TFARCHIVE FORUMS

I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who spend hours and hours staring at the little catalogues that came with Transformers back in the 80s. The only that I remember looking at the most (mainly because it's the one I got the most copies of and thus usually had a non-destroyed version on hand) was the 1986 catalogue, and the picture that I stared at the most was Metroplex, in his city mode, covered in Minibots. The five year old me wanted a Metroplex of his own based purely on the coolness of that image, but of course that never happened.

Fast-foward a couple decades and I'm not really that impressed by the guy. His robot mode looks like a pile of white boxes and his vehicle/battle mode rivals Trypticon's in the abstract nonsense category. But damned if that city mode doesn't still look good.

The recent Takara reissues are still available online for around $120 in a few places, and I've seen complete/near complete vintage models going for about the same price. For something that size that I really liked I'd be willing to spend that much, but for something that's going to sit in city mode and be a glorified backdrop that's a bit steep. I also considered the Metrotitan bootleg that's been making the rounds lately, but not even my RPG-driven love of the guy is enough to get me to look past how phenomenally ugly he is.

So what I'm hoping to do is find a Metroplex on the secondary market that'll do the trick as a city but that'll come cheap because it doesn't have all of his accessories. When I got my Trypticon a few years back it was with the understanding that he would essentially never leave dino mode. I eventually found one that was in beautiful shape and that still walked, with no accessories bar Full-Tilt, for under $40. (Maybe $30 even? It was a long time ago, but I remember being surprised at how cheap he was and figuring it was down to the seller being in Quebec -- IIRC there were some language issues?). That worked out perfectly, since he displays great in the only mode I care about and I don't have an assortment of ramps and radars and stuff taking up space in a parts box.

Am I going to be able to do that with Metroplex? I'm hopeful, because looking at pictures of him it seems like most of his accessories only come into play in his robot and battle modes. Which accessories will I need to put together his complete city mode? I can see that his kneecaps become part of the Minibot bay assemblies, and Sixgun's chest and back become a tower. Are there any other pieces I'd need to worry about tracking down if I went this route?

I guess my other question is, how does Metroplex look in city mode without any accessories? 'Naked' Metroplexes seem to be fairly cheap but is it even worth buying one for what I have in mind?

Warcry wrote: Are there any other pieces I'd need to worry about tracking down if I went this route?

There's a rear-building piece that connects to Metroplex's back, and his white tank drone forms into another tower that fits into a socket on either his left shoulder or wrist. I don't remember which.

Not crucial, but it does add to the overall look. You'll need quite a few of the pieces for the battle station mode, however.

Metroplex tends to go cheap if you're patient. Mine was $35, and all it was missing was Six-Gun's red torso, which I picked up some months later. Unlike Trypticon and Scorponok, he doesn't have a million silly radar/scanner parts that serve no other purpose. You don't need the white antennas, the black guns or the red rifles (and their missiles) to do his city mode. Battle station mode uses all of those, though.

I'll have to keep my eyes open then. I certainly wouldn't mind having a complete or near-complete Metroplex if I can score one for around what you paid for it.

zigzagger wrote:There's a rear-building piece that connects to Metroplex's back, and his white tank drone forms into another tower that fits into a socket on either his left shoulder or wrist. I don't remember which.

Thanks. Now that you've mentioned them I can tell which parts you're talking about. They add a lot of depth to the city mode and he'd look a bit bare without them.

zigzagger wrote:Not crucial, but it does add to the overall look. You'll need quite a few of the pieces for the battle station mode, however.

That's true. I don't think I'd be very tempted to put him in battlestation mode even if I had a compete Metroplex, though, other than maybe out of morbid curiosity. So that's not something I'll worry too much about.

Thanks for the help, guys.

On a tangent...did he ever even use his battlestation mode in the cartoon? All I remember is him sitting in city mode, and occasionally turning into a robot to fight Trypticon.

Warcry wrote:On a tangent...did he ever even use his battlestation mode in the cartoon? All I remember is him sitting in city mode, and occasionally turning into a robot to fight Trypticon.

Does Scramble City count? Because I think he used it in that.

IIRC he used it in Headmasters too, but yeh, I can't think of any Western appearances.

I think even the most rubbish and tatty Metroplex you get offered is well worth the price.

