Transformers Custom - Astrostar

Quite a few years ago, I tried my hand at a number of Transformers-related customs. I've shared a few of these before, but I somehow never seem to have gotten around to sharing "Astrostar," my silvery custom made from an extra Cosmos.

Since Cosmos was a spaceship, I thought about what color a spaceship should be. If I may be so bold, I think that the silver color-scheme I decided upon is far more realistic than the green of the original toy, if "realistic" is even an appropriate word to use for a science-fiction creation such as a flying saucer!

In an attempt to keep the toy fully transformable without scraping the paint applications away, I left Cosmos' yellow parts unchanged, although close examination of the pictures does reveal that the green where the arms meet the torso still shows through. The gold (mostly) replacing the red of Astrostar's head seemed an appropriate counter-point to the silver on the rest of her body.

Yes, "her." Although I am on record as saying that, as robots, Transformers shouldn't have "male" nor "female" sexes, the fact that they do in most of the fiction is an accomplished fact of life. Having established that female Transformers exist, however, the powers-that-be have managed to incorporate a disappointingly small number of them into the actual roster of established characters. When I wrote up Tech Specs for this fan creation, I decided to do my small part toward equality (you'll have to click the thumbnail to actually read the bio, of course).

I didn't stop at the Tech Specs, either. This was one of the customs for which I created an actual box, designed to resemble the Generation One boxes (not precisely, but most average folks wouldn't know the difference).

Sadly, I no longer have this toy in my collection, having sold it on eBay to a fan some years ago. However, I remain quite proud of this particular effort. You can see some more pictures (including the box from other angles) at this link.

(Mostly) Transformers Feature: Reveal the Shield "Goldbug"

Old-school Transformers fans will be aware that Goldbug was the name given to the character of Bumblebee as that character was given a 2nd toy (almost unheard of at the time for a Transformers character) in 1987. After that, Hasbro reverted back to the Bumblebee name, relegating the Goldbug name to something of a footnote in history. Although BotCon, which rather specializes in obscure fan-oriented references, did an evil Goldbug toy just a few years ago, Hasbro tends only to use the Bumblebee name on toys released to general retail (and there are a lot of retail Bumblebee toys these days. There's even a debate in the fandom about the fact that Hasbro is doing so many Bumblebee toys, it's sometimes hard to find other toys on the shelf amid the seemingly endless supply of Bumblebees!). Thus, even a toy that's clearly intended to be a Goldbug homage was given the name "Gold Bumblebee," and even that toy wasn't given a proper "Goldbug" head, but simply repainted the existing Bumblebee head (it was just a redeco of a previously existing figure, after all) in blue.
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"Transformer" Feature: Action Master G2 Breakdown

2004 was a difficult year in the history of Transformers conventions.  Although BotCon had developed a reputation as the largest and best-known convention devoted to the franchise, the name was phased out in the previous year as the convention took on official status with Hasbro and the person then in charge of organizing the convention moved to separate the company from the folks who had started the "BotCon" concept.  Although not all the facts about exactly what happened, and why, are entirely clear even today, it is obvious that this was a very contentious decision that caused a lot of hurt feelings and it is not too uncommon to hear words of blame tossed in one direction or another whenever the topic is brought up, even today.  Without getting into those painful details, it is enough to say that one result was that, in 2004, there were two significant conventions.  One, called the "Official Transformers Collectors Convention" because, well, it was, and another unofficial convention, run by the Hartman brothers, the original BotCon organizers, which retained the "BotCon" name.

Because 2004 was the 10th anniversary of the original BotCon, the organizers wanted to do something special for an exclusive, but no longer having official ties to Hasbro, their options were limited.  Ultimately, the Hartmans teamed up with Joe Toscano (who had been creating custom Action Masters for a few years by that time) and Chip Wallace (who at the time was running a custom stickers site) to create an unofficial Action Master to homage the original BotCon exclusive from 1994, G2 Breakdown.  Using the never-released-in-the-US Action Master Sideswipe as the base from which to create a mold, and creating a new head which more closely resembled Breakdown, this toy nicely captures the feel of the character despite having features that the original Breakdown toy never had (most notably the Lamborghini hood as a chest) .

