Monsterbot Grotusque

www.botchthecrab.com

It's been a bit since I got something vintage, what with all this new stuff coming out.  What better way to go old school than by finally completing my Monsterbots?  Grotusque is here and it's time to celebrate. 

Before I get into the review, I'd like to relate a story.  When I first got back into collecting G1 figures way back in 1999, I felt that the prices were outrageous on eBay, the only way I knew to get older figures, so I never really bought that many figures.  I think I may have bought one figure a year, maybe two.  At any rate, in 2005, I found an auction for a Doublecross with box working spark, stickers not applied, tech spec, unused decal sheet, and paperwork that I won for a whopping $25.  At the time, I felt it was ridiculously high price.  But, it got me on a tradition of getting Monsterbots for cheap.  I got working Repugnus a couple of years ago without stickers and gun for $17; I already had somehow managed to get his gun at some point in my childhood and managed to hang on to it.  Getting Grotusque brought about a lot of trepidation simply because I wanted to keep this tradition going.  Would I?  You bet you Aunt Sally I did.  One day I got a coupon from eBay for $20 off thanks to their security breach or whatever, plus I had some eBay Bucks that I had acquired.  All in all, I may have paid $30 for Grotusque.  The tradition continued.

Grotusque's alt mode is a griffin?  A liger?  A gargoyle?  I don't know.  It's cool looking, however.  A distinguishing feature with Grotusque is that in his monster mode, he's able to mount a weapon, in this case on his back.  Neither Doublecross nor Repugnus are able to do this.  Once they're in they're monster modes, the guns go in storage.

There are apparently two ways of transforming Grotusque into creature mode.  There's this way, which is depicted in the instructions, and the way where his back isn't completely curved.  The second way supposedly looks better, but I'll just stick with this way.

Another unique feature with Grotusque is that his wings are removable.  This is to help with transformation into robot mode, but I've been able to keep them mostly on during transformation.  They just wiggle off a bit.

Here's a side shot of Grotusque.  Like most figures of his day, the only articulation is in the arms.  I'm really impressed by how majestic Grotusque looks.  He's barrel chested.  Looking at this pic, I'm not 100% sure that I have his monster legs in this mode.  Oh well, it'll suffice.

Finally, a shot of all three Monsterbots.  All had for under $100.  Not bad.  Now, if only I had thought to include Kup and Rodimus Prime in this pic, then I could recreate the commercial...

Saying Goodbye To An Old Friend

With the arrival of a newborn (again), the removal of clutter in my collection continues.  One item that I actually uncovered that I completely forgot I owned was my original copy of The Transformers:The Movie vinyl album.  I can't believe that I forgot I owned this!  And it's now on eBay.  Well, hopefully it's sold by the time this hits.  Gotta make room, you know.  What I'm doing here is documenting something that gave me a lot of joy before it gives someone else joy.

Ah, memories.  I still remember when I bought this.  It was 1989, a full three years after the movie was released.  I was in the sixth grade and dragged out to yet another record store with my parents.  Weekends when my dad was home were basically always spent at record stores, which isn't the worst thing in the world.  At any rate, whenever I ran across something - a 45 or an LP that was reasonable and not a burden on my parents' nerves, they usually got it for me.  On one fateful trip, I ran across this gem - and it was on clearance!  Ninety-nine cents later, I was sitting in the car holding this beauty.  At this point, I already had a stereo, so I was able to listen to this thing nonstop.  It drove my parent's crazy.  I no longer have a turntable and I have the soundtrack on CD, so I'm o.k. letting this thing go.

Remarkably, this album has held up extremely well.  That is most likely due to the fact that my dad is an absolute beast at keeping his albums in brand new condition.  Sadly, the cover isn't in the greatest shape thanks to my abuse as a kid, but the vinyl is spotless.  Not a scratch or scuff.  I really hate to part with such a great keepsake, but space is space.  Man, I hope the new owner appreciates how great this album is.

Speaking of how great this album is, I think I'll run down my favorite tracks from the album in descending order.  I'm going to omit the Vince DiCola stuff.

