Review - Headmasters Dino-cassette C-121: Gurafi MIB

I first talked about how I acquired this Dino-cassette here - The full story (Part 3) - So rare they ought to be extinct. These cassettes have also variously been called "W-Cassettes".

Now, it's time to showcase these little gems, one by one, the first being C-121: Gurafi (aka Graphy).

Thoughts:
Gurafi has a nice cassette mode and even a fun transformation, but his dino-mode just does not do it for me. It's kind of boring and just stands there upright with wings that are difficult to position convincingly. The weapon attachments to the wings also appear to be after-thoughts and do not add much utility. I think the key reasons the design was so limited is because it needed to combine, so at least that is forgivable. I would rate this as my least favourite among the 4 dino-cassettes and give it an overall rating of 6.5/10.

Gurafi bio from TF Wiki:

"Graphy (グラフィ Gurafi) is one of the Autobot Mini-Cassettes. The aerial intelligence soldier of the group, he is the calmest among them, a stark contrast to his hyper-violent partner Noise. Graphy is an impressive flyer with amazing eyesight. As a member of the W Cassettebot sub-sub-group, he can combine with Noise to form the robot Decibel."

Further information: "Graphy is a mini-cassette that transforms into a red Pteranodon. A pair of silver-chrome laser guns attach to the ends of his wings. In tape mode, he fits into the chest compartment of Blaster or Soundwave (and their retooled reincarnations).

Graphy combines with Noise to form the legs and chestplate of the humanoid robot Decibel. In this form, his guns attach to his legs for added stability."

C-121: Gurafi MIB

Box = C9.5

Toy = C9

Inserts = C8.5

Accessories = complete, C9

(C-121: Gurafi, combines with C-122: Noizu to form the robot Decibel)

Close up of the beautiful box art. Would have loved a movable beak for the toy like the box art depicts, but it was not to be.

Top of box - despite the tiny size of the box, Takara still managed to squeeze in the "classic" transformation-sequence photos.

Bottom of box - the tech specs are here

Back of box

Bios for Decibel (combined form of Gurafi and Noizu) and bio for Gurafi

Gurafi out of box - Gurafi bio card, instructions and Gurafi cassette and 2 weapons in insert tray

Close up of bio card and instructions

Close of of Gurafi in insert tray and its weapons

Close up of Gurafi in cassette mode

With instructions opened

Gurafi transformed

According to TF Wiki, Gurafi is 'vanishingly rare'. 

I know, it took me ages to acquire it. Here is the quote from TF Wiki: "As one of the vanishingly few toys unique to the Headmasters toy line and something of a tail-ender within the line, Graphy and the other three "dino-cassettes" command ridiculous sums on the secondary market. Their actual rarity is questionable, though; similar "exclusive holy grails" Stepper, Artfire, Twincast and Soundblaster were uncommon, but not vanishingly rare, yet still commanded top dollar due to overseas perception (until they got reissued, at any rate). As there appear to be no plans to reproduce these cassettes, their high-price status is unlikely to change."

BEWARE - At this point, it is the fan-dom's understanding that KO-Toys, the 'company' that makes unauthorised (illegal) copies of Transformers toys, is being shut down. However, despite that, they appear to still be planning to release KO versions of Gurafi and Noizu. Do watch for KO / illegal / fake versions of these especially on online stores.

***

Related Posts

• C-38: Broadblast (Blaster)
• C-116: Twincast MIB, unused
• C-121: Gurafi (Graphy) MIB
• C-122: Noizu (Noise) MIB
• C-123: Dairu (Dial) MIB
• C-124: Zauru (Saur) MIB
• C-121 to C-124, Decibel and Legout
• D-17: Soundwave MIB
• D-101: Soundblaster MIB

Review - Maketoys "Microbots" Bomber (not Powerglide) and Hover (not Seaspray)

Went down to YMT after work today and discovered that the Maketoys "Microbots" Bomber and Hover MIB has been released (aka not Powerglide and not Seaspray respectively).

Thought they looked interesting and would fit into my Henkei collection, so I bought a set. Price? HKD$250 (USD$32.10).

Some quick thoughts and shots.

Front of box - featuring some pretty attractive original art. This is the side where not Powerglide is facing front and not Seaspray has his back facing us.

The 'back' of the box is the reverse of the front - where not Seaspray is facing us and not Powerglide has his back to us.

Top of box features different art and is coloured. These guys are called "Microbots", probably used as an alternative to "Minibots", or maybe as a reference / allusion to the G1 Episode Microbots?

Bottom of box with Maketoys' details. They appear to be a Japanese company or at least have their website with a Japanese domain.

Side of box featuring a full frontal image of not Powerglide.

Side of box featuring a full frontal image of not Seaspray.

I think a great deal of effort has been spent on the artwork. Looking at the box again, no 2 faces actually uses repeat artwork - the artwork for each face of the box is unique to that face. Kudos to that.

Box with Commander Class: Powerglide. To be honest, I think the Maketoys Powerglide looks nicer.

These are the contents.

The plastic tray is simple and effective, but does seem to contain more air than solid matter - much like Hasbro type boxes.

Coloured instructions printed on glossy thick stock paper - I'm impressed!

Here are the 'Microbots' out of the insert. They are very very good representations of their G1 designs. I certainly have no complains here.

Not Powerglide. The design is very reminiscent of G1, but some of the parts do not seem to click together in place no matter how I try, making it not very enjoyable in plane mode. It's still an above average experience, but not stella.

The underside of not Powerglide.

Not Seaspray. Compared to not Powerglide, this is a much better vehicle mode - every part fits together snugly.

The underside of not Seaspray.

The plastic quality of these 2 pieces are actually quite good. Certainly not as dense and high quality as early year G1 plastic quality and has a certain roughness (ruggedness) to it, but is highly acceptable and certainly no poorer than the current type of plastic used by Hasbro in recent releases.

Here they are transformed. The transformation for both are actually fairly simple but yet effective. I didn't need to refer to the instructions at all and transformed both in under a minute. This is actually a good thing because it economises playtime - complex transformations are actually less desirable (ie: think Commander Class Powerglide or Guzzle).

Full body shot of not Powerglide. I like the robot mode. It's a very good representation of its G1 design and has superior articulation. The head sculpt is also amazingly detailed for its size.

Close up of not Powerglide. Like I said, nice head sculpt - good move having the screw on the forehead like his G1 toy.

Full body shot of not Seaspray. My thoughts on him are very much along the lines of not Powerglide above - an excellent G1 reminiscent representation.

Close up of not Seaspray. The detailing is excellent. The head-sculpt is amazingly detailed, even more so than Powerglide - it is a very accurate representation of his G1 self. The eyes are also painted blue and the paint job is excellent. One thing though, I wonder whether Maketoys considered making not Seaspray slightly "fat" like his G1 cartoon design? heh.

Size comparison with Generations Warpath who is almost twice each of their heights. It's okay, I can live with that.

Size comparison with Encore #20: Devastator (just cos its conveniently on my table, heh).

Overall

Generally, I think both are very enjoyable toys and nice to play with. Both are accurate to their G1 designs as well. I would rate them each 8.5 out of 10.

For the price vs their roughly Scout class size, I think they're just a tad expensive, but worth it due to the really superior articulation (ie: better than Scout class Windcharger at least), their quality and their sheer G1-ness.

***

[update] Additional size comparison pictures.

Left to right: TF United: Jazz, RTS Windcharger, MakeToys not Seaspray, Maketoys not Powerglide, Cyberverse Guzzle.


Close up

The dilemma with Decoys - Part 3

Here it is. A post that consolidates the Takara Decoy Collection giftsets, Collection No.1 and 2 (details in Part 1) and Collection No.3 (details in Part 2), containing the full suit of 53 figures, 52 cards (plus Jokers) and 3 launchers.

I'm one happy camper.

The money shot.

A shot of their contents (including some 'extra' misc Decoys).

The launchers that come with each set is different and quite interesting.

This is the launcher for Collection No.1 - it looks a little like the Autobots' spacecraft, the Ark.

This is the launcher for Collection No.2 - it looks a little like the Decepticons' spacecraft, the Nemesis.

This is the launcher for Collection No.3 - it looks a little like, I dunno, some sort of robot?

On 15 December, I popped over to the Wan Chai branch of 懷古角, because I'd heard they have stock coming in on that day. As it happened, this shipment had no (yeah, zero) Transformers, other than a bunch of... Decoys! This whole Decoy affair over the past weeks is like deja vu / serendipity / or what not. I don't see these things in years and years and when I start, it doesn't just rain, it pours!

So I grabbed the 9 Decoys they had for HK$250 total, not bad.

Here they are: Mirage, Ultra Magnus, Sideswipe, Bruticus, Frenzy, Skids, Scavenger, Smokescreen(?) and Long Haul.

I thought about it more. Why are these in different colours? ie not either red or purple? Also Sideswipe and Bruticus were not in the set of 53 figures in Collections No.1, 2 and 3. What gives?

Checked out TF Wiki and discovered, to my horror, that whilst there were just 53 different figures for the initial collection, each of these "were also available individually, through 'gachapon' capsule machines, in a variety of different colors including red, blue, yellow, green, orange, sky blue, pink, tan and white"!!!

I was shattered.

I thought I'd completed the Decoys, but there were another 7 sets of 53 out there, each set a different colour - giving a total of 550 Decoys to collect in order to complete them! What the?!?

I was shattered.

Given the 'gachapon' capsule nature of release for the other coloured sets (other than red and purple), it'd be near impossible to track them all down.

I'm quite resigned to fate and should start telling myself to be contented with reds and purples... =(

***

During the night (still 15 December), I was having dinner with the beests and was made to bring out the above 9 Decoys at the dessert table.

It was odd, 4 grown people playing with Transformers Decoys and my recently fixed Shockwave in Haagen Daz.

The unwary on-looker may be forgiven for forming the impression that Transformers is now the 'in' way to hit on ladies (to be honest, there were a fair few on-lookers, who don't seem that unwary).

Bam, smash! (no, the one with red nails is not a SQ-stewardess, whew)

It was odd. A daunting experience for me (and my Decoys).

The dilemma with Decoys - Part 2

In Part 1, I talked about acquiring the Collection No.1 and Collection No.2 of the Takara Decoy giftsets. According to the Alverez book, which my toy shop owner friend gave to me with the above 2 purchases, there was 1 more giftset to acquire to complete the series - Collection No.3: Cybertron Hero Collection (9 pack giftset).

"Where in the world am I going to get something so obscure?" I thought to myself. It'd have to be from Japan no doubt. At this point in time, with xmas and new year looming on the horizon and me intending to hold the fort at work while others go on leave (cos xmas is more important to them than me, to be honest), there is no foreseeable Japan schedule. Seems like I would just have to wait then.

On 13 December 2011, I decided to go down to YMT to my favourite shop to take a peek. It was just a random, spur of the moment decision while waiting to sign some documents at 9-ish to 10pm.

Shop guys told me there was no new stock that came in, only 1 new addition to their glass display cabinet. I looked and by gosh, who would have thought? There it was sitting right there - Collection No.3!!!

I asked to inspect it and it appeared to be 100% complete, with all the little cards that came exclusive with Collection No.3. Whoa, is this unexpectedly delightful or what. Bought it without thinking more.

Still while waiting to sign documents, I had dinner with a beest. There I discussed the question of whether the human mind could will something to come true or to predict events that will happen, albeit toy related maybe. I cited examples where I managed to obtain hard-to-find figures at particular collectible shows or toy fairs, after seeing in my mind's eye that I would find them on the mornings of each event (eg: the Supergirl figure from Superman/Batman series 2; Darkseid from the same series; and Marvel Legends Juggernaut).

beest thinks its the work of God. I think its the power of the human mind. Either way, its unquantifiable and perhaps, unknown.

I am very happy to present, Takara Decoy Collection No.3: Cybertron Hero Collection (9 pack set with cards).

Back of box

The contents

Close up of the contents - this set contains: Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Grimlock, Inferno, Prowl, Slag, Sludge, Snarl and Trailbreaker. This set is key to completing the Autobots because it contains 4 of the 5 Dinobots (Swoop came in the 22-pack) and also key characters like Bumblebee and Prowl. It also comes with 2 suits of Autobot and 2 suits of Decepticon cards (52 in total) and 2 jokers and a blank card.

Contents with the cards all laid out

These cards are awesome. They each contain that particular character's box art and also the total of each Tech Spec value added up. For example Optimus Prime has the number "76" because it is the sum of his Tech Spec values of 10, 10, 8, 10, 10, 10, 8, 10. The cards come in 4 suits like the tradition Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds - there are 2 Autobot suits, one with a red Autobot logo and the other with a yellow Autobot logo; and 2 Decepticon suits, one with a purple Decepticon logo and the other with a blue Decepticon logo.

Close up of cards

The card set also comes with 2 Jokers - one is a Decepticon symbol and the other is Sunstreaker. The Joker choices are odd. I can understand Sunstreaker a little, because he does not have a regular Japanese release and is only released as part of the VSZ giftset. Kind of logical that he is not included in the main suits, but then, what about Skids who also did not see a regular release? Oddly, Skids is given the high rank of "Queen" in the yellow Autobot logo suit. Also included is a spare blank card.

The other oddity is the inclusion of 4 of the 5 Dinobots as part of the Decepticon suits. Swoop is "King" for the purple Decepticon suit and Sludge, Slag and Snarl are respectively the "Jack", "Queen" and "King" of the blue Decepticon suit.

So there it is, Collection No.3.

Next - The Dilemma with Decoys - Part 3.