One of the featured guests at BotCon 2004 was Peter Cullen, who provided the voice of Optimus Prime in the original Transformers cartoon (and who has since come back to provide Prime's voice for the Michael Bay live-action Transformers theatrical movies).  As I understand it, BotCon 2004 was held in Pasadena specifically so that Cullen (who lives in the Los Angeles area) could participate.  Since I work in Pasadena, that naturally worked out great for me, and so I made arrangements to attend.  It was actually announced sometime after the initial registration period that an (as yet unrevealed) exclusive would be provided to those who paid a little bit extra to attend a breakfast on the morning the convention began.  Although I wasn't keen on spending extra money, the promise of an exclusive was too much to turn down, and so I signed up for that, too.  As a result, I was able to get one of the few Action Master G2 Breakdowns made, and I don't regret paying to attend the breakfast one bit.

The folks who created AM G2 Breakdown also went to the trouble of providing packaging for the figure which, like the Headrobot Cobra, had to be careful to avoid using any of the trademarks then in use by Hasbro.  You can find pictures of the package, as well as a detailed "making of the figure" feature, at this site.  The package even included a set of "Tech Specs" that duplicated the style used in Generation Two.  What it didn't include, oddly enough, was a set of the "Power Plans" that were characteristically on all (real) Action Master figures.  Naturally, I couldn't allow this oversight to go unaddressed, so when I went home the evening after I picked up my figure, I put some together.  I even made sure to print out a copy to give to the Hartmans (I assume they got it, but I wasn't able to hand it to them in person, but rather to one of the staff of the convention).

Of course, "BotCon" is once again the name of the official Transformers convention, and the theme for this year's BotCon is "Generation Two: Redux."  It was revealed just this past weekend that one of the figures in the box set is a new Generation Two Breakdown figure!  Because this toy uses the mold created for the "Universe 2.0" Sideswipe figure, it actually looks more like the "unofficial" Action Master than it does the original Generation Two Breakdown, but I, for one, am not complaining.  My only concern right now is scraping up the money to afford the new toy, so it can go next to the Action Master I already have!

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My Brother, the Graphics Guru

Ever since my brother Nick was three (if not earlier), we've known that he was talented.  He would draw images of his favorite cartoon character (Goofy) that were well beyond the scribblings one would expect of a toddler.  Later years would add Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, Mario, Link, the Street Fighter pantheon, and many other pop-culture icons (including, yes, Transformers, as demonstrated by this image I shared a while back).

Nick's also developed some considerable computer skills, and currently works as the tech guru for one of the local auto service chains in the Louisville area.  His job allows him to do some work from home (clearing up a computer glitch over the network, for example), but also requires him to travel around northern Kentucky quite a bit when a computer needs hands-on attention.  It keeps him quite busy.

Even so, Nick's artistic skills continue to find outlets.  A few years ago, he put up this web page to showcase a number of 3D models that he created.  Nick is a perfectionist par excellence (there's quite a bit of that in my family!), and these have been done with painstaking attention to detail.  In the case of Transformers like Optimus Prime here, he would actually measure the actual toy to precise levels (and, sometimes, taking the toy apart to make sure that individual pieces were accurately measured) so that the final product would be perfect.

This perfectionist streak extends to video game designs, too.  Take this rendition based on the Super Mario Bros. game, for example.  Even though the original game is (obviously) not in three-dimensions, it was important to Nick to make everything "pixel perfect."  If you were to look at this image from the head-on perspective of the original game, you theoretically shouldn't be able to tell the difference.  Yet this was not directly copied from screen captures or any other part of the original game.  It was all drawn from scratch!  I invite you to check out other examples of Nick's work on his own page.

BotCon 2009: The Customizing Class

Although my wife's and my BotCon experience this week actually started Wednesday night, there's really not too much to tell about that bit. We waited in line for about an hour so that we could pick up the box set of toys (which I'll say more about in a few days) and other registration materials. The first real experience of BotCon 2009 worth mentioning was the Thursday customizing class (another class was held on Wednesday, but I wasn't there). I'm embarrassed to say that I was actually the last person to arrive at yesterday's class, although I was there only a minute or two after 9:00 am at most. I found a seat and was given my materials in short order.

As you may have already heard from other online forums, the figure we were making this year was a "Shattered Glass" version of Thunderclash, one of the exclusive figures in this year's box set. But before we get into the changes that we made to make this figure distinct from the "real" exclusive, we need to get into the construction of the custom figure.

