Blastin' with Blaster's comic persona

Previous Chapter- Blastin' with Blaster

Blaster

To me, the comics Blaster is significant because (i) he stands for freedom against tyranny, challenging Grimlock's untenable position as Autobot leader; (ii) he is an extremely skilled fighter and tactician; and (iii) his Electro-Scrambler is a weapon that is as unforgettable as Prime's Laser Rifle and Megatron's Fusion Cannon.

On (i): When Grimlock became Autobot leader and started totally disregarding human life, Blaster chose to be branded a 'traitor' rather than submit to tyranny. He held the firm belief in the right of all sentient beings to be free. This culminated in a sort of coup where Blaster with the support of the majority of Autobots, challenged Grimlock to a duel for leadership. [Events recorded in Transformers #41 (Marvel) or Transformers #174 & 175 (Marvel UK)]

Blaster vs Grimlock - Transformers #175 (Marvel UK)

On (ii): Blaster is an extremely skilled tactician and fighter. I would usually interpret the Tech Specs 'skill' score in relation to a Transformers' function; therefore, Blaster's 'skill 9' should normally be intepreted as him being a very skilled Communications Officer just as Perceptor's 'skill 10' means he is an excellent scientist. In Blaster's case, I think his 'skill 9' score together with his 'strength 8' and 'courage 9' can be extrapolated to mean his physical powress in battle as well.

I look to the below scenes as evidence of my conclusion.

Blaster battling all 3 Decepticon Triple-Changers on his lonesome in Transformers #29 (Marvel US):

Blaster trying to fight off Vortex while also trying to protect human life and the safely of the Throttlebots:

Agility on display while saving human lives:

Blaster's 'intelligence 8' may be extrapolated to mean his tactical and planning ability. Among others, here is an example where he tricked a much stronger Transformer than him, Bruticus, to lower his guard and then surreptitiously defeating him. (well, maybe not such a good example because Bruticus is stupid...)

On (iii): Who could forget that Blaster wields an Electro-Scrambler? In 1999, after almost one and a half decades away from Transformers the only weapons I remember were Optimus Prime's Laser Rifle, Cliffjumper's Glass Gas Gun, Megatron's Fusion Cannon, Starscream's Null Ray... and Blaster's Electro-Scrambler. Not only is Blaster's gun mentioned with such consistency, but it is one of the few instances where a Transformer weapon actually does what it is supposed to do rather than just firing generic laser rounds (see comic extracts above).

So, that is tribute 'part one' above.

Next: Blaster Tribute part 2- Blastin' with Blaster's box art

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Read all Blastin' with Blaster chapters
Chapter 01: Blastin' with Blaster
Chapter 02: Blastin' with Blaster's comic persona
Chapter 03: Blastin' with Blaster's box art

My reasons for who became Cyclonus

Previous chapter: Which Decepticon reformatted into Cyclonus & Scourge?

As previously mentioned, I believe that Skywarp is undoubtedly the Decepticon who was reformatted into Cyclonus.

My reasoning goes this way:

[1] Profile: I expect the Unicron reformatted beings to behave very much like their pre-reformatted selves because Unicron obviously didn’t tinker with their personalities much. Skywarp was blindly loyal to Megatron (see esp MTMTE); Bombshell is far from loyal (see the Insecticon Syndrome). As seen from Webworld especially, Cyclonus is blindly loyal to Galvatron as well. Also Cyclonus is quite a blockhead just like Skywarp is dull, whereas Bombshell is pretty smart. It follows that Skywarp’s profile is a closer match to Cyclonus than Bombshell’s.

[2] Mass: Cyclonus is a large Decepticon, roughly the same size as Scourge and a little smaller than Galvatron. By extrapolation, that would mean that Cyclonus is roughly the same size as Thundercracker who became Scourge. Bombshell, on the other hand is much smaller than either of the seekers. In terms of mass, size and height, Skywarp is a more probable Cyclonus candidate than Bombshell is.

[3] Function: Cyclonus is a saboteur while Skywarp is a warrior and Bombshell does psychological warfare. A saboteur is arguably a warrior with the superadded skill of sabotage- like chocolate topping on vanilla ice-cream; in any case the physicality of the function means that it is closer to a plain vanilla warrior than a psychological warfare specialist is. It is more probable for Skywarp than Bombshell to be Cyclonus because they have similar functions.

[4] Alternate mode: This point needs no elaboration- Cyclonus is a spaceship while Skywarp is an F-15 fighter plane and Bombshell is a beetle.

[5] Colour: I know I am getting a little pedantic here, but this is a point nonetheless. Cyclonus’ colour scheme consists of purple and grey/silver while Skywarp’s consists of purple, black and grey/silver and Bombshell’s consists of purple, black, grey/silver and yellow. Cyclonus has no yellow parts and so is closer in colour to Skywarp than Bombshell.

It follows from all the above that I strongly believe that the dominant Cyclonus, the one in all post movie episodes, is more likely than not the reformatted Skywarp.

