G1 Kup 1986

Kup is a Autobot war veteran. I imagine he has been alive for quite a long time probably quite a few million years. He has fought in quite a few wars not just the War for Cybertron. He is probably physically one of the oldest Autobots in the fact that he hasn't really re formatted that many times because he is stubborn that way.
Be cause he has fought so many wars and campaigns he has pretty much seen it all. He always tells the other Autobots old war stories but this can get on the other Autobots nerves because every where they go and every thing they see it reminds Kup of somewhere he has been in one of the wars.
Which is epitomised quite nicely by Hotrod in the G1 movie where he says to Kup "Everywhere reminds you of some place else"
Not all the Autobots are tired of Kups war stories though because the Dinobots love them. They always want to hear them.

Kup first comes into the series in the G1 movie. Where him and a few other Autobots are setting up a road block on the road to lookout mountain just outside Autobot city. When the Decepticons attack its Kup who saves Hotrod and Daniel from being blasted by Blitzwing.
Kup disapproves of Hotrod as he is hotheaded with a fast and furious attitude.
After a bit of a fight on the mountain Hotrod and Kup decided they should go to Autobot city which was also under attack and needs help. They narrowly avoid being locked out of Autobot city which was at this point being trasformed into its defence mode.
They manage to get in through a door which the Insecticons ate their way through. Running over the Insecticons as they enter the city. They help in the defence of the city and fought in the battle that followed.
When Optimus Prime is mortally wounded fighting Megatron Kup is one of the Autobots who is with Optimus when he dies.
When Galvatron and his Minions arrive to kill Ultra Magnus Kup, Hotrod and the Dinobots share one half of the ship when they escape. When the ship separates to trick Galvatron into thinking he had destroyed the ship they crash on the planet Quintessa.
Kup and Hotrod fall out the ship before it crashes and land in the sea where Kup is attacked by this giant robot squid and gets his leg ripped off. He is saved by Hotrod.
After this Kup gains a mutual respect for Hotrod.After Hotrod repairs Kup they go off to find the Dinobots. but before they can they are found by a team of Sharkticons. At first Kup tries to befriend them with the universal greeting bar wheep grana wheep ninibarn. He also gives them pieces of Energon to eat but unfortunately he runs out and the Sharkticons attack them and take them to their masters the Quintissons to be put on trial.

Kup and Hotrod are inevitably found guilty and dumped in the Sharkticon pit where Kup and Hotrod get into a massive fight with the Sharkticons. Just as they are about to be overwhelmed the Dinobots and Wheelie arrive to rescue them. They steel a Quintisson ship and take it to the planet of Junk to meet the other Autobots. Don't ask me how they knew their fellow Autobots were on the planet of Junk!

When they arrive they help to make friends with the Junkions who are on the point of killing the Autobots and they leave the planet of Junk and head off to Cybertron which is at this point under attack from Unicron. Unicron is the only thing which Kup had never encountered before.
Kup and the others crashed the ship through one of Unicrons eyes and then fall out the ship where Kup and the others fight off Unicrons Antibody system. Right up until Hot rod now Rodimus Prime destroys Unicron from the inside with the matrix of Leadership. They all escape before Unicron blows up.

Throughout series three Kup was the head of security on Cybertron. In "Five faces of darkness" Kup along with Ultra Magnus and Spike are abducted by the Quintissons who take them back to Quintessa to be interrogated and put on trial. For a second time for Kup.
Kup has quite a prominent role in series three stories. Right up till the "Return of Optimus Prime" where Kup is badly damaged and deactivated while battling the hate plague infected Superion. but he is repaired and reactivated by a Quintisson to help Optimus Prime in finding the cure for the hate plague.
"In the rebith" Kup is one of the Autobots that crash on Nebulous Where he is captured by the Decepticons and is tortured by Scourge. Who wants to know the location of the plasma energy chamber key. Him and the others are recued by the other Autobots now in their Headmaster forms. Kup  later becomes one of the Autobot Targetmasters. His partner is Recoil.

Kup did get one spotlight episode "Choas" when the Decepticons get their hands on this experimental weapon that fires chaos crystals. The Decepticons  want to find more of these crystals as more ammo for the weapon.
The crystals come from a planet called Dread. which is a jungle planet inhabited by this monster called Chaos who looks kind of like Godzilla made from these chaos crystals. Chaos has imprisoned quite a few Cybertonions on the planet and Kup had met Chaos before but had managed to escape. It had always haunted Kup that he didn't free the others.
The Decepticons and Autobots went to dread and got into a pretty big battle there. Kup managed to overcome his fear and confront Chaos and free the prisoners.