We are given our figure not only disassembled, but actually still on the original plastic sprues. Modelers may already be familiar with the process of cutting off plastic parts from sprues like these, and I have some minor experience in this area, myself (although it's probably been close to ten years since I've put together that kind of a model kit!). Even so, I was a bit surprised at just how many parts were involved in this deluxe-sized figure.

Thankfully, Shawn Tessmann, the instructor behind the event, created a fairly detailed set of instructions and a process from which to make order out of such chaos. While cutting the parts off of the sprues, we followed charts whereby we put parts into different groups. All left arm parts when in one tray. All right arm parts in another. All torso parts in another. You get the idea. We also had to separate all the metal screws, pegs, and springs into appropriate trays as well. With all of the parts separated and thus organized, we were ready to begin.

I knew getting into the endeavor that I would find it a bit challenging. Although I've done a few customs from time to time, the fact is that I have a dangerous combination of perfectionism and a lack of patience, which is undoubtedly why I haven't done more such projects. Still, I knew that this was an opportunity that might not ever come so readily to me again, and was glad to take advantage of it, frustration and all. Here you see my custom Thunderclash's nearly-completed arm (sorry for the fuzzy pic!).

The part I found the most frustrating about this whole process was getting springs in place. This mold uses several ratcheting limbs, so that you can pose arms, elbows, legs and knees in more or less stable positions. However, I found that some springs didn't really want to fit in the spaces I was trying to put them in, and these parts were sent flying on more than one occasion. I suppose I should be grateful that I only actually lost a spring once in the whole process. But, in the end, it was my own fault. The picture you see here, for example, actually shows a spring that was not intended to be put where it is shown. I later discovered that I had a few of the springs confused, and the one that actually goes here is a bit shorter, fitting into place with considerably less force.

Shawn encouraged class members to inform Brian Savage, president of Fun Publications (the group that runs BotCon), of any comments, both good and bad. The only criticism I actually have is that I did find it difficult to tell precisely which part was intended to go in which place on a few such occasions. Several screws, for example, are very similar, but not identical, while the consequences of getting a spring wrong has already been demonstrated.

After several hours (I think it was close to five), I finally got the whole thing assembled. I was tempted to leave things right there, because I already know that I'm not very good at painting. Remember what I said about perfectionism combined with lack of patience? Well, the perfectionist streak dictated that I simply couldn't leave the figure as it was, so I went to work on putting color on my toy.

This is what Shawn's version of Shattered Glass Thunderclash looks like (well, more or less. It's not really fully transformed into robot mode). Such perfect lines! How he managed that, I still don't know. In the past, I've tried masking tape, masking fluid, just being really careful (yeah, right!), and anything else I could think of, but I never have been able to achieve such mechanical precision.

Some members of the class, especially those with greater skill, chose to go with their own ideas rather than following the "Shattered Glass" model at all. I opted for following the instructions... mostly. I purposely left a few paint applications off, and chose one or two colors that were at variance with the "original" version. Although I still wish that I was able to duplicate the straight lines Shawn managed, at least my version doesn't look as plain as it did before I painted it. Actually, it's not quite done yet. This is a mold that I've never had before, and I really don't know how to transform it without instructions. One of the faction symbols (generously supplied by the class, and featuring a clever twist on the "Elite Guard" design of this year's box set that reflects the "Shattered Glass" version's evil nature) is expected to break down the middle of Thunderclash's front end in vehicle mode. I decided to apply those stickers when I got home and could have access to instructions on how to transform the toy properly.

By about 3:30 or so, I decided that I needed to stop, as I was simply adding more frustrations with each paint application I decided to apply. When I got home, "Shattered Glass" Thunderclash was ready to join the official BotCon 2009 exclusive in my collection. For the record, I've never considered customizing class figures to be "official" exclusives, which is why they don't appear on the data sheet (UPDATE: I reconsidered this policy a few years after this post went live. He does appear there now). Still, it's a unique toy that I'm glad to have. I haven't really been home all that much to take pictures, what with the long lines at the convention and all (I was in a more than two hour-long line by the end of the day today!), but I'll try to put up some side-by-side shots of this toy alongside "regular" Thunderclash when I review him in a few days.

