#67: Slugfest (1987)

Perhaps this blog should be renamed "Casseticons who were mistreated during G1", because today, we have another poor soul who can lay claim to that moniker. Slugfest came at the tail end of the "normal" G1, just as the Headmasters came out and everything became too gimmicky. Obviously, both Slugfest and Overkill were late add-ons to Soundwave's army of minions, but because of their late arrival, it was basically too late for them to make any impact at all on the fiction. Neither the comics nor the cartoon had any notewortthy appearances for ol'Sluggy. Indeed, his only appearance in G1 fiction of the time was in "Call of the Primitives". In one scene. For a couple of frames of animation. Still more exposure than he had in the comics though, where he didn't appear at all.

Yeah, it's that underdog thing again. And also, a feeling that yet again, a character with interesting traits has been overlooked mainly because their toy wasn't a priority. Sure, the fiction only really exists to seel toys, I totally get that, but I think that now, G1 has almost transcended that, and it's fiction stands on it's own merit, to the point that I think that an interesting character like Slugfest needs to be made a lot more of. I can see him fitting in well with the crew of the Lost Light for instance. They could do with a data courier who gets paranoid while listening to his own messages, right? You know, someone who flies off in a beserker rage and wipes the data he's supposed to be sending in the first place? Sounds like a sitcom opportunity's being missed for him and Swerve, that's for damn sure.

Probably isn't going to happen. But I know one thing, Slugfest's toy rocks. Come on, who doesn't want a cassette that transforms into a pink and lime green stegosaur? I know I do. This guy needs a Masterpiece version so bad it actually hurts. Mind you, so do Overkill, Beastbox and Squawktalk. Those last two kinda sorta already do, via third party toy companies. So what are you waiting for? Get right on that.

If you haven't already got a Slugfest in your life, get one. Stat. Also, James Roberts? Slugfest miniseries. Stat. Don't make me tell him you've been talking about him behind your back.

#66: Frenzy (1984)

Frenzy was part of the first wave of Transformers toys that hit the shelves in 1984, and as such, should get some respect from the Transformers fandom. Sadly, due to a colouring error in the Transformers cartoon way back when, he doesn't get that. Instead, what he gets is nothing but "he's the one that's coloured like Rumble in the cartoon", or even just gets referred to as Rumble himself. But I'm not going to dwell on that at all in this entry. Let's get it right out of the way; Frenzy didn't really appear in the cartoon too much, and when he did, he sounded and acted just like Rumble. End of story.

It was in the comics that Frenzy really came into his own. A distinct and very different character than Rumble, Frenzy wasn't just a common thug. No, this was a guy who loved war. In fact no, it was more than that. Frenzy is war. It's everything to him, his oxygen, his food, his drink. His entire being is given over to fighting the war. To the point of even making him hard to deal with for most Decepticons, who, let's face it, love war.

In the Marvel comics, this was played up to a great level, with Frenzy being a kill-crazy warmonger, unafraid to try and kill humans (including Buster in a very memorable encounter which will be shown at the end of this blog). Frenzy also had the steel balls to help attack Omega Supreme and travel to limbo to destroy the alien life forms who lived there, earning himself a punch to the face from Optimus Prime himself! Frenzy is basically one the baddest of badasses.

This continued into the IDW era (nothing of note happened in the Dreamwave era, with Frenzy doing what he did in the cartoon - standing at the back and keeping out of Rumble's way), with Frenzy starting out in the war as nothing more than industrial equipment, but ending it as a battle tank, refusing to renounce his Decepticon affiliation and accepting banishment, rather than stop fighting a war that he'd already lost. Talk about someone committed to the cause.

Frenzy's toy is a complete and utter classic; let's not mess about here. The original Micro Change design is pretty much synonymous now with those early Transformers toys, and his association with Soundwave is legendary. The man on the street still more than likely thinks of Soundwave and his cassettes as "Transformers" rather than Megatron, Starscream or even Optimus Prime. The amazing thing is, the toy still holds up to this day. Hell, Frenzy's Masterpiece version is practically the same toy as was 30 years ago. That, more than anything, tells you how good the design was, and is.

