Botcon 2012–Treadshot

Oh goodness me.  Of all the Botcon figures for this year, none of them actually display a sense of confusion and desperation quite like this character. G1 Treadshot used to be an Action master, that is a Transformer that doesn’t transform, but he had a little friend that did.  Then the name got used a couple of times, usually with little relation to the original Treadshot.  One use was a recolour of a particularly rubbish toy from the Armada series (it was a recolour of Sideswipe) which was used in the generally awful Universe line, which featured such lovable classics like, purple Silverbolt, purple Tigerhawk and various other ugly recolours.

 

Now we have this guy for the Shattered Glass side of things.  It is generally assumed that the Shattered Glass reflects the G1 interpretation of toys, so it wouldn’t be odd to expect this to be an opposite character of the Action master toy, which was a bit of a gunslinger character.  However it appears to be entirely based on the Universe toy.   Out of all the other Shattered Glass characters they have done, only this guy isn’t G1 based.  As a final nail in the coffin of confusion, the head for this guy isn’t related to the Action Master figure (which could have worked by blending them all together), nor does it look like the Universe Treadshot.

 

For all intents and purposes, we have a new character that is based on a series that is supposed to be using warped versions of the ones we know. 

 

Nice one Collector’s Club.

 

 

So now that we have had a chat about the strangeness of the character influence, what about the toy?  Well it’s now a recolour of Jazz from the Reveal the Shield line, which really is not a bad little toy at all.  In fact it is rather cool.  This guy has a new head.

 

By new, I mean NEW.  It looks nothing like the Universe head, nothing like the Action Master head, Nothing like the plane from Energon and nothing like the tank from Armada.  The only that really relates it to any Treadshot is the racing stipes and purple colour (although Universe Treadshot was a maroon shade.)

 

First off vehicle mode.

 

 

It’s Jazz’s body there all right!  Main colours are yellow, silver and purple.  My camera can’t handle typically Decepticon shades of purple and so it’s a bit more purple than blue.

 

 

He has an Heroic Decepticon insignia on the bonnet, which I like as it is front and centre.  The racing stripe starts at the grill and stops at the rear window.  I love racing stripes.  Might paint some on myself one day.  Paint appears to be well applied and nice and crisp.  The rear lights are a bit boring though I feel with the ‘tired’ orange on them.

 

 

Mmm, lookit that sexy stripe!  Underneath you can see the fairly neat robot bits.  Lots of yellow there.  The colours work really well together I feel.  I love the way the pistol clips in under the bonnet and looks like part of the engine.  This truly is a well designed toy!

 

Just like Jazz, he comes with the speaker blaster options.  To cater for this story-wise, TFCC have put in his Bio that he was trained by Treble and Gain and he ended up with their weapons.  This mould has been used a fair bit now.  Jazz, Stepper, and another of this year’s Botcon figures, and the clips that hold the speakers for the next mode are a bit loose on mine and don’t clip on too well.

 

 

Personally I prefer this look with Jazz.  Although had they left this out, it would have left a large gap in the vehicle mode.

 

 

As much as this character is a creation of TFCC.  The colours work really well with the vehicle mode.

 

Ok, now to get that sucker into robot mode.

 

 

Typical Jazz with a new head.  The colours manage to work fairly well for the robot mode as well so I would say that generally, everything for this figure looks good.  Except the homage.

 

Robot mode can also whip out the speakers for some blastey-ness.  You can also store the gun under his chest as well, which is another reason why I like this toy so much.

 

 

General sculpting detail is pretty cool as well.  As this uses Jazz’s body, you can see speaker details and vents on his hips.

 

His pistol can be combined with the speakers in a couple of ways as well, which is cool  but with the loose clips on mine, they drop off pretty soon.

 

 

That is the way the instructions tell you how to mount them, personally I prefer them connected like this;

 

That looks a lot more sound appropriate.

 

Now onto that head.

 

It’s a stern face, which fits well with the bio for this Treadshot.   A nice sculpt for the head, that is for sure but it has little to do with other Treadshots as far as I know.  Unless there is some homage here that I am unaware of.  If so, please drop a comment so I can learn for myself.

 

What I do like though is that it can be back lit and looks interesting, although I suspect it wasn’t intentional.

 

As I have messed about with this mould before, I know it is quite a well articulated toy and can be posed in a wide variety of ways and can be popped onto one foot with a relative amount of ease.  His knees have double joints in them so they can bend really well, as do his elbows.  Combine all that with excellent hip, shoulder and waist swivels and joints and he is a dynamic figure!

 

 

Now onto that bio, which might be a homage to….

 

It just clicked.  The Treadshot of Universe was in a battle pack with Ultra Magnus.  SG Treadshot is determined to capture and destroy SG Magnus.  Off to the internet…

 

Yep, my suspicions are confirmed.  The bios for Universe Magnus and Treadshot have them as friends then they went to opposite sides and now they want to smash each other.  So in a world of generally G1 characters, we now have at least one from Universe.  The only thing that actually looks like that Treadshot though is the vehicle mode and colours.  The head is nothing the same. 

 

Whoops, here is the bio almost forgot.

 

 

I notice that Magnus’ bio doesn’t allude at all to his homage origins.  So if SG Magnus is based on the Universe Magnus or not is entirely up to conjecture.

 

So that pretty much finishes off Treadshot and he summarises this year’s box set quite nicely I think.  A confused mish-mash of ideas that have merit, but don’t really come together.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now (and probably again later) this set is very much a fill in set.  It has a strong feel that TFCC didn’t have much of an idea of what to go for and thus we have this concoction.

 

That aside though, this is a pretty good colouration and toy.  The head sculpt is nice and it’s a lot of fun.  Without the bio, or perhaps another name I would probably be raving about it it.  Well, maybe not, I have a few Jazzes now, but it is a pretty solid looking little figure that I like.  It’s just the homage that irritates me.