Avengers Assemble Mech Suits

I saw the damnedest thing Saturday morning. The wife and I made a quick run to Walmart for a few things and whilst looking around the toy section hoping to find a Mechagodzilla (man that movie sold some toys) I saw something new. Avengers MECHSTRIKE! There was NERF role play themed toys and two of these new MECH suit sets. Captain America and Ironman. I grabbed a Captain America as I was just blown away by it all. 

A quick Google search later and I discovered MECHSTRIKE is a new major event in Marvel comics that's getting a bunch of merchandising including these new toys I found. My days of heavily reading comics has been over for awhile, so I had no clue. The action figure line though has really captured my interest. There's the MECH suit sets I've mentioned as well as regular action figures. The standard figures have a more sci fi look to them to fit the theme and have nifty shields that I'm sure play into the story.

There's an obvious comparison to Transformers Pretenders when you first look at the toy, but it's a little different. The front opens with a hinge on the top of the suits head and you load the figure in. The figures arms hang out the sides of the suit as well. That's not a deal breaker for me, but maybe for some.The figure is pleasantly articulated and you can put it into a bunch of poses. The suit... not so much. It has basic articulation in the shoulders and elbows. Once again that might be a deal breaker for some, but once again not for me. I really liked my Captain America MECHSTRIKE toy and plan to get more.

There's a variety of ports on the suit, so I assume the idea is to attach things from other toys and deck out your MECH. This isn't the first time Marvel characters have been given this type of gimmick and it usually works well with them. The figures are the 6" scaled figures more recent Marvel figures have been, which has resonated well with me. In the suit, the toy is 9" and is pretty beefy. It's cool and even in it's simplicity manages to grab a lot of attention. It's that cross of bright colors, manga/sci fi theming, and well loved characters. So far I think it's pretty great. You may have noticed.

That Time Smokescreen Became A Decepticon

I've said before that I don't care for things if they felt too much like fan fiction. Which is true, however it's not completely a hill I'll die on. There's been some fan works I like a whole lot. Sometimes so much I think of it as legit fact.

Transformers Chronicles by Hirofumi Ichikawa is one of those that I'm going to talk about today. It's a fan comic released around the late 90's/2000 (little fuzzy on a time stamp) firmly during the beast era of Transformers.

The story pretty much involves the introduction of G2 into a generally cartoon based timeline (there's a little dash of the creation matrix involved). The art is very toy based and it looks fantastic. There's a few different things going on in the book, but one thing in particular that I feel like talking about right now.

Earlier this weekend there was the revelation that the Earthrise Bluestreak toy is exclusive to Walgreen's. So today while I was heading out with the intention to run some errands, stopping by Walgreen's to hopefully find him was on my to do list. Unfortunately I had some car trouble and I'll just have to do that stuff later, including looking for the toy.

Stopping for some lunch after dropping my car off at the shop it occurred to me. It was Bluestreak at Walgreen's, not Smokescreen. I got the two mixed up. It happens sometimes. Which is what brings me to talking about Smokscreen today. Because I was thinking about him. Deep content here folks.

Early in the book, Smokescreen is among some Autobot's who fight Decepticon Sky Scorchers and Predators led by Skyquake. Smokescreen is seemingly taken out in the fight only to reappear later as the Smokscreen from the G2 Dreadwing set. The Decepticons rebuilt him as a new bad guy and he's pretty ok with it.

The books not official story telling, but I occasionally forget that fact. I just love it so much. The art is really great and the story is pretty cool too. Hirofumi went on the do official work on Transformers not long after this. If you've enjoyed the e-Hobby exclusive bios or the Binaltech fiction, then you've seen some of the great stuff he's done for Transformers. I wish he had something to do with the Walgreen's Bluestreak that I got confused for Smokescreen earlier. That would have gave me something to end this with.

Mazinger Z vs Transformers limited covers

"Mazinger Z vs transformers"
[Invincible Iron King Kong vs Transformers] manga
The Limited Cover version has already been announced

Wind Ninja Draw Cover version only
Bean Torpedoes, written book tower, had

Big Shima Yu Draw Cover version only
Verve Comics, Bri comics had

If you have a special love for these two artists!!
※ Limited Cover version only cover different, content same as general cover edition

Battle Beast Former Saga

I don't make my fondness for Battle Beasts a mystery. Even of they weren't related to Transformers, I'd still love them dearly. What's not to love? Little animal dudes with cybernetic armor fighting it out using basic elemental powers in an eternal struggle of roshambo. It also doesn't hurt that they're great toys either. Thankfully for us Beastformer fans, Takara's latest Transformers Legends web comic includes the little fuzzy dudes beating the crap out of each other in good form.

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.

Marvel Megamorphs

In the mid 00's, Toy Biz (who were making Marvel toys prior to Hasbro) made a weird, yet fun transforming robot line based on Marvel Superheroes. They had earlier in the 90's made various 'morphing' figures (goodness that Punisher), however these were outright robot toys. The figures were rather large robots based on various Marvel characters with a smaller version of said character serving as the pilot. The pilot figure acted as the toys gimmick key as well. In fiction, the robots were powered by the characters super powers, and via various points on the toy the character would activate from being plugged in. Like others, I found them ridiculous before buying a few and enjoying them quite a bit. In hindsight, I wish I would have bought more as they were really neat.

