#g1 zarak

[tiny-tf-faces]

Has Highbrow walking into the sunset with Scorponok’s head, Zarak, been posted yet?

[churino]

Design for Black Zarak , Castle Scorponok, lord Zarak and the arachnid headmaster unit

an overgrown technorganic tick that lives on scorponok's head and sucks away the resources from the land around him, But thats enough about the man. The Arachnid controls Scorponok. Without it he's a mindless zombie

After the transformers discover the allspark is on earth the leadership of the six clan becomes more active, being forced to take matters into their own hands,

Lord Mortilus Zarak Masterson, is the six clan's representative and ever the opportunist, the decepticon's human ally hopping to stop them from joining with the autobots to search for the allspark together, because he knows if they were united for a single cause they would succeed in no time, and the allspark being found prematurely would spell disaster for everyone on the planet

Lord Zarak is a lab grown creature that passes for a human, the actual state of his biology is nebulous (heh), but he's compatible enough with humans to have spawned offspring, his favorite son Henry Masterson, who died recently after a drug deal gone wrong in the streets of são Paulo but left behind headmaster technology that his living family (and three little brats) use to fight alongside the transformers in battle, but Henry was not an only child, the firstborn, which mo named Olin Zarak he saw as an abomination, and has her locked up inside Scorponok's dungeon to feast on the inmates,

in the absence of his own children he has convinced his niece and nephew to abandon their mother, his sister mega, and live with him on his castle as human operatives for the six clan and maybe one day, his successors

Zarak was born here on earth, somewhere in england around 50 years ago, made alongside his sister with the explicit pourpose of doing what he does now, acting as a human hand for the six clan and infiltrate humanity which he has successfully done for many years, he's a politician and a landlord, his life has always been under someone else's thumb so he abuses whatever power he does have over people to give himself the illusion of control.

The true leader of the six clan, his creator, still lives within castle Scorponok and barks orders that he's supposed to follow, much to his own dismay

[arceespinkgun]

Scorponok's Dreamwave Bio

I don't know why this characterization has never been used again, IMO the fact that it was done well in the Marvel comics isn't a reason to not bring it back since there are plenty of things that weren't explored that could have been. Like, how did Scorponok even end up being a Decepticon commander in the first place if his secret values matched more closely to somebody like Optimus Prime's? I guess we'll never know....

[cherrytimemachine]

I will make you pay for what you’ve done.

[sophianightdreamer]

Things that happened in the Official Transformers RPG's lore.

So, I've got my hands on all three rulebooks of the official TF RPG. And also the G. I. Joe RPG, but that's irrelevant right now. My batch did not include the crossover rulebook, sadly.

Therefore, notes on the lore and other details in the "basic" canon, because TFWiki did not go into the details, that grew into this list of odd events mentioned.

First thing first, the general continuity is very close to Cyberverse or G1 Fanon, having the basic outline of G1 cartoon, but with details and chunks of backstory pulled from elsewhere - Optimus is a former archivist/data clerk, Bumblebee is a sportscar, et cetera.

To note, there's a somewhat short introductory "who-is-who" list and basic character sheets with profiles both.

Well, I've already got my whiplash, so it's your turn now.

There's something very funky going on with Devastator. Prowl's introduction blurb directly states that something Combiner Wars-esque/Prowlstator has happened, and reads as implying that Autobots hijacked Devastator. By all accounts, Scrapper is alive, making it a possible genuine canonical instance of Prowlastator with Scrapper alive, but the Constructions as whole are placed with the Decepticons. But, Tergamax mentions that among people that were at any moment replacement parts of Devastator there were five Autobots, Prowl included. What happened?

The "who is who" listing for Autobots includes declarations of jobs/roles/traits. Some of these are notable: 1) Ironhide is a chemist 2) Swerve is in Public Relations 3) Rung is Psy-Ops 4) Perceptor is specifically an engineer 5) Bumblebee is noted as "Hero of the People". Must be popular.

