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 Bandai supported the 1993 Mobile Suit Victory Gundam anime with a full toyline of figures, of the sort not seen since Clover's original series of figures. It's a bit of a shame that no-one particularly cared for either the cartoon or its' mecha and the effort was all for nothing, really.
The bulk of figures were represented by the Mobile Suit in Pocket series - allegedly 1/144 scale figures (actually closer to 1/200) with surprising articulation for something as small from that era. I'm not sure how many of these were made - I've seen figures numbered up into the 20s, but how many of these are recolours and/or retools I couldn't tell you - I've only got two, the Hexa Gundam and the Zolo.
Next up was the 1/72 Hexa Gundam, which has electronics. Weirdly this one is actually 1/72 scale, and thus much, much bigger than the Mobile Suit in Pocket figures, which leaves a big gulf in the line - you can either get small figures, or one or two massive ones. It's strange, as ~6" figures would find the best balance between detail and price (model kits of around that size had been the backbone of Gundam merchandise for 15 years by the time Victory came out)...
The centrepiece of the line was the 1/48 Victory Gundam, which made a fair stab at the cartoon's complex combination sequence. It's a real beast of a toy, almost as large as the Deluxe Vehicle Voltron, though it's not quite up to Bandai's standards of either the 1980s or the 21st century.
Indeed, the whole line is strangely reminiscent of CG Robo (which was issued at around the same time) - it's not bad, per se, but there's a distinct feel that it should have been much better, and the design work seems to be somewhat stagnant.
- Gundam - Mobile Suit Victory Gundam toy reviews
 The drawback with my rough plan of getting all the 1984-1985 Autobot cars one way or another is that I had to buy a Jazz at some point, though thankfully I got it out of the way fairly cheaply. He wasn't quite as bad as I expected him to be, but is still one of the very weakest figures in the range. In terms of the basic moulds, I'm struggling to think of any that are worse, actually - Ironhide/Ratchet and Sunstreaker might be a bit weird, but at least they're different. The conventional pretensions of Jazz just mean he shows up badly compared to the Datsun mould, or Hound.
I've also reorganised the non-Movie Transformers toy reviews a bit to (hopefully) make it easier to follow my arcane filing system - with lines that don't have a lot of coverage I try to play it fairly straight, but with Transformers I feel less obliged to call figures by their proper names and so on, as the real information can be found joylessly catalogued all over the place.
- Transformers Jazz toy review
  It was always going to happen: I've bought some Rock Lords. I'm not entirely sure why; nostalgia seems the most likely culprit. Rock Lords generally didn't too well, and here in the UK the line was reduced en masse, meaning I bought nearly all of them in one trip with the money from my 7th birthday. I thus have strong memories of the whole line - I've got a weird memory, I have to think what I studied at university, but could tell you easily the order pieces broke off my beloved Transformers Smokescreen or just which Zybots I had.
The good thing about Rock Lords is they're generally cheap and easy to round up - my brief burst of impulse-buying left me with half-a-dozen or so for an outlay of £20. The bad thing is, and it's an old and lazy criticism (that also happens to be very apt), they all turn into rocks. The robots are nicely designed, surprisingly dynamic and well-engineered, but having them turn into lumps of coloured plastic gets dull quickly. It also makes them quite challenging to review...
- Gobots: Rock Lords Boulder & Magmar toy reviews
 Wow, didn't realise it had been a year since I updated this particular section of the site. The name is meant to be intentionally incorrect in common with the 1980s books of the same name, but a year is a bit much...
Anyway, here's a page for "Decepticon Dam-Busters", complete with fresh scans, plus assorted letters pages and other bobbins. It's not the best story, it's not even particularly good, being a loose adaptation of the TV episode "More Than Meets the Eye, Part Two" Ratchet tells to the Dinobots to alleviate their boredom, with little thought as to keeping the reader entertained. It's possibly Hound's most substantial appearance in the Marvel comic, though...
- Transformers - The Complete Works: Decepticon Dam-Busters
 Reideen introduced me to something of a new experience - a Soul of Chogokin toy that didn't completely blow me away. I had slight reservations over Combattler V, but then he was about 10 years older than the others I had by that point, and it was relative to the superb Voltes V and jaw-dropping Ideon anyway.
I think the difference is Soul of Chogokin is so expensive I generally only fork out for something that really catches my eye, whereas Reideen was offered to me by someone at a knock-down price. Beyond the sheer historical weight of it being the first transforming robot toy, the original Raideen figure didn't do much for me, so perhaps I should have expected this - it's not so much that it's not a great figure as that the basic design of the character doesn't do anything for me.
However, I do also think this one's a bit complex for its' own good, especially the over-complicated head parts. Still, a below-par Soul of Chogokin is still a finer figure that most toylines' finest products.
- Soul of Chogokin GX-41 Reideen toy review
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