MP-27 Ironhide

Sometime last year, Takara started showing off pictures of their Masterpiece Ironhide.  The fandom seemed split on the figure, with most of the negative comments directed towards the flaps on Ironhide's waist.  Flaps.  On.  His.  Waist.  I could've cared less about the flaps and was happy when he was released.  Now that he's in my possession, does he live up to the hype, or is he really the disgusting figure the naysayers thought he was?

The first thing that I noticed when I opened Ironhide's box was just how heavy he was in his van mode.  He felt as heavy as Masterpiece Prime!  I checked him out thoroughly to make sure that there weren't any diecast parts.  Amazingly, he's just plastic, I think.  I thought that his feet might have been metal, but I think that it's just really strong plastic.  Still, the van is amazing and a very faithful reproduction of both the original Nissan Vannette and his animated appearance.

Here's a shot of what I wanted my collection to look like in 1984, but I only owned Bluestreak at the time.  It's nice to have more the other Autobots now.  I could have dragged out the rest of the Masterpiece figures for a gorgeous shot, but everyone seems to do that nowadays.  Besides, it's nice to just focus on the Season One figures from time to time.  Without them, we wouldn't even be here, so to speak.

During transformation, the top of the van comes off to form a battle sled!  It's 1984 all over again!  Seriously, the battle sled is included as an accessory, and it is fabulous.  All of Ironhide's accessories can be stored on this thing, and the extra included face can be stored on the bottom.  In keeping with the 1984 figure's look, I'm only keeping the two weapons pictured above on the sled.  The rest can stay in the tackle boxes that I use for parts storage.

Regrettably, Ironhide cannot stand on the battle sled.  If he could, man - that would be the greatest thing ever.

As I mentioned earlier, Ironhide comes with an extra face.  Here's the stern face.

And here's the "screaming" face.  I personally can't think of a reason for using this face, so I doubt I'll ever use it after this.

Once in robot mode, Ironhide is impressive.  He's shorter than Optimus Prime, but taller than Bluestreak, so he's sitting in a nice place, scale-wise.  Takara really knocked this mode out of the park.  Ironhide has long legs!  Feet!  Elbows!  A head!  I can't help but stare in awe at even pictures of Ironhide because he looks like he jumped off the television screen and into my damn hands.  Gorgeous. 

My favorite accessories are the two pistols that Ironhide comes with.  You know, so he can shoot at Megatron before being shot repeatedly in the chest by a barrage of Decepticon fire.  Those pistols are just the bee's knees to me.  With his photo, you can see the waist flaps a little better.  I don't think that they're so bad, really.  Nor am I upset about the wheels on the back.  Ironhide is just spectacular.

I think that Ironhide set a record for the amount of included accessories.  I don't think the G1 Piranacon gift set had as many accessories as Masterpiece Ironhide.  There are so many things included that were given brief screen time on the show and I'm not even sure if I took pictures of them all.  Certainly, I didn't include the chest picture that goes with the radar dish.  I'm going to go with some quick bullet points on the rest of the accessories.

You know, a lot was made during the "More Than Meets the Eye" 5-part mini that introduced us the the Transformers about how the Autobots couldn't fly.  And yet, here's the second Masterpiece Autobot to come with a jet-pack. 

I forgot that Ironhide could shoot things out of his fingers.

I had no what these were referencing until I read the TFWiki and discovered that these are based on the connector peg from the 1984 release.  That's...that's obscure.

For when you need to shoot out even more liquid...

The Static Laser Gun can be wielded by Ironhide in robot mode, but I think I'll leave it on the battle sled.

Finally, there's this back mounted missile launcher, which will also stay on the battle sled.  It does look cool.

I think that with the next Masterpiece release, I may have to switch to a white background.  I tried to fit all of my Masterpiece Autobots in one picture, but I couldn't frame it without showing the sides of the light box I use.  And that thing it four feet tall.  There's a lot of Masterpiece figures now, is what I'm getting at.

Hey!  It's Orion Pax and Dion!

You know what I have found the greatest joy in since I received Ironhide?  Seeing how all of the people decrying this figure have bought him and now love him.  That just goes to show that assumptions can't be made based off of a few pictures.  Everything changes with 3-D.  Man, now I can't wait for Ratchet...

Chromedome

After I got Highbrow, I realized that I was still a few Headmasters short of a complete set.  Missing from my Autobot Headmaster collection were the that I wanted the least, and frankly, enjoy the least - Chromedome and Nightbeat.  What's that, you say?  It's sacrilege to not like Chromedome?  Especially after what James Roberts has done with him in More Than Meets the Eye?  Look, I really appreciate what Mr. Roberts has done with the ol' domed one, but that still doesn't mean that his toy is awesome.  Gah, this guy.  Anyway, let's get on with it.