Speaking of roles, monochromatic SIC of the day is Jazz, who is also a strategist now.

All of the people in the introductory list are implied to be the Ark crew, and there are problems regarding space travel for Autobots right now. This means that Anode, Lug, those two kids from IDW2, Elita's team and Glyph are on the crew.

Rattrap is a Decepticon.

Optimus Prime has a thick Iaconian accent in Cybertronian. It turns "Teletraan" into "Teletron".

Character sheets include a list of languages that character speaks. Some of these past the standart English+Cybertronian are completely random. Optimus Prime speaks Dutch. Korean is surprisingly popular. In what could be a nice callback, Slingshot has Arabic. The only two people who know the language of newly-introduced alien species of Catharsians are Ratchet and Wildrider. But the crown is taken by First Aid, who has both ASL and Quileute. Yes, the basically extint language of a small tribe warring legally with Stephanie Meyer.

Speaking of languages, both Megatron and Shockwave are noted passable polyglots, and both lack the Universal Translator perk Soundwave, Blaster and Perceptor have. But while Megatron has vague but limited "languages from across Decepticon territory", Shockwave has "all common languages", implying he knows at least a bit of almost everything manually.

Tracks is a triple changer, apparently.

Decepticons' thing is mass-producing sparkless drone clones of their own members.

There's a general threat level system with lists included, where 0 is a random human civilian, 24 is Optimus and Megatron, and 25 is Omega Supreme and Scorponok. Chosen numbers for some characters are thought-provoking. Jazz is 14. Ratchet is 15. First Aid is 9. Wildrider is 6. Ironhide and Starscream are tied with 17. Lord Zarak by himself is 10.

Transformers The Movie sort-of happened, with no apparent notable casualties except for Megatron, who got Galvatroned, but there is a chance that Cyclonus, while a minion of Unicron, predates those events. He is also in an odd position of formally being a part of Decepticons and not the followers of Unicron, who are technically a separate faction.

Scorponok and Deathsaurus are member of Decepticon High Command/Conclave along with Shockwave and Soundwave. Nobody trusts Starscream, so he is not there, but he has the air force.

Mindwipe is, once again, a sorcerer.

Predacons, the combiner team, somehow adopted a sharkticon.

The evil plan du jour of, apparently, pre-Unicron era is converting Earth into the second Cybertron via several colony sites.

[blueikeproductions]

I’m very adamant EarthSpark needed embrace Transformers’ toyetic nature more, and one way was dabbling in Megatron’s evolution to Galvatron.

In this version of events, Megatron evolves into Galvatron during a critical battle against Megaplex, his Clone that he left in charge on Cybertron when he left for Earth. Endowed by the power of the Cyber Sleeves of the Maltobots and Witwiccans, Megatron inherits the power of Quintus Prime and becomes galvanized, laying the final blow on the major remnant of his darker legacy.

Enraged at Megatron getting the power, Starscream plots to steal the power of a Prime to best Megatron. He sends Chaos Terrans Clickbait and Aftermath to kidnap Mo Malto, Maddie Witwicky and Ethan Meridian as they exhibit the strongest affinity towards the Prime. Together with his team’s personal medic Scalpel, they manage to crack the Cyber Sleeves just enough for Starscream to upgrade into his Super form. It maybe a “sub Prime” compared to Megatron’s “Prime”, but Starscream is confident it’s more than enough to give the Autobots and Megatron a good thrashing. Toward the end of the Adventure, Starscream and his Chaos Terrans/Decepticons fall under the mysterious Dark Nova, but his and the Chaos Terrans’ Quintus energy is drained to power up the Prime of Anti-Life, reverting Starscream into his old shell.

Optimus Prime also is upgraded by the Cyber Sleeves into a Terran form, but I haven’t figured out what that looks like yet.

