fairplaythings.com

January 23, 2009

Longrack (01-23-09)

Filed under: 06 beast wars neo, TF365 — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 12:23 am

Transformer of the Day for January 23, 2009

LONGRACK

-Faction: Maximal
-Era: Beast Wars Neo (1999)
-Function: First Officer
-Motto: “If You Do Not Think Before You Act, Do Not Act At All”

-Notable Toy: Longrack Vs. Guildedart Set (Takara, 1991)

Notes: If Beast Wars II line minimized costs by repainting off-camera characters and incorporating pre-existing G2 toolings, Beast Wars Neo offered up the goods. Among the standard repaints were new dinosaurs and mammals, including Longrack the Giraffe. Like the new BW Neo toys, Longrack enjoyed a “targetmaster-esque” mid-transformation formation. He was later the inspiration for the Cybertron-era excavator of the same name and colour.

January 22, 2009

Stormcloud (01-22-09)

Filed under: 01 generation one, TF365 — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 12:22 am

Transformer of the Day for January 22, 2009

STORMCLOUD

-Faction: Decepticon (Micromaster)
-Era: Generation One (1984-1992)
-Function: Espionage
-Motto: “The Air is My Playground”

-Notable Toy: Universe Ultra Class (Hasbro, 2008)

Notes: Like Countdown, Stormcloud was part of Hasbro/Takara’s efforts to try their hand at the burgeoning microtoy market of the late 1980s. Unlike Countdown, he came packed with three other members of the Decepticon Air Strike Patrol and had such lowered goals of taking leadership of the small group. As a repaint of Universe Powerglide, he finally has the size to back up his (meagre) ambitions.

January 21, 2009

High Beam (01-21-09)

Filed under: 03 generation two, TF365 — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 12:21 am

Transformer of the Day for January 21, 2009

HIGH BEAM

-Faction: Autobot
-Era: Generation 2 (1993-95)
-Function: Tracker
-Motto: “Let’s Get Busy”

-Notable Toy: Go-Bot (Hasbro, 1995)

Notes: In the 1980s, Tonka used a line of Bandai-owned changing cars and trucks to create the Gobots to compete with Transformers. In 1991, Hasbro took over Tonka and, with it, the rights to the Gobot brand. So what do you do if you have a valuable property? How about use it to mount a challenge to another toy company’s 1/64 scale cars. High Beam, repainted first as G2 Bumblebee and later RiD’s Crosswise, is the best of the line.

January 20, 2009

Megaplex (01-20-09)

Filed under: 08 machine wars, TF365 — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 12:20 am

Transformer of the Day for January 20, 2009

MEGAPLEX

-Faction: Decepticon
-Era: Machine Wars (1997)
-Function: Warrior / Clone
-Motto: “The Skies Belong To Me

-Notable Toy: Machine Wars Basic Release (Hasbro, 1997)

Notes: With Machine Wars, Kenner tried an abortive detour away back to basics. The limited Kay-Bee run consisted of classic characters as repainted European tailenders and unreleased spring-loaded basic vehicles. Megaplex is the only truly original addition to the line, envision as a clone of Megatron himself, one so convincing he’s actually mispackaged with Megatron’s artwork! Megaplex’s name would later live on with a eHobby repaint of G1 Megatron in 2003.

January 19, 2009

King Atlas (01-19-09)

Filed under: 11 universe, TF365 — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 12:19 am

Transformer of the Day for January 19, 2009

KING ATLAS

-Faction: Autobot
-Era: Universe (2003-2004)
-Function: Commander
-Motto: “Words Only Get in the Way of Action”

-Notable Toy: Universe (Hasbro, 2004)

Notes: Is he Dai Atlas 2.0, or the lightening of the Micronaut’s own red baron? In any case, King Atlas realized the promise of what was to be Hasbro’s first shortlived Universe line. He was the first wide-issue U.S. release of the Generation Two-esque Decepticon Predator jet, Skyquake. While he lacked accessories, he made his mark with his weathered paint applications and imposing size.  He might be a block, but he was a good looking block.

