Bios: Nightscream

"We fly free."

These three Mini-con robots are as different as any three individuals can be, except for one thing: their love for soaring through the crisp, blue skies of a living world. Across the Universe, countless worlds are infested with Decepticon mining crews stripping resources to fuel their engines, and spewing smoke and filth into the skies. Wherever this happens, you can expect to find the Clear Skies team, waging a private war to destroy the Decepticons and save the skies they love.

Strength: 6  Intelligence: 10 Speed: 6.5 Endurance: 7.5
Rank: 4 Courage: 9 Fireblast: 7 Skill: 5

Bios: Grimlock

"Among the winners, there is no room for the weak."

A raging, reckless robot. The most fearsome and powerful Dinobot ever. Very strong and very stupid. Easily angered. Power pistons in legs enable him to produce small earthquakes when he stamps his feet. Also armed with serrated steel jaws that can tear through solid rock. In robot mode equipped with double-barrelled, self-propelled rocket launcher. Also armed with heat ray beams in eyes that can turn hardened steel into molten metal. Jet boosters in legs provide flight capabilities.

Faker Than A Three Dollar Bill

On Eternia, if you see He-Man committing an evil act... and he only kinda looks like He-Man... you've just witnessed Faker in action. As his name and appearance would imply, Faker is an evil duplicate of He-Man. Obviously a blue skinned repaint of the classic He-Man toy with Skeletor's armor in orange and a robotic sticker on his chest, he is still pretty neat.

Faker didn't show up in a lot of MOTU fiction. Clearly the toy was a low budget solution to getting another figure on the shelves fast. So it stands to reason that not a lot of attention was paid to him afterwards. However Faker does appear in one episode of the classic cartoon. In it he's a near identical clone of He-Man causing trouble. This idea got revisited in 'The New Adventures of He-Man' with another near identical clone named He-Slave (no really). 

Faker does have various comic appearances, including a mini-comic late in the line despite being one of the earlier toys. His origins range from evil robot clone to magically created clone to random member of the Evil Warriors. I do like the classics take on Faker, in which he's a failed robot duplicate of Prince Adam. Man-at-Arms thought it would be a good idea to have a fake Adam to stand in while He-Man was off on adventure. The robot didn't work out and ended up in the hands of the Evil Warriors and reprogrammed. The idea is to fool the people of Eternia that He-Man had went evil. Pretty standard evil clone stuff admittedly, but it works. 

I mainly like Faker because of his colors. The blue contrasts with the orange in such a weirdly fun way. I've made my joke about Eternia being full of living Halloween decorations a million times before, and I'm going to make it again. It's most obvious in his Battle Armor variation. With it, Faker has an orange version of Skeletor's battle armor that makes you wonder why he wasn't a seasonal special edition. Despite the very basic nature of the toy, Faker is pretty popular and generally gets a good amount of merchandise. Which I'm sure Mattel is only to happy to produce.

Bios: Springer

Function: Security Chief

"I'll go anywhere in the universe, so long as it means scrapping Decepticons!"

Springer spent much of the war with the Decepticons going it alone, making friends along the way, but never staying in one place for any extended period of time. As word of the defeat of the Decepticons on Klo made its way throughout the galaxy, Springer was a bit disappointed when he thought that there would no longer be a war to fight. When he was approached by Grimlock to join the crew he was leading to hunt down Bludgeon and his army, Springer jumped at the opportunity. Serving as Grimlock's Security Chief, Springer is one Autobot that the Decepticons usually think twice about crossing.

Pretender Starscream

Conquest is made of the ashes of one's enemies!

A cheating, traitorous villan. Ruthless and cold-blooded. Always plotting another evil attack against the heroic Autobots. Determined to rule the universe with a fist of iron. Outer shell armed with methylial-powered jet pack and thermal carbine that can either freeze or melt metal on impact. Inner robot armed with null ray rifle that shorts out electrical impulses. Maximum speed: Mach 3. Also equipped with suborbital capabilities. Arrogance is Starscream's only weakness.

Evergreen greenhorns

I know I've said it before here, but I'm excited for the upcoming Authentics figures. I won't lie, I'm extremely tickled by the 'new' look of Transformers. I've been seeing the Evergreen designs on various merchandise here lately and with the  upcoming Cyberverse cartoon and all brand identity outside of movie stuff using the 'new' look going forward, I'm happy for a return to the old. Sure Generations has been around for sometime selling traditional looking Transformers to us old farts, but the creators of our beloved robots in disguise have gave up the goose and are returning to a more traditional look for the all ages stuff. That's great. Sure having a refreshed look and direction every few years is great. Don't get me wrong. I love Transformers, all of them at that (I'm sure readers have noticed). I welcome change and enjoy variety. But it is nice to see classic Optimus Prime (sure he's a little updated, but that's instantly recognized classic Optimus Prime) on Valentines Day's cards meant for children, those dinky character cups they sell for a dollar, and on toy shelves aimed at children. That's cool. Not to mention, it's nice to not have a tagline to keep up with on packaging. Really nice.

I also can't wait to get my hands on those Authentics. I think I've said that.

Classic Pretenders

The original animation for these commercials is wonderful.