Frenzy then: not Rumble. Even if the cartoon done messed up and coloured them both wrong. Look to the comics, and you'll find out just how awesome Frenzy truly is.

#65: Slapdash (1988)

Slapdash, being a Powermaster, already holds a special place in my heart. One, he comes from one of my favourite ever eras of Transformers, that special time and place where anything was given a go, and experimentation was the name of the game for the brand as a whole; and two, his Japanese counterpart kicked ass in Masterforce. Of course, he's a very different character to ol' Slapdash, so we won't be talking about him.

In an era of superbots, Slapdash was, let's face it, a bit of a rube. His Tech Specs say it all; he was unprepared for war. Often turning up without Lube (ho ho ho), his Nebulan partner, nine times out of ten he'd be unable to transform on the battlefield. And being an interceptor (presumably because of the speed of his alt mode), that's kind of important. 

Lucky then, that he wasn't all that important in the fiction. In the Marvel G1 comics (and Regeneration One) he accompanied the rest of the Powermasters-to-be and Goldbug as they went to rebuild Optimus Prime on Nebulos, whilst Blaster and Grimlock fought for the Autobot leadership, and Slapdash was part of the Autobot army nwho searched for the Matrix on the Matrix Quest. He also helped the Transformers defeat Unicron, only to be shot in the face by Highbrow, when the latter had been genetically altered by Scorponok to lose any inhibitions he might have about killing EVERYONE. Poor Slapdash. Help destroy a Dark God, only to be killed by one of your own mates. 

He seems to be having a better time of it in More Than Meets The Eye, where for the moment at least, he's a crew member of the Lost Light, searching for the Knights of Cybertron and listening to Rewind's stories at the bar. Sweet.

As for Slapdash's toy, well...look, I like old toys, and I like this type of Transformer. "Good" is a completely subjective term, ok? The important thing is, I think it's cool, and that's all that matters. Right/ Glad we got that sorted out. His toy's not very good, there, I said it.

As an example of a toy era when a company was willing to experiment though, Slapdash is amazing. Is he successful? Not on all fronts, no. But he is fun, and that's all that really counts, at the end of the day. 

I like Powermasters.

#64: Snarl (1985)

Poor Snarl is just not a happy bunny. Or Stegosaur, for that matter. The whole picture painted of him in his Tech Specs is that of someone whose lot in life has never been great, even before he crash-landed on Earth. A loner by nature, who would just as soon you left him alone, rather than be involved in one of the major wars of the galaxy.

Not that you'd really know it from any of the fiction he's been in, of course. Never one of the more popular Dinobots, like Slag he often is found on the sidelines. Heck, he's not even in Transformers: The Movie, to any great extent. Four shots. FOUR. Even that appears to be an afterthought, as well. Poor Snarl. I mean, it started off terribly well. He was first introduced with Swoop in "War of the Dinobots" as a force to fight the rogue Dinobots who seemed to have joined with Megatron, and he was relatively successful, keeping the rogues busy while the rest of the Autobots fought the rest of the Decepticons. After that, his next big moment came in the two parter "Dinobot Island", where, at the behest of Grimlock, he did "tail stuff". Sadly, it was all downhill from there, and he became very much a background dino, usurped by the seemingly more glamourous Swoop, and the ever present (and popular) Grimlock.

Of course, in the comics, Snarl did even less, the limited cast of said comic books only again allowing a couple of Dinobots to shine brightly, and again, those Dinos where Swoop, and most definitely Grimlock (an apparent favourite of Bob Budiansky, and pretty much Simon Furman's favourite character EVER.) Snarl did have the dubious honour of acquiring a very rare Transformer disease, this particular nasty being Corrodia Gravis, a wasting disease that caused poor Snarl to basically rust to death. Luckily for Snarl though, the rest of the Dinobots found a temporary cure, in that they moved his mind into an ACTUAL Stegosaurus while they made him a new body, which, with Snarl's hatred of that form already, must have been just like heaven for him.

