One of the anime series that truly made an impact on me during my primary school days was not He-Man, Care Bears, Starcom, M.A.S.K or even the almighty Visionaries (although I still remembered them very well) but rather a little known Japanese Transformers series known as Masterforce.
Little wonder because it was only shown on RTM 2 if I recalled correctly (Mediacorp or SBC then has already started to suck, especially in its cartoon palatte). I would religiously wake up every Sunday morning to feast my eyes on the Japanese drawn Transformers and in my mind, I knew where my allegiances lie. The American version was badly dranw and most of the time badly animated but not so the Jap ones.
Masterforce featured one of my heroes, Optimus Prime, although in the series he was not really Prime himself (otherwise known as Convoy in Japan) but rather a character named Ginrai.
Why, you ask?
You gotta watch this bumper video to find out.
Anyway, I am such a fan of Optimus that currently I already own three of him in varying sizes including a very battered God Ginrai (okay, okay, it's also called Powermaster Optimus Prime in the States). The other 2 are a 150 buck 20th Anniversary Prime and a Takara mini Prime piece measuring no less than 20cm, transformable and setting me back by more than 100 bucks.
The 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime which I have to settle for the 150 dollar Hasbro version because its cheaper than the Takara one with steel steam pipes. Hasbro's version is plastic and Prime comes with ugly burnt marks. Yucks, but oh well.
The Takara THS-02 Optimus Prime! Comes with trailer, changeable hands, Energon axe, blasters, mini cab and jet pack etc etc in its less than 20cm frame! AND its fucking transformable loh! It's my fave piece especially when you consider that this is one of the last Transformer figurines to come out of Takara before its merger with Tomy.
The ultra-poseable Revoltech Optimus Prime costing about 32 dollars at Rapid Culture in Cineleisure. I love my Transformers super poseable because the G1 stuff were all huge chunks of immobile plastic (my poor Powermaster Optimus Prime was one of them). Toy making technology now sure blows me away these days. :)
And for nostalgia, my Powermaster Optimus Prime that I pestered my dad to buy (a huge gift considering how expensive Transformer toys were in our heady 80s days.) Think I got it as a birthday gift but too bad now I have lost the little Powermaster figurine and poor Prime himself is pretty battered coz of age. This one in the picture is pretty well-maintained. :)
LOL, the wife can surely attest to my geekery when it came to Prime himself. In fact, I am looking to buy this ultra-poseable Prime figure that will cost 32 dollars as well as the movie adaptation (over 90 bucks) if I am mad enough, haha!
Of course, if the Moonies wanna get it for me, I will be overjoyed! Really! *hint hint
Talking of the latest Transformer craze, I am a little miffed by how Prime and the other G1 Transformers look (OMG, what happened to Bumblebee!!!!) in the upcoming Michael Bay film as I feel that they are all over-designed, I will still watch it for the fandom and....for Peter Cullen!
Yes, Peter WAS the guy behind Prime's voice in the American cartoons and seeing his name leaked in the credits months before sets my very otaku blood on fire.
June 28th. I cannot wait!
Transform and Roll Out!!!!!
2 comments:
I love Masterforce...but the weird thing was I hated Transformers. Anyway if u had known Malay, it would have been so much fun cause there were so many malay-dubbed jap shows and cartoons on TV2. There was one abt this boy who has the power to be in the waters and befriend the dolphins...he has this mighty sword..name was Toro or Taro or something. oh well.
I know tht boy, his dolphin is white one right?
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