The Ark Addendum - Metalhawk's Transform; The Field Manual!

Busy week for me!  I've moved out of Los Angeles... more or less.  Actually, I've only removed my person from the environs, my stuff won't follow me for a few more days.  But I've not headed down to Albuquerque yet, no.  I'm in New York, visiting family in advance of my brother's wedding.  After that, breeze over to New Mexico, close on my new house, and then maybe settle down to some writing.

This week's Addendum is Metalhawk's Transformation.  Martin, you missed this one!  This well and truly DOES finish off my Masterforce Pretender transformations.  Not a bad one to go out on, is he.  Metalhawk is the Cybertron leader for the first part of Masterforce, until Ginrai takes up the mantle.  He's also one of the handful of Japanese exclusive molds to the Masterforce line (along with, from memory, God Bomber, Overlord, Browning, and some new tooling on Ginrai, Grand Maximus, and Black Zarak.)  His die-cast metal bits made him stand out, as these had largely been abandoned by the tail end of 1986.

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YO JOE!!!   The G.I. Joe Field Manual: Volume 1 hits stores TOMORROW! Get on down to your local comic book shop and pick up a copy.  I'll post an official reaction thread, and I'd surely love to hear your thoughts.

For those of you who missed it, this is my compilation of G.I. Joe animation models from the 1983-1985 period.  That includes both mini-series as well as season one.  From Ace to Zap, from the A.S.P. to Zartan, it's a more than comprehensive guide to the G.I. Joe cartoon covering the Joe team, Cobra, and plenty of guests.  M.A.S.S. Device? Check!  Weather Dominator? Don't you know it! Honda Lou West?  But of course! Oktober Guard? I'd be remiss otherwise.
en abandoned by the tail end of 1986.

The Ark Addendum - Ginrai's Trailer Transformation

Full disclosure: I don't think this is a particularly interesting model.  It depicts the transformation of Ginrai's trailer into its base mode.  Maybe I find it dull because it's not a character proper.  Maybe It's just that it's really a rather static piece, with no great liberties taken from the toy.  Nevertheless, it was requested, so I figured why not.

Now, the actual Ginrai / Powermaster Optimus Prime toy, on the other hand, is just marvelous.  Ginrai especially, with the retractable fists and metal bits.  As a kid I thought it a bit funny that Prime had a cargo space in his trailer, but nothing to put there.  I would store his head back there, but it seemed like overkill.  I used to try to cram Roller back there too.  I think I could get it to just about fit if I took off all the wheels.

As it turns out, great minds think alike!  How could I know that that trailer space was vestigial? Early on in the design phase, Powermaster Prime was to be a Powermaster AND a Headmaster, with a triple-changing Roller as the head.  It would have been truly glorious.

Godbomber, too, went through some big changes from conception to final execution. (If you don't know, Godbomber is the trailer extension for Ginrai that turns into a robot or an enhancement for Super Ginrai, allowing him to become God Ginrai.) Big differences include spots on his wrist to keep Ginrai's rifles, and a large hand-held cannon instead of a shoulder-mounted missile launcher.  I liked the idea of the wrist-mounted guns so much that I drilled holes in my reissue.

Anyway, a very neat figure, and maybe some day I'll customize up that rifle or even the Roller headmaster.  Don't hold your breath, though, since Joe books are taking up much of my time.  (I came up with a great little eight page block today that lets me use a lot of neat models and have them all feel coherent.) If anyone else out there has done some kitbashing or customizing along this line, chime up and let me know.  Maybe we can do a photo-spread right here.

The Ark Addendum - Wilder's Transform

BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT!  (Well, Martin politely requested it, but close enough.)  I finish off the HM Junior transformation sequences with Wilder.

This is actually an interesting one, if only because it's so complicated.  Yes, it's nominally six steps, but note how there is an insert between steps one and two showing the back, and note the detail in step five, split up into three parts.

All this for one of my least favorite designs in the series.  There just weren't enough liberties taken with the toy design.  Now, Fangry, at least as done up by Andrew Wildman, that's how you stylize up this toy.  This guy looks terrifying!  Wilder looks too dumpy, almost like he should be plush.

The Ark Addendum - Ranger's Transform AND The G.I. Joe Field Manual up for pre-order

First off, G.I. Joe news!   The G.I. Joe Field Manual: Volume 1  is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com!  Let's get those pre-orders rolling in, send IDW a strong message that there really is a demand for this sort of art book. 

