Asked Questions blog, so in the future I could quickly direct people to it rather than type out the same answers yet again. Don’t get me wrong, I love people taking an interest! This will simply be a bit of a time-saver all round 😉
Find below the list of FAQ’s I received, and thank you to everybody who submitted one!
The Transformatorim – FAQ’s
About the Shed itself:
Q: OMG your house must be soooo big! Is it?
A:The Transformatorium is actually a separate building to the main house – a specifically designed shed to store my collection. We live on a big farm though, so there was plenty of space to construct the shed.
Q: How tall is that ceiling?
No wasted space, not even the ceiling!
A: At it’s apex it is 4 meters high, at it’s lowest it is 2.6 meters.
Q: Why did someone who is so obviously genetically related to hobbits build shelves so high?
What’s the point of having all that space if you don’t use it?
A: (Sigh… yes I know the questioner and yes he is significantly taller than me) I built the shelves myself to scale with the shed, and to maximize shelf space I made them all 2.6m high. Of course that means if I want something off the top shelf them I need a ladder to get it.
Q: What are you going to do when you run out of room?
A: There is a second part to the shed behind the big main back wall. If I ever run out of room I guess I will need to knock out that wall and utilize the storage space behind it. Lets hope that’s a looong way off in the future though, as it would necessitate taking EVERY single Transformer off the shelves for the reconstruction and that would be such a huge job!
Q: How do you deal with heat?
Shady
A: The placement of my Transformatorium Shed is such that during the worst parts of the day it is shaded by tree’s (though I have genuine fear of one of them falling the wrong way one day). The ceiling is also quite high and well insulated so heat doesn’t build up much. The only part of the shed that gets particularly hot is the West facing wall around mid-afternoon. Thankfully I only have MISB crossover figures on that wall which affords the figures some extra protection, and I am growing plants in the garden I made out front that should adequately shade that wall within a few years. I also have thick heavy curtains across the glass door to keep out heat and light.
About me and my collection:
Q: What is your evacuation strategy for the figures in the event of bush fire/flood?
Picture from 3 years ago – would need a bigger trailer now
A: Back in late 2019 I had to evacuate my entire collection due to bushfires. Thankfully the majority of them were still boxed so I was, with the help of a mate, able to load them all up and take them to a friends house in a nearby town that was not as threatened. They lived there for a month until the danger had passed.
If a bushfire or flood came out of nowhere now, I’d be far more concerned with getting my wife, children and pets out safely. Toys can be replaced, loved ones cannot.
If I had time I might dash back and grab as many G1 and Masterpiece toys as possible though 😉
Q: WhErE iS “insert figure obviously missing from your collection here” I dOnT sEe iT.
Oh Timelines Counterpunch, where art thou?!
A: If you don’t see it, chances are I don’t have it. My collection is big, but I can’t think of any specific Transformers toyline that I own every single figure from.
Q: I noticed you’re in Australia – has that ever caused problems with adding to the collection? Import costs, local distribution, environmental damage etc?
A: Yes it can be a real pain in the arse to get certain figures here in Australia, especially for me since I live in the bush and there are no stores that sell Transformers within 50 kilometres of my location. Occasionally here in Aus we luck out and get a figure before the rest of the world, like Legacy Motormaster, but in an age where more and more figures are becoming exclusives to chain stores that don’t even exist on this continent, sometimes the choice is to either pay a ruinous price and postage to get the figure, or to just accept fate and let it go. I certainly think my collection would be bigger if I lived in the US or Japan.
Q: How much of your collection has had to be replaced due to damage or wear, things like Gold Plastic Syndrome, yellowing, sticker damage etc?
Poor Pipes… er…. pipes.
