New Toy Galleries: Pretenders Bugly, Iguanus, Finback, Groundbreaker, Sky High, and Splashdown!

Thanks for posting these Razorclaw0000. You and Blurrz both found my favorite shot I did of each of these. It feels great to finally have these 12 figures as part of the galleries after 7 years. Can't believe it took that long, but they're here now. Thank you to both of you for getting these news stories up so promptly. I really appreciate it.

Now to decide between finishing the galleries up for the Hasbro and Takara Tomy Masterpiece Grimlocks or the G1 Mega Pretenders. Hmm ...

Mega Pretenders!

Also, do you have the beast Pretenders, like Snarler and Catilla?

I had Groundbreaker and Iguanus as a kid and really loved them.

Razorclaw0000 wrote:Mega Pretenders!

Also, do you have the beast Pretenders, like Snarler and Catilla?

I had Groundbreaker and Iguanus as a kid and really loved them.

Snarler, Catilla, Carnivac, and Chainclaw are some of the older galleries on the site.

Mega Pretenders.

I've been reluctant to buy anymore Pretenders. Nearly half the ones from my childhood have spotting (like in Bugly's gallery) and sticky, melty paint. They're kinda gross to touch and look at. The only ones that managed to avoid it are the small 1989 Pretenders (Bludgeon, Pincher, etc.). It's all Florida's fault.

Posted back in May 2005 ...

Carnivac


Snarler


Catilla


Chainclaw

It Is Him wrote:Mega Pretenders.

I've been reluctant to buy anymore Pretenders. Nearly half the ones from my childhood have spotting (like in Bugly's gallery) and sticky, melty paint. They're kinda gross to touch and look at. The only ones that managed to avoid it are the small 1989 Pretenders (Bludgeon, Pincher, etc.). It's all Florida's fault.

Hot soapy water did wonders for the "sticky" feeling that the Pretender shells had. I put some dish soap on the toy, rubbed the soap in with my hands, and then rinsed them off with hot water. Took care of the problem! It was just a sticky film that formed on the shells which washed off with the soap and water.

I have a feeling that the "spotting" is the same problem as the yellowing. I bet that's just the bromine gas from the fire retardant in the plastic that's coming to the surface, or collecting beneath the surface. I bet a hydrogen peroxide bath for a week or so with some UV light would take care of that problem as well. Going to have to experiment on my extra Waverider and Skullgrin in the near future.

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:Mega Pretenders.

I've been reluctant to buy anymore Pretenders. Nearly half the ones from my childhood have spotting (like in Bugly's gallery) and sticky, melty paint. They're kinda gross to touch and look at. The only ones that managed to avoid it are the small 1989 Pretenders (Bludgeon, Pincher, etc.). It's all Florida's fault.

Hot soapy water did wonders for the "sticky" feeling that the Pretender shells had. I put some dish soap on the toy, rubbed the soap in with my hands, and then rinsed them off with hot water. Took care of the problem!

I have a feeling that the "spotting" is the same problem as the yellowing. I bet that's just the bromine gas from the fire retardant in the plastic that's coming to the surface, or collecting beneath the surface. I bet a hydrogen peroxide bath for a week or so with some UV light would take care of that problem as well. Going to have to experiment on my extra Waverider and Skullgrin in the near future.

That's excellent! I'll have to try the soap trick next time I pull them out of storage. Hydrogen Peroxide baths are a little too extreme in my case. I'd rather live with yellowing than risk melting my toy.

Speaking of fixes, I just heard about the hair dryer trick to fix stress marks. I don't know if you've tried it, but it worked wonders on my Blitzwing's wing tip after he fell off the top of my shelves. The hair dryer isn't a 100% fix, but the stress mark is nearly impossible to see now. And strangely, his wing leg that wasn't very good at catching in place, now works flawlessly. Go figure.

D'oh!

It Is Him wrote:That's excellent! I'll have to try the soap trick next time I pull them out of storage. Hydrogen Peroxide baths are a little too extreme in my case. I'd rather live with yellowing than risk melting my toy.

Hydrogen Peroxide, especially the 3% solution that you can get at any store like Walgreens, Target, Walmart, etc, shouldn't melt the plastic. I don't even think the 30%+ stuff would do that. Here's what a 3% H2O2 bath did for my Crossblades that sit next to a window for a week.

