Transforming Designs Too Good To Be Transformers

- mantis nine nines

As I have discussed here before, the Transformers brand was founded on designs picked from multiple toy and animation properties. In many ways G1 is an all-star sampler of the best in late 70's and early 80's engineering. Using this foundation, Transformers has built its own identity, with the various design teams making subtle and not-so-subtle references to other franchises through the years. The result is over 30 years of great looking robots. A person who just collects Transformers would have a rich variety to choose from, but there is still some great stuff that would never make it to your shelves.
So let's take a look at some of the best robots that will never be Transformers:


The Garland (Megazone 23)

This sweet one man Mecha captures a realistic but sci-future vibe that is perfect to my taste. The design could fit into Patlabor, Akira, or a million other classic anime worlds. The bike mode looks fast and powerful, and comes in several different colors. The robot mode is a unique combination of vaguely Macross elements, and has a sweet pure industrial head design.

The closest Transformers equivalent is probably Cybertron Ransack. Robot mode is average, but his sweet little cyber-bike works for me in every way.

Ransack GTS photos by Ben Watson

VB-6 König Monster  (Macross: New Horizon)

The VB-6 takes the most powerful and brutish Destroid in the Macross continuity and somehow turns it into a flying triple-changer. The star of these forms is what would normally be called the Gerwalk mode, a chicken-walking throwback to the original Monster. Not so much a tank as a battleship with legs, this thing bristles with more firepower than any Transformer I'm aware of.

 Blitzwing may have ordered from the same menu, but the VB-6 has a level of beef and scale that blows him out of the water.

The Orguss (Super Dimension Century Orguss)

Super Dimension Century Orguss has a unique art deco aesthetic I find refreshing in a sea of designs that are either square and blocky, or almost purely organic. The Orguss is fictionally huge, almost a city-bot, and it's a goddamn quad changer! The "tank" mode is the weakest with its exposed hands, but still has enough unique features to get a pass from me. Especially since the jet, gerwalk, and robot modes are so cool.

Sixshot may have 2 more modes, but still can't match the Orguss for pure artistic beauty.

The "Cyclone" Mospeada Ride Armor (Genesis Rider Mospeada)

There was never a chance the Cyclone could have been part of Transformers since it relies on an exposed human pilot in both modes. That fact aside, we can concentrate on just how gorgeous the design itself is. There are several different types of Cyclone, each featuring a different forearm weapon, and also a female model. Each has their good points, with my favorite being the Close Combat model with its retractable vibro-blades.

The closest TF parallel is Armada Sideways, though his rider integration is limited to more of a headmaster thing.

Sideways Photos by Ben Watson

So what do you think? Are these indeed too good to be Transformers? Let me know what bots you would have picked, and as always thanks for keeping it #Refined!

Follow Dan on Twitter @mantisninenines

Femmebots: Why All the Fuss?

 - Erica Walsh

Female-aligned Transformers characters have existed since the dawn of the franchise's hay-day. Similarly, women fans, contrary to popular belief, have been with the line since its inception. However, many fans still call the need for characters like this into question.

What originally drew me to the franchise as a wee young'n was my interest in the source material. You cannot deny the long-lasting effect it has on drawing in children and young people - case in point, robots being cool as hell.

However, a unique point for Transformers is that each robot is a character with depth and personality in and of themselves, which is not only awesome but also inspires a level of empathy in non-human characters that most kids wouldn't find anywhere else (except for like Gargoyles or something). For me, as with lots of other people, this interest in the characters of the TV shows and associated media is what made me want the toys. This of course leads into why the franchise has stuck with us this long; the toys are some of the best engineered and most fun for kids that you can get. But you know all that, lets get to the meat and potatoes.

Now I know all that guff just now about relatable characters and stuff probably seems really irrelevant, but trust me, it's important setup. See, when I was growing up (around the time the Unicron Trilogy was the dominant source of Cybertronian entertainment), it was pretty much just Boys Toys on the TV constantly. I loved Transformers, but as a child with budding realisation of her gender, I held the distinct notion in my head that somehow my favourite thing Wasn't For Me. But that all changed when Transformers Cybertron began airing and my tiny baby eyes widened at the sight of Override, Leader of Velocitron.

At the time, I was not aware of there being any prominent female Transformers characters and seeing a character on screen who was cool, took part in a lot of action, was a Kickass Red Sports Car and also a GIRL really gelled with my preferences. The long and short of it is that Override made me feel like hey, maybe this kind of stuff is for girls too! From here I was smitten, and have been ever since.