In other news, very busy helping my wife through the final stages of the interview process.  She's finishing up her Trauma/Critical Care Surgery fellowship at Yale and is entering the job market proper, so we've been flying all over to check out which hospital will be the best fit.  It's distracting me from my blogging a bit, which is why I haven't written up my Roll Out Roll Call convention report, but it's coming soon.

In the meantime, I finish off the Transform sequences for the Masterforce Godmasters.  (Actually, I tell a lie.  I've got Ginrai's trailer-to-base TF somewhere, but it's a bit boring.  I suppose I should post it just for completion's sake.)  It's a pretty nice one, I hope you enjoy!

The Ark Addendum - Lander's Transform

Welcome back, true believers!  Another edition of The Ark Addendum, extra model sheets not in  Transformers: The Complete Ark  (order it today!) , my 416 page tome of Transformers character models.

This week's offering is another transformation sequence from Masterforce.  I give you: Lander!  I find the last picture in the sequence especially nice, what with the clouds and the mountains.  For a pretty simple toy, he they sure make his Transform seem dynamic.

By the way, Landmine, the American version of  Lander, was my first Pretender.  I remember finding him in a drug store while waiting for my parents to pick me up.  Since the TF cartoon was long off the air and I hadn't yet discovered the comics, I was pretty thrilled to find a brand new Transformer.  I had almost as much excitement from looking at the 1988 catalog as I did from the toy itself.  Had I found Transformers #52 and #53 at this time, I'd probably have been pretty thrilled.  (Instead, I got into the comics with issue #69.  When I tracked down the back issues, I found this underwhelming.  I'd already grown bored with the toy by that point.  What a difference 18 months make.)

While I've got your attention, I did an interview with the folks over at Rusting Carcass, so read that if you'd like the latest on the Joe model book.  Also, the kind folks over at the What's on JOE Mind talk a bit about the upcoming Joe book, so check out their excellent podcast.

The Ark Addendum - Phoenix's Transform

Hello, intrepid Transfans.  This week's Ark Addendum was inspired by last week's offering.  It seems like a while since I've done an extended Masterforce Transformation sequence, so here one is.  Naturally, I chose Phoenix.

As usual, the designers did a kick-ass job with this, lots of motion and excitement.  Note how many of the models break from the panel.  They just can't be contained.  I also like the speed lines in the final panel. 

The Ark Addendum - Phoenix's Truck

Listen up, true believers!  It's another installment of The Ark Addendum.  After four weeks of cassettes, I figured it's time to go back to Japan.  Trawling through my archives and what did I find but Phoenix's truck!

I enjoy the designs of Masterforce, as a rule, especially the props.  This one is kind of an odd one.  While Masterforce nominally took place in the future, most of the aesthetic seemed to draw from the present day.   This truck is a bit of an exception.  It seems like it would be home among the vehicles of someone like, I dunno, Victor Drath from S3's Only Human.  Enjoy!

BTW, the signing went very well.  I'll post up some photos in a bit.  It was great catching up with Mike, Livio, Marty, and some of the TF Prime folks. 

The Ark Addendum - Dauros' Transform

Another week, another Ark Addendum.  After going to the Sunbow well for a bit, I figured I'd bounce back to Japan for a lovely Masterforce transformation.  This one belongs to Dauros, and they certainly squeezed quite a lot of info onto one page.  my favorite part is probably his hand swapping for his gun in the upper left.

When I was a kid, I had this toy, or rather Skullgrin, and would let him flip his hands around for guns while still in robot mode to do extra carnage.  It hearkened back to More than Meets the Eye, when robots would routinely replace their hands with tools and weapons.  Skullgrin was probably my favorite Pretender toy as a child.  (Favorite Pretender character: Bludgeon.)  It was fun that Budiansky gave him a spotlight issue. I suppose my like for the character is pretty evident.  I wrote a whole Monster from Mars riff into the first  Allspark Almanac (order it today!)

The Ark Addendum - German Airstrip

The Ark Addendum for this week is once again drawn from the Masterforce era.  This time, some of the backgrounds: a German airstrip, where Phoenix spends his time when he's pretending to be human.  While most of the vehicles from Masterforce seem to be late 20th century, the architecture certainly is somewhat futuristic.  I'll post a few more over the next few weeks, but this one is pretty representative.

