Dave's Japanese TF Rant: Boss Coffee Promotion Seawave (Deepdive redeco) Craydon (Longarm redeco) Ironhide Wheeljack Megatron Starscream Soundwave Shockwave Astrotrain Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/Boss1 (who knows, they might do another promo, which I'd label Boss2) Boss Coffee is a brand in Japan that's sold in cans about the same size as used for energy drinks in the U.S. As part of a promotion starting the end of August 2008, their Rainbow Mountain Blend cans came with can-top packs of Transformers. Wonkimus Major, my current trading partner in Japan, drinks canned coffee, and was willing to grab a few of these for me. [Later note: turns out the promotion is already over, they've moved on to little Lamborghinis.] I will not be doing Capsules on these. Why? Because price is going to be a huge factor here...they're incredibly cheap in Japan (especially if you want to drink the coffee), but I have no idea how pricey the secondary market will get. With such a broad price range possible, I'm reluctant to sum them up in a short buy/don't-buy recommendation. [Wonkimus managed to sell a Mini-Con for $15 on eBay, FWIW.] After getting the first batch, I asked Wonkimus to grab me Shockwave and Astrotrain as well, I'll add comments on them once I have 'em. Packaging There's two lines in this promotion. The single-can and double-can sets. Note, I did not ask Wonkimus to send me any actual coffee cans, empty or full. I didn't want shipping to cost more than the actual toys. ;) Double-can packaging is an oval (like a race track, with long straight sides, rather than an ellipse) 10.8cm wide, 5.4cm deep and 3.4cm tall. I only got one, so I have to guess at the colors, but I suspect that they come in blue (for Mini-Cons), purple or red. A sticker on the front shows the Transformers logo and a photo of the toy inside (not blind-packed, yay!). A sticker on the back shows the five figures available in this assortment: two Mini-Cons and "electrum" versions of the Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream PVCs. A cardboard oval with a hole at one end secures the toy inside the cap. Inside are the toy and a single sheet catalog/instructions. On the front is another picture of the five toys in the set, on the back are instructions (if necessary) and pictures of other Boss products. The two Mini-Cons are Seawave (Deepdive recolor) and a recolor of Longarm, both from the Giant Planet Mini-Con Team. Seawave is a Decepticon, Longarm is an Autobot. [Later note: Wonkimus tells me that all the double-can packs are blue plastic. Another later note, Wonkimus found a lone Craydon left over and grabbed it for me, so it'll be added later. The wheels are Constructicon Green, yow.] Single-can packaging is a can-topper 5.5cm in diamater and 3.5cm tall. The topper is made of either red or purple plastic, with a 3.2cm long slot on top hugging the side (for putting up a diorama background). There's two stickers circling the side: one showing all ten figures available in the single-can packs, and one with the Transformers logo and a picture of the figure inside the can-topper. A cardboard "donut" (circle with a circular hole in the middle) keeps the stuff inside from falling out when you pop the top off. Inside, the figure is in a plastic bag, separated into two pieces at the waist (the bag is pinched off at the middle, so you have separate compartments for upper and lower body). There's also a four "page" octagonal insert. The covers have the Transformers logo and either Autobot or Decepticon symbol, with predominantly red or purple coloring as appropriate (all inserts have both covers). Open it up one fold and you see two pieces of scenery taken from the G1 background art, although half the images have a rainbow inserted ("Rainbow Blend" coffee, after all). Open it up all the way and there's a four page catalog of sorts. The first panel is all text, the second shows all ten toys available in the single-can packs, the third shows how to put the scenery onto the can top for display, and the fourth advertises other Boss brand products. The inserts seem to be random, and not tied to which figure is inside the cap. The diorama backdrops stay in the slot rather loosely, and are shorter than the figures, so usually end up just coming up to their chest. Five Autobots and five Decepticons are available in this assortment: Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave and Astrotrain. DECEPTICON: SEAWAVE Previous Mold Use: Cybertron Deepdive Review of Mold: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Basic8 If there's a bio, I can't read it. :) Color Swaps: Replace the gray plastic with a bright "Constructicon green" plastic with moderate UV glow. It's a shade yellower than the green used on Cybertron Longarm. The purple plastic is replaced by medium blue with a very strong UV glow. Paint Apps: The same paint masks are used as on Deepdive. The camoflage patterns on the sides are a bright kelly green. The bits atop the bow are painted gunmetal, the abdomen/pelvis paint is metallic purple, and the visor is a red-orange that blazes orange under UV. There's a black Decepticon symbol printed just rear of the molded Mini-Con symbol, the