Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 3, 2011 10:03:13 GMT
For previous uses of the Rodimus mould see the Battle In Space review.
TFCC Sideburn
Way back in the dim and distant past of 2000, the Japanese Car Robots toy line, sold in the west in 2001/2 as Robots in Disguise, had a blue sports car: C-004 Speedbreaker (RID Sideburn). During the series this character has a power-up turning into C-026 Super Speedbreaker (RID Super Sideburn), a red Hot Rod homage. In 2011, the tenth anniversary of Robots in Disguise, the Transformers Collectors Club is repaying the favour by repainting Classics Rodimus as Speedbreaker. Colour swap time:
Blue replaces Red.
White replaces Orange.
Black stays Black.
Clear Yellow replaces Clear Blue.
I think that looks gorgeous and that may get me to stump up the £50 necessary to join the club.
As indeed it did. Unfortunately there were a few delays to Sideburn, leading to a toy that was touted as being released "late spring/early summer" eventually on the 27th July an email arrived stating
So that's in the mail to International members Tuesday 2nd August 2011 and with their postal systems Friday 5th August 2011? I got mine Tuesday 30th August. where had it been for 3 1/2 weeks?
To make matters worse the Fan Club's packaging left a lot to be desired. In fact if I'd have got a toy off eBay packaged like this I'd be leaving the seller a very bad score for his packaging. The toy was packaged in a plastic bag and then stuck directly into a mailer box with no packaging. The Rodimus mould has some lovely thin spoilers. On Sideburn, nearly without fail, these arrived bent out of shape. It's a poor show, especially when you consider the heavy duty boxes with foam inserts that the toys from the club shop come packaged in. I read reports elsewhere of a catalogue of damage including bent missiles (which idiot packed them loaded in the weapons?), missing panels, upside down hands and bad paint applications.
When you start playing with the toy some issues that the mould has been developing becomes obvious: the arm on your right (his left arm) is very loose at the shoulder and is prone to falling out of the ball joint holding it in place when you move it. In addition the back, which the spoilers are attached to, isn't 100% stable anymore. One element of the toy looks a little odd at first and that's his head. The horn on our left and the crest are painted yellow, but the right horn is unpainted. However bellow the horn, there's a yellow smudge on the underside of his brow and round the eye socket which looks all the world like a badly misaligned paint application. What I think it is, however, is an attempt to simulate the asymmetrical nature of the original Sideburn's head. Given the mould shape they were working with I think abandoning this element of the design and properly colouring the horns would have been a better move. The other departure from the original design I would have made concerns the robot's chest/vehicle bonnet: I think it looks a little empty in the middle and could do with an Autobot symbol there to break the design up somewhat.
I love the concept behind this toy, reversing the process of original Sideburn's Super Car Brother repaint into a Hot Rod homage to turn a Rodimus into Sideburn. I love the general implementation of the idea too. The problem is some poor quality control and poor packaging has conspired to spoil it for many people. The intention behind the asymmetrical colouring of the horns is easily misinterpreted as a bad paint application, and has been by many people, making me think a more traditional colouring of both horns would have been better.
As a small postscript Here's the story of a friend of mine. Wanting the toy, but not the fan club membership he resisted manfully signing up for the club. Then two days after the closing date he had a few sherberts too many one night and drunkenly subscribed. For five & half months he sat there knowing he'd paid for the wrong toy. Then a mystery "we tried to deliver a parcel" note was found in his letter box and he discovered that the fan club had accidentally sent him one anyway even though he subscribed after the deadline!
TFCC Sideburn
Way back in the dim and distant past of 2000, the Japanese Car Robots toy line, sold in the west in 2001/2 as Robots in Disguise, had a blue sports car: C-004 Speedbreaker (RID Sideburn). During the series this character has a power-up turning into C-026 Super Speedbreaker (RID Super Sideburn), a red Hot Rod homage. In 2011, the tenth anniversary of Robots in Disguise, the Transformers Collectors Club is repaying the favour by repainting Classics Rodimus as Speedbreaker. Colour swap time:
Blue replaces Red.
White replaces Orange.
Black stays Black.
Clear Yellow replaces Clear Blue.
I think that looks gorgeous and that may get me to stump up the £50 necessary to join the club.
As indeed it did. Unfortunately there were a few delays to Sideburn, leading to a toy that was touted as being released "late spring/early summer" eventually on the 27th July an email arrived stating
Provided that your membership was in good standing on March 16th (which makes you eligible to receive this year's free figure) the domestic figures are now in the mail.and
The foreign mail pieces will depart by next Tuesday. They go via DHL Worldmail. DHL forwards them to your county's mail system and then your postal carrier will deliver your piece. These should be in your country's mail system by the end of next week.(The club has an annoying habit of labelling those members outside of the US as Foreign)
So that's in the mail to International members Tuesday 2nd August 2011 and with their postal systems Friday 5th August 2011? I got mine Tuesday 30th August. where had it been for 3 1/2 weeks?
To make matters worse the Fan Club's packaging left a lot to be desired. In fact if I'd have got a toy off eBay packaged like this I'd be leaving the seller a very bad score for his packaging. The toy was packaged in a plastic bag and then stuck directly into a mailer box with no packaging. The Rodimus mould has some lovely thin spoilers. On Sideburn, nearly without fail, these arrived bent out of shape. It's a poor show, especially when you consider the heavy duty boxes with foam inserts that the toys from the club shop come packaged in. I read reports elsewhere of a catalogue of damage including bent missiles (which idiot packed them loaded in the weapons?), missing panels, upside down hands and bad paint applications.
When you start playing with the toy some issues that the mould has been developing becomes obvious: the arm on your right (his left arm) is very loose at the shoulder and is prone to falling out of the ball joint holding it in place when you move it. In addition the back, which the spoilers are attached to, isn't 100% stable anymore. One element of the toy looks a little odd at first and that's his head. The horn on our left and the crest are painted yellow, but the right horn is unpainted. However bellow the horn, there's a yellow smudge on the underside of his brow and round the eye socket which looks all the world like a badly misaligned paint application. What I think it is, however, is an attempt to simulate the asymmetrical nature of the original Sideburn's head. Given the mould shape they were working with I think abandoning this element of the design and properly colouring the horns would have been a better move. The other departure from the original design I would have made concerns the robot's chest/vehicle bonnet: I think it looks a little empty in the middle and could do with an Autobot symbol there to break the design up somewhat.
I love the concept behind this toy, reversing the process of original Sideburn's Super Car Brother repaint into a Hot Rod homage to turn a Rodimus into Sideburn. I love the general implementation of the idea too. The problem is some poor quality control and poor packaging has conspired to spoil it for many people. The intention behind the asymmetrical colouring of the horns is easily misinterpreted as a bad paint application, and has been by many people, making me think a more traditional colouring of both horns would have been better.
As a small postscript Here's the story of a friend of mine. Wanting the toy, but not the fan club membership he resisted manfully signing up for the club. Then two days after the closing date he had a few sherberts too many one night and drunkenly subscribed. For five & half months he sat there knowing he'd paid for the wrong toy. Then a mystery "we tried to deliver a parcel" note was found in his letter box and he discovered that the fan club had accidentally sent him one anyway even though he subscribed after the deadline!
