Welcome to Yotsuya's Reviews!
Hello! I am your humble host Yotsuya, also known (in that pesky offline world known as real life) as Matthew Atanian. Welcome to my website, Yotsuya's Reviews, where I shall share my Transformers collection with you mainly through reviews of some of the toys I own.
As a child of the 80's*, I of course owned Transformers toys (and watched the cartoon) back in the glory days of G1. But back then I actually made the foolish mistake of actually playing with my toys, and so any I owned then are long since gone... And then I grew up and put away childish things... And then I grew up some more, and realized, "Hey, you know, Transformers were fun. And darn it, if I still want to play with 'em, there's no good reason I can't!" This was about the time that the 2001 "Robots in Disguise" toy line was around in the U.S., and these spoke to me a bit and I picked up a few of them. Not long after that, the Alternators toy line also piqued my interest quite a bit, and I collected quite a few of those. But in 2006... That is where things really started!
For 2006 saw the arrival of the Classics toy line! These were the characters I remembered. Modernized a bit, to be sure, but awesome updates to the toys I recalled from my childhood. My collection took new focus, and today the majority of it is Classics or the toy lines (Universe 2.0, Generations) that succeeded it, which I refer to as being in the "Classics" style**.
And so that is where we stand today. I collect these toys, and as a way of sharing my collection with the world, I write reviews of them for you to (hopefully) enjoy!
* Technically, I was born in the late 70's. But the formative years of my youth would have been in the 80's.
** Most commonly this style is known as "CHUG," an acronym derived from Classics, Henkei (the Takara version of Classics), Universe 2.0, and Generations. But I have always disliked the "CHUG" moniker, finding it clunky sounding and inelegant. So I tend not to use it myself.
As a child of the 80's*, I of course owned Transformers toys (and watched the cartoon) back in the glory days of G1. But back then I actually made the foolish mistake of actually playing with my toys, and so any I owned then are long since gone... And then I grew up and put away childish things... And then I grew up some more, and realized, "Hey, you know, Transformers were fun. And darn it, if I still want to play with 'em, there's no good reason I can't!" This was about the time that the 2001 "Robots in Disguise" toy line was around in the U.S., and these spoke to me a bit and I picked up a few of them. Not long after that, the Alternators toy line also piqued my interest quite a bit, and I collected quite a few of those. But in 2006... That is where things really started!
For 2006 saw the arrival of the Classics toy line! These were the characters I remembered. Modernized a bit, to be sure, but awesome updates to the toys I recalled from my childhood. My collection took new focus, and today the majority of it is Classics or the toy lines (Universe 2.0, Generations) that succeeded it, which I refer to as being in the "Classics" style**.
And so that is where we stand today. I collect these toys, and as a way of sharing my collection with the world, I write reviews of them for you to (hopefully) enjoy!
* Technically, I was born in the late 70's. But the formative years of my youth would have been in the 80's.
** Most commonly this style is known as "CHUG," an acronym derived from Classics, Henkei (the Takara version of Classics), Universe 2.0, and Generations. But I have always disliked the "CHUG" moniker, finding it clunky sounding and inelegant. So I tend not to use it myself.
Rules of My Collection
My collection has some rules to it. And to spare any confusion as to what I collect, I shall share these rules with you now.
First, a brief description of what a "Transformers" toy can be, as there are a few things that could qualify.
The obvious thing a "Transformers" toy can be is an official Transformers product, as produced by Hasbro or, in Japan, Takara.
Beyond that, though, there has been an explosion of third-party products, which can take two forms. One is an accessory kit designed to modify an official Transformers toy. (For example, a new head or gun made to work on an official toy that might have not come with a satisfactory stock head or gun.) Or sometimes, third party company may produce full figures, either to fill gaps for collectors where official figures have not been made, or in direct competition with official figures.
Finally, there are bootleg products, which is where someone other then Hasbro or Takara takes an official figure and reproduces it. Sometimes, they may recolor, retool, or re-size their reproductions and sometimes they may just try to copy the original figure exactly.
For my Classics collection, my collection is mostly character based. While there is the occasional duplication of character, for the most part I want one figure of each character and then I look to get other characters.