Being a kid at the time, I couldn't have known what the general consensus on girl-bots in TF was but as I grew older and ventured into the online world of fandom it became pretty clear that Transformers fans (and yes, mainly the men) didn't have a high opinion of the phenomenon. It was either “this is a BOYS toy-line, no girls allowed” or “well they're ROBOTS so why have gender anyway?”. There was even a time where, despite my absolute love of girl-bots, I even aligned with this latter viewpoint. After all, they ARE robots, why should gender even matter? It's all about the toys anyway.

But in remembering my roots – OUR roots, my opinion changed. The reason we as kids were drawn to Transformers instead of say, Zoids or Gundam (although there was a lot of crossover in our ranks) is because the robots THEMSELVES were people we could relate to and see ourselves in. Because despite robots not having gender in the technical sense, you can't deny that the reason many boys saw themselves in characters like Bumblebee or Hot Shot or Red Alert or whoever is that they are obviously SUPPOSED to be read as male, as boys. And if boys can have cool puzzling robot toys of characters they relate to, why not us girls too? Especially since a lot of femmebots have had a really good stint as toys.

This brings me to something that friends of mine will know as The Girl Shelf.

Steadily, I've found my collecting habits skewing towards the feminine persuasion when it comes to which Transformers I want and which ones I don't. Obviously there will always be a place in my heart for Optimus Prime and Megatron and Soundwave, but right now (and I suspect for the foreseeable) I'm mostly interested in femmes. And frankly, it's much more interesting to me to find out which characters are, in the modern setting, considered to be girls, and which toys from the brand's long history are up to snuff to represent this facet of their character.

The best part is that current trends in Transformers marketing (albeit slowly) seem to be moving in favour of more girls filling out a robot nerd's toy shelves. More toys of classic Femmebots are coming out lately (like Arcee and Chromia in the Generations line) and original characters that hail from more modern cartoons (such as Strongarm from RID2015 or Slipstream from Animated) are feeling the love too.

Fan votes have given us characters and groups such as Windblade (who is a key player in the modern IDW comics and a mainstay in the current cartoon) and the Rust Renegades/Torchbearers (six new femmes that combine into the first original full female Combiner, Victorion).

Even 3P offerings have tapped into this well of potential in recent years with releases like iGear's Roswell and the truly amazing MMC Titanika!

Toy collecting is a tough habit to keep up in today's economic climate, I find. Toys cost more than they used to, and although many love the return to the franchise's beginnings as of late, I understand the frustration of paying more to get a slightly updated version of a figure we might already have. Because of this kind of G1 fatigue, I feel like femmebots are always something we have to fall back on as something fresh, new and interesting. Like let's face, it you can't rehash old girl-bot toys if they didn't exist back then to begin with!

And yeah it gets tedious, what with obscure one-shot characters ret-conned to be female and overpriced convention exclusive ladies a hundred-fold. However, I can't say this has ever threatened my enthusiasm. In the end, it will always come back to these amazing female characters I've related to since I was a kid, and as long as that throughline remains strong, I'll be as smitten with the toys of these characters like I was when I was nine.

As always, keep it #Refined.

 - Follow Erica on Twitter @TransSoundwave

A Millennial Relationship with Generation One

- Ben Watson

I’m not a “geewunner”. Being born at the start of Generation Two, my nascent mind was only opened to the wonders of transforming robots through the Beast Wars cartoon. I didn’t know about “Transformers” until a few years later and suddenly all of my favourite toys (and my “ancient treasure” I later learned was called Blades) gained new perspective. I was intrigued by the concept of vehicle robots but was able to retain little information from a cursory segment about the franchise from a TV show called “I [heart] 1984”.

Pictured: Things To Insure

Years passed, Beast Machines came along and went with little notice from me and soon vehicle Transformers were everywhere from the Robots in Disguise line and I didn’t really like a lot of them, let alone get many. But the experience did set me up for what was to be my Transformers renaissance as Armada came into the world to usher in pure enlightenment. So popular was it at the time that callback material to the Time Before Time of (what was now called) “Generation One” also proliferated. A cartoon themed sticker book free with the UK Armada comic introduced me to the core concepts and characters and I started to pick out favourites. A viewing of the cheapest DVD version of the 1986 movie where Spike doesn’t swear and a handful of Dreamwave guidebooks and comics later and I felt relatively well versed on Transformers’ beginnings. I had much to learn…

1984 Optimus Prime

Of course, now in the internet age of wikis and eBay and getting to be mates with older fans who remember it all, it’s perfectly possible to almost vicariously experience G1. In the current climate of Masterpiece and Generations figures being the main focus of toy based effort along with the sterling work of IDW to hold up the comics front, it’s also possible to experience it through a modern lens utilising sensibilities I’m far more used to. In fact, there’s very little to ingest that isn’t G1 right now unless you dip into the devolved demographic the current Robots in Disguise line and cartoon have to offer. So what is it like for someone to be living G1 thirty years after the fact?

