Top 5 Most badass looking Transformer toys
This was probably the most fun I had making a list since I simply spent a bunch of time perusing galleries looking for pictures to prove how badass some Transformers toys can look. This list will inevitably be light on writing since in this case a picture is worth more than my words. I am lucky to be writing these lists for a site which is known for its galleries and I encourage you all to write your lists on which Transformers Toys look badass with some pictures in the discussion. So without further ado, here are what I find to be the most badass looking Transfromers toys.
5. Transformers G1 1986 Predaking (Reissue) and Transformers Super God Masterforce Powermaster Optimus Prime w/ Apex Armor (God Ginrai)
You would think G1 toys wouldn't look very badass since most can't move well but that would mean ignoring some of the most badass designs ever. Predaking and Powermaser Optimus are brimming with guns and sharp metal (and teeth for Predaking). They both look like emissaries for death either swooping down or revving up towards you. I couldn't choose which looked more badass because they are indeed both bricks with a combining gimmick, and an equally badass alt mode (don't mess with Tantrum!), and both have weapons EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!
4. Transformers Generations Roadbuster
For some reason, having a visor instead of optics, which helps hide emotion, just brings the badass level to 11 (think Robocop) and a lot of the picks on this list have that (total coincidence I realized as I wrote this down) like Roadbuster here. While the whole design is badass, what I love are the accessories he comes with. You could turn his alt mode into a Mad Max like vehicle with all the added artillery and it's just so fun all the weapon combinations you could come up with in any mode. I especially love having the missile pod on one of his shoulders (Thew has a great rundown of all the possibilities).
3. Transformers Masterpiece Grimlock (Grimlock (MP-08))
Behold!
Having the massive T-Rex hips become the shoulders gives you such a beast of a bot.
Hail to the King baby!
2. Transformers Universe - Classics 2.0 Onslaught
That deal with the visor I was talking about earlier comes to full effect on this Onslaught toy. Those shoulders are insane with the alt mode's ramming spikes climbing to the heavens with his back cannons completing the look. This toy doesn't combine to form Bruticus and he clearly doesn't need to, I am already shi#&ing my pants.
1. Transformers Universe Nemesis Prime
Ok, before we get to this, how many of you know of Peter Freuchen, the most badass man to ever live? Here is the most awesome and brief history lesson you will ever have (brought to you by me and kottke.org):
Standing six feet seven inches, with a magnificent beard, Freuchen was an arctic explorer (among many other things). He participated in several arctic journeys (including a 1000-mile dogsled trip across Greenland), had a peg leg (he lost his leg to frostbite in 1926; he amputated his gangrenous toes himself), was involved in the Danish resistance against Germany and was imprisoned and sentenced to death by the Nazis before escaping to Sweden. My favourite part of his life is when he was trapped in an ice cave where he would certainly die, so he fashioned an icepick out of his frozen poop to escape. Oh and if the peg leg and beard didn't give it away, in his older years he became a whaler ship captain. While the harpoon launcher was invented, he preferred whale hunting the old fashion way which means driving up to the whale and manually stabbing the harpoon into it.
This is how he looked like.
I don't know about you, but that pic totally makes me think of this toy:
Oh man! That toy always looked like Optimus woke up between those millions of years stuck on earth and explored out during the ice age by himself, where he skinned Mammoths to keep warm (and eventually went back to the volcano to keep sleeping and never spoke of this to anyone). He totally gives me a Norse viking/seasoned arctic explorer vibe ala Peter Freuchen. Just look at this picture from Hisashi Yuki, the Takara designer who made this toy:
And the best part is that Hasbro (freaken Hasbro for once!) made the most badass redeco of this already insanely badass looking toy. They gave him a Nemesis Prime deco with ... blood soaked tusks !
Honourable Mentions: Please let us know which toys you find most badass as I am sure there are more than the ones I mentioned. Here's another, for instance:
Transformers Cybertron Optimus Prime (Galaxy Convoy)
Also I wasn't going to include him since he is just so much on the nose but come on, I have to mention Transformers Masterpiece G2 Sideswipe (G-2 Lambor):