I have no bias in this discussion.

Yeah, no battle station mode in G1 animation, unless you count the transform sequence in the film. Just Scramble City, where he got to run over some trees.

He's easily the cheapest citybot I ever obtained. Seems to me I bought him on an Ebay auction over a holiday weekend, when less people were bidding. The only upside I can think of to the Encore version (aside from being minty fresh and all that) is that they did find a use for Slammer's turret in city mode, which the original did not have.

oh, and if you like the city mode, Reprolabels still has the upgrade sticker set to make him somewhat better detailed. I haven't used this particular set but I do like the look of it - http://reprolabels.com/Upgrades/upgradex11.php#
They also have some nice ones for Slammer/Scamper - reason I mention those is that the "window" stickers for Slammer's tower mode go nicely with the main set.

Hmmm...now that I think about it some more, doesn't he quickly transform out of battlestation mode in the season 3 title sequence? I remember seeing it animated somewhere, but I've never seen Scramble City or Headmasters.

Or maybe I'm thinking about a toy commercial or something? I dunno. Maybe my memory is just playing tricks on me.

The Reverend wrote:He's easily the cheapest citybot I ever obtained.

I've seen lots of people say that, but I don't understand why he's so cheap. Isn't Metroplex the most breakable of the five Hasbro Citybots? A lot of unwary children snapped their Metroplexes in half at the waist, so I'm surprised serviceable Metroplexes are as plentiful as they are. Trypticon and Omega have electronics, and they along with Scorponok have lots of small, easy-to-lose parts, sure. But even for beat-up Trypticons and Scorponoks that get sold with no accessories, it's pretty rare that the things are genuinely broken (I never really looked for Omega so I don't know what the market for him is like). Or at least that was my experience when I was shopping for them years ago.

inflatable dalek wrote:I have no bias in this discussion.

Riiiiiight.

Warcry wrote:Hmmm...now that I think about it some more, doesn't he quickly transform out of battlestation mode in the season 3 title sequence? I remember seeing it animated somewhere, but I've never seen Scramble City or Headmasters.

"US" Animation Metroplex battle-mode appearances:
* Intro to Season Three (Shooting trypticon)
* Five Faces of Darkness, Part Four (briefly, made a big deal but nothing really happens.)
* Carnage in C Minor (Oddly, the best sequence in the show, near the end.)
* Kinda-Sorta in Ultimate Weapon (randomly transforms between all modes, and partially between all modes)

Warcry wrote:I've seen lots of people say that, but I don't understand why he's so cheap. Isn't Metroplex the most breakable of the five Hasbro Citybots? A lot of unwary children snapped their Metroplexes in half at the waist, so I'm surprised serviceable Metroplexes are as plentiful as they are. Trypticon and Omega have electronics, and they along with Scorponok have lots of small, easy-to-lose parts, sure. But even for beat-up Trypticons and Scorponoks that get sold with no accessories, it's pretty rare that the things are genuinely broken (I never really looked for Omega so I don't know what the market for him is like). Or at least that was my experience when I was shopping for them years ago.

I can't say he's the most breakable. I have heard about the waist issue too, but I've never actually seen one broken in that manner. Trypticon's hinges and Fort Max's rather thinner, cheaper plastic seem much more prone to damage to me than Metroplex's compact, bulky self. Maybe he was just a popular item at the time (admittedly, as a kid, I thought Trypticon's dino mode was awesome, but I was a little nonplussed at the look of the city mode), so there's just more Metros on the market than the others?

I think Metroplex was the most widely available of the city robots here in the UK. I remember it took some to find Scorponok back in '88. Fortress Maximus might not have been available here, and Trypticon I never saw, and just assumed he was only available in the US, like Swoop and Gnaw.

Someone's going to say there were a million Gnaw's in Woolies now...

I did see a Metroplex broken in half at the waist once. It was a real shame. I have a Metroplex and still most of his original box (I cut out the tech spec). I remember his waist was rather tight, and sometimes it gave the impression he might snap if you were too rough.

Cool transformer though. And you can attach all the Scramble city combiners limbs to him for... no reason at all! I dunno, it might look cool if you attach the Aerialbots to him... he might look like he's trying to get into a Top Gun convention.