A: I’ve had to replace the odd G1 figure over the years, like Omega Supreme and Mirage, who were too damaged to repair. In fact with my G1 figures I am loathe to touch any of them anymore as they are so old even with a gentle and perfectly executed transformation they can break – poor old Sludge will spend the rest of his life in dino-mode because a hip broke! I need to get around to sourcing a replacement G1 Silverbolt too due to hip damage. For the most part I haven’t had to replace much, I’m pretty careful with my figures. My son broke a few when he was younger, but is much more careful now, to the point I even let him transform my MP’s sometimes.
As for replacing figures which have suffered from Gold Plastic Syndrome or yellowing, its pretty hard to do because any other figures out there on the secondary market usually suffer from the exact same afflictions mine do.
Q: Have you ever had a problem with figures falling over for whatever reason? Does it cause a domino effect, or are they all spaced out enough that you can more or less avoid a catastrophe?
Figures 5 rows deep – what could possibly go wrong?
A: Oh dear Primus yes, this happens way more often than I would like! Some shelves are fine, whereas others I feel like I have to perform some kind of delicate surgery to remove a figure without knocking over a dozen of its brethren. My son has given up now, if he wants a toy he asks me to get is as the domino effect is a shocker! But yeah, it happens, and considering the floor is concrete I’ve had a few heart-stopping moments when a bunch of figures have tumbled and I’ve had to check if they survived.
Q: So many toys! Your wife must be very understanding/ hur-hur yOuR oBvIoUsLy SiNgLe…?
Through thick and thin and Michael Bay movies
A: I’ve been with my wife for nearly 20 years and married for 14 of them. She is extremely understanding of my hobby. She is also relieved that my son is so into Transformers, as it means I have him to share my passion with so she no longer has to fain interest 😉
Q: Is there any third party or customs in the collection or all official HasTak stuff?
Leftovers from the days when official Quintesson toys seemed to have no chance of ever being made
A: I have very few customs or 3rd party stuff. I have nothing against them or those that collect them, they just aren’t for me. I’d say far less than 1% of my collection is not official merchandise. Most I had bought in the past were of characters that had never had an official toy at that point. These days it seems no matter how obscure the character they are probably going to get an official figure at some stage, so I don’t bother with 3P stuff at all anymore. I do have some tiny custom figure made by the talented Michael I am very fond of.
So tiny, so fragile, so perfect…
Q: TWO Unicrons?! What are you, a billionaire!?
They do add a certain gravitas to the room don’t they
A: Heh heh – far from it. Here in Australia we got about the best deal possible through a chain store. You could order the items at cost, then you had a full 18 months to pay them off before they arrived. Plus you could pick up in store so no postage costs! Because of this, I was able to slowly pay off my order of two Unicron’s without breaking the bank, and then take the ute to pick them up – it was a sweet deal!
Q: What are you going to do with your collection when you’re dead? (Obviously the answer is nothing, because you’re dead. But hopefully you put a plan in place prior to your fateful attempt to fit 16 tomahawk steaks in your mouth at once.)
I’m afraid the wounds are fatal
A: My son gets all my male Transformers, my daughter gets all my female ones and BotBots. Before anyone argues this is supremely unfair due to the disparate numbers between male and female Transformer action figures, it should be noted my daughter isn’t really into Transformers so wouldn’t really want many (if any). She also gets my complete collection of Rarity figures from MLP as well.
I’d let my family pick a few for me to be buried with (not that I would have a say in it at that stage). If as a family they decided to simply keep a few each to remember me by, then sell off the rest of the collection to pay off the mortgage or go on an overseas trip, more power to them.
Q: Can I, a complete stranger located on another continent, come and see your collection?
Q: How much are the Tickets?
A: I happily give tours of The Transformatorium to locals, and if people are willing to trek all the way out here to outback Australia to see it, then they get in for free 😉
Q: How do you keep the shelves clean? My own collection is getting fairly dusty but they’re packed too tight to a shelf to just pull’em down and start wiping
The dust, oh the dust…
A: Ah, now this is easily the question I get asked more than any other. Yes dust is an issue in the shed, though not as bad as one may think. It is its worst near the glass door, so my Movieverse figures cop the brunt of it, and there are figures there in their alt-modes there that need to be wiped off monthly.
