TFormers.com's Featured Toy of the Month is Energon Tow-Line! A decent Combat-class figure (the Deluxe equivalent) with a creative implementation of the Energon Autobots' combining "Powerlinx" gimmick, Tow-Line is also the homage/update you'd never expect to happen: the toy version of G1 Ratchet and Ironhide, complete with battle station!
The main gimmick for Energon's Autobots was Powerlinx, where Combat and Mega-class Autobots could combine to become a larger, more powerful robot. This more or less meant that every one of those figures had to have four distinct modes- Vehicle, Robot, Upper and Lower Body -and the level of successful execution varied, to say the least. Tow-Line is up there on the list, though. He sidesteps a lot of the problems by virtue of that battle station. His robot mode turns into an upper body nearly as tidy as the basic robot, with the legs becoming a pair of modest shoulder cannons. Meanwhile the battle platform has another Powerlinx connector, giving you the chance to create Transformers with the reasonably rare non-bipedal bodyform. Since the connectors are what attach Tow-Line to his base for vehicle mode, you can make him into Autobot Guntank with ease.
Tow-Line is one of my favorite of the Powerlinx Combat-class figures- Downshift, also from Wave 4, is the other, so it's kind of a shame they were the last of their kind before the switch to classic 5-part combiners. While Downshift is just a pretty solid figure all around, Tow-Line tries something unique and weird with the Powerlinx format and succeeds at most of it. Honestly, I wish the Powerlinx port on the battle station had been more towards the center, but the idea seems to have been that the treads can be used as makeshift feet, letting you switch from tripod to... I guess quadrupedal? In practical terms it looks like someone with a backside big enough they need wheels to support it, like some low-tech Baron Harkonnen. It's a silhouette that isn't helped by how potbellied Tow-Line's robot mode can look alone. But the figure has a lot of options and a lot of charm, and one iffy mode is pretty darn high on the Powerlinx batting average, honestly. A few years later in 2005, the Tow-Line mold was used for Botcon Ironhide and Ratchet, which I really, really wish had been general-release figures because I'd take them over the 2008 Universe attempts. As it is, Ironhide is pricy and Ratchet is heartbreakingly expensive. But Tow-Line himself is pretty cheap and widely available, and even if you don't have other Powerlinx Transformers to combine him with, he's a lot of fun!
Images from this feature courtesy of Remy's Galleries at TFKenkon.com!