The final battle against Dark Nova, a former apprentice/Prime to Quintus Prime who fell into the Dead Universe and became the antithesis to Quintus’ life above all else, sees Optimus, Galvatron, Terratronus and Giga Zarak using the combined power of all Terrans (Earth and colony) to vanquish the evil entity.

In this upgraded state, Galvatron has the usual power his G1 self has, but also has advanced nano healing, and a weaker ability to create life similar to Quintus, with Galvatron using this power to raise a new generation of Terrans aboard Terratronus on Earth post Nova.

Galvatron and Starscream Transform into modified versions of G1 Quintesson ships shown above.

[theneptuneflytrap]

Imagining how the G1 comics would've been like if everybody had been drawn to scale is so funny. Picture Scorponok being like, "Prime, I see enemies all around me, I'm scared...!" and then you see Optimus way below him, maybe barely reaching his knee, saying, "Don't worry, my friend, I believe in you!" Or maybe Fortress Maximus crying to Spike about how he doesn't know what to do while Galvatron looks like a little animal biting him lol -arceespinkgun

LMAO, that would've been so funny. I totally understand why they can't really make them titans. The Headmasters cartoon got away with it because "Zarak" and "Cerebros" were just smaller Fortress and Scorponok, but if they wanted to make them two (or three) different people, it could cause trouble. I honestly want to see them as Titans so writers would actually be inspired to use Cog and Fasttrack.

I noticed a similar thing happened to Star Saber and Deathsaurus in IDW. They're supposed to be about as big as combiners! Star Saber can get smaller but poor Deathsaurus (and presumably Esmeral) is just that big.

[bulbabutt]

Have you seen that the end of The Rebirth in the G1 Transformers cartoon where Galvatron and Zarak are bickering was just David Wise ripping off material he wrote for Shredder and Krang in the 1987 TMNT show lol

STARING REALLY HARD AT YOU (I barely remember that season) hold on. Hold on…. Okay. Hold on.

ok. so i just showed this message to the editor and said "hey. what the fuck is this person talking about?" and so. okay we put on rebirth part 3. so. thanks for that that shit sucks asjkdhajk we could have scrolled through we did not

but im sorry that ep is from 1987 right? but like. i think what you mean is krang and shredder are ripping galvatron and zarak?? cuz... they fucking meet here. or i guess maybe these two things could have been worked on in a different order...... but then. okay hold on.

i can see it. i just. god....... this is literally how they end up. these are the fucking proto shredder krang. i hate that i know this thank you so much.

[transformers-villain-tournament]

The final bracket lineup has been decided! There are 64 Transformers villains on the list that'll be fighting for 1st place!

Actual Polls will be tagged with #polls so you can find them easier

Transcript and notes under the cut (as well as the versions of the characters– It's why there are multiple Galvatrons listed, for example)

Notes:

▪︎ This won't be about voting for who you think would win in a fight. It's about who your favorite villains are

▪︎ The specific versions of characters will be made clear in the actual polls (and on the transcript here). If it's not specified, they just represent all versions of them

▪︎ We also allowed some characters to be submitted as duos since there are few of them

Side 1

Match 1: Rampage (Beast Wars) VS. Obsidian & Strika (Beast Machines)

Match 2: Fangry (IDW 2005) VS. Vigilem (IDW 2005)

Match 3: Soundwave (TFP) VS. Lord Imperious Delirious (Beast Wars Uprising)

Match 4: Cryotek (Beast Era) VS. Shadow Striker

Match 5: King Sombra (MLP) VS. Jetstorm (Beast Machines)

Match 6: Tarantulas (Beast Wars) VS. Scorponok (IDW 2005)

Match 7: Vampire (Beast Wars Uprising) VS. Circuit Breaker

Match 8: Skold (Beast Wars) VS. Skywarp (IDW 2019)

