I have two to talk about today! I didn’t write up a post for SG Soundwave, since he kind of bugged me. Conceptually I’d been looking forward to him more than most, if only because I want an up-to-date pal for my SG Ravage, but his execution left me cold. The head looked off to me, plus the idea that you have to buy his trademark headband separately sounds like an actual strawman scenario someone would cook up to malign Fun Publications. There may be very good reasons for it, but there’s still this nasty taste in my mouth.
Today’s SG Treadshot reveal makes up for it. My favorite things in every BotCon set tend to be the absolutely insane toy nobody else would have thought of or asked for in a million years. Treadshot is this toy. Waaaaaay back when, there was a toy in Armada called Side Swipe. It was a very terrible-looking toy. It remains a punchline amongst Transformers fans. And because Hasbro loves us very much, they redecoed it not once but twice, and just barely. They changed the blue once to maroon and once to purple. These were not desired figures.
But the maroon one’s name was Treadshot.
I have no idea what the thought process was that led FP to creating this figure, but Shattered Glass Treadshot is colored like Armada Side Swipe but with Treadshot’s hood stripe. It uses the Jazz mold’s alternate head which hasn’t been used yet at retail. And it’s pretty damn glorious. I don’t know why it exists, but now that it does I am super glad. It is craaaaaaazy. It makes the whole BotCon charade feel less cynical.
(Plus there’s this part not-so-deep inside of me that wants to believe that the original Universe Treadshot and this SG Treadshot are the exact same dude. Universe Treadshot was from a random, unspecified universe, and he was packaged versus an unspecified Ultra Magnus who seemed like kind of a tool. Plus his symbol was the same maroon as the rest of him, making it neeearly SG Decepticon red. Their stories could easily sync up. It would delight me to no end to find out this 2003 Universe guy was from the Shattered Glass universe all along.)
SG Treadshot is pretty fantastic.
Yes. Yes he is. It’s just a shame he is no longer a punch car.
The headband thing reeks of the Gleek fiasco Mattel went through with the Wonder Twins set at SDCC a couple years back. Hopefully it doesn’t blow up like that did.
The instructions for Jazz never showed an alternate head, are you sure this is was tooled previously and not a new tooling made for Botcon? Rumor has it it’ll be used for Kickoff as well, but it’s not a dead ringer for him either, so suppose that could be the case.
This alternate head was shown in Hasbro’s presentation at BotCon 2010, same time that they unveiled RTS Jazz. I doodled a picture of it at the time, a doodle which I’ve misplaced at the moment, but this is definitely it.
Just ‘cuz it ain’t in the instructions doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Found it:
Cool, I wasn’t doubting you per se, it’s just the first I recall having heard of an alternate Jazz head, I remember hearing about Perceptor’s from Botcon info but I must have missed the Jazz bit.
Hmm I’m enclined to think that HasTak intended the new noggin to be an existing character, and it actually bears a pretty strong resemblance to Skids character model head. But maybe I’ve just been wishing for a new Skids for so long I’m seeing things.
?!! Hasbro can make Skids now! This is awesome. The mold even kind of works for his door wings. But this definitely isn’t a van.
Cool History on Treadshot. I like Armada sideswipe. But only because of the little spy fiction style hidden motorcycle minicon action feature.
The bio from the magnus treadshot pack needs to be shattered glass
confirmed and added to the wiki.
I was actually thinking of micromaster treadbolt and his universe toy when they mentioned the name.
Actually Skids wasn’t even a van, the Honda City Turbo was a tiny 2 seater hatchback subcompact car. He as just often depicted to be the size of a minivan because no one in America was familiar with the thing.
When they unveiled the head at BotCon, Hasbro said that they hadn’t decided who the head belonged to yet. But it wouldn’t be a terrible Skids head, no. It combines elements from both his toy and his cartoon/comic model portraysl, between the domed noggin and the big cheek-vents.
How is the headband being sold separately? Hadn’t seen that anywhere, but it is patetly ridiculous.
also, patently!
