The Energon Pub

How come we've never had glow in the dark Transformers? Out of all the fads and gimmicks that Transformers have integrated into the toy line, why haven't they done glow in the dark plastic? Or even glow in the dark stickers!?

We've had translucent, metallic, chromed, die-cast metal, rubbery, and plush figures! There's been spring loaded missiles, transforming weapons, 5mm clip attachments, non-weapon accessories, and partners. Combiners, pretenders, jump starters, battle chargers, triple changers, quad changers, six changers, action masters, power masters, target masters, head masters, and breast masters! Mini-cons, terrorcons, vehicons, horrorcons, and unicrons! Lights and sounds, hidden weapons, light piping, pets, human partners, automorph, and mech-alive!

tl;dr

There's been every kind of gimmick! Why, in the 30 years of Transformers, have I not seen any glow in the dark parts?

Would they be too expensive to produce? Are there harmful chemicals in glow in the dark plastics? Is it unfit (brittle/soft/fragile) to work into a figure? They really wouldn't need much for it. Maybe make the badges glow in the dark, or the eyes! Or do details with it like the glowey bits in WfC/FoC games. I'd buy it, but I'm a sucker for that kinda stuff.

Agreed about this quite a bit.

I know a phosphorous powder has to be added to a viscous base, in screen printing , which should be applicable to tampographs and the like,
The powder to liquid ratio has to be correct, too powdery makes it brittle and too much liquid kills the opacity and detail.

I have seen glow in the dark figures of other brands in the past but nothing in hand to offer a tangible example.
This effect also has been done on several Reprolabel sets in the past so its definitely an option for future figures.

Here's a few pics/ links from the wiki regarding glow.




http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Freezon
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Natron

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers_Milk_Caramel

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:How come we've never had glow in the dark Transformers? Out of all the fads and gimmicks that Transformers have integrated into the toy line, why haven't they done glow in the dark plastic? Or even glow in the dark stickers!?

We've had translucent, metallic, chromed, die-cast metal, rubbery, and plush figures! There's been spring loaded missiles, transforming weapons, 5mm clip attachments, non-weapon accessories, and partners. Combiners, pretenders, jump starters, battle chargers, triple changers, quad changers, six changers, action masters, power masters, target masters, head masters, and breast masters! Mini-cons, terrorcons, vehicons, horrorcons, and unicrons! Lights and sounds, hidden weapons, light piping, pets, human partners, automorph, and mech-alive!

tl;dr

There's been every kind of gimmick! Why, in the 30 years of Transformers, have I not seen any glow in the dark parts?

Would they be too expensive to produce? Are there harmful chemicals in glow in the dark plastics? Is it unfit (brittle/soft/fragile) to work into a figure? They really wouldn't need much for it. Maybe make the badges glow in the dark, or the eyes! Or do details with it like the glowey bits in WfC/FoC games. I'd buy it, but I'm a sucker for that kinda stuff.

I love this idea, I would buy some. I suppose one could paint on some glow in the dark paint but that probably wouldn't go well, maybe a good painter could.

If the varieties of glow-in-the-dark plastics used by LEGO are any indication, it ought to be possible, at least in place of hard ABS plastics. I've never seen a flexible glow-in-the-dark plastic used on a toy of decent quality before, though my experience doesn't stretch very far.

There has been only one single instance in which glow-in-the-dark plastic would have been used for a Transformer. You read that right: "would have been". Enter G2 ATB Megatron and Starscream.

This repaint of G2 Dreadwing would have featured glow-in-the-dark missiles, but alas, it was canceled along with a good chunk of other G2 repaints. Even though the deco was reworked for BWII Starscream & BB, the glowing missiles were not carried over.