#transmetals

Is he RID 2001 Springload?

Dear Frog Foister,

No, that's Spittor—his first Transmetal form, specifically. I can see why you might not have recognised him, as in that timeline, he was transformed to a much lesser extent than many other Transmetals; when the quantum surge reached Earth, he was deep underwater, with most of the energy being absorbed by the lake, giving him only superficial cyber-circuitry (similar to the early stages of the Vehicon virus). Unlike Claw Jaw, who was sanguine on the changes, Spittor envied the new forms of his teammates, which later led him to steal the Transmetal driver for himself, and make some shocking discoveries about the true nature of the device and its alien—

"You know me, Prime. I like my energon cold, my guitar riffs loud, and my Transmetals fa-laming!"

January's Patreon-backed @tfwiki toy picture theme is... three themes. There were a bunch of holes I kinda wanted to fill but none of them were really big enough for their own full update, so like, hey. Mix 'em up.

First we have the second round of Beast Wars "Fox Kids!" redecoes, released in 2000 alongside the new Beast Machines toys. The BW show's recent move to the Fox Kids cartoon block really boosted demand for more Transformers product, and Hasbro could only stuff so much into Machines, so Wars got extended another year with these and the Mutants. 1) Transmetal Airazor 2) Transmetal Rattrap 3) Transmetal Rhinox 4) Transmetal Waspinator

Next is a very loose theme of real car models in red. Yeah. Look, I wanted to get new pics of two of these anyway (the first and last) and found two more toys that needed new pics that matched the vague pattern.

Binaltech Meister Velocity Red Mica Edition" is perhaps better known as "Zoom-Zoom", a spare body for Binaltech Jazz equipped with an AI that Jazz is teaching to dance. I love Zoom-Zoom and he should become the new default Jazz-mold redeco.

Kiss Players Hot Rodimus is a redeco of Alternators Mirage, with some added accessories. Not just the figurine of human partner Shaoshao Li, but a 4-part fishing rod that reassembles into an arm-mounted gun like the original Hot Rod's arm-pipe-guns. But it's not very good, it doesn't clip on, just kinda grips.

Alternators Rumble is part of the final wave of Alternators toys, relegated to Walmart exclusivity. He's weird. He's simpler than most Alternators, he doesn't have normal arms, and the spring-loaded piledrivers are all wobbly once deployed. Also, no Takara release.

And then there's Universe Swerve, whose release story is a DOOZY but the short of it is, Chevy commissioned Hasbro/Takara to make an original Chevy Aveo TF mold to use as giveaways at malls and whatnot in 2007, part of the whole movie marketing thing Chevy/Paramount had going on. Which means this mold can NEVER be restored and used again. It's a truly unique piece that I'm super-happy to have.

And we're wrapping up with some pieces from Takara's 2010 Animated line. Said line is most famous for dousing the main cast in super-shiny metallic paint, but most of the toys only got a bit of it. Oil Slick only got bright green paint on his gauntlets and legs, while Blazing Lockdown just got metallic pale-gold flames instead of the Hasbro version's more cartoony yellow-gold.

Optimus Prime Clear Red Ver. is a Toys"R"Us exclusive redeco of the Legends-class Optimus. It's one of Takara's many many many many store promotional items, where you got it free with qualifying purchases on specific dates in specific stores. In this case, 3000 yen's worth of Animated product at TRU, presumably on the first weekend of the toyline's release (haven't found the exact date yet).

Prowl Elite Guard Ver. was exclusive to the 2010 Tokyo Toy Show, which ran from July 15th through the 18th. It's currently unknown what the production run on this one was.