What's new, robot crew?
What do you say we take it back to '84, via '86, via, like, this morning
with Transformers: The Movie Autobot Hound!
Okay. G1 reissues. Where do we begin with this? Where do we come in?
Do you need me to recap the whole G1 situation from the top? Again?
Did you know Transformers are from the 1980s? Did you know?
Some of them are very old and they're from Japan? Did you know???
Ronald Reagan, deregulation, cultural sensation, Joe DiMaggio.
There, we're caught up.
And the practice of re-releasing those early Takara-born TFs is, like the toys themselves, nothing new.
Reissues are pretty much essential to any current-year collector with designs on an early-80s robot shelf, right?
Even my year-one Autobot lineup is a piecemeal patchwork of retro repacks!
My Jazz? Encore. My Skids? Commemorative.
Even my Sideswipe, who I've had since I was seven - Gold Box Classics!
I've had it 32 years. It's literally an antique. Still a reissue!
As recently as 2018, we had Vintage re-releases of like, Hot Rod and Starscream kickin' about, and why not?
It's a richer world with those things on the shelves,
clean and complete, damage-free and freshly painted, in a box, ready to rock for £40 or less. Suits me perfect!
Nothing but respect to the true vintage gang, those first-run collectors, you guys do your thing,
but I personally have neither the will nor the bottomless cash to drop on extremely rare and potentially very shagged robots.
Reissue me up all day long!
But this latest rehash batch is a peculiar one,
presented as ANOTHER arm of the perpetual celebration of Transformers: The Movie,
featuring authentic old-school toys in gorgeous illustrated boxes,
re-costumed in the colours they actually wore on screen
but it is quickly becoming a thinly-veiled game of "what do we got left?"
That is, it kicked off mighty strong with a long-awaited magenta Hot Rod - that was kinda huge!
And oh look, Starscream again. That's weird!
And then the second wave was Thundercracker - oh no. They've literally got four moulds left, ain't they?
Like, this has gotta be the last of the factory tooling that hasn't been lost or stolen or degraded beyond usability, right?
How else do we explain the inclusion of Hound,
whose literal two-second blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo appearance in Transformers: the Movie
was so inconsequential that I'm currently having to play it on a loop until I reach the end of this sentence.
Like, what a gulf! What a jump from Hot Rod, the literal main character,
to Hound, the guy from the movie who was in the movie the least.
It wasn't even like he got an upsetting "oh no he died" moment.
Hound wasn't IN the background. He WAS the background!
Like, who's next for the "The Movie" treatment? Friggin' Gears?
But maybe it ain't that deep. An old toy that's nice is available again,
I own it for the first time, and look, Hound is far more than a single animation cel in one silly film.
He was kind of a big deal in the G1 series, with major top-billing appearances in the earliest episodes
before he stepped back to let Bumblebee win the kids' hearts, but he already had mine!
I'm bringing out the Ladybird book again! Autobots' Lightning Strike, 1985.
"Secretly, Hound would like to be human", he looks like that, baby boy, aw.
And the toy is, mechanically, very typical of the Diaclone selection imported by Hasbro to become the first year of the Transformers toyline.
You know!
This is incredibly basic stuff, with a weirdly-defined silhouette and almost no articulation
but we don't expect death drops from G1, right?
They look like that, and they stand there, and that's why we love them.
This is where it all came from. DNA of an empire, right here!
And it's really not hard to see why Hound was one of the ones that made it.
This is a very solid chunky cubekid,
absolutely emanating an irrepressible inviting energy from his smooth surfaces
and friendly blue eyes on his boxy little bonce!
He's what they call "friend-shaped".
Like, for a fella who's all hefty chunks and hard angles, why is he round?
Hound is just such a moment!
Like, as a snapshot of an aesthetic, it couldn't be more perfect.
That honkin' cuboid hoodchest is as legit as it gets, with that square-ass grill and the little roundy headlight nips
and the hefty winch on his tum? Talk about dudes posting their dubs.
And alongside the intricate mechanical beats, he's also got a ton of fun flourishes
from the dangly Alternator armpit wheels to the pleasingly practical pouches on his utility jorts.
And mate, I love his pathetic little flappy arms!
They're such undernourished little nubs and such an obvious concession of production.
They barley extend out the sides, they can't reach past the front,
can't even point his own rifle forward any higher than that, really menacing that soil, but they are there!
They put some on him. It counts. Iconic. Can't do shit. Love it.
And check out these thunkin' feeties! They're like 45% of him!
It's like he has actual feet here, and then he's just standing on these unrelated crates,
like built-in insecurity platforms, and yet he's still the smallest of the squad by a long way!
Like, he's literally closer to Bumblebee's height than someone like Sunstreaker!
He's either the little bro of the Diaclone crew or he's king of the Minibots, and both are perfect.
So for weapons, our military manlet is packing this surprisingly long and slender rifle
which is certainly unexpected when you've only ever seen the chunky little boxart pistol
which I understand was, like, a misinterpreted perspective goof from the original piece.
Look at that barrel. You can kinda see how they'd make that mistake, right?
If they'd only ever seen it from that artwork? I dunno.
I am, once again, not McFeely.
