I wish I'd waited and gotten him cheaper. And that he had heels and didn't tip over if you looked at him funny. And that he was actually fun, like City Commander and Protector.
Post Pictures of your Transformers, Let's see 40 years worth of Transformers!
- Thread starter Ave Destron
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I look at him and I see Tarn, myself. Or maybe Tarn always looked like a badly made Third Party toy. Your choice.
That Fansproject armor for Classics Hot Rod is still one hell of a kit. I mean, it served as my Rodimus for countless years (the Battle in Space 2-pack version was my Hot Rod). Say what you will about 3rd party companies, but for a while, FP were just knocking their upgrade sets out of the park. Don't even get me started on what their Combaticon upgrades did for that Universe Bruticus Maximus.
All of FP's upgrade kits were really fun. And their standalone figures got better. In fact the last 3P remnant in my collection is their faux-Dai Atlas.
But Warbot Defender was rough. And it's hard to see how anyone saw that as better than what HasTak was doing, even back then
Yeah, I held back on getting that Defender, because...yeesh. Weirdly though, years after its release, I picked up their Armored Core (or whatever it was) Roadbuster. Which, admittedly, is equally doofy, but I was so starved for a decent Roadbuster that I took the plunge. Oddly, I feel the same way about the official Generations Roadbuster: it's doofy and doesn't really scratch my itch for a good update, but hey, it's there!
Speaking of, how about a nice, modern update of Roadbuster, Hasbro? I think it's time
Speaking of, how about a nice, modern update of Roadbuster, Hasbro? I think it's time
I bought their ninja Insecticons, Bruticus upgrade and their OC Steelcore. Ended up keeping only Steelcore. Got to handle a few other of their toys in one way or another. Everything they made until the bitter end had the same weird aesthetic that never sat well with even the blockiest of classics, had design problems and/or was later outclassed.
I did get the Trianix Alpha thing a while back on crazy discount mostly for its general super robot vibes, and yeah, they did thankfully get much better at solo robots over time. Little late for me to realize that, whoops.
I have a kinder take on FP than you but I do agree about them having a noticeable aesthetic. So much so that when one of their designers did one of the MachineRobo Action Toys figures I was like WAIT A GOSH DARN MINUTE... FP? Is that you?
I got the City Commander and Protector kits, then had to put them and other stuff in storage, then they REALLY got kept in storage when we moved, and by the time I got back to them they had been passed by and outclassed. I remember being impressed just by the facility of creating something so involved from scratch, even if the designs were a bit... Lacking (Protector did work out a bit better). I did jump at the chance to get their Bruticus add-ons, as high on the Unicron Trilogy as I was.
Warbot Defender was what made me tune RIGHT out, because even at the time that was... woof. An interesting learning experiment for the designer, but not something I'd ever buy. Assaulter looked better, but also one I never seriously considered -- due to the other thing that was keeping me well away: the steep pricing. Then, as now, 3P stuff is just prohibitively priced due to various factors, which is just as well.
I did backtrack and get a surprising good deal on their Quickswitch, which at Voyagerish height and as a unique mold is preferable to the TR Velocitron set light retool of the character.
3P stuff has come a really long way in the... Near 20 years since then, yikes.
Warbot Defender was what made me tune RIGHT out, because even at the time that was... woof. An interesting learning experiment for the designer, but not something I'd ever buy. Assaulter looked better, but also one I never seriously considered -- due to the other thing that was keeping me well away: the steep pricing. Then, as now, 3P stuff is just prohibitively priced due to various factors, which is just as well.
I did backtrack and get a surprising good deal on their Quickswitch, which at Voyagerish height and as a unique mold is preferable to the TR Velocitron set light retool of the character.
3P stuff has come a really long way in the... Near 20 years since then, yikes.
I've picked up a couple of their things on deep clearance, Quickswitch and Glacialord. Both are well done and a lot of fun for the price I paid. Glacialord especially is fun as the whole idea of "Late G1 toy from an alternate dimension" style toy is something that you just don't really see people doing. Not sure it worked out for them financially, as it seems you can still find unsold stock of those at several retailers all these years later, but I think they're great.
There are some iffy decisions on Quickswitch, but I like it well enough to wish I could track down that decent deal on the redeco I saw once. Oh well, that's money the mainline demands.
I do remember hearing good things about Glacialord, and that was one of the nicer ideas they had. Love the notion of building on existing product lines and subgroups.
Even now it's a bit of a niche, but more because no one's really chasing 3Ps for original ideas like that.
I do remember hearing good things about Glacialord, and that was one of the nicer ideas they had. Love the notion of building on existing product lines and subgroups.
