Sky-Byte [Age of the Primes/Voyager Class]

It's pretty cool that I get to talk about two different new Sky-Byte toys this close to one another. Even better, both are really neat. Today we'll be talking about the new Voyager Sky-Byte figure from Transformers Age of the Primes. Like most Generations releases, this is an update of the original toy using modern engineering... and they nailed it! This is literally the original Sky-Byte toy with a bunch of extra articulation.

The improvements are specifically noticeable in shark mode, where his head can be moved around to mimic his appearance in the show Robots in Disguise (2001) in which he stole the fan bases heart. It's funny, considering the original toy was a repaint of a Beast Wars toy (Transmetal 2 Cybershark) that sat on clearance for quite some time. Yet later reached stardom thanks to that show. It's still one of my favorites and is always good to see one of the characters get some attention in the mainline.

Like I said, this new figure improves upon the original adding a great deal of articulation and improving on other things. Most noticeably, the sharks body is no longer curved. The sides of the shark become giant dramatic shoulder armor in robot mode. Not being curved makes this much more pleasant, look better, and not potentially get in the way of the arms. Those shoulder pads plug into place, so you can wiggle them around while transforming for extra part clearance. Sky-Byte has a something extra in terms of weapons as well. Those pectoral fins can be used as little swords... which I found pretty neat. His gun no longer features firing missiles but still retains the originals look. I've never cared much for it, but appreciate the effort. Honestly this is a near perfect update of the beloved original toy.

My only complaint isn't a complaint about the actual toy itself, just wishing it had paint apps the original had. Being such an improvement of the original... I can't help but to wish he had that fabulous chrome. I know it can flake over time, but it looks marvelous. That and it'd been nice if his Spark Crystal had been painted. I really liked the Spark Crystals from Transmetal 2 and when they carried over with reuses of those molds it just made me happy. So really, that's it. No actual complaints. Just wishing for a few extras that would have been appreciated. Sky-Byte was such a great character that he's managed to become a mainstay of the Transformers brand. Part of me hopes they release a Cybershark version of this new mold... just because the original's paint apps came off almost instantly. I don't know if Sky-Byte will ever get a much more premium figure... but this one feels like a Missing Link version of the original in some ways. Maybe they can release a special edition with some chrome.

Tonights Forecast, Costumes!

Your local news often highlights local going ons that you may or not be interested in. Breaking news, it's Halloween! In that time old tradition of sending a weather man to try on costumes at the local store is... the weatherman trying on costumes at a local store. These news segments are hardly anything new, but neither is this clip from 2001. Jonathan Novack from KCBD-TV in Lubbock, TX is at the local party store trying to find the right costume. I guess he's a wacky kind of guy. Bad impersonations and Martha Stewart jokes ahead as we look in the background at some of those cool costumes from years past.

Israeli Robots in Disg...that's G1

Wait. So... I was expecting 2001 Robots in Disguise footage in Hebrew and instead was given clips of G1 with... Axel F? That's kinda amazing. I'm not sure if the Israeli version of RID was just a repackaged G1 or if this was just some neat commercial package made for Fox Kids there. I tried finding some info on the wiki, but nope. I do have to say, I absolutely LOVE that logo.

Little Black Truck

 
It's said that dynamite comes in small packages, and I don't know if that's true but... that was a horrible start. Whatever. Robots in Disguise (2001) was the Transformers line that brought Autobots and Decepticons back into the fray and ended the beast era. Some like to argue that RID was part of the beast era due to the Predacon characters. I've also seen people argue with the cashier at Arby's that they sold cheeseburgers, sssssooooo....

Any who, RID was a unique line in the history of Transformers. Transtech was intended to follow Beast Machines as a hybrid beast/vehicle series. For whatever reason is given today plans were changed and the decision to go a new route was made. That new route ended up being Armada and needed a little more time to develop. In Japan Takara had already experimented with a more traditional TF show called Car Robots. Hasbro fast tracked Car Robots into Robots in Disguise to have a Transformers series on shelves and on TV to fill the time needed. Car Robots was a relatively short anime with a small toy line mostly consisting of repainted toy molds and a few new toys. Hasbro took that and added more repaints to fill out the line. One of the new Decepticons was a evil clone of Fire Convoy/Optimus Prime named Black Convoy/Scourge whom was a black and teal repaint of the G2 Laser Optimus Prime toy.