Match 9: Thunderwing VS. Megaempress

Match 10: Flamewar VS. Trypticon

Match 11: Overlord VS. Ser-Ket

Match 12: Galvatron II (Marvel G1) VS. Slipstream

Match 13: Straxus VS. Megatron (Beast Machines)

Match 14: Nightbird VS. Lockdown (TFA)

Match 15: Airachnid VS. Goryū

Match 16: Heretech (IDW 2019) VS. Bludgeon (Marvel G1)

Side 2

Match 17: Antagony VS. Leozack

Match 18: Spinister (Marvel G1) VS. Exarchon

Match 19: Deathsaurus (Victory) VS. Shatter & Dropkick

Match 20: Scourge (ROTB) VS. Unicron

Match 21: Steeljaw (RID) VS. Bludgeon (IDW 2005)

Match 22: Galvatron II (Japanese G1) VS. Megatron (Cyberverse)

Match 23: Flame (Marvel G1) VS. Sunstorm

Match 24: Death's Head VS. Cyclonus

Match 25: Scorponok (Marvel G1) VS. Megastorm

Match 26: Clobber & Lockdown (Cyberverse) VS. Starscream & BB (Beast Wars II)

Match 27: Swindle VS. Trickdiamond

Match 28: Pharma VS. Galvatron

Match 29: Quintessons VS. Blackarachnia

Match 30: Soundblaster VS. Sky-Byte

Match 31: Tankor (Beast Machines) VS. Zarak

Match 32: Shockwave VS. Megatron (Beast Wars)

[puppybong]

i lowball people on the facebook marketplace for transformers figures. one guy wanted 50 for a mediocore figure missing all the accessories and most of it was made of clear translucent plastic and i could visibly see the street cracks on it. i told him i'd have it for 5 bucks he ships it

another person wanted 600 for a mint in box G1 black zarak, which is like, the holy grail for a lot of collectors due to how getting it out of the box may straight up disintegrate multiple parts of it including the feet and head due to the gold plastic

i told him i'd take it for 13 and i was on my way right now. he's from america i was in the UK

[askvectorprime]

Does MegaZarak exist in Viron 901.8 Alpha?

Dear Zarak Zoner,

The Megazarak of that reality is the Headmaster component of a titanic Predacon weapon known as Scorponok. He was designed to serve as a counter to the Emissary and the monolithic Autobot known as Fortress Maximus, but came up far shorter in terms of size and raw power. As a result, he has never seen deployment in battle, and currently serves as the seat of power for the Predacon Council.

Interestingly enough, they have a counterpart in several branches of the G1 World, where they are instead known by the names Sasorin and Magna Zarak. They are Destronger weapons from Cybertron's distant future.

[churino]

Design for nightstick (g1 cyclonus' targetmaster real name terry masterson)

Headmaster's underappreciated cousin, terry got the short end of the stick genetically, and got bad eyesight, bad posture and ages really poorly but he's a complete genius when it comes to alien tech even accessing the extranet using earth tech and making a friend.

Terry masterson is the son of a previous relationship mega (of overlord fame) had with a full human before she met giga and is seen as something of a brown spot in his parent's history, inexperienced with raising children at the time, mega was unable to raise him properly even though she always wanted kids. So in addition to terry's own health issues he developed an inferiority complex and loose morals, which led him to fall in with his criminal uncle for support and cut his mother out of his life,

Under lord Zarak's roof he continued being neglected in favor of Zarak's own son henry until Henry's untimely death. Then the attention started going towards his step sister, making her sever whatever care she had for him before and leaving Terry to work on his projects alone in the dark, eventually he created a signal booster that gave him access to the greater internet-esque superstructure outside of earth that he called the extranet, using it to learn more about alien technology and communicate with other users, he eventually made a friend in the decepticon catfish cyberwarp, never one of her targets, just coincidentally frequenting the same online spaces she did outside of work the two became each other's closest friends (and maybe more) out of shared interests

With the information terry uncovered within the extranet he began developing weapons that greatly overpowered anything on earth, his most notable creation and the source of his nickname the nightstick was a gun that can snuff out light and radiation, mostly harmless for humans but deadly against transformers as their sparks are made out of light and radiation.

