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interests / alt.toys.transformers / Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok

SubjectAuthor
* Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and ScorponokZobovor
`* Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and ScorponokCodigo Postal
 `* Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and ScorponokZobovor
  `- Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and ScorponokCodigo Postal

1
Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok

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Subject: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Tue, 16 Aug 2022 23:23 UTC

I only got these toys because they went on clearance at Walmart. Scorponok was $15, originally retailing for $40; Tigatron was $11ish, I think, originally selling for $22.

TIGATRON

Tigatron was, of course, originally a redeco of Cheetor from 1996. Beast Wars was pretty good about not going completely crazy with the redeco toys, but we did get Tigatron and Blackarachnia in the same product year that we got Cheetor and Tarantulas.

Where Tigatron was originally conceived as being orange (and thus this look was the basis for the Amazon-exclusive Mutant Tigatron we got recently), the final production version ended up being more of a cream color, like Stunticon Breakdown. In animation, however, Tigatron was a brighter white color. Takara based their toy release on the animation, so they sold a white-colored Tigatron in Japan.

So, this is more like a reissue of the Takara toy than the Kenner version. Where the original release had a silver face with black eyes in robot mode, this version has a green face with bright red eyes. Also, the old toy had green toes and silver knee paint, but this version has silver toes and green knee paint. They flip-flopped it. The tiger stripe deco is different, with thinner lines on the reissue, and I suspect they may have reconstructed the paint mask or switched to a tampograph.

Despite being a heckin' chonker, this is still only the second-fattest Tigatron toy. The Masterpiece version still holds the honor of being the heftiest version.

As I said, I only got this version because it was cheap. All my old Beast Wars toys are still in fine shape. The different colors are nice, but it's not really a reissue if Hasbro never issued the toy in these colors in the first place, now is it?

SCORPONOK

I remember ordering Scorponok, along with G2 Roadblock, back in 1996 from an online shop called Meehan Toys. It was the first online order I had ever done. (Yes, I was still scrambling to complete my G2 collection even after Beast Wars came out.) I remember thinking the Mega Beasts price point seemed expensive at $15, considering he was the same height as Deluxe-class toys in robot mode, just with big claws and a big tail.

The Takara version of Scorponok in 1997 was pretty much the same as the Kenner version, so we can't blame Takara for the color scheme this time. Somebody at Hasbro wanted the Scorponok reissue to look a little more like his cartoon version. So, instead of black with shimmery blue and red highlights, he's grey with shimmery blue and red highlights. The grey creates a low-contrast look with the blue. He just seems kind of pale. They should have done grey with purple, like the Kingdom toy.

Unlike my T. rex Megatron reissue, the gimmicks on the Scorponok reissue still work. The spring-loaded tail assembly snaps forward and jumps back when you pull down on a tab with your thumb. The right scorpion claw (which becomes the left robot claw) shoots two missiles in tandem (and they go crazy far, like over 12 feet). Pressing the trigger on the left scorpion claw (right robot claw) launches the cyberbee, whose wings are formed by part of the claw. It doesn't go anywhere close to 12 feet—it just leaps out and lands in a heap. It functions as I remember it, though.

My 14-year-old son was surprised at how large this toy is. He's only got the Kingdom version. He feels like the Beast Wars version is actually a better toy, given that it shoots missiles, and actually launches the cyberbee.

I think that, going forward, the reissues should be authentic to the original versions. That's kind of the whole point. Obviously there's no danger of them trying to do show colors on characters who weren't in the series, like Cybershark or Retrax, but if they continue to do these and they get to Rhinox and Waspinator and Tarantulas, I feel like the 1996 color schemes are the way to go.

Zob (I guess I'll keep buying these if they keep going on clearance, because ain't no way I'm paying $22 for Terrorsaur)

Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok

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Subject: Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok
From: codigopo...@gmail.com (Codigo Postal)
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 by: Codigo Postal - Sun, 21 Aug 2022 03:20 UTC

