The Energon Pub

[LOST Cybertronian]

Seibertron.com turns its camera lens to four new Generation 2 galleries. This quartet of figures known collectively as the Laser Rods include Electro, Sizzle, Jolt and Volt. They get their name due to their hot rod alt modes and the fact they have a light-up feature that illuminates their laser swords in robot mode as well as the clear plastic engines in alt mode. It should be noted that Electro suffers greatly from the scourge of GPS as most of his body is made up of gold plastic.

Generation 2 Electro




Generation 2 Sizzle




Generation 2 Jolt




Generation 2 Volt

[RAcast]

Amazing as always! Nothing like a G2 gallery to get that nostalgia flowing.

Sizzle and Jolt in particular look AMAZING, and I kind of find myself wanting them...

[Mindmaster]

I call bullshit on the Electro gallery: he crumbled into a pile of yellow dust when you snapped the first photo.

[MINDVVIPE]

Used to have Jolt. He was awesome. They need do redo these characters closer to this oldschool incarnation.

[Mkall]

Nice pics Seibs! I'm glad to see Electro survived the process.

[Doubledealer93]

these things look awesome, why dont i have them?

[griftimus prime]

these were some of the first good transformers molds. then beast wars kicked it up another notch

[Bumblevivisector]

these were some of the first good transformers molds. then beast wars kicked it up another notch

*ahem* "Good" is subjective, but if you're strictly talking articulation, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. More than anything, these guys royally put the Action Masters, introduced not quite 4 years prior, to shame by fully transforming into realistic vehicles AND being so crazy-articulated they could out-yoga any G.I.Joe.

I'd need to dig out my Electro and see if time has caught up with him, but I think he's a good example of how Gold-Plastic-Syndrome varies by batch. The Cybertronian G2 guidebook claims he didn't suffer from it, unlike G2 Slingshot who hit shelves less than 3 months before these four (this may vary by region, but around Detroit, G2 Combaticon and Aerialbot limbs came out in November of '93, while the Laser Rods and Rotor Force were out in January of '94, possibly even before Onslaught and Silverbolt, IDR), so even if GPS gets worse over time, that couldn't account for the difference; one run of Electros must have just been mixed up better than the others and not swirled as bad.

2 other common problems with these guys though:
1.) That clear plastic is subject to yellowing.
2.) The most challenging part about transforming them was the cord for the LED light had to be coiled up under the hood a different, specific way for each figure; if you forgot how, you're out of luck now, as I don't think the instructions were that clear. As I got Electro first and played with him a bit more than the others, the rubber cracked a bit, exposing some of the copper wire in just a few years, and I think I was coiling it up the right way too.

They really need to reissue these guys sometime, but even in G2 I don't think vehicle mode licensing was the issue it is today. Electro is a specific model of Ford pickup except for his wheels, and who knows what s#!t-storm could be stirred up by Jolt's resemblance to the Plymouth Prowler, despite his having to have been designed at least 2 years prior. They're hardly identical, so it could be a coincidence of the Prowler's retro look, but they're both purple. Is it a case of a common homage, or do toy companies engage in corporate espionage? These were the kind of nutty conspiracy questions racing through the minds of Transfans after the G2 comic got canned, and we were left to speculate about the possible demise of the brand.

Will we ever get the name Electro back now that Disney owns Marvel, even though Hasbro's doing their toys too? At least Jolt got a very suitable homage in ROTF, the only thing that made that movie bearable IMHO.

[Seibertron]

I'd need to dig out my Electro and see if time has caught up with him, but I think he's a good example of how Gold-Plastic-Syndrome varies by batch. The Cybertronian G2 guidebook claims he didn't suffer from it, unlike G2 Slingshot who hit shelves less than 3 months before these four (this may vary by region, but around Detroit, G2 Combaticon and Aerialbot limbs came out in November of '93, while the Laser Rods and Rotor Force were out in January of '94, possibly even before Onslaught and Silverbolt, IDR), so even if GPS gets worse over time, that couldn't account for the difference; one run of Electros must have just been mixed up better than the others and not swirled as bad.

Don't let my gallery of Electro fool you. All Electros have Gold Plastic Syndrome. It's the knees and the elbows that are the biggest problem on him.

I did a couple of things with Electro after I finished his vehicle mode photos. First, I boiled him in water. I figured what the hell do I have to lose? It helped that I had 3 sealed ones to work with in case one broke. I hoped that by boiling him that it might soften up the plastic a little bit. Just seemed like something new to try since boiling water solves a lot of other issues (stress marks, bent rubber pieces, etc). The batteries already did not work and there is no removing the batteries since the screw goes into gold plastic so I figured a little water wasn't going to cause any more damage.

After his 20 second bath, I soaked his various joints with some of Ace Hardware's Lub-E (basically a plastic safe version of WD40). After doing that, I carefully studied the figure to determine where I thought gold plastic would be the biggest issue and determined what parts of the toy I could put pressure on so that I could transform him. The knees and the elbows were the most difficult parts. I then reapplied very generous amounts of the Lub-E on the elbows and knees until it loosened up enough that I was able to transform those parts with ease.

Once I transformed him fully, I ran him under hot water to get the Lub-E off of him. His joints continue to move freely after doing this, as you can see from all of the various poses I put him in throughout the gallery.

I am very lucky that he survived the gallery process. I put the toys through a lot in these galleries. Electro is also top heavy so he likes to fall backwards, which happened at least a half dozen times throughout the photoshoot. Fortunately, he didn't shatter.

If you look at Electro's windows, you'll see that something coated the inside of the windows. I'm not sure if it was steam/boiling water that caused a problem with the windows, or if the Lub-E dried up or became discolored from the hot water. Something weird happened.

Unfortunately, I forgot to remove the sticker from his chest before doing all of this. The sticker got a little damaged or discolored.

Considering the alternatives, I'll take a little damaged sticker and "fogged up" windows over a broken Electro.

I wish I had done more with the Lub-E on Black Zarak back when I did his gallery last year. It really did the trick with Electro. I used it on Black Zarak but not as extensively as I did on Electro.

Transform yours at your own risk, everyone. Once it's broken, that's it. I got lucky but I've also had a ton of experience with gold plastic Transformers (I think I own them all ) that help me have a good understanding of how to handle these fragile toys.

[Seibertron]

one run of Electros must have just been mixed up better than the others and not swirled as bad.

The "swirls" were in the exact same spots on both European versions that I had and on the US or Canadian version.

[Seibertron]

I realized I didn't take a group of shot of just the four Laser Rods by themselves. I updated all four galleries with a few shots at the end of their galleries of them in group shots. There should be an additional four new photos at the end of each Laser Rod gallery.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Once again, my respect goes out to you, you're a very brave man

They should have used the molds for Universe 10 years ago, especially Electro (I hate GPS-plastic) but then again, their electronics and their gimmick in the waist would have made them a bit too expensive for their size. O well, here's hoping for reissues.

[RhA]

Once again, my respect goes out to you, you're a very brave man

Brave man indeed.

[Bumblevivisector]

And thanks for the blow-by-blow account. I've still been fortunate enough to only see Electro disintegrate in online photos, but I think we all needed to know how the sausage was made for this gallery. I'm timid about boiling my toys since I've only done it for the purposes of RIT dying with acetone, and ruined a fleet of machine-robo KOs and deluxe BM Jetstorm in my mistakes (the former being the greater tragedy, since they lack the name recognition to show up on Ebay)

I'd never heard of that lube before, and I'll have to make a note of it. The sickest irony is that IIRC, Electro was the most poseable of the four. I used to display him resting his sword across his back behind his head so that if you lit up his saber, it went through the light piping and lit up his eyes just a bit. He's the only toy that can make me more nostalgic for G2 than G1, and gold was always my least favorite color before I knew what GPS or even photodegredation was; he was THAT awesome. sigh.

