ActionMasters photos on Flickr

Actionmaster BB WIP 4 by Michael Accardi

Action Masters: Reborn! by Daniel Douglas

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Once Action Masters - Cybertronians who lost their ability to transform - these Decepticons have been rebuilt in fully functioning bodies.

Back Row:

Transformers HFTD Axor (Axer), BotCon 2010 Double Punch, and BotCon 2009 Banzai-tron

Front Row:

BotCon 2010 Slice (Slicer) and Target Exclusive Sparkcrusher (Gutcruncher).

DSC_9374 by Quantum Stalker

If the 1960's was the era made most defined by choices made under the influence of mind altering substances, then the 1980's would be the equivalent time period for toys.

This is Sky Lynx, one of the multitude of G1 toys reissued under the Encore label from Takara, the Japanese half of the Transformers partnership. In case your memory is hazy, fellow 80's child, Sky Lynx is the one with the pretentious sounding English accent on the show, and is kind of a dick.

If I remember my history right, during the mid 80's, the popularity of Transformers exploded, which left Hasbro/Takara scrambling to find new product in order to sell.

As a result, there was an external search to bring third party toys under the Transformers label. This in itself was not unique, as Transformers started off under the Diaclone line, with some Microman and others thrown into the mix. Omega Supreme. Shockwave, Predaking, and Reflector, I believe, were all not developed in-house.

Having said all that, the 80's were a strange and wonderful time for toys. All sorts of weird stuff was being developed and sold - certainly, while the toys were of a simpler design, when you went to a toy store there was probably a better chance of you being surprised by something on the shelf. By comparison, toys these days are pretty tame, with the only exotic things being Barbie's latest fashion accessory, or some of the more questionable WWE figure designs.

So.. Sky Lynx. Created by Tomy (back when Takara and Tomy were not one as it is these days).. I honestly have no idea what they were thinking.

The set comes in two parts - a space shuttle that transforms into a bird with a long tail and skinny chicken feet, and a blue.. thing that transforms into a Lynx, I guess, but really it's a vague cat creature of sorts. I don't have a memory of the parts ever separating on the show, but that could just be me. The blue part is where the characters boarded Sky Lynx for transportation.

Transformation is pretty straight forward, with the more delicate of the two being the Shuttle as it has various panels and uses an archaic sliding system for its tail and neck. This is probably the first Encore release I ever handled that I felt had flimsier plastic.

The two parts "combine" for lack of better terms (held together by three pegs) and would either walk or roll depending on what setting you had it on

Sky Lynx was one of the bigger Transformers toys. I know it can be hard to tell from the photos, but even without extending the tail the shuttle has to be close to a foot long, and for sure with it extended it exceeds 12 inches in length.

Colour scheme is pretty attractive, consisting primarily of the Ultra Magnus palette of white & blue with some red thrown in for good measure. There are,also gold chrome stickers and plastics that pop quite nicely. Detailing on the various parts was well done, even by modern standards.

Of course, as a toy goes, it's kind of boring even by 80's standards. The fun part was the shuttle, as it could actually transform into something, albeit a bird thing with generally limited articulation (which wasn't really a thing back in the day). The blue thing, well, really just became a set of legs for the upper half, and I remember being disappointed as a kid that other than walking, Sky Lynx didn't do much. He didn't come with any weapons or any other accessories, and the only offence he had was the laser embedded in his mouth.

It also didn't help that he was the anal retentive one on the show.

Another problem with the toy was that Sky Lynx also fell apart.. alot.. especially when you were flying around with him in combined mode.

Or maybe I had man hands as a child.

So, there you have it - an interesting relic of the past. But I suppose it could be worse. At least Sky Lynx had some sort of transformation.

He could have been a Pretender.. or worse - an Actionmaster.

Action Master Shockwave by Dan Hancock

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I may just have to start a Shockwave collection, if I can ever find the original toy for a decent price.

Star Wars - Action Masters - 6 Pack (back side) - Die Cast Metal by Antonio Atalaya

Axer and Off-Road-Cycle Transformers Generation 1 Decepticon Action-Master 001 by Rodimuspower

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