 

Function, Warrior

Motto, " The past is the greatest teacher"

 

Bio, Kup is an old veteran warhorse with a thousand tall tails from his ten thousand adventures. he has a motto or word of advice for any situation and he's brave and loyal as they come. In robot mode he carries an old style musket laser that shoots short bursts of metal corrosive hydrochloric acid. Range 5 miles, Speed 100 mph. Kup sees himself as a seasoned campaigner with more knowledge and experience to share. Other Autobots aren't always receptive to his advice"

 

Stats, Strength 9, Intelligence 7, Speed 6, Endurance 9, Rank 8, Courage 9, Firepower 6, Skill 8

 

 

 

Vehicle mode front

 

 

Vehicle mode side

 

 

Robot mode

 

 His vehicle mode is pretty sleek. There is not a huge amount of detail but I think this helps with his futuristic astetic.

His front tyres are rubber and the front of the truck which will become his chest in robot mode is die cast.

There really isn't much kibble on him at all. He is pretty clean. The only bit is his arms which fold underneath the front of the truck.

The only real problem with this mode is that the truck bed does not peg into anything.

As a truck bed it is pretty small and I don't think you would be able to get much of a load on there.

 

His transformation is quite simple but its really quite satisfying in some ways.

His robot mode is pretty solid.

Once again the truck bed does not peg into anything and hangs off his back.

His arms are too low down and pretty scrawny due to the way he transforms.

Other than that he does look quite good.

The die cast on his chest does give him a nice weight.

He has a very nice head sculpt and looks like the Kup from the cartoon

If you turn him sideways you will notice that his head just stopped like he got guillotined or something.

Having a round head would not interfere with his transformation at all so it just looks weird.

 

Articulation wise. His arms ratchet up and down and move in and out at the shoulder. Also move in and out at the elbow. He even has a wrist swivel

His head nods up and down

There is no articulation in his legs apart from his feet which pivot a bit due to his transformation. But make sure his feet don't pivot too far forward or he has a habit of falling over.

 

The colour scheme is pretty vibrant with the teal and darker teal and grey. This is combined with yellow sticker details. It really does pop on the figure.

 

Overall Kup is a pretty decent figure and worth getting if you can.

 

 



 

G1 PUNCH/ COUNTERPUNCH 1987

Punch /CounterPunch was one of the more unique toys from G1. He was one of if not the first faction swapping transformer. But a bit more ambitious in the fact that he had two separate robot modes. One Autobot ( Punch) and One Decepticon ( Counterpunch) Punch is quite an interesting character in the fact that he is a spy for the Autobots. He can completely change his robot mode colour scheme and even his personality to some extent. For the ultimate disguise.For all intense and purposes he becomes a Decepticon giving him the altimate disguise. It does have its flaws though as he sometimes has trouble controlling his Decepticon aspect Counterpunch. Everytime he transforms into his disguise mode the stronger and more dominant Counterpunch becomes to the point that even when in Autobot mode he has to fight the urge to be a Decepticon. He has a Cybertronian  personality disorder. So eventually it may become the case that Counterpunch will dominant and Punch will be his disguise. This does frighten Punch because it  is a constant internal battle like Ying and Yang.

However, you don't really see any of this in the cartoon. He appeared in "The Rebirth part one" where he was trying to stop Pounce and Wingspan from steeling the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber. He failed when he got pounced upon by Pounce. Later on you saw him on Cybertron just helping Fastlane and Cloudraker to search the planet for the Matrix of Leadership on Optimus Primes orders. That is all he does really in the Sunbro cartoon
He does a little bit more in Takara headmasters cartoon. He is more in it in the end where he is the Autobots spy in the Decepticon ranks.

