How Many Spychanger Reviews Are There ?

[Philip Ayres]

Nov 11, 2008 20:50:51 GMT The Doctor said:

Spychanger Scourge is evil enough to take on ALL Autobot Transformers. He needs no compatriots.

-Ralph

Oh all right you talked me into it !


Scourge

Ah Scourge. Scourge is a slimmed down version of the recoloured version of G2 Laser Rod Prime. I always though Scourge was misnamed. Not because Scourge is an unsuitable name, far from it. The problem is the RID Combaticon leader is called Mega Octane. I associate the word Octane with fuel and the laser rod Prime is a fuel tanker - a big one too. Therefore the name Mega Octane is apropriate to the laser Prime mold whereas it's less apropriate to the G1 Onslaught mold.

Needing a toy to have a little version to serve with X-Brawn in a 2-pack they chose Scourge - partially I suspect because the larger toy had a limited release as a store exclusive and the character appears in the cartoon. You could argue that he deserved a larger small toy - like the basic sized Spychangers for Optimus Prime & Megatron. Instead he's rendered in the smaller size. Only the cab is used in this smaller version making it I think the first Optimus Prime mold toy without a trailer (IIRC the TF Jr version in the 3 pack has a cardboard trailer) Others would follow in Armada, Energon, Classics & the Movie. The long nosed truck look is captured perfectly in this mold, mainly in black with red windows and headlights, a silver radiator and exhaust pipes and a Decepticon logo on the bonnet.

TF: We have the standard Spychanger pull back the back of the car to form the legs. Look at the underside and pull the front of the car in half down the middle, pull to the sides and down a bit to form the arms. Fold up the head.

Much more grey is revealed on the body in robot mode with a lot of blue detailing. The windows and radiator grill of the molded Prime chest are perfectly picked out in the molding, as is the Prime style head - black, with red eyes and a silver faceplate. The arms bending bellow the shoulder panels is the only articulation on this toy.

Overall: Perfect mini version of Scourge. The only thing lacking is his sword !


Optimus Prime

Really it was inevitable that the Scourge Spychanger would eventually gain it's larger form's original colours. And lo it came to pass. The front of the truck is cast in red plastic and the bed at the back in blue as per all good Prime toys. The windows become silver and he now has an Autobot logo on the bonnet. He maintains the teal stripes along the tops of the wheel arches at front and back. Robot mode has the blue legs and head and red arms. This time round the grey shoulders and chest are cast in white plastic but the chest is painted red & silver so you don't notice. Some teal detailing remains - round the circles on his shoulders and on the kneecaps.

Fabulous repaint. It's another essential addition to your collection to command your smaller Transformer forces. He even has a counterpart now in the shape of the Universe Legends G2 Megatron tank.


Movie Optimus Prime

Movie Optimus Prime is also a long nosed truck, so as a promotion for the Japanese DVD of the movie some new Spychanger Primes were cast taking the moving colours of blue Prime with flame detailing. Another nifty Prime repaint but can be a tinsy bit pricey !

[The Doctor]

It is the finest of all mini-sized TF moulds!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Even throwing in Legends G2 Megatron ?

[The Doctor]

Yes.

Legends G2 Megatron comes close, but Spychanger Scourge will never be toppled from his miniature throne of evil.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Blowout

Blowout is a smoked clear Autobot car. If you turn him over the front and the back of the underside are coloured blue while the middle is black. TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides. Robot mode carries the clear colour over to the body, back of the lower legs and the arms. The blue is the front of the lower legs and the neck piece. The body (under the car bonnet), upper legs and head are all black. The arms are the only part of the toy that moves and then only at the shoulders. In this mode he gains a clear gun. Overall: The smoked colour isn't as good as Firecracker's clear red. It's a bit anonymous.

Frenzy

Frenzy is one of the few Decepticon Spychangers. He takes the clear and substitutes purple, the blue for silver and keeps the black. Very Decepticon colours, better overall than Blowout

Megatron

Megatron is effectively a solid version of Blowout - swapping the clear for silver. Makes for a good set of Megatron colours. Megatron is the second Decepticon Gobot.

Japanese Megatron

There's a Japanese version of Megatron adding the T shaped Transformers logo from Gobot Soundwave to the roof of the car. The least offensive of the three Japanese versions.

Artfire

Arfire is Car Robots toy C-005 also available in the C-011 Spychanger Multipack. He becomes black in car form and gains some yellow & orange flame decoration on the bonnet. The underside of the vehicle becomes white at the ends and clear in the middle with the robot's feet and head gaining some silver paint while the head keeps the eyes & back unpainted to form a lightpipe. The colours on this toy are very similar to the Japanese Targetmaster Stepper - a black Jazz repaint with flame details who was released with an Inferno repaint called Artfire. I'd always thought TM Stepper & Artfire had their names the wrong way round and this just adds to my suspicions. Decent recolour.

