Pretender Bugly

Picture from www.botchthecrab.com

I originally purchased Bugly last year, but I haven't talked about him due to worry that I had dominated last year with a lot of Pretenders.  You know, for a sub-line that claim to love, I seem to be in need of quite a few of them.  Bugly represents a bit of a transition point for me with Pretenders; I'm at the point where all that's left to get are the ones that aren't cheap.  Thankfully, I didn't have to pay a ton for him.  Not because I don't like him, but because he usually isn't cheap.

Photo from TFWiki.net

This is my only real recollection of Bugly as a kid.  I remember him vaguely from the catalog, but this is what sticks in my mind: the old product (Skywarp) getting the best of the new product (Bugly) before the new product wins out.  What really got to me was Skywarp using the word "nor", which is something I had never encountered outside of English classes.  It just hit my hear wrong.  It certainly isn't something that a robot from another planet would say, I'm assuming.

Did you know that Bugly is a practitioner of the deadly art of Circuit-Su?  Did you know that there was more to Cybertronian martial arts than Metallikato?  I sure as hell didn't.  Circuit-Su apparently deals with the mind.  I guess that's how Bugly was able to predict where Skywarp would teleport to next in the above issue.  Neat.  At any rate, Bugly certainly has one of the better looking shells.  I love how pointy it is.  Yes, Iguanus has a lot of points on his shell, but I think the colors and wings just make Bugly stand out more.  Sadly, with a great price come a couple of blemishes.  There is a nick on the paint on Bugly's mandible, but I can live with that.

  There is also to the standard bit of spotting on the shell, this time on Bugly's wings.  It isn't as bad as I initially feared, but it's still present.  I wish there was a way to remove that stuff.  The antennae, I think, are what really make Bugly pop to me.  There's movable, so they can be in a variety of positions.  I prefer the down position, but I may put them up from time to time.

When I took these picture, back in freaking December, I didn't realize that I forgot to take a standard picture of Bugly's robot mode.  I have this close-up of his torso, so we'll make it work.  Bugly has one of the better Pretender inner robots.  The colors are very complementary and work well together.  Lavender and purple look nice next to each other, no?  There could be some color on the eyes, but I'm not complaining.  I've decided to leave the jet fins up while in robot mode to give Bugly a deadlier edge.

There really isn't anything to say about Bugly's jet mode.  It literally looks like every other Pretender transformation ever.  And I mean ever.  Still, the colors are nice. 

Finally, a shot of Bugly standing next to his shell.  While I was writing this, I purchased two more Pretenders.  Couple those with what I have in the pipeline, this may very well turn into the Year of the Pretender!

Groundbreaker

Last year, without realizing it, pretty much became the "Year of The Pretender" for me.  I bought more Pretenders than any other sub-line in 2015, with plenty left to get.  I've decided to spread out my coverage of Pretenders, even though I love them, just to give some variety.  In this installment, we'll look at Groundbreaker, a character I kept calling Groundshaker.  Because I get names mixed up.

Groundbreaker was released as part of the second wave of Large Pretenders in 1988, but I had never heard of the guy.  The only second wave Autobot Pretender I was aware of was Splashdown, and that was because I owned him.  Groundbreaker and Skyhigh might as well have been Thundercats for all I cared or knew.  Still, since he is a Pretender, and he's a G1 guy, I have to have him.  Being a second wave figure meant that he was going to command a pretty penny, which I didn't feel like paying.  Much like Action Masters, I think that Pretenders should be bought as cheaply as possible.  I lucked out on the price, but I was in such a hurry that I didn't look at the shell closely enough - I just pounced once I saw that he was available and he was cheap.  Lesson learned, I suppose.  The only real issues with my figure are with the shell.  The grey of the tiger nose and on the shell's feet are pretty scratched up. 

This is something that I really should have paid attention to, but I can easily buy another shell and still come out ahead on this one.

There are a few scratches on the face, but that's what the helmet is for.  By the way, I love the haircut.  Groundbreaker's shell looks like it came straight out of a 70's cop show.

The real star of the show for this guy is the inner robot.  I really love the inner 'bots.  Sure, they all have the exact same transformation scheme, and they are the very definition of a brick, but they're just so darned cool looking to me.  Groundshaker Groundbreaker transforms into a racing car, but it really doesn't matter.  He could be Cloudburst, just in different colors.  Where Cloudburst has wings, Groundbreaker has a spoiler.

The one thing I'm not fond of with Groundbreaker is the color scheme.  The grey's and black just really wash each other out.  Sure, there's more color here than on say Cloudburst (what's up with me and Cloudburst today?), but they all just blend together and nothing really stands out.  At least with Cloudburst (again?!) the red was really bright and just jumped out at you.