Official figures of certain characters are usually the priority. Third party accessories are always welcome to them, of course, if the augmentation they bring is something I find essential to the character. (For example, Classics Voyager Optimus Prime was a good figure, but he sure seemed lacking without a trailer. Good thing a third party company made one for him!)
Third party figures are welcome in my collection for characters I want who have not had an official toy produced (or at least announced). However, if there is an official version, I feel that version should take priority. At the same time, however, if a third party version comes first, and I have already gotten it, I don't feel obligated to have to buy the official one if an official one comes later. (Not that I am forbidden from doing so if I think the official one does indeed look like it will be fun to have!)
As far as bootleg products... Bootlegs are bad, m'kay? And, while there may be a few hypocritical examples in my collection, for the most part I want nothing to do with them.
I used to buy every Transformers toy that came out that I thought looked cool. But as time went on and the collection grew, I discovered that some things were becoming a concern. Namely, space and money spent. Thus, my collection as it is displayed today (and as any purchasing going forward is limited to) has two focuses. One is the aformentioned "Classics" style collection. The other is Optimus Primes. And the Optimus Primes themselves have even been focused much more in recent years, as I used to collect ones from any Transformers continuity (except beast-based ones, with apologies to Beast Wars fans) but now mostly limit myself to ones based off of the G1 continuity. I do also own a few Masterpiece Transformers, and will likely pick up more of those in the future as well. But my Masterpiece collection is much less comprehensive and is likely to remain so.
And that, basically, is what I collect and what you will find being reviewed on this website.
First, a brief description of what a "Transformers" toy can be, as there are a few things that could qualify.
The obvious thing a "Transformers" toy can be is an official Transformers product, as produced by Hasbro or, in Japan, Takara.
Beyond that, though, there has been an explosion of third-party products, which can take two forms. One is an accessory kit designed to modify an official Transformers toy. (For example, a new head or gun made to work on an official toy that might have not come with a satisfactory stock head or gun.) Or sometimes, third party company may produce full figures, either to fill gaps for collectors where official figures have not been made, or in direct competition with official figures.
Finally, there are bootleg products, which is where someone other then Hasbro or Takara takes an official figure and reproduces it. Sometimes, they may recolor, retool, or re-size their reproductions and sometimes they may just try to copy the original figure exactly.
For my Classics collection, my collection is mostly character based. While there is the occasional duplication of character, for the most part I want one figure of each character and then I look to get other characters.
Official figures of certain characters are usually the priority. Third party accessories are always welcome to them, of course, if the augmentation they bring is something I find essential to the character. (For example, Classics Voyager Optimus Prime was a good figure, but he sure seemed lacking without a trailer. Good thing a third party company made one for him!)
Third party figures are welcome in my collection for characters I want who have not had an official toy produced (or at least announced). However, if there is an official version, I feel that version should take priority. At the same time, however, if a third party version comes first, and I have already gotten it, I don't feel obligated to have to buy the official one if an official one comes later. (Not that I am forbidden from doing so if I think the official one does indeed look like it will be fun to have!)
As far as bootleg products... Bootlegs are bad, m'kay? And, while there may be a few hypocritical examples in my collection, for the most part I want nothing to do with them.
I used to buy every Transformers toy that came out that I thought looked cool. But as time went on and the collection grew, I discovered that some things were becoming a concern. Namely, space and money spent. Thus, my collection as it is displayed today (and as any purchasing going forward is limited to) has two focuses. One is the aformentioned "Classics" style collection. The other is Optimus Primes. And the Optimus Primes themselves have even been focused much more in recent years, as I used to collect ones from any Transformers continuity (except beast-based ones, with apologies to Beast Wars fans) but now mostly limit myself to ones based off of the G1 continuity. I do also own a few Masterpiece Transformers, and will likely pick up more of those in the future as well. But my Masterpiece collection is much less comprehensive and is likely to remain so.
And that, basically, is what I collect and what you will find being reviewed on this website.
Sections of This Website
For ease of navigation, this website is broken up into multiple sections. Links to these sections can be found in the menu bar at the top of every page on this website, and they should be rather self explanatory. But just to make things extra clear, here is a brief description of what you can find in each section.
All Reviews. This page will contain a list of all reviews (or other related articles) on this website, broken down month by month, with the most recent month at the top of the page and the oldest month at the bottom of the page.