Clear Artfire

Clear Artfire turns the black clear orange (with blue flames) the white becomes clear green and the clear parts turn clear blue. A tinsy bit of a colour car crash !

Hotshot

Robots in Disguise Hotshot is Artfire with a tiny Autobot symbol added to it's head. He was sold in a two pack with REV. Hotshot appears in robot mode in the first version of the packaging and in vehicle mode in the second.

Clear Hotshot

Clear Hotshot takes the existing mold and makes the black clear black and turns the white clear too. A does what it says on the tin release. A KB Toys exclusive

Tiny Tin Hotshot

Tiny Tin Hotshot is identical to RID Hotshot. He comes with a little matchbox size tin to hold the car.

Super Artfire

Super Artfire swaps the black for white, white for black, makes the clear bits clear green and colours the flames metallic blue. The head is now gold instead of silver. Nice repaint.

Clear Super Artfire

Clear Super Artfire takes all three of Super Artfire's colours and makes them clear but retains his paint modifications. You'd still struggle to pick him out in a Clear Super Spychanger lineup though !

Clear Hotshot Recolour

Clear Hotshot's Recolour takes the Hotshot colours, makes the black clear, the white clear blue and the clear plastic clear red while retaining the flame deco. Similar to clear Super Artfire, but benefits from being the only US clear recolour that's not colour don the main body.

[Philip Ayres]

Firecracker

Firecracker is a car, looking quite like the G1 Autobot car Sidesipe but lacking the spoiler as the back. The main body of the car is car in clear red. Turning the car over shows that the front and the back of the underside are cast in solid yellow and the middle is white.

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides.

Robot mode carries the clear red over to the body, back of the lower legs and the arms. The yellow is the front of the lowerlegs and the neck piece. The body (under the car bonnet), upper legs and head are all white. In this mode he gains a gun also coloured in clear red. The arms are the only part of the toy that moves and then only at the shoulders.

Overall: Looks quite decent.

Sideswipe

Sideswipe is an inevitable repaint for this mold. Unfortunately the colours are all wrong for Sideswipe - the clear red becomes blue, white becomes black and yellow becomes a sort of lime yellow.

Not a great colour change.

Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime is effectively a solid version of Firecracker - it takes the clear red and makes it solid while painting the head blue. Not a bad repaint, but could have been better if the yellow had been turned into a blue making the front of the robot legs look better.

Japanese Optimus Prime

The Japanese version of Optimus Prime is cast in a set with the Japanese Soundwave and they opted to keep Gobot Soundwave's hideous lime yellow which turns the front of the lower legs lime yellow. Horrid. If they'd have gone with dark blue as suggested above we'd have got a Japanese Soundwave closer the colours of the G1 version. He also gains Gobots Soundwave's T shaped Transformers logo.

Looks bad - the red and yellow clash. Avoid.

Eagle Killer

Eagle Killer effectively swaps this mold's original colours with those used for Gearhead - including gaining the Phoenix logo that was on Gearhead's bonnet. The car body & gun becomes yellow, the robot body becomes white and the undersides of the front & the back of the car/front of the lower legs stays white. There's a mold change used on this toy which follows through into all subsequent versions: The piece that connect the middle of the car to the front changes from being the same colour as the front of the underside (originally yellow, now red) to the same colour as the body of the car (now yellow). Wars/W.A.R.S. also has the same mold swap so I suspect they just swapped pieced between the molds at this point.

Not a bad repaint but the red and yellow looked better the other way round.

Eagle Killer was sold as Car Robots toy C-006 or in a box set with the other five spychangers numbered C-011

Clear Eagle Killer

Clear Eagle Killer was an exclusive to the Justco chain of stores in Japan in 2000. The red and yellow become clear versions of the same colour, while the white becomes a clear dark blue.

It's a clear repaint, what's not to like ?

Rev

Rev is Eagle Killer with the addition of a small Autobot symbol on the roof. Rev is an acronym for either Race Evolution Vehicle or Race Exertion Vehicle.

He was sold in a 2 pack with Spychanger Hot Shot. In both versions of the packaging Rev appears in vehicle mode.

Clear Rev

Clear Rev was anexclusive to KB Toys in 2002. He takes the yellow and makes it clear orange, the red becomes clear red and the white becomes a colourless transparent plastic.

Tiny Tin Rev

Tiny Tin Rev is identical to RID Rev. He comes with a little matchbox size tin to hold the car.

Super Eagle Killer

Super Eagle Killer uses dark blue for the car body, white for the parts under the front/back of the car and red for the robot legs/body. The head is painted blue, black of the wheels & windows, some yellow lines on the bonnet and the phoenix logo in green. Nice attractive repaint.

Clear Super Eagle Killer

Clear Super Eagle Killer comes with all parts cast in colourless transparent plastic. The only colour is the blue painted head, black of the wheels & windows, some yellow lines on the bonnet and the phoenix logo in green. It's a bit plain though especially when lined up with the other five Clear Super Spychangers which are all the same.

