Posted: 14 August 2008 at 1:13am | IP Logged

iceman wrote: I never said as much. I've still have to meet the first TF toy line with all figures in perfect scale.

Well, we all know that that's never gonna happen.  It'd be impossible.
Ok, Hasbro or Takara could create a toy line where all the TFs are correctly scaled to each other in robot mode, but then their alt modes would be completely out of scale.  The same would apply if all the TFs were correctly scaled in alt mode.

Until toymaking advances to the stage where we can actually create toys capable of mass conversion and parts compression, then a completely-to-scale TF toy line will never happen.

Posted: 21 August 2008 at 11:21am | IP Logged

Tetsuro wrote: I'd say Action Masters was the sifinite sign that the TF toyline was dead. I've observed that when the offerings of a toyline become totally silly and especially when they begin contradicting the whole original point of the line (1990 Ghostbusters toys, space-borne Action Force) it's like a sign that said toyline isn't going to last long. Of course there are exceptions, such as Action Man turning from a fairly serious line of realistic military figures to a crazy spy-gadget-laden Barbie for boys that really only appeals to the boys. The Action man line landed in Finland after that change so for many years that was the only way I knew them.

Hasbro UK/Europe knew better though- bolstering the 'lean' yearsc with the 'Classics' reissue line and mixing exclusive Action Masters as well as the Motorvators and Overlord, before devising their own line in 1992 - 1993.

Posted: 21 August 2008 at 12:14pm | IP Logged

Ah, the Motorvators stand up pretty well on their own, I think. Gripper is a bit silly, as his limbs extend. But I like 'em anyway! The choice to include part but not all of Lio Kaiser was baffling - they'd put out all six constructicons without their weaapons, so why not all six LK figures?

Colourschemes on the Rescue Force aren't that great either.

Posted: 21 August 2008 at 9:00pm | IP Logged

Tetsuro wrote: Unlike that insanely retarded release of the constructicons which omitted all the gestalt pieces, Liokaiser lost two team members along with their breast partnets which were the only saving graces of those figures.

As the constructicons were never widely available in the UK due lead paint or licensing or whatever, and only limped in during mid '91 and were not well distributed. I was just pleased that I could lay my hands on the whole lot in 1992. Course, if I'd known they'd show up in G2...

Agree on the Rescue force. Later transformers highly deserve the 'brick' description that they so frequently get.

Posted: 15 September 2008 at 11:16am | IP Logged

Thundercracker's colourscheme was mental! It heralded the trend for giving us dayglo toys - every UK toy after got nosebleed inducing colourschemes after that point.

The elite AMs you speak of, Double Punch etc I found to be worse than the non-transforming AMs, as they attempted to work in a none too convincing alt modes. Turbo Master probably comes out the best and is passable as a jet. Windmill, on the other hand...

The Action Masters were reasonably well received over here, I remember a few of my friends had some of these and they were pretty cool. I think Hasbro were trying too hard to keep the brand fresh at this point - most of us that were part of the 'target audience' were growing out of toys (I'd just started Secondary School by this point!), and attempts to bring new fans in with gimmicks like this probably wasn't the right way to go about things. I wonder if thats why we got the Classics line the same year..?

I had to check up on Rad, to see about the female styling... and I can see it myself too! (I think its the er, chest that does it!)