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As a kid, and even today, I could never figure out which end was supposed to be Blitzwing's front. I think I usually used the nose-cone end as the front.

yea my brother used to gripe about that when we were kids, but I always played as Astrotrain who had an obvious front and back.

To make things more messey I beleave that Blizwing came in his package in tank mode with nosecone forward. I personly display him sloped/headlight forward though.

JackStraw wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:You mean the trapezoid-shaped ones? They go on the batteries.

Yes, exactly, and I agree, however, I've seen them so often placed like in the picture below that when I look at mine in alt mode it looks like they are missing.

reduced-g1lsound-l.jpg

If you follow the "Cassette man" incarnation, those trapezoid like decals had some words printed on it. The correct placement should have been on what his shins would be in robot mode.

But in his "Soundwave" incarnation, though it looks cool but kind of goofy with decals on his "batteries" (also, the words on the decals are now gone.....iirc it was Cassette man )

Back to Blitzwing, as I mentioned before, the tank mode is based on a Soviet Russia era T series tank. Take a look at Jane's military hardware book or wiki as reference. The front of the tank has those two rectangular headlights. So again, a real tank would look goofy driving backwards or if it did drive forward with the turret facing backward, then by standard military practice means that the tank is like waving a white flag with no intention of any offensive actions.

I think I used to pretend the nosecone was at the back just so it wasn't really visible.

Fenrir - I know it's the second time you stated about the tank driving backwards or forwards with the turrett backwards, but I still dont understand what you're getting at, sorry, can you explain? Also, I thought I read on TF Wiki that it was modeled off of a Mitsubishi Type 74 tank not a Russian tank, or is it the same thing?
Thanks.

Mykltron wrote:I think I used to pretend the nosecone was at the back just so it wasn't really visible.

I used to put the turret in the front for the same reason; I felt like the turret sort of hid the nosecone a bit. Also, the end without the nosecone looks like it should be the rear, IMO.

Just found a pic from the book in the Takara Reissue, too big to post from my phone. Shows it BOTH ways. Although the pic one on the left hand page is a drawing with the nosecone in front, the body of the tank slants forward like the real tank the way Jelze pointed out. But, on the toy, that slant down is on the opposite side. I guess there really is no "right way". Weird. Also, the Takara reissue 17 has the tank packaged with the turret facing the opposite side of the nosecone, which is the opposite of how the original was packaged.

JackStraw wrote:Fenrir - I know it's the second time you stated about the tank driving backwards or forwards with the turrett backwards, but I still dont understand what you're getting at, sorry, can you explain? Also, I thought I read on TF Wiki that it was modeled off of a Mitsubishi Type 74 tank not a Russian tank, or is it the same thing?
Thanks.

Sorry for the mix up. D@mn triple changers I mixed MiG 25 Soviet jet with the Japanese tank model. My bad.

Anyway, as a trivia on tank warfare etiquette, tanks do have a front and back, though they can run in either directions. So if you drive a tank towards an enemy fortification/position and have the intention to surrender, you turn the turret in reverse. Rules of war, Geneva Conventions etc has the opposing side honor bound not to shoot your head off.

fenrir72 wrote:

JackStraw wrote:Fenrir - I know it's the second time you stated about the tank driving backwards or forwards with the turrett backwards, but I still dont understand what you're getting at, sorry, can you explain? Also, I thought I read on TF Wiki that it was modeled off of a Mitsubishi Type 74 tank not a Russian tank, or is it the same thing?
Thanks.

Sorry for the mix up. D@mn triple changers I mixed MiG 25 Soviet jet with the Japanese tank model. My bad.

Anyway, as a trivia on tank warfare etiquette, tanks do have a front and back, though they can run in either directions. So if you drive a tank towards an enemy fortification/position and have the intention to surrender, you turn the turret in reverse. Rules of war, Geneva Conventions etc has the opposing side honor bound not to shoot your head off.

Very cool, I never knew that.

Here's a little something that seals the deal:



Clearly shows the cockpit in the back in tank mode.