A cheerful and loyal mech, Clutch has been Ambassador Crosscut's valued asset as a secretarial assistant and walking calendar. As a minicon and by relation a member of the Disposable class of "lesser" Cybertronians, Clutch can serve as a living capacitor and external processorm but depsite the qualities, Clutch is one of many minicons with fully mobile and unrelated alt modes. As such, it became common practice for all minicons to have their vocalizers reduced to simple Cybertonic Morse Code, their mental capacities restricted to prevent them from knoweing what opperseion even was or that they were subjected to it, and sometimes their forelimbs massively hindered. It may be the reason Clutch is so cheerful, not because he's seeingthe Silver Lining, but because the psychological surgery he was forced to undergo prevents him from seeing the cloud. Whatever the case, Clutch doesn't mind, there's a whole universe out there and Crosscut's late to it... again.So you might say I am a proud member of the Crosscut fan club. I like the obscure characters, and Crosscut goes very well with the Road Rage/SG Tracks figure, but to complete the set he really needed his Clutch to complete the trio. Since I have nearly all the US versions of the Armada Sideswipe W/ Nightbeat figures, (don’t ask why, I just do) and the Nightbeats are all nigh—identical, I felt like I could stand to miss one. I don't even know which one I painted, how;'s that for sad?
Clutch is completely hand painted in acrylics. He’s more than a little rough, but pulling the rivet holding his back end together was more than I wanted to stress the toy and trying to mask him wasn’t my idea of a good time. I could easily have removed his legs and back wheel, but considering so much of him would still have to be brushed, I opted not to. Hey, it works for the WarHammer figurines, right?
I chose to do details in red because the original Clutch had red ad silver decals. In addition to the side stripes, I gave Clutch a tail light, two red speedometers (molded into the figure but to m knowledge never painted in any release) and a yellow headlight. There are a few spots around joints that still show yellow in his bot mode, but as Clutch originally could not transform I’m not too concerned. He was a joy to paint and watch come together, even despite the brush strokes, and I cannot wait to get Crosscut to go with him. I am officially more excited for Crosscut than I am Skids. Whoo!
Enjoy the photos; these were taken on an HO scale model train club layout to which I am a member.
Nice backdrop for the photos as well!