Clear Rev Recolour

KB had another exclusive with Clear Recolours. Rev is very similar to the previous Clear Rev - the only real change is the main body piece is now coloured green instead of clear.

[Philip Ayres]

Gearhead

Gearhead is a yellow car, with a Red firebird logo outlined on the bonnet with the words Stockbird by Transformers on it. There's vertical bar over the front and back windows so I'm guessing he must be used for some form of stock car racing. The undersides to the front & back are red and the main body is a smoked clear colour.

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides.

The yellow is carried over to the body armour & back of the robot mode with clear red lower legs and a smoked clear body & head. The logo is now on the robot's chest. In robot mode he gains a black gun - different to all the other colours used in the car's construction.

Overall: Not the worst Spychanger

Soundwave

Here the yellow becomes a neon lime yellow - yuck - the clear red becomes blue and the clear becomes purple. The firebird logo becomes a T shape with the word Transformers written over the top.

Not a great recolour. Soundwave isn't Yellow, and this isn't a good Yellow. Dark Blue instead of yellow would have worked well.

Gearhead (solid head)

The "Solid Head" Gearhead has 2 changes to the original. The body & head go from being clear to silver - the same as Blowout's car shell did when he became Megatron. The lower leg fronts/car front & back undersides go from clear red to solid red - just like Firecracker's body did when he became Optimus Prime. This can be seen as the most compelling evidence that these Gobot molds share parts and that this variation cam about when Optimus & Megatron Gobots were created.

Soundwave

The Japanese version of Soundwave swaps the blue - used for Gobot Sideswipe's body - for solid Red - used on Optimus Prime's. Worst of the Gobot paint jobs.

Greasepit

As with many G2 toys we eventually come across an undreleased variant for Gearhead. Greasepit would have been a Gearhead cast in yellow, black & red plastic with all the yellow of the car shell painted in green and then largely covered in blue and white decals.

Greasepit would have been the pack in figure with the Gobot's racing rig - a monster truck. The back of this folded back in half to create a long ramp off which the Gobot cars could be launched.

Greasepit was shown at an early TF convention in the 90s and subsequently photos appeared in toy magazines but he was never released.

Wars

When it came to the Car Robots release the Gearhead and Firecraker molds basically swapped colours: Wars gains a red car body and yellow underside to the front & back with a black robot body. There's Japanese characters on the bonnet which I'm told mean war, and the word Wars is written on the doors in the Beast Wars font. The gun becomes clear.

Wars is Car Robots toy C-007 and also appears in the Spychanger giftset C-011.

Like Firecracker/Eagle Killer the join between body and car switches mold colours in this mode - it goes from being the same colour as the lower leg fronts to the same colour as the body. I suspect that the pieces were simply swapped between the two molds at this point.

Clear Wars

Clear Wars swaps the red & black for clear red and makes the yellow clear. Nice repaint.

W.A.R.S.

W.A.R.S. is the same as Car Robots Wars with the addition of a small Autobot symbol on the roof. W.A.R.S. is an acronym for Wicked Attack Recon Sportscar.

There is a variation in the packaging of W.A.R.S. with Crosswise. In version 1 W.A.R.S. is in robot mode and Crosswise in vehicle mode, whereas in version 2 both are in vehicle mode.

Clear W.A.R.S.

Clear W.A.R.S. renders all solid three colours used on this toy for their clear counterparts. Nice version.

Tiny Tin W.A.R.S.

Tiny Tin W.A.R.S. is RID W.A.R.S. with the addition of a small matchbox size & style tin.

Super Wars

Super Wars makes the car body off white (with hideous green windows), the car front & back undersides dark blue and the robot body white. The gun becomes clear green.

Not a bad repaint but not as appealing as the original CR Wars.

Clear Super Wars

Clear Super Wars is the paint from Super Wars on a car/robot that uses only plain clear plastic. Clear repaints need more colour to their plastic than this !

Clear W.A.R.S. Recolour

Clear W.A.R.S. recolour is much better - clear purple on the car body, the car front & back undersides become clear orange and the robot body plain clear. Much more like it !

[Philip Ayres]

Highbeam

Highbeam's car mode has some exposed engine parts molded into the back of it. The body work is painted metallic green with black windows and silver engine parts. Turning it over reveals the panels under the front and the back of the car are black and the middle of the car is bright yellow.

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides.

The metallic green is carried over onto the robot's chest (the car bonnet), the rear of the robot and the outside of the arms. The inside of the arms shows that all the painted green parts are in fact molded in black too. In this mode he gains a gun also coloured yellow. The arms are the only part of the toy that moves and then only at the shoulders.

