Dave's Transformers Artifact Rant

     Robots in Disguise Party Lights

     Picked these up online, but they may eventually show up in regular
stores (well, Spencers and the like, at any rate).

CAPSULE

     Decent detail, fairly sturdy, if a bit short.  If you can find it, it's
an amusing thing to have, although I'm not sure it's worth making a serious
effort to find.  Mildly recommended.  Price in the neighborhood of $15.

RANT

     Packaging: Window box is 15" (38cm) wide, 10" (25cm) tall and 2" (5cm)
thick.  All the light covers are visible in-box, and the cord with lights is
hidden behind them.  The front of the box has knobs printed on it to give the
impression that the box is an old-fashioned TV...well, an old-fashioned
wide-screen TV.  }->  The Transformers Robots In Disguise logo is prominent
on the box, which is black fading down to red.  The "TV Toys" logo is also
fairly prominent, and one of the light covers is their logo in 3-D.
     On the back of the box are somewhat redundant pictures of the light
covers, and claims like "Amazing Detail!"  

     Light String: A fairly standard three-wire braid party light string with
the traditional dark green wires and light sockets.  The box says it's 9 feet
long, but that requires excessive force...relaxed it's more like 8 feet
(2.3m).  There's ten lights on a couple of circuits so that if one light
burns out, only some of the others will go off.  The plug has a fuse in it,
and a spare fuse, bulb and blinking bulb are in a baggie taped to the cord.

     Light Covers: There are five Autobot symbols, two Battle Mode Optimus
Primes (Super Fire Convoys), two Megatrons (Gigatrons) and one TV Toys logo
in light blue with white screen and red letters.  All of them have sockets
for the lights to snap into pretty firmly.
     The Autobot symbols are 2.25" (6cm) tall in white plastic with red
paint.  The symbol is only on one side of each piece, but is very crisply
reproduced.  
     The Primes are a little under 4" (10cm) tall at the head, the ladder
sticking up behind the head adds a bit more.  The ladders are separate pieces
and are packaged in their own slot in the tray.  Unlike the case of the toy,
the ladders are directly behind the head, not off to one side.  The ladders
are painted solid silver, but is made from translucent red plastic.  Prime is
made of this same translucent red plastic, with silver, orange, black, gray
and white details painted on.  There's less detail than on the toy, mainly to
keep from covering up the light-up red bits.  It's posed in a simple
"standing with arms out to the sides" stance.  No, it's not poseable.  Nor
can the ladder be attached in any other place than on the back, but the peg
is square so it can be pointed any cardinal direction.
     The Megatrons are only 3" (8cm) tall at the head, roughly in scale with
Battle Mode Prime.  The wings are a separate piece with a span of 4" (10cm),
but are attached to Megatron in the package.  The entire thing is made of
pale translucent purple plastic with a lot of black paint, some red paint,
and a few bits of teal and silver.  The spark crystal is left unpainted and
lights up nicely.  Megatron holds his double sword in his right hand, and it
looks okay.  The arm claws are pretty iffy.  The wings can be put on upside
down if you want, but it doesn't really look better.
     The logo piece is cute, but I don't intend to ever put it on the
string.  

     Overall: Pretty decent work, and it's nice to see Transformers
merchandising out there.  But I don't really have any place to hang them and
would need an extension cord to use 'em in any case, since the lights start
right after the plug.

     Dave Van Domelen, ohyeah...the light string is held into the box with
two twist-ties.