In the rest of the shed its not too bad. This is where its handy to have an explorative son who wants to check out all the toys. Whenever he or I get a figure from the shelves I give that figure a quick wipe down. In the long run though, I’ve had to resign myself to the fact that, unless I somehow magically become a millionaire and can buy gigantic glass cabinets, my shelves and figures are never going to be dust free and I am just going to have to continue to mitigate the worst of it as best as time allows. Good thing the shelves themselves are brown eh!
Thank you to everyone that submitted questions for The Transformatorium FAQ. If you have any further queries, pop them in the comments section below!
‘What is the worst figure in your collection and why should we all own it?’
First off I’m taking a stab in the dark that Steve is talking about Transformers since that is what I am best known for collecting. Well Steve, given I’m at the 4500 mark for the amount of Transformer action figures I own, there are a fair few contenders for the mantle of Worst. So lets narrow it down to Transformer figures that actually transform and go from there:
Firstly – both these toys have irritatingly simple transformations, even for G1 toys – one move for the legs, one move for the arms and one move for the body/backpack.
Secondly – awful heads! Scoop’s is ridiculously small, making him look like a little yellow guy wearing a huge orange sumo suit, whereas Crancase has just an orange blob for a face, making you squint to make out any detail whatsoever.
Thirdly – bad bodies. Neither of these toys have any articulation to speak of. Scoop’s chest sticks out so far his little hands barely reach past it, and those hands don’t even have peg holes to hold his Targetmaster partners. Lots of Transformer toys have decent sized backpacks, but I’d struggle to think of any that have a proportionately bigger one than Crankcase which towers over the back of him to a ludicrous degree. And while Scoop as a Targetmaster can’t hold guns, neither can Crankcase who is a Triggercon. What’s the point of being a gun-themed robot if you can’t even hold a simple blaster?! As for having legs that actually separate, forget about it.
‘We aint got no thumbs Luitenant Dan!’
Why you should own them?
Both toys have really nice altmodes for their time, with Scoop being a front-end loader that can actually move his scoop, and Crankcase being perhaps the only Decepticon toy of 1988 that had an altmode disguise that could actually work as a disguise, rather than being a huge monster or a neon-coloured vehicle. The Targetmaster and Trigger gimmicks are good fun and they both had interesting roles in the IDW comics. Plus who doesn’t love some G1-goodness 😉
Firstly – loose ball joints. The joints in his shoulders and legs are atrociously loose, making him very hard to pose in robot mode, he is fiddly as hell to try and get to stand in any decent pose without his sword drooping towards the floor.
Secondly – Worst. Dragon-mode. Ever. His dragon mode is absolute shite! Looks absolutely awful, like someone was building a robot alpaca and lost the instructions half way through. There have been a lot of great dragon Transformers over the years and they do not invite Steelbane to their parties.
Why you should own him?
Probably the coolest ‘knight’ looking Transformer toy ever in his robot mode with lots of detail, even on the sword. There were four Knight toys from The Last Knight film and he is the best looking of the lot, with the others compromised by either missing faces or their combiner gimmick. Even if you were not a fan of the film, having a Transformer who looks like he should have been kickin it with Arthur & Merlin is pretty boss.
Firstly – terrible proportions in both modes. Even being a Rescue Bot which is a line known for its more basic toys due to the age demographic they are made for, the vehicle mode is too snub-nosed and the robot mode doesn’t even remotely resemble the cartoon. And what’s with the big goggles – she looks like she is going scuba-diving while flying a WWI plane!
Secondly – the broken transformation spring. This was a toy made for tiny kids and with one transformation movement. It is unbelievable that there was so little quality control that she got released when the spring that allows the transformation was broken in 95% of the figures. Any child given this figure would have been supremely disappointed and their parents feeling ripped off.