1. Instruments of Destruction by N.R.G. - Hair metal, sure, but such a great song.
2. Hunger by Spectre General - Fun bit of trivia: Spectre General is actually a Canadian hair metal band called Kick Axe.  Apparently there was some legal issue preventing them from using their actual band name on the soundtrack.
3. Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way by Spectre General - I'm sensing a trend here...
4. Dare to Be Stupid by "Weird Al" Yankovic - I thought that it sounded like Devo when I was a kid, but I wasn't sure.  I recently saw Yankovic perform this on TV with an orchestra.  It was magic.
5. Transformers Theme by Lion - Well, it is the theme song.  Don't forget: something evil's watching over you.
6. Dare by Stan Bush - I will just say this: I can't stand Stan Bush.  This song is the least grating on my ears.   Sacrilege, I know, but there it is.
7. The Touch by Stan Bush - No comment, other than Marky Mark did a better job with this song.

Rattrap

Hey, another Beast Wars figure!  This time, it's Rattrap, who is apparently a scurrying little weasel willing to do whatever for power.  At least in Transformers: Robots in Disguise. 

Rattrap comes with two guns that are cast is a translucent plastic.  I really like translucent plastic.  The one thing I'm not fond of with this guy are the rat feet dangling from his back.  They seem to be in a permanent jazz hands pose. 

The guns combine to form a larger rifle, which I prefer. 

Rattrap's face is designed to more closely resemble his animation model.  It's a good looking face.

Funny story about Rattrap's rat mode.  I showed it to my 3 year old and she freaked out.  She ran away screaming.  Anyway, the rat mode is vastly improved over the old Beast Wars version.

My favorite detail with Rattrap is his ability to stand on his hind legs.  The tail is rubber with a wire running through it, like a Gumby toy, which allows for some posing options.  Again, in this arrangement, Rattrap has jazz hands.  As you can plainly see, Rattrap's rifle stores in his undercarriage.  Now that's another figure to add to the Beast Wars shelf.

Rhinox

Seemingly an eternity ago, I got Rhinox, from the Generations line.  Since getting him in the mail lo those many months ago with Whirl, Rhinox was just sat on my desk, unopened.  For months.  Every once-in-a-while, I'd pick up the box, look at it, and just put it back down.  It's not like I didn't care for Rhinox. On the contrary, I was really excited when it was announced that he was getting a figure in the Generations line.  I think my general burnout had started to take effect with Rhinox.  Now that it's over, I've finally decided to open Rhinox, and all of the other figures that were just sitting there, waiting to be freed from their prisons.

TFwiki.net

Beast Wars used to be a pretty divisive series when it was around.  I'm not really sure if it is these days, but I do rarely see "Trukk not Monkey!" statements on the subject these days.  Most vitriol seems to be centered around Michael Bay these days, but I digress.  At any rate, I was always a fan of the series, but not of the figures.  From the entirety of Beast Wars, I own exactly four figures: Megatron, Optimus Minor, Transmetal 2 Cheetor, and Optimal Optimus.  All but Megatron were gifts.  Something about the figures just didn't appeal to me; they just didn't look all that great.  Thankfully, toy engineering has come a long way in the past 20 years.

Here's Rhinox as he is straight out of the box.  The first thing to strike me was just how bulky he looks.  He certainly looks like his animated version.  The second thing to strike me about this version of Rhinox is how loose his legs were.  While not floppy, they're a smidgen looser than I feel they should be.  It took me a few tries to get him to stand when trying for different poses.

For some reason, there are Maximal symbols on his head.  I don't remember Rhinox being into tattoos, but he must be now.

Rhinox comes with two Gatling Guns of Doom, which spin when the buttons on them are pressed.  I'm guessing that I named these guns back in my twenties when I owned the Saturn of Doom and drove it around town.  The poseability on Rhinox is great.  And he still retains his massiveness when posting.

"Sir?  There's a rhinoceros on your back."

When Rhinox isn't mowing down Predacons or Decepticons with his Gatling Guns of Doom, they can be easily stored on the backs of his arms.  There's the requisite kibble on Rhinox's back, but there isn't as much as I thought there would be.

Rhinox's rhinoceros mode is pretty realistic.  The only thing missing is a couple of oxpecker birds on his back.  So much of this mode is soft plastic, which is a nice touch.  I think harder plastic would get ruined over time.  Right now, this is how he's displayed on my new Beast Wars shelf.  That's right, I have a Beast Wars shelf now.  That is pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Hardhead

www.botchthecrab.com

This is the second of the four figures that I kept from the job lot that I purchased several months ago.  It's funny, for a guy that loves Headmasters, my collection is rather scant with them.  I currently own Siren, Brainstorm, Fort Max, Encore Fort Max, Scorponok, Skullcruncher, Apreface, and Snapdragon.  Pretty small for a Headmaster lover.  You gotta love good deals.

