I like to collect Transformers, Power Rangers/Super Sentai toys (Both the Rangers and the Zords), Thomas & Friends toy trains (mostly the Thomas Wooden Railway line but not Thomas Wood - Thomas Wood was awful), and some anime figures.
One of the prides of my collection is my Transformers Generations Selects Legacy Titan Class BlackZarak, not necessarily because the figure is rare or anything (it isn't) but more so because of how wild it is that they even released it.
To try and explain as simply as possible:
- Transformers toys are released in different size classes/price points and have been since the Beast Wars line began back in 1996
- One of these size classes is the Titan Class, which saw its first release in 2013
- Titan Class is the biggest and most expensive size class. They release
one Titan Class figure a year and the
smallest figures in the size class are 18 inches tall in robot mode.
- Back in 2020, the Titan Class figure for that year was Scorponok. An update of a character and toy originally released back in 1987, this new toy stood 21 inches tall in robot mode, could transform into a giant robotic scorpion (the largest beast mode of any Transformers toy) or a gigantic base mode, and, in keeping with the gimmick from his original toy and character, is a Headmaster. Which means the head of his robot mode (which is also the scorpion mode head) can detach and transform into a full poseable Deluxe Class figure of its own called Lord Zarak (for context, Deluxe Class are the most numerous size class and currently retail for about $22-24 US) but then
that figure's head itself can detach because it's also a Titan Master (Titan Masters were an updated version of the Headmaster gimmick from the 2016 Titans Return line, so this means this figure is compatible with figures from that line, and the post-Titans Return figures that reused the gimmick - you can swap the smaller heads around all day long)
Now I'm going to have to quickly explain Scorponok in the Japanese Transformers fiction:
- In the Japanese fiction, the character of Scorponok was instead known as MegaZarak and appeared in the anime Transformers: The Headmasters
- After The Headmasters, MegaZarak appeared again in the following series Transformers: Super-God Masterforce under the new name of BlackZarak. With the original Scorponok/MegaZarak toy getting redecoed in a black, red, and gold color scheme and with a new spear accessory and a new helmet/scorpion head piece. (Technically speaking the fact that BlackZarak was MegaZarak was never revealed in the show proper, but it very much
was him and was...not explained but literally just said matter-of-factly in a clip show that aired after the final episode in Japanese) (He is also reappeared in the Transformers Zone OVA but that's not really relevant here)
ANYWAYS back to what I was originally talking about:
- Another Transformers toyline is Generations Selects, which debuted in 2019.
- Generations Selects is a very collector-oriented line and is pretty much exclusive to online retailers. It basically serves as (yet another) was for Hasbro to release super-niche redecos/retools that in no way could be mass retail figures (seriously two of the figures in the Selects line are redecos of two previously released toys in color schemes from Diaclone, one of the two toylines that the majority of the original Transformers from 1984-1985 were imported from, and using the ID numbers of the Diakron releases of these toys [Diakron being a short-lived line from 1983 that was pretty much just Takara, who made Diaclone and would then reverse import Transformers, just straight releasing a few Diaclone toys in the US]. That is the level of 'super-niche' we're talking about here)
- In 2020, one of the Generations Selects toys released was Black Roritchi. Black Roritchi was a redeco/slight retool of the toy Fasttrack that had come out the same . Fasttrack was a figure that originally came with Scorponok in 1987 but now had his own separate new toy from Scorponok and Black Roritchi was the redeco of Fasttrack that originally came with BlackZarak in 1988.
- In March 2021, Hasbro made the announcement: Generations Selects BlackZarak. The first Titan Class figure in the Generations Selects line. Coming December 2021/January 2022 for $170.
I was super hyped for this because Super-God Masterforce is literally my favorite Transformers series and A NEW BLACKZARAK. The original figure from the 80s is incredibly rare and expensive both because he was a Japanese exclusive but also because he suffers heavily from Gold Plastic Syndrome (tl;dr problem that effected a lot of Transformers toys with gold/metallic plastic mostly from the late 80s late G1 line through Beast Wars where the gold/metallic plastic wasn't very good and would break super easily just through literal normal usage of like transforming the toy, using any gimmicks, etc. Literally been some examples of people buying never-opened vintage BlackZaraks and discovering broken pieces from their otherwise completely untouched toy. Yeah)
I didn't get mine until June for my birthday, but I got him for a great price. Hasbro Pulse was running a deal during the first week of June: 40% of
all eligible purchases of $75 or more. Hasbro Pulse had Black Zarak for $178.99. With the 40% discount + the cost of shipping and sales tax, I got him for only $130.95. ($107.40 before shipping and tax). Hell even accounting for the shipping and tax, I still saved roughly 40% of his normal cost (would've been over $200 had I paid full price for him).
OK that turned out be a lot longer than I was wanting it to be but here's a picture of BlackZarak in his robot mode in comparison to another Transformer (Super Ginrai, a character who's from the same series as BlackZarak):
Again, to reiterate, BlackZarak is
21 inches tall. (And because of his height, I mostly keep him in his box because I literally do not have the space to put him on display yet)
).