Looks quite decent, the colours help it stand out

Bumblebee

The Bumblebee name is back ! All the black parts remain molded in that colour, but the metallic green paint is now metallic gold. The yellow however has become a more neon lime yellow - the same as Sideswipe's leg fronts and Soundwave's body shell. The gun has also changed

It's a good try but they aught to have used the Goldbug name instead. They also really aught to have kept to the original yellow - or gone for making the yellow blue which would have given a better Soundwave and made BB's head the same colour as Throttlebot Goldbug's.

Botcon Exclusive Nightracer

The 1995 Botcon exclusive has this mold with a black car shell, black underside pieces and a yellow body. It's also noticeable as being the first TF toy identifiable as being female and it's a Decepticon Gobot.

X-Car

X-Car molds the black pieces in clear plastic but on the inside of them we have blue paint giving the car a quite interesting look. The upper legs, body and gun are all coloured red.

Interesting repaint. The only Spychanger to have a clear car as it's basic version.

X-Car is Car Robots toy C-008 and is also part of C-011 the Spychanger Multipack

Clear X-Car

Clear X-Car was a Justco exclusive in 2000. All the clear material now becomes clear blue and isn't painted underneath anymore. The red becomes clear red.

Decent variation on the theme.

Crosswise

Crosswise is X-Car with the addition of a small Autobot sign on it's roof.

He was available packaged in a 2 pack with W.A.R.S. Crosswise comes packaged in vehicle mode in both versions of the packaging.

Clear Crosswise

Clear Crosswise was an exclusive for KB Toys. It keeps the basic colourscheme, makes the blue paint much lighter and turns the red into clear red.

Tiny Tin Crosswise

Tiny Tin Crosswise is RID Crosswise packaged with a little matchbox size tin to hold the car.

Super X-Car

Super X-Car turns both the clear pieces on X-Car into clear green, loose the paint inside them and turns the red white. Not a bad repaint at all, clear coloured versions always welcome.

Clear Super X-Car

Whereas Clear Super X-Car is yet another completely clear version. It's hard to pick members of this series out from the others as they all look the same drained of colour.

Clear Crosswise Recolour

Clear Crosswise's repaint is very nice though - all the clear pieces on Crosswise become clear red, the inner paint is gone and the body parts are a sort of smoked clear colour. The end result is similar to the original Firecracker.

[grahamthomson]

Ah so many fond Spychanger memories!!

I must dig all mine out this weekend and bask in their glory.

[Philip Ayres]

We're Not even half way through yet G !

[Philip Ayres]

Motormouth

Motormouth is a pick up truck - like Double Clutch (repaints of both of them would later be packaged together) he's distinctive from the other four Gobots by having a different vehicle mode. The body of the truck is blue - my copy of Transformers Generations shows a much darker blue than in the main photos on TFU.info for the original version - with either end of the underside being plain clear and the middle being clear red. The windows are painted black with the word Transformers written across the top.

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides.

Resulting robot adds one more colour to the mix - the join between the body & the car front and the additional gun are now coloured white. The head continues to be clear red with a solid silver painted face.

Not a bad toy at all. Good balance of colours.

Ironhide

When it was repaint time they chose the name Ironhide and kept the truck as an Autobot. Unfortunately he's ended up in all Decepticon colours as a result of the colour choices used elsewhere: The body shell is silver as used on Frenzy & Mirage. The panels under the front & back of the car a pale Decepticon purple as used on Frenzy's car body and Soundwave's robot body. The middle panel of the underside/robot body is blue like Sideswipe's car body and Soundwave's underside panels. Throw in the green paint on the face mask and he's the spitting image of Decepticon Headmaster Fangry !

Wrong name and fraction for this colour scheme I'm afraid.

Motomouth (solid)

This Motormouth variation comes about as a result of the changes made to Firecracker & Blowout to make Optimus Prime & Megatron. Blowout's shell (clear, like Motormouth's under panels) becomes Silver to make Megatron so so do Motormouth's under panels. Firecracker's clear red car body (like Motormouth's robot body & legs) becomes solid to make Optimus Prime so so do Motormouth's clear red body & legs become solid legs.

OK variation, nothing wildly special or offensive.

Ox

Ox takes the blue and makes it white with some black cow patterning and a bull's head logo on the bonnet in red. The clear becomes black, the clear red becomes yellow and the white for the gun & joint becomes off white.

Not the worst repaint in the world but I'm not sure the yellow and white go together.

Ox is Car Robots toy C-009 and also appears in the Spychanger Multipack C-011

Clear Ox

Clear Ox makes the white clear green, looses the cow pattern and makes the Bull's head silver. The black becomes clear orange, the yellow clear yellow and the off white clear purple. Nice clear repaint.

Ironhide

Ironhide is Car Robots Ox with the addition of a little Autobot symbol on the roof. In this version the flatbed of the pick up is painted red.

