Masterpiece Acid Storm

As is customary at BotCon, tons of Transformer exclusives were announced.  One of the announcements that piqued my interest was that Toys R' Us, the fine retailers that they are, would be carrying two Masterpiece figures.  The first would be Soundwave with all of the cassettes which, while nice, I already owned.  His yellow eyes may be toy accurate, but I prefer the red eyes.  The second Masterpiece figure that Toys R' Us announced was out of left field - Acid Storm.  That one, I had to have.  Here's the thing with Acid Storm:  he's relatively new, yet old at the same time. 

Acid Storm first showed up in the world of the Transformers in the G1 episode "Divide and Conquer".  Well, a green Seeker was in the episode.  An extremely green seeker.

He may have had rickets.

He didn't have any lines and was never referred to by name.  He just rained acid down on some Autobots.  He would be forgotten about over the next two decades.

Fast forward to the early 2000's and Takara would release Sunstorm, a Seeker based off of another character who had two seconds of screen time in the original series.  Sunstorm took off and became pretty popular, having been featured prominently in the Dreamewave comic series.  There were even several redecos of other jets from other lines released by Hasbro as Sunstorm.  Looking to add to the illustrious Seeker pantheon, Acid Storm was released in 2008 in the Universe line.  Instead of looking like a walking Skittle, Acid Storm was given a lighter green and camo deco.  He was not met with the same level of fan appreciation as Sunstorm.  Here is Acid Storm's one appearance in mainline fiction:

I'd be mopey too if no one loved me

The funny thing about this appearance is that both Acid Storm and Sunstorm are both depicted in Masterpiece bodies.  Is this someone at IDW giving us a hint at what was to come five years down the line?  Doubtful.  It was/is popular to use the current release model for the comics and Masterpiece Starscream was pretty popular then.  Still, one toy release and what amounts to a cameo/Easter egg is a sorry way to exist.  Imagine my surprise that Hasbro announced that Toys R' Us would be carrying Acid Storm as a Masterpiece.  I figured it would have been an import of Sunstorm.

Toys R' Us, for reasons I'll never fathom, decided to release Acid Storm and Soundwave simultaneously  at San Diego Comic-Con and on their website.  Supposedly, they were also available in-store, but most stores reported that they wouldn't have any available for three weeks after the initial release.  This, naturally, led to a lot of panic and a clogged website.  The sale started at midnight, but as I had to work that morning, I missed it.  When I awoke at 5:30 in the morning, the website was sold out.  Try as I might, I could never get in on time to get one, and the store by my house never received him.  They got Soundwave in, but not Acid Storm.  There were near misses, such as when I tried to order him on a quick break at work, only to be interrupted while inputting my credit card information into my phone.  By the time I had dealt with the interloper on my time, he had sold out again.  About a week after that, I finally lucked out and got an order placed on the website.  The next day, he was available at my local TRU.  Figures.

"If I liked speaking, I'd be laughing maniacally right now."

If you own any Masterpiece Seeker, then you pretty much know what the deal is here.  I'm going to give a few thoughts and then let the pictures do the talking.

Like the previous Toys R' Us Seeker release, Thundercracker, Acid Storm is based off of the newer MP-11 Starscream mold.  The green used for this is much more neon than the Universe mold.  I'm not using the word "neon" in a derogatory way, it's just the green is a little more accurate to the cartoon's green.  Which isn't a bad thing, not by a long shot. I'm really fond of the digital camouflage, it's a lot better than the Universe version. 

Here's jet mode.

I am glad that the tail fins are tampograph free.  They were distracting on Thundercracker.  But there are tampos on the front of the jet.  I have no idea what they mean, but I'm sure they're some sort of call-out to the fandom.  If anyone knows, please share.

Now let's take a look at all of my Masterpiece Seekers together.  I still need to get Sunstorm, which for some reason I keep putting off even with my love of Seekers.

Starscream and his Seekers...

All of the Seeker molds that I own

And finally some comparison shots of Masterpiece and Universe Acid Storm.

Acid Storm is a character that no one was expecting.  His addition to the Transformers universe hasn't had the impact that I think Hasbro thought it would, but for a tertiary character this release is great.  Still, I'd like to see him brought a little more into focus in the fiction.  Hopefully others agree.