January 18, 2009

Lockdown (01-18-09)

Filed under: 14 animated, TF365 — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 12:18 am

Transformer of the Day for January 18, 2009

LOCKDOWN

-Faction: Decepticon
-Era: Transformers: Animated (2008-Present)
-Function: Bounty Hunter
-Motto: “Run All You Want. It’ll Make the Chase More Fun”

-Notable Toy: Bumper Battlers (Hasbro, 2008)

Notes: Devcon . Armada’s Scavenger. Death’s Head. Bounty hunters take advantage of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict. But they don’t get the screen time of Lockdown, a merc who takes trophies from the bounties he brings to the highest bidder. Lockdown’s popularity has facilitated six different plastic appearances to date, including one of the better renditions allowed into Hasbro’s simplistic 3+ auto-transforming line.

January 17, 2009

44

Filed under: munny, nostalgia — fairplaythings @ 11:35 pm

New additions to the munny site here. In celebration of January 20, 2009.

Pyro / Spark (01-17-09)

Filed under: 02 generation one plus, TF365 — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 12:28 am

Transformer of the Day for January 17, 2009

PYRO / SPARK

-Faction: Autobot
-Era: Generation One Plus (1991-1992)
-Function: Obliterator
-Motto: “Think of the most awful, unspeakable menace you can - and then double it. That’s what we’re up against”

-Notable Toy: European Exclusive (Hasbro, 1993)

Notes: After Action Masters, Hasbro stopped manufacturing Transformers for North American shelves until the arrival of Generation Two in 1993. Europe, however, was a different story, and region-specific products continued to trickle out. Pyro, later incorporated into the G2 line as Spark, was just such a rarity - a European only Transformer that could justifiably be called Gen 1.5.

January 16, 2009

Droid factory and the fight for freedom

Filed under: Toys, nostalgia — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 6:13 pm

Upload care of www.toybender.com

I was never a Star Wars collector. Oh I liked the AT-AT of course, and the Falcon and the weird Tatooine-based, non-movie Stormtrooper transport (damn you Marvel Comics and your intoxicating cartoon advertisements!), and I really wanted to get my hand on my parent’s friends’ kid’s Tie-Fighter, but I had very few toys from the line itself. I was more impressed with the Micronauts (for which the Battlecruiser was my pride and joy, even if an incident with my foot separated the left rear wing from its peg on the very Christmas day it came into my possession) and Shogun Warriors (which I never seemed to be able to get as presents).

Really, I never played with that many memorable toys as a kid growing up. It was not until the unholy combination of (a) Hasbro decision to release a military-based line of 3 3/4″ figures in 1982 with super poseability and really cool details, and (b) my two best friends of the day decided they were also going to be completely swept up by the line, so much so that we could spend pretty much every afternoon after school for two years playing out elaborate military scenarios.

And knowing is half the battle.

Uploads care of www.toybender.com

Uploads care of www.toybender.com

Anyway, back to Star Wars. It was impossible not to have a few Star Wars toys. I had a Boba Fett (one I certainly do not misremember firing its missile) and a Hoth-suited Han Solo. I had the die-cast Cloud City ship and Snowspeeder. And I had the Droid Factory. Seeing it on the ActionFigureOfTheDay certainly brought back memories. And I can attest for certain that:

  • yes, it was really freakin’ cool to have the only R2-D2 available with a third leg, and
  • every so often to this day, I find those little bitty bits that constituted the set, even if the majority of the set is long gone.

(Apologies to www.toybender.com for the theft of the print ads.)

Adieu KB

Filed under: Toys, Transformers — Tags: — fairplaythings @ 12:51 am

Action Figure News and Toy Review (Feb 1997)

Action Figure News and Toy Review (Feb 1997)

I’ve been thinking a lot about KBToys, since word came in that they were liquidating and closing their doors for good. But working on the calendar really brought things to the surface.

The reaction in the Transformers community seemed to be a sense of smug satisfaction, that the chain’s prices were too high and they brought this upon themselves.

I know little of KBToys’ day-to-day operations (since the chain does not exist in Canada), so I cannot speculate about specific business practices. But I do know a bit about toy pricing.

It’s really hard for a specialty store to compete with the generalist, particularly one as big as Wally-Mart, under normal conditions. When your bread and butter are toys and games, it becomes even more difficult because the big box stores use your main product as a loss leader, selling at a loss to bring in customers to buy their clothes and groceries and other merchandise through which they can profit.

So while it might ultimately be the store’s fault, I would not jump to that conclusion off the bat. And I wouldn’t be smug about it either. In the end, when a specialty toy chain like KBToys falls, we are all the losers because there is less choice and opportunity in the marketplace. And that’s seldom a good thing.

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