TransFormers Collectors' Club 2009 Members Incentive (Timelines) Heatwave

(Members Incentive Monday #7)

I have to confess that, after a rather disappointing first few years of Members Incentive figures, Heatwave actually managed to be an exciting final component for the Club gestalt. Firstly, it would feature a whole new head sculpt to make the combined form - Nexus Prime/Maximus - a truly unique robot... Secondly, the Energon/Superlink Barricade mold was the only Energon/Superlink torso that I didn't already own in some form at that point.

TransFormers Collectors' Club 2008 Members Incentive (Timelines) Topspin

(Members Incentive Monday #6)

And so we come to the penultimate component of the TransFormers Collectors' Club Members Incentive gestalt, Topspin, based on the Stormcloud/Blackout mold from Bruticus... Meaning the component parts of Nexus Prime are basically Aerielbots and Combaticons - neither of the Constructicon Maximus parts were used. It also means that all but Landquake and the Torso component are flyers...

TransFormers Collectors' Club 2007 Members Incentive (Timelines) Breakaway

(Members Incentive Monday #5)

TransFormers has a long history of chubby aeroplanes. I guess it's understandable, because planes tend to be slim and sleek, and that's never ideal for concealing a robot. Breakaway is based on the Firebolt/Air Rider mold from Superion Maximus, and is probably my least favourite Energon gestalt component mold. The Club fiction portrayed him as slightly mystical, with the power to heal... Weird.

Galaxy Force Starscream

One character who's had a bit of a raw deal over the history of the TransFormers toyline is Starscream. The scheming Decepticon Air Commander/Second-in-Command has always been a popular character due to his many and persistent plots to usurp Megatron, and yet the toys tend to lack a certain something. The Unicron Trilogy presented three (mostly) new forms for Starscream but, while Armada's was bulky and unwieldy, and Energon's was little more than a G2 Cyberjet on a slightly larger scale, Galaxy Force brought us a Starscream that was both worth of the name, and a brilliant homage to the G1 character's Cybertronian 'tetra-jet' form.

Universe (Chevrolet Dealership Exclusive Aveo) Swerve

Something interesting happened in the wake of the 2007 live action TransFormers movie - the concept of 'robots in disguise' as real-world cars suddenly became cool. Sure, Takara Tomy and Hasbro had tried a similar thing with the Binaltech/Alternators line, with a fair run of success, but GM's involvement in Michael Bay's movie seemed to be the thing that really whetted their appetite for transforming versions of their cars... And when they had a new version of the Aveo to launch, they teamed up with Hasbro to organise a dealership exclusive toy for a special offer: Test drive the car, get a transforming robot based upon it. Of course, that offer was only open in the States but, since it evidently proved quite popular, the model was later made available in Chevrolet Europe's web shop... which was pretty darned cool of them.

TransFormers Collectors' Club 2006 Members Incentive (Timelines) Landquake

(Members Incentive Monday #4)

If I remember correctly, 2006 was my first year as a member of the Club, and the Members Incentive figure did - I must confess - leave me wondering if I'd made a terrible mistake. I knew the plan was for a 5-year Energon/Superlink-based gestalt, but the tank mold was easily the most underwhelming of the bunch.

OK, so I missed one...

Typical me, really, isn't it? Mind you, just because I've missed one 'Members Incentive Monday' doesn't mean it'll happen again... In fact, I may just get all of them done this Jubilee weekend and schedule them for the next few weeks. That'd be sensible, wouldn't it?

So I probably won't...

Seriously, though, apologies for the temporary interruption to your allegedly scheduled programming. I actually have a job at the moment, and adjusting to the 'waking up early, going to work, doing personal stuff in the evening' routine wasn't quite as smooth as it could have been. Work is going well, in and of itself, so that's something positive.

I'll at least aim to get a couple more updates done this weekend...

In other news, this from Seibertron.com.

OCD... tingling...