The nightstick can be inserted into a larger superstructure called the nebulon that not only empowers it's beam but also stores the stolen light and radiation within itself, functionally it is a crude spark extractor, and it's use in warfare for the transformers elicits the same reaction mustard gas would to a human which earns him if not direct enemies at least fear and distrust within the sixclan but unbeknownst to him Tarantulas, Ida, and Navi-ko have a certain fondness for him but because of their secretive ways he never benefits from it,

Terry has become a very depressive person, with cyberwarp and a few other online friends inadvertently being the only things keeping him in the path of vilany as his signal booster does take more energy than available on the electric grid, making him dependent on the six clan to be able to talk to his friends. If the autobots could provide him with enough power for his signal booster he'd hop ship immediately. As he doesn't really buy the six clan's mission or decepticon ideology, he just wants to survive

[arceespinkgun]

TF Marvel Ladies Tierlist

Because the Marvel comics are so infamous for Simon Furman's historically awful portrayal of women, I feel like the women in this continuity rarely get discussed. So I decided to make a tierlist of them. Note though that for this I only included recurring characters, I'll talk more about that in a bit. Here's my subjective breakdown:

Great: Jesse and Joy Meadows have clear motivations and are really likable and badass characters! Jesse has a leg up here for appearing more often and having more of her emotions shown, whereas Joy is more of a cool guest star. Watching Jesse always chasing Buster was hilarious lol

Good: Cindy Newell is well-characterized and I liked her relationship with Ultra Magnus. The only reason she is above Arcee is because of Arcee's infamously terrible start in these comics... if Arcee's first appearance had been in the Time Wars arc, she'd be in the Great tier above Joy (also I prefer characters who have bad intros but good later stories over the reverse). Cecilia's good, but she didn't do as much in her second appearance as I would have liked.

Mid: Rapture has a dry personality I enjoy and her powers could have been a great storytelling tool and I liked seeing them, but she's really hampered by being part of the Neo-Knights which sucks. Susan Hoffman didn't have a great introduction and I didn't really like the colonialist bent to her third appearance, even though I liked her second appearance a lot.

Bad: Poor Llyra Zarak. She should be an important leader, but her story is all about the awful men in her life. Good thing Galen ditched her, she's better off! Charlene just isn't really a character, she only appears on this tierlist because she did appear twice.

A WHOLE WORLD OF PAIN AND HURT: Circuit Breaker is just a character who is really, really frustrating to follow. She should be badass and in a way I guess that's true, but her story makes me feel gross. Terrifyingly, I kind of think Furman managed to write her slightly better given that only right at the end of the series did she actually attack Shockwave!!! Until this point, she would basically solely attack the robots who meant no harm. But stupid villains can be enjoyable, it's actually largely G. B. Blackrock (also Walter a bit) to blame for the elements of her arc that feel repulsive to me. In a way, her rage and decisions are still made subordinate to men.

Characters who didn't qualify: Lisa and Ethel (AKA Carissa Carr, the movie star who befriends Skullgrin) would go in Good or Great if they'd have appeared more than once each, I liked both of them a lot. Charlene might be in Good. The First One I think would go in the bottom of Mid, probably, that whole story was just one giant sci-fi trope.

[jazzluca]

BLACK ZARAK ( Titan ) Generations Select LEGACY

Anche se ci sono state varianti cromatiche dei precedenti Titan, e l'eccezione del Grand Maximus esclusivo per il Giappone, il primo Select di questa maestosa classe è dedicato nientemeno che a BLACK ZARAK, l'evoluzione dello Scorponok G1 vista per il solo mercato orientale, nel 1988 nella serie Masterforce.

