Mega Pretenders: Thunderwing, Vroom, and Crossblades. With a friend.

I was asked to write a piece for Maz in his most recent article, check it out if you get the chance:  Ambassadors Part 1 

Now we return to our regularly scheduled program.

In the last couple weeks, I went a little Pretender nuts. I bought the three of these, and any parts the rest of the ones I have were missing. I was pleasantly surprised how much transformation was in the shells themselves, a neat set for sure.

First up, Crossblades. I got him on the G1 bst group on Facebook. One of the few US pieces that I have MIB with the inserts. 

Decepticon Junior Headmasters

These guys were a fun set to put together. They were heavily featured in Masterforce as three kids that Giga and Mega adopted/took under their wing. If you haven't watched Masterforce yet, I'd recommend it, but subbed, the Star-TV dub is terrible. I thought it was funny the first time, but in the end, it ruined the series. When I watched it subbed last summer, it was much more enjoyable.

First up we have Squeezeplay or Cancer in Japan, He turns into some sort of crab monster, that looks more like a cobra head. This was another pickup from Megatoyfan. His monster mode chest can open to store the Headmaster inside. I've figured out a way to have all three of their guns on them in monster mode, but they are supposed to be set to the side.

The Horrorcons: Apeface and Snapdragon

These two are definitely my favorite of the regular size Headmasters. I really like teal and purple Decepticons, so Snapdragon instantly gets a pass. Plus both of them being triple changers and using the heads in two different ways for animal and bot is pretty sweet.

First up, Apeface. This guy's body was a $5 deal from TFcon that I bought for a friend, and somehow he ended up with two, so I got him back the next year, it was missing the head, gun, shield, and even the chestplate. Ended up finding the parts super cheap after a couple years. Most of these have had their backpack get loose over the years. If you pull the main pin from the canopy/backpack and undo the screws in it, there is a pink piece of plastic with a screw through it, simply tighten it and pop the pin back in, good as new. The pin's gnarled end didn't even bite that hard, it was probably the easiest pin I've ever taken out.

Autobot Regular Headmasters

Part two of the Headmaster posts. Here we have the four main Autobots, Chromedome, Highbrow, Brainstorm, and Hardhead. These four were heavily featured in both The Rebirth and in Headmasters in Japan. Chromedome even made a short appearance in Masterforce when the Headmaster Jrs were getting their bracelets.

We'll start with Chromedome, I picked him up along with Skullcruncher from Maz, he needed some TLC, mainly in the form of new Reprolabels. (all of my regular Headmasters actually have been relabeled)

Victory Landcross

I was pretty impressed with this set's versatility. There's just so many different bots you can make with them. I have the MicromasterDX reissue of him for now which came blind packed. There was also a black chase set, which I unfortunately had to pass on at TFcon last year.

 The original came in either a boxset, or three two packs. There was also a Chinese issued version in two packs. This one is in my friend's sales boxes, so I have a picture on hand of the Chinese packaging. They are the "young Cybertrons" of Victory, always looking up to the Brainmasters. I got these from H_D, in exchange for a custom I'm working on for him.

First Wave Autobot Pretenders (Cloudburst, Landmine, and Waverider)

I've slowly started working on Pretenders. These three were a must just for their Masterforce personalities. While they aren't the Masterforce releases, I count them as the characters. The only one I might get another of is Waverider/Diver since his Masterforce release has different coloured hair. The regular Pretenders really gave the whole set of figures a bad name, especially the Autobots for being giant humans.

First up, we have Waverider/Diver. He was the first one I got in a huge lot right when I restarted collecting G1. Luckily I had a shell sitting in my parts bin as the one I got with the complete figure was pretty badly discoloured.

1984 Cars Part One: Wheeljack, Hound, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker.

Can't think of enough pics or words to go for each car on their own, so I'll do them in groups. The first four I just relabeled today.

Wheeljack is my favorite of the 84 cars. The racing deco and the Lancia alt mode are great, and the roof chest/hood feet design is probably my favorite transformation scheme for any car Transformer.

Micromaster Small Transports

At least one of these has had a lot of popularity with 201's hall of fame nomination. Each of them except Flattop was a transport truck. I had most of them as a kid. I remember selling a couple of them at a yard sale.

First up, we have Erector, who was the one nominated in 2011. Mostly based on his name, while there were a few people that actually like the character. He's a builder not a fighter. The Micromaster has a unique transformation with the chest flipping around.

1989 Autobot Micromaster Patrols

Decided to split the patrols into four sections. There's 12 US released Patrols, each with their own theme, once in a while, one of the figures in each is kind of out of the theme slightly though. Three of them were released in 1988 with Micro Transformers as their name instead of Micromasters. Ignition Terminals reminded me of this, I had forgotten. (even with having the card backs)

The Rescue Patrol is featured heavily in Victory with different names. Stakeout is called Holi, Red Hot is Fire, Seawatch is Boater, and Fixit is Pīpō. Each of them has a simple one or two step transformation which is pretty common with the series. 

Decepticon Regular Headmasters

A friend of mine asked if I would post these three today. I really like the Headmasters. The small bots are pretty neat, and I don't think there is a single figure that I don't like in the line up. I'll give Scorponok his own post later.

Mindwipe was my only Headmaster as a kid. He was a gift from my brother, one of three figures he had given me. Mindwipe is a hypnotist much like Hellbat. Binary bonded to Vorath the Nebulan Minister of Science in the US. In Japan he was the Headmaster and the body was a Transtector. This one I pieced together from a local friend and Ebay'd the gun.

One of the Strangest Autobot Subgroups, The Monsterbots.

If you had shown me this set without faction labels, I would swear they were Decepticons. I got the three of them from the same friend that sold me the Canadian Slag for a good price. Two out of three of them have their boxes. They are the largest of the Transformers cold sparking figures. I'm kind of surprised there isn't a Decepticon half of the set like most of the gimmicky G1s. All three were pretty rough sticker-wise, but a nice set of Reprolabels and they all look like new.

First up we have Grotusque, what he turns into is anyone's guess, a flying gerbil? Who knows. When the button on the back of his neck is pressed, the lower jaw moves and sparks come out of his mouth. He is the only one of the three who's handgun stores in monster mode.

Something Out of The Ordinary: Shattered Glass Soundwave and Blaster Set

I'm not a Shattered Glass fan really, but I had to get this set. The main reason being, I'm a cassette junkie. Up until the recently released Linkin Park set, I have all the official releases. (other than the Dino Cassettes, I only have the kos of those at the moment, they've been hard to track down originals of lol) So onto the set.  I really like what they did with the box. A mix of old and new, with the outer box flap seeming more modern. The outer box has some great artwork.



The box has a fold up flap to reveal a more G1 looking layout to the front of the box. It it's its own VS set, in this case VSE. This also has more G1-esque boxart foor the two.