The Ark Addendum - Hawk's Car

This week, we dip back to Masterforce, with some more of the props.  Hawk's car!  See, the leader of the Cybertrons, Metalhawk, had a human disguise, Hawk.  Naturally, Hawk needed to get around, so he drove this nifty little two-seater.  I've check with some car experts and it doesn't seem to be based on any real-life car.  Pretty neat, though!

The Ark Addendum - Masterforce flight crew

As promised, this week I finish off the model pack from the Masterforce episode Kidnapping!? The Targeted Jumbo Jet.  We get to see the pilot, co-pilot, and the pre-zombified flight attendant.  Isn't she adorable?  She wears leggins, by the way, so that miniskirt actually isn't inappropriately short.  I also included another angle on the 747 that was cut from the episode.  They all work for Monte Port Airlines - you can see the symbol their hats and on the wings of the plane.  It looks vaguely Starfleet to me.

Next week, I'll plumb my archives and see if I can't get something from the US of A.

The Ark Addendum - Boeing 747

As promised, this week's Ark Addendum fetures some more airplanes.  From the same episode, we have an unused model for a Boeing 747.  Since this is a jumbo jet proper, it would have made the title (Kidnapping!? The Targeted Jumbo Jet) more accurate.  I wonder if they switched because of how high up the cockpit is in this aircraft, which would have made the action sequence when Cab and Shuta save the pilot awkward.  Probably I'm overthinking it though.  Regardless, they're rather nice designs.  Of course, after the future tech of 2006/2010, this seems like a step backwards.  However, Masterforce takes place probably somewhere around 2020 or so, and odds are good that, in the real world, 747s will still be in our skies in eight years.

Next week I'll finish it out with the crew from this episode.  Then, maybe some G1 stuff.

The Ark Addendum - Boeing 757 and The AllSpark Almanac returns!

Good News, Everyone!  It's time for another Ark Addendum!  (Oh, by the way, thanks to Geewunling over at the TF Wiki, these are now much better organized over there.  Check out his hard work.)  Today's Addendum, and theme I'll explore for the next couple of weeks, is the Airplane models from the third episode of Masterforce, Kidnapping!? The Targeted Jumbo Jet.  The Destron baddies captured airplane-loads of people to turn them into the Destroids, a zombie-like force.  Creepy stuff!  This is the model for Mont Port Air Flight 308.

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Oh, but I've got other, bigger news.  When I found out that the theme of this year's BotCon toys and comic would be Animated, I wasted no time pestering Fun Publications about the idea of another AllSpark Almanac.  After all, I've covered 3 seasons of the show, why not season 3.5?  As it turns out, FP and Hasbro were both enthusiastically behind the idea, so this November you can look forward to a bit more Almanac.  The AllSpark Almanac Addendum will be included as an extra in this year's Timelines comic, The Stunti-Con Job.  You'll get sixteen more pages covering the main characters introduced in season 3.5, plus some other neat extras.  And, who knows, if sales are strong enough, maybe I'll be able to find a venue for even more Almanac content.  Go out, get your local comicbook shop to order a copy or two, and enjoy rich, creamy, almanacky goodness!

The Ark Addendum - Lightfoot's Transform

Hail and well met, loyal blogosphere!  It's time for another edition of The Ark Addendum.  Since I've been hitting the US cartoon for the past few weeks, I thought I'd bounce over to Japan for another nifty Transformation.  This week, it's Lightfoot!

Lightfoot, the Japanese version of Getaway, was one of the Godmasters of Masterforce.  Light Foot, son of Left Foot (get it?  To the Japanese, L and R sound the same, so... ugh) is the heir to the British Motor Company, which is naturally based in Canada.  When I was putting together The Ark II, Hydra helped me get as much funny trivia like this as possible to help contextualize all these guys.

As far as the image goes, it's pretty lovely.  As usual, more effort than strictly necessary seems to have been put into this purely internal document.  I do find it slightly awkward that the Godmaster controlling the Transtector winds up on his back, though.  Not a problem with the transform, a problem with the toy, but still something that bugs me a bit.

The Ark Addendum - Super Ginrai's Transform

Welcome back to the latest edition of The Ark Addendum.  This week, we head back to Japan to get some nice Masterforce transformations.  This is the transformation sequence for Super Ginrai.  I've already posted the transform for vanilla-Ginrai some time ago - over two years ago, my how time flies.  I think I've got one more Transform for him somewhere.  I'm sure I'll get to it before too long.