It Is Him wrote:Speaking of fixes, I just heard about the hair dryer trick to fix stress marks. I don't know if you've tried it, but it worked wonders on my Blitzwing's wing tip after he fell off the top of my shelves. The hair dryer isn't a 100% fix, but the stress mark is nearly impossible to see now. And strangely, his wing leg that wasn't very good at catching in place, now works flawlessly. Go figure.

Hm ... i'll have to give this a try. I'm having the stressmark problem with the small wing tips on my Masterpiece Seekers from being in storage. Not sure how to store their wings without damaging them or without putting them back in their boxes.

Noideaforaname wrote:
Hey, it's these guys. And Skullgrin.

And with Bludgeon, Thunderwing, and Alice, we've been getting a lot of Pretender references lately.
...Just without the Pretender concept (except for Alice, but she didn't get a toy).
Here's hoping for more.

I don't know why everyone refers to Alice as a Pretender - she's much more like a Predacon, or maybe like Animated Sari. If you take into account her off-screen back story she's really just a normal Decepticon.

Really, I like the Japanese version with mass-shifting pretenders (why not? If the two techs are there, why wouldn't you combine them?) and the IDW version with the pretender suits being essentially Mjolnir or Iron-Man armor for Transformers. It's just the G1 Marvel version that got silly.

I also really thought they should have availed themselves of the opportunity to include a Transformer that turned into a human during Beast Wars. The second & third season set up the possibility rather well. In fact, the fuzor-gimmick in Beast Wars would have allowed for some human/animal hybrid alternate modes, many of which might look remarkably similar to some of the Pretender shells. And gee, if you add in the Transmetal gimmick, you could have robots organic-looking robots that change into armored mythological creatures (e.g. armored lizard-man fuzor) and quasi-vehicles (e.g. transmetal motorcycle). You could basically hit all the gimmicks of Beast Wars and highlights of the Pretender genre without the cheap Pretender shells.

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:That's excellent! I'll have to try the soap trick next time I pull them out of storage. Hydrogen Peroxide baths are a little too extreme in my case. I'd rather live with yellowing than risk melting my toy.

Hydrogen Peroxide, especially the 3% solution that you can get at any store like Walgreens, Target, Walmart, etc, shouldn't melt the plastic. I don't even think the 30%+ stuff would do that. Here's what a 3% H2O2 bath did for my Crossblades that sit next to a window for a week.

That's pretty amazing. You know, my beat up G1 Jetfire could definitely use an H202 bath, and I don't think I would mind if I accidentally ruin it, even if it is that rare sticker variant. I'll have to think about it some more.

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:Speaking of fixes, I just heard about the hair dryer trick to fix stress marks. I don't know if you've tried it, but it worked wonders on my Blitzwing's wing tip after he fell off the top of my shelves. The hair dryer isn't a 100% fix, but the stress mark is nearly impossible to see now. And strangely, his wing leg that wasn't very good at catching in place, now works flawlessly. Go figure.

Hm ... i'll have to give this a try. I'm having the stressmark problem with the small wing tips on my Masterpiece Seekers from being in storage. Not sure how to store their wings without damaging them or without putting them back in their boxes.

It's easy. Just borrow your wife's hair dryer, set it to high heat and low blast, or whatever settings those things have, and let'er'rip. Hopefully you'll see a difference after a minute or so. The trick also worked decently well on Animated Arcee's hands. As for storing them, try a little bit of bubble wrap.

It Is Him wrote:That's pretty amazing. You know, my beat up G1 Jetfire could definitely use an H202 bath, and I don't think I would mind if I accidentally ruin it, even if it is that rare sticker variant. I'll have to think about it some more.

It might be worth taking him apart instead of damaging those Robotech stickers. The H202 will rust the metal / die cast on the figure slightly (which might be removed with a rust remover but i haven't tried that yet). Alternatively, you could try to make this Retr0brite stuff at http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/ and then apply it only to the pieces that need some TLC. I wouldn't damage the near unreplacable sticker variants, especially if it's a carryover Robotech sticker(s) on the wings.

It Is Him wrote:It's easy. Just borrow your wife's hair dryer, set it to high heat and low blast, or whatever settings those things have, and let'er'rip. Hopefully you'll see a difference after a minute or so. The trick also worked decently well on Animated Arcee's hands. As for storing them, try a little bit of bubble wrap.

