MP-12G

In 1993, I was pretty much done with Transformers and, in fact, I was done with all toys.  After all, I was 16 and had just gotten my driver's license and had things to do.  That still didn't stop me from looking at toys that were at the store, however.  One day in 1993, I was at a Wal-Mart, running errands for my parents, when I decided to peruse the toy aisle.  What did I see?  This:

I got this from a Google Image search

I flipped out when I saw Inferno, Jazz, Sideswipe and the rest of the initial lineup hanging on pegs.  I quickly ran closer for a better inspection.  Then I realized that Grimlock was blue and Sideswipe was black.  "TRANSFORMERS ARE RUINED FOREVER!!!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs.  The windows in the store shattered.  The building vibrated with my rage.  Men, women, and children alike cowered in fear at the violence in my eyes.  Law enforcement arrived to both calm me down and ensure everyone's safety.  After I awoke from my day long sedation, I vowed to never own a G2 figure.

The comic was something that I could stand behind, however.  I didn't actually read it until it had long been cancelled, but, man, it was something.  Transformers: Generation 2 is so 1990's that I'm surprised that the characters had feet.  It was so '90's that I'm shocked that there weren't scantily clad women and dialogue written by Eric Stephenson and Brandon Choi!  It was so '90's that there should have been a wraparound-triple gate fold-acetone-glow in the dark cover by Rob Liefeld and Whilce Portacio and featured a story where Optimus was infected with a virus and had to be sent into the future!  The great thing about the G2 comic was that it gave us Derek Yaniger, an artist whose star shone so bright, it was never seen from after G2 ended.  The man gave us things like this:

XTREME! TFWiki.net

I'm sorry, but if that version of Sideswipe were available when I was 16, I would've been back into Transformers a lot sooner.  If only some enterprising designer and toy company would just base a design on this version of Sideswipe, they'd have to design a sensor fast enough to catch the money I'd be throwing at them.  Oh, that's right, Takara did announce a release of this very design using the MP-12 mold and it was just released.  How fortuitous for this column.

Before we get to the spectacular robot mode, let's take a look at the car mode.  You'll notice that I haven't decaled him yet.  It's not that I hate the G2 decals; over the years, they've really grown on me.  The problem is that I can't bring myself to add decals to a Masterpiece figure.  My Tigertrack is still missing his insignia because I just can't bring myself to put a sticker on him.

This is a mold that I feel is starting to show it's age.  The panel alignments on mine aren't as tight as they have been in the past.  More annoyingly, the front driver side tire rubs against the top of the frame.  If I try to pull it down a bit, it makes the Lamborghini off-kilter.  That being said, the colors are beautiful.  The black and red go together really well.  I'm normally not a fan of combining those two colors because it's just so basic, but just look at him.  The tinted red windows are great as well.

While I didn't like the feature on Sideswipe, Red Alert, and Tigertrack where the weapons could be mounted on the roof of the car, it's just amazing on MP-12G.  Not only that, it's true to the comic.  Just look at the panel from the comic above.  Beautiful, no?

Vindication for Yaniger!

Here's another angle of the mounted weapons.  If only this thing came with some mountable G2 style speech balloons.  Or if I had the time and talent to make them.  Just gorgeous.

Robot mode is what we've come to expect from the MP-12 mold.  The addition of white to the red and black makes this figure a winner.  What's that on his shoulders?  Spiked tires?  Am I dreaming?  Just look at those guns!  This guy came with a lot of accessories.  Speaking of which, there's one I'm forgetting.

That's better.  I'm going to go ahead and apologize for the shoddiness of these photos.  I lost the piece that connects my camera to the tripod, and so these were all done handheld.  I just pretended like I was a fashion photographer.  I may have said "Work it!" while snapping pics.  I will neither confirm nor deny that.  Also, I couldn't get the lighting the way I wanted it.  Where was I?

MP-12G also comes with a very nice sword and thanks to great Masterpiece articulation, he is able to draw it from his back.  Very impressive.

Here's a nice skewed angle shot of MP-12G holding his sword and gun.  It's nice when figures have shorter weapons instead of longer rifles.  It allows for shots like this:

I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about MP-12G's head sculpt.  It is truly a thing of beauty.

See that smirk?  The gritted teeth?  The Rob Liefeld influence?  That's pure Derek Yaniger.  I'd love to find out what he thinks of this guy.  As for me, I think it's pretty clear that I think that he's a piece of garbage and should be melted down for scrap.  I implore all two of my readers to send me your MP-12Gs so that I can do the right and honorable thing and melt him down for recycling.  Just send him.  It's not like I want to build an army of G2 Sideswipes to protect me while I sleep.  That's the furthest thing from my mind.  I swear.

X-TREME!!!!

Up next: Who knows!  Probably the Generations figures I recently got.  See you then?