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.

Teaser...

Look what arrived in the post today...

Yep, them thar's BotCon extras: 2009's Razorclaw (Dawn of Future's Past) and Elita-1 (Games of Deception).

Along with these two, I have a whole stack of images uploaded from the following series: Alternators/Binaltech, Animates, Beast Wars, Galaxy Force, Micron Legend, Robots in Disguise, Revenge of the Fallen, Superlink and Universe...

...With even more yet to be uploaded in: Alternators/Binaltech, Animated, Beast Wars, Energon, Generation 2, Galaxy Force, Music Label, Revenge of the Fallen... not to mention the Customs, Limited Editions, TransFormers Collectors' Club and Knockoffs!

Um. Yeah. Coming soon.

I mean it.

Work has been crazy, but I'll get round to an update as soon as I get some time. Maybe even this coming weekend...

Progress of a sort

So here's the thing...

I've photographed a large chunk of my collection - almost everything that is individually boxed, in fact, and all but one of my TransFormers: Galaxy Force models - and even uploaded a decent portion of the images to my Photobucket account...

...but until I get my new computer, the process of blogging the entries is slow, tedious and prone to glitching or crashing partway through.

The new computer has been delayed because my brother in law has had far more important things to do when he's not working. It's frustrating... Still not having my birthday present almost a month after my birthday is kind of annoying in a selfish sort of way... But I know it's coming.

I actually have text files containing lots of the links, created very slowly at home, or far faster at work after hours, so I probably could blog a few more... but even that is going to take time.

Maybe I'll book myself some more time off work, and see what happens.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Galaxy Force Master Galvatron

At some point in the history of all things TransFormers, but well after the 1986 animated move that first introduced the Megatron/Galvatron upgrade dynamic, it seems to have been decided that the difference between Megatron and Galvatron can be nothing more than their paintjob. This has been true with Car Robots/Robots in Disguise, Micron Legend/Armada, Superlink/Energon and Galaxy Force/Cybertron, and it's generally a huge disappointment. Considering that G1 Galvatron was an entirely new mold (and, according to his Tech Specs, at least, an entirely different character), and one of the earliest models with lights and sounds (primitive though they may be) to have an official UK release, using the same mold in a different colour scheme seems like a cop out.

The upside with Galaxy Force, then, is that the original colourscheme for Master Megatron is vile - purple, grey, orange... not a great selection - while the Galvatron upgrade is almost entirely silver and black. In fact, this is one of the few occasions where the US/UK Cybertron figure looks slightly better than the Japanese version, as the yellow panel in front of the head on this one is gold on the US/UK release. There may be other superficial differences but, in the main, they're pretty much identical.

Galaxy Force Flame Convoy

Leader of the Beast Planet, Animatros, Flame Convoy is initially cast as a Decepticon though, in common with many of the characters in Galaxy Force - as opposed to Hasbro's localisation, Cybertron - he has no real allegiance, as such. He is simply the leader of his own planet... and got to that position by being the most powerful TransFormer on the planet.

Galaxy Force First Gunner

The upgraded form of Deluxe-sized Galaxy Force First Aid, First Gunner is now an armoured mobile missle platform, and part of the Vanguard Team (read: Autobot Elite Guard) to boot. Supposedly this upgrade happens after a particularly ignominious defeat at the hands of Megatron, which might explain why First Aid's original Ambulance alternate mode goes through such a drastic change.