Se il summenzionato Grand Maximus era sì un repaint del più famoso Fortress con un guscio Pretender per il robot "Cerebros" in più, e nella finzione narrativa era il suo... fratello minore ( ^^'' ), B.Z. qui era invece sempre il buon vecchio Scorponok ritornato con un Transtector simile e sopratutto senza più la gimmick Headmaster, ma con una testa nuova nel raro e delicatissimo giocattolo nero ed oro originale. ...

Personalmente, non è che sono mai stato un fan di questa versione del Megazarak giappo, complice pure la mia avversione ai repaint neri, ma ho dovuto ripiegare su questo Select essendomi perso ai tempi di Earthrise il buon Scorponok Titan originale, ma devo dire che alla fine non me ne sono affatto pentito!

Peccato solo che come Titan sia di pochissimo più basso del rivale Maximus: certo, neanche a paragone con la differenza di stazza dei giocattoli originali, ma sarebbe stato bello che potessero guardarsi negli occhi allo stesso livello, e sarebbe bastato poco, tipo un dito di platica in più sul bacino, per alzare l'Headmaster Decepticon, anche se di certo di plastica ed accessori non sono stati per nulla avari, per certi versi!

Innanzitutto parliamo della TESTA, con un design completamente diverso da quello del Titan originale, così come era anche nel G1, con un faccia senza visore sugli occhi, fronte e pure antenne diverse. Interessantissima la TRASFORMAZIONE, classica da omino HM, con la nuca che si dispiega divenendo le gambe, e la fronte che va coprire la faccia con un ulteriore panello nascosto, ma con il pannello del torso sollevato per inglobare le braccia ripiegate lateralmente dentro lo stesso.

L'Headmaster SCORPONOK ( basandosi sulla continuità giappo, dovrebbe essere sempre il nome del robot / testa di Black Zarak ) dovrebbe essere solo un repaint del Lord Zarak Earthrise, con testa e corpo dorati ed arti neri, ma no, sarebbe stato troppo banale forse, ed ecco quindi un nuovo torso con in più una cicatrice ad X sul petto e la testa con una benda da pirata sull'occhio sinistro, a citare il look piratesco dell'ulteriore incarnazione del personaggio, ovvero quella di uno dei 9 Grandi Generali Demoniaci al soldo di Violentgiguar visti nella serie Zone. Non inficiando il look generale del Titano, diciamo che ci può stare questa novità, e possiamo farla spacciare come le conseguenze della sua sconfitta nel finale di Masterforce.

Le antenne ai lati delle braccia sono diverse da quelle dello stampo precedente, e infatti sono più arcuate e pronunciate, dando tecnicamente più fastidio estetico ad un robot che in teoria non dovrebbe averle, ma d'altro canto ricordano un po' la parte superiore delle chele di uno scorpione, quindi hanno il loro perchè, dai. ^^

Infine, non dimentichiamoci che Scorponok è a sua volta un Headmaster, cosa nota nella continuità giapponese ma che magari nell'Earthrise un po' strideva con quella occidentale, ma giocoforza è stato logico dover implentare la doppia gimmick hm come già in Fortress Maximus: fra l'altro, paragonandolo con il Cerebros di Titans Return, Scoponok / Lord Zarak è più basso, alto quando un normale Deluxe, ma lo supera in snodabilità, potendo ruotare il bacino ed inclinare le caviglie come nello standard di WfC.