Anyway, the rocket launcher there - sorry, "hologram projector" -
clips on comfortably, if a little bit droopily, and doesn't even TRY to launch anymore.
I mean, "project".
And I'm not sure why, but I really wasn't prepared for a RACK of missiles.
Like, this is far from my first G1 rodeo, I know that's how they usually come,
but I wasn't expecting it here and I dunno why.
Anyway, the paint job, which I'll remind you is the point of the thing, is pitch perfect!
'Cos Hound's always been a child of two vibes, right,
probably best exemplified by his two quite different but equally excellent CHUG toys.
Like, Universe '08 gave us a soft and smooth nature baby forest friend
with a lovable face and super silly big honkin' booties
while the semi-recent Siege scene cranked up the combat
and Hound still found himself right at home in his full fightin' fatigues.
And this new fit sits in a comfy middle spot,
leaning more toward the nice-boy zone but with his army regalia flashin' through
like the cheeky chest star and striped pants ready applied as factory tampos
rather than a temperamental sticker sheet, which is great news for me and these middle-aged ham hooves.
But I do get that the size-to-price ratio is a little bit off here
especially when you could bag something the size of a Decepticon Jet
or just a normal mainline Voyager for roughly the same tag.
But - hear me out - I think it justifies it!
'Cos Hound is a solid little customer!
It feels mostly die-cast, and the amount of undiluted delight it sparks is no joke, baby!
This is a hard hit of condensed G1 joy straight to yer good brain juice generator
and that, I'm afraid, is precisely my shit.
Transformation is super basic but in a nice way that feels great!
It's like four moves and they're all super tactile.
Clonk! Swish! Flip! Cicero! Lipschitz!
And the jeep mode is a pure smasher!
It's so distinctive and unique among the original Autobots.
It's like a whole flavour all its own, it commands its own space, and yet it fits right in!
You can see why Transformers caught on, right? This is great!
It's swish enough to be cute but it's badass enough to be awesome
in the immortal words of me.
It's just such a heartthrob of a handful and it looks like a fun place to be!
Like, I wanna take a ride in there!
You know those things are compatible with some kind of little Diaclone guy you can't get anymore.
Love the flattening windscreen too, presumably to let the rear-mounted gun do its thing.
It's got wheelarch-mounted wing mirrors, amazing!
The big winch wedge, once again just chillin' there.
It doesn't do anything, but it looks awesome!
It's a wonderfully full-featured car, and it's so nice to say that and not just mean that it's got doors.
This toy has dedicated alt-mode accessories!
And not even just attack mode laser guns.
I mean, it has got that, but there's a gas can and a spare tyre!
I can scarcely think of another toy that gives you extra bits to lose in both modes!
And those real rubber tyres are pure bliss, baby.
Could this be the most dootable boy in the world?
*prince voice* Doo-de-doo, doot de dooooo-de-doot-doo, de-doot doo?
#Oh yes you are.#
So yes, while Transformers: The Movie Hound is a very welcome release,
it is still baffling. Like, why him? For THIS line?
Where's Galvatron at? Wasn't he famously the wrong colour for decades?
And also a little bit more important to the film than friggin' Backdroptimus Prime here?
Oh, God, that's awful!
And like, why THIS mould and not a more recent one?
Didn't they tease a Buzzworthy repaint of this in these colours, like a year ago?
That ain't surfaced, and yet this has. Very strange moves.
Watch that toy come out the day before I release this video. It's gonna happen!
But ultimately, it's nothing but a good thing. This, for me, is how a reissue should feel!
To discover such an all-time classic toy at such an advanced stage in my collecting journey -
meaning I'm old now - it's remarkable the impact it's had on me!
I feel like I see the pre-Transformers picture more clearly now,
with the seats and the cross-toy compatibility, and the way it trundles snugly into Prime's trailer,
there's a real sense of continuity and belonging,
of being part of something, like a larger playset diorama scene that you're gradually assembling.
'Cos I never felt like I got a true sense of the G1 Autobots as intended. I was simply too small!
Maybe that's what I've been chasing all these years. Maybe that's what this is all about!
'Cos my lived version of G1 was all the slightly later stuff - '86 movie onward, Headmasters and whatnot,
so the 1984 bots still hold a little bit of mystery for me, and I like that!
I'm exploring it from a distance at my own pace
and to own Hound feels like I've solved a little piece of that puzzle myself
rather than just googling the FAQ, y'know?
Osmosis ain't enough this time. I need this experience, and I want it for you too!
Getting hold of a new-to-me G1 Autobot feels like the kind of collecting moment that's gonna carry me through, y'know?
One bot like this every couple of years and I'll be just fine. Right as rain.
Happy as a clam. Sound as a Hound.
Oh yes! We got a little deep there! We love a deep moment, don't we?
Anyway, cheers for watching! Sorry there was a bit of a wait this month. I was recording an album!
Cheers for your support, everybody! Hope you enjoyed this one!
Big shoutouts this time to Reagan Housley!
Thank you my friend! Cheers for keeping it Thew and for keeping it real, no less.
Party on, people.
Be sure to subscribe for more Thew's Awesome Transformers Reviews.
Limited appeal, keepin' it real.