In the time between the last post and this one, my Transformers collection has expanded quite a bit. It’s been happening in waves, and they’ll chill for a while on my desk, awaiting their turn to be photographed for the blog. Until, that is, my youngest son starts reminding me that they deserve to be posed and put up on the shelf. He’s right, of course, so I’d take a bunch of photos, do a bunch of happy transformation goodness, consult his superior posing skills, and put them up on the collection shelf. And since I’ve gotten the itch to blog again, I’m diving into the collection photos to kick it all off. So, for your enjoyment, I present Transformers: War for Cybertron Ironhide!

Ironhide is ALWAYS tough. In the TV shows, in the movies, and in the video games, Ironhide is ready to bust deceptichops at a moment’s notice!

My middle son gifted me this for my birthday, and it brightened my trip around the sun. This version is from War For Cybertron, and lives up to the aesthetic of the video game quite well. And I REALLY enjoyed this game.

The transformation was a little finicky, but following the instructions got me through it. I may be getting old, but they’re printing those things smaller and smaller, I swear. Time for bifocals, I guess. Anywho, from robot to off-road vehicle and back to robot was doable without any major irritation or limb separation. Other than the roof of the car on Ironhide’s back, there’s almost no kibble. The wheels add to the robot mode, in my opinion, and the weaponry is appropriately ridiculous for the character.

The most difficult thing I ran into was deciding whether I wanted to keep him in robot mode or vehicle mode when I put him on the shelf. Usually a figure has one mode that is much better than the other, and I tend to prefer the robot mode for posing. But with this Ironhide, it was a close call. I went with robot mode, so he could be posed, but I may yet change my mind.

I’ve always been unsure about whether or not the “Gamer Edition” toys would live up to the hype, but I’m pleased to say that I’m now hoping to add some more to my collection.

Since I was so very impressed with the Kickback re-issue, I decided to collect more of the Legacy Insecticons. It didn’t hurt that I already had named computers after all three of them. I found Bombshell at a Meijer, which surprised me, because their Transformers stock has been very thin for the last year or two. I thanked the collector gods for their die-cast and plastic goodness, and took Bombshell home with me.

Again, this transformation was smooth, straightforward, and not fiddly at all. I had worried about the beetle legs, but I didn’t end up having a reason to. They could have gotten in the way, but they didn’t. This figure didn’t come with the energon accessories like the last had, which I noticed, but wasn’t a deal breaker. Unlike most transformers, I felt that moth modes were equally good, and would be great for displaying the figure. I went with the robot mode for display, because of the greater articulation available. MonkeyLinkMega likes to come up with cool poses for my figures, and that’s something I can’t pass up!

Like Kickback, this Bombshell re-issue is both faithful to the original, and an improvement upon it. The basic modes, transformation, and look are all still there, but the new figure has more articulation, more detail (without having to apply stickers!), and more show accuracy.

Finding Shrapnel is going to be a chore, because it seems sold out everywhere. Fingers crossed for stumbling on one like I did this one!

Let’s talk about Insecticon re-issues. Specifically, let’s talk about the Legacy and Legacy Evolution series. Why, you may ask? You may not know this, but I name my computers after Transformers, and have for a long, long time. This used to be A Thing among nerds. For instance, a friend of mine named all of his computers after South Park characters. Anywho, I had a quick round of three computers (a laptop, a Roku replacement, and a streaming machine for while I’m working on servers in the basement), and I named them all after G1 Insecticons. If I like the Transformer enough to name a computer after it, I usually also enjoy collecting a toy of it. In a stroke of luck, this happened during the Legacy and Legacy Evolution releases, so I picked Kickback up during one of Ace of Hearts‘ Target adventures.

While the transformation is more complex than the G1 version of the toy, it’s still pretty straightforward. There’s a hip rotation, and there’s some feet repositioning, and there’s some neck twisting. Nothing surprising, and nothing difficult.

The joints are stiff enough to be able to pose the figure and leave him that way, and there are enough of them that there’s plenty of articulation. Articulation and detail – in both modes – are where this re-issue shine. In those ways, it is absolutely an improvement on the original 1980’s toy. In every other way, it’s faithful to the original, and a worthy update.

Sometimes, taking the risk of modifying a Maximal protoform into a Predacon has some… side effects. Wait, let me back up.

In the 90s, when CGI was first becoming A Real Thing, a couple of animated shows went all-in on the computer animation. Hasbro took a huge risk, and Transformers: Beast Wars was one of these fantastic shows. (I’m not forgetting ReBoot! I hope I never forget ReBoot.)

Much like their Autobot and Decepticon ancestors, the Maximals and Predacons chased each other across the galaxy and ended up crash-landing on an unknown planet in an unexplored solar system. The Maximal ship was a research/colonization vessel, and carried a precious cargo… Maximal protoforms – unborn Transformers. When the Transformers on the surface recovered, they realized the protoforms were orbiting the planet in their pods, and some of those orbits were decaying, destined to land and aid their Maximal compatriots.

