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interests / alt.toys.transformers / Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)

SubjectAuthor
* Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)Zobovor
+* Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)Codigo Postal
|`- Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)Zobovor
`- Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast ConvoyGustavo Wombat

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Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)

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Subject: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Thu, 18 Aug 2022 22:22 UTC

It's not very often these days that I go hunting for older product that isn't G1. In years past, when the retail Transformers offering has been less than interesting, that's historically when I've looked at getting vintage GoBots or something else that slipped through my fingertips. Lately, the Transformers offering has been phenomenal, and it's been a little bit of a struggle to keep up. So, I really have no business looking at older toys on eBay right now.

Despite this, somebody (probably Gustavo Wombat) said something about Robot Masters T. rex Megatron recently. I looked at it and decided I didn't really want it, but then I looked at his counterpart and saw that somebody was selling one loose for $30. The original Optimus Primal toy has always been way too big, compared to Megatron (if you take the scale from the cartoon as gospel), and one of my favorite toys I own is an undersized knockoff of the 1996 Primal toy (it has a white robot head but is otherwise correct). So, I thought an official toy of Smol Primal might be fun.

I think the only other Robot Masters toy I have is Starscream, so I really don't have a strong familiarity with this toy line.

Anyway, Primal stands at 4.75" in height, as compared to the six inches of the Kingdom toy. He seems shockingly small for a Deluxe-scale toy. He's designed and built approximately like the Ultra-class toy, but his proportions in robot mode seem a bit strange. His arms are either too long, or his legs are too short. When his arms are at his sides, his fingertips come down to his knees. He has the same articulation as the vintage Beast Wars toy.

A lot of the larger toy's gimmicks have been neutered. There's no mutant head mask, and the robot face has been sculpted to more closely resemble the CGI Primal, with a mouth slit in the center of the mask. Each of his forearms opens to reveal a cute little dual-barreled blaster, and they're spring-loaded so they pop right out as soon as you open the panel. No sword-swinging or chest-beating gimmick at this scale.

He does have his two shoulder cannons, but you have to deploy them manually.. They lack the flaps that hang over his body that the larger toy has. Swing the guns up and you can access his swords, which are tucked inside the spot where the guns were. The pegs for the swords are sideways and plug into his palms.

His transformation is 100% identical to the Ultra-class toy, just at a smaller scale. There's one improvement over the way it functions—they added a gear-driven system so that the act of bringing his gorilla head assembly up or down also makes the gorilla face flip at the same time. It's a cool idea.

As a gorilla, when he's hunched over and supported by his knuckles, he's about 3.75" tall. His face sculpt in beast mode seems a bit weird, with an elongated upper lip. Instead of doing a Ninja Turtles grimace, he's got his mouth closed, effecting a more neutral facial expression.

He also comes with a translucent blue missile launcher that shoots a translucent blue missile. I'm not sure what the point of it is, except that I do believe all the Robot Masters toys had some kind of spring-loaded weapon. I don't think there's anywhere to attach it in monkey mode.

This is such a cute little toy. It came out in 2004, during a period when I wasn't really actively collecting Japanese toys (I was getting as many of the Super Collection Figure PVC's as I could get my hands on, but that was my first real foray into collecting Takara releases). In retrospect, though, I probably should have gotten this guy a long time ago, because he's really cool. The Kingdom release makes him largely obsolete, but a 2004 toy is closer to 1996 (only eight years) than it is to 2022 (eighteen years!) so that kind of makes this a vintage release by default, not a modern one. So, it serves a different role and a different purpose.

I might get the Robot Masters T. rex Megatron if I can find it for close to the same price, but honestly a Smol Munkey was much more appealing to me, because of the character scale differences on the show.

Zob (The only other Robot Masters toys I'm really interested in are Ligier and R-Blade, for obvious reasons)

Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)

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Subject: Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)
From: codigopo...@gmail.com (Codigo Postal)
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 by: Codigo Postal - Sun, 21 Aug 2022 03:15 UTC

