Transform Squadron 53- Age Prescripted

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Rob talks about the Transformers 40th Anniversary Theatrical Event and looks back at various Transformers anniversaries while doing so!

Shadow Striker (Legacy: Evolution/Deluxe Class)

Shadow Striker is a character with an oddly complicated history. She began life as a Transformer as one of the exclusive toys for OTFCC 2003 in a set with her sister Roulette. In those earlier days of BotCon/OTFCC, the exclusives were generally kept secret until the show. Something most in the fandom really enjoyed. However, click bait happy news sites did their nonsense and leaked images. One of the leaked images was a repaint/remold of Side Burn that looked like Nightracer. Pointless drama ensued and when it was all said and done, the toy was actually a new character named Shadow Striker. As time went on Shadow Striker made appearances leading up to Transformers Cyberverse. This new version was an interesting patchwork robot... and apparently was originally to be named Nightracer.*sigh*

This is a new figure of Shadow Striker as the Cyberverse character in a toy that's VERY similar to Side Burn. Of course leading to speculation that a Legacy Side Burn using this engineering (with maybe new car parts) is coming. I also wonder if a two-pack of OTFCC Shadow Striker and Roulette using this mold will find it's way out as a Generations Selects release. This new figure really cool on it's own, despite the obvious 'other bot' -ness of the design. Like I said, Shadow Striker was something of a patchwork robot in Cyberverse. I often felt like she was based on Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy. Toy wise... she didn't get much. A Scout Class figure that I always enjoyed, and an Ultra Class that wasn't as patch work like the normally is. Kinda makes me think that toy was designed when the character was meant to be Nightracer. The Legacy toy isn't as patch work looking either. Only the larger eye really stands out in that way. Maybe she got some repairs. The dark purple and red colors of the figure really look neat with the chrome and black accent colors. It's a simple color deco that looks very sharp.

Shadow Striker has a lot of carryover from the Side Burn design. You can either arrange the parts to resemble the that design or get a little creative. The car roof makes for a robot mode shield, but I stuck it on her back for a more stocky appearance. The blaster can also be held as a blade or combined with eh bumper to make Side Burn's Exhaust Bowgun. I opted for her to wield the blaster as a gun and stuck that bumper on her forearm. Transformation is pretty easy (much easier than the classic Side Burn mold... yikes). The only hard part for me was getting the car hood to attach. It's an odd connection and I was a little too clumsy with it. In alt mode, Shadow Striker is a sports car that's similar to a Doge Viper. In these colors, I'm reminded of the M.A.S.K. Manta. Ironically from a a toy line that oddly enough had a spiritual successor named Shadow Strikers. This is a great figure of Shadow Striker that makes me look forward to the eventual Side Burn toy quite a bit.

Transform Squadron 42- Con Leche

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This month, as Rob prepares for Toylanta, he talks about various convention experiences.

Bios: Sentinel Maximus

"...Til all are one."

Function - Matrix Guardian / Armored Transport

One of the Heralds created by Primus when it first withdrew it's consciousness to the core of Cybertron, Sentinel Maximus has emerged from the shadows of Time to serve as a guardian over Cybertron during it's darkest hour. With direct access via interdimensional datalink to the nearly limitless knowledge of Vector Sigma, he is a master battlefield tactician and an ideal leader. His perfect synergy with his Mini-Con Ape-Linq is driven by a totally unified consciousness; the two bots act as one in all things. The vast processing power at his disposal allows him to download holographic items into reality, and the power upgrade granted him by Primus prior to his ancient battle with a diabolical and long-forgotten entity from the southern polar regions of Cybertron make him a nearly unstoppable force on the battlefield.

Strength: 10 Intelligence: 10 Speed: 7 Endurance: 10 Rank: 9

Courage: 10 Firepower: 9 Skill: 10

Two all Bot Patties, Special Plot, Let us See

 

It was the early 2000's and Transformers had been slowly growing from this kids thing with a small adult fan following into a pop culture phenominon. This was years before the live action movies propelled things into the strotosphere and you had Bumblebee on bottles of Mtn Dew. However thanks to places like Hot topic selling shirts with Autobot symbols on them and the then new Dreamwave Transformers comic flying off the shelves, things were growing.