 

FUNCTION, Double Agent

 

MOTTO, " In my business, there are no friends,only suspects"

 

BIO, Punch the Autobot transforms into Counterpunch the Decepticon to infiltrate enemy installations. Cool headed, a robot of few words reveals little of his true self to either side. Maximum car mode speed 160mph. Uses twin mortar launcher in Autobot mode, Photon Cannon in Decepticon mode

 

STATS, Strength 6, Intelligence 9, Speed 4, Endurance 6, Rank 7, Courage 10, Firepower 6, Skill 9

 

 

 

Car mode front

 

 

 

 

                                                        Punch Robot mode

                                               Counterpunch Robot Mode




His car mode is great. Super clean apart from the hinges just behind the front wheels. Other than that on first glance it would be hard to tell he was a Transformer unless you knew what you were looking for. There is actually some very nice detailing on this car mode. Shame there is not a enough paint apps to bring those details out. In fact the only paint app on this car mode are the grey on the windscreen and windows. But the paint does not continue to where the window goes past the door.
The fact the  blue on the rear of the car is  a completely different blue to the rest of the vehicle which is a little distracting.
Apart from these minor problems its still a nice car mode and would look good in a display.

His transformation is quite simple. The hardest part is folding out his arms which are extremely tight at least they areon my figure.
Punch's robot mode is pretty solid. I don't really care for the big chunks of car hanging off the sides of his body and it makes his arms look a little scrawny. The fact that he has no pelvis or feet what so ever. His legs are also pretty hollow. Ignoring those flaws he is a good looking robot mode. I especially like the head sculpt which I think looks a bit like Optimus Prime.
There is some decent detailing on his chest as well as his Autobot rub sign.
His only articulation is he can move his arms up and down and his hands from side to side. 

His Counterpunch robot mode I think has a nicer aesthetic. He still has no pelvis but his legs are no longer hollow and he has feet. I like his weapon better as well. The long black Photon Cannon looks better than the yellow twin Mortar launcher that Punch has.
I also think I like the colour scheme better on Counterpunch. The dark blue makes him look more evil and Decepiconish rather than bright yellow which works for an Autobot
His head sculpt is still nice and has a rather Voldermort/Quirrel thing going on with a face on either side of his head. His face is not quite as detailed as Punches and his visor is wide. His mouth is moulded on a open position kind of like he is screaming in horror at something.
It is not all good though his arms are even scrawy than Punches and his shoulders are too far back. But I can forgive these flaws as he is such a great looking figure.

Punch/ Counterpunch is a pretty rare figure to find and I got lucky with mine. We paid about £40 on Ebay. If someone is aware of its rarity then alot more can be paid.
I definitely think it is a good figure and worth getting. Yes, It does have its flaws in both robot modes but needs them to function.

Get it if you can


 

