Hasbro G1 Cyclonus - Figure & Sticker History

As far as Generation 1 Transformers and their global or historic variants go, 1986's Decepticon Saboteur "Cyclonus" has never had a particularly complicated or long story. He's popular, extremely well known and widely owned as a toy, but not complicated. He's a toy of three real major variations across his vintage lifespan - an early blue-eared release from 1986, a later release without the blue colouring from 1986, and a final Targetmaster re-release from 1987 - and he has a mere 10 stickers whose intended locations are clearly and consistently defined on his instructions across all releases. Or so I thought.

FOC Soundwave - Clear Test Shot Pictorial

Shopping online on Chinese websites is very dangerous indeed. I've started buying KOs and test shots of moulds I like, mercifully there aren't all that many modern moulds I'd go full metal completist on. One of the ones I am extremely partial towards outside of Animated is the Fall of Cybertron Soundwave/Blaster/Soundblaster sculpt, so the chance to get an all clear test shot - or possibly even a lunchtime special (I can't tell, but source was trustworthy) - was unmissable. The fact that it came with a clear data disc Laserbeak that allowed me to add to the growing collection of these amazing little things sealed the deal. I finally found a figure that could be effectively shot against my black background with my limited photo equipment and skills, so I hope you enjoy these shots of ghost Soundwave!

TF Animated Activators Test Shots

In my former collecting life I had a lot of nice prototypes and test shots. They were from Generation 1, Generation 2, Alternators and reissues, pretty fantastic stuff and some of it completely unseen before and unreleased. I gave that up happily and concentrated on Diaclone. Now that I am buying modern lines again, I have slipped into old habits and decided to pay tribute to the best line of sub-deluxe Transformers I've seen for ages, the Animated Activators, by grabbing as many unpainted test shots as I can find. In this post you'll see Starscream, Bulkhead, Ratchet and Bumblebee. Of course I didn't find Lockdown, no, that would have been too convenient. But sod worrying about what I don't have, time to celebrate what I do!

Interview on Prototypes - For Aendrel

A few months ago I was approached by Aendrel, a collector from Mexico, requesting that I provide some information about pre-production Transformers and prototypes for an interview to post on his blog. I'm usually asking others for interviews so it was a very strange experience trying to formulate answers in a way that would be informative and interesting for his readers. In fact, most of the time I think my answers consisted of "I don't know" or "I can't be sure" or "I can ask someone else"! Either way, Aendrel has now posted the interview on his excellent blog Under The Radar in Spanish, and has allowed me to share the original English language version of the interview here on Square One. Pictures are from my own archive and collection.