Armada was a much bigger hit than anyone expected, leading to stores demanding more toys faster than they could be produced. Not to mention, the adult fan community was growing now with the internet getting into more homes and connecting people in ways it wasn't before. Repainted toy molds are a common thing in every toy line. However, for the most part, only a handful of Transformers would get a repaint up to this moment. Suddenly Hasbro needed to get more product out.

Toys take longer to develop than you'd think. There's a lot of hands in the pot all working on the same project. Transformers is a toy line with a longer developmental timeline due to the engineering involved. The fastest way to get stores new stuff out ASAP is to reuse existing resources and that's what they did. Practically every toy in Armada was repainted into a new version of the toy. At BotCon 2002, the exclusives bore the new label 'Expanded Universe" similar to Star Wars. Before then, they'd have the current lines logo. The ongoing story line would take place off screen of the current fiction usually with non-show toys serving as characters. 

Expanded Universe toys were still starring in the ongoing convention story line. Honestly it seemed like a good way to brand the convention toys and let those who used them fictionally to place them wherever. Halfway through Armada, something called Transformers Universe happened. It all but replaced the former BotCon, now called OTFCC's storytelling. Now all of their exclusives bore that title instead of Expanded Universe.

Transformers Universe ultimately was a brand new toy line made completely from repainted existing toy molds that sold right next to Armada (later Energon and Cybertron). At the time, Transformers didn't have the standard amount of shelf space most of us are used to. There was an entire 6-8ft section in most stores full of product. It was cool, and maybe a little overwhelming. You might hear the occasional older fandom member say "it used to be about 20 toys a year". It really was, and now there was a ton out seemingly nowhere. Add in things like G1 reissues, odd merchandise that kept popping up, or the cool things going on in Japan like when Robot Masters came out. There was just a ton of stuff!

Lots of stores had exclusive Transformers, mostly under the banner of Transformers Universe. There was a mix of Beast Wars/Machines, Robots in Disguise, Armada, and even older G2 and Machine Wars molds! Want a toy in exciting new colors, here ya go! Miss out on a toy before, well, here's another chance! It was great, and according to the Hasbro Transformers team, they were working on getting Brave molds into the line. Neat! Fictionally, all the Transformers throughout the greater Transformers Multiverse were all brought together inside Unicron. They'd fight to the death while Unicron would feed off the death and anger. OTFCC was directly selling comics to further the story... and that's where this story takes a nose dive.

There's some of you who read the name OTFCC and said 'what?'. Some of us collectively exhale. I've talked about it before, but let's explain it as simple as we can. Prior to Fun Publications BotCon was ran by 3H. 3H was the convention founding Hartman brothers and their friend Glen Hallit. They split up shortly after BotCon 2002. The brothers took the BotCon name with them and Glen continued to run the convention and now fan club named simply 'Official Transformers Collectors Convention/Club' or OTFCC for short. IUp to this point Hasbro supported BotCon, but by 2002, they had secured a license.

OTFCC didn't go as planned. Delays and other issues cause the show to fail and shortly after the 2004 convention the license was taken away from Glen. A little later Fun Publications was the new holder with the Hartmans back on board. Those 3H comics had sporadic releases and the story line ultimately went unfinished due to 3H closing down shop. The toys, however, went strong for a few years before dwindling down in 2005 before living out a few years as a discount store line. As a discount store line, the toys were generally lower cost figures repacked from prior lines such as Energon or Cybertron in a generic Transformers Universe packaging. The name itself got another life years later. What we now call Generations, went through a few names changes initially and was called Universe for a while. 

And just like that, it was forgotten. The Multiverse comes up time and time again and gets used differently in various fictional outlets. The word multiverse gets thrown around a lot lately, that's what inspired me to write this. Some people have outright forgotten about the original Universe or maybe never learned about it depending on their fan experience. Often you'll hear G2 colors either mocked or loved, but the often weird purple's and wine colors used in Universe go by unmentioned. That's a shame, it was fun. I thought so at least, I mean, I just wrote a lot of words talking about it. 