On Tuesday, August 16, 2022 at 7:23:22 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> I only got these toys because they went on clearance at Walmart. Scorponok was $15, originally retailing for $40; Tigatron was $11ish, I think, originally selling for $22.
>
> TIGATRON
>
> Tigatron was, of course, originally a redeco of Cheetor from 1996. Beast Wars was pretty good about not going completely crazy with the redeco toys, but we did get Tigatron and Blackarachnia in the same product year that we got Cheetor and Tarantulas.
>
> Where Tigatron was originally conceived as being orange (and thus this look was the basis for the Amazon-exclusive Mutant Tigatron we got recently), the final production version ended up being more of a cream color, like Stunticon Breakdown. In animation, however, Tigatron was a brighter white color. Takara based their toy release on the animation, so they sold a white-colored Tigatron in Japan.
>
> So, this is more like a reissue of the Takara toy than the Kenner version.. Where the original release had a silver face with black eyes in robot mode, this version has a green face with bright red eyes. Also, the old toy had green toes and silver knee paint, but this version has silver toes and green knee paint. They flip-flopped it. The tiger stripe deco is different, with thinner lines on the reissue, and I suspect they may have reconstructed the paint mask or switched to a tampograph.
>
> Despite being a heckin' chonker, this is still only the second-fattest Tigatron toy. The Masterpiece version still holds the honor of being the heftiest version.
>
> As I said, I only got this version because it was cheap. All my old Beast Wars toys are still in fine shape. The different colors are nice, but it's not really a reissue if Hasbro never issued the toy in these colors in the first place, now is it?
>
> SCORPONOK
>
> I remember ordering Scorponok, along with G2 Roadblock, back in 1996 from an online shop called Meehan Toys. It was the first online order I had ever done. (Yes, I was still scrambling to complete my G2 collection even after Beast Wars came out.) I remember thinking the Mega Beasts price point seemed expensive at $15, considering he was the same height as Deluxe-class toys in robot mode, just with big claws and a big tail.
>
> The Takara version of Scorponok in 1997 was pretty much the same as the Kenner version, so we can't blame Takara for the color scheme this time. Somebody at Hasbro wanted the Scorponok reissue to look a little more like his cartoon version. So, instead of black with shimmery blue and red highlights, he's grey with shimmery blue and red highlights. The grey creates a low-contrast look with the blue. He just seems kind of pale. They should have done grey with purple, like the Kingdom toy.
>
> Unlike my T. rex Megatron reissue, the gimmicks on the Scorponok reissue still work. The spring-loaded tail assembly snaps forward and jumps back when you pull down on a tab with your thumb. The right scorpion claw (which becomes the left robot claw) shoots two missiles in tandem (and they go crazy far, like over 12 feet). Pressing the trigger on the left scorpion claw (right robot claw) launches the cyberbee, whose wings are formed by part of the claw. It doesn't go anywhere close to 12 feet—it just leaps out and lands in a heap. It functions as I remember it, though.
>
> My 14-year-old son was surprised at how large this toy is. He's only got the Kingdom version. He feels like the Beast Wars version is actually a better toy, given that it shoots missiles, and actually launches the cyberbee.
>
> I think that, going forward, the reissues should be authentic to the original versions. That's kind of the whole point. Obviously there's no danger of them trying to do show colors on characters who weren't in the series, like Cybershark or Retrax, but if they continue to do these and they get to Rhinox and Waspinator and Tarantulas, I feel like the 1996 color schemes are the way to go.
>
>
> Zob (I guess I'll keep buying these if they keep going on clearance, because ain't no way I'm paying $22 for Terrorsaur)

Do you foresee Walmart still ordering these, if they keep needing to go on clearance? Or have they been good for business? Is the end of the G1 reissues? I'm kinda amazed they're digging deep into non-show characters like Wolfang and Retrax when there were perfectly good G1 show characters that I'd have loved to see on shelves. Zob, your April Fool's joke about G1 Springer made me track down the KO "reissue," and it looks like the people behind them have knocked off Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, Scourge, and many many others, including the Dinobots. Why they haven't touched Rodimus Prime, I'll never know.

Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok

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Subject: Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Sun, 21 Aug 2022 22:20 UTC

On Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 9:20:10 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:

> Do you foresee Walmart still ordering these, if they keep needing to go on clearance?

I think the only reason they're putting them on clearance is because the old ones are being discontinued and they're making room on the shelf for the new ones. Like, it wouldn't have been tenable to be selling reissues of Optimus Primal and Megatron and Cheetor and Rattrap and Tigatron and Scorponok and Cybershark and Terrorsaur all at once. So they rotate the new ones in and kick the old ones to the curb after a while.

In my observation, Primal and Megatron and Scorponok sold poorly, but the others did fairly well. I wouldn't say there's zero interest.

> Is the end of the G1 reissues? I'm kinda amazed they're digging deep into non-show characters like Wolfang and Retrax when there were perfectly good G1 show characters that I'd have loved to see on shelves.

I would love to see more G1 reissues, but I think Takara has nearly exhausted the molds that are available at this point. I think the only thing left is for them to do yet another Jazz reissue, yet another Prowl reissue, yet another Thundercracker reissue, etc. and I wonder if they would quickly reach a point of diminishing returns. Astrotrain was new and different, at least, because we'd never gotten a properly-colored reissue before. But, honestly, I really didn't need another Hot Rod, another Starscream, another set of Constructicons, etc.

