New Galleries: Club Nightbeat plus Superlink SC-02 Hot Shot and SC-23 Hot Shot Fire

Although this is considered a bad figure (mold-wise, not character-wise) I think it works well for Nightbeat.

I didn't realize that the Japanese Super Link name was spelled as one word "Hotshot".

Though, notice the Japanese figures each have a different headsculpt from the Hasbro ones.

So this is what "club exclusivity" gets you? yikes

TCC Nightbeat was a product of its time.

Eight years ago there was a lot more limited mold selection, the heads still were done by hand, and communication with the factory was almost nonexistent. So you ended up with Energon Hot Shot as one of the few car molds that were usable, a head sculpt that... well I actually still like (it's very Andy Wildman, which was its aim), and the factory ended up cutting the antennae off the head for clearance without contacting Fun Pub for alternatives.

With that in mind, it was a good figure at the time. I'm not sure how well its aged, but it's earned its place on my shelves and faces no risk of getting resold any time soon.

Nice pics, Seibertron! Energon Hot Shot is such an awesome mold!

gothsaurus wrote:Does anyone know where these custom antenna came from? That helps the figure a lot. I'd love to get some if they are shapeways, etc.

Here we go, short story long ...

When Nightbeat came out, I was really bummed that he didn't have the antennae. At the time, you could go down to your local Walmart or other big box store and grab a G.I. Joe figure for around $7 give or take a couple of bucks, which I determined some figures came with guns that were the appropriate size for antennae for Nightbeat. If I recall correctly what I did 7 or 8 years ago was buy a 25th anniversary Wildbill. His guns (again if I recall correctly that it was a Wildbill), had some pegs on the side of the gun for some reason (maybe to plug into a holster on his legs or something), which I thought would be perfect to plug into Nightbeat's head if I drilled some holes into the side of his head. Because we were told that the antennae weren't put on from the factory due to "clearance" issues, I wanted the antennae to either be removable or to rotate so that they could stay on when he transformed. The holes were drilled just a tad too big (courtesy of US drill bits versus metric ... anyone know of a nice set of metric drill bits on Amazon?) so the antennae were too loose for what I had envisioned. Because I was bummed about the head and because it took me a little while to figure out a solution, I just never did his gallery at the time.

Fast forward a few years later: after transforming him a few times during the G1 Nightbeat and Generations Nightbeat galleries, I realized that there was more than enough clearance for the antennae during the transformation plus the guns were made of a soft plastic so they'd bend if needed. To fix the loose antennae, I just ended up supergluing the guns in place. He transforms just fine with the antennae permanently in place. It fixes the goofy head and turns a mediocre head into the proper head it should be.

Since I ended up gluing the guns in place (and snipped off the gun's handle), it probably doesn't matter which G.I. Joe's guns you use as long as you think they look like they'd be appropriate as antennas. You also probably don't need to actually drill any holes into the side of his head if you are gluing them to the sides of his head, but mine are probably more sturdy because they peg in plus are superglued. I imagine those store brand army guys that are at Toys R Us and/or Target would probably do the trick as well.

It's one of the few actual "customs" I've done and I'd say I was pretty happy with the end result.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

[BW] Rainmaker wrote:Don't know why people are hating on this mold, looks mighty fine to me

It's a brick with barely any articulation. From 2004.

The Deluxe Energon Autobots suffered from the Powerlinx gimmick, which most of the time involved "flipping" the figure around and having the legs become the arms (Inferno and Tow-Line were exceptions, coincidentally they share the same design philosophy). Hot Shot suffered the most in that with no forward swinging hip joints, and limited shoulder joints.

So what if it does have barely any articulation?

Sabrblade wrote:

[BW] Rainmaker wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

[BW] Rainmaker wrote:Don't know why people are hating on this mold, looks mighty fine to me

It's a brick with barely any articulation. From 2004.

The Deluxe Energon Autobots suffered from the Powerlinx gimmick, which most of the time involved "flipping" the figure around and having the legs become the arms (Inferno and Tow-Line were exceptions, coincidentally they share the same design philosophy). Hot Shot suffered the most in that with no forward swinging hip joints, and limited shoulder joints.

So what if it does have barely any articulation?

During a time when articulation was a long-established norm for TF figures? (barring an interruption with the Armada line's hindered articulation)

Not to mention his combined torso mode has even less articulation and no hands at all (only the ends of his altmode kibble with holes in them).

Compared to his wavemate Inferno, who by comparison was a fantastic figure, the Hot Shot mold had barely any real playability as an action figure, being more functional instead as a paperweight.

Well I don't think that.

Thanks for the info, I am hopefully going to attempt this on mine as well

Seibertron wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:Does anyone know where these custom antenna came from? That helps the figure a lot. I'd love to get some if they are shapeways, etc.

Here we go, short story long ...

When Nightbeat came out, I was really bummed that he didn't have the antennae. At the time, you could go down to your local Walmart or other big box store and grab a G.I. Joe figure for around $7 give or take a couple of bucks, which I determined some figures came with guns that were the appropriate size for antennae for Nightbeat. If I recall correctly what I did 7 or 8 years ago was buy a 25th anniversary Wildbill. His guns (again if I recall correctly that it was a Wildbill), had some pegs on the side of the gun for some reason (maybe to plug into a holster on his legs or something), which I thought would be perfect to plug into Nightbeat's head if I drilled some holes into the side of his head. Because we were told that the antennae weren't put on from the factory due to "clearance" issues, I wanted the antennae to either be removable or to rotate so that they could stay on when he transformed. The holes were drilled just a tad too big (courtesy of US drill bits versus metric ... anyone know of a nice set of metric drill bits on Amazon?) so the antennae were too loose for what I had envisioned. Because I was bummed about the head and because it took me a little while to figure out a solution, I just never did his gallery at the time.

Fast forward a few years later: after transforming him a few times during the G1 Nightbeat and Generations Nightbeat galleries, I realized that there was more than enough clearance for the antennae during the transformation plus the guns were made of a soft plastic so they'd bend if needed. To fix the loose antennae, I just ended up supergluing the guns in place. He transforms just fine with the antennae permanently in place. It fixes the goofy head and turns a mediocre head into the proper head it should be.

Since I ended up gluing the guns in place (and snipped off the gun's handle), it probably doesn't matter which G.I. Joe's guns you use as long as you think they look like they'd be appropriate as antennas. You also probably don't need to actually drill any holes into the side of his head if you are gluing them to the sides of his head, but mine are probably more sturdy because they peg in plus are superglued. I imagine those store brand army guys that are at Toys R Us and/or Target would probably do the trick as well.

It's one of the few actual "customs" I've done and I'd say I was pretty happy with the end result.

Wow. Wow. I just did a check online and found out that the 100% complete Pirate Brimstone and Pirate Hunter figures I got at Comicon for $60 is actually selling for up to $150. I am so never selling these.