I like how toy accurate this one is.  There's very little cheating going on.  That might have been a bit of a weakness on regular-Ginrai (the fake chest thing is a bit weird) but here it works out just dandy. 

The Ark Addendum - Darkwings' Extras

An Ark Addendum on a Wednesday?  What is the world coming to?

Actually, my colleague Bish wanted to get his UK comics review up yesterday, so I yielded the floor to him so he could finish out Prey.  I didn't think anyone would mind.  Now, though, it's time to return to The Ark Addendum.  As promised last week, we go back to Japan.  I figured I'd look at the Darkwing brothers some more.

In The Ark II, I had three pages of material on these guys.  I put the human and robot forms on one page each, then had a third page with all the jets, including the combined mode.  This was a bit awkward, but given the amount and quality of material I had available to me at the time I didn't have much choice.

By the time  Transformers: The Complete Ark  (order it today!)  rolled around, I had a good deal more, and the Darkwing Bros got 5 pages.  Each human got a full page, each robot/jet got a full page, and the combined version got a full page.  This was much more satisfying to me.

And yet.... there was still all this cool stuff I had to leave out, like alternate angles on the interior of the jets, specifically focusing on the seat.  There were drawings showing the jets from dead on with pilot, a rough transform for Buster, and some details on how Buster's mouth can open.  So, I gathered them together and present them here.  (I've got a polished Transform for Buster, and Hydra as well, so expect that to show up here at some point.)  They're neat designs, but I imagine you can see why I left them out rather than have a page like this or shrink all the other elements in the Darkwings section.  Hope you enjoy!  And, if you missed it, I've featured their weapons and the combination transform in the past.

The Ark Addendum - Cab's Transform

Huzzah!  War of the Worlds, season two has arrived on DVD, so I can get back to my weekly reviews.  Exciting!  And since we're on the topic of weekly content, it's time for another Ark Addendum.  This week, I present to you (dramatic drumroll here) Cab's Transformation.

Confession time.  I never liked Cab.  I dunno why, he just never sang to me.  His design, at least, is kind of cool as a human I suppose, what with the animals and the spears and whatnot.  But as a robot, he seems a bit too lanky for my taste.  Even his action shot at the end of the transform seems lackluster to me.  Shuta and Minerva were much more relatable to me than the Prince of Kairn.  Don't even get me started on how much cooler most of the Destrons were than this fellow.  Ah, well, to each his own.  Anyone out there love Cab and want to tell me why I'm crazy?  I'd love to hear from you.

The Ark Addendum - The Destron Base of Masterforce (part 5)

All good things must come to an end, and so it is with the Destron base of Masterforce.  This week's Ark Addendum continues the trend of the past month or so, the interiors of the Destron's underwater fortress.

Here we see some nice interiors, including a hallway and a waiting area.  Note the recurring motif of eyes woven into the architecture.  The hallway, meanwhile, is nothing but monstrous.  The demon statue, the snake statue... aren't they just delightfully menacing?

The Ark Addendum - The Destron Base of Masterforce (part 4)

My examination of the Destron underwater base from Masterforce continues.  Now we pivot to the outside of the base, with two underwater radar installations, and a close-up view of one of the launching tubes.

The launching tubes are amazing and terrifying.  I'd be nervous to tangle with any Transtector that shot out of that.  Those tentacles look like they could smash to bits any unauthorized vehicle attempting entry.

The two drawings on the top are not entirely clear to me.  I believe that the three meter tall elements are the various probe things coming off of the structures.  However, the shape and size of the structures are somewhat mysterious.  They're not big enough to be the Destron base, so what are they?  Any insight from hardcore Masterforce fans (Carlos? Ivan?) would be appreciated.

The Ark Addendum - The Destron Base of Masterforce (part 3)

Continuing in the vein we began two weeks ago, this edition of The Ark Addendum continues with an in-depth look at the undersea base of the Destrons from Masterforce.  This time, we get the elevator that lowers unsuspecting humans into the dank and mysterious lair, as well as the grand hall inside. 

An interesting element is the sheer size of the lair.  Since it has to accommodate both humans and transtectors, you wind up with an odd mixture of elements for both.  Hence, human sized doors along the periphery, and a Transformer sized portal to the outside that dominates the lower drawing.