In the IDWverse, it's business as usual. Snarl doesn't do much. Maybe someday he'll have his moment, but with everything being a bit Grimlock-centric right now (when isn't it?), then he may have to wait a little bit longer though. Still, I like Snarl. It's nice when Tech Specs try to inject a bit more character into proceedings, and giving Snarl the pretty fatal flaw of hating his alt-mode, well, that could make for a very interesting character indeed. It's a shame that Furman loved Tyrannosaurs with speech impediments, rather than grumpy Stegosaurs who are powered by the sun.

#63: Red Alert (1985)

Red Alert was a toy and character I was only peripherally aware of when I was a youngster, mainly because he wasn't really promoted that well over in the UK. He was only ever a bit part character in the Transformers comics that Marvel put out, having appeared in only UK stories, and even then only being a bit part player at best.

It was the cartoons where Red came into his own, being the paranoid, borderline psychotic (that sometimes crossed the border) security guard that we all know and love. And boy, did things get weird; Red rebelled against everybody at one point, thinking that they were all out to get him, Autobots and Decepticons. Funny then, that the only person he trusted at this point was Starscream. That's more than messed up right there, if you ask my opinon.

Of course Red was snapped out of it by his best buddy in all the world - Inferno! Because Red's alternate mode is a Lamborghini Countach Fire Chief's car (and I want to live in the town that considers a high performance supercar to be a good vehicle for the job) then he was a natural fit for Inferno, who obviously transformed into a fire truck (albeit a Japanese one). But more than that, Inferno's carefree attitude counters Red's paranoid intensity, and they always worked well together in the show.

In the IDWverse, Red hasn't had that balance, and is currently on ice, waiting the end of Rodmius' quest. Will we see him again? Probably. Might be a little while, though.

As previously stated, Red's alternate mode is a bit flashy for the purpose he's meant for; it's one of those occasions where it might have been a good idea for them to have repainted another vehicle. Still, it does make Red stand out, so really, it might be a stroke of genius. Regardless, it's a great example of a G1 Autobot car, with all the right notes being struck in exactly the right order. Red's a winner on that front.

Red Alert's one of my favourite characters in G1, because he's completely different to anything that came before or since. He has a serious problem, and although it took 30 years to get round to it, it's being addressed in a very sensitive and dramatic way, even in the G1 cartoon his problem wasn't ridiculed or made light of, it was dealt with in a caring way by Prime and the other Autobots. For that at least, it makes Red a very sympathetic and worthy character.

#62: Motormaster (1986)

Of all the combiners I can remember people liking both as a kid and an adult, I think it's Menasor that people seem to like most. I'm not altogether sure why (it might be the fact that they're Decepticon sports cars, and that as a concept alone is pretty cool), but people really seem to have a thing for Menasor. And Motormaster in particular. I remember when Botcon did their Transformers Animated-inspired Stunticons, a lot of folks were VERY excited to see the reveal of Motormaster from that set.

But I digress. In 1986, Motormaster was the coolest of the combiner commanders, I think it's fair to say. He transformed into what is feasibly an evil version of Optimus Prime (Nemesis Prime, anyone?), and had really cool colours of grey, purple and black. And he HAD A SWORD. This was a novelty at the time, and was really a great gimmick, to me at least/ It made him look at least 40% cooler, and was chromed as well, so he looked like a Decepticon pimp.

He was a bit of a badass in the cartoon too, always going after Prime and wanting to wreck him. In the comics, he fared a bit worse, blending into the back ground after the initial rush of excitement of the combiner teams. It always seemed to me that Bruticus was the Decepticon poster child for the Special Teams, after Devastator (who wasn't included in that group). Menasor, being portrayed as critically insane, never got much of a look in. One thing was always consistent though; Motormaster wanted Optimus gone, and as someone who even to this day doesn't care for Optimus too much, this was always a good thing.

