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| $3 because he still has no hands, poor guy. |
This is a tiny version of the "Dorvack" figure from Takatoku Toys (i'm looking this up on the TF Wiki, yes.). The only readable word for me (in English) is "JAPAN" and the copyright symbol so I can't tell where it officially comes from. There was also a line called Convertors and it looks like this is "Chopper." (We covered Convertors before when I found that tiny camera dude earlier this year.)
Okay, mystery solved. Isn't looking up stuff WHILE typing up a blog entry fun? It is. That's the kind of writing and editing that will get Transformers Aficionado the Pulitzer it deserves.
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| That rotor's a little sad. EDIT: The rotor was upside down. I fixed it. |
EDIT! For scale, here's Tiny Whirl with...coffee.
I like it Paul....but I'm big into WST figures so I can really appreciate it. I never really knew much about Whirl until I started reading MTMTE. As a toy figure-wise, Whirl is fairly bad but the vehicle mode translates very well.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Quake. What kind of store is it like?
Cheers,
Joe
It's amusing how the non-Takara (Diaclone, Microman) members of the TF brand weren't featured in the cartoon or regular advertising (though in the comics)...with the exception of Jetfire aka Skyfire was introduced right away but still featured in the same catalogs as Roadbuster and Whirl (and the Deluxe Insecticons).
ReplyDeleteDid the powers that be realize how much extra work it was to change Jetfire designs to Skyfire for the cartoon and the possible confusion of changing Roadbuster to Roadbreaker or something like that? I mean, as kids, we knew what toy they were talking about on the cartoon (if we could accept the Ratchet and Ironhide figures as decent representations of their cartoon counterparts, we could make the connection between Jetfire and Skyfire).
I actually dig Whirl; unlike most normal size Takara TFs, he's got movable arms AND legs. That's like twice the amount of ambulatory articulation than nearly all the regular Autobot cars and Decepticon jets. Didn't think he'd ever have a personality like the one in MTMTE. Never had Roadbuster. or frankly have never even seen him, I think.
As far as WST comparisons go, Covertors were smaller than the figures they were imitating but not nearly as small as WST. When you leaf through those WELL DESIGNED pages about Convertors linked in the post (they put Transformers Aficionado's Geocities page to shame!), you'll see how much of it was also lifted from Robotech and the Deluxe Insecticons etc., but just smaller. And like a lot of TF imitators (not knockoffs, I'm talking actual competitors), they had lame and uninspired sci-fi or functional names, like Chopper or Cassette or Zark. Oh, he's a bad guy? Better have its name start with Z. But one of the Convertor bad guys, a smaller version of Robotech's SDF-1, is actually named SDF-1. For crying out loud Roy Fokker's Veritech fighter is in that lineup WITH ITS SKULL & BONES DESIGN. C'MON ALREADY.
What, no robo combiner lions?
QUAKE is awesome. TFs come and go. It's a used toy store, collectibles, vintage, whatever. There's one in Chicago nearby (score!) and then there's a sister store in the western burbs.
http://quakechicago.com/page8.php
The Chicago store doesn't put any stock online to purchase, not even on eBay. People have been bringing him a few 3rd party and some convention exclusives. He gets boxed figures once in a while. I've seen all kinds of TFs come through. If I were more patient I would wait until new releases were sold to him without packaging so that I could get the figures and contribute to saving the earth.