1984 Huffer and Brawn and 1986 Swerve

Well, for a start there’s not really an alternative. While I’m happy to accept G1 as the roots of the entire brand and the expression of it which is the purest description of “what Transformers is”; I would like a bit of choice in the matter. Every now and then homages to other eras appear and I snap them up – especially if they’re Armada ones (don't cry about Tidal Wave, don't...) – but the core meat and potatoes of every year of Generations and every comic series is G1. This is probably only fair but it forces me being a Transformers fan to partake in it, which at times is tough since that integral nostalgia factor playing on everyone a few years my senior simply doesn’t exist. Nothing is there to hammer home how cool a massive new Trypticon is. I’m stuck here in the perpetual 80’s and so are you. When that’s a time I wasn’t around for, it can sometimes feel like there’s a disconnect.

2015 Platinum Edition Insecticons

Despite this, there are elements of G1 I’ve come to totally embrace and enjoy. Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome but there’s got to be a reason everyone loves this stuff right? So it’s time to explore the qualities of G1 I’ve retroactively taken to heart and look at what it has to offer over the modern toys I’m so used to. While I’ve not got a great deal of this particular vintage in my collection, I feel I’ve got a choice selection of the figures that can really illustrate what you just don’t get these days.

1984 Ratchet and 2008 Encore Meister

Going with what hits my eyeballs first every time, let’s start with chrome. A visual touch that has been more recently replicated to a lukewarm response, vacuum metallisation really only feels at home with G1. Optimus’ glittering abs, Jazz’s shining solar plexus, Kickback’s mirror wings, Twin Twist’s blinged-out sidearm. Every figure that got a touch of the silver stuff instantly becomes so much more to appreciate in an aesthetic sense. The reflective surfaces make you want to keep them where the light will hit them just right; til you give in to the urge to pick them up and watch them glint as you turn them over in your hands. Chrome is a kind of dynamic visual addition, the lustre beckoning you in to make the most of it like you’re some kind of oversized magpie.

It’s undeniably eye catching and so very 80’s. Bringing to mind the far too polished surfaces popularised by the likes of Hajime Sorayama, chrome is an artefact from a different time. It’s a hallmark of the earliest years of G1 and therefore a qualifying factor for the status of the most iconic and venerable toys. To me that properly thick and chip free application of chrome is G1. No other line that’s tried has come close to recapturing the same visual quality of the substance which in reality, isn’t the best stuff to go coating the wear sustaining surfaces of kid’s toys with. Maybe I can only really appreciate chrome through a combination of sheer luck and buying reissues… If every figure I came across was as chipped to hell as thirty years of wear and tear would allow, I wouldn’t have the chance to hold it in such high regard.

1985 Twin Twist

Having a major visual factor covered, let’s move on to the most instantly appreciable tactile one, the lost art of die-cast. This particular quality certainly wasn’t unique to G1 either and the modern Masterpiece line carries it forward in fits and starts but it seems to be the first thing people old enough to remember 1985 complain about the lack of. Scroll through the comments section of a news piece talking about a new Transformers release from a non-Transformers specific site and there’s bound to be one saying “They used to be made of metal, not this cheap plastic crap.” While this is a sentiment I often scoff at, having had twenty years of purely plastic figures without issue, die-cast is still something I can see as a mark of quality. 

Of course it’s much more expensive and limiting to work with, pushing up paint budgets and existing as an ever present chipping risk but I can’t deny the heft and hand-heat-sapping feel of die-cast is something I enjoy. Much like chrome, it adds an extra dimension to the simulation of a set of metallic beings. Die-cast and toy cars go hand in hand still, so why not toy cars that turn into robots? It sparks the imagination, giving you the idea of how these trucks and cars and the robots they hide would feel to the touch. Also in the same vein as chrome, it’s very retro. Existing as a throwback to a particular stretch of time when toys were made this way. The incredible plastic sculpting Hasbro provides now thanks to computer aided design is more intricate than ever before but I can still admit there’s a primal charm to die-cast.