I never had the misfortune of owning Chromedome as a kid, or of even seeing him in person.  As a matter of fact, I only ever laid optics on this guy two years ago at my local flea market and the seller only had the body and a gun.  Chromedome was in car mode, and the one gun was mostly silver.  The guy wouldn't even let me transform him.  Needless to say, I passed.  At any rate, the car mode is perhaps the best thing about Chromedome.  It certainly belies the horrid thing is coming up once you move some parts around. 

Chromedome's car mode is just so appealing to me, that it's a shame he has to transform.  I'm not a huge fan of the guns on the car, but I understand that this is a thing and so I really won't harp too much on it.

Here's an obligatory shot of a Nebulon sitting in a cockpit.  In this case, it's Stylor.  For those of you only familiar with the comics, this is not an alternate version of Rewind.  Speaking of Stylor...

I really like the little guy.  He has an interesting head sculpt, and the reds really work well with the grey body.  It's a shame that he's binary bonded to such an ugly thing.

Gah.  When I first transformed Chromedome, I really thought that I did something wrong.  I actually thought that I did something wrong with his feet and that he was standing on his tips of his toes.  He just looks so odd in robot mode.  And he really looks like a brick.

His feet aren't even in any kind of real proportion to the rest of his body.  Looking at Chromedome in robot mode just makes me angry; it's irrational.  Perhaps I've been tainted by his robust form in the IDW books?  Whatever the reason, Chromedome stays in alt-mode in my display.  Ugh.

Whelp, next time I'll be in a better mood when reviewing.  Of course, that shouldn't be too hard since the next figure should be Masterpiece Ironhide, depending on my package delivery service.

Highbrow

Highbrow is a figure that I've been wanting to own since I was in the 5th grade.  The closest I came as a kid was getting Gort from the drunken 14 year old that lived near me when I was 11.  Of course, Gort was missing his arms, which I always found odd because this was 1988, and he shouldn't have aged that badly.  At any rate, I finally have a complete Highbrow. 

Pic from TFWiki.net

The above scene is pretty much the only impression that I have of Highbrow, well, that and getting crushed by Unicron in issue #75.  Sure, there is The Rebirth, and Headmasters, but the less said about Rebirth, the better.  Also, I still haven't been able to sit through an entire episode of Headmasters.

I've always loved Highbrow's chopper mode.  The twin rotor copter just looks great.  I was actually surprised by the fact that there are only three blades per rotor.  For some reason, I had it in my head that there would be four blades.  The red cockpit looks like it could double as a tech spec decoder.

Look!  It's Gort!  And he has both of his arms!  It's amazing!

Highbrow comes with two rifles that apparently make acid rain.  They can attach to either the wings or one can attach under the cockpit.

I don't like that look.  It isn't symmetrical.  Perhaps if there were three guns, it would look better, but the one looks funny.

 I just really love Highbrow's robot more.  Highbrow owns perhaps the best head sculpt of all the Headmasters.  Don't agree with me?  Then you must not own Highbrow.  When I received my Highbrow, his stickers were in really good shape, but then I used a Magic Sponge to clean the figure, and the decals got smudged, as you can see on his legs.  I may have to replace the original decals with ones from ToyHax.  Maybe.  Probably.  Most likely.  Definitely.

Now that I have Highbrow, that leaves just Chromedome and Nightbeat missing from my Autobot Headmaster collection.  Decepticons?  Man, I'm missing so many. 

Cloudburst

I think that it's high time that I start clearing out a bit of this vintage backlog that I've acquired!  Since mid-November, I think I've purchased around 20 G1 figures that I really need to talk about.  Some of these guys have been sitting on my hard drive for a very long time.  Of course, the heart attack and the holidays played in to a lot of that delay, but I think now is as good time as any to get the ball rolling.  We'll start with a character and figure that has always been very near and dear to my heart - Cloudburst.

Picture from TFWiki.net

Cloudburst has always been a dear figure to me for different reasons, and a lot of it has to do with the cover above.  See, I started getting Marvel's Transformers comics around issue 35, the issue with the Throttlebots, but I could only get them when my parents would take me on base to the Exchange, or Aafes, the PX or whatever you want to call the store on a military base.  They all had a different name based on the branch, if I remember correctly.  At any rate, getting my Transformers books on a semi-regular basis wasn't really cutting it for me.  There were gaps in my collection, same for my Uncanny X-Men  and Daredevil runs.  At any rate, with issue 53, my family had relocated to Norfolk, VA (again), and I found a comic store near my house.  This was at a time when it seemed like there was a comic store on every corner, and I remember walking to this one, Trilogy Comics, on a near weekly basis to get my books.  There was a woman that worked there that I always thought was cool because she would use curse words while talking to 12-year-old me.  This cover would also introduce me to the fact that Jim Lee cannot draw robots.  I'm just not a fan.  I remember getting this issue and then reading it at a Sizzler Steak House while my family and I ate dinner.  Good times.