Weekly Transformers Feature: Tap-Out

I don't know that anyone else feels the same, but there's a sense in which I sometimes think of BotCon 2002 as a particularly good one, despite the fact that I didn't even attend. That year saw four different exclusives, all available separately, and used the first Generation One character and Generation One mold exclusives ever specifically made for a BotCon (the exclusive for the first BotCon was G2 Breakdown, which clearly used both a G1 character and mold, but that exclusive wasn't specifically made for the convention. Someone else pointed out that there was an Arcee toy the previous year, but note that there was never an actual transforming G1 Arcee toy produced during the original toy line. Still, she is a Generation One character...).

Tap-Out was one of the two exclusives (along with Glyph) for BotCon 2002 that used a Generation One mold (in Tap-Out's case, Cliffjumper's). Technically, these toys didn't use the Generation One mold, but rather the modified versions created by Fun4All to be used as keychains. Indeed, even the BotCon versions had to be created as keychains rather than technically as "toys," for licensing reasons that aren't altogether clear to me. I promptly separated the metal keychain element from the rest of the toy, and discarded it.

Tap-Out was actually given away for free to BotCon 2002 pre-registrants as an attendee exclusive, marking the first time that such a giveaway was done. This practice has now become commonplace, although the current organizers of BotCon, Fun Publications, are much more serious about making sure that attendee-only exclusives remain available only to attendees. Tap-Out was eventually available online via a web site.

Besides the Generation One references, one of the reasons I like this era of BotCon is admittedly rather self-serving. Because the organizers produced so many of these small keychain exclusives--far more than they actually sold or gave away at the convention--they eventually became fairly inexpensive to get on the secondary market. Over time, I've been able to pick up most of the Fun4All Transformers keychains, both exclusive (also including BotCon Europe MMII exclusive Rook) and non-exclusive (the only exceptions I'm aware of are the black-colored variants available exclusively in Japan). These are cool little toys to have around, and I'm sorry that Fun4All wasn't able to produce more of them before they went bankrupt in 2004. And, of course, the organizers of BotCon themselves followed suit at roughly the same time. So even if BotCon 2002 was good for me, it apparently wasn't so good for the folks who made it special in the first place....

Weekly Transformers Feature: Camshaft

When I was visiting family for Thanksgiving a couple of weeks back, my parents brought me a few Transformers and parts that my brother thought I should have. This is how I was able to show Mirage with his rifle last week, but it also enables me to feature a more obscure character from the earliest part of Transformers history.

Camshaft is a member of the "Omnibots," the group which also features Overdrive, and like Overdrive, Camshaft was a pre-Transformers-era "Diaclone" toy that was brought over to the Transformers line as one of the very first mail-order exclusives. Camshaft's vehicle mode is a Mazda Savannah RX-7. Ironically, the RX-7 (having a rotary engine) doesn't actually have a camshaft, perhaps demonstrating the dangers of naming so many characters after automotive terms. They were bound to get something wrong sooner or later!

But more seriously, as a member of the Omnibots, Camshaft also has as an "armored car mode," a feature which sets these small cars apart from most other Transformer toys of its era. The official transformation is pictured here, but because of the absurdly-visible fists, I tend to just flip the missile launcher up and call it "done," if I play with this mode at all.

Oddly enough, I've had Camshaft's hand weapon floating around my collection for quite some time, even though the toy itself was with my brother until a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure how that happened, but all the bits we have are properly together again. That "bits we have" part is important. Having gotten Camshaft at a flea market way back when, I'm pretty sure we've never had missiles. Maybe someday I'll have to do something about that.

Being mail-order exclusives, the Omnibots were never given Tech Specs in America, but they were given Tech Specs in Japan (despite also being mail-order exclusives there). As I did with Overdrive, I was able to create a mock-up of what an American Camshaft Tech Spec would have looked like, using a translated version of the Japanese bio. Enjoy!

Weekly Transformers Feature: World's Smallest Transformers Thrust

In 2003, Takara developed a new line of Transformers designed to take advantage of the ever-present popularity of the Generation One characters. This line is referred to by fans as "World's Smallest Transformers" (the TFWiki indicates that this name is erroneous, preferring "Smallest Transforming Transformers," but I have to admit that I've never heard that phrase, and since we're talking about a translation from the Japanese anyway, I'm going to defer to widespread use over strict accuracy just this once. However, instead of writing out "World's Smallest Transformers" each time, I'll just use "WST" hereafter). These figures were sold blindpacked, meaning that you actually didn't know what toy you were getting until you actually opened the box. This is a strange concept to most Americans, but is actually fairly common on such small items in Japan. Still, if one thinks of these figures as being sold similar to how trading cards are sold, and how people will buy up multiple packs hoping to get a particularly rare card, you've got the concept pretty well.

