Alternators Optimus Prime

As previously mentioned on this blog, any Optimus Prime mold is fair game for later reuse as Nemesis Prime, so it was a bit silly of me to write up the repaint first... Or was it?

Because, for one reason or another, I ended up with two other iterations of this mold: the Alternators Nemesis Prime figure I've already dealt with, and the Binaltech version, Black Convoy, which turned out to be a bit of a lemon. I picked up the Alternators version of Optimus because, for a while, it seemed as though he wouldn't get a Binaltech release... but he did eventually show up in the much-maligned Kiss Players subline, replete with die cast parts and a unique paint job, in 2006. He also saw a release in under the original Binaltech branding two years later.

Of course, with three iterations of this mold in my collection, is there anything particularly interesting to say about this?

Alternators Battle Ravage (Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Convertible)

The connection between Generation 1 and Beast Wars might seem tenuous if one were to look at the toys in isolation. Aside from a very familiar-looking head on the Maximals' leader, there was no real visual continuity. It was the TV show that very cleverly posited that the Maximals and Predacons were descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons, respectively, and the two small teams travelled back in time to prehistoric Earth, where the Beast Wars were waged.

Why am I writing about Beast Wars in the writeup for an Alternators model? OK, kids... this is where it gets complicated (and also involves a major Beast Wars spoiler for anyone who's not yet enjoyed that series): In the TV show, Tripredacus agent Ravage - a rebuilt version of G1 Ravage - is sent back in time to put a stop to Megatron's plans, but ends up helping due to a fragment of message from the original Megatron, encoded on the Golden Disk. He ends up getting destroyed, but not before downloading his consciousness into his ship's black box, only to be recovered in the present day and installed in a Binaltech body... along with G1 Ravage, stasis-locked in his cassette form, in the dashboard of his Chevrolet Corvette Z06 alternate mode to provide the body with a Spark. So Binaltech Battle Ravage = Beast Wars Ravage + G1 Ravage... but BW Ravage is a future version of G1 Ravage, for whom the events of the Binaltech story must already have happened, so Binaltech Battle Ravage represents an infinite temporal loop of Ravage personalities.

Or something...

Now, I hadn't planned on buying BT11 both because I wasn't overkeen on BT06 Tracks and because a humanoid form of Ravage didn't appeal... but then my best mate gave me the Alternators version for my birthday!

Alternators Sunstreaker

Binaltech was a line that missed many opportunities - the sort of 20th Anniversary celebration that left many people wondering exactly what went on in Takara's strategy meetings. Sure, it came along before the TransFormers movie franchise kicked the toymaking into a higher gear and, yes, there were several key motor car manufacturers who still - irrationally - did not wish to associate with 'war toys', but when you create Sideswipe out of a Dodge Viper SRT-10, surely it's natural to create Sunstreaker out of the souped up version, isn't it? And yet the remixed model, with it's bespoilered rear end, and a head sculpt that was clearly Sunstreaker, was first released as a Decepticon, Dead End... and it was up to Hasbro's Alternators line to correct this most grievous error...

Alternators Ravage (Jaguar XK)

Here's an oddity for the Alternators line - a British car... with a British number plate... but the steering wheel on the wrong side. Actually, that's not much of an oddity, is it? It would have been an oddity if the steering wheel had been on the right side.

And so, after the fan outcry over Alternators Battle Ravage being a biped, and therefor clearly based on X-9/Ravage from Beast Wars Metals, rather than the 'true' Ravage... One could argue back and forth for years as to whether or not they are actually one and the same, but from different parts of their timeline... but the net result would probably be a headache and a huge increase in Geek Points.

Some folks actually managed to get a passable quadruped out of Battle Ravage... but everyone wanted a proper one just the same...

Alternators Rumble

OK, so the whole point of the Binaltech/Alternators line was to update some of the characters from Generation 1 using contemporary performance cars... So... where did it all go wrong? I mean, let's face it, Rumble - the Decepticons' diminutive street punk, and one of the last Alternators to ever be produced - is hardly a fitting match for the Honda Civic, is he? First of all, the car is in nothing like the same league as the Chevrolet Corvette, the Dodge Viper, or even the Subaru Impreza. OK, the Toyota dB isn't exactly King of the Street Racers either, but at least it was in keeping with the Generation 1 character of Skids, the Autobot Theoretician, who was originally a Honda City Turbo. And the Alternators release of Skids had a customised 'flaming wheel' paint job to make it look more impressive... whereas this...

Alternators Nemesis Prime

There is a universal constant in the world of TransFormers: Any mold used for Optimus Prime will, sooner or later, be painted black and called Nemesis Prime (or Scourge). And thus it was with the Dodge Ram Alternator. Even before it got its official Binaltech release as Optimus Prime (first in the dubious and bonkers Kiss Players line, then in the briefly relaunched Binaltech proper line), the Ram was recoloured in traditional Nemesis colours as an exclusive for the San Diego Comic Con... except it soon became apparent that it wasn't really that exclusive.

The Ram is a controversial mold - the bulky vehicle mode never quite jibed with the initial Binaltech concept of performance cars, the awkward and unwieldy robot mode has limited articulation in its stocky legs without significant 'surgery', and the arms are hindered by the honking great chunks of truck frontage stuck on the shoulders. In some ways, this works to Nemesis Prime's advantage in a way it didn't for Optimus. For one, he looks very powerful and imposing, and the use of minimal turquoise highlights on the all-black plastic serve to emphasise the overall darkness of the figure. The only let-down is the use of red-tinted clear plastic for the front and rear windscreens, which just looks unrealistic.