I'm surprised at the good condition that this Hardhead is in.  There's chrome wear on the treads, but that's about it.  Both guns were in the box, which was a nice treat.  Having owned the few Headmasters that I have, I'm aware that articulation is not something that's common with them, but Hardhead's extreme lack of it is somewhat shocking.  His arms move up and down, and that's it.  Know what else is shocking?  This:

The flap for the tech spec reader is intact!  Most of the Hardheads that I've run across on eBay and the like almost always have a stress mark or it's just completely broken.  This one, this one is splendiferous in it's intact state.  I had thoughts on opening up the flap, but luckily, I slapped myself before something stupid happened.  As you can see form this closeup, Hardhead is in need of a good cleaning, but he's in otherwise great shape.

Something else that I never expected with ol' Hardhead is just how hollow he is.  There really isn't anything on his backside.  He's like a shell.

Hardhead transforms into a tank.  A heavily armed tank.  Seriously, there's the main turret, and then two rifles on the side.  If you're on Nebulos and run across this tank, stay away.

Duros, Hardhead's partner, sits comfortably in the canopy.  For a robot that's super hollow, the tank mode is very solid.  I really like the tank mode more than the robot mode.  The tank looks so formidable. 

The chrome wear on this side of the treads isn't bad at all.  I still can't believe how lucky I was to get Hardhead in this job lot.  Complete even.  Not bad for something that I just pulled out of a box of random stuff.

Generations Tailgate

www.bwtf.com

Hey, it's the Bomb Disposal expert himself!  Well, Waste Disposal.  Tailgate was just a background character in my life before Transformers: Robots in Disguise.  I have the G1 figure, and it's basically always just sat there in my collection.  He had zero personality.  Sure, there was a tech spec, but that didn't do anything for me.  Thank goodness for James Roberts because now Tailgate is the man, er bot.

Here's Tailgate out of the package.  There is a mini-con that comes with him, but I don't remember his name because I promptly threw him to the side.  The snowplow, or whatever it purports to be, is just tedious and ugly.  Tailgate sure is lightly colored.  The aqua on the chest and legs compliment the white of the rest of the body, but they're just so slight that they don't really pop, if that makes any sense.  Articulation-wise, Tailgate certainly has a greater range of movement than Swerve. 

It's amazing how something as seeming insignificant as a head that can turn becomes much more important once it's unavailable on a figure.  Tailgate's head turns, which is a relief.  Look at those mitts!  Those are the hands of a gunslinger.  It's a shame I tossed the gun. 

Tailgate transforms into something Camaro-esque.  With flames on the hood.  I don't think I've ever seen a car in real life with flames on the hood.  Perhaps that's because I've never lived.

Here's a profile view of the Camara-like car.  I dig the wheels, nice with shiny rims.  There are also two tailpipes in the rear for extra power.  You know, for waste disposal emergencies.  I can't wait for this to get redone as Windcharger.  Which brings about a question: how is it that we live in an age where the first season characters are getting released second?  This isn't a complaint, just an observation.

Spinister

www.botchthecrab.com

Several months ago, I saw an ad on Craigslist for a huge lot of Transformers for $200.  I jumped on it immediately.  I actually sold most of what was in the lot on eBay and I more than paid for the the four figures that I kept.  The first figure that I'll show from the lot is Spinister.

Spinister's alt-mode is an Apache helicopter.  That's purple and pink; very 1990's.  He's actually a very good looking helicopter.  Not as good looking as Vortex, but definitely top 3. 

Hairsplitter and Singe, Spinister's Targetmasters, can attach to this mode via the ports hanging off the side of the chopper.  I'm sorry to say that I'm not sure which one is Singe and which one is Hairsplitter.

Can you identify these guys?

 The Targetmasters are pretty standard fare.  Spinister is my first Decepticon Targetmaster, believe it or not.  While I have every Autobot Targetmaster, save for Blurr, I didn't own a single 'Con until I ran across this great lot. 

Here's Spinister in robot mode.  I rather like this mode.  In my opinion, Spinister looks better when his weapons aren't combined.  Quickmix looks great with both weapons combined.  The blades on his back look great, almost like there are swords there.  There should be some sort of upgrade kit for that.  Someone give this bot some swords!

I don't have a lot to say about Spinister, other than I can't believe that he was in this good a condition when I pulled him out of the box.  He needs some new decals, but that's easily fixed.  Excelsior!