Shortpacked! by David Willis

Cheetimus and I split the Masterpiece Frenzy/Buzzsaw set, and I’ve mailed Frenzy to Cheetimus long ago, but I took pictures of him before I sent him off!  He said I could!  And so let’s finally talk about this toy I don’t have right now but will later when he comes out in the United States and I rebuy him.

I’ve always been a Frenzy over a Rumble guy.  The reasons for this are simple and petty: I had Frenzy’s toy as a kid, not Rumble, and Frenzy featured prominently in my first comic books, not Rumble.  (I’m sure Rumble was IN them, in fact I know he was, but he was kind of colored blue in them just like Frenzy so it’s not like he had a large chance of standing out.)  And the cartoon was for chumps (who got home from school earlier)!

And so I very much would like this Frenzy toy later, but just not for the $30 portion of the Japanese set he is.  My impatience has its limits, and those limits are Buzzsaw-shaped.

Plus, man, I gotta tell ya, Buzzsaw’s Masterpiece toy is just so much more compelling than Frenzy/Rumble’s.  Buzzsaw was always one of the better early Recordicons because he transformed out of his cassette shape into multiple directions.  He didn’t remain flat like Frumble and Ravage.  His wings spread out, sure, but he also poked his legs and head out and became more 3D.  And so, visually, Frenzy just isn’t as interesting to me me.  He’s a thin dude.  Obviously, Masterpiece Frenzy is way more intricate than the original and makes for a much more poseable and believable humanoid robot, but he’s still kinda flat.

Also, Buzzsaw’s weaponry, which were previously removable accessories, are integrated into his Masterpiece transformation, which is amazing and impossible.  Buzzsaw gets to break the laws of physics, but Frenzy doesn’t.  Frenzy’s extra weapons are still extra parts.  It makes logical sense for this to be the case, since these guns are supposed to be able to be removed and replugged into various places, but it’s still less awestriking.  The weapons can switch between two pegs, one sized for his spoolholes and the other sized for his fistholes.

And Frenzy’s giant piledrivers which he has because of Frumble Mixup are obviously gonna be big extra parts you plug in.  There’s also a third part that both piledrivers attach to which then in turn plugs into Frenzy’s back, if you want robot mode storage.  It makes him unstandable, so I’m not sure why you would.  But hey, it’s there!

So, really, there’s more stuff to do with Frenzy than Buzzsaw just by considering the sheer amount of extra stuff he comes with.  But I still prefer amazingly self-contained Buzzsaw.