The Insecticons [Galaxy Version–06,08,09]

This is a post I’ve been wanting to write for a while. Longtime readers know about my affinity for insect-based robots, and that absolutely includes the Insecticons.

They’ve always been this creepy subgroup of the Decepticons that tend to follow their own path. Wherever they go, they consume everything around them, leaving nothing but wasteland behind. You’d think that wouldn’t be such a big deal—there are only three of them, at least in the cartoon—but that’s never really been the case. They can clone themselves, creating an entire swarm.

The Insecticons originally began as the Waruders in Diaclone. While I’ve got various G1 versions of the characters, I’ve never been lucky enough to own the original Waruders themselves. Thankfully, in 2005, E-Hobby released an exclusive recolor set in those Waruder colors. Within Transformers fiction, they were meant to represent the clones—so in a way, they finally brought the Waruders back into the fold. I jumped on that set immediately.

These days, Blokees Transformers Blind Boxes kits (and similar model lines) have become a big part of how I enjoy Transformers. Starting with Galaxy Version Series 06, they began releasing the Insecticons, and I knew I had to complete the trio. Each one even comes with a tiny insect-mode partner, which is absolutely my thing. I’ve always had a soft spot for partner figures, so this set was basically designed to hook me. 

Let’s take a look at each one.

Kickback – My personal favorite of the group. Between the wings and antenna, he’s just a great-looking design. As a grasshopper, it makes sense that his specialty is jumping long distances. He’s probably the Insecticon most people associate with the team. Released in Series 06 Parallel Universe, he comes with a tiny Shrapnel and his Electrothermic Blast Tube.

Shrapnel – The leader of the group. My older brother had one when we were kids, and I’ll never forget thinking his pincers looked like horns. They’re used for his electrical attacks, which always looked great on screen. He comes with a tiny Bombshell and his Grenade Launcher. Released in Series 08 One Shall Fall.

Bombshell – Arguably the most dangerous of the three. His Cerebro-Shells let him control other beings, launched from that dramatic rhinoceros beetle horn over his head. I’ve always had a thing for rhino beetles, so he’s hard not to like. He comes with a tiny Kickback and his Twin Ion Impulse Blaster. Released in Series 09 Darkest Hour.

Each figure comes in a blind box and is fairly easy to assemble. The included insect-mode partners are fun little builds too, and I really hope Blokees continues doing things like that.

As expected, they all include open and closed hands for posing. Kickback, being from an earlier wave, uses the older body style—slightly less articulation and a higher resting head. Shrapnel and Bombshell use the updated construction, which allows for more dynamic posing. It doesn’t make Kickback look bad by any means, but the difference is noticeable when you’ve got all three together.

Even so, there’s a strong sense of cohesion across the set, which is important for a team like this. My only real gripe is that Shrapnel’s Grenade Launcher is purple while the others weapons are gray. It’s not a big deal—likely just a result of mold tree layout—but I do wish it matched the others.

Overall, I’m really happy to have completed this trio. I’ve been picking up more Galaxy Version kits individually lately, so finally assembling the full Insecticon team felt like an accomplishment.

I don’t even like real bugs… but I go crazy for robot ones.

It’s weird. I know.

ZombieTrack BMM-02 [BeastBox Mega MechaBeast]

ZombieTrack is another toy I had been waiting to get stocked in the Amazon 52Toys store for what seemed like forever. Thankfully he was same day delivery and was in my hands the minute I was finally able to purchase. ZombieTrack is the second Mega MechaBeast in my beloved BeastBox series of toys. ZombieTrack is something I've been really looking to get my hands on. Just look at it! With Halloween around the corner, there's nothing like some Devil Invader energy to get the spooky summer going!

ZombieTrack is a smaller BeastBox that transforms into a grasshopper whose mech suit transforms into an all terrain bike. Larger figures can drive the bike and it can carry a box mode ZombieTrack or other smaller BeastBox. The grasshopper forms the head of the larger MechaBeast mode. I love this toy.

Don't ask me how the combination of a grasshopper and all terrain vehicle creates such a creepy robot, but I'm all here for it. There's a resemblance to Vamp/Casmodon that I can't help but to love, but ZombieTrack is still his own robot. Well, I'm saying he generically. Judging by the box art, there's a horde of these. There's probably a variety of genders in that swarm. As a grasshopper, ZombieTrack is surprisingly articulated.

The legs have a wide range of movement and the head can look all around. I like the antennae. Even though I didn't do it in the picture, you can raise it's wings up as well. Those wings are laser guns in MechaBeast mode, so I like to think of them as boosters in beast mode. Transformation to box mode is easy enough, but maneuvering the legs can be tricky the first time. Box mode can easily slide into the smaller Box Charger that comes included. Head mode is a variation of box mode with a few parts flipped out.