Your Quickshadow toy is going to spend more time looking like this than a robot or car
Why you should own her?
Errr… that’s a toughie. There really isn’t anything to recommend the figure at all. At most I would say that she was the first female Rescue Bot which gives the toy some novelty value, and that her on-screen character was very cool. Coming across as a very chilled and aloof British Secret-Agent type gave her a personality we have not seen in Transformers before or since, it’s a shame she didn’t get more airtime than she did.
It seems like only yesterday fans were swooning over finally getting an updated set of Stunticons in the Combiner Wars and Unite Warriors toy lines. Fan favorites, the Stunticons were the second ever combiner group to be introduced in the G1 Transformers cartoon and their rebellious attitude and sweet alt-modes gave the Autobots a run for their money on the roads. This has lead to them appearing in multiple toylines, from KRE-O to Bot Shots to even Robots in Disguise.
Well the Stunticons are back again – well – two of them anyway, with more along later in the year. Drag Strip was released several months ago and Motormaster – the latest Commander Class figure – has just hit stores here in Australia. So without further ado, lets have a look at Legacy Motormaster & Drag Strip!
Drag Strip
Robot Mode
‘Yes I have a name like a bloke in a dress taking his clothes off – wanna make something of it?’
There is a lot of yellow going on here, like a lot. The faux-engine in his chest and the guns and head break it up a bit, but this here fella is yella through and through I tell ya what! But he still a nice looking figure with good proportions, a very cartoon-accurate countenance and no big ugly combiner peg in his chest. Overall an improvement on what has come before. His articulation is quite good, with ankle-tilts and a decent range of motion in all his limbs.
‘Draw pardner!’
His two pistols can be combined into one double-barreled gun and can also be stored on the backs of his thighs.
Vehicle Mode
NOW the name makes sense
A really beautiful and faithful rendition of the original toy, Drag Strip finally turning into a 6-wheeled racer again rather than a Mirage wannabe. There is very little to fault here and kudos to the designers for making him look sweet as!
The pistols can be added to his vehicle form, giving it a battle mode. Gotta say it is an improvement on the giant cannon that plugged into the back of the G1 toy. Overall this is a really nice figure with an intuitive Transformation and perhaps the nicest official Drag Strip figure we have ever had.
The original Motormaster toy was quite different from his cartoon depiction. The toy had its body made from the trailer so was therefore grey, whilst the entire cab made up Motomaster’s feet. This made the toy a bit comical, although very easy to stand up admittedly, with his feet being the size of Prime’s alt-mode on their own! The cartoon kinda skirted around this by making Motormaster predominantly black, as if he was made up from just the cab like Prime was. This Motormaster comes with a trailer but the robot is made up solely of the cab, though they gave him little fake-cab feet, which are actually pretty cute, if quite odd. The lower legs are disproportionately big compared to the rest of him, but that beautiful face-sculpt more than makes up for it.
Overlord eat your heart out
Motormaster has good range of arm motion, but very little swivel in the neck and the legs are too bulky to do much with. Still very good overall however and more cartoon reminicent than the larger Unite Warriors version.
Vehicle Mode
The King of the Road is back baby!
Now this is what I’ve been waiting for – Motormaster with a trailer! Just like I’ve often felt many Optimus Prime toys have been lacking when they come sans trailer, I was disappointed we got no trailer for any of the Motormaster toys subsequent to the original one. Though it’s not as long as I would have liked, it is an extremely welcome addition and really makes the toy for me. Motormaster doesn’t appear nearly as big as the other Commander-class figures in their alt-modes, but that is due to just how jam-packed with parts the trailer is. This mode is what made me want to go buy the figure, and it has (except for the quibble of length) not disappointed. Plus unlike the original toy the cab can detach too!
‘Suck a fat one Optimus and Ultra Magnus – I can do this now too!’
