Bios: Overhaul

One tough Autobot, Overhaul has never thought much of intellectual pursuits. His solution to a complex problem is generally to stomp on it until it gets simple or stops being a problem. He's never felt that he's had the respect his strength deserves from the other Autobots, but now that he's on the Jungle Planet -- where might makes right -- he feels right at home.

Strength: 6 Intelligence: 5 Speed: 4.5 Endurance: 8
Rank: 4 Courage: 8 Fireblast: 6 Skill: 7

Bios: Backstop

Once the most feared and powerful warrior on the Jungle Planet, Backstop was long ago beaten and cast out by Scourge. Forced to live among weaker beasts, he came to value the equality of all creatures above all else, and now fights against Scourge with the other Jungle Planet rebels. He hates the cruel dictator, and dreams often of the day on which he will finally throw down and destroy the evil, three-headed dragon-bot.

Strength: 8 Intelligence: 6.5 Speed: 5.5 Endurance: 7
Rank: 5 Courage: 9 Fireblast: 7 Skill: 6

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Bios: Wreckloose

An eager fighter for Scourge, Wreckloose throws himself wholeheartedly into battle. He rarely carries a ranged weapon, preferring to use his bladed shield in close combat. Able to blend in almost perfectly with the Jungle Planet underbrush and move silently through even the densest vegetation, he will wait in hiding for days just to ambush a challenging opponent.

Strength: 6.5 Intelligence: 5.5 Speed: 7 Endurance: 8

Rank: 4.5 Courage: 8 Firepower: 5.5 Skill: 8.5

 

 

 

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Cyberfire and Brimstone

I've been talking about Cybertron toys lately, and for good reason, they were great! One toy from the line was Brimstone, a Decepticon from the Jungle Planet whom turned into a pterodactyl. Brimstone was a fairly good sized toy in the deluxe class with a great neon yellow and gray color set with some purple for good measure. Looking like some cool knight from a mid-evil fantasy adventure or even some evil warrior to be found in a dungeon, Brimstone was just a sharp looking figure. Speaking of sharp, his Cyber Planet Key gimmick was flip out knife blades that came from his wings in either robot or beast mode.

Transformation was pretty simple, but still pretty unique. A simple rearranging of parts and his legs formed the pterodactyl's head while his arms formed it's feet. In beast mode Brimstone was pretty solid thanks to his simple transformation. Simple doesn't mean bad though as the toy looked great in both modes and didn't sacrifice anything in the process.

Oddly enough Brimstone's mold was a 'one and done' that rarely happens in Transformers. I blame timing as the toy didn't really fit in with following lines while other Cybertron toy molds got folded into various reuses. Aside from his Japanese counterpart and random value pack style releases there just wasn't any other use of the toy mold. Which is a shame as I can easily see him as a Windstorm homage. Fortunately he did get some love later as the character returned as a BotCon exclusive.

Wreckloose is a weird name

Off screen characters are usually pretty great toys despite not getting any screen time. Wreckloose from Cybertron is one of those really great toys that somehow didn't make it to the show. Realistically because of random marketing and business reasons, but I'll call it because of bad decisions. Wreckloose is a Decepticon from the Jungle Planet who turns into a komodo dragon (autocorrect suggested I misspelled Commodore Dragon there and frankly that's an awesome idea). I was a big fan of the Jungle Planet as it was something of a return to Beast Wars and Wreckloose really felt like a lost beast era mold.

As part of the Cybertron line, Wreckloose had a Cyber Planet Key gimmick in his weapon. His weapon, which was a helmet piece in lizard mode would unfold into a crossbow type weapon. This could be activated in beast mode or when held in his hand. Also felt like a late addition to the design, making me wonder if he was sitting in some designers binder somewhere for a few years. Probably not, but with his overall design and look, I'm convinced he could have been a Transmetal 2 basic... and man should he have been.