I never owned the Motormaster toy, but I went to school with someone who did, so I can tell you that it's one of the good ones. The Scramble City combiners were always solid, but Motormaster had a lot of play value as well, being a badass truck, and really well put together robot. The colours were good, the weapons even more so, and even his articulation wasn't too bad, mainly due to the fact that as a combiner he needed it. Base mode wasn't something I can ever remember being used much, but when was it ever?

Now that Fansproject are releasing the Stunticons set they've produced, I foresee a lot of interest in the G1 versions, so basically, get them while they're hot. As far as I can tell the Stunticons have always commanded a pretty penny on the secondary market, and thats not going to change anytime soon. I will say that I think it's worth trying to pick up a Motormaster at sone point, as it always was a solid toy and a good example of Scramble City tech at it's best.

#61: Dogfight (1988)

The Triggerbots, being cheap price point toys, didn't have too much love heaped on them by Hasbro. By 1988 standards, anyway. By today's standards, they got War and Peace devoted to the backs of their boxes, even when compared to 'Leader' class toys (or whatever passes for that nowadays). As such, Dogfight gets only the most spartan of bios, basically stating that he's the 'wild, wicked street fighter of the skies', and that he doesn't like Decepticons. A little bit banal, if I'm being honest. Maybe this was foreshadowing of later years. Don't get me wrong, there are gems in there, the 'dance of doom' being a particular favourite of mine. But later Tech Spec bios just ended up riffing off more technobabble, and less about the robot itself. Which is what we wanted, damnit.

Still, the Triggerbots got a story all to themselves in the Matrix Quest, so it's not all bad news. And what a story it was, let's face it. A pseudo-western, complete with vampiric aliens and hypnotism, and Transformers actually killing organics (albeit in self-defence, of course). If you've never read it, 'Kings of the Wild Frontier' is a great story, in a collection of great stories. Simon Furman wrote it, you'll not be surprised at all to hear. I always feel that Furman likes the characters whose toys were forgotten by Hasbro, because that means he can pretty much do what he likes with them, and Hasbro won't really mind. This always works out well for the reader, and this story is no exception. Seriously, check it out.

Like I said, the Triggercons were cheap price point toys. Boy, does it show. Mainly because the toy is built around the gimmick, in this case a VERY gearjack spring sweeps Dogfight's wings back to reveal his guns. Both literally and figuratively. I have to admit to liking Dogfight though, because he is cheap and cheerful, and his colours are kinda nice. The combination of powder and dark blue works well, and just screams middle period G1 Transformers, before everything got bright and psychedelic.

If you can get hold of Dogfight, do so, because he's a good addition to anyone's Transformers collection, and his gimmick's kinda fun. Also, check out 'Kings of the Wild Frontier'. Just be careful though, because those Vrobians are kinda scary.

#60: Finback (1988)

It might not surprise you to learn that I am, in fact, a big fan of the Pretender gimmick that Hasbro employed for the Transformers brand in 1988. I think it's just great. Part of the reason for this is that I like the idea that the Transformers are technologically advanced enough to use organic material as a further disguise for themselves (something that would be built upon even more in 1996's Beast Wars). To be perfectly fair though, we in the west never really got to grips with the idea, and what we ended up with was 20ft tall humans, which completely went against the Pretender idea in the first place. The Japanese understood though, so you had Transformers that were human-sized, mass-shifting all over the place. Much more logical, to my mind anyway.

The Decepticons got off a bit lighter than the Autobots, seeing as they all had monster visages, I'm much more willing to accept a 20ft fish monster than I am a human. Such is the case with Finback, who DOES transform into a 20ft fish monster. Well, his outer shell was, anyway. His inside was a generic looking robot who transformed into a hovercraft BECAUSE HASBRO SAYS HE DOES SO FUCK YOU THAT'S WHY. His whole backstory was that he has a debilitating disease, the result of a raid on a world dreadfully polluted world (some environmental message perhaps?) and so his shell is his refuge, a place where he can be free from the ravages of his condition. I always loved that justification, it gives the shell some actual purpose rather than 'it's a disguise'.