WST Thrust is not one of the rare figures, but rather is a figure you're likely to get lots and lots of copies of if you buy boxes of WSTs hoping to find a less common one (say, Jazz or Bluestreak, for example). This toy is, basically, a scaled-down version of the Generation One original (as, indeed, are all WSTs). Thrust's modified F-15 fighter jet mode is shown here alongside a quarter to give you an idea of just how small this toy is. I should note, for the sake of accuracy, that the square "heat sticker" seen on the figure isn't something that the toy came with originally, but rather is something I bought from Reprolabels to evoke the idea of a "small version of the G1 toy" even more.

Thrust transforms almost exactly the same as his larger-scale counterpart, although the WST toys tend to rely on pegs rather than screws and such, so parts are a bit more likely to just pop off. No real harm, though. Just plug the part back in and you're good to go. Cartoon-purists often like to flip the plane's nosecone up on top of the head to give Thrust the "conehead" appearance he had back in the original cartoon, but I've never cared for that look at all. It looks pretty dippy on the cartoon, and even worse on the toys, which were simply not designed with this transformation in mind.

Since these toys were sold blindpacked, the box they originally came is pretty generic, and doesn't really make for a good display item. For this reason, I decided to make my own. I've shown this box before, but here's a shot of just my custom WST Thrust box on its own. I still have the Photoshop files in case anyone would like to try their own skills, but be warned that the files are quite large, so if you have a specific character in mind, let me know when you try to contact me by e-mail, so I can send you just the most appropriate files, rather than clog your e-mail server more than necessary.

Custom Tech Specs and Action Master Power Plans for Soundblaster and Ultra Magnus

It's been a long time since I've posted any custom Power Plans or Tech Specs. I'd gone through most of my Power Plan creations in these two postings last year, but upon going through my files, I found that I'd missed a couple. I'm certain that the Ultra Magnus figure itself hails from Custom Masters. It may be that Soundblaster comes from there, too, but I'm no longer sure. But, first, here are the Tech Specs I completed for both figures:

Now, here are the Power Plans. The Soundblaster plans are incomplete, not containing any of the text that the other Power Plans have, which probably explains why I didn't post this image earlier. I'm not sure why I never finished it....


Finally, waaay back when I was starting this blog, I posted a picture of a custom package I made for the Ultra Magnus Action Master. I created both a front and a back for that. Here are those images.

Mockery of Life

Here's another one from the pre-blog files. I had the privilege of getting a copy of this custom as a prize for winning a contest done by another Transformers fan (who went by the screen name of "Crazy Steve") on his own website (which is no longer accessible). Basically, I was asked to write a poem about Scrounge, the obscure Autobot who was introduced, and promptly killed off, within a single issue of the old Marvel Transformers comic (you can see more about Scrounge here).

Here's the poem I came up with:

When you're needing a spy
You depend on a guy
Who tends to blend into a crowd
Who just does his job
Vital data to rob
And isn't too flashy or loud

There's a robotic wheel
Who's the authentic deal
With the Autobot code-name of Scrounge
He's just yellow and red
(even that's just his head)
So he stays well-concealed in the lounge

To avoid being scanned
Scrounge can shoot out his hand
to travel where he couldn't go
With its camera and mike
Sounds and pictures alike
Are recorded for others to know

But Scrounge was discovered
Smelted, won't be recovered.

Anyway, that little bit of nuttiness won the "grand prize" of Steve's contest, a custom-made model of the Ratchet-Megatron fusion featured in a couple of issues of the old comic. This creature had been an important part of the background for a post-comic bit of fiction I'd written shortly after high school, the first part of which can be found here (I actually did three entries, covering the rest of what I'd done), and so was pretty pleased to have a three-dimensional representation of this character: something that almost certainly will never be granted us from any official Hasbro release.

Anyway, Steve had apparently asked me to write up a review of the toy. Here's that review, rescued from the mists of time!

