Thursday 6 March 2014

Autobot Junior Headmasters (Siren, Hosehead/Carb, Nightbeat, and some KOs)

Waiting on a package for a long awaited post. The mailman must know this, or I would have it by now. :) So, until it arrives, I might as well finish up my Junior Headmasters. These three were among the  few that i refused to buy incomplete. I've seen enough want threads for their ear guns especially to know it's a bad idea.

Starting it off with Nightbeat, I picked him up in the lot with Liokaiser, Laster, etc. Really like the Porsche alt mode and the way their helmets make the seats for the headmasters.




He came with the labels still sealed in baggie, so instead of using the original labels, I got a Reprolabels set instead.


Siren I picked up at TFcon last year, he was the "last" G1 figure I was going to get for my US collection. Until I decided I wanted the complete line including Pretenders and 86 character Targetmasters. I've had to replace the head and body since they were yellowed. You can see that the headmaster's crotch tab was broken in this pic too. iamratchet hooked me up with replacements..


He's pretty big for a "junior" due to his transformation. It's too bad about the yellowing, because other than that, the body is in fantastic shape.


Finishing the US trio with Hosehead (or Carb in Masterforce), who I got in the lot last year with Nightbeat. This was the first time I had ever handled the mold, and I was pretty impressed by the little details. from the very articulated ladder to the little panels that cover his thighs in vehicle mode.


His bot mode is my personal favorite of the trio. I think it has to do with the red, black, and grey colour scheme. His was the only toy of the three Autobots to be the same in the US and Japan.


A couple group shots of the US trio. They really look good together, but not as cohesive a team as the Masterforce releases.



A couple years ago, Highendtfs found a pair of KOs in Korea, molded in mostly the same colours as the Masterforce releases. I picked up a pair of them when Reprolabels announced they were going to do a free set of labels. Neither was 100% accurate, but they were good enough for me for a while.

Minerva came with a black torso and windows. I thought the black looked too dark for her, so I painted it in the proper colours. I left the face paint the way it was. Go Shooter I left alone. I like the dark blue of the ko. The only Major change to the mold was that they don't have the stat meters of the originals.



Around the same time TFPrime on TFW made a set of repro boxes for them, I picked up a set of them as well. They even came with cards and decoders. I'm pretty sure his files were the ones used to make the free labels from Reprolabels as well.



The search for an original pair of them continues, but even when I get the originals, I will probably display these two in box like this, they look pretty good.

8 comments:

  1. I love the Junior Headmasters with the exception of the Nightbeat/Minerva (Minelba?) mold. I think I may be the only person that doesn't like Nightbeat. But man, Siren and Hosehead? Those two are just perfection.

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    1. you like Siren better than Nightbeat's mold? Minerva's colour scheme blows away Nightbeat's imo. makes the mold so much better

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    2. I agree that the Siren mold is nice. In fact probably the best out of the 3. I actually prefer the Siren colours over Go-Shooter too.

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  2. Not too bad of a set there for being US releases.

    What I can really appreciate are all the little details you did on putting those guys together; using reprolabels instead of the originals and such. Those repro boxes are actually really nice looking as well. How come you didn't post any pics of the back of the box?

    I would love the Takara versions but I doubt I could find them in the condition that I like without blowing up the bank.

    Any plans on hitting up TFCon this year? If so, maybe I'll see you there?

    Cheers,
    Joe

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    1. I'll get you some back of box pics later on. Too tired today.

      I'll be at TFCon. I go every year. I'll get you my cell number to get a hold of me there

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  3. The Autobot Jr. Headmasters are some of the few G1 figures that don't just instantly win me over...even still they seem kinda cheap looking, like with Nightbeat's unpainted (or un-stickered) headlights and so forth. But their gimmicks are fun and they have good characterization in bios and comics.

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    1. I vastly prefer the white and red of Minerva, but Siren and Shuta I can go either way, but the cars especially are pretty simple

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  4. Hi! Thanks for the review.
    I'm having a hard time finding Siren's small guns on eBay, and I was wondering if I could maybe use some other transformer's gun as a replacement. I found that the gun of Streetwise looks kind of similar, but I'm not sure about the size. Could anyone help me out and check if Streetwise's gun fits in the helmet of Siren?

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