Shitting Their Prime Pants

It feels like ancient history now, but then again, I suppose it was almost 20 years ago. At the time some major drama in the Transformers fan world went on that seemed larger than life. For outsiders- the Transformers fandom is more of a subculture than other fan bases. It's a little world of it's own that many members stay pretty wrapped up in. These days it's much larger and segmented, but it used to be much smaller and more tight knit. This particular event took place from 2003-2004, when things were starting to get a growth spurt. The internet was becoming more of a common thing and message boards for various interests were popping up all over. These were quickly taking the place of older online gathering spots, much to the dismay of some assholes.

There was one constant, BotCon. Prior to the last years, it was a smaller more personal affair back then. There were occasional attempts at other TF conventions and some TF programming at other shows, but BotCon was pretty much viewed as the only one. It was like our annual family picnic and a must go destination for many. Hasbro supported the show, but it wasn't officially official until around 2002.  I'm not going to go into the complete history of the con, but here it is of you're so inclined. In short, the brothers who founded it had a partnership with their friend Glen a few years into the cons life. This partnership ran the show for about 6 years. In 2003 they had a falling out and split up. Glen who owned the official license would go on to run the official fan club and con now named The Official Transformers Collectors Club/Convention (OTFCC for short). The brothers would run BotCon as an unofficial show in 2004. And within the fan community, a battle line in the sand was drawn. 

Transform Squadron 19- I've Got All The Hand Sanitizer

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This month Rob discusses Playmobil Scooby Doo blind bag figures and the OTFCC Alpha and Omega Spears. Well that and he drifts on and off subject like a million times. Things happen.

Since everybodies talking about Jetfire

There's a lot of talk about Jetfire these days, which is easy to understand. He has a new and exciting Siege toy that just about everyone wants (including me). With a legacy character like Jetfire, you can't help but to think back to older Jetfire toys when a new one comes out. I was very fond of his toys during the Unicron Trilogy. The Armada Jetfire toy was a great figure intended to homage Galaxy Shuttle. Energon, the follow up to Armada, followed this Jetfire with a new one that always reminded me of Dai Atlas (it's the shoulders).

Energon was a line of many gimmicks. Most remembered was the Powerlinx feature found on most Autobots. Autobots that could Powerlinx with one another could either form the top half or bottom half of a more powerful form. At OTFCC 2003 after the line was shown at the Hasbro panel, many fans were comparing it to Landcross, as that team shared the same gimmick. I can still remember staring at those display cases, excited for these new figures. They just looked so good then ... and honestly still do now 16 years later.

In Armada we Thrust

Transformers Armada was a neat line. You had the Mini-Cons adding an extra level of collect-ability and fun to the tried and true Transformers theme. Mini-Cons were available in a variety of colors and would in turn interact with the larger figures in a number of ways. They could plug on and add to the appearance or unlock an action like pop out guns. Sometimes they'd mirror prior gimmicks like Headmasters. The larger figures in Armada were something special themselves. While taking a step back from the hyper articulation of the prior lines, they brought back the chunkiness of G1 and G2 style toys while often being pretty imaginative in the process.

Despite being a Decepticon jet named Thrust, Thrust was one of those pretty imaginative toys. Feeling more like a member of the Predators than a G1 Seeker, Thrust was a neat toy. An F-35 Lightening II in alt mode, he had a cool black deco with silver and green highlights. In the backside of the jet was a loading bay of sorts where his Mini-Con partner Inferno could dock in vehicle mode. This filled out the back more and added a little extra firepower. In robot mode Inferno would empower a spinning blade attack made from the jet wings. As normal, Thrust got a repaint down the line in the 'Powerlinx' named redeco series.

This is where things get funky, you see Powerlinx Thrust was initially shown to be red, but was released in a brown deco despite being red on all art and pictures. This was done late in the planning stages and caused a bit of confusion at the time. Regardless, the brown jet does look good and introduces blue robot parts into the mix creating a unique looking toy. Funnily enough a red version did get released, first in Europe and then as a USA Edition in Japan.