Ironhide appears in a 2-pack with Mirage - in the first version of the packaging Ironhide is in robot mode, in the second he's in vehicle mode.

Clear Ironhide

Clear Ironhide was a KB exclusive in the US. The white becomes clear retaining the cow pattern and the bull's head in red. Black becomes smoked clear plastic. Yellow becomes clear orange and the white becomes plain clear.

Another decent clear repaint. 2 for 2 on the clear versions of this mold. You know it won't last/

Ironhide

Tiny Tin Ironhide is RID Ironhide with the addition of a matchbox size and shape tin for putting the car in.

Super Ox

Super Ox is almost an Inverse of Ox. Black becomes White and White becomes Black even down to the paint work ! The Bull's head is now gold, and the body/head dark blue. The gun is bright red.

Clever repaint.

Clear Super Ox

Super Clear Ox: I've written five reviews of the Super Clear Spychangers so far and had to say the same thing every time - using plain clear plastic for all of these was a mistake. We've ended up with a set of vehicles and robots that look so similar to each other. Not good.

Clear Ironhide Recolour

Ironhide's clear recolour makes the body of the car clear blue - with black windows and flatbed. The under panels at the front and back are clear. The body is clear orange and the gun clear green.

Decent repaint, and strangely reminiscent of Motormouth's original colours.

Universe Ironhide

Ironhide has an additional repaint to all the other G2 Gobots - he appears as a Wal-Mart exclusive packaged with a recoloured Spychanger Ultra Magnus. The white on the body is black loosing it's previous colour patterns. The windows are painted metallic blue and the flatbed is painted silver. There's a red Autobot logo on the bonnet and some red & orange markings on the side as well as the lettering 4wd. Now I'll accept black as an Ironhide colour - the name implies it. But if you take the black vehicle mode with all those markings what you actually have is a spitting image of the G1 Autobot Car Trailbreaker ! ( see www.tfu.info/1984/Autobot/Trailbreaker/trailbreaker.htm )

TF'ing the toy reveals the leg fronts are also black, the legs/body & head are yellow and the gun is white. So the analogy breaks down slightly here, but the vehicle mode is enough to convince me this toy is misnamed !

[Philip Ayres]

Double Clutch

Double Clutch is an Autobot racing car, and that immediately brings to mind the G1 Autobot Mirage. Double Clutch is molded in white, but the nose is painted red and the rear & spoiler are blue. Turning the car over the middle of the underside is molded in dark blue.

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation, so he's not too dissimilar to G1 Mirage here either. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides.

The nose has ended up on the chest like all the other Spychanger. The legs are dark blue like the panel that has ended up under the car nose/chest as is the additional gun.

Overall: Not a bad toy. Has the advantage of being distinctive in form from the car modes used for four of the other five Gobots.

Mirage

You could have placed money on they're being a Mirage repaint. And there was. White becomes black - with the nose unpainted and yellow tiger stripes on the tail. Blue becomes silver. Not Mirage's colours but a nice repaint.

Counter Arrow

Counter Arrow has a go at looking more like Mirage again - the white becomes off white and is this time painted with blue detailing and a black stripe down the centre of the nose. The blue becomes white. The head gets a layer of blue paint.

Not too dissimilar to Double Clutch. Counter Arrow is Car Robots toy C-010 and also appears in the Spychanger multipack C-011

Clear Counter Arrow

Clear Counter Arrow is quite a drastic recolouring - the car becomes clear blue while the underside of the car, the upper legs of the robot and the gun become clear green. Inventive and different for a racing car TF.

Mirage

Mirage is Counter Arrow with a small Autobot symbol added to his nose. As such he's one of the few US Spychangers that look different in their robot modes when compared with their Japanese counterparts in Car Robots.

Mirage appears in a 2 pack with Ironhide. Mirage is in vehicle mode in both versions of the packaging.

Clear Mirage

Clear Mirage takes the Mirage colours and makes the toy out of clear plastic. Works better than the Clear Super Spychangers from Japan as he's the only one that's completely clear.

Tiny Tin Mirage

Tiny Tin Mirage is RID Mirage with the addition of a matchbox size sliding tin to put the car in.

Super Counter Arrow

Super Counter Arrow is another inventive repaint - the off white of Counter Arrow becomes red and the pure white becomes black. Distinctive repaint.

Clear Super Counter Arrow

A completely plain clear version of the above. While Clear Mirage looks nice the plainer paint apps on this toy detract from it.

Clear Mirage Recolour

Effectively an inverse version of Clear Counter Arrow - with the car body in clear green and the robot body & gun as clear blue. Nice again.

This Mold has done well out of the repaints - the original and Gobot repaint are nice, as is the original RID and Spychanger and there's 4 good repaints of that too !

[The Doctor]

Sooooooooooooooooooooo maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Spychaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangersssssssssssssssss!

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

I'd forgotten just how many of the little buggers had been produced!

