Astrotrain - Generation 1 - Figure

“IN CONFUSION THERE IS OPPORTUNITY� – DECEPTICON ASTROTRAIN

Out of Takara’s 11th Bookstyle Reissue comes the Deceticon Astrotrain presented in his Japanese release colors of Black and White. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical of a Black and White Astrotrain upon hearing the news of his release, but once the figure landed in my hands fresh out of mail man’s delivery truck, all doubts went out the window once I got a close up look at him. However the Anime Version would have been great to have just for childhood sake. Its sentimental.

THE BOX

The Book-Style Packaging that Takara brings to the table with all their reissues is the best way to present classic G1 Transformers. To me the Book-Style is like a tomb in which our great heroes rest. Whether it be an Autobot or a Decepticon, the Book-Style Packaging really tops it all.

On the front of the box is presented the Decepticon Astrotrain with his to large for himself weapon…. I will get to that later. And in the top right hand corner is a small box celebrating 20 Years of the Transformers. I guess this sign will appear on all of Takara’s Collection Reissues this year. On the back of the box is a picture of the contents, Takara’s previous reissues in the Book-Style Collection, and pictures of the various Bio Cards that make getting a Takara Reissue something special.

THE CONTENTS

Included with the Collection #11 Astrotrain is a Bio Card of Astrotrain, a sticker sheet, Astrotrain’s Gun, and Triple Changer himself (Drum Roll Please), Astrotrain.

With all Takara Reissues comes some extra goodies. Bio Cards of other G1 Transformers of which hopefully Takara will release. The Bio Cards, which are included with the #11 Astrotrain, are as follow: The Autobot Power Glide, The Decepticon Tape Ravage, and Astrotrain.

Also with every Takara Reissue thus far is included a Catalog. This catalog has pictures of the following: Scourge, Cyclonus, Octane, Ramjet, Thrust, Megatron and Starcsream; looks like these two in some sort of set, and the last is Predaking featuring all five Predacons. Ooooooweeeeee. Hope Takara reissues this one some day. It would be nice to have them in a Box Set. By the way if any representative from Takara reads this review, PLEASE BRING US SOME GESALTS IN 2004!!

ASTROTRAIN – SHUTTLE MODE

I will start with this one seeing that it is the first mode that Astrotrain is presented in when you open the box.

There should be 2 Decepticon labels already applied to your Astrotrain upon opening the box. They are located on both shuttle wings. To me I think Takara should lay off applying the stickers to the Reissues. It is something of sentimental value to the Collector to place their decals on their Transformers. I know to some it does not matter but to me it does. I think they did a great job with Starscream and Inferno because those were somehow screened on. But Astrotrain’s Decepticon decals were just stuck on there so to speak. They were not even cut properly for one thing. But that was a minor problem that was easily eliminated. If any of you have the Collection #6 Megatron, you should know that he came with some Decepticon Decals. These will make for a great replacement if you desire not to keep the ones included on your Astrotrain. They are cut excellent to the shape of the Decepticon Logo and would look great on your Astrotrain’s shuttle wings. The purple and silver complement the shuttle and train mode well.

The shuttle mode looks great though I did not adapt to the idea of having a Black and White Astrotrain. I think it makes an excellent disguise to that of a standard earth shuttle.

ASTROTRAIN – TRAIN MODE

The locomotive mode of Astrotrain resembles a back-in-the-day-old-western-type train. Black to me sure looks better than purple and makes for a great disguise as well.

ASTROTRAIN - ROBOT MODE

You don’t have to but I would encourage that you apply decals provided to your Astrotrain in the robot mode. Without them he is going to look like he has seen a ghost…. in other words pale. There are already 2 provided in which I think Takara has done a disservice to place on the decals for us. They are located upon opening op the Shuttle Fin.

Once the Decals are placed on Astrotrain he looks great. I must say though I prefer the Anime Astrotrain was released for the #11 Reissue, that the robot mode of Astrotrain is hot. Besides there is too much purple in the Decepticon Ranks anyway. If they release Blitzwing, he has purple colors; parts of the Constructicons, and parts of the Insecticons are also purple so if you wanted to put your collection on a shelf in their robots modes, the Astrotrain would stand out.

Now to Astrotrain’s Gun. I have never been able to figure this out but Astrotrain can do with out this gun. It is so long and way too large for Astrotrain. It looks like he would tear a screw in his rotator cuff trying to lift this thing. Takara should have made a shorter one for him since they are known to spruce up their reissues. Astrotrain’s gun can fit a Gesalt for crying out loud.

TRANSFORMATION

If the G1 Transformers had a skill level from 1 to 4 I would place this around 2 to 3. For one reason Astrotrain joints are very tight. And for a Triple Changer going from robot to shuttle, and to train involves the careful moving of different parts to complete the task. After all, that’s what transformation is all about.

Looking at G1 Transformers now, I think that they should have been made for 13 and 14 year olds not 7 and 8 year olds. They seem more like collection items now looking at them 20 years later seeing that they are made from metal and plastic.

In all, be careful when Transforming your Astrotain, His joints are very tight. I remember I traded one of my Transformers for him when I was a kid, and still being in the hands of second owner, the joints were still tight.

The hardest part of transforming your Astrotrain would be the robot mode when pulling the arms out. If you have a sharp tweezers, those would help. You can wedge them in-between and pull them out but do it carefully and try and to break something.

FINAL COMMENTS AND GRADE

As a stated, I am satisfied with my purchase of the #11 Astrotrain and also I give thanks to Takara for continuing to bring us some excellent reissues. However, I think that could have made it a bit better had they given us the Anime Version and given e-Hobby this Black and White Version. Why? Because they gave us Starscream in his Anime Version so why change now, second a lot US buyers are not familiar with the Black and White version, and to hear news that’s now official that they are going to give e-Hobby the Anime Version is to me like whap!!! A standard slap in the face to the collector. Also it could cause them to loose out on some extra money because though some might buy both versions, there are still a lot of people who will only buy one version, after all who wants to purchase $85 worth of Astrotrains?

But what has been done has been done; it’s still a great reissue to have. Better to have an Astrotrain brand spanking new than not to have one at all. All transformation modes look great and it is a great reissue to have. And so until next time, the Takara Collection continues to build.

Final Grade B+

By : Mark McBride Email: sword66@yahoo.com

Reviewer	Mark McBride
Date	January 5th 2004
Score	(8 out of 10)
Reads	3836
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