Toy Bender

On Toy News International I saw an interesting news item that said that Hasbro was reissuing the planet devouring Transformer known as Unicron. While this is decent news if you’re a Transformers fan and missed him the first time around, it’s not really big news to get into a tizzy over (at least for me). However, there was another angle to this story that I found quite amusing… the annoying NERD angle.

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Transformers fans, begin to poop your pants… or not. I’m not sure how desirable the Transformers exclusive at Comic Con is, but to me it’s pretty neat looking. It’s the super duper evil version of Optimus Prime, Snidely Nemesis Prime. You can tell he’s evil because of his black paint scheme and his goatee. Ask anyone who knows how to identify evil twin robots, they always are painted black and they have facial hair of some sort.

Transformers fans, is this a big deal? I never know what’s going on with you guys. I see certain Transformers pics and think it’s cool and then find out that it’s an exclusive that is worth hundreds of dollars. Is this going to be of that ilk? Your ways confuse and frighten me sometimes.

According to the Associated Press, a Los Vegas man took one kick ass mustang and turned it into a replica of Barricade from the live action Transformers film. Jessie Vigil made customized his car after returning home from Iraq (and the story mentions that he’s disabled in passing) and wanted to spoil the hell out of his son.

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Talk about serendipity. When I asked for clarification on just what the Lunch Time Special Optimus Prime was last week, little did I know that we had a mega-qualified expert in our ranks. Evil King Macrocranios (who has one of the best names ever) left this super long, yet highly interesting and informative comment:

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It is well known that I enjoy clear figures. That’s why I thought it was so interesting that a number of bootleg clear Optimus Prime Transformers were being sold on eBay for the low, low price of 119 dollars.

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A while back it was revealed that Japan was going to get a reissue of the G1 Transformer Sky Lynx. Tformers.com recently posted an scan of the Japanese magazine Dengeki Hobby that shows the final production model in great detail. Here’s a preview image, head on over to TFormers.com to check out the image in it’s full glory.

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Every once in awhile a toy collector will rise above the rest and inspire us with some cool custom. The guy over at KingBotz.com has certainly done this, because he’s created one of the coolest Transformer customs I’ve ever seen. It’s a five foot tall Devastator made from Tonka trucks:

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Way back in the long, long ago, otherwise known as 1990, the once enormously successful Transformers line had become an empty shell of it’s former self. In fact it was dead. The line had lost all it’s momentum and the Transformers era known as Generation One was over. Not content to let a good, money making property stay dead, Hasbro let Transformers rest for a couple of years and reintroduced them in 1992. What’s the best way to bring back beloved toys? With commercials featuring terrible, terrible rap songs. But first, here’s a straight commercial featuring some two beloved Transformers characters:

This commercial features the return of Optimus Prime and it had been a long time for those kids (like me) who had wanted the original but never could get their hands on it. Megatron came back too, but as you can see he was a tank. Somehow that never sat right with me. I realize a tank makes a little more sense than a pistol that can shrink to fit into the hands of another Transformer, but having been raised seeing him as either a gun or cannon (as Galvatron), it’s a bit odd for a impressionable mind to handle.

Now for the advertisement you’ve been waiting for. A Transformers G2 commercial with rapping:

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When I first reported that Masterpiece Megatron would be available via Big Bad Toy Store with a slight adjustment which made him legal in the United States, nerds rejoiced! Now Big Bad Toy store is offering an accessory set for Megatron to make him look even more like his classic alternate form.

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I feel as I must address the live action, Michael Bay Transformers film because I have just returned from watching it. I was avoiding talking about the Transformers film because a) I focus my coverage here on toys and not films themselves and b) I’m not a big nut for the design of the Transformers and I have no interest in any of the toys that come from it.

Still, this must be said: Transformers rocked my balls off.

Now… discuss.

toy, toy collecting, action figure, Transformers, film, movie

It looks like Transformers fans who aren’t hip to buying imported bots are in for a treat, Hasbro is bringing everyone’s favorite jerk stateside.

Start lurking in Wal-Mart aisles in September, because he’s an exclusive to the big blue box. I’m not sure if anyone refers to Wal-Mart as the big blue box, but I think we should start. Anyway, Starscream rules so I’m pretty happy to see this guy head on over here. Sure he was a ginormous dick, but he was such a lovable dick. It was also sweet that he got turned to dust in the film just when he finally usurped Megatron. Poor guy never caught a break.

toy, toy collecting, action figure, Transformer, Wal-Mart

Have you ever felt that your life was missing something? Maybe you tried religion, yoga, or even drugs and found it all a waste of time? Well have you ever considered a six foot tall Optimus Prime as a solution to your problems?

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I just received an email from Big Bad Toy store announcing that the Masterpiece Megatron that is knocking the socks off of many a Transformer fan is now a pre-order item.

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First of all, I must apologize to all you toy ad fans as the G.I. Joe article I wrote took the place of last week’s installment of Toy Ads That Time Forgot. A million pardons, I beg of you. This week I decided to go back to the comic book well to make up for it and find an ad for something mega-crappy, and I did!

You might be familiar with the Transformers or their shoddy imitator the Go-Bots, but I’m sure you’ve never heard of the mighty Trans-bots before this ad:

What we have here is a half page ad for some bootleg Transformers. I apologize for the quality of the thing as the ink hasn’t been kind enough to keep it nice and clear. I’ll do my best to translate this mess, however. Please note the picture of Starscream at left, Megatron at bottom, and a pile of various parts flying in space on the right.

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Newspapers have had shrinking circulations for some time now. To help combat this threat, it looks like they’ve enlisted the help of Optimus Prime.

I have to admit that this is a pretty clever way of reaching out ot a younger audience and a neat way to try and show that newspapers aren’t as out of touch as some may think. The ad also uses a 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime as their “model”, so that makes it all the better.

The official press statement:

The Newspapers Association of America (NAA) kicks off its literacy campaign with a selective list of celebrity talent. The legendary film and television star, OPTIMUS PRIME was chosen as a spokesman to help promote the importance of reading newspapers. This ad continues OPTIMUS PRIME’s rich legacy of public service – he regularly concluded his animated broadcasts with an intimate and encouraging public service message. To view the literacy campaign advertisement featuring OPTIMUS PRIME, or to download it as wallpaper, choose your resolution.”

Link: Get some wallpapers of this image here.

Toy, toy collecting, Optimus Prime, Transformer, Newspaper Association of America, newspaper, Hasbro