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I am beyond impressed with your gallery of Black Zarak. Bravo! Were there any dicey bits with the Gold Plastic? I thought I remember hearing a PhD Chemist, wife of one of the podcasters, explained what the problem was with it, what I was unclear of, was whether there was a cure or compound you could treat it with. Thanks again for all your hard work!

Ruthless Cynic wrote:I am beyond impressed with your gallery of Black Zarak. Bravo! Were there any dicey bits with the Gold Plastic? I thought I remember hearing a PhD Chemist, wife of one of the podcasters, explained what the problem was with it, what I was unclear of, was whether there was a cure or compound you could treat it with. Thanks again for all your hard work!

As far as we know, there is no cure for gold plastic syndrome. It's just a matter of time before something happens to it. Due to my experience handling gold plastic, I know what to expect and how to reduce, but not eliminate damage. In the case of Black Zarak, it was easier to figure out where the problems would arise because it's identical to Scorponok, just with gold plastic.

I was doing really good with the shield until I knocked over Black Zarak. It was just one of those fluke moments, not thinking, in a hurry, next thing I know he knocked over. I was lucky that the shield didn't crack in half or something else that would have been catastrophic, instead, the peg hole just broke cleanly into a few pieces which I superglued back into place.

I was most scared of his tail because it's got the rivet in it. There's no back up plan for that at this time. When I had him in his serpent mode, I was very worried that the weight of the toy would make the stand collapse and the toy would fall on its gold plastic tail. Fortunately, that did not happen and the tail didn't shatter when I transformed it.

While it did not escape damage, the damage it sustained was damage I was more or less expecting. It was typical damage that one would expect to find with a Black Zarak toy. I was just plain lucky and experienced that nothing else happened while handling this toy.

About 10 years ago I bought one on ebay for around $450. Perfect condition with stickers unapplied. I hadn't heard of the gold plastic syndrome yet, so you can imagine how shocked I was when I placed the shield on his arm and the connector piece broke. I ended up selling him shortly after that, for about the same price I paid.

Oh god, just looking at this gallery is giving me anxiety about it breaking.

Of all the TFs Takara / Hasbro has ever re-released, this is one that really ought to get done.

Hell, even a 3rd party company that'd make replacement parts would be welcome by all I'd wager.

yeah, I too wish they would re-release this guy, Galaxy Shuttle, and Blue Bacachus ( sp ?)

Then my G1 collection would be finally completed, sucks they dont

Very impressive. As always the galleries were nicely done. I never knew he had a different head sculpt. I always thought it was a straight repaint. So this is the figure that started the "gold plastic syndrome" outrage ???

Impressive gallery. *Plays Taps for another Black Zarak*

This is the gun he uses to shoot out 'SUPER-MEGA-ULTRA-AWESOME-RAYS'
The box for that guy is such a nice piece of artwork too. Great gallery.

God, I can just TASTE the photographer's fear in every pictures.

Midnight_Fox wrote:I want this figure, but I know I'd never be able to justify the price thanks to GPS.

Everyday I pray to see an announcement of a re-issue...

If one were released, with an absolutely identical color-scheme, would it still ultimately suffer from GPS? In other words, have whatever chemical issues that generally cause this been sorted out?

Dakatsu Mode!!!!! This is my first time ever seeing it done in toy form.

Though, two things:
1. How'd you remove the head?
2. Kinda disappointed that no pic of him in this form has him crawling on his belly all serpent style like he did in the show, but no real biggie.

Something I think would have been a really cool extra to this gallery would have been comparison pics with Cybertron Dark Scorponok (yes, I know it's been said that that figure is not a good homage, but it still an homage even if it is a rather loose one), and maybe a group shot comparing BlackZarak, G1 Scorponok, Energon Scorponok (or Super Link MegaZarak), and Cybertron Dark Scorponok, but I digress.

Also, what's this other mode being advertised here along with the Robot, Scorpion, and Base modes? Anyone here Japanese-savvy enough to tell what it says?

Andrius wrote:

Midnight_Fox wrote:I want this figure, but I know I'd never be able to justify the price thanks to GPS.

Everyday I pray to see an announcement of a re-issue...

If one were released, with an absolutely identical color-scheme, would it still ultimately suffer from GPS? In other words, have whatever chemical issues that generally cause this been sorted out?

I would think they would take pains to use one of the other brownish plastics like we've seen in more recent figures or go to gold chromed and gold painted parts instead of the gold plastic. It'd be interesting to see what they would do.

As for gold plastic itself, I thought it had been eliminated a long while ago and/or that gold plastic was no longer being used for Transformers. And then came along the Star Wars Transformers Chewbacca toy ... with gold plastic. I'm still determined that HFTD Leader Class Starscream uses gold plastic as well. Time will tell.

Sabrblade wrote:Dakatsu Mode!!!!! This is my first time ever seeing it done in toy form.

Nor had I. Nice to finally have some actual pictures of him in this "mode".

Sabrblade wrote:Though, two things:
1. How'd you remove the head?

If you're referring to the Scorponok head ... I used the KO reproduction head for those shots, as well as any shots where the arms and legs are posed. Most of the shots in Scorponok's gallery are using the actual toy except for when he's in head mode and posed.