There was a mini comic included with each toy which fell in order of each toy (so you needed them all for the complete story) as well as a Marvel mini series, which was pretty enjoyable for something so silly. Often times now, you'll see them pop up in various groups and pages with members usually getting them confused for the Hasbro Marvel Transformers Crossovers toys. Which is a shame that they don't have better notoriety. Sure they were weird and were gone almost as soon as they arrived, but they sure were fun in their own way.

Story Pages

One thing I've always enjoyed was the random story pages inserted in with Transformers instruction or product catalogs. Maybe a blurb of fiction here or there, or as in this case, a mini comic. This little one page provides a cool little bit of adventure with the new toys in the catalog included with the toy. Little things like this can go a long way towards giving that toy a life of it's own and providing character. In cases like these late European G1-G2 toys it was some of the only fictional appearances some of these toys might have gotten until a random inclusion in a later convention comic or small role in a mainstream book if anything at all. It's not much, but it's something. Not to mention, that art is wonderful.

JAZZ BAD COMPANY

These were stickers included with a UK issue of Transformers comics. I just want everyone to relish in just how amazingly amazing this sticker sheet is.

City of Fear

I've made the joke before "what doesn't Halloween have to do with Zone Base?", meaning it's all to obvious how horror themes are rampant in Transformers and other similar series. I mean, most of this stuff revolves around a monster of the week. Then you add in the fact that Transformers are robots, and writers get downright morbid. It's like there's a free pass to get as violent as possible.

The point I'm making is that this stuff can be scary, horrifying, and violent without pause. Take the Transformers UK story City of Fear (you can easily find reprints of it physically or digitally, and I recommend you do). In this story, we get a traditional seeming Transformers story start off and evolve into a zombie b movie. It's weird, scary and even has the nerve to use a dead character from a previous story as a zombie and outright does so to intentionally drive the story forward.

Botlanta 2017

So much thanks to my friend Duron Land for the image we used on the standee.

This past weekend held the first ever Botlanta event at Toylanta (formerly known as Joelanta). Toylanta is a wonderful local toy convention that I have the honor of helping out with. Initially it was a GI JOE centered convention that ran for quite some time before broadening it's focus to also cater to other interests. At that point it was renamed Joelanta and the Great Atlanta Toy Convention, and is where I came onboard. They had invited me to operate a Transformers panel that I have had fun doing for years with my friends Dusty Griffin and Brian Kilby (and on occasion Diecast and Crazy Steve).

The panels popularity had grown to the point where it grew into it's become a programming track at the show. Which we have dubbed Botlanta, as the con has a great naming convention going on. Going into this year, the head honchos of Joelanta decided to rebrand the convention into Toylanta to avoid any confusion. Joelanta, Botlanta, and assorted other panels with a massive (and I mean massive) dealer space (there's dealer halls every nook and cranny) make up Toylanta. Which is becoming even more popular (and bigger) as each year goes by.

So this year, I got to organize a Transformers show. While I've organized fan meet ups and ran panels at conventions before, it was a new experience for me. I reached out to various fans within the Transformers fan community to help Dusty, Brian, and I make a panel track. One thing that was important to me was to make this show distinct. I thought each panel should be informative as well as entertaining to those in attendance. I wanted the track to be an experience to remember and a destination to not miss.

Crazy Steve ran a panel with his awesome collection of vintage toy ads from newspapers and catalogs. Not only is it neat to see those old ads, but as he explained, there was some interesting history displayed in them. Various variations on figures would be in the pictures and artwork that would reference various stages of the Transformers toy line in planning. Dusty, who is a Toy Hacks designer, showed his creative process for making a Repro Labels set and even gave out free sets to attendees! Thanks to my pals at RFC, we were able to produce several panels covering several topics and even put on a live episode of RFC. I was also very pleased to meet two gentlemen (whom I became fast friends with) that had approached me to run a panel on toy displays and even set up an impressive display.

While planning the show, I contacted Derek Yanniger, whom was a key artist on the Transformer Generation 2 comic book. His work was an integral part of the overall look and feel of the comic, which just happens to be my favorite TF comic to date. Derek agreed to come Saturday, and was an absolute treat to have. We set him up with a table to sell his artwork and signatures. In the afternoon, he did a panel with my friend Gabe, on his time with the comic. Derek was such a gracious and outright cool person, it was an all around great experience.

I had spent so much energy into the show that by show time I was a nervous wreck. I just wanted it to be everything somebody coming would want it to be. Fortunately, I had the support of my crew and especially my wife (who made sure I always had a cold soda, or a back rub when I'd take a moment to sit down). Together we all put on a show that I'm very proud of. It was my first time, in a hobby where I don't have many first times anymore. Sunday as the convention was wrapping up and I spent a lot of time with various people at the show talking. Which is my favorite part of these conventions. I get to meet new friends, see old friends again, sometimes meet friends in person for the first time, and generally get to hang out with my friends having fun with something we all love.

I learned a lot this year, which will help going forward in the years to come. Learned what works, what didn't work as much, and what to work on for next year. Seemingly and thankfully everyone that came had a great time. As the show wrapped up and everyone said their goodbyes, I felt like a moment in time was passing. There was a mojo in the air of togetherness that I felt strongly. I can only hope others felt it too and it wasn't just the results my pulse racing all weekend. Shortly before leaving the con, I went into our panel room to say goodbye for the year. As silly as it seems, it felt like leaving home. As an adult, a year doesn't seem so far away anymore. But waiting for next year feels like an eternity.


Check out the Botlanta FB page for pictures and hey, while you're there, please like and share!