In red Thrust looked more like his G1 namesake while adding white robot parts where the brown had blue with a few small detail differences. At OTFCC 2004 I had an opportunity to purchase one of these red versions. I was invited along with a group of friends to a private room sale where a few cases were available. I don't remember why I declined, but I kinda of regret that now. It sure would have been neat to have, especially during the time when it was perceived as more myth than reality.

Hasbro wasn't done with the mold just yet, later in Universe (another line I sing the praises of) around early 2004 Walmart had a feature Transformers aisle. While later the large overstock from this aisle became a headache for fans (and probably the employees), it did include a number of exclusive items. One just happened to use the Thrust mold in a rather neat set.

Sunstorm took the mold packaged with a forest green/black version of the Street Action team of Mini-Cons and Inferno. I was quick to jump on this set (as with the other exclusives from the aisle), though many could be found years later marked down on clearance. However this was the last version of the toy, though Thrust did get an homage in Unite Warriors (Takara's version of Combiner Wars).

While you either loved or hated the toy (I was in the loved crowd if you haven't guessed), it got quite a bit of mileage in use. Thrust was heavily featured on the cartoon and has made recent appearances in comics like the Kre-O and Legends manga series (not to mention being in the original Armada comic). Sunstorm appeared in various BotCon/OTFCC fiction as well. You wouldn't have guessed the lasting appeal of Thrust at the time, but that's one of the things that time can do with things.

They call him the Streak

Some of the more cool toys that have come around in the history of Transformers are the non show characters. While this kind of character doesn't happen as much these days, there was a time when they were a good portion of a toy line. In Beast Machines there was some really good figures in the off camera character category. Maybe even better than the main cast folks. Spy Streak was one such toy.

A basic class Vehicon, Spy Streak was a sci fi jet that would look at home in a shoot 'em up video game or a tokusatsu production. Of course being that Vehicons were Cybertronian based vehicles in alt mode, this was a good fit for the theme. In robot mode he had a fun design that fit in with robot designs at the time, while having an alien looking appearance. Simply put, Spy Streak looked like he was from another planet.

The toy mold got used again in Robots in Disguise (the 2001 line) Nightcruz. Nightcruz was a great repaint with the jet parts being mostly black with white robot bits. Blue and yellow accents with dry brushing bringing out the jets tech detail made for a great looking toy. Released in a cool 3 pack with Scavenger and Mirage GT (also Beast Machines toy molds), the toy fit in with the look of the new molds of the line while helping to add more product to shelves.

The toy got used one more time a few years later in the original version of Transformers Universe as Fireflight. Now in an awesome white and blue-gray deco with red highlights, this is my favorite version of the toy. While I normally don't mind when a name gets reused, I do wish Fireflight had a more original name to make the figure more than just another repaint. Fireflight came packed with two Mini-Cons to put the toy in the deluxe price class making for a great little set of toys.

Fictionally non of these great toys got more than a background appearance in BotCon/OTFCC comics. During the 3H fan club, I submitted a bio for Fireflight to the magazine shortly before that clubs demise. At the time I had made him into a version of Randal from Clerks. Looking back now, that was terrible.

Robo Masters commercial (2nd version)

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who cared about Robot Masters, which is silly, but I just don't see many folks looking back on it fondly as I do. Not that I'm trying to be hipster about it, just that I feel like it's often overlooked and unfairly judged. Robot Masters was a Transformers series by Takara that is usually described as their answer to Universe (1.0). Which is kinda fair I suppose, though Robot Masters has original molds in the mix while Universe was all repaints. Fictionally it had a similar story, with various Transformers from various timelines coming together. I can't say I got all of them, though I did get a great deal of them. The line came out just shortly before OTFCC 2004 ensuring that there was plenty of them on hand in the dealers room. You can still find cheap bootlegs of some of the figures at your local discount stores, though they don't really convey what made the line so special to me. It was just the right thing at just the right time and I'll always appreciate it for that.

