Roadbuster

www.botchthecrab.com

Here's a figure that I meant to cover awhile ago, but I completely forgot I had him!  Thankfully, I rediscovered the pictures on my memory card while I was doing some purging.  How could anyone forget that they own Roadbuster?  He's such a great figure.

I'll admit to a fair bit of trepidation before ordering this guy from eBay.  Thanks to the TFWiki, I was worried about making sure that every single piece was there.  When you think about it, this guy comes with a lot - five missiles, gun, all of the armor pieces, the little range finder.  That naturally means Roadbuster wasn't designed by Takara or Hasbro.  In fact, Roadbuster, like Whirl and Jetfire, was designed by Takatoku Toys and licensed to Hasbro.  Since Takatoku, and later Bandai who acquired Takatoku, was in direct competition to Takara, Roadbuster and friends never made it to the cartoon.  It's a shame, as I think Roadbuster would have been awesome.

Once I found a suitable looking Roadbuster, I had consider price.  Due to all of the little parts that come with Roadbuster, he can command a hefty tag.  Luckily, I found a seller with a good price on eBay that was willing to negotiate.  This was after I asked is he had every single little piece, of course.  The seller even threw in a couple of extra handles that were broken.  Why, I don't know.

I really like the vehicle mode.  It looks like it can traverse any terrain that it's presented.  The fact that it can only seat one person is funny. Then again, Roadbuster was originally a mech that was meant to be piloted, so I guess having one seat makes sense.  As you can see, the decals are shot on him.  Thank goodness Reprolabels is a place that exists.  Judging from the condition of the decals, there isn't one that's salvageable.

A couple of things stood out to me as I transformed Roadbuster for the first time.  The first was the transformation scheme with the legs.  I really thought that I had broken him, which would have not been very good.  Seriously, the legs just flopped about when I first tried.  Talk about frustration!

Second, the lack of articulation was surprising.  I don't know why I was expecting knee articulation, especially since I had gotten Whirl a couple of months before Roadbuster.  Still, for whatever reason, I was a bit disappointed.  Not that there's any real reason to be disappointed with a figure like this.  He's a very gorgeous figure.  The colors all go together beautifully.  The sorry state of the decals steal a bit of the focus, however.

Here's a shot of Roadbuster from behind.  Just look at all of the armor pieces that must be added to him.  Now I truly understand what the TFWiki was talking about when they mentioned all of the pieces.

Finally, here's a side view so the wheel covers can be seen a bit better.  Disgusting decals aside, I am really loving Roadbuster.  He's a fine addition to my collection.  If I'm counting correctly, this leaves me with just four figures from the 1985 releases left to get, and I still have 6 months!  Surely I can get this done.