Andy

[grahamthomson]

Nov 14, 2008 12:47:56 GMT Philip Ayres said:

We're Not even half way through yet G !

Okay, well I'll only dig out half of them to play with at the weekend!

[Philip Ayres]

All the originally released Gobots are now up. Got the 4 unreleased ones that were in RID and X-Brawn ready, and need to write the Prime/Magnus ones

[The Doctor]

I have such an overwhelming urge to track down all the Spychangers now. Damn you, Uncle Phil!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Settle for one of each mold. The clear Japanese versions (both series) and the Japanese Gobot versions are hard to get.

[Philip Ayres]

G2 Gobot "Daytonus"

Daytonus is one of the four unreleased G2 Gobot molds that were resurrected for Robots In Disguise. There are two other unreleased molds, pictures of which are on my Spychangers page. These six new Spychangers have one significant advance over their predecessors: Their guns can be stowed away in vehicle mode. This sets a precedent that would last through till Transformers Animated broke ranks in 2008.

G2 "Daytonus" was photographed at a Japanese toy show in 2006 on a Gobot Highbeam card. The car has a blue front, white middle and purple rear - no photos exist of the robot mode molded in the colours.

Daytonus

In 2001 I wrote: "Sidebrun is shaped (in car mode at least) like the blue delux RID toy of the same name. Daytonus looks like Backstreet. Seen one spychanger you seen the lot as far as the TF and Robots go :-( "

Daytonus is a pale orange sportscar with raised front wings, a bubble cockpit for the driver/passenger and a rear spoiler. The shape rather stands out from the other Spychanger cars. Turning it over we find the front (front of robot legs) & the back of the underside are black while the middle (robot body & head) is white.

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides. Detach the gun from between the legs and place in his hand.

The front of the car on the chest & the arch of the bubble round the head help to give the robot a distinctive look.

Nice toy. Comes packaged in a 2 pack with Spychanger Sideburn.

Wheeljack

The orange becomes white and the black becomes grey on this version which adds some decoration in traditional Wheeljack green & red. The odd shape suits the experimental Wheeljack.

Wheeljack was an Exclusive to KB in 2004

[Philip Ayres]

G2 Gobot "Sideburn"

Sideburn is one of the four unreleased G2 Gobot molds that were resurrected for Robots In Disguise. There are two other unreleased molds, pictures of which are on my Spychangers page. These six new Spychangers have one significant advance over their predecessors: Their guns can be stowed away in vehicle mode. This sets a precedent that would last through till Transformers Animated broke ranks in 2008.

G2 "Sideburn" was photographed at a Japanese toy show in 2006 on a Gobot Highbeam card. The car has is purple with black windows - no photos exist of the robot mode molded in the colours.

Sideburn

In 2001 I wrote: "Sidebrun is shaped (in car mode at least) like the blue delux RID toy of the same name. Daytonus looks like Backstreet. Seen one spychanger you seen the lot as far as the TF and Robots go :-( "

Sideburn is important in that he represent a continuation of Hasbro's policy introduced in Beast Machines to do toys of characters in different sizes. Since BM they appear to have realised larger versions are a mistake and now concentrate on smaller ones. This policy will eventually lead to the Legends line.

Here they picked an unused Spychanger mold close to Sideburn's larger form (I wonder if they considered what would eventually become Sideswipe on the grounds of the engine mounted through the bonnet and then dismissed it due to the goggles on the face ?) Sideburn inherits his larger version's blue paint and blue fire detailing. Turning it over we find the front (front of robot legs) & the back of the underside are white while the middle (robot body & head) is orange (like Daytonus).

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides. Detach the gun from between the legs and place in his hand.

Here the Sideburn similarities fall down with the orange face. Decent try, but given you know what the larger robot looks like an effort should be made to get the smaller robot at least coloured the same.

Sideburn is packaged with Daytonus

Jazz

All white repaint with Jazz decals. Again the vehicle form works then the robot mode breaks down due to the lack of black and the odd shaped head.

Jazz is a KB exclusive in 20042

[Philip Ayres]

G2 Gobot "Prowl"

Prowl is one of the four unreleased G2 Gobot molds that were resurrected for Robots In Disguise. There are two other unreleased molds, pictures of which are on my Spychangers page. These six new Spychangers have one significant advance over their predecessors: Their guns can be stowed away in vehicle mode. This sets a precedent that would last through till Transformers Animated broke ranks in 2008.

G2 "Prowl" was photographed at a Japanese toy show in 2006 on a Gobot Highbeam card. The car has a blue front & rear with a white middle - no photos exist of the robot mode molded in the colours.

Prowl 2

Prowl is important in that he represent a continuation of Hasbro's policy introduced in Beast Machines to do toys of characters in different sizes. Since BM they appear to have realised larger versions are a mistake and now concentrate on smaller ones. This policy will eventually lead to the Legends line.