TFC TOYS STRUCTOR AKA SCRAPPER 2011

Scrapper is the leader of the Constructicons. He is kind of an unofficial leader seems as he was never actually confirmed as the leader. We only presume he is the leader of the Constructicons as he is the one who organises things and orders them around. Scrapper was not originally going to be called Scrapper but Gravedigger but they decided against this. Gravedigger became the name of one of the two lost Constructicons, the other one being Hauler
It is mostly Scrapper who decides when they combine into Devastator.
Scrapper, character wise is a genius. He is very good at what he does. He is a Construction Engineer and an Architect. He is very modest about being a genius and not conceited unlike Hook.
Just because he is modest does not mean he is a nice guy though. He is pretty evil in his methods of torture and executions. As it says in his Bio, Scrapper has been said to take dead or dying Autobots and use them as building material. 
They did depict this in the cartoon a  bit such as in the episode "Triple takeover" when Scrapper and the other constructocons are convinced by Blitzwing to work for him. With the promise that they would get equal leadership of the Decepticons. They built a highway maze as a defence for Blitzwings base aka the football stadium.
You can't help noticing a little bit of a mistake here in that they built the highway maze which is a massive structure in a pretty short amount of time. They are good but not that good but it is a children's cartoon so just go with it.
The Autobots including Prowl and Skids and a few others as well got run over and crushed by Blitzwing and then the Constructocons gathered up their wreckage and had it built into a throne for Blitzwing but because he did not deliver on his side of the bargain the Constructicons where prepared to hunt down and kill Blitzwing and just take the leadership for themselves. Scrapper sat on the throne himself.
Scrapper does have a very torturous streak and you don't want to be captured by the Constructocons. they are going to do something pretty unpleasant to you.
In another episode "The Master builder" The Constructocons offer to help Grapple and Hoist with the construction of a solar needle. Convincing them that they were totally outside Megatrons orders and that Scrapper had always admired Grapples architecture. Scrapper came up with the idea that they would earn Grapple and Hoists trust by helping them build this solar needle but then they would use it to create a massive amount of Energon cubes for the Decepticons use.
Megatron knew nothing of this at first but after he confronted them about it. Scrapper explained that  cooperating  with the Autobots was all part of his plan  to seize control of the solar needle.
as soon as the solar needle was complete the Constructocons turned on Grapple and Hoist and Scrapper had them built into the foundations. They were still alive and rescued later by the Autobots.
There was a massive battle over the solar needle between the Autobots and the Decepticons but eventually the solar needle was destroyed and the Decepticons retreated because there was nothing left to fight for. The Autobots searched though the rubble and found Grapple and Hoist. This was all outside of Optimus Primes orders because Grapple had gone to him for permission to build the solar needle but Optimus would not give it as there was no way to defend it against the Decepticons. But of course Grapple did not listen. They were not punished but Optimus made them clean up all the rubble from the tower
Scrapper did get a bit more screen time than the other constructicons because he is the leader but of course just like all the other combiner teams it is difficult to talk about just one of the characters without talking about them all.
The Constructicons appeared in many different episodes in fact their first appearance was in " Heavy metal war" where Scrapper  designed and built a machine which would transfer all of the Decepticons powers into Megatron for his one on one duel with Optimus Prime. While Megatron was fighting Optimus the Constructicons on Megatrons orders were burrowing beneath the Arc to break into the base and destroy Teletran 1. They were foiled by the Dinobots who were activated by Teletran 1 in order to defend itself. There was a truly awesome battle between Devastator and the Dinobots.
There where some episodes which were mostly the Constructicons building stuff like in the "Autobots run" the Constructicons built a transformation jammer which would trap the Autobots in their vehicle mode. They also built a giant car crusher to crush the Autobots
In " City of Steel" the Constructicons designed and built Megatrons fortress for the Decepticons conquest of New York city. As well as building a giant fortress they also converted a bunch of taxi cabs into drones. When Optimus prime was captured in this episode and was completely butchered by the Constructicons Scavenger, Scrapper had some of Optimus's parts built into a robot Alligator which he sent to attack the Autobots
In the G1 movie the Constructicons were among the Decepticons that attacked the Autobot shuttle which was on a supply run to Autobot city on Earth. Scrapper did not do an awful lot in this scene but shot at things  unlike Scavenger who killed an Autobot.
The Constructocons  fought in the battle of Autobot city. Mainly as Devastator. After the battle they are on Astrotrain on the was back to Cybertron. This is after they have thrown out megatron and the other wounded Decepticons. They all argue about who is going to be the next leader. It does seem that the Constructicons do desire being the next leader of the Deceptiocns obviously you see this in Triple Takeover" and again in the G1 Movie. Scrapper would be the supreme leader.
They get into one big punch up aboard Astrotrain but it does seem that Starscream manages to restore order and manages to get them to pick him as new leader.
On Cybertron in Starscreams coronation Scrapper and the other constructicons are for some odd reason blowing trumpets until Starscream blasts all the trumpets to bits with his null ray. Scrapper does look on as Galvatron  incinerates Starsream and then becomes leader.
You do not really see Scrapper and the other Constructicons in series three. You see them  "In five faces of darkness" on Char all beaten up and starved of Energon and apart from that they have little bit parts and become background characters.
"Carnage in C minor" which is pretty much the last hora for the Constructicons and Devastator as you don't really see them much after that.
Now I have got to touch on the one confusion with the constructicons on where they actually came from. because in "Heavy metal war" megatron says they built the Constructicons in their temporary base in some caves but then in " The secret of Omega Supreme" they completely discount that and say that the Constructicons existed on Cybertron where they were actually good not bad. megatron captured them and reprogrammed them using the Robo Smasher and also gave them the ability to combine into Devastator. The conversion is permanent and they are now evil.
In both situations Megatron creates the Constructicons but in  "Five faces of darkness" you see the flashback to the early days of the war for Cybertron in the Matrix and Megatron appears to have been created by the Constructicons. If you count the number of Constructicons in that scene they are actually eight of them not six. This is where the whole idea of there being two lost Constructicons  one being Hauler the other being Gravedigger comes from.
The one theory I have on how the Constructicons could create megatron and how then megatron could create the Constructicons. For a start completely discount them building them in the caves and pretend that never happened.
My guess is the Constructicons were never Autobots. They were a neutral team of robots who where a construction team for hire and even though they were neutral they were still so so on whose side they were on. They did create Megatron the most evil Decepticon of all. This was obviously a couple of million years down the line Megatron and then captures the Constructicons his own creators and reprogrammes them. his purpose in this was to stop the Constructicons from doing any more work for the Autobots because at the time they had been hired by the Autobots to perform maintenance on Cystal city which they had built. The were also friends with Omega Supreme.
Megatron wanted to stop any more repair work and also test the new combiner technology so they were perfect . he tested this by getting the Constucticons to destroy Cystal city.

