deluxe2packs

    Here we go! The first two Decepticon Jets have landed. Notice the Decepticon logo on the packages. Too bad we won't see these boys in the first season of Robots In Disguise (Watch FOX Kids!). Neither of these two jets were in Takara's Car Robots 2000 line so we can't expect to see them until a second season of RID is made.
     I have heard a few people argue that RID is just a filler show while Hasbro prepares a new line of toys. Frankly I think Hasbro has always been one to milk the cash cow and this series shouldn't be any different. I expect a new series will air next Fall if not earlier.
     Anyhow back to the topic at hand. The first two Decepticon jets are Skyfire and Wind Sheer. Both these toys are molded from KB's Machine Wars line from 1997. Below you can see how they were used in Japan's Beast Wars Neo line (where Maximals fought Decepticons). I'm surprised that Hasbro stuck with the "drawn" boxart when Takara had such nice Computer Generated Images. Heck the spychangers even had great CGI boxart in Japan and we have none on the US packages.
       For those of you counting the following 8 Decepticons have been made from the two molds provided: Mold 1: Megatron, Megaplex (MW), Thrust (BWN), Wind Sheer (RID); Mold 2: Thundercracker, Skywarp (MW), Dirge (BWN), and SkyFire (RID). When I get all these to open I will post new pictures of them side by side.

I'm rather excited to see the first glimpses here of what's to come. I'm fairly certain that other G1 diehard fans like myself would prefer to see the RID Autobots facing off against Decepticons rather than Predacons. Time will tell on this one but I'm banking on Decepticons all the way.
    It's funny to note that when Beast Wars was imported to Japan, they dumped the computer animation for cell animation and dumped the Predacons in favor of Decepticons. I think that a similar thing will happen with Robots in Disguise. I think the US audience might favor the computer animation of Beast Wars over the cell animation. Although after seeing the first episode of RID I can also see where the "Pokemon effect" might have kids enjoying the anime stylings of the new show. I'm hoping that we will reduce thew role of Predacons in the second season of RID and introduce more Decepticons.
      Back to the new twopacks... Here for the Autobots we see the reuse of KB's Machine Wars molds yet again. I think that Mirage would have been the most appropriate name for Skid-Z, but since we already have a tiny spychanger Mirage the new name will have to do. Besides Skid-Z is a cool sounding name, kinda like Tranzor-Z.
       Clearly Towline would have been better off being named Hoist or Grapple... but some old names must lie in peace I suppose. Oh I just noticed somethinng here.... in the package design some clever marketer has placed the jets "flying" above the cars. That's actually pretty cool.

   Next we have Bruticus??? What the heck, this was supposed to be called Cerebus and was an unsused mold from the now defunct Beast Machines line. If this is Bruticus then who is the combiner robot going to be?? Perhaps this is just an error that will be remedied shortly. If not looks like some G1 fans are gonna be pretty ticked off about the new name for the classic Bruticus combiner. I may be able to handle the changes in names for the little guys like Onslaught, Swindle, Brawl, Blast Off and Vortex, but what could they possible name our beloved Bruticus. Maybe he'll have the Japanese name Baldigus, which seems acceptable to me.
     Back in G1 the only two combiners I had were Superion and Bruticus. (Oh I'm not complaining here... I love you mom and dad, thanks for all the years of great toys.) I was lucky enough to get all the aerialbots together as a gift set that first christmas it was released. (Yes I opened it and no I don't have the box still : P ) For Bruticus I had to plot my transformer purchases, each piece slowly indicating the coming of the mighty Bruticus. I know I got Onslaught from Toys R Us, and I think he was $8 new. Also I remember getting Swindle at Sea World for like $6.99 which was an unheard of price since they were supposed to be $5 each (Remember this was the 1980's and $2 then is a much bigger difference than $2 now. Star Wars figures then were $1.99-$2.69, now $5.99-7.99. So just figure that into the equation.) Anyhow I needed Swindle to finish my Bruticus and my parents gave in and bought it for me. Besides Swindle is a much cooler toy than a stuffed Shamu and brought me more years of enjoyment than any other cheap souvenier would have brought me.
      Ah the good old days.... it almost made me sad that I don't have those toys anymore... but hey I can buy the combiner again when he gets released in RID :) smiles all around

       Enough of the memories for now.
       Catch ya on the flipside.

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