As for fiction, well, Finback got a little bit, but nothing too meaty I'm afraid. He was with the other Decepticon Pretenders when they fought Underbase Starscream (his attacks doing little to damage them), he was part of the team that created Scorponok's massive underground base in New Jersey, and then he fought against Unicron. Everything was going pretty well for him until the power core of the mobile turret he was firing blew up, killing him and Misfire in the process. It's always the way.

In the IDWverse, he was recruited by Bludgeon to undergo the Pretender process started by Thunderwing, and was doing ok, grafting more bio-mechanical carapaces onto himself when Jetfire and the Autobot survey team stumbled upon his team. Sadly, Finback's torture of Jetfire was cut shot when he was blasted apart by the Wreckers.

As I said before, Finback's Pretender shell is a fish monster thingy. Really, that's the best description for it. The only articulation it has is in the arms, mainly due to the fact that it has to split apart to accommodate the robot component, which again, is limited in it's articulation. The only bits that has really is to form the basis for the transformation, into it's hovercraft mode. If indeed that's what that's supposed to be. Have I mentioned yet that I love Pretenders?

All in all, Finback is a toy that you're either going to really love or despise with all your being. I love it, I know plenty who don't. If you're new to the world of Pretenders, or you're on the fence, Finback's a good place to start. He has a freaky Pretender shell, and his inner robot isn't too shabby either (especially for a Pretender). 

#59: Ironworks (1989)

One of the coolest things about Micromasters were the bases. The fact that these little figures could essentially have a whole 'city' to play in if you collected all of the myriad playsets was really quite awesome. Sadly, I haven't been able to collect them all (yet), but believe me, one of these days, that's exactly what I'm going to do, and my Man Cave will be resplendent and replete with Micromasters.

Ironworks only ever had fiction in Japan, and never showed up in the west at all. In the Land of the Rising Sun, he and the construction station (the base aspect of the toy) turned up briefly in the one and only cartoon produced for 'Zone' (the main Micromasters fiction) 'Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!'. and in the manga and story pages that followed on from the cartoon. Ironworks' only function as far as I can tell is that he helped fend off the Decepticons from attacking the Autobots, and really, that's about it. Shame. Still, that's way more than he got in the west, at least. 

To be fair, if he'd had fiction, there isn't much in his Tech Specs to suggest what he might have been like, considering that most of that concerns itself with what he can do, rather than what he's like. This seems to be a leimotif of later Tech Spec bios, almost as if Hasbro had given up by this point even trying to make their toys interesting, and just getting them out there. As we know, that's pretty much how it happened.

The toy itself, is great, mainly because of the playset aspect. Ironworks himself is a repaint of the Off-Road Patrol's team leader Powertrain, and that in itself is a positive boon, because it's an off-the-wall toy which is different to most of the Micromasters around at the time, transforming into a truck cab and all. Rendered in a very nice construction yellow, Ironworks commands a transforming base, which is both a construction yard, and what appears to be a fortified communications tower (at least I think that's what it is). Without other Micromasters, this isn't a great base by itself, but with a couple of patrols, and even hitched up to another base, and it becomes rather nifty and quite awesome. This isn't a bad thing, because that's what it was built for, collectability. It's not meant as a standalone piece, and because of that, it works perfectly. So if you're into your Micromasters, then this a definite. Thumbs up for Ironworks!

#58: Sports Car Patrol (1989)

Micromasters first appeared in 1989, to compete with Galoob's Micro Machines, which were Hot Wheels but a lot smaller, to put it in basic terms. Micromasters of course had the added bonus in that they transformed into tiny robots as well, and a whole backstory was created in the comics whereupon fuel had become scarce on Cybertron and the Transformers therefore had to downscale in order to keep running. (Dreamwave went a bit further than this, to make them another faction completely, run along the lines of street gangs, but this is generally considered awful. Along with most of DW's stuff)

I was down with Micromasters from the get-go. I don't know what it is, but I like the little guys. From the very first time I got a set of my own (the Off-Road Patrol), I was hooked. The Sports car Patrol didn't help any with my addiction.It didn't help that their Tech Spec bio was pretty rad, either. A team of mini miscreants, whose main funtion is clearing the road for their bigger brothers? Count me in, because that sounds like a lot of fun. It helps that their designs are cool, from the hot hatchback glory that is Blackjack, to my own personal favourite, the quite frankly eye-searing electric neon blue and amazing naming that is the mighty Hyperdrive. Everything about these guys is immensely cool to me, and for the life of me I can't explain why. It must be some kind of primeval thing.