Great Value BotCon

Ever since the Walmart exclusive G1 reissue Transformers were first shown, I've been jokingly saying Great Value BotCon or Sam's Choice BotCon. It's a silly thing I've been saying as back in the day, something like a G1 Transformers was something you might have to wait until BotCon to score a decent one. Now you can just go to Walmart. I'm being silly, but I'm also outright going to use the term for something else right now.

BotCon was the first Transformers convention, and for many years the only Transformers convention. It became Hasbro supported and eventually an official entity. Ran by a few different organizers, it was retired in 2016. Somewhere around the early 2000's (maybe even earlier) smaller fan run shows became a regular thing, some growing to even rival BotCon in size. There's also the occasional fan meet up organized by individuals based on things like fan groups or local areas. I've organized a few back in the earlier days of the  Georgia Transformers Fans group. It's fun and that's where I'm going with this.

Going to conventions is great, it's awesome, it's a fun time to be had with other fans in the hobby. It's our little subculture that lives on the fringe, still not sure how to handle the mainstream popularity of Transformers since the live action movies. Problem with conventions is, a convention is just once a year. BotCon (and now TFCon USA) traveled each year. You might not be able to make it due to location, finances, personal situations, or maybe all of the above. Things happen, life happens. Other Transformers shows are generally in the same location, but still might not be accessible depending on factors.

So why not have your own?

Since the dawn of social media, it's much easier to hook up with fans in your area. It doesn't take much to plan a get together with a few like minded individuals. Maybe everyone meets up at a restaurant and goes to some nearby stores after. There was just that screening of the 1986 Transformers movie. That would have been ideal to organize something with others in attendance. Or hey, Bumblebee is about to come out. Arrange a group viewing and a trip to the store later! Maybe rent out a room somewhere, get some folks to set up tables with toys they may have to sell or customs they have to show off. You could play some episodes and order pizza (everyone can chip in $5 each for some Little Caesar's). There's that new trading card game, I'm sure getting players together couldn't be that hard.

Name your event, it can be as simple as just 'Transformers Delaware Fans Meet Up' or 'Local Fans Bumblebee Viewing'. Maybe even give it a neato name, maybe it could become bigger and become the next BotCon one day. Have one as often as you can possibly have one, it's your party. The Transformers fandom was grown from grassroots and from grassroots it will continue even if the mainstream attention fades away (won't be the first time). Have fun, you might meet some new people and make some new friends, or have some new fun with old friends.

You know, maybe you could just stroll into Walmart and get one of those G1 reissues.

BotCon 1994 video

This is great.

Omega Pointing

Sometimes, as a Transformers fan (or I guess a fan of anything) you get asked what your favorite era of fiction is. I always say beast era and when I specify more, my favorite parts is the Beast Wars cartoon and the 3H comics (even after BM ended their setting was post BM Cybertron). Not that I don't love G1 and other eras (that's probably apparent in these posts here), just that's the pinnacle for me. My absolute. I love the story telling and can go back to it time and time again. I'm taking time to talk about the 3H era stuff as the Omega Point story line is just *kisses fingers* magnifique.

I'll just go ahead and recommend you check out 3H and everything on the wiki. Just so I don't spend too much time going all over that for those of you who don't know and considering the growth of the TF fandom over the last decade, it's easy to understand that some of you missed that and may not know.

One thing that made the 3H comics so fun is they not only featured the BotCon exclusives, but also non show characters. While Beast Wars may look dated now, that mid 90's cgi was pretty big for a syndicated cartoon show budget, and owing to the fact that each character transformed created double the CGI models for each character, made for unfortunately a smaller cast. This during a time when toy lines had more than multiple versions of the main characters. So that really cool toy you bought who wasn't on the show, got a life in these comics.

Adding to the fun, the Omega Point story line was a Unicron story in the beast timeline (this was before he was used to death during the mid 2000's) and in a way similar to his use in the Marvel UK comics. Essentially, Shokaract is empowered by Unicron's dark essence. Not to mention, there's no handy dandy matrix of leadership laying around to run him off. So Unicron is wrecking havoc and the time tested way to deal with him isn't there. So these expanded universe characters go on a most excellent adventure over the course of a few years of fiction.

It's a pretty awesome story arc, and I think a good deal of it can be found online if you ever get curious enough to read. IDW did a slight retelling of the events in their Beast Wars comic series, which hits the main beats, but tells the story differently. I remember reading it being very impressed they bothered to retread it, even as differently as they did.

Off Camera

One thing that 3H used to do with their fiction, and Fun Publication did initially was base their fiction on non-show characters and generally had their adventures either off to the side of what was going on or little side stories with their exclusives just inserted into what would be a normal episode of the show. Fun Publications eventually got away from it for their own reasons, which probably was due more to the nature of the current product changing often or focus of the series being different (a Generations figure obviously wouldn't pair well with the Animated crew, for example).

Though I generally preferred the side stories better as it was a great way to give these other toys a chance to have adventures (admittedly, there's not much off screen characters anymore on shelves) and really expand on the greater setting. With Transformers seemingly settling into a more cohesive direction (mainline/movie instead of mainline for kids/mainline for adults/movie) I can hope that if there is any fiction from a future (if ever) new fan club or convention, it can be more side stories or extra adventures in the current at time setting. The upcoming Cyberverse cartoon seems perfect to have little adventures set in.

It's pretty much just a generalized Transformers setting, that'd be perfect.

Since I'm talking Snarl

The name Snarl often gets reused on other pretty cool characters. The Beast Machines Snarl character was never on the show, but was featured in the 3H fiction that took place just after the show ended. Snarl's toy got re-released in the Universe toy line with a new deco and he got some much deserved time to shine. At one point the mold was going to represent Alpha Trion, but a toy was never made. It's a great figure, a neat techno organic lion with a pretty solid robot mode. He's not too different from toys of the time, but that's not a bad thing. I really liked him then and wish he got more love in current times.

Bee real

Back before Bumblebee was forever a hatchback (or Camaro, beep beep) there was an honest attempt at making him a Beetle in the Alternators/Binaltech line. Though Volkswagen didn't want their products associated with war (anymore) it never made it past conceptual art and as his body in a BotCon comic appearance. There was talk for awhile of making him a Mini Cooper which for the life of me I could never understand. Sure, other characters all day, but Bee? I find the sporty hatchback a good alternative. It's similar to the Beetle design, while still up to date, and lends itself to a very unmistakable classic looking robot mode.

You know, I really liked Alternators. They weren't really good toys, though they wasn't intended to be. They were intended to be pretty things to put on a display shelf before Masterpiece was a thing (it was just Optimus with a repaint as a cab mode Ultra Magnus... and a Brave guy). There was even comments from the Hasbro design team at OTFCC at the time that they intended them to go along with the Masterpiece Optimus Prime. Some fans derided them at the time (those magical ones who seemingly hate anything everyone else likes coincidentally...why do people keep giving these guys a platform to be heard?), but mostly everyone liked them. They were a nightmare to transform, but were really sharp looking robots. That initial Smokescreen toy is still one of the sharpest looking Transformers toys I've seen to this day.

I wish this never ended

The 3H version of the TF fan club wasn't without it's problems, but that one lone issue of the magazine was spectacular.

Unpolished Metals

A thread earlier in Talk Transformers combined with my earlier post got me missing those older BotCons. They were basically officially recognized fan conventions. A little rough around the seams, but still pretty great. These days of even small run comics being super slick makes me yearn for these older convention comics even more.

Should get a Big Mac and flip through my old copies.

You see, he kicks.

While the cartoon at times felt like a fever dream, I absolutely loved Energon in comics and on tv. In fact I was a big fan of the Unicron Trilogy as a whole. Just like any incarnation of Transformers (past, present, future, whatever), it had it's detractors (surprise, surprise). Personally I had a ball with it. 