only qualitative deco difference. Other Notes: A bit floppy, possibly due to the plastic being used, as this mold hasn't been reused to the poing where mold rot would seem likely. The colors are almost as inappropriate as you could get for a submarine. While I didn't get the Longarm recolor, here's a quick note based on what I can see in the catalog. Swap green to bright yellow, purple to the same blue used on Seawave. I can't really tell what color the wheels are, but it ain't black. Paint apps seem identical to Longarm's original ones, I presume an Autobot symbol is printed on there somewhere. Overall: Pretty nifty, and a reasonably easy to find Japanese recolor, since the product is sold in convenience stores ("FamilyMart" is the one where Wonkimus got mine). Fan Bio: Where his brother DEEPDIVE is bitter and secretive, SEAWAVE is flamboyant and cheerful...if unbelieveably annoying. Where artistic expression is not unheard of among the inhabitants of the Giant Planet, it almost always takes the form of architectural creativity, but not so in SEAWAVE'S case. Rather, he has found his muse in Earth's own artistic history, declaring himself Gigantion's first performance artist. To that end, he has adopted the Decepticon brand more to shock onlookers than out of any loyalty to the faction or its philosophy. When asked about which of the submarine Mini-Cons was worse, MENASOR replied, "At least the damage DEEPDIVE leaves behind can be repaired. I don't think I'll ever scrub the memories of SEAWAVE'S last performance from my processors, och!" AUTOBOT: CRAYDON Previous Mold Use: Cybertron Longarm Review of Mold: See Seawave Color Swaps: As with Seawave, the gray becomes bright green and the purple becomes medium bright blue. The bright green on Longarm becomes yellow, and the blue thighs become the same blue as the arms. This results in bright green wheels for the guy, inspiring my fan bio below. The yellow has a moderate UV glow, outshown by the green and blue plastics. Paint Apps: The same masks as Longarm. Black becomes metallic blue, silver stays silver, red becomes a more orangey red. They added an Autobot symbol in silver that ends up on the left side of the chest in robot mode, but the detail is so fine I thought it was just painting that detail silver until I noticed there wasn't an accompanying silver bit on the back, and looked more closely. With a magnifying glass. The molded details on that location make it harder to make out. Oh, and there's a slight bit of paint slop on the face that makes it look like Craydon's arching an eyebrow. Other Notes: Well, can't really say this is more garish than the original. :) I'll address Overcast here, I suppose. I initially thought that they'd picked him to leave out for two reasons: won't fit into the package, and mostly made of a color that neither of the other two had, so they could just ditch a sprue. However, the Longarm thighs come from the same sprue as most of Overcast, so the second reason doesn't wash. They had to mold all of the parts for Overcast except maybe the missiles, so either there were a lot of nearly complete toys tossed out, or somewhere else a bright blue and neon green Overcast redeco is floating around waiting for a promo to happen. Overall: Once I decided he got his wheels replaced on Velocitron, the color scheme worked fine for me. And it's a pretty good mold to start with. Fan Bio: While most maintenance on the tracks of the Speed Planet, Velocitron, is performed by automated drones, sometimes a problem requires a more intelligent touch. And with the Space Bridge network allowing freedom of movement between Gigantion and Velocitron, CRAYDON knew he'd found a place to fit in. Like most of his MINI-CON brethren, CRAYDON lives to build...but unlike most of them, he craves speed as well. Velocitron gives him a place to exercise both of these drives, and his refitted tachymer tires give him the kind of speed that other MINI-CONS can only dream of. He travels the roads of Velocitron at his top speed (which is still fairly pokey by native standards, but they respect the effort) and handles road maintenance problems that confound the drones. Essentially unarmed aside from welding and cutting tools, though, he tries not to get into the middle of any of the nastier races. PVC Common Elements: From my original sample of five, I think I can safely say they share the following characteristics. They peg together at the waist, with pegs that are flattened on one side to prevent rotation. However, the plastic is soft enough you can turn them at the wait anyway. The arms are on swivel joints, no other articulation. They're all about 5.5cm tall, and most of them are in a "stand at attention" pose (straight legs together, arms either straight or bent slightly). Wheeljack is a notable exception in this regard. [Later note: Shockwave's waist peg is round.] I'm told the "gold" PVCs from the two-can packs are more of a greenish yellow with an oilslick-like sheen to them. As far as I can tell from the catalogs, they're the same molds as the regular versions of the three characters. [Later note: the gold ones are actually 8cm tall, similar sculpt but bigger figures.] All molds are based on the G1 animation models. Paint applications are minimal, but at least manage to match up colors in a few cases where two different plastic colors meet at a place other than where the color scheme changes over. http://www.dvandom.com/images/bosscoffee1.JPG - picture of the seven I have. AUTOBOT: IRONHIDE Pose: At attention, arms straight. 