Just as the injustice of such an excellent toy not being featured on the show was committed, so was the misfortune of no repaint into a new character happened. Wreckloose was the rare one and done mold in Transformers that happens less often than you can imagine. I could assume it was due in part to the movie line originally being planned to follow Cybertron immediately (but didn't), but will just chalk it up to another bad decision based on no factual evidence and not ever working in the toy industry. Though later the mold did resurface in discount store releases.

Several Cybertron and Energon figures found their way back onto shelves with minor differences via discount store releases. Initially this was under the Universe banner, but shorty after the live action movies it was just 'Transformers'. For a brief moment in time Transformers were just called Transformers and it was glorious. Wreckloose was re-released around 2010 with minor paint differences in these discount store packages. He could be found on a standard card normally, though a boxed gift set with him included did pop up. The toy is largely the same as his Cybertron release with a few minor paint detail differences.

While the original toy's fiction was limited to his bio (he sets traps) setting him in the Cyberverse story, the re-release didn't really put him anywhere other than your local Family Dollar. Though years later, he was a bit character in Fun Publications fan club fiction in the Beast Wars: Uprising story line. Eventually, the obviously a freaking Beast Wars found his way into some sort of freaking Beast Wars setting. Because holy crap it was a freaking Beast Wars toy that somehow didn't come out until Cybertron and don't you tell me otherwise because dammit it's a fucking Beast Wars toy with a shoehorned gimmick.

Overhaulin Cybertron

In 2005, Transformers Cybertron graced toy shelves with some pretty neat toys. Overhaul was in the initial shipments of the scout class and was a fast favorite of the line for me. Going with the Cyber Planet Key gimmick of the line, you'll notice that he's representing the Jungle Planet. The Jungle Planet was home to beast based Transformers and even though a jeep/SUV style vehicle would fit in that environment, Overhaul was a bit of a beastly bot on his own with claws, sharp teeth, and some distinct styling. Overhaul was effectively modeled after Wolverine.

Though that's not all to his Jungle Planet life. Overhaul was changed into Leobreaker, a lion based bot whom fit in among the Jungle Planet even more. You may notice his names don't exactly translate into each other. That's because Overhaul was originally planned to be Trailbreaker. Leo-Breaker, get it?

If you guessed the toy mold got a repaint, then you've been paying attention to the franchise for the past 35 years. Not too much long after Overhaul was released, a new Decepticon character using the mold was released named Brushguard. Brushguard was not just a cool blue version of the toy, he was also a botanist! He spends his time researching things like poisonous plant based toxins and how to use them in battle! He's actually working for money to spend on science fiction, what a nerd! Not to mention, Brushguard is actually Overhaul's cousin. Talk about an awkward Thanksgiving!

Later when the movie came out in summer of 2007, Transformers fans were treated with a DELUGE of toys! Target featured an exclusive line of basic and scout repaints in movie packaging. While that might sound boring to some of you, it was actually a really neat little line all to itself. The toys would have unique colors and bios expanding the universe of the movie past the handful of bots seen on screen. This lead to a new character using a familiar name-Warpath!

In an attractive red and black with light blue highlights, Warpath is easily my favorite version of the toy. Many of these off screen character types would pop up in movie themed comics where the characters would get into even more adventures. I personally really liked these comics. They weren't just more fiction in the universe, but usually really good too! Part of the fun of the first few movies was all the off screen characters. A mix of new molds and repaints, the toy line was really fun (depending on where you keep sticks on your body). It was so fun that it was easy to overlook the actual movie and focus solely on all the additional product and fiction.

These days the Overhaul mold doesn't get much attention (though Leobreaker's mold got used a million times), and that's a shame. It was a fun little toy that got reused in fun little ways. While I certainly enjoy things like Siege, it's hard not to back at times when Transformers was a little more inventive with it's lines. Something as simple as a repaint got a life of it's own, even if it was just in a few blurbs on the toys package, it was a good few blurbs!