The Energon Pub

by **skyblast** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:02 pm

So yesterday I was walking around my local thrift store and noticed in the toy section a 2007 movie deluxe barricade in fantastic condition for $2.99.

Here's where the weirdness begins. After transforming barricade I opened the grill to retrieve Frenzy only to discover that it was impossible to get him out. The strange part was that Frenzy was all black. No matter how hard I pulled he was not coming out. Seeing Frenzy on the inside was too much for my brain to take. Out comes the screw driver. After removing four small screws I finally was able to get Frenzy out...but not just Frenzy came out. What also came out was a small piece of plastic (see pic).

My only conclusion is that Frenzy was not meant to come out on this particular run of Barricade due to, "choking hazard?" I am also concluding that Frenzy was painted black to disguise him so that kids would not try to take him out...Frenzy is normally tan correct? So the small black piece of plastic is the guard that was to prevent Frenzy from coming out?

My question. Where the heck did this deluxe Barricade come from? Did he come from Seibertron? Maybe he is real. Should I be worried? After all he is a decepticon, intend on killing all humans. Seriously though I wonder if he was an early,early US release. Maybe a Canada or Mexico release? What would have been really cool is to see what packaging he came in. I wonder if Frenzy was advertised on the back? Heck, if they went to the trouble to lock Frenzy in and create a custom piece of plastic to lock him, and paint him black maybe they changed the artwork on the back of the packaging? I've searched every where on the internet/ebay for a Barricade with a black Frenzy with no luck.

Lastly, on the bottom of his left foot it says..

2006 Hasbro Inc
Takara 2006

Your thoughts...

by **Gearslide** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:54 pm

Seems you've got a Barricade from the "Screen Battles" set.

It had nontransforming minifigs for Sam, Mikaela, and Frenzy, but it would seem that since the transforming Frenzy figure is part of Barricade's mold, they simply decided to add a part to Barricade's inner workings to lock the irrelevant Frenzy figure in place, rather than remove the figure entirely.

by **skyblast** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:02 pm

Nice work my friend. How in the heck did you figure this out? Yeah I guess it would seem weird to have two Frenzys in this set. Hummm, I wonder if Frenzy originally came black and then he was painted grey or if they painted him black for this set to disguise him? I wonder why they didn't just leave the inside Frenzy out all together... I do however love my hidden black Frenzy.

Anyone out there have an opened "First Encounter/Screen Battles" Barricade to verify?

Or maybe if it's still in the package shine a flashlight in there

. When Frenzy is grey he is pretty easy to see when he is inside of barricade

by **skyblast** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:19 pm

Shoot. Apparently the mystery remains. Where in the world did this Barricade come from?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6_8UgJE_v0

Maybe he came from the UK? Here is a black Frenzy...they made them black for the UK? How in the heck did a UK Barricade/Frenzy make it here to the states?

by **Gearslide** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:33 pm

skyblast wrote:Shoot. Apparently the mystery remains. Where in the world did this Barricade come from?

Maybe he came from the UK? Here is a black Frenzy...they made them black for the UK? How in the heck did a UK Barricade/Frenzy make it here to the states?

The HASBRO versions of the set feature the dummied out, Black, non-removable Frenzy. So anywhere that predominately sells Hasbro toys, like US and UK, would get the one you have.

The TAKARA version on the other hand, had a normal grey frenzy with red eyes. This is the version the reviewer has in your video.