1986 Hot Rod

Rounding out a triplet of sensory qualities, I’ll move on to a perhaps unexpected one: the smell of rubber tyres. Ok, I’m not entirely sure the smell I’m experiencing is solely due to the use of rubber around the wheels, maybe it’s the chrome, maybe it’s the die-cast, maybe it’s the combination of all three but both reissues and ’84 pre-rub originals on my shelf share it. I’ll admit, I’m not like some wine connoisseur who knows how to write about smells, but there’s an undeniable bouquet of industrial aromas around Optimus for example. Returning to the idea of that simulation of realism beyond the visual, this is (while possibly being an emergent quality) pretty huge. The presence of the character is reinforced in your imagination. But rubber tyres not only affect the feel of the wheels or the kind of atoms that are coming off of them and entering my nostrils but how the vehicle behaves on a surface. G1 Jazz could roll on a road quite happily while RID Jazz probably couldn’t with his treadless plastic wheels. Once more production cost and durability enter into the equation to result in another quintessential G1 retro point of interest.

So much of my contemporary adult appreciation for G1 comes from the things that started and ended with it. It presents itself as a unique line to me despite having endless ancestor pieces cramping my shelves. Without being my personal genesis of Transformers, G1 can be just another line for me to dig through and earth up gems from. To me, these treasures are the ones that embody everything inimitable about Transformers’ earliest days. Chrome, die-cast and rubber are wonderful to have the chance to behold but they do of course exist in tandem with things like detaching hands and static legs that I really find it hard to appreciate.

I’ve sung the praises of 1984 with this article, but don’t get the wrong end of my stick, it’s still far from perfect. But we all know that don’t we? The flaws of the past are forgiven by way of their age, but even they continue to endear the toys to me. I think over the course of the past few years, taking their heritage and vintage into account, appreciating the qualities I’ve outlined along with each figure’s individual quirks, I’ve come to see G1 as a singular source of works of art. 

You might not describe Combiner Wars Optimus as a piece of art but you would G1 Optimus, wouldn’t you? I would too. These figures represent the iconography of the entire brand and thereby elevate themselves from just being old toys to being something worthy of a greater appreciation. Worthy of being tastefully lit on a dark wood shelf and treated with the kind of ornamental reverence mostly reserved to Kenner Star Wars figures or 70’s super robots. These are now cultural objects with all of the connotations usually attached to such pieces and for that reason – to me at least- Generation One holds so much more value than the monetary. 



Follow Ben on Twitter @Waspshot23

A Touch of Kultur

 - Dorian MacQuarrie

In a first for the Refined Robot Co. I'm going to try my hand at a toy review.......eh, maybe not a "review" but I'm definitely going to be focusing on a particular toy. I'm not going to point out which bits are red and which are blue, nor am I going to take you through the transformation and I definitely won't be pointing out that the toy has rolling wheels. I'm barely going even describe the toy. I'm mostly going to tell you why I bought it and why, try as I might I just can't tear my eyes away from it's sublime sculpted surfaces. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Tarn Mastermind Creations R19 Kultur.

Outside of the 3PMP toys there has never been a case where third party offerings have so closely resembled their source material than is the case with MMC's IDW inspired line of toys. They do not exist in their own world with their own aesthetic (although MMC do like to try) like those from say Fansproject which are often a departure from anything official from HasTak. 

With that in mind Kultur also represents the very core of the first toys to come out from the third party scene, that being toys Hasbro or Takara will never make and have no intention of making. Besides dabbling with the IDW look for a few releases in the past neither company has shown any interest in producing toys of comic only characters. Although I suppose in an age of combiners and headmasters it could happen one day (but it won't). So it then falls to the third party companies to give collectors what they want. Isn't that why Fansproject released City Commander? Because not only was there no trailer for Classics Ultra Magnus there was never going to be one! 

Moving on......

Kultur is irrevocably, unashamedly Tarn. Replicating Alex Milne's superb artwork as best as plastic will allow, MMC have given us one of the hottest third party releases in recent months. Once final renders were shown there was no doubt I'd be pre-ordering this baby ASAP and honestly, I was pretty lucky to even get one as most retailers were sold out within minutes. It was only thanks to the hard work of Kapow Toys that myself a few others were able to secure this toy on its first run.

What exactly drove me to be so assured that this would be a successful release? Well it wasn't necessarily due to a deep love for MMC as while yes, I like their work and own many MMC toys they're not my favourite company. Their toys are often a bit too blocky and brutish for my tastes, lacking the finesse seen in Maketoys' and Fansproject's releases. But based on their previous releases I did have faith that MMC would deliver and by the Gods deliver they did. That and I was just desperate for a figure of Tarn........

