So, I did a thing...

I've mentioned before that Thew Adams is one of the few TransFormers YouTubers I can bear to watch, because of his (normally) quickfire reviews, canny avoidance of the frequently painful step-by-step demonstration of transformation and, perhaps most important, the plethora of puns and percipient portmanteaus that are as much his stock-in-trade as his enthusiasm for shape-shifting plastic robot toys. During one of his recent videos, he mentioned that his G1 Outback was knackered... and, since my iGear Mini Warriors Bushwhacker had been up on eBay for a while, I figured I could do worse than cancelling the listing and 'donating' it to Thew.

So imagine my delight, when tuning in to his latest "Dammit, Open!", I see that very figure unboxed on-screen - the very first item in the video.

And imagine my surprise when he actually seems to like it...

Seriously, though, I'm glad Bushwhacker has found an appreciative home... Though, honestly, seeing it smashed on a Knockoff Beatdown would, I think, be quite cathartic. I almost wish I'd sent him my decaptitated Leonidas now.

iGear MW-08 Bushwhacker

I've heard mixed things about iGear generally, from the accusations of ripping off the work of others to the praise for their Masterpiece Seekers and Coneheads, and now they're producing their own line of G1 Mini Autobot homages, beginning with (Sea)Spray and Rager (aka Huffer), under the banner of 'Mini Warriors'. For the most part, the line wasn't of much interest to me - the models were OK, but not really as complex or as good-looking as the more recent mainstream releases, so they wouldn't be a particularly good fit for my Classics shelf.

However, strange things happen to me when I go to conventions and, faced with a small selection of iGear's newest additions to the line, I somehow felt compelled to pick up their homage to one of my favourite G1 models, Outback.