Ed a proposito di suddetto standard, ha pure i famigerati fori sotto i piedi, ma null'altro per poter interagire con i Weaponizer, magari proprio con Fasttrack o il suo repaint dorato Roritchi, o forse no, dato che le antenne sulle braccia oltre che a ruotare un po' possono staccarsi e quindi qualcosa si riesce ad ottenere. ^^

( Fra l'altro, quindi, volendo le antenne si possono togliere anche per alleggerire il robot, nascondendole nel vano del petto del robottone di cui poi parlerò )

Tornando quindi agli accessori, il nostro ne è davvero zeppo, sopratutto in confronto ai precedenti colleghi, contando fra questi i cannoni bicanna delle spalle ( solo due invece dei 4 del G1, ma vabbè ), le due piastre laterali delle gambe e Scudo Zarak, con tanto di tenaglie mobili; grande assente sin dallo stampo precedente Earthrise è il fucilone che aveva il giocattolo del 1987, così come qui sono assenti gli effetti delle esplosioni che di solito accompagno Titan e Commander vari, MA in conpenso c'è la TYRANT SPEAR, proprio come il B.Z. originale, e non è manco un anonimo pezzo unico, ma bensì è suddiva in ben 6 pezzi!! ... peccato però i fori e spine con cui si uniscono questi pezzi siano più grossi dei canonici 5 mm, che se invece erano di quella misura E con i maschio / femmina invertiti, le varie punte della lancia potevano essere usate come armi bianche anche per il robot deluxe! :-(

( ... alla faccia di Fasttrack che si trasformava in lancia per imitare quell'arma, ma vabbè, la trasformazione è lo stesso apprezzata anche se ora è ridondante! ^^' )

A livello di articolazioni siamo messi benone, dato che il nostro Titano include anche l'inclinazione delle caviglie, e le chele che si aprono e chiudono hanno le due dita superiori indipendenti. Da notare il passo da gigante fatto rispetto ai citybot pre WfC, con articolazioni solide ma non per questo troppo dure e in generale si ha una sensazione più di morbida solidità anche a livello di plastiche che non quella invece troppo rigida e fragile con articolazioni che poi non reggevano il peso della figura. Magari la sensazione è quella di tenere in mano più un giocattolone, ma almeno è un giocattolone solido!

Infine, un ultimo commento estetico sulla colorazione, che è fedelissima al giocattolo originale ed al personaggio dei cartoni, ma come dicevo all'inizio un po' ero restio perchè è effettivamente TROPPO nero, con i tocchi di rosso e le parti dorate che non spezzano abbastanza, ed in effetti le cosce forse era meglio farle argento chiaro piuttosto che scuro, ma una volta dal vivo ovviamente l'occhio poi si abitua. ^^

La TRASFORMAZIONE in bestia è come quella del giocattolo del 1988, a parte la parte inferiore, dato che qui il bacino ruota e le gambe si piegano sulle ginocchia in maniera naturale e non rovescia, ma anche qui le punte dei piedi non solo si nascondo, ma poi rientrano tutti nelle caviglie, e ancora applausi per la solidità dell'articolazione, così come un altra ovazione ci sta per la trovata semplice ma indovinatissima di nascondere le zampine laterali all'interno del vano del torso, in modo da non dar fastidio nel robot ed essere pure cartoon accurate. La testa resta attaccata, e si può nascondere la facciona slittando il pannello della fronte per coprirla.

Lo SCORPIONE robotico è davvero grande ed imponente, anche se a livello di pavimento, non essendo una bestiona su 4 zampe o due come il collega Trypticon, ma così fa comunque la sua figura, e sarà che la forma di scorpione di suo aiuta nel colpo d'occhio. La coda è mobile così come zampone con le chele, mentre quelle laterali piccole sono indipendenti fino ad un certo punto ma legate a coppie verso metà. Le gambe ripiegate / moduloni posteriori paiono più compatti che nel G1, così come anche qui si apre il portellone del petto, ma al contrario, per poter riporvi l'omino Titan Masters seduto in una apposita postazione per pilotare il bestione come negli HM classici.