Image from TFWiki.net

Did you know that Groundbreaker was in the IDW comics?  He's there next to Cloudburst (!!).  I never realized it; Landmine, Waverider, and Cloudburst (!!!) were always the focal point of Pretenders in the IDW universe.  Speaking of, they really need to show back up.

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.

Classic Pretender Jazz

Hey, look, another Pretender.  This is the second Pretender Jazz that I've owned.  I somehow lost the shell to my first one, and the helmet was chewed to smithereens by a dog lo many years ago.  I've decided to transition that one to the Legends Jazz since I kept just the inner bot and weapon.  This instance of Jazz represents a first for me as this is the first figure that I purchased from a seller on Facebook.  The transaction was smooth, and I think I'll buy more figures from different groups there now.

The Classic Pretender Jazz was the first version of Jazz that I owned as a kid.  The original 1984 version eluded me for reasons that I can't fathom, so when I saw this guy in a Children's Palace in 1989, I was pretty quick to pounce on him.  The version that I got from Facebook needed some help in the decal department, which was fine by me since I wanted to try out the upgrade labels from Reprolabels anyway.  Still, for what I paid for the figure, I really can't complain about anything.  Finding a good looking Pretender Jazz on eBay is next to impossible.  The light blues and whites always seem to be scratched and faded.

Decals were really important for this guy thanks to some creative coloring on that someone did on the helmet.  The decal on the crest is covering a splash of red marker and there's red marker on the back of the helmet.

Sadly, I can't seem to get the red to come off.  Perhaps I'll look for a new helmet, but it isn't really a priority.

Pretenders are famous for having scratched up heads, thanks to the helmets.  This one isn't that bad, and I'm glad for that.  Enough of that, let's look at the inner robot!

The upgraded decals give the inner robot a look closer to the 1984 model.  There are tons of extra details like the Martinii details.  Reprolabels really knocked it out of the park with this set.

Here's a closer look at the front of the car.  Again, this is really sharp.

Here's the back end.  Notice the Martinii on the license plate.

Attack mode for Jazz consists of just popping the rifle on the hood.  It looks like a Porsche with a gun on top.

Man, so many pictures of the car mode, and just one of the robot mode?  What kind of gyp is that?  At any rate, one picture is enough to show off what's new with the upgrade set.  For starters, there are the two decals on the hips.  They add a bit more color to the overall figure.  Then there are decals on the legs to drive home the 1984 vision.  I was really impressed by the two decals for the feet more than anything else with the set.  It's amazing how a couple of stickers can really make a difference.

Iguanus

Man, I've been sitting on these pictures for six freaking months.  I got Iguanus all the way back in March at a good price.  Thanks to all of the new releases that have come out, this guy just kept getting pushed back, but no longer! 

I really like Pretenders, and I know that a large segment of the fandom don't really care for them, but thanks to the Marvel Comics, they're always going to be must haves in my collection.  Iguanus is especially important to me thanks to this cover:

Pic courtesy of  TFW2005.com

If memory serves, this is the issue that introduced the Micromasters to the comics, and included some Jose Delbo art.  More importantly, this issue included Iguanus as the main antagonist, as evidenced by the cover.  Whenever I think of Iguanus, this is what always pops into my head.

I don't know why, but it seems like every Pretender that I buy from someone is sticky, especially on the arms.  I don't why that it, but it always seems to amaze me.  The arms are also where a lot of spotting seems to occur.  The arms on this Iguanus were sticky, but they lacked the spotting.  I'd really like to know what the source of the stickiness is, but ignorance can sometimes be bliss, I'm told.

Iguanus comes with two weapons, like all Pretenders.  The two weapons in question are a Hurricane Blaster, and what I'm guessing is some sort of sideways mounted chainsaw.  In all actuality, the "spinning" thing are used by the inner robot's alt-mode.  Overall, I really like to look of the outer shell.  It's very reptilian and if it were green, I'd say it was a Gorn.  Where articulation in the Pretender is generally restricted to the arms, Iguanus does feature a third point -- his tail.

The tail swivels, and is where I did discover the infamous Pretender spotting that I'm accustomed to.  It's a neat feature, I suppose.  Really, the tail just swings where it meets the body.  It can swing left or right, and that's about it.  Articulation is articulation, I guess.

Here's the inner robot.  You can't really tell thanks to the awfulness of the photos, but the headis rather snake like.  Think of Serpentor's helmet, or any of the members of the Serpent Society from the Captain America comics.  It's not a bad figure, and I like that his arms are curved a bit slightly, unlike the straight arms of the rest of the Pretenders.

