Monday, December 16, 2013

Hubcap

www.botchthecrab.com
Recently, I purchased two Detolf shelves from Ikea.  I won't bore you with the details on how I got them, but suffice it to say that I have them and I'm loving them.  Thanks to the Detolfs, I had to take down quite a few shelves and do a lot of rearranging to my collection and in the process of moving my Minibots, I realized that I was still missing two of them from my collection - Bumper and Hubcap.  Bumper is a down-the-road purchase, but Hubcap, Hubcap was an immediate need.

Finding a good condition Bumblebee/Cliffjumper/Bumper/Hubcap figure at a decent price is not an easy task.  I've actually been on the lookout for Hubcap for over a year, and it's been a slow process.  I'd find one at a good price, but the arms were loose, or the head wouldn't stay up, or the back piece would be scratched to kingdom come.  When I'd find just the right specimen, the seller would want an arm and a leg.  Then within a span of a week, it all came together.  First, a Hubcap showed up with tech specs.  The seller had a "Best Offer" option, so I offered him an offer of $26, which was $10 off his "Buy It Now" price.  Admittedly, it was a bit of a low-ball offer, but I was expecting a negotiation, like every other "Best Offer" I've ever done.  The seller rejected without a word, so I upped the offer to $30.  Finally a response "Sorry, the listing was actually wrong, this doesn't actually include the tech spec."  But, there still wasn't a counteroffer.  Still, $36 for just the figure is a steep price, so I opted to just drop it.  The next day, an auction appeared for a Hubcap with the instructions cut out and the tech spec.  That, that I won.  For a heck of a better price than the other one.

I'd love to talk about all of the awesome things that Hubcap has done in the cartoon and the comics, but that's an impossibility.  He was never featured in the cartoon, not even any of the Japanese series.  I thought that he may have been in Five Faces of Darkness, but that isn't the case.  This guy literally just had a few cameos in some comics and that's it.  He's had more involvement in the Transtech comics, but I don't think many actually read that series.  So, the con man has conned himself out of the fiction.

Behold!  The totality of Hubcap's fiction dialogue!  tfwiki.net

Ever own or been around Bumblebee or Cliffjumper?  Congratulations, you know how Hubcap transforms.  He's Cliffjumper without the spoiler and a new head.  He's the same color as Bumblebee.

No, not Cliffjumper
I actually never noticed that he was a slight retool of Cliffjumper until I read his TFWiki profile.  Then again, I've been known to be a little dense.  There isn't anything remarkable about the Porsche mode, other than the fact that unlike Cliffjumper, there isn't a spoiler.  There are those who have confused him for a yellow Cliffjumper.

Front
The only interesting thing about Hubcap is his head mold.

Robot mode
There are a couple of scratches on the face, but I dig the head sculpt.  Really, I'm just thankful to have a penny-racer without horns on it's head.

There really isn't much to say about Hubcap.  He's an unremarkable toy, which is befitting an unremarkable character.  But he is a Minibot, and I'm now done with collecting them.  Except for Bumper, red Bumblebee and yellow Cliffjumper.



2 comments:

  1. Nice little article Optimal. It's a shame that the minobots don't get a lot more love. Obviously, some get more than others, but I feel that you don't always need to be a complex figure to be enjoyed.

    Sometimes it's the simplest figures that have the nicest esthetics.

    While Hubcap may not have done a lot in the comics or nothign in the cartoons, the newer IDW series of comics has taken a good approach in promoting a lot of the smaller guys.

    Also, the movies have had the smallest guys doing some of the biggest things; case in point the old and new Lord of the Rings movies with the Hobbits and the Dwarves.

    Enjoy your Hubcap and good luck in getting a Bumblejumper. It's a lot to pay for a little guy but a neccessary evil in completing your collection.

    Cheers,
    Joe

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    1. I'm constantly rethinking Bumblejumper. All of the time. He may be one that I skip unless the perfect specimen at the right price pops up. Every one that I've run across has been in not so great condition for ridiculous prices.

      It would be great if Hubcap could get in on some IDW action. I'd love to have more to say about him and I just know that there are those who have a soft spot for him.

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