That's a decent suggestion, or maybe i store the wings in some small rubbermaid kitchen storage pieces or something like that.

No meet up Ryan, heard u couldnt make it at the last minute, was looking forward to meeting you in person.

I love the Pretender galleries. Might have to try the soap wash on the few I have as well. I can't believe how that Crossblades u have came out, looks great for a before and after deal.

I can admit to anyone here thinking that a clean up can't do wonders, start busting out 20+ yr old figures u have and played with when u were a kid and put them on display now. I think a few of mine changed colors when I did it over the summer. Warm water with a little soap and then just warm water and nice towels to dry them with(not soaking them obviously)

Pretenders aren't my favorites by far, but I don't understand all the hate poured on them. Everyone wants to army build, now u get two for one

Oh yeah, the original stickers for the Pretenders really sucked it, are those repro labels or whose? I'd be amazed if you say original? Even new the ones I have never stuck well.

3.8TransAM wrote:No meet up Ryan, heard u couldnt make it at the last minute, was looking forward to meeting you in person.

One day my friend, one day. Just didn't work out that I could go after I found out a few weeks ago that my Dad was coming in from Michigan for the weekend and then my wife worked on Sunday night which made attending the meetup near impossible.

3.8TransAM wrote:I love the Pretender galleries. Might have to try the soap wash on the few I have as well. I can't believe how that Crossblades u have came out, looks great for a before and after deal.

Crossblades came out very well. The paint on his face is slightly pinkish from the sun damage, but if I didn't tell you that and if you didn't have one side-by-side you wouldn't know the difference. I was going to swap heads with another Crossblades shell that I bought last week but upon trying to take out the pin I slammed the piece I was trying to hammer into the pin right through the other shell's face. I decided that after spending so much time giving Crossblades an H202 bath that it wasn't worth damaging it until I could figure out how to knock out the pin without damaging the shell.

H202 is my friend.

3.8TransAM wrote:I can admit to anyone here thinking that a clean up can't do wonders, start busting out 20+ yr old figures u have and played with when u were a kid and put them on display now. I think a few of mine changed colors when I did it over the summer. Warm water with a little soap and then just warm water and nice towels to dry them with(not soaking them obviously)

Apparently the older figures just need a little TLC. After all of the money I've spent on having a complete US collection minus Costco Prime and the 3rd wave G2 Dinobots, I've decided that some of these figures are just going to need some love instead of being replaced.

3.8TransAM wrote:Pretenders aren't my favorites by far, but I don't understand all the hate poured on them. Everyone wants to army build, now u get two for one

I agree 100%. I remember back-in-the-day when I was a kid that I counted Pretenders as two toys in my figure count. Maybe that's part of why I liked them so much when I was little.

3.8TransAM wrote:Oh yeah, the original stickers for the Pretenders really sucked it, are those repro labels or whose? I'd be amazed if you say original? Even new the ones I have never stuck well.

The Masterforce Pretender stickers were applied right before the galleries and I didn't have a problem with any of them. Bomb-Burst already had his stickers applied, as did Landmine (who got a few touch-ups from an additional U.S. sticker sheet that I had for him.

Groundbreaker, Sky High, and Splashdown didn't have their stickers applied until a couple of weeks ago but their stickers were more challenging. I received them in their bubbles sans boxes. I have a feeling that those three figures I received from the Philippines might have suffered water damage at some point or high moisture exposure which is why their boxes were missing. They used to be pretty common on eBay in their bubbles with sealed instructions/stickers/paperwork as were their Decepticon counterparts -- and you used to be able to buy them all for relatively cheap (Groundbreaker for $83, Sky High for $62, and Splashdown for $83). I thought they'd be plentiful for years, but since I bought those Autobots in 2006 you can't find any of those guys for cheap anymore. Some of their stickers didn't want to stick that well so I just used a little 3M Spray Adhesive to get them to stick. Worked like a charm!