Them little monsters

I just did a mad thing today.

It was not something I started out the day thinking I would do. I started out thinking about it, about the possibility, but did not commit anything to my mind. I thought I could bid if it were a good deal.

40 minutes before the auction was slated to end was the time I found out there was no good deal to be had, or was there? Bidding for the complete Pretender Monsters set (a la Monstructor) was at US$255.00, a large amount when measured in either Australian or Singapore dollars.

I looked around eBay and found the asking prices for Monstructor sets of similar content were around US$208, US$285 to US$600. Pretty mad. I thought that maybe US$255 was not all that mad and that US$255 to US$280 would be a sort of mid-range median price for this rare set. After all, Botch the Crab pegged it at US$250 thereabouts.

So against my better judgment, I put in my highest bid at US$288 and 5 seconds later entered US$302. It was crazy but it is a crazy day and I’m on a combiner high (After having bought Abominus, Computron, Piranacon and Bruticus consecutively; see also Operation Combiner).

I was fully prepared to lose this auction.

I was.

I won, in the end.

I was quite surprised to have won it at US$260 flat. I expect this to be an amazing set with the exception of the missing Tech Spec and Slog’s broken but super glued back legs.

I am hoping to find a Slog loose online and that would make this set quite perfect.

On another note, I think it is time to make good my ‘promise’ to stop mad, insane buying at least for this year. I’m targeting 23rd October (the day this site goes live) as a final cut off date.

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- Evening Update -

I did a search for 'Slog' when I got back from work and there was a Buy it Now listing for Slog, robot & pretender shell, from an Austrlian seller! The BIN price is a mere AU$14.99. I bought it (together with Icepick and Bristleback) in a spilt second. I now have a good unbroken Slog to replace the one that is broken!

Nice! I can't really believe it myself.

Slog AU buy it now listing:

Next: Them little monsters - a prediction of price increase

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Read all 'Them little Monsters' chapters:
Chapter 01: Them little monsters
Chapter 02: A prediction of price increase
Chapter 03: They are here!
Chapter 04: Gunning the monsters

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Thread on OZ Formers Board here.
See what Botch the Crab has to say here.

Which Decepticon reformatted into Cyclonus & Scourge?

This is one of a number of contentious, often discussed but never resolved G1 Transformer continuity issues. I’m going to put down what I believe to be true.

Every 80s kid and his mother knows that Cyclonus and Scourge were reformatted from dying Decepticons by Unicron. The question is: who became Cyclonus and who became Scourge?

Thundercracker became the ‘main’ Scourge, leader of the Sweeps; this much is clear from Transformers: The Movie (1986). There is not much controversy here.

Bombshell and Skywarp were both shown to be reformatted as Cyclonus in TFTM (1986). However, right after that and for every cartoon episode after the movie, there was only ever one Cyclonus. Thus begging the question of who exactly became this Cyclonus, seeing that one of them obviously disappeared.

Reformatting of Cyclonus [pictures from Unicron.com]
Picture 2 shows Bombshell in the foreground and Skywarp in the background

The theory that Bombshell (foreground) became Cyclonus and Skywarp (in the background) became a being called ‘Armada’ is largely disregarded by the TF community as having no merit.

Marvel Comic adaptation [1986]
Shows just one Scourge and one Cyclonus with some unidentified silhouettes in the background. Does not address the issue.


TFTM script [1986]
“ON CYCLONUS (NEW DECEPTICON WITH PLANE TRANSFORM ABILITY).
CYCLONUS is CREATED and then his "armada" of similar, but smaller and similarly colored and clad creatures are formed.
UNICRON: Cyclonus, the warrior...and his armada.....”

That is all the script tells us. Absolutely nothing about who becomes who.


Transformers: The Animated Movie (2007) by IDW publishing [2007]
Bob Budiansky, the father of most G1 Transformer names, character profiles and Tech Specs, wrote all four issues. If there is one person that could authoritatively conclude this issue one way or another, it is Bob, one of the key creative talents behind the original Transformer profiles and stories. This is the perfect opportunity to set the Cyclonus record straight but sadly no move was made to clarify Cyclonus’ reformatting. Don Figueroa drew the reformatting scene as an almost exact reproduction of TFTM (1986), that is with Bombshell and Skywarp being reformatted into 2 Cyclonus’.

I draw 2 conclusions: (1) Bob and Don wanted to leave well enough alone and not tackle the issue; or (2) Bob did decide that Bombshell should become Cyclonus though this is arguable because if he had consciously wanted to establish that fact, he would have instructed Don to leave Skywarp becoming Cyclonus out of the background.


General TF community thoughts
Based on information deduced from fan forums, I feel the TF community is divided on this issue, with both sides of the fence being quite evenly populated.


I, myself, believe that Skywarp is undoubtedly the Decepticon who was reformatted into Cyclonus.

Next: My reasons for who became Cyclonus

The Grand daddy of Transformers - the beginning

*These events happened in August 2005.*

Grand Maximus

‘Hey DV, I’m going to HK. Any Transformers news?’

‘I just returned from HK. Bought lots of Transformers. Wanted to buy more but couldn’t lug them all back. I let a Grand Maximus slip’ DV, the owner of a Singapore based toy shop, lamented.

‘Hmmm… really? What happened?’ I was sceptical, after all even if a rare gem such as Grand Maximus can be found; it really wouldn’t be very cheap anyway.

‘My HK friend brought me to this shop and showed me a MISB Grand Max that he initially said is not for sale. I asked to open it to check the contents. Man, it was the real thing, damn nice. The shop-owner asked for (an equivalent of) S$1500 but said that he would give it to me at (the equivalent of) S$1300’ DV swallowed, then looked at me with expectant eyes.

‘And?’ I was prepared to dance to his tune to know more.

‘I was pretty broke since that was my last day there, and I already had too many things to carry so I decided to try my luck. I told him that I would buy it for (the equivalent of) S$1000’

‘He said no I suppose.’

‘Yeah. He said no and told me to get lost. To get out of his shop. He said I was trying to insult him’ he said with anguish in his voice.

Next: Going to HK

My Collecting Principles

‘You’re too fussy’- lots of people have said.

It’s true. I admit it. In fact, my fussiness carries from life and work into collecting and into Transformers. I collect Transformers, but am extremely fussy about which series and which ‘bots to collect.

The main principle is this:
I strictly collect G1 Transformers and series’ or individual toys that are directly relevant to G1. Exceptions may be occasioned for exceptionally brilliant new series' or the one off nice figure.

G1 reissues are considered G1 for the purposes of the principle. Examples of directly relevant lines include Takara’s SCF line, Mega SCF line, Metalforce line, Hasbro’s Classics line, Hard Hero busts, Diamond select sculpts and etc. An example of brilliant new series’ is without a doubt the Binaltech and the Masterpiece series.

I personally do not see TF lines that come later than G1 as Transformers. Yes, what I am saying is that I disregard almost all 'Transformers' lines after G1. I don't care for them, there is no affinity. And because I don’t consider them Transformers, I’m not even interested in having them in my collection, unless excepted as stated above.

I collect these Transformer series’:

• Generation One
• Robot Masters
• Takara SCF, Mega-SCF/ Hasbro Heroes of Cybertron
• WST
• Binaltechs
• KISS Players
  
• Alternators [borderline except for Rumble & Ravage, Mirage and Rodimus if only because there are no Binaltech equivalents]
  
• Masterpiece Series
• Transformers Classics
• Robot Heroes
• Transformers Movie [very borderline case]
• Encore
  

I avoid these like the plague:

• G2
• Beast Wars
• Machine Wars
• Beast Wars II
• Beast Wars Neo
• Beast Machines
• TF: Robots in Disguise [Brave Max reissue exception]
• Superlink/ Armada
  
• Galaxy Force/ Universe [Starscream & Vector Prime exception]
  
• Energon
• Cybertron [Primus exception]
  
• Titanium [War Within Prime & Megatron exception but very borderline]
  

When I buy figures in lots, I sometimes get more than just G1 figures. I will treat any toy that falls into the second list with contempt- in fact, I have this uncontrollable urge to throw them away most of the time. The thought of them breathing the same air as my G1 Transformers is distasteful at best but revolting at worse.

It follows that I am not interested in building a big 'Transformers' collection by biting hook, line and sinker into the, what is often, trash that Hasbro tosses my way.

I define what is worthy of being a Transformer and the quality of figures that enter my collection. For this reason, fortunately or unfortunately, I will never have as big a collection as so-called completists who buy any and everything that carries the Transformers label...

... for afterall, I am who I am.

SDCC exclusive Alternators Rodimus

I missed out the first time round.

In fact, I missed out on Alternators Mirage and KISS Player Hot Rodimus- the only Alternator/ Binaltech toy molds that I do not have. Seeing that I love the series and have every one ever released, it is quite unfathomable why I missed these 2 (I did manage to claw my way to a BT-18 clear Mirage though).

When I heard the the SDCC (San Diego Comic Convention) exclusive Alternator Rodimus is making its rounds, exclusively, in Toyworlds here in Australia, I was determined to get it.

The only problem is this- the nearest Toyworld for a Sydney resident is about an hour drive away, on a good day. For some reason, all the Toyworlds in NSW are at the outskirts. I considered driving to all of them but settled for going to the Blue Mountains to have a bushwalk and go by any Toyworld on the way instead.

Well, none of the Toyworlds I stopped at had the elusive SDCC Rodimus. Fortunately, Griffin from the OZ Formers boards did the fandom a great service and sourced Alt Rodimus' from the Brisbane side. He obtained 5 on 1st October and offered me one!

It made my day. I am finally going to get me an Alt Rodimus. Thank you Griffin!

With your gracious help, I am no longer missing out!

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Update 10th October 2007

It arrived! Thanks Griffin!