Thunderclash

So everyone legit knows Thunderclash is the best thing that ever happened, right? Like, have you seen this lad’s tech spec bio? Strongest, bravest, and smartest Autobot EVAH! No wonder James Roberts mashed him up with Ace Rimmer and then set him upon the fuck up’s that made up ‘Team Rodimus’.`

So, as I was saying in my Ironfist ramble, I missed all the Turbomasters when they came out. As I (more or less) completed my collection of the original G1 I found myself casting around for something to sustain the TF collecting buzz, and went full on in getting the Euro G1.5 stuff.

The Turbomasters, and their counterparts the Predators, seem to be the most ambitous expression of the Euro exclusives. They’re a fully blown line, with multiple price points, line wide gimmicks, and pleasing unifromity of design. Just seeing them all together makes you feel like there’s a vein of fiction waiting to be tapped into. It’s no wonder these guys are so popular, with a surpirising amount of people crying out for updates of rather obscure bots like ‘Boss’.

And Thunderclash was the main man, the leader of the Autobots, and one of the two high price point items, along with Sky Quake, of the line. But what’s kind of surprising is how short he is. Like, you think this dude is going to be massive, like Magnus massive, but really he’s a small-ish bot with a big ‘ol battle platform. In fact Rotorstorm, one of his subordinates, stands head and shoulders taller than him.

But that doesn’t detract from what a sweet figure Thunderclash is. His colourscheme takes no prisoners. Gold, teal, bright red, and neon pink collide beautifully for some super 90’s, too many e-numbers, glory. It kind of sucks that mine has the chest sticker upside down, but what’re you going to do? Toyhax, as last I checked, don’t actually do a set for Turbomasters, so I’m lumbered with him as he is.

But in other respects I’m lucky. Much like Skyquake, I’m always waiting for a gold plastic syndrome style bomb to go off and shatter his feet. After several years ownership I’m happy to say all is still intact.

But enough about the cosmetics, what about the figure? Welll, he comes off more avuncular than classically heroic. You can imagine him being a great tactical mind, or something, but an unbeatable warrior? Not quite. He just looks a wee bit bland and innocuous. There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with him. He’s a cool bot. but he doesn’t live up to the hype of the tech specs.

That said, his alt mode is impressive. I think this is where I start feeling compelled to compare him to Ultra Magnus. I love the idea of the ‘war truck’, and you can see this machine plowing through Decepticons whilst launching a fleet of rockets. The detail is very basic, and definitely very kidified, but manages to retain it’s cool.

Were it not for his appearances in the ‘More Than Meets the Eye’ and ‘Lost Light’ comics, I could have imagined Thunderclash not making it out of obscurity, but thanks to how memorable those appearances were he’s suddenly a contender. MMC adpated thier Tarn figure to give us something that does a wonderful job of giving us an IDW accurate Thunderclash.

As much as I loved the MMC ‘Reformated’ take on Tarn, it did feel a bit…lacking in hand. It was a great rendition fo the figure but it just felt a bit too simple. By flinging in a few more details, particularly on the transformation, they’ve managed to improve on the blueprint with ‘Collisus’.

Like all the MMC stuff the detail and articulation is wonderful. I should add that the articulation is discrete enough that Thunderclash doesn’t look compromised when you pose him in the more extremely dynamic poses. The facesculpt is suitably, and classicaly, handsome, as befits ‘THE GREATEST AUTOBOT OF THEM ALL’. and with his lithe but muscular proprotions Thunderclash finally looks the super atheltic warrior he always should have been, and it is great. I only have three gripes with this:

The colours are a bit off.

The feet are fucking massive, but that’s more typical of Alex Milne designs than MMC.

The vehicle mode, whilst looking very, very cool, just feels a bit dinky.

They’re pretty trivial complaints, and ultimately easily ignored. I for one, am just glad to have such a super awesome looking Thunderclash to sit on ym Lost Light shelf.

Ya wee stunner!