I know what you're thinking - if I had such fond memories of Cloudburst, why am I just now getting one?  Ah-ha!  You see, this is my second Cloudburst!  My first Cloudburst I inherited from my brother not long after issue 53 came out!  My brother got Cloudburst when I got Bomb-Burst while my parents shopped for stereo components.  Nice guy that he was, my younger brother had a habit of giving me his toys for birthday presents.  Voila!  Instant addition to the collection.  Fast forward twenty years, and all I had left was this:

Gah!  Cloudburst had lost a foot, and his shell.  Well, that isn't accurate, I still had the front half, plus the helmet.  Still, not very good looking.  It was time for an upgrade, but I couldn't bring myself to just buy the first one that I came across.  Or the second or third.  It turned out that I had a set of criteria that I wasn't even aware of while shopping for a replacement.  First, Cloudburst had to be complete (duh).  Second, he had to resemble what mine looked like when I last remember having him in my collection.  Ok, so that wasn't really a set of criteria, but that second one was important.

After looking on and off for a couple of years, I finally found a specimen that I felt was up to par.  Cloudburst is one of the more plentiful figures I've seen on the secondary market, so I really had my pick of the litter, so to speak.  There are a lot of very nice, complete Cloudbursts to be had for small prices, which made this quest difficult.  I had to stop myself many times from just pulling the trigger on a mint version, which I found to be hilarious.  At any rate, this version looks like the one I had, but with an added foot!  So far, so good.

Cloudburst transforms just as a I remembered him in Marvel's issues 52 and 53.  Minus the skids on the bottom, of course.  One thing that never made me completely happy with Pretenders was the fact that the shells were always so big.  I've always wanted to recreate the scene where Cloudburst placed Landmine and his shell in vehicle mode to find those microchips.

As nice as the inner robot is, what about the shell?  In short, the shell is exactly what I wanted.  For the most part, it's pretty flawless.  The stickers look great, but where this sample puts me in my happy place is the small details, especially on the sides of the shell.

Look at those glorious scratches!  The kid that owned this must've been clumsy!  Just like my brother was.  It's amazing how small details like that can really add to an experience. 

Finally, here's a shot of the inner robot standing with the shell, which is how Cloudburst will be displayed in my case.  Sweet Christmas, it's good to have this guy back.

Masterpiece Road Rage MP-26

Look!  The Diaclone Masterpiece parade continues!  This is also known as "Figures I've Passed On As e-Hobby Repaints And Now Have To Pay Through The Nose For Them Extravaganza!"  That's...that's a mouthful.  Let's just get on to some pictures, shall we?

I'm not going to lie here - I really wasn't too enthused about Road Rage.  It really shows in the lack of pictures I took with her.  There really isn't any particular reason for my lack of enthusiasm - well, maybe there is.  Road Rage was released in close proximity to Tracks, and I don't think I've really absorbed Tracks completely.  Sure, there are some differences between the two, namely the newly sculpted thighs, and head, but it seems like she was rushed out the door too quickly.  Stupid, I know, especially since the Datsuns were all released within a month of each other I was excited about them.  Or Sideswipe and Red Alert.  Maybe it's because I knew about their history, their place in the fiction.  Road Rage?  I know that she was an e-Hobby release that is based on a difficult to find Diaclone version and even more difficult to find European Milton Bradley Transformers version of Tracks.  So...not much.  Hell, I wouldn't even know that much if it weren't for people like Maz or the TFWiki.
What I'm getting at is this - with the limited knowledge that I have of the character, I can't be seduced by it.  That isn't a bad thing, necessarily, it's just a fact. 

Still, that car mode is sexy, isn't it?  I don't even like Corvettes, and I can't help but like this car mode.  I even hate the color red, and I think that this color looks better than Tracks' blue.  Does that make me a hypocrite?  Probably.  Geez, I was so numb to the experience that I didn't even bother with the flying car mode pics.  Suffice it to say that it looks like Tracks', only red.  With the addition of a gun on the bottom.

How is it that the knees on Road Rage are tighter than the ones Tracks has?  Not that my Tracks has super loose joints, but Road Rage's are almost too tight.  Maybe it has to do with the new thighs.  It's gotta be the thighs.  I really like the added whites on her.  The G1 representation was pretty much red and black with a touch of blue.

