autobots

Skyfire and Jetfire

July 28, 2011Rob

In the beginning, the war was divided into two sides, the villainous Decepticons and the heroic Autobots.

And what was an understanding was that Decepticons could fly while the Autobots could not and never the two shall meet. That is in the cartoon medium and in the toy form as the Autobots were primarily cars while the Decepticons were mostly planes.

In season 1 of Transformers, we are introduced to Skyfire.

Skyfire was one of Starscream’s closest and dearest friends. They manage to become lost from each other while on prehistoric Earth eons before the arc. Millions of years later, the Decepticons found Skyfire, encased in a block of ice, and revived him. Later on, he ends up siding with the Autobots.

As for the toy, he was named Jetfire and was a repaint of a Macross VF-1S Super Valkyrie plane. This is why the cartoon is different from the toy release. Takara was none too pleased with a cartoon that had 99% of their action figures promoting a non-Takara toy. So the animators changed him up and his name was changed to Skyfire (I am guessing since he no longer looked like Jetfire to just change the name anyway).

Personally, I think Jetfire was a better name and a much cooler looking figure. In addition this marks the start of Hasbro making an aggressive integration of non-Takara Transforming Robotic figures into the realm of the Transformers. We will, in future episodes, go over the others.

Starting with the second wave of G1 figures, there would now be equal opportunity robots in disguise.

That’s it for this week. Hit up the Pop Culture Network forums and thanks for reading.

‘Till all are one!”

Bumblejumper: The myth and magic.

July 14, 2011Rob

During the Transformers’ hay day, no character was as popular as the best friend of Spike: the little underdog, Bumblebee.

In his toy release, Bumblebee’s figure was one of the highest selling Transformers mainly due to the fact that he was a mini-bot and thus was cheaper than the larger scale toys.

In the same series, we got Cliffjumper.

This was a very similar figure, but was painted red. A lot of kids thought Cliffjumper was Bumblebee and vice versa. This snafu could have been a confusion because of the paint opts. For some unknown reason you would get a red Bumblebee

and a yellow Cliffjumper.

For collectors nowadays, owning both are prized possessions. You tend to pick up both figures for your collection.

One unique figure in the line that came out looked a little (for a lack of a better term) odd! It was this guy..

who was either packaged as Bumblebee and/or Cliffjumper.

Being that he is neither, the Transformers community lovingly refers to this mini-bot as Bumblejumper or Bumper

for his combined look of both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper.

Bumblejumper was part of the Microman Microchange line.

There has never been an official release of Bumblejumper nor has Hasbro ever explained how he ended up on the shelves.

What I believed happened was that Hasbro got so many molds from Takara that this guy was just overlooked or forgotten. When he was produced, he looked so similar to the other two that they didn’t realize he was a different car entirely.

FYI: Bumblejumper is a Mazda Familia 1500 XG.

Sidenote: In South America Bumblejumper or “Robocar” was released in the Transformers line in white. He does not sport any stickers that identify him as an Autobot or a Decepticon.

He has now become part of Transformers lore due to his appearance in Dreamwave and IDW comics continuity.

OK hit up the forums at Pop Culture Network to tell me what you think and thanks for reading.

”Till all are one!”

Thanks to www.tf-1.com,www.toyarchive.com and boltax.blogspot.com for some of the bumbleJumper images.

Megatron’s Sweet Ride

June 30, 2011Rob

Once again, I go back to a Marvel Big Looker book: The Great Car Rally.

I really don’t wish to spoil details of any part of the story, but roughly the Autobots are in an auto race and the evil leader, Megatron, wants to stop or kill them or even win the race himself. The truth is that I really don’t know! The story is pretty silly but it’s a Big Looker book, don’t expect Shakespeare. Yet without the absurdity of the tale, we would never get this image.

Yes, good old Megatron has his own car and the roof opens so he can shoot at Cliffjumper. First thought that comes to mind is how is he even driving that and/or fitting inside the car?

I guess the car’s suspension runs on disbelief as well? Needless to say, one day I will meet and speak with good old Earl Norem. I have a lot to ask him.

Let me know what you think by hitting up the Pop Culture Network forums and thanks for reading!

“Till all are one!”