As enthusiastic for Transformers Back of the Box Art as you might be, frequent contributor Ginraii is even more so. Enthusiastic, that is. Ga-Ga, you might say, if you were one to say "ga-ga." (Probably not.)

Anyway, Ginraii has sent us three improved back-of-the-box battle scenes which he presumably conjures up through alchemy and sinister incantation. These include the American and Japanese 1986 pieces (awesomely featuring Trypticon versus Metroplex) as well as the 1990 Action Master battle art, which itself is much cooler than the Action Masters probably deserved.

1986 (USA)

1986 (Japan)

1990

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There's an auction on eBay right now for the original package art of the robot mode of Skystalker, the 1989 Decepticon Micromaster Assault Base. You might not recognize it, because Skystalker's package front features the art for his "assault base" mode. This robot-only art does appear on his USA package, but never clearly: it's in his tech spec in small low-resolution form; and the top half appears on the back of his box above a comicly self-merchandising quote:

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Do you recall when I posted the Botch art that currently graces the top-left corner of this site? It was generously commissioned by Carcass and beautifully illustrated by Laurent Libessart. Well, here comes the follow-up to that: CASSETTE MODE!

As with the original piece, the new one is AWESOME.

I love how Laurent chose to maintain the subtle fissures where the pieces separate during transformation.

You may notice this cassette is not blank, but actually labeled. That's right! He made this into a cassette for Vices & Virtues, the album of my last band, I DISAGREE. It's even got the track-listing on there for the "Vices" half!

Of course, I couldn't resist using this cassette mode as the top-left mascot for my Music page, where, by the way, you can listen to Vices & Virtues in its entirety.

So thanks to Laurent and Carcass for another fabulous piece of Botch art!

To see some more Botch art, check out the About Botch page.

When the Classics/Universe version of Thunderwing was released (and we coincidentally updated his box art), there was already strong suspicion that his original Japanese-exclusive remold, Black Shadow, would also get his first stateside release. It wasn't just the knowledge that Hasbro likes to make easy money by repainting its figures and effectively selling the same toy to collectors twice: it was the fact that Black Shadow's head and chest were accidentally used in Thunderwing's instructions. But just because Hasbro intends to sell a repaint/remold doesn't mean they always get around to it. I am therefore very glad that they have indeed released Black Shadow (under the apparently more trademark-friendly name of "Sky Shadow") and I now finally have this sinister interstellar terrorist glowering at me with his ferociously malevolent eyes...

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Most every collector occasionally re-evaluates all or part of his/her collection and asks some searching questions: Do I still want to own these? Do I enjoy owning them? Will I regret selling them down the line? Oh, sure, some of us are incorrigible hoarders who will never willingly relinquish any of their collectibles, but the majority of us have periodic moments in our lives that prompt this inner reflection. Maybe it's an impending marriage or child, maybe the loss of a job or simply a more conservative approach to one's finances -- or maybe some other really fucking awesome but expensive item is coming out and parting with your less exciting items offers the capital and shelf space you need. We've all been there, right?

Well, for me that time has come for my collection of 6" Titanium Transformers. It is no longer fun for me to own them. Being all of equal height, it's hard to display them on a deep shelf. Drawn from many different continuities, they're awkward to group together. How do you arrange the War Within Optimus Prime, the Robots In Disguise Optimus Prime, and the Beast Wars Optimal Optimus together?

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The second panel presented here (from the just-released Transformers #30) is one of the best panels in any comic book ever:

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One doesn't go to Japan without hoping to pick up some great loot -- especially if one is a Transformers collector and a fan of a great many Japanese things. I went with some hopes (particularly Transformers-wise), but I was also looking to be surprised. I'm happy to say that I met both expectations. Let's start with a surprise.

The first toy I actually bought was in a 7-Eleven: a Candroid. What is a Candroid? Well, they're so uniquely Japanese, it's no surprise that neither you nor I had ever heard of them. They are apparently a small sub-line belonging to a larger franchise called Kamen Rider OOO. I don't really know anything about the Kamen Rider, but I know that he can summon the "Ride Vendor," a motorcycle that transforms into a vending machine. You insert special "coins" into the vending machine and out pops a Candroid:

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You know when you have plans with someone, or maybe you're supposed to go to a party at their place or something, and you text them or drop them an email to say "I might not make it"... What's up with that "might not"? Or when I invite you to drink and ogle scantily-dressed women at 80s Dance Night you say "I'll try to be there"... What's up with that "try"? Why do you say that?

Did you have a premonition of ill tidings? Are you expecting bad news from your doctor? Maybe you "might" have to drop everything and follow up on a promising new lead in the murder case you're investigating?

Okay, sure, maybe you have kids and shit can always get crazy with those things (or so I'm told). Or maybe you're staring at a 12-hour shift at work and you really don't know whether you'll have the energy to shoot pool afterwards. Maybe when you say "I'll try to be there" you really mean that you're going to make an effort but you're not sure of your success. You "might" have a really legitimate "might" or "try". But I've grown distrustful of the "might".

Because maybe you really just don't feel like coming to see my band play, or you have no interest in playing poker, but you fear you'd hurt my feelings if you simply said, "I'm not that into Godzilla movies so I'm going to skip this one" so instead you say, "Thanks, I'll try to be there" thinking this answer non-commital answer is more socially tactful. And maybe it is. But I would personally prefer more honesty.

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Things have been going well musically. You remember that rehearsal studio I started renting after I bought my new guitar and Marshall amp? I've upgraded since then. The first windowless room was in the basement and the size of a closet. The new room is absolutely huge with three impressively large windows overlooking downtown Portland and its lovely superhighway system. I manage this new room and sublet it to 1.5 other bands. We put in a small dorm fridge for everyone's beer. I put up posters featuring Black Sabbath and the green fairy of absinthe.

More importantly, I've started putting my new band together. I've got a drummer and a lead guitarist and we're about to start looking for a bassist. (I sing and play guitar and do most of the songwriting.) We've already got a number of tunes, the typical length of which is 8-10 minutes. That may sound long, but it's fairly common for the genre of down-tempo metal. With song titles like "The Ten Hells" and "Lair of Zargon," it's a ton of sludgey fun.

But there has been a downside to this. I have finally developed tinnitus.

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Before Transformers, even before Godzilla, my first taste of imported Japanese greatness was an anime cartoon called STAR BLAZERS. This anime show featured humans traveling through space in a giant converted World War II battleship -- yes, an actual space ship -- on a round-trip mission to save the human race. It featured all the best stereotypes: the dashing impetuous loner-becomes-leader (unapologetically named "Wildstar"), the taciturn but wise captain in full naval dress, the engineer with the rolled-up sleeves and the Scottish accent, and (last but not least) the lovely Nova, token woman and love interest of Wildstar. Fortunately Nova had more of a role than simply "love interest": she was actually both a science officer and the ship's nurse (of course). I think she was actually my first crush as a kid.

I used to run home from kindergarten in order to plop myself Indian-style six inches from our small black-and-white television in order to catch every installment of the ongoing series. It was probably the first serialized anything that I watched. The theme song, a rousing all-male chorus singing a very upbeat militaristic tune with a particularly naval swing. This song was so entrenched in my consciousness that I was still able to hum the whole thing decades since I had last heard it. (embedded below)

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