Death's Head
27-11-11, 08:47 AM
There are some images that stick in the mind. For me, one of my favourite bits of Transformers imagery is a glorious painted image from the 1985 Transformers Annual from Marvel UK. It’s by John Stokes and is a brutal scene of Rumble punching Tracks through the chest down an alley. It’s a combination of Stokes’ sense of scale coupled with the dinginess of the alley and the burst of colour coming from the two giant robots. Glorious. Since then, I’ve always wanted a Tracks figure. It didn’t matter to me that he was portrayed as a toffee nosed git and none of the other Autobots liked him, he had a great looking robot mode and a ridiculously sporty looking alt mode. That could fly. That was enough for me. Yes, Wheeljack could also deploy a set of wings, but he didn’t look as cool. Flying blue sports cars are cool.
So it is that Tracks is corking blue Corvette Stingray. It’s a very silly looking car really, all bonnet and not much else. I looks like a flappy shoe sole on wheels. Or a massive cock. Either way, its one of the most ridiculous looking things ever and its suprising these things ever existed. I mean, look at it. The only way you wouldn’t look silly in one of these is if you had a pony tail Then again…
To ramp up the silliness, Tracks has a wacking great flame decal slapped on the bonnet. Without this, Tracks does look a bit plain and it really ramps his alt mode up to 11. It’s great. And then you flip out the wings and slap on those missile launchers and have a fab looking flight mode. Well, I say fab looking, it isn’t really, but it puts M.A.S.K’s Thunderhawk to shame.
Tracks’ robot mode isn’t the most well proportioned. His arms are a wee bit too short compared to those big long legs of his, but he looks pretty good nonetheless. I’m also much more of a fan of the toy’s more robotic and alien looking head. The anthropomorphic face that was given to a lot of the Autobots animation models was clearly born out of making them more readily identifiable as ‘the good guys’ and simplifying the complex toy designs, but it robbed the cartoon Autobots of a bit of variety and personality (He says. There were so many bloody Autobots that a lot of them just end up hanging around in the background going ‘yoo-hoo! I’m here too!’). Tracks is also one of the few Autobot cars that doesn’t go mental with the circuit board decals, so the application of them actually enhances his robot mode, rather than smothering it in nonsense (unlike poor Skids). He also wields a ridiculously huge gun and has a pair of surprisingly powerful missile launchers (this being a Japanese version, these actually work and aren’t neutered in any way). He’s also quite tall for an Autobot car too standing head and shoulders over the likes of Jazz and Prowl – probably so he can enjoy looking down on these pikey oiks. Being a car standing up, he is a little flat looking, but he carries it off better than poor old Sunstreaker, whom looks a bit clumsy by comparrison.
With this being the Transformers Collection reissue, Tracks comes in a superb collector’s box, with a great piece of character art adorning the front (mercifully sparing us more of Pat Lee’s eyesores) coupled with the usual excellent ‘encylopedia’ pages, featuring catalogue shots, Universe style profile pieces and a fold out section. Tracks’ mould has also weathered incredibly well and remains as good as an original issue figure. One of my favourite figures out of the line, Tracks is a very slick looking toy with a good robot mode and some fun play features.
1235123612371238
So it is that Tracks is corking blue Corvette Stingray. It’s a very silly looking car really, all bonnet and not much else. I looks like a flappy shoe sole on wheels. Or a massive cock. Either way, its one of the most ridiculous looking things ever and its suprising these things ever existed. I mean, look at it. The only way you wouldn’t look silly in one of these is if you had a pony tail Then again…
To ramp up the silliness, Tracks has a wacking great flame decal slapped on the bonnet. Without this, Tracks does look a bit plain and it really ramps his alt mode up to 11. It’s great. And then you flip out the wings and slap on those missile launchers and have a fab looking flight mode. Well, I say fab looking, it isn’t really, but it puts M.A.S.K’s Thunderhawk to shame.
Tracks’ robot mode isn’t the most well proportioned. His arms are a wee bit too short compared to those big long legs of his, but he looks pretty good nonetheless. I’m also much more of a fan of the toy’s more robotic and alien looking head. The anthropomorphic face that was given to a lot of the Autobots animation models was clearly born out of making them more readily identifiable as ‘the good guys’ and simplifying the complex toy designs, but it robbed the cartoon Autobots of a bit of variety and personality (He says. There were so many bloody Autobots that a lot of them just end up hanging around in the background going ‘yoo-hoo! I’m here too!’). Tracks is also one of the few Autobot cars that doesn’t go mental with the circuit board decals, so the application of them actually enhances his robot mode, rather than smothering it in nonsense (unlike poor Skids). He also wields a ridiculously huge gun and has a pair of surprisingly powerful missile launchers (this being a Japanese version, these actually work and aren’t neutered in any way). He’s also quite tall for an Autobot car too standing head and shoulders over the likes of Jazz and Prowl – probably so he can enjoy looking down on these pikey oiks. Being a car standing up, he is a little flat looking, but he carries it off better than poor old Sunstreaker, whom looks a bit clumsy by comparrison.
With this being the Transformers Collection reissue, Tracks comes in a superb collector’s box, with a great piece of character art adorning the front (mercifully sparing us more of Pat Lee’s eyesores) coupled with the usual excellent ‘encylopedia’ pages, featuring catalogue shots, Universe style profile pieces and a fold out section. Tracks’ mould has also weathered incredibly well and remains as good as an original issue figure. One of my favourite figures out of the line, Tracks is a very slick looking toy with a good robot mode and some fun play features.
1235123612371238