Transformer Tow Trucks
With my latest score of Transformers, I was intrigued by the appearance of a tow truck in there. We don’t get a lot of tow truck alternate modes; in fact, this is only the third tow truck mold in over twenty years. The G1 character, Hoist (1985), was repainted from Trailbreaker, a 4×4 truck. If you lost his car harness when you were a kid, then Hoist is barely a tow truck. He did have some good scenes in the G1 cartoon, so he’s a memorable character.
The second tow truck mold is also Hoist (1997), but with a pretty unsatisfactory paint job. This mold was supposed to be included in the G2 Transformers line, but ended up pulling double duty in Machine Wars instead. The other figure in the line with the same mold, Hubcap, has a similarly bad paint job. Both are a single color with some stickers on there for a splash of much-needed contrast. They almost make up for it with their automatic transformation, which is powered by a spring-loaded towing hook.
The same mold was used again the the RiD line as Tow-Line (2001), but this time they added COLOR. Tow-Line is actually more than one color, with a tampographed accent color. He played a minor part in the cartoon. The coolest paint job for this mold, however, was Wrecker Hook (2004) from the Japanese-only Robot Masters line. The Japanese always have better paint jobs than us. Wrecker Hook even has a unique weapon, which only adds to his coolness. There was also a fifth use of this mold, an orange Wrecker Hook made in transparent plastic, but this one was a store exclusive in Japanese stores. Again, the Japanese have it so much better than us.
So after so many uses of the G2 mold, Hasbro has brought us a new figure for the Transformers Movie line. To be honest, I was so caught up in taking pictures of my older figures that I forgot to remove Longarm from his package. But he looks very cool. I predict that we’ll see at least one G1 Hoist repaint of this figure some time in the future.
I loves me some Wrecker Hook– actually, the entire Robot Masters line. (Heck, I even bought the DVD ones and the black ones, really all I’m missing is the promotional weapons pack and a Brave Maximus.) Wonderful, wonderful line, much more fun than the bulk of Universe was back then.
ZOMBIE REPLY: I strongly disagree re: Japan having it better – sure they get some crazy-cool exclusives, but a lot of the time there is severe severe dickishness involved with how you have to get them; I’m thinking of the mini-cons that were blind-packed with Armada Super Prime, requiring you to buy AT LEAST THREE ARMADA SUPER PRIMES to get a set.
Also, the whole “opening TWO credit cards to get the latest mini-cons” thing. Japan gets neat stuff, but the price you have to pay is pretty horrifying. (And besides, the last year or two of U.S. store exclusives has been amazing: Dreadwind? Countdown? Hardhead? a Legends-class Gutcruncher homage?!)
Hasbro has gotten better about offering nice paint decos and store exclusives in the last year or so (this post was written in 2007, just after the first Bayformers movie). But I still stand by my statement that the Japanese have better paint schemes. The 10th Anniversary Beast Wars re-issues, for example, were painted much better than their American counterparts.
Oh, and hey, I totally called the G1 Hoist homage repaint for Longarm. I had forgotten that I had said that two years ago…