The Predacons would prefer to expand their own forces, however, and came up with a plan to reformat the protoforms to that end. And it worked! Mostly. Every once in a while, there were side effects. And Inferno, well, his beast mode overrode his logic circuits, in the parlance of the show. As a fire ant, his only purpose in life was to protect his colony – the stasis pod that he’d ridden down to the surface. Eventually, he was introduced to Megatron, and his understanding shifted to include him as the colony’s Queen. His beast mode – a gigantic fire ant – is creepy and bumpy and just incredibly FIRE ANT.

Inferno is my favorite Predacon in Beast Wars, and I cannot state this strongly enough. His wild glee, his chaotic spreading of fire with his flamethrower, and his complete abandon while flying through the sky with his butt… er… abdomen jetpack, leaving an enormous smoke trail through the sky! Just amazing.

FOR THE COLONY!

Have you ever listened to a military veteran tell stories of a war? Have you ever heard them recount how much the Battle of WhateverTheHeck relates to the current situation? Meet Kup; he’s that guy. On top of that, he’s still an incredibly effective soldier for the Autobot cause, can wrangle Hot Rod, Grimlock, and Wheelie during emergency situations, and still has his Cybertronian alt mode.

Kup taught us all about the Universal Greeting – Bah weep grah nah weep ninibong. He helps the Autobots make it through Optimus Prime’s death, and helps Hod Rod on his journey to becoming Rodimus Prime. Yes, he did it through nagging and war stories, but he did it!

Maybe I should write something about the toy.

Both the Cybertronian truck mode and the robot mode are incredibly accurate to the 1986 Transformers movie. The joints are tight enough to keep a pose, but loose enough to be posed in the first place. The toy comes with both Kup’s gun and the energon dispenser that he uses in combination with the Universal Greeting.

I was quite happy to add this Studio Series Kup to my collection, and doubly impressed with the continued accuracy of the Studio Series figues.

There is a Transformers series that is set in a futuristic Detroit, and that series is Transformers: Animated. The art style is less realistic than many, and the story is definitely targeted to a younger audience. The human friend of the Autobots, Sari, is actually both competent and relatable to the target audience. I really enjoyed the Easter eggs and one-shot callback characters that appear throughout.

Unlike in most of the Transformers timelines, in this one, Soundwave doesn’t begin as a Decepticon. He begins as a robot toy of Sari’s, and begins to develop into a full-fledged transformer after coming into contact with a shard of the Allspark. This sort of process can be seen in later shows and movies, like the first Bayverse live-action movie.

As per usual, Soundwave is accompanied by his mini-con/drone/whatever, Laserbeak. And this time around, Soundwave turns into something akin to a Scion xB, while Laserbeak turns into a flying V electric guitar. There’s also an “electrostatic” version of the toy, with a dark gray and red color scheme rather than blue, and Ratbat as a keytar rather than Laserbeak. In the secondary market, this version is much harder to come by, despite any and all whining I may have done.

This is the second iteration of this toy that I’ve owned, and both have had extremely loose knees (much like me). That makes posing a lot more difficult than it could be, but not impossible. I’m very happy to have this one back in my collection, and am now on the lookout for a copy of the Animated series to add to my DVD/Blu-Ray collection.

While Wreck-Gar is the most well-known of the Junkions, he is most certainly not the only one. Meet Junkheap, also known as Junkyard. You can see him (actually several of him) following Wreck-Gar into battle in the 1986 film. In some of the later episodes of the G1 show, he is a merchant and trader. But, Skippy, you might ask, why did you purchase a Studio Series figure for a character that barely gets any screen time in the movie?

Is it because the Planet of Junk and its inhabitants are the pinnacle of re-use? Nope. It’s because I needed a motorcycle for Wreck-Gar to ride. One of the coolest parts of the Junkions’ transformations is that they are designed to ride each other, rather than being designed for much smaller creatures, like humans. And so, Wreck-Gar wouldn’t REALLY be complete without something… er… someone to ride. It is worth noting that Junkheap is not just a repaint. The toy keeps to the idea that the Junkions are made of random, but similar, junk. Every piece of him is different than Wreck-Gar, despite their very similar general construction and vehicle modes. Getting the motorcycle mode to clip together just right is a bit finicky, though. Definitely a bit more difficult to transform than his compatriot.

I mentioned all of this to MonkeyLinkMega, and he suggested – no, he demanded – that I pose him like the motorcycle pose in Akira. Well, I couldn’t very well deny such a brilliant request, could I? So here you have it. Wreck-Gar, riding Junkheap, in the same pose as Kaneda and his bike. They’re surrounded by Studio Series ’86 Kup and Perceptor.