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The "Mockery of Life" is one of several names given to describe the fused Ratchet-Megatron monster that appeared in issues #69 and #70 of the original Marvel G1 comic. This custom has been created by making a new mold from parts of the Ratchet and Megatron PVCs currently (at the time) on the market. Steve was able to mold a few necessary extra bits out of Sculpey to create some of the details, such as the exposed electrical wiring and the facial expressions, that did not exist in either of the original figures, but which were required because of the nature of this character.

One problem (Steve encouraged me to be brutally honest in my review) with the figure was that it arrived in the mail with two of its connecting pegs broken. These were the left shoulder(s?) and right leg(s) pegs. In order to get the figure together, I borrowed an idea I got from M Sipher's "Homebaked PVC" site, to drill a hole where the old peg was, place a new rod in its place before supergluing the joint together. In the case of the leg(s), I got the rod by clipping a small part off of the plastic frame that remains after removing the missiles of reissue G1 Smokescreen from the packaging. For the shoulder, I cut a staple into pieces and used one of the pieces to provide the connecting rod (though it's too small of a sliver to be called a "rod"). Once re-rodded and superglued together, it holds together much better, but I did knock the leg loose again while moving to a new apartment, forcing me to have to reglue the leg together again. In any event, I don't expect to be able to re-position those joints in the casual way you usually can with PVCs. In addition, it should be noted that the connecting rod to Megatron's deformed fusion cannon is also very loose fitting, and comes off easily. However, since it does remain in place if untouched, I did not choose to make any modifications there.

The "Mockery of Life" is amazingly detailed, especially when one considers that many details had to be constructed completely from scratch. Anyone familiar with the Transformers comic issues this character appeared in will instantly recognize it, as the figure does an amazing job of translating the 2-dimensional character to a 3-dimensional reality. I might have handled the paint job a little differently, as the paint job comes of as "messy" to me. In some ways, this is entirely appropriate for this character, who is indeed a messed-up conglomeration of two robots, barely functioning with exposed parts and leaking all over the place. However, this paint job is messy in places that probably should not have been. I hasten to point out that Steve himself recognizes this, and anyone who reads his own reviews of his work at Scrambled City will know that he does not come off as self-aggrandizing (please note that this link is an old one, archived through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine). Nor do I believe that I would have done a "perfect" job. Anyone who has seen the customs on my page knows the extent to which I myself am not always able to make perfect lines. However, I am not a huge fan of glossy paints, preferring to use flat enamels in most cases. They look, in my opinion, cleaner in the finished product. Also, I don't think I would have painted the black joint lines that Steve did. Again, this is largely just a matter of taste and interpretation, but is offered in the spirit of collaboration.

All in all, this is an amazing figure, and a welcome addition to my collection. Any quibbles I have are minor ones.

Char's Raggedis (Or: And Now For Something Completely Different)

As I mentioned last week, my wife's on a trip to the Middle East. Given that fact, it may sound strange to some people to learn that I spent this past weekend visiting her parents. Suffice it to say, we get along rather well, and I really don't understand a lot of the stereotypical issues a lot of people claim to have with in-laws. Besides having a chance to visit, I was able to help my mother-in-law set up an online shop to sell dolls that she makes herself.

You can find her wares at Char's Raggedis, where she sells dolls patterned after the Raggedy Ann and Andy concept. For those who care, the names are trademarked (or, at least, there are companies that claim to own the trademarks), but the doll designs and original stories by Raggedy Ann and Andy creator Johnny Gruelle are in the Public Domain. This is why you may see so many dolls like this at craft shows and similar venues.

If you've ever been to a doll or craft show, or to a toy shop that specializes in handmade work rather than plastic action figures, you probably know that prices can range pretty wildly on this sort of thing. It's almost pointless to charge for the actual labor that goes into handmade work these days, because that would drive prices so high that no one would buy them (and, indeed, many do avoid handcrafted product for just this reason!). But quality work and material is still worth something, and prices can and do reflect the quality of the finished product.

I'd invite you go to Char's Raggedis and have a look. This kind of thing isn't for everyone, but an effort has been made to have prices that are competitive with other dolls of similar quality and workmanship. Even if it's not your thing, you may know someone who might appreciate these. Please feel free to pass the link to someone else you think might like them.

Mirror Superion?

Everyone's talking about the upcoming BotCon exclusive set this year, which is featuring a "Mirror Universe" concept where all the good guys are bad and vice-versa. Love it or hate it (and there's plenty of both), it's a hot topic on the boards these days.