My primary driver, as you would expect was aesthetics. The super-robo style legs matched with an equally super chest plate, followed by bruiser shoulders, all topped with shoulder mounted tank treads provide Kultur with wonderful proportions. Bulky while not being cumbersome. I need to make special mention of the colour placement. True to the comics, MMC have coloured Tarn accurately but it's the hot pink that sets him off. It's such a lustrous colour in an otherwise dark palette. I'm glad they stuck to their guns to pull off what is a quintessential hallmark of IDW colouring. And finally the mask! The mask! Call him badge-face if you may but slapping a Decepticon badge on a character's face is quite a statement and I'm sure it caused a few nervous conversations among the MMC designers as to how they were going to cross this hurdle of outright IP infringement rather than the usual "homages" third party toys are supposed to exist within. I suppose when your entire line tries to be as close to IDW artwork is possible, IP infringement is an idea left behind at the bridge you just burned to the ground. 

Of course good looks can only get you so far in life and the icing on this black and purple cake is the character himself. Tarn the psychopathic, murderous, sadistic, ruthless leader of the Decepticon Justice Division. For a while he was the big bad boogeyman of IDW's More Than Meets The Eye comic (both in universe and among readers) and thanks to the writing of James Roberts, had attained a near legendary status among readers. This is no small feat for a brand new character and possibly the first to be wholeheartedly accepted by the fandom since Transformers Animated introduced Lockdown. 

There will be some buyers who jump on-board the Kultur train with little knowledge of the source material. For long time readers of MTMTE though, the anticipation of a well made and well designed toy of Roberts' and Milne's creation brought excitement of Kultur's release to a fever pitch. 

As with the comics, Kultur represents a shift in the status quo. With GCreation tackling their own IDW inspired line of toys, third party companies are replicating Hasbro sanctioned designs as best they can without any of the usual filters of a company's distinct style, only stopping at using licensed names and actually slapping faction logos on their toys (masks notwithstanding). They feel like the most official yet unofficial toys outside of "Masterpiece" style third party releases. This is a pretty big deal in my eyes. Could it lead to HasTak finally stepping in and taking on the third party scene? Unlikely. I don't think that day will ever come. If the release of several toys intended to replace your MP-10 didn't stir Hasbro or Takara to action, I doubt MMC's IDW toys will.  

Kultur also represents a change in my own collection, standing proudly as the leader of my Decepticon troops. Rioter Despotron it seems, has been deposed. And why not? Why shouldn't the purple and black guy with pink highlights be the leader a faction whose colours are rooted in such dark and subversive tones? (and I ain't talking about Skywarp) It also represents, albeit very mildly, the shift in my own collecting habits. That of moving away from branded set ups with Optimus Prime and Megatron as leaders but into a world of "who looks the best as leader". Now yes, this is very much informed by the comics but I like the idea of having a head-canon within a display. A story of some sorts, told through which bots are on a shelf and how they are grouped together. In this case, Tarn is very much the leader of my Decepticons and Kultur represents that as perfectly as I could hope for. 

Mastermind Creations must have known they were taking a gamble on releasing toys of new characters, restricted to a single comic title. I assume that's why they first drip fed us DJD members Vos and Kaon (Cynicus and Anarchus respectively) to ensure people would be in for the long haul rather than just getting off the train at Tarnville. The sell-out tour of pre-orders across multiple retailers has shown that gamble has paid off but whether people are willing to hang around to complete their Decepticon Justice Division remains to be seen. 

Until next time, keep it #Refined



 - Follow Dorian on Twitter @Vigadeath

Ride Height, Race Pedigree and Rubber Tires.

- Leigh Gregurke in collaboration with Drew Merkel.

I reflect now from a perspective fully engrossed in the transforming robot experience. I engage actively with the comics, the literature, the toys, the media, the characters, the places and the culture. It was not always the case though. My road to Transformers was directed through my early childhood love of cars.

 

Growing up in a low socioeconomic status, poverty line experience I rarely had the money for new toys. It was always thrifty finds from the local market or garage sale, charity shops or school yard trades. My dad worked in the motor industry and had a background in motocross and mechanics, unfortunately also dealing often with less than savory people and the cultures associated with them. I don't have a lot of good memories of my dad but the ones I do were often related working on cars or watching racing. My early interest in film sparks from movies we would watch together. Vanishing Point, Bullit, the French Connection, Cannonball Run, Blues Brothers... Not all classics but a common theme drives through each.

