The Transformers Unicron trilogy of Armada (Micron Densetsu), Energon (Superlink) and Cybertron (Galaxy Force) was a mixed bag for me. Just getting back into Transformers with Beast Wars, I was super excited to see vehicular toys coming back after dealing with animals for several years. Armada was (mostly) great and the addition of the Mini-Cons were fantastic. When Energon came around it just didn't have the same punch for me, but the trilogy ended on a bang (for me at least) w/ Cybertron (Galaxy Force).
During this time of my collecting, I was opting for the Takara versions of the toys as much as I could due to their superior packaging and decos. When the Galaxy Force toys started hitting Japan I was enamored by the gorgeous packaging. The differences in the decos was just the icing on the cake. I also loved that Takara included character style trading cards with their releases...which is a big reason for today's topic.
While I imported nearly the entire Galaxy Force series, I had ignored the Korean released toys. Takara had a long standing agreement with a Korean company called Sonokong to market their toys in Korea. This license lasted until 2007 when the license shifted over to another called Mocom Toy. What recently caught my eye was that it appeared these releases contained a different character card than what was packaged with the Takara issues. Sadly I missed the boat on being able to buy a majority of these toys on clearance from the likes of
Big Bad Toy Store or
TFSource, but I was curious enough to keep searching the web. While my searches never turned up any concrete information on the included character card, I did find an online retailer that had Autovolt in stock for a decent price...so I took the plunge if nothing else to sate my curiosity.
It only took a few days for the parcel to arrive and for me to free the toy from the shipping box. Immediately upon holding the packaging in my hand I could see the Japanese Galaxy Force inspiration. The angled box corner and especially the blue background with the yellow trim of the box top and bottom were dead on references to the Japanese packaging. The rest of the box design however was unique for the Korean market. Windows on the front of the box reveals a good portion of the figure along with the car's spoiler/gun, projectile and the Planet Key. All of the items are packaged in a form fitting plastic tray that has it's own plastic cover taped to the tray.
The included instruction sheet is again very reminiscent of the Takara release, complete with the light faded red design and grey toy models used for the step by step transformation. Also included was a catalog that shows the other figures that Mocom Toy released. Absent from the Takara line up are the smaller blister carded figures.
I originally had Autovolt from the Galaxy Force series and as far as I can tell, there are no differences between the Japanese and this Korean release. The quality of the plastic is on par with the previous release and the paint apps/deco also seems to be the same as the Takara release. Autovolt was far from my favorite toy from this series, but since he's was the cheapest one I could find let's go ahead and take a closer look at the figure itself.
Autovolt's alt mode is that of a Bugatti EB 16.4 Veyron. If you aren't familiar with this sports car I wouldn't blame you as it's a super expensive and limited vehicle. Autobolt is cast in black with silver painted accents on the front of the vehicle. The head lights are painted a shade of orange. A red tampographed Autobot symbol adorns the center of the car's hood. On the rear of the vehicle, the main tail lights are painted red with some smaller lights underneath painted light orange. The spoiler has silver accents with a light orange stripe across the back of the tailfin. The top of the car has a small section painted silver. The windshield and side widows are a translucent blue plastic, which allows you to see the robot bits crammed together inside the vehicle.
If you're not a fan of kibble, then you may not care much for Autovolt's robot mode. The car doors/windows hang off the top of his shoulders and the windshield is attached to his left forearm. On the back of the figure are two large sections of the rear portion of the vehicle. While all of these pieces can be maneuvered (somewhat) out of the way, they are there. The door sections attach via ball & socket so they are easily removable if you wish.
Looking past the kibble, the rest of the figure has a good overall look. The car hood makes a nice, tight, robot chest. It's not so big that it juts out and throws off the rest of the robot's proportions. I do like the design of the robot head. While there isn't any light piping used, Autovolt does have a nice translucent blue visor that covers the top half of his face. The bronze portion of his head coupled with the silver used for his face meshes well with the aforementioned blue plastic. While the feet don't have ankle rockers, they do have heel spurs that fold down to give the figure great balance.
The figure has a decent amount of articulation. The head is on a ball joint and has free movement side to side and up to down. If his shoulder missile launchers have been triggered, these will limit the movement of his head. The arms are attached with ball & socket joints, as are the elbows. The legs attach to the waist with socket joints. The knees are also ball & sockets. This allows for some dramatic poses...if you have the talent...something I lack!
All of the toys from Cybertron/Galaxy Force series feature a gimmick that is unlocked by a key. While I'm not the biggest fan of gimmicks in my toys, for the most part I didn't mind it with these toys. Autovolt's gimmick are spring loaded missile launchers activated by the insertion of the key into the port in the rear of the vehicle. These launchers can be activated in either vehicle or robot mode. The vehicle's spoiler also doubles as a hand held weapon. This will launch the included molded flame projectile, which I believe first debuted with Hot Rod in the Classics/Henkei! Henkei! series.
Getting back to the character card and the whole reason I was lead to purchase this Korean packaged toy, the card is in fact different from the Takara release. Autovolt's card is made of a clear plastic that features a lenticular design with 3 different images. The back of the card is similar to the original with the main difference being the language. While I've been known to buy a toy just for the included card, this time around I'm excited to not only acquire a new Transformers character card (which will eventually be added to the
Transformers Bio Card Database), I'm genuinely excited about also re-acquiring some excellent Galaxy Force toys. I hope to be able to expand my search to find more of these Mocom Toy releases in the near future. As I'm able to pick more up I plan to share them here on the blog as well.