5.5cm tall. Plastics: All red with slight UV glow. Paints: Light gray on pelvis, thighs and face. Light blue on chest windshield. White Autobot symbol printed on abdomen. Overall: Kinda dull, if show-accurate in mold. AUTOBOT: WHEELJACK Pose: Crouched with arms bent 90 degrees and knees bent about 30 degrees, feet apart. The only one who isn't Just Standing There. His missile is droopy, although that's probably fixable. 5.5cm tall at the head, 5.8cm tall at the wings. Plastics: All very light "ghost" gray with moderate UV glow. Paints: Medium gray on the entire head, dark gray on pelvis and upper legs, red on chest. Red Autobot symbol printed at the center of the chest. Very light gray paint on his wings, barely darker than the base plastic. Overall: Best mold, but desperately in need of additional paints. Especially needs some green. DECEPTICON: MEGATRON Pose: At attention, arms bent slightly at the elbows. 5.8cm tall. Plastics: Very light gray plastic on the upper half, moderately light gray plastic on the lower half. Moderate UV glow in both cases. Paints: Black paint on the arm cannon, pelvis and the outsides of the boots. Very light gray paint on the thighs, good match to the upper body plastic. The molded Decepticon symbol on the chest is painted a purple that glows strongly under UV. Overall: A bit dull, and could definitely benefit from more paint. The thinness of the feet would have been offset if the legs were spread apart a bit, he looks like he's about to tip over. DECEPTICON: STARSCREAM Pose: Straight arms and legs. 5.5cm tall at the head, 5.6cm tall at the wingtip tops, 3.2cm wingspan. Plastics: The upper torso and head chunk is made of bright red plastic with a strong UV glow. The lower half, the arms and the wingpack are made of very light gray plastic with moderate UV glow. Paints: The forearms, fists and toes are painted bright blue. The cockpit in the chest is painted orange. The head is painted dark gray with the face painted light gray that matches the plastic elsewhere. The pelvis is painted red, which matches the torso plastic well normally, but glows less orangely under UV. Overall: Probably does the best job of my first five of making the most of limited paint applications. DECEPTICON: SOUNDWAVE Pose: At attention, arms bent very slightly at the elbows, head tilted back a tiny bit. His shoulder cannon is pointed about 15 degrees to the right. 5.5cm tall. Plastics: Dark blue plastic (no UV glow) for everything but the arms, which are very light gray plastic (moderate UV glow). Paints: Very light gray paint seen on the fae, the cassette door, the thighs and the fronts of the boots/tops of the toes. A purple Decepticon symbol (very strong UV glow) is printed on the center of the chest. Overall: Very good looking mold, and the pose suits the character better than most of the cases here. But the unpainted light gray arms look weird, as do the blank boot fronts. DECEPTICON: SHOCKWAVE Pose: At attention, arms straight. He's looking down, his "chin" on his chest, apparently to avoid problems with the head snapping off. While his waist peg is round, his backpack keeps his waist from turning. Arms slightly bent, legs straight. 5.7cm tall at the antennae, and his downward-looking pose makes him feel taller. Decepticon symbols molded into the tops of his forearms. Plastics: The torso/head chunk is rigid violet plastic, the arms and legs are soft violet plastic. Both have moderate UV glow. The interface between rigid and soft plastic at the shoulders makes him squeek a little when you move his arms. Paints: Light ghost gray on the thighs, pink on the chest, black face with yellow optic. Overall: Could stand a bit more paint on the arms and hands, but translates pretty well to both the scale and the static pose. His large feet make him more stable than a lot of the figures in this line. DECEPTICON: ASTROTRAIN Pose: At attention, but legs very slightly apart. Arms straight, but a bit out to the sides. 5.6cm tall at the head, wingspan of 4.8cm. Decepticon symbols molded onto the fronts and backs of both wings. He has a big tail section sticking out his back, which is odd, since his transformation has the tail split apart into a chestplate (the molding of which is present on his abdomen on this toy). Granted, that's an issue with the animation model too, but it's harder to ignore here. He also has wheels sticking out from the sides of his ankles. Plastics: The wing and tail assembly is semi-rigid purple plastic glued onto his back. The rest of the toy is medium gray plastic. Both plastics have a moderate UV glow. Paints: A reasonably good purple paint match on the helmet and shoulderpads. Red triangles on the abdominal tailfin details, light ghost gray face, orange helmet crest. Overall: Some bizarre mold choices, but good colors. Dave Van Domelen, running out of places to display little figures....