Base Mode
The original Motormaster toy had a sorta base mode, complete with a ramp for his little roller-drone to drive down. This base mode is by far an improvement on the original, with the entire trailer partsforming into a big gun emplacement. This helps make up for Motormaster’s lack of a rifle. It actually looks pretty sweet in person, and while not as cool as Sky-Lynx‘s shuttle launch bay, looks a lot cooler than Rodimus Prime‘s gun trailer. Given everything the trailer has to do to become both a gun-emplacement and parts for Menasor, the partsforming is forgivable in my opinion. The one silly thing is that Motormaster has to put down the sight in order to actually use the gun.
Between robot mode, truck mode and base mode this is easily the best Motormaster figure we have ever had, and we haven’t even got to the gestalt gimmick yet!
It’s a bit hard to do a review of Menasor at this stage since only two of his five components have been released, but I’ll give it a shot.
Drag Strip Component
Ouch!
While they fully made up the limbs of the original G1 toy, in the cartoon the four smaller Stunticons seemed to simply plug onto pre-existing limbs to give them more bulk, and that is apparently the route they are going with this rendition of the Stunticons. Whilst I appreciate toon-accuracy, I’m not a big fan of this, and poor old Drag Strip has to literally split in half in order for Menasor to use his right elbow. It might be screen-accurate, but personally it’s not my cup of tea.
Motormaster Component
Motormaster himself converts into the upper torso of Menasor, whilst his trailer becomes the chest, hands, feet and, er…., exoskeleton of the rest. Once again partsforming is in play. It’s actually quite cleverly done and this mode, like all the others of Motormaster, consists of lots of tab-slotting which gives a lot of structure stability to the figure. I appreciate how the effect overall differentiates this Menasor from his CW/UW counterpart, who because of the design looked similar to many of his toyline gestalt peers. I will reserve judgement on his good this Menasor is until I get the remaining three Stunticons. The gun turret from the base mode stays separate to Menasor and is useable by him, though it does look a bit odd, with it being so big compared to Motormaster, and so small compared to the combined form.
Both Motormaster and Drag Strip are a significant improvement on their predecessors. Both have smaller robot modes but this is far outweighed by both their visual appearances and the intricacy of their toys. Both have good transformations, and despite the multiple configurations inherent in Motormaster there is never a point where one feels frustrated by the process and all the tabs lock tight and sweet! There is one issue however:
photodegradation
There have been many, many reports of yellowed parts on this first batch of Motormaster. I lucked out that there was only one small panel suffering from it on mine, but there have been reports of much worse from many Aussie TF fans. If you purchase a Motormaster and find many such panels, I suggest you try to swap for another.
As previously stated, I am reserving judgement on their Menasor mode before I fully review that mode. Right now my plan for my Transformatorium is to have, regarding my Stunticons, my Combiner Wars in their combined mode, my Unite Warriors in their robot modes and the Legacy toys in the vehicle modes. Then I have the best of all 3 worlds!
So yeah, Legacy Motormaster and Drag Strip – go pick them up! Just watch for the yellowing, only that dang varmint Stripper should be yeller on his belly.
Got something to say about these figures? Pop it in the comments section below!
In March this year we had our Greatest 100 Songs of All Time competition. Listeners were encouraged to not only vote for which songs out of the 110 listed they thought best, but also to make a suggestion of their own for a song they thought was worthy enough to be on the list.
Well a lot of people had a LOT of suggestions of songs they thought should be in the Greatest 100. So many in fact that the suggestions outnumbered the list itself! We received a whopping 145 suggestions of different songs to be played!
Since playing all these songs would result in the suggestions list itself getting its own months worth of shows, we will be playing one hours worth each show until we have worked through the entire list. So tune in to The Big DJ Trev Show on Thursday nights from 6 to 9pm AEST from June onwards, and after the 8pm mark we will be playing through your massive list of suggested songs on KRRfm.