I really do think the reason they're doing toys like Retrax is because they can a) actually find the molds and b) they're not broken. I don't think they're making choices based on character appeal. If they were, we would have seen Rhinox, Tarantulas/Blackarachnia, Silverbolt and Quickstrike, etc. long before they got to the non-show characters.

> Zob, your April Fool's joke about G1 Springer made me track down the KO "reissue," and it looks like the people behind them have knocked off Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, Scourge, and many many others, including the Dinobots. Why they haven't touched Rodimus Prime, I'll never know.

Ah, you've discovered the Zhong Jin toys. They're wonderful, aren't they? There are lots of good unlicensed reissues out there. Defensor, Superion, Menasor, Computron, Abominus, Reflector, Shockwave, Sunstreaker, Mirage, Octane, the list goes on. There are always very minor differences between the unlicensed reissues and the G1 toys, but that seems to be the case even with official reissues. The quality on a few of them has been sub-par (I'm not really happy with Wheeljack at all) but most of them have ranged from "very good" to "excellent."

I kind of wish they were still doing them. I know a few years ago, there was a big sting operation and they busted a Chinese factory and seized literally thousands of fake Transformers toys, so I wonder if that was Jhong Zin's swan song.

Zob (假機器天鵝之歌)

Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok

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Subject: Re: Zob's Thoughts on the Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Tigatron and Scorponok
From: codigopo...@gmail.com (Codigo Postal)
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 by: Codigo Postal - Mon, 22 Aug 2022 00:33 UTC

On Sunday, August 21, 2022 at 6:20:14 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> On Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 9:20:10 PM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:
>
> > Do you foresee Walmart still ordering these, if they keep needing to go on clearance?
> I think the only reason they're putting them on clearance is because the old ones are being discontinued and they're making room on the shelf for the new ones. Like, it wouldn't have been tenable to be selling reissues of Optimus Primal and Megatron and Cheetor and Rattrap and Tigatron and Scorponok and Cybershark and Terrorsaur all at once. So they rotate the new ones in and kick the old ones to the curb after a while.
>
> In my observation, Primal and Megatron and Scorponok sold poorly, but the others did fairly well. I wouldn't say there's zero interest.
> > Is the end of the G1 reissues? I'm kinda amazed they're digging deep into non-show characters like Wolfang and Retrax when there were perfectly good G1 show characters that I'd have loved to see on shelves.
> I would love to see more G1 reissues, but I think Takara has nearly exhausted the molds that are available at this point. I think the only thing left is for them to do yet another Jazz reissue, yet another Prowl reissue, yet another Thundercracker reissue, etc. and I wonder if they would quickly reach a point of diminishing returns. Astrotrain was new and different, at least, because we'd never gotten a properly-colored reissue before. But, honestly, I really didn't need another Hot Rod, another Starscream, another set of Constructicons, etc.
>
> I really do think the reason they're doing toys like Retrax is because they can a) actually find the molds and b) they're not broken. I don't think they're making choices based on character appeal. If they were, we would have seen Rhinox, Tarantulas/Blackarachnia, Silverbolt and Quickstrike, etc. long before they got to the non-show characters.
> > Zob, your April Fool's joke about G1 Springer made me track down the KO "reissue," and it looks like the people behind them have knocked off Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, Scourge, and many many others, including the Dinobots. Why they haven't touched Rodimus Prime, I'll never know.
> Ah, you've discovered the Zhong Jin toys. They're wonderful, aren't they? There are lots of good unlicensed reissues out there. Defensor, Superion, Menasor, Computron, Abominus, Reflector, Shockwave, Sunstreaker, Mirage, Octane, the list goes on. There are always very minor differences between the unlicensed reissues and the G1 toys, but that seems to be the case even with official reissues. The quality on a few of them has been sub-par (I'm not really happy with Wheeljack at all) but most of them have ranged from "very good" to "excellent."

They are fantastic and addictive. Little issues here and there, but all in all, I'm quite happy, even though everything seems to be super expensive now. I didn't think G1 toys would be that appealing, especially since WfC gave us mostly definitive versions, but I'm happy to admit I was wrong. Something about G1, even the knockoffs, is uniquely appealing in a way no modern version will ever capture.

> I kind of wish they were still doing them. I know a few years ago, there was a big sting operation and they busted a Chinese factory and seized literally thousands of fake Transformers toys, so I wonder if that was Jhong Zin's swan song.
>
>
> Zob (假機器天鵝之歌)

Zob, I didn't know you spoke Japanese...

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