Here they picked an unused Spychanger mold close to Prowl's larger form. Because all Police cars are the same shape right ? Wrong ! Prowl is shaped nothing like Car Brother Mach Alert/Prowl. This is a much more traditional US police car in Prowl's colours - mainly with blue stripe detailing added. Turning it over we find the front (front of robot legs) & the back of the underside are black while the middle (robot body & head) is yellow (a unique colour use in these four new Spychangers)

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides. Detach the gun from between the legs and place in his hand.

Again the similarities are spoiled by the head - yellow, with a black face plate.

Nice try at a smaller version but could do a lot better now if they were asked to do a Spychanger Prowl in the Legends line. Come to think of it they could have done better then if they'd have used the Gobot Firecracker mold !

Prowl 2 comes packaged with Sideswipe. Prowl

Prowl

Freed of the need to resemble the RID Prowl this Spychanger fairs better in this 2004 KB exclusive release. The white stays with some new black patterning on the car. The black on the underside stays too but the yellow of the body is gone replaced by grey which is more in tune with the rest of the colours used and gives a much better looking head.

Universe 2 Pack Prowl

As with the Universe Ironhide (packaged with Ultra Magnus) this Prowl (which comes with Optimus Prime) isn't what it says on the box. We have the same basic plastic colours as the Prowl repaint above but this time with red Fire Chief stickers on. He's obviously Red Alert and quite a good one at that !

[Philip Ayres]

G2 Gobot "Sideswipe"

Sideswipe is one of the four unreleased G2 Gobot molds that were resurrected for Robots In Disguise. There are two other unreleased molds, pictures of which are on my Spychangers page. These six new Spychangers have one significant advance over their predecessors: Their guns can be stowed away in vehicle mode. This sets a precedent that would last through till Transformers Animated broke ranks in 2008.

G2 "Sideswipe" was photographed at a Japanese toy show in 2006 on a Gobot Highbeam card. The car is a mix of white and orange - no photos exist of the robot mode molded in the colours. I have seen the name Rumble attached to this toy on at least one website.

Sideswipe

Sideswipe's form here in no way resembles his G1 mode - that's a red Lamborghini Countach. Here he's more an American sportscar with the engine pointing through the bonnet - similar to the larger Sideburn's vehicle mode. The car body is molded in black but heavily painted green. The front & back of the underside are orange while the middle (robot body & head) is blue.

TF: Most of the Gobots/Spychangers - all the ones originally designed for G2 - have the G1 Sideswipe Transformation. Pull the back of the car back, fold down the bonnet under the front of the car. Pull the arms out to the sides. Detach the gun from between the legs and place in his hand.

While we have the front of the car on the robot chest (which is very Sideswipe) we also have the engine here. The head has a pair of goggles down over the eyes looking very much like an illustration of the Owlman from Watchmen.

Good addition to the Spychanger ranks but it isn't Sideswipe

Silverstreak

Silverstreak has the car body in grey with a white stripe down the front - resembling the G1 car Bluestreak whose name is now lost to a trademark problem. We find both other colours of plastic replaced by white on this repaint. It's not a bad go and definitely more Bluestreak than Sideswipe !

[Philip Ayres]

X-Brawn

X-Brawn represents an interesting step for the TF line. The other two Spychangers has been released using Older unreleased G2 Gobot molds as approximations. Since Wildride is an SUV then the unreleased Gobot jeep would have made a reasonable approximation. However they decided to develop a totally new toy and release that instead.

The SUV is mainly silver grey in colour with some green trim underneath. He's of similar proportions and shape to the larger version. The doors both open on this mode.

TF: open the doors, fold the front of the vehicle off to the side to form one arm & swing round at the shoulder, fold the other arm out and in true Spychanger style pull the back of the vehicle down to form the legs.

Robot catches X-Brawn's likeness dead on. He's a solid lump apart from the arms - the thinner one swings to the side and bends at the elbow and the larger one rotates at the shoulder, swings to the side and bends at the elbow.

Overall: Very good mini version of X-Brawn. Sadly forgotten somewhat because he shipped in a 2 pack packaged with Spychanger Scourge.

Hoist

Hoist is a dark green repaint of X-Brawn - the spare tire is painted orange and most of the internal robot parts are black. It's a reasonable reuse of name with mold even though it's missing G1 Hoist's towing gear which is a defining characteristic of that character.

[Philip Ayres]

Ultra Magnus

Spychanger Ultra Magnus (and his co sells Optimus Prime, Scourge & X-Brawn) are significant steps forward for the TF range. It's the first time a character has been specifically downsized and cast as a new mold in order to sell a toy at a lower price point (The BM Tank & Cycle drones are just that - drone versions of their leaders but are admittedly better likenesses while Night Slash Cheetor is an alternate version of that character - but again a better toy) These four are meant to be the same toy, no changes, just smaller.