Even now it's a bit of a niche, but more because no one's really chasing 3Ps for original ideas like that.
You know, I skipped Glacialord but in recent years have come to appreciate what it is. I think that he would look pretty good squaring off against Pirhanacon, for instance. I have seen three of the components for him still available at BBTS and TF Source (and for cheap!). However, the other two have proved to be elusive, and I have yet to come across a complete set.
That's true. For some reason, they either weren't all made in the same quantities, or people wanted the deer and rhino more than the others.
I myself have tried (to no avail) to find at least one more deer for cheap as I like to pull my current one out at Christmas time as a Cybertronian reindeer.
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Because of how inexpensive they currently are on BBTS, I'm considering taking the plunge on Tusker, Tailclub and Fangro. But I wonder: if I double-dip on Tailclub and Fangro, will I be able to form some version of Glaicalord? I see that Tailclub comes with a foot piece, but I'm not sure if they combine Scamble City-style or not.
They can. You should be able to use Tailclub's shield/foot piece on any of them, and the fists are part of Tusker, so you're good there. I'll double check when I get home tonight, but I'm 95% sure that you could form a version that uses 2 Tailclubs and 2 Fangros.
Agreed on pretty much all points on Defender. I liked Protector and City Commander enough that I was willing to assume Defender would be better in hand than he appeared on screen. Sadly, 'twas not to be. Still, I found him more satisfying than any of the random car OR helicopter repaints that Springer got in those days, and he fit in well enough with the rest of that set. Also, some 3D printed heels at least resolved one of his big problems.
What ultimately kept him in my collection though was the lack of any new Springer during the PWT. All the other primary TFTM characters got updates during those lines except Springer. I obviously like building sets, so I decided to split my T30 pair. Arcee went with the older CHUG group, while Springer went with the PWT group. I think they work out pretty well, aesthetically.
What surprised me as I was going through these is that I have BB Kup. I have no idea when or why I got him. I'm sure I remember deciding to pass on him, since I liked SS86 better. But as I was pulling out bots to line up for pictures, there he was. Helped fill Kup's slot for that WfC/Legacy set, but I'd love to see a new Kup come out in '26. Ideally, I'd like to see Targetmaster versions of Hot Rod, Kup, and Blurr with new tooling to differentiate them from SS86. Oh, and an SS86 Rodimus or course!
What ultimately kept him in my collection though was the lack of any new Springer during the PWT. All the other primary TFTM characters got updates during those lines except Springer. I obviously like building sets, so I decided to split my T30 pair. Arcee went with the older CHUG group, while Springer went with the PWT group. I think they work out pretty well, aesthetically.
What surprised me as I was going through these is that I have BB Kup. I have no idea when or why I got him. I'm sure I remember deciding to pass on him, since I liked SS86 better. But as I was pulling out bots to line up for pictures, there he was. Helped fill Kup's slot for that WfC/Legacy set, but I'd love to see a new Kup come out in '26. Ideally, I'd like to see Targetmaster versions of Hot Rod, Kup, and Blurr with new tooling to differentiate them from SS86. Oh, and an SS86 Rodimus or course!
Kup could use another go-round. The latest mold is tantalizingly close to being perfect, but has just a couple of odd proportions. And he's tired of getting asked about his long face every time he walks into a bar.
Glaicalord is awesome and the only figures in my collection I display in the packaging
I'm very happy to say that my wife convinced me to build a custom display cabinet during our basement remodel using some Youtube videos as a baseline. I was skeptical it would go well, and it was a lot of time and effort that I really didn't enjoy, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. Really nice to finally have a place for some of the big guys. Here are a few pics with the front panels off to eliminate reflections.
I really hope the big finale to the upcoming Primes line is a HasLab Primus. I'd love to have the challenge of fitting Primus and the 13 in there with Unicron and his heralds. In the short term, once I get TR Fort Max out from storage, I think I'll put all the modern G1 Autobot leaders in there to help fill out and balance the top case.
For the bottom, I'd love to try to squeeze in a Monstructor and Thunderwing! Wish I could fit Tidal Wave in there without having to kick out any of the others.
I really hope the big finale to the upcoming Primes line is a HasLab Primus. I'd love to have the challenge of fitting Primus and the 13 in there with Unicron and his heralds. In the short term, once I get TR Fort Max out from storage, I think I'll put all the modern G1 Autobot leaders in there to help fill out and balance the top case.
For the bottom, I'd love to try to squeeze in a Monstructor and Thunderwing! Wish I could fit Tidal Wave in there without having to kick out any of the others.