The all terrain bike transforms pretty easily. it essentially folds into itself and the treads are the arms and legs. The head snaps in securely and those wings I mentioned earlier become back/shoulder mounted lasers. There's quite a bit of articulation and even though he doesn't come with a weapon to hold... it looks like a standard sized weapon could fit into the hands. It's nice to pose him with those claws out though. There's a little tread kibble in the arms that ends up looking like legs and I find that to be a creative way to deal with it.

MechaBeast mode looks like a giant grasshopper that's learned to stand upright. Man, could you imagine that? I live in the American south and the grasshoppers don't get that big here... but you drive a little further south and they start getting larger. Scary large, but thankfully not as big as ZombieTrack looks to be. Overall ZombieTrack is an awesome addition to the BeastBox ranks and my favorite of the two Mega MechaBeast toys available. He's super creative and wonderfully spooky. I wonder if whatever comes after him in this series can top this?

Demon Dart BB-32 [BeastBox]

[DEMON DART Legend] Despite being a veteran of the Cavalry Army, Demon Dart is troubled by his rookies face. Although the corp disbanded ages ago, he still keeps some of those old fashioned habit, and never adopt the noise suppressor is one of them.

I do love a beetle. Well, maybe not in real life... but absolutely as a toy. Demon Dart, who we're looking at today, is a really neat robot beetle. Something about the boxiness of a robot toy really works great with bugs. Demon Dart really pulls off the insect robot look really well in his cool red and black colors. It's a simple color set, but just looks so striking on his design and make me think of the EVA-02. BeastBox toys always look cool, but there's something extra special about this one. One really neat feature of Devil Dart is his flight mode. Not only do the wings open up, but a set of jet wings unfold from underneath. After the little nosecone is in place, you've got a cool a flying beetle ready for battle. The flight mode reminds me of the vehicle modes in Beast Wars Transmetals. They weren't much more than a few parts that folded out of the beast mode, but it made for a fun design. I'm reminded of Transmetal Waspinator's vehicle mode in particular.

You'd think going from the beetle to a box would be tricky, but transformation very easy. It's an involved transformation to be sure... but everything just works without any hassle. Devil Dart is a pleasure to change from one mode to another. Box mode is nice and compact. It really does just fold up cleanly without any kibble in any mode. That's some really impressive engineering. Box modes slides easily into the Box Charger without any fuss with plenty of room to store his little missiles. Demon Dart is such a cool toy. He's simple to transform, but not a basic toy. Those six legs articulate in a pretty wide range of movement. You can open the beetle wings without unfolding the jet wings as well if you choose. Despite looking like a nightmare of you found one in your kitchen, this is a pleasant little bug bot. Just a pleasure all around. I love it.

Swings from a Creepy Web

I'd been really looking forward to Legacy Tarantulas. I've always liked the guy, and not just because he's a bug. Specifically because I've always liked his evil mad scientist characterization and his neat design. He's also a bug, but that's just bonus points. Since I can't think of a better time of year than to talk about a spider, I figured Tarantulas is a perfect candidate. I've always really liked his purple coloring BTW.

Tarantulas is not difficult to transform, however it can be a bit annoying to get everything to line up just right. That's something that really stuck out to me about this toy. I felt like things just suddenly went into place after doing the same thing over and over. That's probably more of me having clumsy hands than the actual toys fault. Either way, he's pretty great in both robot and beast modes. One thing that'll probably stick out to folks who either don't like Beast Wars or are new to beast era stuff is the kibble. Alt mode kibble is just something you get used to when dealing with Transformers.

Usually it's part of the robots design overall. With many beast era toys... you tended to have things like animal legs just hanging off a body part. Sometimes it'd be a clever part of the design... sometimes not. With Tarantulas, there's no ignoring those spider legs in robot mode. The best thing you can do is pose them out of the way or as guns as they'd be used in the show. Basically I'm describing a part that that'll either be a deal breaker to some folks or a non-issue to others. I clearly love Beast Wars, so it's a welcome annoyance.

Tarantulas is a good toy (assuming you like this sort of thing) and a solid update of him. He had his signature weapons. Both the crossbow from his original body and the buzz-saw weapon from the Transmetals version. Unfortunately he doesn't have the vehicle mode that would suggest, but both weapons can be combined into a larger rifle... or tree saw

Robocop Hates Bugs

For the past few years the wife and I have been wanting to move only to stay where we're at. This year we've been putting a considerable amount of work into actually moving. While we've seemingly found a place (unless some 11th hour bad luck causes plans to fall through), man we've been through the ringer looking all over. There's all sorts of things you don't consider until you actually need to consider them. Which leads to a rather sitcom like confession of mine, like you, my waking thoughts often pop up in my dreams. Unlike you, I'm possibly (probably) insane.

