Keith's Fantasy Club Sting Thing

(Femme-Bot Friday #65)

Following the example of their first year, TFNation 2018 didn't have its own convention exclusive toy, as such. Instead, it had a small selection of 'show exclusive' figures available via vendors, and one such figure was the KFC/Big Tin Robot & Sid's Toys Sting Thing, a repaint of 2016's Scorpinator, again made available first at an overseas convention with the remainder appearing at TFNation 'exclusively', before being made available online.

When I wrote about TFNation 2018, I noted that I wasn't going to bother with this - the original is OK, but feels a little fragile and isn't really a 'must have' unless you're obsessed with having a complete collection of TransFormers microcassettes - until I read the bio and found out that Sting Thing is a Femme-Bot.

Not only am I all for Femme-Bots generally, but I'm particularly keen on the non-traditional variety, that aren't designed to resemble sexy humanoid females... So, here we go again...

Packaging:
Considering this box could have simply followed the template of Scorpinator, it's interesting to see how different it actually is... on the front, at least. Aside from the approximate size and position of the main image and the name flash, everything has been redesigned. The phrase 'Convention Exclusive' stands out much more, and 'Tape Formers' has been made a little more prominent both with its choice of colours and the purple/red gradient strip leading into it. The tagline 'The Action Is Back!' appears smaller, but no less noticeable thanks it being set within a brightly coloured corner flash. The sides o the box are much the same, but with the addition of a corner flash on the left side, carried over from the front.

The layout of the back is essentially identical, just without the remnants of Batbat's box art in the background and with the 'Convention Exclusive' banner carried over from the front. However, there's now one small mistake in the artwork that's led to what is, for me, quite a noticeable glitch in the print. Based on my own experience, I'd say the image of Sting Thing is layered above the text of her bio, leading to a large chunk of the lefthand side coming out bold compared to the rest of the text - approximately five characters worth from the top down to the word 'intentionally', this being the extent of the picture box in which the image was placed. It's a small thing but, having worked in print and publishing myself, it's the sort of thing that should have been picked up and corrected before the artwork was commited to print, and it would have been visible either in a print-ready PDF or on film separations.

The box makes a fun reference to Sting Thing's orgin as an accessory for Action Master Devastator, though an orange and purple variant of that specific figure was never released as far as I can tell, so it's a dual reference to the Action Master and the G2 repaint of the Constructicons.

My copy of Sting Thing is number 496, again of a limited run of 500. I do like having an idea of how 'exclusive' my exclusives are, even if they do become available via multiple shows and online stores... Marking it on the box is OK, but it feels like something better could have been done on the collectors' card within, particularly as the character bio isn't included...


Cassette Mode:
Sting Thing follows the styling of the previous exclusive in terms of her alternate form's label, except that hers is solid silver, rather than purple with a cyan stripe. The tape is labelled as 'Sting Thing Remix Vol:2' - not quite a direct follow-on from Scorpinator's 'Vol:1' - and this time has the cryptic labels of 'INK', 'GRDN-SMNR' and 'G293' stamped on the bottom of the label. I'm guessing that the longer one is a reference to the designer of the paint job/box art rather than the toy, otherwise it'd have been the same as Scorpinator. Just like the previous version, the tape spools are painted black and the tape itself - visible through a painted 'window' - is a more traditional dark brown on this figure.

The orange plastic is really bright - hence the apparent glow in my photos, since I had to use the older camera, which seems to like to apply a sort of halo to bright colours. The purple is mostly contained on the back of the cassette. While some of Scorpinator's legs liked to slip out of position in tape mode, Sting Thing fits together much more securely.


Robot Mode:
While I was no longer collecting TransFormers toys by the time Generation 2 came along, I'm really not a fan of the bizarre, neon colourschemes the toys invariably used. Some of them were outright garish, and Sting Thing fits into that aesthetic perfectly. With a purple body and bright orange extremities, she's definitely something different in my collection, and stands out well on either my Generations or Third Party shelves.

Just like the original, it's misassembled such that the hollows cut into the claws don't match up with the position of the robot's head, and switching the claws around doesn't help because the error is in the 'shoulder' joints. On the upside, the silver labelling on Sting Thing's claws don't look quite so out-of-place as the purple and cyan on Scorpinator.

Disappointingly, there's no robot-specific paintwork on Sting Thing - not in the sculpted detail of the body, and not even the eyes. Given that the label-side design isn't as complicated as Scorpinator's, I'd be surprised to find it was a budgetary issue, but the only other options is that it's a factory error across the full production run, as I've never seen a Sting Thing with painted eyes, except those which have been customised by their owners.

The collectors' card is another oddity, in that all her stats are listed as 10/10... I'm tempted to assume that's another error - perhaps the actual stats were never input - because top scores across the board are unlikely and unbelievable, even in a fictional alien robot. Scorpinator's speed stat, for example was given as 4/10... and, given that Sting Thing is essentially the same form of robot with the form of locomotion, it seems unlikely she's more than twice his speed.


I mentioned above that Sting Thing's cassette form is more stable than Scorpinators but, other than that, exactly the same issues are present in this figure. I'm terrified that transforming her too often, or simply posing her, will eventually cause one of her legs to snap because the ball joints are so tight. Nevertheless, she's another interesting curiosity, and actually one of the cheaper exclusives in my collection, even for her size.

All things considered, I'm a little surprised there hasn't been a metallic-looking version produced, in homage to movie Scorponok... Maybe that'll be one of the next repaints, to complement the pair provided with the special Studio Series Bumblebee sets...