Artfire is one of those characters who seems to have slipped through the proverbial cracks. Originally sold by Takara as a Targetmaster in 1987 (a redeco of Inferno), in recent years the character has gotten skipped over more often than not. Hasbro saw fit to give us a reissue of Stepper (Targetmaster redeco of Jazz), but Artfire has never gotten any kind of reissue, be it from Takara/Hasbro or even an unofficial Zhong Jin release. In Jaapn, there was a Million Publishing exclusive version of the character in 2012 (redeco of Universe Inferno from 2008) and Takara sold a Masterpiece Artfire in 2017, but that's pretty much it. So, this is the first Western release of the character in any form whatsoever.

As an aside, I'm fully convinced that Artfire (probably a bad Romanization of "Autofire") got his name switched with Stepper at some point during production. After all, a fire truck has a stepladder, so the name Stepper would make far more sense on that toy. But, moving on.

Artfire comes in one of those ugly brown boxes that I don't ever hesitate to throw away now, and he's loaded with accessories. In addition to all the regular stuff that Inferno came with (his rifle, his gun-arm attachment, his head-gun attachment, the hoses for his legs) he's also got a Targetmaster partner as well as four blast effect parts (and unlike Covert Agent Ravage, the box actually comes with what the web site says is in there).

He's still visually similar to Inferno in some ways, since he's still red and black, with some of the red parts (the robot chest and head assembly, the robot feet) being swapped out for white. It's less of an all-new look and more of a modified look. (They could have given us a Hasbro Selects Road Hauler instead, I suppose. Grapple in Constructicon colors.) They did mix things up a bit by giving Artfire the black upper legs (Inferno had red, to match his cartoon model) and the black painted shoulder panels. Artfire also has unpainted blue headlights instead of all-silver. It's a little different, but not radically different. They actually could have stood to differentiate things further, since some of the black parts on Inferno actually became a dark grey on G1 Artfire. But, I'm not sure if the Kingdom Inferno molds were gated properly to allow for that.

G1 Artfire already had a grey fire truck ladder and grey wings on the robot head. This was incorrect for the new version of Inferno, but correct for this version of Artfire, so I wonder if the grey Inferno parts were sneakily intended for an eventual Artfire release from the get-go?

Nightstick is a reuse of the Targetmaster name for Cyclonus, and back in 1987 they took the same G1 Nightstick figure and packaged it with Artfire. This new edition of Nightstick is a redeco of Battlemaster Firedrive, only with his colors swapped (grey body and black limbs this time, instead of the other way around). Artfire can equip both his Targetmaster gun and regular rifle, as well as his head-mounted gun. He is a very well-armed Autobot. (The G1 version of Artfire didn't come with the Inferno handheld rifle or the wrist rockets, so this is cool.) He comes with two of the Firedrive barrel-shaped blast effects in translucent blue, as well as two of the Aimless blast efffects in the same color.

(Amusingly, the illustration of Artfire and Nightstick on the cover of the instruction booklet is not to scale. Nightstick is, like, two-thirds the height of Artfire. Reminds me of the end of "The Rebirth" when Galvatron and Lord Zarak were nearly the same size.)

Transformation is, of course, the same as Inferno. This is the modified design, not the early Grapple version, so the pegs won't get stuck and broken off when you plug the head assembly into the robot feet. The colors aren't quite right, since G1 Artfire actually had white "boots" with black soles, whereas this version still has red feet, but it's close. There are plain red stripes on the sides of the white cab; originally this was a sticker sporting katakana (Google Translate tells me it originally read "Fire and Disaster Management Agency") but on this version there is no lettering at all..

There doesn't seem to be an official mounting spot for the Targetmaster gun when he's in fire engine mode. (On the G1 toy, there was an intermediate piece that plugged into the top of his fire truck ladder so you could plug the gun on top.) There are lots of places to attach five-millimeter pegs, of course—you can raise the ladder a bit and plug the gun into one of the off-center holes on the robot arms, or you can mount it to either side of the robot head assembly. It's not an elegant solution, and I find myself wishing they'd retooled the mold to include a symmetrical spot to attach the Targetmaster, or at least throw in an intermediate piece like the original Artfire and Stepper had.

Artfire was $36.99 on Hasbro Pulse, a bit more expensive than a normal Voyager, but he also came with some extra goodies so it makes sense. This was a great, inexpensive way for me to own the character for the first time.

Studio Series Jazz will arguably make a very good Stepper (though if Hasbro wants to be consistent, they'll probably call him Ricochet), since he's already got the spot on his roof in car mode to mount a gun. I don't know if they're planning on doing a redeco in those colors, but if they produce it, I'll certainly buy it. (I didn't get the Power of the Primes version of Stepper, because that was a terrible Jazz toy and I didn't want to buy it a second time.)

Zob (also went to a tiny toy shop in Gardener Village yesterday and found the World's Smallest brand micro action figures of Optimus and Bumblebee and Starscream by Super Impulse)

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> Artfire is one of those characters who seems to have slipped through the
> proverbial cracks.

I have trouble seeing him as anything other than Targetmaster Inferno.
Sure, there’s some white paint, but it feels like a modification of
Inferno’s color scheme rather than a new color scheme.

> There doesn't seem to be an official mounting spot for the Targetmaster
> gun when he's in fire engine mode. (On the G1 toy, there was an
> intermediate piece that plugged into the top of his fire truck ladder so
> you could plug the gun on top.) There are lots of places to attach
> five-millimeter pegs, of course—you can raise the ladder a bit and plug
> the gun into one of the off-center holes on the robot arms, or you can
> mount it to either side of the robot head assembly. It's not an elegant
> solution, and I find myself wishing they'd retooled the mold to include a
> symmetrical spot to attach the Targetmaster, or at least throw in an
> intermediate piece like the original Artfire and Stepper had.

A minor remold of the ladder would have done it. It has a slot that’s about
6mm wide. Barely any reason not to pre-mold it, and let Inferno host a
Targetmaster.

> Artfire was $36.99 on Hasbro Pulse, a bit more expensive than a normal
> Voyager, but he also came with some extra goodies so it makes sense.
> This was a great, inexpensive way for me to own the character for the first time.

I like him, but he just feels like a better, flashier Inferno. Having no
attachment to Artfire as a character before this I guess I just don’t
welcome him into G1.

On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 2:28:37 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I have trouble seeing him as anything other than Targetmaster Inferno.
> Sure, there’s some white paint, but it feels like a modification of
> Inferno’s color scheme rather than a new color scheme.

Yeah, it's not a very different look. I wonder why Takara didn't make more of an effort to differentiate the two characters. I've looked at photos of Mitsubishi Fuso fire trucks, and there are ones in real life that are red with white cabs, so I guess that's what they were going for.

> A minor remold of the ladder would have done it. It has a slot that’s about
> 6mm wide. Barely any reason not to pre-mold it, and let Inferno host a
> Targetmaster.

That would have been a better solution. And, goodness knows that there are so many peg-holes all over the toys these days to make them C.O.M.B.A.T.-compatible that one more certainly wouldn't have hurt!

> I like him, but he just feels like a better, flashier Inferno. Having no
> attachment to Artfire as a character before this I guess I just don’t
> welcome him into G1.

It's hard to perceive him as being a unique character. It almost would have been better if Takara had just brought him back in 1987 as Targetmaster Inferno.

Zob (still wouldn't mind a Studio Series Stepper)