Sadly, they didn't appear too much in the original Marvel comics, mainly because their Air Strike Patrol cousins got all of the love, being pitted against the Race Car Patrol. I should think that two sets of cars battling each other was deemed too much, and so Blackjack and the boys didn't really get much of a look-in. As for the DW 'effort', let's just forget that ever happened, and hope that IDW come up with something someways down the line. Although I'm not going to hold me breath on that one.

They toys, how shall I put it, are SPECTACULAR. As I stated earlier, they're four mini bundles of joy, all distinct, all different (apart from the transformations, which are ALL THE SAME. Get used to that with Micromasters.) One running theme you will notice is that of colour reversal; Blackjack and Road Hugger share purple and black; Detour and Hyperdrive yellow and blue. Personally, I like this and think it's a clever way to make these toys economical; some people will think of it as cheap and possibly even a bit nasty. But then Micromasters have always been a bit Marmitey, I find.

My love for Micromasters is pretty well known by now, I should think, so I won't labour the point too much, but I do think that everyone needs at least one MM set in their life at some point. The Sports Car Patrol isn't a bad one to have, not at all. I heartily recommend them to anyone looking to purchase a set. If you only get one, get Hyperdrive. Because he's awesome.

#57: Seaspray (1985)

As everyone knows, minibots are cool. So it's really no surprise at all to find that Seaspray, one the 1985 wave of minibots, is cool. There are a number of reasons for this.

1. He's a minibot
2. He transforms into a hovercraft. Hovercrafts are cool.
3. His voice in the cartoon. Provided by the amazing  Alan Oppenheimer (who voiced Skeletor, which is cool), Seapray actually gargled when he spoke, making his voice sound bubbly and sea-like. This is very cool (although a bit tough on the vocal chords when trying to imitate).
4. His job is 'Naval  Defence'. He's a naval tactician. This is cool.

That's all the convincing you need, right? No?

Ok then. How about the fact that his Tech Specs don't have the usual guff like 'has to stay at sea, and is therefore morose and lonely'? Seaspray LOVES his job, keeping the waterways clean and well-defended. Unlike plenty, if not all, other bots in a similar position, Seaspray doesn't get down about not being part of the 'main' team, as it were. What he does is just as important as what they do, and that's enough for him. That's pretty cool.

Seaspray also got one of the strangest episodes of the cartoon to himself too. Sea Change involves aquatic aliens, a rogue Cybertronian robot, and Rumble being transmogrified into a tree. No, seriously. Watch the episode at the end of the blog and find out for yourself.

Yep, Seaspray's toy is cool. As if you could ever doubt that. He transforms, as mentioned earlier, into a hovercraft, with a nice, simple, and striking colour scheme. He also differs from the main bunch of minibots in a few ways, being a completely different design, and not being a generic car like many of the others. He's very cool, obviously.

Seaspray's a bit different to the other minibots. He's aquatic and not a car, he's a little bit funkier. He's also a lot happier than many Autobots, having been given a job to do that he actually enjoys, even though it keeps him away from the others for long periods of time. Seaspray is a breath of fresh air, both as a toy, and as a character, and for that alone, I think he is very, very, cool.

#56: Rippersnapper (1987)

Rippersnapper, like the Terrorcons, suffered from "Too Late in the Franchise" syndrome. Because both they and the Technobots arrived on the scene in 1987, then they weren't privy to the vast amounts of fiction as say, the Combaticons or the Aerialbots were. And they weren't quite so lucky as the Predacons, who didn't really have much competition in their era (and probably weren't as cool, let's be honest). So Rippersnapper had to make do with only two episodes of any worth (if you don't count the Japanese episodes he was in during the Headmasters series. All they really did was smash seven bells out of each other anyway.)