"Classics" Style Transformers. This page is the gateway to all of the reviews of Classics Transformers, Transformers from later "Classics" style toy lines, or third party figures that were designed to fit in with such a collection. This section of the website is further broken down into the following sub-sections: "G1" Pre-Movie Autobots and "G1" Pre-Movie Decepticons, toys based on characters appearing in the first two seasons of the G1 cartoon series; "G1" Post-Movie Autobots and "G1" Post-Movie Decepticons, toys based on characters first appearing in the 1986 film or the later seasons of the G1 cartoon series; and finally, Other "Classics" Style Transformers, toys based on characters of either faction not appearing in the G1 cartoon series.
Optimus Primes. I have a lot of Optimus Primes. Enough that they have their own section. (Some Optimus Prime toys may fit within other categories as well, in which case links to their reviews will be found in both of the appropriate sections.)
Other. This is anything that is not a "Classics" style toy or an Optimus Prime. This section is further broken up into two subsections, Masterpiece Transformers which is, well, Masterpiece Transformers and Other Transformers, which is the catch-all page for anything that doesn't fit into any other review category.
"Classics" Toy Catalogue. This is not a review section (although it will link to reviews where appropriate). Rather, it is a (sporadically updated) side project of this website which is an attempt to recreate, year by year, the original G1 toy catalog using modern "Classics" style toys. Where possible, this will involve using photos of toys I actually own, but in some cases I may resort to photos found elsewhere on the web.
Please Comment! Formerly on the page-top menu bar, this section of the website is where blog posts (which are also automatically sent to followers of my Twitter account) are made announcing when a new review is posted. These blog posts were formerly where one could leave comments on the reviews (and are still where to leave comments on older reviews), but recently a new commenting system has been implemented allowing visitors to leave comments directly on the page of the reviews themselves. With the change to the commenting system, the Please Comment! page was removed from the page-top menu bar to help keep the bar less cluttered.
All Reviews. This page will contain a list of all reviews (or other related articles) on this website, broken down month by month, with the most recent month at the top of the page and the oldest month at the bottom of the page.
"Classics" Style Transformers. This page is the gateway to all of the reviews of Classics Transformers, Transformers from later "Classics" style toy lines, or third party figures that were designed to fit in with such a collection. This section of the website is further broken down into the following sub-sections: "G1" Pre-Movie Autobots and "G1" Pre-Movie Decepticons, toys based on characters appearing in the first two seasons of the G1 cartoon series; "G1" Post-Movie Autobots and "G1" Post-Movie Decepticons, toys based on characters first appearing in the 1986 film or the later seasons of the G1 cartoon series; and finally, Other "Classics" Style Transformers, toys based on characters of either faction not appearing in the G1 cartoon series.
Optimus Primes. I have a lot of Optimus Primes. Enough that they have their own section. (Some Optimus Prime toys may fit within other categories as well, in which case links to their reviews will be found in both of the appropriate sections.)
Other. This is anything that is not a "Classics" style toy or an Optimus Prime. This section is further broken up into two subsections, Masterpiece Transformers which is, well, Masterpiece Transformers and Other Transformers, which is the catch-all page for anything that doesn't fit into any other review category.
"Classics" Toy Catalogue. This is not a review section (although it will link to reviews where appropriate). Rather, it is a (sporadically updated) side project of this website which is an attempt to recreate, year by year, the original G1 toy catalog using modern "Classics" style toys. Where possible, this will involve using photos of toys I actually own, but in some cases I may resort to photos found elsewhere on the web.
Please Comment! Formerly on the page-top menu bar, this section of the website is where blog posts (which are also automatically sent to followers of my Twitter account) are made announcing when a new review is posted. These blog posts were formerly where one could leave comments on the reviews (and are still where to leave comments on older reviews), but recently a new commenting system has been implemented allowing visitors to leave comments directly on the page of the reviews themselves. With the change to the commenting system, the Please Comment! page was removed from the page-top menu bar to help keep the bar less cluttered.
Other Websites of Interest
Well, that about wraps things up for my describing who I am and what you will find on this website. But I also have two other websites I'd love for you to visit and explore! Here are links to them: