The Ark Addendum - Metalhawk's weapons

Well, after a break caused by finishing up the AllSpark Almanac II, (and expect a wrap post about that in the near future) The Ark Addendum is back.  This week, I figured I'd go back to Japan for some Masterforce!

Looking through my notes, it looks like I've yet to do anything with Metalhawk, leader of the Cybertron forces for the first handful of episodes. He eventually cedes that role to Ginrai, the reluctant hero. Having the real leader of the Masterforce war come in later necessitated this placeholder leader, and Metalhawk fills that role admirably. He's got some of the confidence of a leader, and yet always comes across as just a bit uncomfortable.  I rather like it. I'd have been happier had he been given a bit more to do in the latter half of the season, but they make up for it by having him be one of the few Autobots to remain behind on Earth after the series ends.

I've got both an extended transformation sequence for him, as well as his weapon details.  I thought the weapons would be a nice place to start.  He, like most of the model in Masterforce, had designs with both their weapons in hand and with their hands free.  For The Ark II, I elected to use the empty hands whenever possible, but I'm glad to be able to share the weapon shots as well.

The Ark Addendum - Destron Headmaster Junior Weapons redux

Continuing the trend begun last week and continued by resident artist Iván, I thought I'd finish out the Destron Headmaster Junior's weaponry. This week it's their robot forms. Unfortunately, you'll notice a distinct lack of Cancer. While normally that's good, in this context it's unfortunate. The model pack of Masterforce Headmasters was quite scanty on Cancer. Fortunately some of that was made up for with some guidebooks from back in the 80s, but I still ran a bit shorter on his material than for his compatriots. For what it's worth, I'm also missing the non-gun-toting version of Minerva's robot form. Alas!

Bullhorn looks pretty bad-ass with guns in both hands, doesn't he? Wilder's not bad, but Bullhorn seems like he's the real brawn of this group.

The Ark Addendum - Destron Headmaster Junior Weapons

Another week, another set of models. This week I bring you the weapons of the Destron Headmaster Juniors.

Unlike the Cybertron Headmaster Juniors, this trio remains armed to the teeth, even in their alternate modes. No namby-pamby rescue vehicles these, instead we get vicious crab/cobra monsters, a winged wolf thing, and mighty bull. While Cancer and Bullhorn get pretty cool weapons, Wilder just holds his regular gun. Boo! And yet they made him the leader.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to convince the good folks over at tfwiki.net that we really should be cataloging GoBots material. Maybe I'm just psyched now that I've got the series on DVD and most of the animation models. It's an uphill battle, but I feel like I'm winning over some supporters. I'll keep you posted.

The Ark Addendum - Darkwings' Weapons

One of the elements that I have available to me that didn't make it into any of the books is detailed views of the Masterforce weapons. Actually, I was almost always able to get the actual weapons in, though not always as large as I'd have liked them. But I typically had two views of each character, one holding their weapons, one without. And so, this week's Ark Addendum - the Darkwing brothers, carrying their weapons, as well as more detail on the guns themselves.

I'm a big fan of alternate views of the characters like this, but unfortunately I didn't have room for in The Complete Ark. Incidentally, while the AllSpark Almanac is doing great, The Complete Ark is dying in the Amazon.com reviews ... come on, Amazon reviewers, don't you know what an animation model is? And if you don't, why are you buying the book in the first place? Anyone who's read the book, a little review-juice would be much appreciated.

EDIT: As of 7:30 PM, PST 9/29/09, we're up to five reviews, three of them positive. I appreciate everyone who took the time to share their opinions. These things really help undecided people make an informed decision as to whether or not to purchase.

By the way, is there any interest in seeing Gobots animation models on this blog? I recently came into a few. Let me know!

The Ark Addendum - Dauros Weapons

After a few weeks off for the holidays I bring you The Ark Addendum: Dauros Weaponry!

I had access to a ton of material for Masterforce, at least as it pertains to Headmasters and Pretenders, well too much to squeeze into 208 pages. One thing that got cut was the extended weapon models. Most models were done up both holding their weapons and not. Ultimately, we opted to give most of the pretenders and headmasters two, instead of four, pages. This meant that the models of them holding their guns had to go, and the guns themselves got shrunk down to go on the main character pages.

Here is a taste of what might have been if we'd had 256 pages to play with instead of 208. There's plenty more where this came from, too! Let me know which weapons you're most interested in seeing and I'll try to get to them sooner rather than later.

(I say we cut them to two from four, because we also cut out extended transformation sequences for Headmasters and Pretenders, as seen with my earlier Ark Addendum posts for Cancer and Fortress Maximus. You haven't seen the last of extended transformations yet, either. )