Frenzy (left) and Rumble (right) DO NOT ARGUE THIS POINT
I’ve got a pair of ex-Recordicons here from Japan! See, Frenzy and Rumble are tanks now. Well, okay, I guess maybe they could still be Recordicons. Maybe they still record! They’re.. recording tanks!
I decided to get the Japanese release of these guys for two reasons. First of all, there’s no sign of Rumble being solicited over here, so chances are when he does come out stateside, it’ll be post Movie 3 period, which is a long time from now. Hell, there’s little chance of Frenzy (er, “Demolition Rumble“) showing up here, either! He has been solicited, but the way distribution’s been going, I dunno if he’ll make it into stores before the movie stuff hits. Retail stores drop non-movie stuff like a bad habit once movie stuff arrives. They know where the money is.
I'M SERIOUS
Secondly, Japan names their cassettes right! Frenzy is blue, dammit! His toy is blue, he’s blue in the Marvel comics…. it’s just in the pesky American cartoon that the blue guy is Rumble. When Japan dubbed the American series way back when, they wised up and called the blue guy Frenzy. And so their set is named correctly. And thus I required it.
They’re just a pair of Scout Class guys so they’re not too big. When I first opened the box, I worried that they’d be too fiddly. They do look very… involved. But they aren’t! They transform pretty quickly back and forth. There’s some frustrating bits involved, but it’s mostly due to the spring-loaded piledrivers. Those things sure like to launch when you’re trying to push everything together for tank mode. Kind of annoying. I also wish their forearms weren’t jointed in the middle. It makes posing them more complicated than it has to be, but that joint is required for transformation, so oh well.
I WILL DESTROY YOU
Like the rest of their contemporaries, they’re compatible with C Joint snap-on weaponry. Their double tank cannons attach this way, and there’s a bunch of rungs here and there to place them elsewhere if you desire.
As I sort of mentioned in passing before, these guys have piledrivers, just like they did in the cartoon. (Well, Frenzy’s not really SUPPOSED to have piledrivers, since he’s a sonic-scream kinda guy, but Rumble’s piledrivers are too iconic to leave out and they kinda have to share a mold.) You flip the entire arm over at the shoulder, tuck the forearms away, and then the tip of the piledriver springs forward when you press the silver section on the side. The instructions also ask you to move the tank cannons to their shoulders for this mode.
And then he's crushed by the contents of the entire parking lot.
My favorite of the two is Frenzy. Not just because I like Frenzy more (he was in my earliest comics and my brother I had his toy), but because I like his colors better. I’m a blue kinda guy, moreso than black and red. And the electric “Allspark blue” with the darker blue is more visually striking. Like the rest of Japan’s “United” toyline, they both have metallic paint. Rumble’s is metallic black, which is barely noticable at all. Which is fine by me. Frenzy has some metallic blue that is so dark that I thought he just had dark blue or black plastic. It doesn’t really look metallic at all. I guess, uh, A for effort there, Takara.
I’m keeping my Frenzy away from my new Wheeljack. That showdown won’t end well for him.
I also demand an Enemy from this mold. BOTCON AND/OR E-HOBBY, DO NOT FAIL ME IN THIS REGARD.
Too bad the names are wrong. I might try to get my hands on them anyway, though.
Damn it Willis, I respected you, but know I know you use the wrong names for Frenzy and Rumble. For shame, for shame.
On a topic other than you using the wrong names, are these or are these not creative retools of the mold used for Blight and Kickback from Energon?
I have no idea how anyone could come to that conclusion. They are 100% different. They share a similar altmode but share zero parts.
In my case it is because I haven’t seen them in person and was having a hard time envisioning how they transform, I guess? Anyway, I’m not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.
They’re both messes of dangling bits in robot mode that turn into vague tank-ish shapes.
Neutral.
From now on I vote they will both be called simply “Bob”.
Frenzy is red,
Rumble is blue.
This poem doesn’t rhyme.
GIVE ME YOUR FACE!
Both of them actually had piledrivers in the cartoon.
Just wondering, do you (David Willis) have a Reveal the Shield Windcharger?
If not, please drop me a message through the address on this post, as I’ve “ear-marked” one for you, if you’re interested.
I’m sure he already has one, but I will be more than happy to accept this Windcharger in his name, giving him a good home with lots of other Transformers that won’t call him Windbreaker.
Actually, I don’t have one! Mwahahaha.
Everyone knows Frenzy is red and Rumble is Lavender.
Couldn’t resist, they actually look a lot better than I was expecting.
Red…Blue…it really doesn’t matter which color is which. We’re going to end up calling them what we want anyway and the debate will continue to rage forever more.
But seeing as how Hasbro is packaging the Blue one as Rumble…yeah.
As someone who’s primary exposure to G1 was Marvel UK: FIBRIR forever!
Red is a better color for a character called Frenzy.
One: RIRFIB. Transformers is a toyline, anything else is ancillary.
Two: Grand Slam retool plz– give HIM a face!
Damn right FIBRIR. I bet all you FIRRIB guys call Jetfire “Skyfire” too.
Man, every time I see photos of those guys, they just get less and less appealing. I respect this mold for being the first one with piledrivers AND hands, but the robot mode looks like a kibbly mess, and the tank mode does nothing for me, especially given the characters. Woo hoo, more Decepticon tanks! I understand that microcassettes are seriously anachronistic at this point, but there must be other ways to explore the little-guys-as-accessories-to-a-larger-guy theme. For instance, recent incarnations of Soundwave have been minivans… so what if he were a TV news van, and the Recordicons were accessories like the satellite-dish apparatus, the computer equipment inside, and/or a camera rig (maybe something like this)? THAT would definitely be in the spirit of modern updates to classic characters. What we got just feels phoned-in.