As for the Decepticons Finback, Iguanus, and Bugly, their stickers are more like what you'd expect from 23+ year old Transformers toys. Those are the only 3 that were my originals from when I was a kid that made it to the galleries. One of the pegs on one of Bugly's guns had snapped off in his hand at some point so I had to figure out how to get that out and super glue it back together. If you didn't know I had glued it, you probably couldn't tell that there was a problem. If you look on Iguanus' belly (lower torso), you'll see that the hole for the gun peg was shattered at some point so that got superglued as well. Some of their stickers were in pretty bad shape so I removed a couple of them, heated them up with a hair dryer, applied spray adhesive and then reapplied their bad stickers. It worked OK ... not really happy with the results but it was better than nothing for the time being.

It Is Him wrote:It's easy. Just borrow your wife's hair dryer, set it to high heat and low blast, or whatever settings those things have, and let'er'rip. Hopefully you'll see a difference after a minute or so. The trick also worked decently well on Animated Arcee's hands. As for storing them, try a little bit of bubble wrap.

Um wow. Thanks for the tip. My Masterpiece rear wing tips look like nothing was ever wrong with them. And the one Skywarp tip doesn't look bent at all any more after this. Amazing! Is this a widely known fix for plastic stress?

I also tried this on my Classics Rodimus where the shoulder ball joint connects. I fixed one side with this but the other side was taking too long. I was getting worried about the hair dryer causing damage to the plastic so I decided not to continue.

Definitely want to try this on Henkei Wildrider's shoulder ball joints at some point as well as TFA Arcee.

Great tip!

I'm gonna have to try that hair dryer trick.

El Duque wrote:I'm gonna have to try that hair dryer trick.

Yes you do my friend. Check out this result on my original G1 Hot Rod

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:It's easy. Just borrow your wife's hair dryer, set it to high heat and low blast, or whatever settings those things have, and let'er'rip. Hopefully you'll see a difference after a minute or so. The trick also worked decently well on Animated Arcee's hands. As for storing them, try a little bit of bubble wrap.

Um wow. Thanks for the tip. My Masterpiece rear wing tips look like nothing was ever wrong with them. And the one Skywarp tip doesn't look bent at all any more after this. Amazing! Is this a widely known fix for plastic stress?

I also tried this on my Classics Rodimus where the shoulder ball joint connects. I fixed one side with this but the other side was taking too long. I was getting worried about the hair dryer causing damage to the plastic so I decided not to continue.

Definitely want to try this on Henkei Wildrider's shoulder ball joints at some point as well as TFA Arcee.

Great tip!

Honestly, if this is the first time you're hearing about this tip, then I'm guessing it isn't commonly known.

Those are some nice results. I took some before and after photos with a few of my other guys, but nothing that noticeable. TFA Arcee definitely was an improvement though (I've got some before-and-after pics somewhere...)

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:That's pretty amazing. You know, my beat up G1 Jetfire could definitely use an H202 bath, and I don't think I would mind if I accidentally ruin it, even if it is that rare sticker variant. I'll have to think about it some more.

It might be worth taking him apart instead of damaging those Robotech stickers. The H202 will rust the metal / die cast on the figure slightly (which might be removed with a rust remover but i haven't tried that yet). Alternatively, you could try to make this Retr0brite stuff at http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/ and then apply it only to the pieces that need some TLC. I wouldn't damage the near unreplacable sticker variants, especially if it's a carryover Robotech sticker(s) on the wings.

Really I'm conflicted about doing it. On one hand, those stickers are rare and several parts are broken beyond repair, and on the other, it would be a fun experiment to try out. My Jetfire is really a junker, as are all of my 84-86 childhood toys. And the truth is, I don't mind if he's yellowed. It builds character.

Seibertron wrote:

El Duque wrote:I'm gonna have to try that hair dryer trick.

Yes you do my friend. Check out this result on my original G1 Hot Rod

Wow.

That should work on plastic building blocks too, right? I have some Mega Bloks and Lego pieces strained from trying to force compatibility between them, and (toy) plastic is plastic, right?

[Edit: It's unfortunate that human stretch marks can't be removed so easily.]

Quaternion wrote:Woah, flashback...

I just realized that had Lander as a kid but I completely forgot about it. It feels really eerie deja vu when new galleries pop up and then a bunch of memories of that figure just come flashing back to me. But then again, I suppose Lander was a rather forgettable figure.

Hah, that's funny, I know exactly what you mean. The same thing happened to me about 3 weeks ago. The last 4 years or so I'd been thinking I never had any pretenders when I was a kid. Then I saw a pic of the forgettable Groundbreaker and a few old memories clicked back into place.