A pensarci, è un peccato che ci sia solo una postazione e non altre per ospitare gli omini del trio di Headmaster Decepticon, dato spazio ce ne sarebbe stato, anche se dovevano ridisegnare poi le sporgenze del pannello del petto, ma vabbè. Gli scudi delle gambe ritrovano posto ai lati dei moduloni, così come i due cannoni bicanna sempre sulle spalle, mentre la lancia si spezza in due e va a finire volendo a riposo sempre ai lati dei moduloni, mentre la punta grande di aggiunge a quella della coda per renderla così ancor più temibile ed aguzza. Lo scudo Zarak, infine, può riporsi comodamente e ben nascosto dietro la base della coda.

Anche la TRASFORMAZIONE in base è simile al G1, sempre con i moduloni / gambe che si dispiegano ai lati, la coda che ripiega le parti estreme e diventa lo scivolo centrale, e le due chele che si alzano ergendosi a torri, coperte frontalmente dai cannoni che si uniscono agli scudi delle gambe, mentre il pannello del petto si apre per potervi attaccare lo Scudo Zarak che diventa la torre centrale.

Come BASE non sarà ampia come quelle dei precedenti colleghi Titan, ma è davvero evocativa dell'originale, con tanto di rampe dispiegate dalle gambe e pannelli ai lati che mimano quelli del G1, anche se mancano gli accessorini tipo il sollevacarichi e le pinze, così come i piccoli radar vari che si sistemavano nella parte centrale. Peccato che abbiano cambiato il sistema di aggancio delle rampe, non essendo così più compatibile col collega Trypticon, ma solo con le basi uscite durante WfC. :-/

La postazione di pilotaggio centrale del Titan Master si solleva ulteriormente adagiandosi alla torre / Scudo Zarak, e rivelando un altra apertura per il vano centrale, che volendo può contenere, incastrata a dovere, la testa del Titano, dato che nella città non troverebbe posto come invece faceva Cerebros, diventando la parte superiore della torre centrale di Fort Max.

Oppure, se lo "arredavano" meglio, poteva essere il centro di comando della base dove sistermarci gli omini TM, se tipo riuscivano a scolpirci alla buona dei computer e robe così sulle pareti interne, o se ci mettevano pure delle piccole spine per far star fermi i suddetti omini, ma vabbè, laddove si ferma la pratica, ci si arriva con la fantasia. ^^

Al solito, non mancano parecchi fori sparsi dove sistemare le armi attorno alla base, e le due metà della Lancia Tyrant si sistemano ai lati delle torri esterne. Davvero notevoli comunque pure i dettagli scolpiti e dipinti sulle rampe che citano gli adesivi dei giocattoli anni '80!

Non documentata, ma va citata, è infine possibile pure far assumere al nostro la famigerata MODALITA' HYDRA, ovvero lo scorpione con le zampette nascoste, senza la testa, ma con le due zampe chelate a farlo somigliare moooooooolto alla lontana ad un drago bicefalo... circa! Vabbè, se la sono inventata i giappo nei cartoni, quindi è canonica! XD

Infine, riassumendo, davvero un ottimo stampo che sarebbe stato un peccato perdere, che un Titano è pur sempre un Titano, anche se questa versione per noi occidentali non avrà il carisma dello Scorponok del 1987, ma di certo ha i suoi perchè, sopratutto l'aggiunta della lancia, anche se un po' castrata a livello di giocabilità. Magari sarà ridondante per chi ha già il Titan di Lord Zarak, ma per chi appunto come me era rimasto con la bocca asciutta, è di sicuro un ottimo palliativo, sopratutto se a prezzi decenti, magari sempre nell'attesa di poter recuperare lo Scorpion più famoso.  

[uncle-louie]

Out of its nearly 40 years of existence I am pretty I’m the only TF fan who ships Zarak and Fortress 😐

[cherrytimemachine]

The only reason Zarak got rid of Sixshot is because he got tired of ninja man telling his boss that he makes bad decisions. This is the same guy who spent half the show using his giant scorpion robot to hump the side of Fort Max’s leg whenever he first attacked him in battle. Opposite of a short king. Sixshot supremacy.