AM32 Arms Micron (TFPrime) Stunt Wildrider

And there was me, thinking I was done with the TFPrime Wheeljack mold after picking up the TFCC's Subscription Service 2.0 Chromedome. Frankly, most of the other reuses - and particularly the Beast Hunters remolds - were of no interest to me, but Takara Tomy's Arms Micron Stunt Wildrider and its amazingly cute Micron, Ozu, were definitely appealing... just harder to obtain.

Thankfully, sooner or later, almost everything ends up on eBay... occasionally even at a reasonable price... and so, I came to order Wildrider, a repaint based on the eponymous G1 Stunticon.

Robots in Disguise (2015) Bisk

From the start, I was all set to completely ignore the new Robots in Disguise TV show and its toyline. Despite being a follow-on from the amazing TFPrime, it was watered down and kid-friendly, the robot designs looked awful and the first few waves of toys looked poorly designed, shoddily made and generally cheap.

Then I saw photos of the adorable Deluxe class Bisk toy, and the ice around my snobby heart just melted... I still don't know quite what to make of a load of Decepticons who, for no clearly defined reason, all look like weird animal hybrids in robot mode, but a lobster robot is always a win in my books. So, without further ado...

3H BotCon 2002 Universe Glyph

(Femme-Bot Friday #45)

While Hasbro were historically reluctant to properly acknowledge Femme-Bots in the toyline over the earlier years, of the franchise the fans - and the Collectors' Clubs - seem to have been keen to embrace them, with early (pre-FunPub) BotCons offering exclusive Femme-Bots in both 2002 and 2003. While Shadow Striker and Roulette had the dubious benefit of having slender - if not convincingly 'feminine' - robot modes to complement their larger, better-proportioned vehicle modes, BotCon 2002 started things off small and simple with a couple of G1 Mini Autobot repaints and no remolded parts (albeit the keyring version of each, rather than the Hasbro mass release).

I picked up Tap Out a good few years ago as he seemed to be fairly commonly available, even now... Glyph took a little bit more time, but I eventually tracked her down at a decent price... and bought her along with BotCon Europe 2002's Rook... So let's take a look at this Femme-Bot repaint of G1 Bumblebee.

Hunt for the Decepticons Hailstorm

While the original TransFormers live action movie introduced new characters based on vehicles seen in the movie, the toyline for Revenge of the Fallen, including the Hunt for the Decepticons and Reveal the Shield offshoots, went even further, and massively increased the number of Autobots and Decepticons using alternate modes derived from real-world vehicles that didn't necessarily feature in the film, and robot modes which conformed (by and large) to the movie aesthetic.

It was a bit of a scattershot approach, and led to several oddities and a bunch of strange G1 homages, but occasional releases, such as Hailstorm, really deserved to appear in one of the movies...

Titans Return Triggerhappy & Blowpipe

Back when it first emerged that the Titans Return toyline would largely comprise remakes of G1 HeadMasters and TargetMasters, all of which would come with tiny Titan Master figures (HeadMasters by any other name), and feature the enhanced articulation of contemporary figures, I honestly didn't see a great deal to get excited about. My initial plan was to get Takara Tomy's version of Blurr just to complete my '86 animated movie Autobots set (Classics Hot Rod, Kup, Wreck Gar and Grimlock, Thrilling 30 Springer, along with Legends Arcee & Ultra Magnus), but several other figures turned out to be fairly interesting and, almost before I knew it, I'd nabbed a whole bunch of the new Deluxes and Voyagers.

One such figure was Triggerhappy, a remake of the G1 TargetMaster who's no longer a TargetMaster unless you waited for the Legends version. G1 Triggerhappy was a bit of a train wreck, engineering-wise, and among the weirder designs that was deliberately not a terrestrial vehicle, so I was all set to not bother with it... Until I started hearing/reading comments from folks who'd gone out and bought him, to the effect that it was an awesome figure with a unique and surprising transformation.

Does it live up to all the hype?

Superpants!

...or, more specifically, an update on my Armada Optimus Prime situation.

Way back in 2013, when I posted about TFCC/Timelines Astrotrain, I tried to get some photos of Astrotrain in his Armada Prime-compatible 'Superpants' mode, only for Optimus to fall off and break. I'd planned to get a replacement at some point, and have spent the intervening time periodically debating whether to get a new, complete (and preferably boxed)  'Super Base' Optimus Prime, or just get a junker of the cab and replace the broken parts of my existing figure.

It's taken me almost five years, but I finally made the choice to spend a mere £15 (including postage) on a mostly complete cab junker, rather than £40-50 on the whole thing, when the trailer/base is currently in perfect working order. After switching a few parts, I'm pleased to report that I now have a fully working, complete cab (the electronics in mine and the junker were fully functional, so that's a bonus).

So... sometime soon, I hope to drag Astrotrain back out of his box for a new photography session, to replace the images currently still hosted by Photobucket and add the Space Pants Optimus Prime images that have thusfar been missing.

...And since I've rediscovered what a fun toy 'Super Base' Optimus Prime actually is, I'm half tempted to get either Armada Overload (or Energon Ultra Magnus) to fill out the cavernous back section and make him look a bit more 'complete' in and of himself. We shall see... I didn't pick up Overload back in the day because it's basically a brick, but stranger things have happened...