Following the events of Armada, Energon was a jump forward into the future. Alpha Quintesson was utilizing his huge Terrorcon army led by Scorponok to take all the energy they could (by force!) to revive Unicron (whose corpse they were floating around in). Megatron gets revived and brings his Deceptions into the fray (because there wasn't enough going on already). Optimus Prime and the Autobots were left with the only choice they ever have, go save the day! But this time with combination powers giving them a much needed power boost in this far out space opera cartoon.

It was insane.

The toys were super neat. The Autobots from deluxe sized and up could almost all combine with each other in some way or another. The Deceptions from deluxe up  mostly had an attack mode gimmick following in the idea that they were much more dangerous this time. The basic class of each faction had weapons that were essentially a building toy with parts for creating your own weapons. It was a super modular themed toyline that was fun to play around with.

I still remember waiting after the new product panel at OTFCC 03 for the toys to arrive on shelves. Armada had finished and it's last figures were still on shelves with the first incarnation of Universe. Christmas shopping season had rolled around and as usual, during the rushed restocking, the new Energon figures found themselves on shelves just before Christmas day. I had just gotten off work and was grabbing the new toys at my local Walmart.

I had my lanyard with work id badge on still with a BotCon Europe t-shirt on. That's specific, because that shirt had an autobot symbol on the left side of the front and the art on the back. Being winter, I had a jacket on. So here I was holding new toy boxes and reading the back when various parents started asking me about the various Transformers toys. Being a nice person, I tried to answer all their questions as polite as I could. After a bit I took my toys and left as soon as I got an opening from all the questions.

As I walked through the aisles towards checkout, I began seriously wondering about the onslaught of questions that just happened. Taking a shortcut through the clothing area I got a glimpse of myself in a mirror. Jacket, cargo pants, lanyard with badge, kinda nice looking t-shirt with obvious branding...

They thought I was a product rep.

Good thing I was in a good mood. I can only imagine what could have happened if I was grumpy or something. That potentially could have been hilarious.

Energon and it's Japanese counterpart Superlink was around during the 20th anniversary of Transformers. Which at the time seemed unreal, can you imagine it's really been 20 years (mind you, we're approaching the 35 anniversary pretty soon)? At the time Masterpiece first raised it's head with a showcase figure intended to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Transformers (which in turn became a successful line in it's own right). However as not only Transformers was celebrating it's 20th anniversary, another related line was celebrating it's 30th.

Microman, which several of it's molds were used for Transformers in those early years was turning 30 in 2004. In Japan, a special figure pack was released to commerate the occasion. A Superlink gift set featuring a deluxe sized Optimus Prime (with wonderful chrome) and a Microman version of Kicker (the human companion of the Autobots at the time) in his trademark armor, also with wonderful chrome).

The two pack was a nice set and while I wanted it, I had learned that the smaller Optimus was to come in a set with the smaller Japanese version of Megatron in a Toys R Us exclusive gift set (sans wonderful chrome). The Kicker was also released as a stand alone Transformers edition Microman (also without wonderful chrome).  So I bought the standard Kicker and held off for the TRU set. Figuring I'd save some money and also get that Megatron.

 

In hindsight I should have got that set, just for the special edition-ness (and wonderful chrome). A few years prior, I had really gotten into Microman/Micronauts and was in heaven with the newer (at the time) Microman toys as well as the Palisades recreation Micronauts toys. The Microman Kicker wasn't released as an American version, though Hasbro did release a Kicker using GI JOE engineering and giving him a scale version of the High Wire Mini-Con to ride. Which was a cool toy in it's own right.

By the time Energon/Superlink reached it's end, I was ready for the next series : Cybertron/Galaxy Force. It had been almost 2 years and time for something new. The comic had ended early due to the bankruptcy of its publisher and while I did enjoy the cartoon, the tail end was very hard to enjoy (that's a nice way of putting it). Looking back though, I can only remember all the fun had with the series and how much as a whole I enjoyed it. The Unicron Trilogy as a whole was a very good time for me in Transformers, with each component being great in it's own right and own way. It's something I'll always have enjoyed while it was going on and look back fondly on despite how much hate it gets from others​.

(with wonderful chrome)