Sabrblade wrote:2. Kinda disappointed that no pic of him in this form has him crawling on his belly all serpent style like he did in the show, but no real biggie.

Not sure that he did that ... I watched the last episode of Masterforce over and over again while doing the serpent mode. If he did do that, it was just a minor scene that I missed while taking photos. I'm sure we'll be just fine without pics like that since I did the far more complicated shots with him upright in his serpent mode.

Sabrblade wrote:Something I think would have been a really cool extra to this gallery would have been comparison pics with Cybertron Dark Scorponok (yes, I know it's been said that that figure is not a good homage, but it still an homage even if it is a rather loose one), and maybe a group shot comparing BlackZarak, G1 Scorponok, Energon Scorponok (or Super Link MegaZarak), and Cybertron Dark Scorponok, but I digress.

I wanted to keep this gallery true to him being a G1 toy. Dark Scorponok is not an homage of Black Zarak as far as I'm concerned. I've seen some nice fan made customs of Dark Scorponok as Black Zarak ... those are much better. I hope these pictures will demonstrate how not an homage Dark Scorponok is.

Sabrblade wrote:Also, what's this other mode being advertised here along with the Robot, Scorpion, and Base modes? Anyone here Japanese-savvy enough to tell what it says?

They're not modes ... the box is just showing you the figure transforming between his 3 modes. I'd be willing to bet the arrows say "Start", "Change", "Change", "Change", and "Finish". Scorponok's box show the exact same in-between modes next to those words.

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Though, two things:
1. How'd you remove the head?

If you're referring to the Scorponok head ... I used the KO reproduction head for those shots, as well as any shots where the arms and legs are posed. Most of the shots in Scorponok's gallery are using the actual toy except for when he's in head mode and posed.

I meant for the Dakatsu Mode, in which the red BlackZarak head isn't present.

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:2. Kinda disappointed that no pic of him in this form has him crawling on his belly all serpent style like he did in the show, but no real biggie.

Not sure that he did that ... I watched the last episode of Masterforce over and over again while doing the serpent mode. If he did do that, it was just a minor scene that I missed while taking photos. I'm sure we'll be just fine without pics like that since I did the far more complicated shots with him upright in his serpent mode.

'Kay.

Though, here's some shots of the Dakatsu Mode sitting on its belly from the episode.

Seibertron wrote:They're not modes ... the box is just showing you the figure transforming between his 3 modes. I'd be willing to bet the arrows say "Start", "Change", "Change", "Change", and "Finish". Scorponok's box show the exact same in-between modes next to those words.

Oh, that's too bad. They look like neat little alternative base modes.

any reason to belive that the have come up with a new gold plastic that dosnt suffer from GPS?

Ohhh, man! even though Scorponok is my favorite G1 Transformer, I've never really allowed myself to like Black Zarak, due to the cost and vunerability of the toy. Actually, even the idea of anything breaking on my Scorponok scares me.

But as usual (and I've said this so often before) you've made BZ look awesome, and now I almost want to own him. Dakastu mode is pretty awesome! I've never seen that in actual toy mode, and I'm going to have to try that with Scorponok!
It's too bad you couldn't work out anything with Darkov's parts, but I hear he's fully out of the repro-parts game and he wouldn't be making any more BZ parts anyhow.

njb902 wrote:any reason to belive that the have come up with a new gold plastic that dosnt suffer from GPS?

I think Ryan answered most of your question already earlier:

Seibertron wrote:I would think they would take pains to use one of the other brownish plastics like we've seen in more recent figures or go to gold chromed and gold painted parts instead of the gold plastic. It'd be interesting to see what they would do.

As for gold plastic itself, I thought it had been eliminated a long while ago and/or that gold plastic was no longer being used for Transformers. And then came along the Star Wars Transformers Chewbacca toy ... with gold plastic. I'm still determined that HFTD Leader Class Starscream uses gold plastic as well. Time will tell.

Oh my. Valiant work, fearless leader! Sorry to hear about the casualties, but you did a great service to us fans.

kirbenvost wrote:Oh my. Valiant work, fearless leader! Sorry to hear about the casualties, but you did a great service to us fans.

This!

Impressive looking figure but that helmet looks awful - too organic and rounded for such a blocky figure. It also renders the headmaster gimmick rather pointless as you can't see it.

Mykltron wrote:Impressive looking figure but that helmet looks awful - too organic and rounded for such a blocky figure. It also renders the headmaster gimmick rather pointless as you can't see it.

Toywise, yes. The show did explain it, though.

VERY nice gallery, and I'm glad you finally did it! but WOW I had no idea just how fragile gold plastic could be.
I still have my G2 electro, and, while I dont mess with him much, he's not that fragile. Just yesterday he fell off my shelf when my cat knocked him off. I thought he was done. But I checked on him and he just fell, no harm done. Maybe it's because, up until recently, he's been in a dark box, inside another box for like, 10 years. I really dont know. Just lucky I guess

Still, as always, jealous of your photography skills and your massive collection. I need to get off my rump and start saving up for a new camera. No, I need to stop saying I will, and actually DO it.

Rated X wrote:Very impressive. As always the galleries were nicely done. I never knew he had a different head sculpt. I always thought it was a straight repaint. So this is the figure that started the "gold plastic syndrome" outrage ???

Yes, Black Zarak is the first Transformers toy to use gold plastic.