I displayed an eclectic selection of toy cars from scattered Micro-Machines excavated often from friends couches to scuffed and scratched Matchbox/Hot Wheels. Sometimes I managed to plunder better examples and my collection included an odd mix of better detailed 1:32 and 1:24 scale die cast cars from the European and Japanese markets although scale was never important to me, I could not afford to be picky. Finding the cars I saw on the streets, in magazines and film and at Australian racing events in toy form was near impossible so instead the toys drove me to learn more about the cars and events. I liked Transformers at the time and read the UK comics more so than I watched the cartoon but I wanted Wheeljack because he was a Lancia group 5 in a mostly correct Alitalia rally livery. He would fit perfectly with my Peugeot and Renault's when I threw them into the sand pit to emulate the incredible feats of control I saw on television. 

 

The series 1 Autobot cars I think hit two key markets, toy cars and robot action figures. We can sometimes dismiss the importance of licensing, realism and proportion but those were vital to me. Rubber tires, ride height, racing pedigree. Accurate team stickers and the avoidance of panel lines on windows, Those were more important than articulation or cartoon accuracy to me. As I feel lazier "Cybertronian" modes and generic cars infiltrated the lineups my interest waned though. Even then I could identify the design challenge of creating a robot from an existing real life model rather than working in two directions with the potential for very arbitrary generic forms.

I think back and reflect that my early transformers team line-ups consisted of maybe a third being non transforming substitutes, if everyone was kept in alt mode it wasn't ever an issue.

That connection to the alt modes of Transformers made them less of an alternative and sometimes a focus. I set out to complete a Menasor as it was a lineup of cars that I loved. I remember the first time I found a Tyrrell P34 in a motor-racing Annual and drew the connection to the six wheeled Dragstrip, it was the incredible connection between reality and my own ability to control and own objects on a level that I struggled to even dream of being able to interact with directly. 

As a more adult collector I took some time out of the hobby during the Alternators line and missed what a lot would consider a golden period for collectors like myself. I own a few but I admit weirdly that I prefer a slightly small scale ( now it has become something I consider more often), I have a tiny number of the Takara Alternity Line and if it was not for the cost to import and source I think I could find my bliss in that direction. I am incredibly grateful that the Takara Masterpiece line has shown a dedication in most directions to ensuring the value of licensed and accurate vehicles, there is little as pleasing to me as feeling like I own not just wonderful robot design but a car that connects back to a passion that once drove my interests.

 

I asked my friend Drew Merkel to contribute some final words to this article. Drew and I have collaborated a few times including a creator owned comic 'The Knockoffs" which tried to distil much of our passion to its essence, a noir action sci-fi transforming robot drama against a backdrop of Tokyo's street racing scene. The cars, the racing culture, the streets and sounds were all characters of equal importance to the giant robots.

-Drew Merkel

The first toy I can recall owning was a toy car. I still have it, a blue Ford station wagon with faux wood paneling made by Yatming in Hong Kong. I've even had dreams where I owned this particular car, its presence in my formative years was so strong.

I knew what a penny racer was before I got my first Transformers figure. His name was Cliffjumper and he was based on that penny racer design and he was yellow. I can't say I remember what was discussed when my stepfather bought me the tiny thing, but I knew even then that it was the single greatest thing in the entire universe. Honestly, it still is. I just picked up the amazing Maketoys Downbeat. While he's not an official Transformers™ Product, this is Jazz through and through. The Porsche 935 slant nose Martini race car is slightly flawed, but still great. The robot mode carries all the things I remember about the premium Autobot cars from the eighties, blended almost seamlessly with accuracy to the media tie-in. By now you might be asking yourself how these things are connected. It's simple really. I have collected all of the Masterpiece cars, and I have only collected a few non-automotive characters. 

My connection to Transformers stems from a love of cars as a primary force. Universe Classics Sideswipe (and by extension Sunstreaker) and Silverstreak (Bluestreak) got me started collecting representations of my childhood heroes with beautiful, almost realistic vehicle models. Alternators made me stick around. We've all joked about toy reviewers checking a figure for whether or not it rolls. Truth is, to a few of us at least, it matters. 

Further entering the car culture of customizing, Drew added third party stickers to capture a more accurate look.

Follow Leigh on twitter at @AmbushThem

Follow Drew on twitter at @DrewsiferxXx where you can also find more information about his voice over work, podcasting and toy robot band @Close_Countach