The worst thing is, I'm kind of tempted to get my hands on a few Pretenders now. I think they're a horrible idea, but something in them is starting to appeal to me. Maybe it's Seibertron's awesome photography making some very average toys look cool.

Oilspill wrote:The worst thing is, I'm kind of tempted to get my hands on a few Pretenders now. I think they're a horrible idea, but something in them is starting to appeal to me. Maybe it's Seibertron's awesome photography making some very average toys look cool.

I think it's a great idea to start collecting Pretenders! The prices on the whole line seems to have jumped recently. Get 'em while the going's good.

I've always loved the Pretenders. How come noone ever comments on Skullgrin's unpainted lower jaw? Loved his characterisation in the Marvel comics and Cloudburst and Landmine.

Would love to see Classics Jetfire repainted as Cloudburst and Cybertron Ransack as Iguanus.

Seibertron wrote:

El Duque wrote:I'm gonna have to try that hair dryer trick.

Yes you do my friend. Check out this result on my original G1 Hot Rod

Amazing, looks like brand new.

I told my wife about the stress-mark fix and she freaked, began immediately looking for pieces of plastic to damage and deface so she could test it.

It does indeed work on Mega Bloks pieces, and she is now wanting to find out if she's right about why it works.

Caelus wrote:I told my wife about the stress-mark fix and she freaked, began immediately looking for pieces of plastic to damage and deface so she could test it.

It does indeed work on Mega Bloks pieces, and she is now wanting to find out if she's right about why it works.

It has to be melting the plastic on some level. Would love to know why as well. Can't believe we didn't know about this fix and that no one mentioned this to me before yesterday.

Anyone else got some neat tricks to fix our figures besides H2O2 for yellowing and hair dryers for stress marks?

Seibertron wrote:

Caelus wrote:I told my wife about the stress-mark fix and she freaked, began immediately looking for pieces of plastic to damage and deface so she could test it.

It does indeed work on Mega Bloks pieces, and she is now wanting to find out if she's right about why it works.

It has to be melting the plastic on some level. Would love to know why as well. Can't believe we didn't know about this fix and that no one mentioned this to me before yesterday.

Anyone else got some neat tricks to fix our figures besides H2O2 for yellowing and hair dryers for stress marks?

I haven't tried this yet, but a fellow Aussie fan swears by using lighter fluid for sticker removal and reuse. It allows the sticker to be removed but retain it's stickiness. Good for realigning stickers that have been poorly applied to vintage figures. He documents it in detail here.

Seibertron wrote:

Caelus wrote:I told my wife about the stress-mark fix and she freaked, began immediately looking for pieces of plastic to damage and deface so she could test it.

It does indeed work on Mega Bloks pieces, and she is now wanting to find out if she's right about why it works.

It has to be melting the plastic on some level. Would love to know why as well.

She tentatively suggested (and I'm hoping I repeat this right) that the stretching of the plastic pulls the suspended pigment particles away from each other in one spot and bunches them up in another spot, creating a section of discolored/colorless plastic. Exposing the plastic to heat, however, adds kinetic energy to the system encouraging the pigment particles to diffuse back through the plastic and return to their original, natural distribution.

If you've ever noticed how much easier it is to add sugar to hot tea than iced tea, it's fundamentally the same phenomenon.

But she's not sure. She's hoping she gets a chance to bring it up in either her polymers class or her materials engineering class.

Seibertron wrote:

It Is Him wrote:It's easy. Just borrow your wife's hair dryer, set it to high heat and low blast, or whatever settings those things have, and let'er'rip. Hopefully you'll see a difference after a minute or so. The trick also worked decently well on Animated Arcee's hands. As for storing them, try a little bit of bubble wrap.

Um wow. Thanks for the tip. My Masterpiece rear wing tips look like nothing was ever wrong with them. And the one Skywarp tip doesn't look bent at all any more after this. Amazing! Is this a widely known fix for plastic stress?

I also tried this on my Classics Rodimus where the shoulder ball joint connects. I fixed one side with this but the other side was taking too long. I was getting worried about the hair dryer causing damage to the plastic so I decided not to continue.

Definitely want to try this on Henkei Wildrider's shoulder ball joints at some point as well as TFA Arcee.

Great tip!

does it work for scratches???my MP rody's wing had a little spot there