It was therefore a bit odd for me to realize that I'd actually done something with pretty much this exact concept a few years ago. Discount stores have been carrying $5 (on average) knock-off sets of the old "Scramble City" combiners for quite some time now. The quality is certainly well below standard for Hasbro/Takara-made Transformers, but they do make for excellent custom fodder.

Having already added the knock-off version of Superion to my collection, and looking for something to do, I bought another to turn into an "evil" version of the Aerialbot team. Painting the leader in (nearly) all black, adding blue and gold in places they didn't previously exist, and even dying one of the white team members red (although it came out pink, instead), I completed my evil Superion.

A bit of Photoshop work even allowed me to create "box art" for the new character, as well as Tech Specs. If you'll read through the Tech Specs I made about two and a half years ago (below), you'll see that this character hails from an alternative universe, and was brought into ours by Unicron. This was intended to tie into the "Universe" plotline (which was where most repaints of this nature were coming from at the time if/when Hasbro released such toys) where many Transformers from alternate universes were being brought together to fight (either for against) Unicron. But now that the "Mirror TF Universe" is becoming canonical, who's to say that this evil Superion isn't from the same universe as the upcoming BotCon exclusives? (Admittedly, I did call him a Decepticon and gave him faction symbols, rather than the "evil Autobot" concept of the convention, but that could be dealt with if need be) Since "Alterion" (as I called the new character on the Tech Specs) is clearly a portmanteau of "alternate" and "Superion," it may be safely assumed that "Alterion" is not this character's name in his own universe, but is simply a name chosen for clarity's sake.

Clearly Different

I've noticed a trend in my toy collecting in recent times. More and more of the figures I'm picking up use clear plastic. Some of this has certainly been done without conscious thought, as the official Transformers collectors Club has been giving its members clear exclusives as membership incentives each year (and will continue to do so for at least two more years). Now, I know that clear plastic isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I actually think it's pretty cool. There are things you can do with clear plastic that you just can't do with normal plastic.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here are those three figures again (What? You didn't click on the links above already?), this time photographed with a light source directly behind them.

Of course, this type of picture is no substitute for the regular pictures to actually see what the toy looks like, but it's still something you can't do with a regular, opaque figure.

My latest purchase from the guy at Custom Masters was the "ghost Starscream" figure, which works especially well in front of the light. For those unfamiliar with the original Transformers cartoon, Starscream was killed off in the 1986 animated movie, but returned for a couple of guest appearances in the television cartoon as a "ghost" who could possess other Transformers. This character remains one of the most iconic villains in the entire Transformers franchise.

At about the same time (but from a different dealer), I also picked up a couple of imitation Transformers in clear plastic, recreating two classic cassette Transformers, Rumble and Buzzsaw. Like the custom Starscream above, these were not actually made by Hasbro, but still look pretty cool. Sadly, the backlighting effect is somewhat diminished by the stickers (which are still opaque) on parts of the body, so the effect is most pronounced at the extremities.

I actually have quite a few figures in clear plastic. In fact, some are several years old by now. And my collection of clear figures hasn't been limited to Transformers, either, but I think this is more than enough for one post. Perhaps I'll post pictures of some of the others next week.

More Custom Action Master Power Plans: Road Rage, Shadowjack, and Twincast

After writing about Gutcrucher last week, I realized that it's been a while since I shared some of my custom Power Plans. Here are a few more. Road Rage was a custom created through www.custommasters.com, and is based on an eHobby exclusive. Twincast was a custom done by a site that called itself "Scramble City" a number of years ago. Unfortunately, that site no longer exists, curtailing plans to create even more Action Masters based on characters used in the Japanese Headmaster cartoon, as Twincast was.


The middle character, Shadowjack, was my own creation. Basically, I had an extra Jackpot figure lying around, and decided to do something with it. Even before characters like RiD Scourge and Nemesis Prime came upon the Transformers scene, the idea of an "evil clone" has long been a staple of science-fiction. Perhaps the most obvious example is "Bizarro" among Superman's enemies. When creating "Shadowjack," I most specifically had in mind an obscure character created near the end of the 80/90's run of Firestorm called "Shadowstorm" (this guy's so obscure that he doesn't even have his own Wikipedia entry, although he is mentioned here.) Here's the Tech Spec I put together for Shadowjack: