by Bumblevivisector » Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:22 pm
With practice, you can actually shoot PEZ out of a regular dispenser with the right curve to its head. So I've heard.
Oh, and G2 technically launched at the tail end of 1992; I very distinctly remember getting Slag and Sideswipe for Christmas that year. Op, yellow Constructicons, the 3 cars, 3 Dinobots, and 2 Jets were all in Toys'R'Us that December, and I saw the 4 chromed Mini-vehicles in stores first thing in '93. Those ex-Euro-exclusives hit shelves that summer, alongside those awesome Jurassic Park toys. Repainted Combaticons and Aerialbots got released around Thanksgiving (though Silverbolt and Onslaught may not have made it till the new year), just like big-ol tank Megs in time for that Christmas, by the end of which I had every figure from the line, minus Starscream and the ones I had in G1 form.
The G2 comic debuted in October 1993, but for those of you who've yet to pursue it (which you SHOULD), there was also a crossover in G.I.Joe #138-142 that explains how Megs gets his tankin' new bod. Otherwise, it picks up right where G1 #80 left off.
1994 was all new molds with the Rotors and Rods, and Dreadwing being the big toy that Christmas. As cool as Megs's new rail gun was, it should be noted that the 2 launchers that attach to Dreadwing's smaller jet are some of the only toys that actually warranted that "Do not point at eyes or face" warning. Sharpen 'em, and you could probably kill rats with a little practice. He's gotten re-released a lot over the years.
In '95 all the new TFs were getting smaller, but the Cyberjets seemed really cool at the time, with their pressure missile system being so impressive/cheap that you can find knock-offs of them all to this day, though usually all in white and so brittle that the launchers break if you use 'em, so stick with the real thing. Go-Bots on the other hand...well, we had to wait 6 years for their group to retroactively get a decent name. The 6 new Autobots themselves, however, were cool characters with new names to match...until their first re-release gave us the worst thing to come out of G2. No, the cartoon was actually nice and tolerable for those of us who didn't have cable and therefore hadn't seen the old series in 7 years, and missed a dozen or two back then. I mean that calling the sub-group "Go-Bots" foreshadowed the advent of random, careless, character-name-recycling, including pickup-truck Soundwave and stock-car Frenzy, and Op and megs as puny sports cars that didn't really even get new color schemes. Yeah, I know it's for copyright reasons, but I was so mad about it at the time that I passed up Laser Optimus Prime, deeming him yet another unnecessary version. My loss. Oh, and the 2 Laser cycles and 2 construction Auto-Rollers came out that last summer too, the latter getting redecoed and released with the 2 military Auto-Rollers 3 years later in Japan for Beast Wars II. Those guys all ruled, and carried on the G1 tradition of TFs who turned into dump trucks having the coolest names, by actually giving us a Decepticon called "Dirtbag". That tradition sadly fell by the wayside by the time of Energon.
Sorry for a post that long, but G2 was an emotional time for me. It seemed like Transformers as a whole could breathe its last breath at any time, and it wasn't until the end of Season 2 of Beast Wars that I finally realized that would never be the case.
And then (sigh) Beast Machines came along and inserted the term "mercy-killing" into my daily vocabulary...okay, sorry, wrong thread. Hell, I've even forgiven the Power Rangers for kicking the crap out of the G2 toyline's sales, so my only regret is that even with this Botcon set, we STILL have never gotten a toy of a single character from the Cybertronian faction introduced in the comics. Ironic, as they actually made the term "second generation Decepticon" make sense within the context of a story. Yes, KB exclusive Jhiaxus and calling one of Sideways's heads "Rook" were very nice gestures, but they don't really count.
On a lighter, more mysterious note, at some point in '94 or '95, I swear I saw those Ultra Magnus, Galvatron, and Superion watches in a Meijers once, but passed on them, and they were gone the next week. Did those get a U.S. G2 release? Meijers has occasionally imported J-exclusive Bakugan and Dragonball GT figures since then, so those watches could still technically be exclusive to Japan. Anyone know for sure?
