After a temporary hiatus, the Buried Treasure feature on Seibertron.com has now returned!
The year 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the Transformers franchise. To celebrate this incredible milestone, Seibertron.com will look back at a quarter-century of great Transformers toys, bringing back into the limelight some brilliant figures that have fallen through the cracks over the years. Once a week, a fan (be it a member of the staff or a user on the site) will have the opportunity to write about one of their favourite "hidden gems" of the Transformers Universe, and have their review posted on the site's front page.
We hope this feature will be a great success, and that many of you will be encouraged to look back at the last 25 years of Transformers and perhaps take a worthwhile second-look at some real unsung classics of the Transformers universe.
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Buried Treasure - Tow-Line (Energon series - 2004)By
MkallBefore the notion of cyber keys was even imagined, and sometime after minicons had become accepted into the Transformers continuity, there existed a series called Transformers: Energon, or if you are a Japanese purist: Transformers Superlink. Now that the novelty of the “gotta catch ‘em all” minicons had worn off, Hasbro decided it needed some new gimmicks and after much debate it was announced: the Spark of Combination and Powerlinx.
For those who are new to the fandom, or re-emerging from their pit of solitude, Powerlinking is the term that means Autobots of the same size class may combine with eachother to form a myriad of upgraded Autobot warriors. One Autobot decided to take that idea one step further, and that is Energon
Tow-Line.
Even in package,
Tow-Line is an unassuming character. While the rest of his size class were race cars, fire trucks, and futuristic trucks,
Tow-Line putters along as a harmless, block-like communications vehicle; much like the FBI has parked two blocks away from your house listening to your phone calls, more on the alt-mode later however.
Tow-Line was released precisely in the middle of the Energon packaging change, so it was not uncommon to find him either in the black with the yellow grid background style of the original packaging, or in the red with lightning bolts design that was the Powerlinx Battles style. With the original style of packaging, you could see the full artist-rendered version of Tow-Line’s battle mode charging forward as if daring you to pick up the packaging and never let go. With the Powerlinx Battles style, they enlarged the same art piece, but cut off the lower half, so you could only see half his gun, and everything below the torso is up for imagination. As a matter of personal choice, I always preferred the black packaging as it made both the artwork and the figure stand out better.
I’ve never been a fan of keeping figures in packages, so within seconds of acquiring
Tow-Line, he was free of his prison. His van mode is still unassuming and possibly even more brick-link than it looked in the box. His windows are the same dark transparent red as his scanner/gun and it is a nice contrast to the two tones of blue that make up this figure. A rich royal blue takes control of his sides, rear and grill in this mode, with a teal-coloured roof. The front of the van is all white, and is a shade of white that makes Universe Ratchet very jealous. The only things that distract from this mold is the protruding circle that is meant for an omnicon’s Energon star, and on his rear side panels there is a hole on either side. I would suppose that it’s for holding his scanner/gun, but there’s a nicer place on the roof to hold that. Oh well, it’s easy to overlook them because Hasbro did a nice job of encorperating them into the paint scheme.
Enough babbling about the vehicle mode and let’s take a look at the robot mode. Remember when I said that Tow-Line took the idea of Powerlinking one step further? Yes folks; he Powerlinks with himself. You fold the rear side panels down and with a little tug that requires more strength than the average 7 year old can muster, the cab and roof section separate from the bottom chassis.
Tow-Line is the first figure since G1 Ironhide and Ratchet to do something like this, and there was so much clamour for an updated Ironhide and Ratchet that FunPub did just that.
Botcon Ratchet now goes for well over $400 on ebay,
Ironhide. can fetch upwards of 150. Thanks FunPub.
Let’s focus on the top portion for now.
Tow-Line is a fully-formed robot now with only half a vehicle. His doors fold up, his arms swing forward and twist out, his legs fold out, separate and then fold into his torso in a move that would make any contortionist cry. Finally in a move of German-precise engineering, the section above the cab slides up, forward and back all at the same time to reveal the head. At first glance, you may think that there isn’t any paint apps on his face other than the sheet of matte gold, however under the right light you can see his optics are a brighter shade of gold. It’s a shame that the helmet mold shadows them.
Tow-Line’s robot mode has 9 points of articulation, 11 if you want to throw his shoulders back. They are his shoulders, elbows, legs, knees, feet and finally his head, which can turn 90 degrees in each direction. If they could do it with this figure, why not Cybertron Downshift eh? Oh well. He can hold his scanner/gun single-handedly but it looks out of scale for him to be honest. Then again Energon/Superlink figures almost always had oversized weapons, so I guess it’s the norm.
Tow-Line’s scanner/gun is a large, mostly square thing which has a fold out arm with a little scanner attachment connected to its end with a ball and socket joint. A word of caution to those still wanting the figure: <b>examine this part closely!</b> I say this because the type of plastic used doesn’t seem to wear well and even as I examine it for this review, I fear it will further disintegrate into nothing, as it barely holds the scanner attachment and is all cracked and frayed. And I got mine MISB!
That said, this scanner/gun looks much better on
Tow-Line’s lower half, which folds out into a mini gun emplacement, with holes for the scanner/gun to nestle into perfectly. There’s not much to say about this part, except that it’s wonderfully detailed and Tow-Line looks awesome standing beside it with his hand resting on the barrel.
Powerlinked with other deluxe figures,
Tow-Line’s legs wrap up and around and his feet further fold out to reveal guns. He makes any figure look more intimidating this way, however due to his unique mold, Towline is unable to form the lower half of a Powerlinx Autobot, however if one wishes to attempt to make a Stephen Hawking Autobot, other deluxe fugures mayu Powerlink with his weapon emplacement. I’ve yet to see a combo that actually can make that look threatening.
Bottom line is that
Tow-Line is an awesome figure. He’s the only deluxe figure to have a mini base, and not only that; he’s still a very poseable figure. Just be careful with his gun/scanner should it fall to pieces. It’s a real shame that there haven’t been more widely available repaints of him.
Links:Visit the Energon Tow-Line gallery
by clicking hereVisit the Botcon Exclusive Ratchet gallery
by clicking here.
Visit the Botcon Exclusive Ironhide gallery
by clicking here.
...Or find your own buried treasures by visiting all the toy galleries
here!
* If you would like to write a review for our "Buried Treasures" feature, please send a private message to
Skowl on the Seibertron.com forums!
Previous Buried Treasure Reviews:
Cannonball by Skowl
Snapdragon by Jeep
Cybertron Downshift by Chuckdawg1999
Frostbite by Duke of Luns
Octopunch by Jeep
Emergency Mini-Con Team by Nekoman
Cybertron Dirt Boss by Skowl