[TulioDude]

Wow,preety cool!
They look brand new!

[Seibertron]

Wow,preety cool!
They look brand new!

That's because 3 of them were brand new. Volt was one of the Transformers I had to open a couple of years ago after the area I live in sustained a massive flood

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater



Fortunately, Electro survived without any damage at all even though he was right in the tub next to Volt.

Sizzle and Jolt were the only two Laser Rods that I had from when I was a teenage in the 90s. Jolt's right leg cracked in half when I was posing him for the gallery so I ended up having to use an extra Jolt from a large European collection that I recently purchased that I've been listing at Seibertron.com's eBay store. If you look closely at Jolt's gallery, you'll notice that the paint apps are slightly different from the vehicle mode pics to the robot mode pics because of the figure replacement. Ironic that the non-GPS Laser Rod broke during this photoshoot but the GPS one didn't. Thanks Jolt!

So technically 3 of them ended up being brand spankin' new ...

[Bumblevivisector]

Oh, right, I forgot about that collection-wreckin' flood. Ouch.

Especially hurts that it damaged sealed G2 clamshell figures too. Those things were so damn hard to get open they seemed bulletproof, so their not being waterproof is like the final insult.

[Seibertron]

I added in-package pictures to the gallery of Sizzle (aka Fireball).

[Seibertron]

Seibertron.com is proud to present two massive galleries of some very rare Transformers figures. We were able to get our hands on Generation 2 Combat Hero Optimus Prime and Combat Hero Megatron, both of which were among a slew of products that were canceled in 1995. These versions are repaints of Hero Optimus Prime and Hero Megatron from 1994.

While there aren't many of these unreleased Optimus Primes and Megatron out in the wild, we decided to take this opportunity to open them up and photograph these figures for everyone to enjoy. This might be the first time that this version of Optimus Prime has been photographed like this and it might also be the first time that these two products have been featured together in a gallery. As an added bonus, we even busted out all 6 of the unreleased G2 Gobots for these galleries.

Unfortunately, these figures won't be staying with the Seibertron.com collection. You can find both items in the Seibertron.com Store by clicking on the following links: G2 Combat Hero Optimus Prime on eBay and G2 Combat Hero Megatron on eBay

Without further ado, here are some teaser images from the galleries of Combat Hero Optimus Prime and Combat Hero Megatron for your viewing enjoyment. Feel free to click on any of the images below to view the respective galleries of each figure.

After you check out these galleries, share your thoughts about these figures in our forums by clicking here.

Generation 2 Combat Hero Optimus Prime


















Generation 2 Combat Hero Megatron

[Bounti76]

Ryan....just out of curiosity, why not keep these? Too rare? Not what you personally collect?

[Madeus Prime]

Awesome. We need a repaint of a Megatron in those colors

[BERSEKAEL]

now I know, where this came from



and Yes, before I get sarcastic coments, I might need more education on transformers, but as many here I got involved cuz the cartoons (30 years ago) and G2 wasn't on tv.

[RhA]

They are beautiful. If I where you, I'd keep them. If my bank account was in a better state, I'd buy them in a heartbeat.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

now I know, where this came from



and Yes, before I get sarcastic coments, I might need more education on transformers, but as many here I got involved cuz the cartoons (30 years ago) and G2 wasn't on tv.

Not quite, the original Legends was more directly based on this big fellow:



Roughly the size of a Leader, the design was downsized into a Deluxe with added articulation. The big guy was never released in Jspan as is, but was repainted into BWII Megastorm, by changing some stickers, replacing the purple with brown and giving him a black "mask". Also, the purple and grey decos were used in Japan for the Legends figure in their EZ Collection.

[OptimalOptimus2]

How much did these cost? $10,000? $15,000? $115,000?