Hasbro expanded the Spy Changer by releasing same sized versions of the shows main characters. This was probably the most direct beginning of the Legends/Legion style of toys offering lower priced figures of the main characters. It was in this assortment that we got the really neat Spy Changer version of Scourge. Spy Changers were originally made from the G2 Gobots toy molds and were really great little toys. Basically you had a Hot Wheels size car that was even compatible with a Hot Wheels car track! They'd transform into simple robots full of charm. It's not hard for readers to guess I loved them.

For a short time it looked like this was the only toy of the character getting made and the Spy Changer versions were flying off the shelves! Unlike other Spy Changers, Scourge didn't come with a weapon, nor did he have his trailer. During this time there was a ton of people creating their own custom weapons and trailers for the toy. It was pretty fun to take in and watch.

In what has to be the only time it happened, a toy based on a repaint of another character got repainted into the original toys colors. Later a Spy Changers version of Optimus Prime was made from the Scourge toy as part of a line of Spy Changers based on the classic G1 characters. That was a mess of words that barley formed a coherent sentence and I'm not sorry for it. This little line was available as a discount line at Family Dollar type stores, though a year prior were exclusive to Kay Bee Toy stores in different packaging. Laser Optimus Prime was a good looking toy, Scourge was a good looking toy, so it goes without saying this was a good looking toy.

This little series was fun to collect, easy and cheap, you couldn't help but to acquire multiples without thinking or worrying about it. At a small local sci fi con, I had ran a Transformers panel and had them on hand as raffle prizes. I don't think I know anyone who hated them and if anyone did hate them... how? This great little mold got another use just a short while later in a really fun way.

I don't have to tell you the 2007 Transformers movie was a big hit. It's just a fact and there's no arguing that. Unless you're stupid and well, you're on your own there dummy. A movie meant to sell toys is going to have a ton of merchandise, it's why they made it. One such thing was a the pictured above pre-order exclusive for the DVD in Japan.

That pre-order exclusive was the last version of the great little mold, but what a way to go out! Now as the movie version of Optimus Prime the toy looks awesome. I distinctly remember the summer before the movies release (which is an awkward was of saying 2006) pictures of the movie characters first started hitting the internet and everyone was talking. Optimus's truck was shown before his robot mode and while some were hung up on G1, several thought they looked cool (money walks and bullshit talks). I saw the long nose truck and hoped for a repeat of the Laser Optimus toy as it was excellent and man those flames looked cool. While the actual toy was pretty different, I clearly wasn't the only one who had that idea.

A RID in time

For some reason Robots in Disguise (the one from 2001) has gone down as one of the more obscure lines in the history of Transformers. It's weird as for the most part as it was reasonably popular. Sure some of the toys were overly complicated, but boy did those molds get a lot of use for a few years there. The cartoon was silly, but generally well liked. In fact, I don't know why silly is a bad thing. Something can be light hearted and still feature mature story telling. I wouldn't call the cartoon mature story telling, but it certainly was a fun show to watch.

In fact most people were really looking forward to it coming out. I can understand people who weren't around at the time not being very aware of it, but a lot of us are still around. I had a ton of fun hunting down all of the toys. After it was over and Transformers had moved onto Armada, RID was the comparison those who didn't like Armada made often. They liked RID so much and found the toys to be so much better and now... poof. It's just gone from popular memory.

The show cannot be released on video due to a ridiculous amount of legalities and probably a lack of interest in some of the folks involved. I hope that one day it does get an official release, it 'd be nice to have a legit copy of the show. It was a good TF series that got treated unfairly by history. It'd be nice to see it get some love again.