Mainly because of the guy in the corner, who looks like I feel most days at work: like tearing off my own head and drop-kicking it as far away as possible...
The copy for the Marvel house ad read: "War. War. War. It's enough to give a robot a headache." Sadly, that was the most clever thing about the whole series: it reads like a poorly-Americanized version of a particularly complicated anime--hmm, perhaps not so much complicated as overcrowded. There's a mess of Transformers, Autobots and Decepticons alike; then there's the humans of the planet Nebulos, some of whom become the Headmasters. That would be, well, they look like little robots with human heads with terrible haircuts, that turn into a larger robot's head. Then there are Targetmasters, who transform into a larger robot's gun.
Yeah, I know this isn't going to be War and Peace, it's a toy tie-in, but it's not up to even the rather mediocre standards of Marvel's American Transformers stories. (Even though I read it for the first couple of years, I never thought Transformers was as good a comic as Micronauts or ROM in their heyday. Simon Furman's British issues had their moments, though.)
I'm almost positive there's another, doubtless better backstory explanation for the Headmasters and Targetmasters in Transformers continuity, but I've never even seen any of their toys. Their real origin, is doubtless simply that they were a new gimmick for the line. A robot that transforms into a jet or a car or even a microscope, that was becoming old hat; so transforming heads or guns were the new style. I also have no idea if they were actually decent figures, though: I would guess the Targetmasters were robot-shapes that would fold into an L-shape to make a gun, so probably not great.
Don't ask me how the Headmasters worked. Who was in charge? Were they replacements for decapitated Transformers? If a Headmaster transformed and walked away, was the robot body left behind, a brainless vegetable? That doesn't sound like a great play model, honestly; to say nothing of a warrior's sidearm wandering off...Well, thinking about this has distracted me from my general annoyance, so the Headmasters, Targetmasters, and all did accomplish one mission, anyway...
I had a Headmaster and so did my brother. Before we actually saw the cartoons staring them. They were cool!
ReplyDeleteOf course, mine was blue and turned into a helicopter. Two of my favourite things at the time.
The mythology gets a bit smegged, but in the cartoon it went thus:
The Headmasters were Neblonians who wore the heads (which made them look like Mini-cons (or Master Chief)) of the normal sized transformers. When they were acting as the heads of whoever, they both shared control. Hardhead's head, for instance, was better at shooting and aiming, so took control of his firing arm.
When unattached, the body could move on its own and still talk (*shrugs*) and see things.
The Targetmasters were the same, but guns... And the Powermasters were motors...
The toys were crappy, but still fun. They folded at their legs, to be the gun, head or motor. And their arms moved! When you plugged it in, you could open a flap and see their stats. PWR, STR, INT and I think there was another one... My mate had Hardhead and I was jealous. His PWR was at the top!
... I was, like... 8?
Here you go.
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/toys/series/g1/4/
I had issues two to four of this mini-series, but for some odd reason I didn't have the first issue...
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