Obviously there's been some simplification. And because Op & Magnus are large toys to start with their smaller versions are larger taking up the same shelf package space as 2 spychangers - approximately one basic although there's only five actual basic sized toy in RID - all recolours

In 2002 I wrote: "The head on the Magnus is so great, they've got it spot on likeness of the larger toy, something which isn't quite achieved in the Prime. It should be noted that both Prime and Magnus can swivel their heads which is articulation none of the spychangers have had till now - mainly I assume cos they're smaller. "

Doesn't really cover it does it ?

Ultra Magnus is a scaled down and simplified version of the larger toy. There's no internal space here, and the rack on the roof is just big enough to take one spychanger. Back doesn't fold down, there's no weapon included, no chrome at the front and the cab is painted grey instead of white.

TF: Oh what a nightmare ! Sorry that's the larger version. This toy is made for anyone who through RID Magnus out the windows in frustration. Look at the bottom of the toy and you can see the robot with the head at the front. Fold the front of the vehicle back, pull the legs down in true Gobot/Spychanger tradition, fold the ends of the ramp on the back of the robot up as wings and pull the arms to the sides. Job done.

Decent replica of the Magnus robot mode here, no complaints. Articulation is the same as Prime - The only meaningful articulation is bending shoulders and rotating head but for some reason he can also do the splits (Why - not needed in the tf and it's a pretty useless pair of joint by themselves)

Spychanger Ultra Magnus cannot combine with Spychanger Optimus Prime

Good solid mini toy.

Ultra Magnus

This universe version - packaged with Ironhide - a recoloured Gobot Motormouth that looks more like Trailbreaker - comes in a colour scheme reminiscent of the larger Costco version painting all the grey black - including the cab ! It was different bits painted black on the Costco version though ! Looks decent enough.

[Philip Ayres]

Optimus Prime

Spychanger Optimus Prime (and his co sells Ultra Magnus, Scourge & X-Brawn) are significant steps forward for the TF range. It's the first time a character has been specifically downsized and cast as a new mold in order to sell a toy at a lower price point (The BM Tank & Cycle drones are just that - drone versions of their leaders but are admittedly better likenesses while Night Slash Cheetor is an alternate version of that character - but again a better toy) These four are meant to be the same toy, no changes, just smaller.

Obviously there's been some simplification. And because Op & Magnus are large toys to start with their smaller versions are larger taking up the same shelf package space as 2 spychangers - approximately one basic although there's only five actual basic sized toy in RID - all recolours

Optimus Prime is a scaled down version of the fire engine. Mainly red in colour with a grey ladder. Front and back wheels turn, but the more front of the rear wheels is molded in. The Turntable move 90 degrees off the centre and the ladder elevates at the turntable. Missiles, extending ladder and electronics have all gone.

TF: Face the toy towards you. Turn the ladder 90 degrees to your left. Look at the underside of the toy with the front facing down. Pull on the front to form the robot legs - a reversal of Spychanger tradition where the back is pulled down. Fold the back down 90 degrees and push the ladder up so the base slides up where it connects to the turntable and the tip is on the ground level with the base of the robot feet. Pull the arms out to the sides and up.

No smaller Optimus robot mode here, we cut straight to the Super mode and this is a superb mini version. The likeness is dead on. The only meaningful articulation is bending shoulders and rotating head but for some reason he can also do the splits (Why - not needed in the tf and it's a pretty useless pair of joint by themselves)

Well worth a look !

In 2002 I wrote: "I'll go along with what Karl says about the balance on this one. It's important to note that all of all the spychangers Prime is the only one that stands on the front of his vehicle. The correct positioning of the ladder in this mode is down the toy's left hand side, but with a small ammount of twiddling you can get the ladder sticking out as a cannon under the arms... "

I'd forgotton about the cannon ! Does need to be under his left arm though !

Optimus Prime

This universe version - packaged with Prowl - a recoloured Spychanger Prowl 2 that looks more like Red Alert - comes in the horrid Costco Prime yellow colours. Still at least we're spared the indignity of the chest they forgot to change the chrome colour on of the larger version !

[Philip Ayres]

'm done.

Quite proud of these reviews - not the quality as such as they were a pain in the back side to write as there's a pile of repetition especially on the earlier ones with 8+ different series - but the research that went into finding out if we'd really identified all of them and matching which repaint with which original mold (thank you TFU.info for doing the hard work)

You'll also note as I've gone in the toy names have become hot linked to the TFU entried and also grown in size. I've got a new piece of XL that reads in the html files for the website and convers the formatting to Hub Speak.

We'll be back with RID - and more G2 repaints/non releases at a later date.

[The Doctor]

Unfortunately, I'm getting 'this URL cannot be found' when clicking on the names.

Spychanger RID Magnus is indeed tops.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Ta. Hubspeak won't let you put quotes round a url while Html prefers it.

[Philip Ayres]

sorted