I'm almost 42... I'm just like this ok?

So one apartment neighborhood in a pretty swanky area really had us sold, we discovered it and it's neighboring communities had bug problems. Bed bugs, roaches, scorpions, silver fish, you name it. That's freaking gross! I have no clue why that town's so fancy pants when they got bugs in their cereal, but no way man. No freaking way. Moving alone is a stressful situation, but looking for a place to move isn't a cakewalk either.

So there I was, seemingly have found the perfect place. A condo large enough to fit our needs and in a pretty good area. We were settling into our new home on or first night there. Then there they were... roaches. Pouring out of the air vents, the plumbing, getting into my kool-aid. Just awful. I don't know about you, but I like to take care of business. No messing around, if theirs business to be taken care of... TCB mother fucker.

So I pulled out a tommy gun from the Dick Tracy coat I was wearing (to bed) and just started shooting every roach in sight. Just firing like mad, and yelling. Because when you shoot a machine gun for more than a second you have to yell while doing it. Bullets piled on the floor, roaches fell dead. This was my house and I had to defend it.

Ever wake up running to the bathroom wondering why 50 gallons of pee comes from a 12 ounce can of Coke? It was 3/4ths of the way through that when I realized I was awake and not shooting roaches. Oh by the way... ever seen that Japanese bug spray commercial staring Robocop?

Kabuto Mushi Wave 33 Diorite Apocalypse

APOCALYPSE KABUTO MUSHI

The Godbeast has updated the Kabuto Mushi line with the all new wave 33! These new colorways of the awesome Kabuto Mushi and Nemesis are available in the ultra impressive Apocalypse and Diorite versions!

APOCALYPSE NEMESIS

Like all Kabuto Mushi figures, these use the Glyos system, which is compatible not only with other Kabuto Mushi figures, but other Glyos system toys! You can make your own awesome creations by mixing and matching parts.

DIORITE KABUTO MUSHI

Don't miss out on this newest wave. The figures are by an independent artist and quantities are limited. Once they're gone, they're gone!

DIORITE NEMESIS

The Godbeast Store

I don't care if he Bugly, he's got a great personality

Somethings been bugging me, and that's the lack of a Bugly update. I know he's not in the main event and maybe not even near the middle of the card. But he's one of the Pretenders that I've always loved and have always hoped to see a new toy of. Pretenders are one of those oddball G1 series you either love or hate. These days they do tend to get a more positive outlook, but that wasn't always the case. I know, I know, I love everything. That's not true, I just prefer to spend my time with things I love instead hate. Especially when it's something I do for fun. Because I'm not stupid.

Pretenders fill a niche for me. Let's think about it, shall we? I might like Transformers a little bit (did you notice?). Might just have a thing for monsters (could you tell?). Then in the case of the Autobot Pretenders, they sure do resemble characters from video games or that way cool show on USA Night Flight. The timing of them couldn't be any better either. Hasbro is a really big toy company and they tend to market their products to the customer base. Because duh.

At the time kids were all about toys like Ghostbusters (ever see the ghost figures?) and TMNT (M is for mutant). Various freaky gross things were all the rage and Hasbro plans to make every cent that they can. That's how business works. Then you add in Takara's market and really if you want to give it a small amount of thought, Masterforce sure was like a Sentai show huh? It's just a logical progression. It also just so happens to appeal to my specific tastes. Not just my cup of tea, but my whole jug of drank.

I got Bugly in the sixth grade. The local Big Lots had Pretenders in stock and my Mom grabbed me Bugly. It was great! You see this cool bug monster? I loved his colors too. They sure did fit in at the time with other toys and really I still love them. They just look good and really pop. I've always loved the later G1 Decepticon colors. Teals, blues, blacks, purples, and whatever neon shade that you wouldn't immediately think of for a villain.

While I lament the lack of a new Bugly toy... there was a little something that did happen. Little as in a tiny little TF toy. During the time that Legend class figures came with a tiny partner figure, Venin came partnered with Acid Storm. A repaint of the Waspinator toy that came with a Starscream figure, Venin sure does look like Bugly. He's a different character and the resemblance could be a coincidence. Though it's hard to deny he could have been Bugly if the folks at Hasbro decided to make it so.