Dave's TF Artifact Rant Transformers Energon Backpacks This might be a pointless review, given how I've let a couple weeks go by since picking it up and how quickly Target seems to be clearing out their back to school stuff. But hey, I kinda like this, and want to clear out the mental taste of Cliffjumper. This is NOT the Transformers Energon backpack shown on Amazon.com. Mind you, it might be the one you GET if you order from Amazon, they often have early prototype pics up. UPDATED: 9/1/04 - Powerlinx Hot Shot variant described. CAPSULE Optimus Prime Backpack: A bit sturdier than I'd expect from a plastic licensed property backpack, with some extra features that are pretty nice. I'd never use it as a regular backpack myself, but that's because I need about five hundred subcompartments and this has two. Presuming that those of you reading this are not grade school kids, it's pretty nice for carrying around Transformers crud to conventions and the like. And the pencil case is a niec extra. Recommended. $14.99 at Target (it was on sale for $11.44 when I got it, though). Powerlinx Hot Shot Backpack: Same design, but with the four vinyl panels changed. Yellow Autobot symbols are interesting, but the art on the main panel isn't so good. Recommended, but not as good as the Prime one. Clearanced at Target for $10.48. RANTS OPTIMUS PRIME Where to begin? This is a pretty busy backpack from a color design viewpoint. Its sturdy plastic canvas parts are black with some red trim and red zippers. The straps have blue plastic canvas, as do the water bottle pouches on the sides (those have black mesh over them and red and black vinyl Autobot symbols sewn on). There's silver cloth trim in front of the main zipper. Crud, alreadly drifting in focus. :) Okay, defining the "front" as the part facing backwards when you wear it, the front has a big vinyl panel with Energon Optimus Prime charging towards the viewer, and a tougher plastic panel along the bottom with the Transformers Energon logo. The leftmost third of the front panel is red plastic canvas with black mesh over it. There's a black and red plastic canvas handle on the top. The regular straps are black down the middle, blue on the edges (all plastic canvas) with silver Autobot symbols in a repeating frieze down the straps. The padding is pretty thin, though, and I could see them digging into your shoulders if too many Titan TPBs are loaded into the backpack. The back panel is also padded, about as thickly as the straps (under a centimeter), with chevron-shaped stitching. The backpack has four compartments. The main one is about 16" (40cm) tall, 15" (38cm) wide and 4" (10cm) deep without any stretching. Obviously, since this is all flexible cloth, you can fit bigger stuff inside if you mash stuff around. This compartment is rounded along the top, squared off at the bottom. It has two zipper pulls on the red plastic zipper. One is connected to the pencil case (more on that later), the other has a soft plastic Autobot symbol on the pull, about an inch (2-3cm) square made of black plastic with silver paint on the symbol bits. The secondary compartment is of the same shape as the main one, but smaller. It's about 9" (23cm) wide, 10" (25cm) tall and has almost no depth at all, being the place for pencils and stuff, I suppose. The front of it is 2/3 art panel, which strikes me as not being up to too much abuse. Especially since the plastic is thinner in the stamped outline of Prime. I wouldn't recomment putting anything heavier than a few bagged comics in here, or the pencil case. A single zipper pull (with an identical Autobot symbol piece) runs along this red plastic zipper. On either side of the backpack, at the bottom are 6" (15cm) tall pockets made of blue plastic canvas with black mesh over them and the abovementioned red and black vinyl Autobot symbols. These pockets seem intended for water bottles, although they can hold the pencil case as well. Oh, and they have red trim at the top. The pencil case is attached to the zipper pull of the main compartment, but I'd recomment removing it before use, as it just screams "I'll catch on something and be torn off". It's a simple zippered pouch 8" (20cm) wide and 3.5" (9cm) tall with a black plastic zipper. The back side is black plastic canvas, the front is smooth white plastic with art imprinted on the front. The left side has Prime in the same position as on the backpack (but the full figure, not cropped) backed up by Inferno on a blobby red background over the Energon grid pattern. The right side has Megatron in a dramatic pose backed up by Starscream in a somewhar awkward pose. All art seems to be original for this product. "Autobots" and "Decepticons" are written in thin black outlines behind the relevant groups, and a yellow rectangle with a blue "VS." on it is between the groups. The Energon logo is below the VS box, with white faction symbols below that. Okay, it's garish, and it's plastic. Lots of failure points, but hey, it's not a product expected to last more than a year, given that its target audience won't want last year's licensed product when going to school in 2005. But there's one nice addition that can help extend the lifetime of this backpack. Straps. Lots of straps. Two across the bottom, two on either side, with plastic buckles on the side straps. Snap the straps closed, pull 'em tight, and you no longer have to worry about a heavy load killing the zippers. It makes getting things out of the backpack a little more time-intensive, and dangling unbuckled straps beg to get caught in bus railings, but it should keep this backpack in usable condition for a while longer. Finally, here's the big question: can an adult wear this fershlugginger thing (assuming they want to)? Yep. I'm pretty big in the torso, and if I let the shoulder straps out all the way, I can put it on fairly easily. I can even tighten the shoulder straps by a few inches. I'm unlikely to wear it to work, but that's more because I prefer a backpack with enough compartments that I can haul a small office supply store around with me, and this pack really isn't up to that sort of Be Prepared-ism. Anyway, this is a nicely functional piece of Transformers collectibilia. Sturdy enough for light use at any occasion where you might be willing to be seen wearing it. POWERLINX HOT SHOT Structurally, this is the same backpack. And I didn't even know it existed until someone pointed its existence out to me in email. I searchedmore carefully and found one copy buried behind a hald dozen Optimus Prime ones. It's apparently very shortpacked (pun not intended, ow). The pencil case is the same as the one that comes with Prime. The Autobot symbols on the side pockets are yellow, which is an interesting variation. The panel on the bottom front with the Energon logo has red in the background instead of the blue that Prime has. The most obvious difference, though, is that the front vinyl panel with character art has Powerlinx Hot Shot (with Inferno in Pants Mode). The art is...not very good. I've seen a LOT of fan art that's better. Heck, my own stuff is better, and I don't consider my work to be professional quality. Oh, it looks okay from a distance, but once you get close it looks like someone went nuts with MSPaint and then threw in a few spark crystal photoshop elements. Unless you're a completist or a big Hot Shot fan, get the Prime backpack instead. Dave Van Domelen, also picked up Downshift and Tow Line at the same stop, and put them in the backpack to carry home.