 

Bio A wizard at designing fortresses and energy plants, but modest. shows his true malevolent genius by incorporating defeated Autobots into his buildings structures. shovel can slice through12 inch  thick carbon steel, lift 30 tones . As right leg and part of torso, combines with fellow constructicons to form giant robot Devastator

 

Motto- "My work is a monument to- and of-my enemies"

 

Function- Construction Engineer and Constructicon leader

 

Stats Strength 8, Intelligence 8, Speed 4, Endurance 7, Rank 5, Courage 5, Firepower 3, Skill 9

 

Vehicle mode front

 

 

Vehicle mode side

 

 

Flight mode

 

 

Limb mode

 

 

Robot mode

 

 

Showing light piping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In vehicle mode Structor or scrapper what ever you want to call the toy is just a big green brick of a Payloader also known as a front end loader or digger etc. He is pretty solid and it would be pretty hard to tell that this was a transformer if it wasn't for the pretty obvious robot arms visible on the sides. He has some pretty nice detailing and paint apps. Even though the grill deco on the rear is interrupted with the combiner port. There is quite a few ways you can customise the look of the vehicle. You can attach his cannons to various ports or some wings to make a flight mode. 

Like all other Hercules figures he comes with one purple weapon and one translucent red duplicate.

Scrappers weapons are some little round pistols which could do with being a bit more dynamic as their design is quite simplistic but they get the job done.

Even the cab is removable and there are other places you can peg it in. But I am not sure why you would want to peg it on the side but it is good to have options.

Overall a good solid vehicle mode. Rolls really well and the one feature he does have in this mode is the front scoop lifts up and down and has a hydraulic piston gimmick even though when lifted up it does reveal his robot head on the front.

His transformation is not too hard. in fact the hardest part is getting his right heel spur out.

His robot mode is very solid and is very nice. I love his aestetic. It is obviously blocky like G1 but it is  updated with a modern look

His head sculpt is really nicely moulded and does say Scrapper to me but I kind of wish he has a visor rather than eyes as he had a visor in the cartoon. He  has superb light piping.

He has good articulation and you can get plenty of action poses out of him.

His back pack does make him a little back heavy but you can adjust his heel spurs to help with this.

The fact that he has his scoop hanging off his back has always seemed a little awkward to me on Scrappers design but at least it does not stick out as much as it did on the G1 figure. I wish it locked in place as it has a habit of flipping round and knocking his robot head back into his torso. that and the lower kibble on his back pack does look a bit a bit distracting

Weapons, well there are various places you can put them. He can have duel wielding pistols. You can arm mount them and combine them into one double barrelled gun or you can even mount them on his hips if you want to. My favourite way to display him is mount them on his shoulders as shoulder cannons which also stops the scoop from knocking his head down.If you don't want them positioned in any kind of shooting position you can mount them on his lower legs to store them. A little low for a holster effect but they do work as jet thrusters which is when the wings come back into it.

You can attach the wings to his arms in various ways to maybe give him a flying robot mode to give his robot mode a more dynamic look. You can even combine the wings with his guns. The wings look like they can be guns of some kind as well.

A couple of minor annoyances I have with this figure is his head does not lock in place as it has a habit of slipping back into his torso if I nudge it. That and I feel that his head is a tiny bit sunken anyway. That and the torso pivot that he has. I don't think is meant to be articulation in his robot mode. I think it is just a ankle tilt for his limb mode. In his robot mode it makes him look lop sided and has been in  some kind of horrible accident.

Overall is a very nice figure . Well worth getting if you are a Constructicon fan. He does have a couple of minor problems but they are more like minor nit picks. Great figure and I definitely think you should get him if you get the chance and can afford him.