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| FROM THE GALLERIES |
Insecticons Botch's Collection (2005) |
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| FROM THE GALLERIES |
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Insecticons Botch's Collection (2005) |
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
On the left, a glum, grumbly, gloomy, grouchy grouse: GEARS by name, a truck by game, one tasked with material transport and reconnaissance. He was released in 1984 along with the rest of the very first Autobots, though with less fanfare than most, I would be greatly surprised to hear anyone call him their favorite. He was the star of only one cartoon episode, "Changing Gears", wherein the Decepticons' fiendish plot relied upon altering Gears' disposition from rain to shine. He was the star of only one comic book (US issue #3) wherein he teamed up with Spider-Man to infiltrate Decepticon headquarters. (Though the web-slinger is the one featured on the cover, Gears was at least awarded the comic's upper-left corner box beside the masthead, a distinction usually reserved for Autobot leaders.) These distinctions may not amount to much, but compared to some of the later, lesser-known Transformers, Gears is practically royalty.
What the hell is up with the dentist? I mean, who the hell wants to be a dentist. Frankly, I don't get it. Why would you want to stare at this all day?
Consider with me now our mutual friend, the pre-eminent Autobot scientist: PERCEPTOR. He's not just the only Transformer who turned into a working microscope with the ability to magnify objects by a factor of 14. He also appeared in 30 of the original 98 episodes of the cartoon, and he and Grimlock were the only Season Two Autobots to be grandfathered into the Season Three regular cast. In addition to being super-smart, he's brave, self-sacrificing, and not afraid to shoot back. So sit up and take notice of our updated box art for Perceptor. This image was edited by Nailbomb and scanned from the Japanese laserdiscs box sets.
And speaking of updating Perceptor... There have been two other "updates" of this character recently. One was his introduction as an infrequent supporting character in the greatly-missed Transformers: Animated series, the other was in the pages of the ongoing IDW comics. Let's compare.
I know I'm in the minority here, but I like the twin toy versions of Ironhide (left) and Ratchet (right) better than the cartoon versions. As is always the case, the toys are the model for the (new) box art, as featured on either side of this paragraph. Respectively transforming and un-combining from a van/ambulance mode, both lanky robots stand atop their mobile platform of instruments and weaponry, their "faces" shielded by an immense window guard.
In other words, this:
Look at this, look at this, we have two much-improved entries for Kup and Blurr, two members of the "Scooby Gang" that was the 1986 movie and third season of the cartoon. True blue good guys, these bots. Kup, the ancient and crusty war-horse, survivor of a thousand battles; Blurr, the fastest Autobot alive, good-natured motormouth and data courier. Both new edits were done by long-time friend Slim. Thanks again, man!
I've actually had Kup since I was a kid, but for the life of me I can't recall the circumstances by which I got him. In truth, the "grandpa" Autobot was not one of the ones I was begging for in my youth. However, the recent Transformers Spotlight: Kup comic was one of the best of the spotlight series. It's too bad they couldn't just leave him a deranged legend, rather than resurrecting him as a "cy-gar"-chomping joke.
OK, this should be a straightforward post. Basically, just in case anyone reading this still thinks otherwise, I want to emphasize that American law is not based on the Ten Commandments. The fundamental root of American law is based on liberty, freedom and -- like most the world -- the golden rule of "do unto others as you would have done unto yourself". Not religion. Don't believe me? Let's look at the Ten Commandments:
"I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me." -- Well, it's certainly not a law in America that you have to believe in the Judeo-Christian god. You can believe in Zeus if you want.
"Yo, Box Art Archive, I'm really happy for you, I'm-a let you finish... but Micromasters are the best Transformers of all time!"
Well, shit, I have some really great pieces to upload, like Stunticons and a Dinobot, and hopefully I can do some of that this weekend, but since Kanye drunkenly insists, let me get these Micromasters out the way.
Almost two years ago I requested that some people help me get scans from the front of the Micromaster Patrol cards so that, in addition to each individual Micromaster, I had an accurate version of how they appeared as a group on their package, overlaps and all. Well, Neo Kerberos has graciously fulfilled that request. The first batch he delivered went up some time ago, and I now present the rest of them. Thanks, Neo!
)) Air Patrol |
)) Race Track Patrol |
)) Military Patrol |
I love lists. I love them. I love itemization, quantification, prioritization. I love efficiency and thoroughness and accomplishment. I try to resist absent-mindedness, forgetfulness and especially slothfulness, and lists help me do that. Online lists of music recommendations compete with the stack of CDs on my desk; a small collection of to-watch DVDs are outgunned by my Netflix queue. To-read books are a foot thick, to-read comics as long as my arm. Emails that need attention are starred or labeled PRIORITY or both.
But it's my personal To-Do list that intimidates and exhilarates me. Historically I've maintained several lists in several places, presumably because I just jot down reminders on whatever's handy, electronic or otherwise. Now I'm trying to keep everything in my Google Tasks list, accessible on iGoogle, Google Calendar, and Chrome extension. Gawk in horror as I share some of these items with you. :)
Jeremy Barlow of Soundwaves Oblivion has been sending me a ton of improved pieces of box art lately, the first two of which share something very obvious in common: they're both space shuttles! White ones, specifically. First there's the Japanese art for Astrotrain (left). While the American version of Astrotrain was a lot more purple, the Japanese one, released a year later, was recolored to more closely resemble an actual American space shuttle, that is, white. The second of this pair of images is Galaxy Shuttle (right), the Autobot Victory-era space shuttle, whose main function was to, you know, shuttle Autobots throughout the galaxy. In the cartoons, both robots had to "expand" to a ludicrous degree to house and transport their fellow soldiers, but at least Galaxy Shuttle was a really big toy. That helps with the suspension of disbelief.
Considering that the Transformers is, at its core, an outer space-related toyline, and that in the 1980's there was no vehicle in the real world more obviously associated with outer space than the space shuttles, I'm almost surprised there weren't more space shuttle Transformers. (Unless the Challenger disaster made the shuttle a less attractive toy.) Nonetheless, there was a handful of other white space shuttles in G1, all of which I will mention now.