Nevermind, slightly more digging revealed the answer. So, it would have been “too expensive” to mold on, but it couldn’t have been packaged with it? Saying that some people might not want it seems kind of silly too, since it’s part of the character. Oh well!
Apparently it would have looked terrible molded on, and would have been too expensive to do as a pack-in, so they’re selling it online instead.
I so want a full Armada-themed Botcon set, it would have been nice for the 10th anniversary. Oh well, maybe 2013.
Though I’m not entirely sure what molds they could use to make some of the core characters and their mini-cons.
I wouldn’t say that’s especially likely considering most of the core characters include Optimus and Megatron and even the extended cast include characters that Hasbro likes to maintain name use on in current lines. Plus we got a Hot Shot in 2008 and a decent Red Alert in the Cybertron line, it just seems to soon to try and cash in on Armada nostalgia.
It wouldn’t just be Armada, but all the Unicron Trilogy.
You’re probably right, but I’d like to see new toys of Armada Thrust, Sideways, Demolisher, Hoist, Jetfire & Blurr. I can dream, right.
At first I was confused that this guy wasn’t Warpath, but then you made me remember about this other Treadshot and everything made perfect sense.
This toy is the work of PURE GENIUS.
The bio online even riffs the battle-in-a-box scenario for Treadshot and Ultra Magnus. Which is insane. I really really really wanted (and expected too!) that it was going to be based on the Action Master Treadshot and worried about how they’d use the Megatron gun mold.
SG Treadshot is insane and hurts my brain. He’s the first one I hate loving as much as I do. He is the pure win of this group despite himself. FunPub is insane and really did something out of the box this time.
I figure the best toy for a new Action Master Treadshot is Generations Warpath. Warpath’s got the right head and he has a big barrel poking out of his tummy, same as AM Treadshot.
(And you can’t redeco any Megatron gun mold, ‘cuz of state laws.)
What about classics megatron? He’s a nerf Gun. And heck, since The new Tiny gun megatron made it to the states, there’s no telling.
I was talking specifically about Classics Megatron. Hasbro has out-right stated that they wouldn’t be able to release that toy today. That’s why it never got redecoed or re-released in the states.
Laws on toy guns are ever-changing, and vary by state. The newest criteria that I’m familiar with is the one that requires the entire front of the gun to be cast in orange plastic. It can’t be painted orange, it has to be orange plastic. And considering the way the front of Classics Megatron’s gun mode is split up, that requires pretty much 100% of him to be molded in orange. RTS Megatron gets away with this probably because he’s a newer toy, and they were able to plan his mold layout so that they could cast the front of him all in one plastic. (And then paint some of it silver.) (And then sell him in small, scattered heavy-discount shops.)
If you say so. I’ve personally never seen the comments by Hasbro, but am not surprised by them and have heard that they said it before.
Then again, I still doubt that holds as strong as people thing after the release of minimegs, whom I’ve seen in more places than “small, scattered heavy discount shops”.
Hrm…
Though it is possible the issue is the size of the orange tip on Classics megs, which is about the size of a button rather than a longer piece.
Personally I’d be inclined to agree on using the generations warpath figure, same as you, but that’s more because I”m not a huge fan of “gun” forms period.
I’m just trying to figure the logic behind your comment/their decision. Then again, Hasbro is known for being more cautious than they might have to be legally when it comes to this kind of thing, as illustrated by their extra precautions for “flying” figures.
…
Man, I’m argumentative over details sometimes.
Your theory is sound, since non-G1 alternate SG characters have been recently revealed to be insane masterminds. Then this guy is probably still G1 Treadshot’s counterpart, because SG Galvatron has an alt-mode ENTIRELY different from ANY of his counterparts, so his alt-mode wouldn’t be without precedent. Then despite his jet or helicopter-like torso, Action Master Take-Off was revealed as a 3-wheeled car, so these guys can go any direction. Also, he’s not the torso of a demigod, either.