This sounded awesome, so I thought I’d share.
I’ve always wanted the completed Devastator set, or Starscream. Man, how cool is that? I mean, I probably won’t actually buy them, but it’s a really neat thing to happen, I think.
I had Devastator. It was disappointing. The individual bots were a lot smaller than I thought they were, the joints where they came together were loose, and the transformations were Gobot simple. Impressive looking when put together, but really off-balance and delicate.
G1 Starscream was always awesome.
Oh, also, I recommend the Transformers episode of The Toys That Made Us on Netflix. Great stuff.
Ack. I keep forgetting that is a thing. I’ve had like… 400? or so people tell me I need to watch at least He-Man and Transformers?
I love all those, and GI Joe and such, but my hands down favorite when I was a young lad playing with toys in a post-divorce world with my little brother at our new apartment was M.A.S.K. I think I loved the TV show more than anything, and the toys were super cool (I’m sure I’m mis-remembering, but I recall them being really well made and working as intended, with the awesome little masks and such). Good times.
This made me think about the transformers I used to have and it reminded me of M.A.S.K. as well. I had several and they were great.
YUSSSS. M.A.S.K. and StarCom were my favorites.
Though this Walmart thing looks great.
M-M-M-MASK!
That’s cool. I still have many of my Transformers from that era stored away. G.I. Joe too… although that stuff got played with hard so it’s not in great condition. I have to admit that I prefer the more complex designs they did in more recent years of the original characters, just because that’s what I wanted and not what we got.
G.I. Joe seems like such a no-brainer to bring back for kids today. The articulation of the figures was so good and they were affordable and the vehicles often included a character so that made each of those worth buying too. Hasbro really had it figured out with G.I. Joe in the '80s.
It’s been a mystery to me for years why there isn’t a series of GI Joe games. They made a run at a movie franchise, but that fizzled out.
Which is a shame, because both those movies were stupid fun.
Even more maddening is that the few G.I. Joe games that did get made in the 8-bit era were really good. The arcade game is also pretty dang incredible and that has never seen any kind of home release.
I really liked the first of the recent G.I. Joe films and I’ve come to like Retaliation a lot more since I’ve seen it on TV a few times. They really captured the essence of the ninjas in that film with the high flying mountain cliff scene.
I just think the people who have worked on it recently don’t understand it well enough to do it right. Hasbro doesn’t seem to have the time or inclination to do it right, either. Transformers is still riding high I guess so they don’t really have to try too hard.
I think what drives me nuts about the Transformers in Bay’s universe is they’re always so focused on making it about the people instead of realizing the great characters are the Autobots and Decepticons themselves. Their personalities are what always drove the show years ago and made kids fall in love, not Spike running around with Bumblebee.
This is what happens when my generation has kids. Our toys come back, so that Walmart can sell to two different audiences at the same time.
Goddamn the walmart site is garbage. I would actually buy stuff from them if they didn’t make it so painful.
Jesus I love the original 80s Transformers, I have vowed not to go down the reissue rabbit hole after hasbro/takara first did 10 or so years ago.
They’re fun to transform a couple of times but after that you come to realise how much of the love is childhood imagination filling in the gaps.
I have been unable to resist the occasional masterpiece version though
I might need to pick up Prowl and Soundwave. First Transformers I owned, both heavily damaged by over-loving and eventually lost to time.
Soundwave would be the one I would spring for. Loved those cassette transformers.
It’s too bad Gobots never took off in the US - there were some epic anime in Japan that would’ve been cool to have been brought to US - like the Ninja Robot anime Machine Robo : Rise of Chronos.
I need to find my bag of them one of these days as I’m not quite sure whose house or which state they’re in. I had a mostly complete Optimus Prime in its box, along with assorted other loose ones, like Thundercracker, Soundwave, Trailblazer, etc. Great stuff!
These are now available if anyone wanted them. Saw Hot Rod earlier and the little guys.