Firstly came Grimlock's New Brain, which introduced both the Terrorcons and Technobots, by way of Grimlock creating the Technobots. I always had a problem with this, because Vector Sigma wasn't involved. Or the Creation Matrix. And it seemed to screw Grimlock royally out of being his comic book self in the cartoon. Regardless, the Terrorcons did quite well out of the episode, but sadly not individually. They kind of came as a package, or not at all.

In the next episode they were in, they were being mind controlled by the Quintessons. Yep, the bloody Quints. It really doesn't say much for Decepticon superiority when a bunch of badly rendered faces on a squid body can subdue you, right? Good episode though, if only for the fact that the Transformers' universe equivalent of Han Solo was in it.

In the comics, Rippersnapper aided his compadres during the Headmasters conflict, and then relocated to Earth just in time for the Decepticon Civil War. Then, like all of his team (and lots of other toys being made way for 1988's cavalcade of characters), he was brutally finished off by the Underbase-Powered Starscream. Shame.

In IDW, the Terrorcons haven't really made their mark yet, having only been in one story featuring Sixshot and the Reapers. Hopefully, Rippersnapper will get some face time at some point, because I really do think that a self-hating, bullying character like his is worth a look. The fact that he's a bully and a nasty piece of work is basically the culmination of years of self-loathing is a fascinating concept, and worthy of a good character study. I live in hope.

Rippersnapper transforms into a bipedal shark...thing. Which is awesome. No, really, it is. All the Terrorcon alt-modes are cool, but his is the coolest, because it's so odd. Like the shark from Jaws growing arms and legs, then coming out of the sea to menace Chief Brody. Admittedly, the robot mode is a bit rubbish, but all of the Scramble City robot modes are suspect, if we're being honest. The limb, and the alt-mode are always key, here. And in Rippersnapper's case, they both work wonderfully.

Rippersnapper joins the legions of late-era Transformers who didn't get any fiction due to lack of time and effort, and the fact that newer toys were being brought out all the time, so some toys got left by the wayside. Now that's not a consideration anymore, can someone give the Terrorcons and Technobots some decent fiction please? They're kinda awesome, and the definitely deserve it.

#55: Hosehead (1988)

Hosehead, like all of the small Headmasters of 1988, hardly got any fiction. This was mainly because by the time he came around, the cartoon had been finished for a number of months, and the comics were focusing on the bigger Powermaster toys of the period. If you want to see cartoons of the toy, you have to go to Japan and Masterforce, but that's a completely different character. A really whiny character.

Hosehead himself didn't fare too badly in the comics though, it would seem, gaining an origin story of sorts, and even joining with Siren and Nightbeat to defeat the Creation Matrix powered Deathbringer, setting off soon after on the Matrix Quest to find the said Maguffin to destroy the planet-eater, Unicron. Hosehead helped defeat the Matrix infused Thunderwing, before being transported to Cyberton to fight Unicron. Sadly, although Unicron was eventually defeated, Hosehead wasn't one of the survivors, his wreckage being shown as part of the 'this planet is screwed' montage.

In the IDWverse he is still alive (as far as I know); he just hasn't really done anything yet.

I like the Headmaster Jr (as they were known in Japan) toys. They're not as good as their larger counterparts from a year earlier, but they certainly have their charm, and they're cleverly put together. I like the way that their helmets (arf) become the chairs for their Nebulan partners, and I like the fact that they transform into rescue vehicles instead of the Cybertronian forms that had previously been the norm. These are toys that I definitely want to own sometime, because they're kind of awesome.

Hosehead, like Kickback, suffers from third wheel syndrome; in this case Siren suffered from it too. Nightbeat was the star of this set, mainly because Simon Furman loved the fact that he was a bit of a gumshoe. Hosehead couldn't compete, being a fireman. I suppose he could have written him as a character from London's Burning, but...well, that would just be silly.

