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Specterite

Comments

14 comments posted
And you guys were making fun

And you guys were making fun of Revoltech Grendizer's crotch?!?!

Is it just me,or does this dude remind you of the robot in Jabba's palace's basement that was burning the Gonk droid's feet?
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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 7 February, 2010 - 18:45
This may possibly be one of

This may possibly be one of the silliest things I've ever seen. Despite that it has a sort of 80's charm to it.

Dkun's picture
Posted by Dkun on 7 February, 2010 - 19:12
Strangely

I feel some love to it... It just plain 80's

Berserk's picture
Posted by Berserk on 7 February, 2010 - 19:57
Hey, nice score. Actually I

Hey, nice score. Actually I feel Specterite is the least well-executed of the Parasites line (but still like it for all its quirks).

I talked with Larry Jones from California R&D about the series some since then and he says they were less than impressed with how Matchbox handled the manufacturing on the final product, but also that they were having a lot of problems in general by that point. Cal R&D did also design the packaging and the whole pitch though with the wacky back-story (Halley's Comet? Talk about a narrow release window! I guess even they didn't expect the series to last more than a year).

Looking at this one, you can see that there's some joints that were intended (like on the back of the grill) that were left as one piece. Of the six toys, three have riveted and screwed together parts and are more solid construction with really good articulation, and three (including this one) are more cheaply made and are entirely snap fit. So some of these figures are much more nicely realized than others. If you were happy with this one with its somewhat gimped design, I'm sure you'll be happier with the other 5 toys. Gammasite is the only other one that feels really cheap to me, but is a little better posable than Specterite. Terrorsite, the snake one, is similarly snap-fit parts and cheaper material, but makes up for it with its other features in my book.

The best thing I like about these guys though is if you ignore the car scale, they are perfectly sized to go with 1:18 action figures and fit very nicely in with the Micronaut aliens. :D And heck, Microman used a similar idea with its Titan Command Gimca cars (perhaps another point of inspiration for Cal R&D?), not to mention Transformers' own Pretenders later.

I need to update that Flickr gallery (and do my long-promised blog review). I have all the figures now and better replacements of my two battered ones (though one I've left on its mint unpunched card). Being both unpopular and only having six toys in the run makes for a very easy and inexpensive set to score in the wild. :D

Edit: Forgot to mention, I took mine and popped it apart and reassembled the grill and legs into a "fanmode" configuration I personally think looks much better, with the chrome shin guards facing outward and the grill worn as a backpack. :D

microbry's picture
Posted by microbry on 7 February, 2010 - 21:03
Thanks for the info; you're

Thanks for the info; you're the man. I have more Parasites on the card that I will liberate and review later. Look forward to more of your coverage as well.

The Enthusiast's picture
Posted by The Enthusiast on 7 February, 2010 - 21:19
Oh wow!

Until I saw this review, I forgot that these things even existed, and I had like three of them!

...I kind of forgot how crappy they were. I think that these turned up by the time my parents had decided to quit buying me Transformers because I wasn't going to do anything but obsessively transform them back and forth until all the limbs fell off.

RobotBastard's picture
Posted by RobotBastard on 8 February, 2010 - 13:53
Hot Wheels did the same

Hot Wheels did the same thing in 2003 - Robo Wheels

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CollectionDX Admin

JoshB's picture
Posted by JoshB on 8 February, 2010 - 14:06
I was wondering how long it

I was wondering how long it would be for someone to bring this up... I had one of the hot-wheels ones that turned into a chubby F1 car and liked it alot. This Parasite has some serious vintage funk tho, and is new to me. CDX is gonna make me broke.

http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com

Prometheum5's picture
Posted by Prometheum5 on 8 February, 2010 - 16:49
OH YEAH

Someone (I think my ex) got me one of those Robo Wheels for Christmas in 2003. I like how they sort of surf on the bottom of the car.

Ginrai's picture
Posted by Ginrai on 8 February, 2010 - 16:59
I was actually reminded of

I was actually reminded of this line when this review came up. Those little guys were neat.

Dkun's picture
Posted by Dkun on 8 February, 2010 - 17:02
I must admit, the back of a

I must admit, the back of a Ford pickup is the last place I'd look for a Master of Mind control.

ZA's picture
Posted by ZA on 9 February, 2010 - 01:13
This thing...what were they

This thing...what were they thinking? I can barely make anatomical sense of it.

jacksauce's picture
Posted by jacksauce on 9 February, 2010 - 15:11
This is just plain crap IMO.

This is just plain crap IMO. I mean,the package says robot,and when I look at it I can kind of make out a humanoid shape,but it really just looks like someone took small parts from a much bigger toy and slapped 'em together.

Even if it did look ok,what's the point? At this point there were already Transformers,GoBots,Convertors,and a hundred other brands where a car could turn into a robot-it sort of seems like a step back to make a robot you just fold up and place inside the cheapest,most generic-est Hot Wheels I have ever seen.

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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 9 February, 2010 - 22:09
Trying to mix it up

"Instead of the robot turning into a car, maybe the car turns into a robot!"

RobotBastard's picture
Posted by RobotBastard on 10 February, 2010 - 12:52