Picture from TFWiki.net

The whites break things up a bit and make the figure brighter, which is a plus.  My eyes are constantly drawn to the white fists every time I look at Road Rage.

If the Masterpiece version of Road Rage swapped the whites for blacks, I'm not sure that she'd be as strong a figure as she is.  Although, I'm not overly fond of the blue under the Autobot sigil.  I mean, yes, the insignia wouldn't show up if the thing was red on red, but I think a different color would have been better. 

Road Rage comes with fewer accessories than Tracks, and I've seen some complaints on that, but she was available at a lower price point with the coin, which is a fair trade-off.  Again, I'm not huge on the extras, and I don't see the point of Twincast.  However, a flight stand would have been nice.  That is a very noticeable miss for TakaraTomy, and I'm a bit thrown off by that.  But the gun?  The gun almost makes up for that.  Almost.

The gun may look familiar to some of you.  It's the gun that Masterpiece Tracks should have come with.  Yeah, I know that the comically small blaster Tracks comes with is cartoon accurate, but when I think of Tracks, I think of that honking huge blaster.  At least Road Rage has it.  When I first attempted to position the gun in Road Rage's hands, I wasn't happy as it kept popping off.  Then I realized that there's a tab on the gun that slots into Road Rage's forearm.  If proper care is taken in placing the gun, it won't budge.  At all.

Man, those two Corvette's next to each other sure look nice, don't they?  Until I start thinking about the people that I have known in my life that have actually owned Corvettes.  So many mullets.  Of course, I'm sure things are different now...

Finally, a shot of Tracks and Road Rage back-to-back, sitcom style.  Overall, Road Rage is much better than I initially thought.  Just while typing this review, she has grown considerably in my opinion.  Think I'll go get her out of the case and giver her a whirl.

Masterpiece Clamp Down MP-14C

I've never claimed to be an expert on Diaclone; I'd go so far as to say that I know nothing about Diaclone.  That ignorance led to me passing on just about every E-Hobby Diaclone inspired reissue in the early part of this century.  In my impetuous early 20's, I saw them as a cheap cash grab by Takara and no real G1.  Yeah, I was a bit of an ass back then.  At any rate, once I learned all that there was to know about how these E-Hobby figures were really inspired by Diaclone decos - and I found out what Diaclone was - I felt like I needed to start tracking these guys down.  I haven't been too successful, because they have really gone up in value on the secondary market.  Thankfully, Takara has given us some of these characters in the Masterpiece line.  First, there was Tigertrack, then MP-18B Bluestreak, and now we have Clamp Down.  And Road Rage, but I'll get into her next week.

One of the first things that I do whenever I get a new Masterpiece figure is that I transform them into robot mode.  I almost instantly curse at myself when I do this because I then remember that I have to take pictures a day or so later.  Keeping the joints as tight as possible has become a priority for me over the last year, which means minimizing the amount of transformations.  There's a logic there that I can't explain, just go with me on this.  During the initial transformation, the light bar popped off.  It appears that mine wasn't glued on at the factory.

Gluing the bar on is certainly an option, but I think I'll leave it as it is.  Clamp Down certainly looks a little sleeker without it.

For some reason, having full knowledge that the E-Hobby Clamp Down was a repaint of Red Alert, I was still surprised to see that Masterpiece Clamp Down was a straight repaint of Red Alert.  I had just assumed that they would combine elements of Sideswipe's head with Red Alert's, like what was done for Tigertrack.  It feels like a bit of a miss.

For accessories, Clamp Down comes with a gun in Red Alert's colors, and the requisite shoulder cannon.  There are also slightly remolded pile drivers that I haven't even thought about using.  I like the extras, in theory, but I rarely ever use them.  They mostly just reside in a storage box.

See what I was talking about with the straight repaint?  The reds on Clamp Down are a little lighter, there is a different shade of blue on the legs, and the chest is obviously in a different deco.  Then again, they are both in law enforcement, so maybe they should share a common theme.  Aside from the whole Lamborghini thing.

Turns out that I didn't take any pictures of Clamp Down in car mode, save for the one with the missing light bar.  And a few others with the Lambo boys, but nothing with Clamp Down solo.  I'll finish things up with some fun pics, I suppose.  Before I wrap it all up, let me say that even with the missed opportunity of his head, I still feel like Clamp Down is a win.  I'm covering him before Road Rage because Clamp Down generated the most excitement in me.  He's a sure fire must have.

Cops and Robbers

On this episode of "Cops"

Dead or alive, you're coming with me

Corporate espionage doesn't pay

Lambo's just hanging out

All the colors of the Lambo rainbow...