#54: Gutcruncher (1990)

Gutcruncher is the ultimate capitalist, really. I adore the fact that as he's blasting away at the Autobots he's totting up how much they're going to be worth to him in scrap. It's almost as if he's the unholy union betwixt businessman and environmentalist recycler. Sort of if you crossed Mitt Romney with Swampy. (little bit of politics creeping in there, missus.)

As an Action Master of course, Gutcruncher didn't transform, but it's pretty obvious that he'd have been some kind of tank previously (and he did get an homage in the movieverse 'Sparkcrusher', who did turn into a tank), which is sort of cool. One of the good things about Action Masters is that they did give you some clue about what characters previously had as their alt-modes.

Sadly though, Gutcruncher joins the ranks of all the Transformers that have had little to no fiction devoted to them. He got absolutely nothing in G1 apart from a very brief ad appearance, in the IDWverse he's shown up a few times, bt nothing that you'd write home about, and he's always been very easily beaten as a generic goon, and he's been in a few unoffical gigs. In fact, he's had more time in the Shattered Glass universe than anywhere else, and that's not even this version of Gutcruncher.

There's no getting around it; Gutcruncher's toy is awesome. True, he was only available with the 'Stratotronic Jet'as they called it, but the jet's a pretty cool piece of kit. as well as a plane, it became a base/tank/battlestation affair, and also had a speedboat/jetski thing going on. Another great thing about Action Masters is that the bigger vehicles were basically playsets, and let's face it, who doesn't love a good playset? Especially when their colours don't really match up to the figure that's go to sit inside them, so the whole thing looks like a bit of a mess. That's Hasbro for you, and especially during this period.

Gutcruncher then, is a perfect example of a late era Transformer. Good toy, good tech spec bio, NO FICTION. Here's hoping that he finds his place in the IDWverse, because the characterisation is sound, and well worth a story or two. Whcih, as any good capitalist knows, is always worth a few bob.

#53: Wide Load (1987)

I'll say this now; I like the Throttlebots. I know, I know, I said it all the way back when I looked at Rollbar, but I think it bears repeating. Mainly because although Wide Load was a good toy (for a cheap price point poicket money toy, that is), he didn't fare well in Transformers lore. Not at all, in fact. Truth be told, this guy did absolutely NOTHING of any worth in the Transformers universe. I know this, because I've looked. I've scoured. I've plumbed the depths of Transformers fiction. And nothing. At all. Nada. Zilch.

Ok, well that's sort of a lie. I mean, he did stuff. But nothing to distinguish himself from all the other Throttlebots. He just rolled with them, said little, did little. He got turned into a toy car. He evaded capture by the Decepticons. He was placed in his reconstructed Throttlebot body, only to be totalled by Starscream soon after. In the cartoons, he appeared briefly in the Rebirth. Then in the IDWverse, he was shot whilst trying to shoot Sixshot. That's it.

His Tech Spec bio doesn't help. It's a bit vague, if I'm being honest. If all it gives you is 'is a bit vain and can pull heavy stuff', then you're going to have to work hard to get any fiction of worth out there. Especially in a period when all Hasbro wanted to do is get the toys out there and be seen.

As I said earlier, Wide Load is a cheap, pocket money toy with a gimmick. The gimmick is basically pull back and go, and the toy is built around that. Which means no articulation, no intricate transformation, and serious scale issues, if you believe that a dump truck is the same size as a jeep. I mean, it could happen, but only in insano universe. Still it's a good toy, it does what it needs to very well, and is bright and cheerful. Which when you're 10 (or in my case 36), is all you want, really.

Wide Load suffers from cheap Transformer disease; because the Throttlebots weren't the most expensive toys, there was little impetus to try and build any kind of fiction around them, because they weren't the toys that Hasbro really wanted your mum and dad to buy. That was the Powermaster Prime, or Galvatron, or Ultra Magnus. So they got all the cool stories, and the Throttlebots were turned into r/c cars. Boo.