On Thursday, August 18, 2022 at 6:22:30 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> It's not very often these days that I go hunting for older product that isn't G1. In years past, when the retail Transformers offering has been less than interesting, that's historically when I've looked at getting vintage GoBots or something else that slipped through my fingertips. Lately, the Transformers offering has been phenomenal, and it's been a little bit of a struggle to keep up. So, I really have no business looking at older toys on eBay right now.
>
> Despite this, somebody (probably Gustavo Wombat) said something about Robot Masters T. rex Megatron recently. I looked at it and decided I didn't really want it, but then I looked at his counterpart and saw that somebody was selling one loose for $30. The original Optimus Primal toy has always been way too big, compared to Megatron (if you take the scale from the cartoon as gospel), and one of my favorite toys I own is an undersized knockoff of the 1996 Primal toy (it has a white robot head but is otherwise correct). So, I thought an official toy of Smol Primal might be fun.
>
> I think the only other Robot Masters toy I have is Starscream, so I really don't have a strong familiarity with this toy line.
>
> Anyway, Primal stands at 4.75" in height, as compared to the six inches of the Kingdom toy. He seems shockingly small for a Deluxe-scale toy. He's designed and built approximately like the Ultra-class toy, but his proportions in robot mode seem a bit strange. His arms are either too long, or his legs are too short. When his arms are at his sides, his fingertips come down to his knees. He has the same articulation as the vintage Beast Wars toy.
>
> A lot of the larger toy's gimmicks have been neutered. There's no mutant head mask, and the robot face has been sculpted to more closely resemble the CGI Primal, with a mouth slit in the center of the mask. Each of his forearms opens to reveal a cute little dual-barreled blaster, and they're spring-loaded so they pop right out as soon as you open the panel. No sword-swinging or chest-beating gimmick at this scale.
>
> He does have his two shoulder cannons, but you have to deploy them manually. They lack the flaps that hang over his body that the larger toy has. Swing the guns up and you can access his swords, which are tucked inside the spot where the guns were. The pegs for the swords are sideways and plug into his palms.
>
> His transformation is 100% identical to the Ultra-class toy, just at a smaller scale. There's one improvement over the way it functions—they added a gear-driven system so that the act of bringing his gorilla head assembly up or down also makes the gorilla face flip at the same time. It's a cool idea.
>
> As a gorilla, when he's hunched over and supported by his knuckles, he's about 3.75" tall. His face sculpt in beast mode seems a bit weird, with an elongated upper lip. Instead of doing a Ninja Turtles grimace, he's got his mouth closed, effecting a more neutral facial expression.
>
> He also comes with a translucent blue missile launcher that shoots a translucent blue missile. I'm not sure what the point of it is, except that I do believe all the Robot Masters toys had some kind of spring-loaded weapon. I don't think there's anywhere to attach it in monkey mode.
>
> This is such a cute little toy. It came out in 2004, during a period when I wasn't really actively collecting Japanese toys (I was getting as many of the Super Collection Figure PVC's as I could get my hands on, but that was my first real foray into collecting Takara releases). In retrospect, though, I probably should have gotten this guy a long time ago, because he's really cool. The Kingdom release makes him largely obsolete, but a 2004 toy is closer to 1996 (only eight years) than it is to 2022 (eighteen years!) so that kind of makes this a vintage release by default, not a modern one. So, it serves a different role and a different purpose.
>
> I might get the Robot Masters T. rex Megatron if I can find it for close to the same price, but honestly a Smol Munkey was much more appealing to me, because of the character scale differences on the show.
>
>
> Zob (The only other Robot Masters toys I'm really interested in are Ligier and R-Blade, for obvious reasons)

I have Victory Saber. Star Saber is phenomenal and looks like he stepped off the screen. He lacks modern articulation, but he makes up for it in presence. Victory Leo feels like an afterthought, and he's best in combined mode with Star Saber. In modern terms, they'd be Legends or Legends+ scale, so they offer a pleasing adjunct to Haslab's CHUG scale, and Takara's MP scale offerings.

Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)

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Subject: Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Sun, 21 Aug 2022 22:23 UTC

On Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 9:15:24 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:

> I have Victory Saber. Star Saber is phenomenal and looks like he stepped off the screen. He lacks modern articulation, but he makes up for it in presence. Victory Leo feels like an afterthought, and he's best in combined mode with Star Saber.

I ended up with knockoffs of those toys. I forget where I got them from. Maybe they were in an Easter basket? I honestly can't remember. But, yeah, they were cool little toys.

Zob (surprised they did an entire toy range called Robot Masters, and not one single Donny Finkleberg toy)

Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy (Optimus Primal)

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From: gustavow...@yahoo.com (Gustavo Wombat)
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: Re: Zob's Thoughts on Takara Robot Masters Beast Convoy
(Optimus Primal)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2022 08:53:10 -0000 (UTC)
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 by: Gustavo Wombat - Tue, 23 Aug 2022 08:53 UTC

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> It's not very often these days that I go hunting for older product that
> isn't G1. In years past, when the retail Transformers offering has been
> less than interesting, that's historically when I've looked at getting
> vintage GoBots or something else that slipped through my fingertips.
> Lately, the Transformers offering has been phenomenal, and it's been a
> little bit of a struggle to keep up. So, I really have no business
> looking at older toys on eBay right now.