Thanks to his transformation scheme, Iguanus' inner 'bot is capable of some leg articulation.  Here he is taking a leisurely stroll.  Where's he going?  To another tall building?  Iguanus also features a permanent wound in his torso that will get used later. 

Iguanus transforms into a motorcycle of some sort.  The spinning thing that the shell holds becomes the "wheels" of the bike.  I say "wheels", but they don't spin, so any kind of burnouts or movement are all going to be in your head.

Here's a side view of the motorcycle.  As you can see, it looks less like a motorcycle and more like Iguanus is just doing some fancy yoga. 

Finally, a shot of shell and robot together.  Not a lot to say about this shot.  At the very least, I'm down to one less Pretender to add to my collection.  Now just a ton more left to get.  Next week - more reviews!

Chainclaw!

Picture from www.botchthecrab.com

This blog is run with a buffer of posts.  I usually like to do about a month or so ahead of time so I can concentrate on real life issues, like the kitchen remodel that I'm working on.  Sometimes I forget just how many posts I have left in the buffer, and that leads to a gap in posts, like last week.  Whoops!  No matter, time to start another run of posts.  What better way to start that with a Pretender!  A Pretender Beast at that!

Chainclaw popped up on eBay not long after my infant son had surgery during my string of cheap finds.  If memory serves, I paid $30 for him shipped, which is a good deal.  I've always wanted Chainclaw since I was a wee 5th grader, but it just never happened for me.  Something about bears just really get me excited.  A robot that transforms into a bear that then hides inside another bear?  Sign me up.

Where the regular Pretender shells have articulation in their arms, the Pretender Beast shells feature no articulation whatsoever.  Chainclaw makes up for the lack of shell articulation with a helmet.  A helmet that makes him look like he belongs in the Masters of The Universe line.  Seriously, it's not hard to imagine He-Man, or Stratos, riding Chainclaw into battle. 

Crack the shell open, and you'll find Chainclaw's inner robot.  He's smaller than the main Pretenders, but he's a good looking bot.  My specimen has stickers that are in great shape, and the dark grey really goes well with the yellow of the main body.  For some reason, Chainclaw's head rotates.  That's something I'd expect from the regular Pretenders, and Carnivac's head did not rotate.  My guess is that the rotating head is to compensate for Chainclaw's tiny, tiny hands.  Figures that can't hold their own weapons in their fists always tend to annoy me.  Certainly there are figures that are the exception - I couldn't imagine a Seeker without the arm cannons, and Bomb-Burst looks magnificent with arm mounted lasers - but when there's only one weapon, it looks funny.

Chainclaw in his "action pose".  This guy is certainly a prototypical G1 brick. 

Fold a couple of pieces, and you have yourself a...bear?  Maybe?  Chainclaw looks more like a dog in this mode. 

Maybe it's a bear.  Whatever.  Here's Chainclaw with his Solid Sonic Energy Blaster attached.  This is one bear-dog that I wouldn't want to cross if I was a Decepticon.  Well, that's two Pretender Beasts down, and two to go.  I wonder if that's what my next vintage post will be about?  Who knows?

37th Birthday Present - Carnivac!

I turned 37 a couple of months ago, which makes me closer to 40 than I care to think about.  According to my wife, I'm hard to shop for.  However, I think I'm pretty easy since there are only like three things that I'm interested in.  At any rate, I was given the task of buying my own present - a task I readily accepted.  My choice of present?  Carnivac!

Look, I'm a big fan of Pretenders, and I know that they aren't very popular, but I've loved them since they were first introduced.  The Pretender Beasts were figures that I never got around to as a kid, but I'm working on getting them.  What better place to start than with a sorely needed boost to my Decepticon ranks.

Carnivac's outer shell is a wolf, and he looks pretty vicious.  Just look at those teeth and the spike-filled shoulder pads!  Even without the cannon mounted on his back, I'd give Carivac a wide berth.

Hiding inside that wolf shell is a robotic wolf, or as people where I live like to say "wulf".  I'm not really sure who decided on Carnivac's color scheme, but I'm not really digging the combination.  Black or grey would have been a nice touch for the body.

Carnivac's anti-thermal cannon mounts to his back, for an attack mode.  As if running into a giant robotic wolf in the forest wasn't distressing enough, now you have to worry about being blown to smithereens in the process.  This is a look I don't think will ever be used much in my display. 

Flip a couple of parts, and we go from wolf to very short robot.  I think that Carnivac's rifle is almost as tall as he is!  Carnivac's look in robot mode is decent, but I kind of wish that something could be done with the wolf snout.  It just adds an odd silhouette.  

Overall, Carnivac is a fine addition to my display, and a nice addition to my finally growing ranks of Decepticons and Pretenders.  Very nice looking stuff.