I think there’s something different about the older toys that scratches a
different itch. The materials, techniques and tradeoffs are all different,
and part of what we fell in love with so many decades ago was the toy
aspect — and the new toys don’t give that joy (they give a different joy)

> Despite this, somebody (probably Gustavo Wombat) said something about
> Robot Masters T. rex Megatron recently. > I looked at it and decided I
> didn't really want it,

That was me. And Megatron has a hand! A hand!

> but then I looked at his counterpart and saw that somebody was selling
> one loose for $30. The original Optimus Primal toy has always been way
> too big, compared to Megatron (if you take the scale from the cartoon as
> gospel), and one of my favorite toys I own is an undersized knockoff of
> the 1996 Primal toy (it has a white robot head but is otherwise correct).
> So, I thought an official toy of Smol Primal might be fun.

I thought Primal was a little too large as a toy, and thought Mega would
have worked better at matching scale. But that original BW Ultra was such a
good toy.

> I think the only other Robot Masters toy I have is Starscream, so I
> really don't have a strong familiarity with this toy line.

I wonder if I own Starscream. No idea. But Primal popped up in the bottom
of a bin I was idly looking at tonight.

> Anyway, Primal stands at 4.75" in height, as compared to the six inches
> of the Kingdom toy. He seems shockingly small for a Deluxe-scale toy.
> He's designed and built approximately like the Ultra-class toy, but his
> proportions in robot mode seem a bit strange. His arms are either too
> long, or his legs are too short. When his arms are at his sides, his
> fingertips come down to his knees. He has the same articulation as the
> vintage Beast Wars toy.

It’s a little off. It looks like a bit of gorilla proportions found their
way into the beast mode. The Ultra arguably had legs that didn’t fold down
quite enough for beast mode.

> A lot of the larger toy's gimmicks have been neutered. There's no mutant
> head mask, and the robot face has been sculpted to more closely resemble
> the CGI Primal, with a mouth slit in the center of the mask. Each of his
> forearms opens to reveal a cute little dual-barreled blaster, and they're
> spring-loaded so they pop right out as soon as you open the panel. No
> sword-swinging or chest-beating gimmick at this scale.

The arms guns are cute, and better than the similar gimmick on the Ultra,
so it’s not all smaller and weaker.

> He does have his two shoulder cannons, but you have to deploy them
> manually. They lack the flaps that hang over his body that the larger
> toy has. Swing the guns up and you can access his swords, which are
> tucked inside the spot where the guns were. The pegs for the swords are
> sideways and plug into his palms.

His shoulder gun nipples look a bit too big for blast effects, which is
expected but a little sad. I should keep a blast effect around to test
these things.

> His transformation is 100% identical to the Ultra-class toy, just at a
> smaller scale. There's one improvement over the way it functions—they
> added a gear-driven system so that the act of bringing his gorilla head
> assembly up or down also makes the gorilla face flip at the same time. It's a cool idea.

The back folds up nicer too. And the change with the shoulder guns means he
doesn’t have a pair of flappy panels on the front of the robot when they’re
deployed.

> As a gorilla, when he's hunched over and supported by his knuckles, he's
> about 3.75" tall. His face sculpt in beast mode seems a bit weird, with
> an elongated upper lip. Instead of doing a Ninja Turtles grimace, he's
> got his mouth closed, effecting a more neutral facial expression.

The beast face is the worst part of this toy.

> He also comes with a translucent blue missile launcher that shoots a
> translucent blue missile. I'm not sure what the point of it is, except
> that I do believe all the Robot Masters toys had some kind of
> spring-loaded weapon. I don't think there's anywhere to attach it in monkey mode.

It’s probably in the bottom of a bin somewhere. I don’t feel compelled to
worry about it.

> This is such a cute little toy. It came out in 2004, during a period
> when I wasn't really actively collecting Japanese toys (I was getting as
> many of the Super Collection Figure PVC's as I could get my hands on, but
> that was my first real foray into collecting Takara releases). In
> retrospect, though, I probably should have gotten this guy a long time
> ago, because he's really cool. The Kingdom release makes him largely
> obsolete, but a 2004 toy is closer to 1996 (only eight years) than it is
> to 2022 (eighteen years!) so that kind of makes this a vintage release by
> default, not a modern one. So, it serves a different role and a different purpose.

The plastic on him and Megatron is different than was used for other toys.
There’s something odd about it, it feels inauthentic.

> I might get the Robot Masters T. rex Megatron if I can find it for close
> to the same price, but honestly a Smol Munkey was much more appealing to
> me, because of the character scale differences on the show.
>
>
> Zob (The only other Robot Masters toys I'm really interested in are
> Ligier and R-Blade, for obvious reasons)
>

I also found Psycho Orb in that bin, never opened, which leaves me with
questions like “why did I buy this?” “Why didn’t I open him?” “Is that gold
plastic?” I like armadillos…

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