Auntie Slag wrote:Cool transformer though. And you can attach all the Scramble city combiners limbs to him for... no reason at all! I dunno, it might look cool if you attach the Aerialbots to him... he might look like he's trying to get into a Top Gun convention.

And you can attach Silverbolt and Hot Spot's base modes to him.
Ditto for Trypticon and the Decept SC leaders. This is why I have two Onslaughts... now Trypticon has a matched set of cannons

Really? What/how did the Scramble City Autobot leaders attach to Metroplex?

I remember Hotspot has some sort of mini-Metroplex transformation to him (possibly similar to Onslaught), although I can't remember if it was something that was mentioned in his instruction booklet, or whether I saw it on-line as a reference to their toy design prior to them joining the Transformers toyline (or whether the third transformation was only something made explicit in the East).

The base modes for the leaders were in their instructions. Mets and Trypt were originally part of SC... trypticon comes with attachable clips to connect the parts, while metroplexs are built in. Seems to me its in trypts manual but not metroplexs. Google "metroplex silverbolt hot spot" and youll see it. (Sorry, on phone typing this.)

Technically its possible to connect all four SC leaders (Silverbolt, Hot Spot, Onslaught and Motormaster) to Metroplex, and I saw photos on the web earlier today demonstrating it. I don't know that this was the *intention* of the designers, and I'm pretty sure you can't do that with Trypticon. Hun-Grrr, despite being the leader of a Scramble-City style of team, doesn't seem to have a real base mode and I doubt he can be connected the same way. (Snaptrap clearly doesn't have a base mode either)

Metroplex was produced heavily for the 1985 - early 1987 period, basically from the moment the movie run-up began until Headmasters took over all the shelves. There's really just a shit-load of him out there, so it's not too suprising to see how cheap he is. (Trypticon, for contrast, didn't come out until season 3 of the cartoon really started, wasn't pushed for the movie, and seemed to go away the moment Scorponok was in stores.)

Auntie Slag wrote:I think Metroplex was the most widely available of the city robots here in the UK. I remember it took some to find Scorponok back in '88. Fortress Maximus might not have been available here, and Trypticon I never saw, and just assumed he was only available in the US, like Swoop and Gnaw.

Trypticon was non-UK, though Marvel UK did round up a handful and use them as a competition prize.

TFVanguard wrote:"US" Animation Metroplex battle-mode appearances:

You seriously remember all of those off-hand? Wow.

Aside from the handful of actually good episodes, the cartoon all sort of blurs together for me.

The Reverend wrote:I can't say he's the most breakable. I have heard about the waist issue too, but I've never actually seen one broken in that manner.

I've seen one or two Metroplexes broken like that in my day, but I'd imagine that most of the ones that broke that way did so in the 80s and are long-since thrown out.

After doing a bit more research, apparently they made a modification to the waist joint at the same time as they switched to plastic tires and bare plastic legs. I'd guess it's usually the rubber tire/chromed legs variant that breaks.

The Reverend wrote:Trypticon's hinges

Really? I mean, I've obviously never tried to break mine but it looks like you'd need to hit him with a hammer to do it.

The Reverend wrote:Hun-Grrr, despite being the leader of a Scramble-City style of team, doesn't seem to have a real base mode and I doubt he can be connected the same way. (Snaptrap clearly doesn't have a base mode either)

Hun-grrr was designed with a base mode but it was so horrible they didn't include it in his instructions. Basically it's his beast mode standing on it's heads. They've got a pic of it on the wiki I think.

TFVanguard wrote:Metroplex was produced heavily for the 1985 - early 1987 period, basically from the moment the movie run-up began until Headmasters took over all the shelves. There's really just a shit-load of him out there, so it's not too suprising to see how cheap he is. (Trypticon, for contrast, didn't come out until season 3 of the cartoon really started, wasn't pushed for the movie, and seemed to go away the moment Scorponok was in stores.)

That does make sense. Metroplex being the "good guy" and all, producing him in greater numbers than his 'Con counterpart is a very Hasbro thing to do. And since Scorponok is more or less the same size as Trypticon they wouldn't have wanted the two 'Cons on the shelves at the same time, but Fort Max is so much bigger than Metroplex that it probably wasn't as much of a concern for them.

Warcry wrote: Hun-grrr was designed with a base mode but it was so horrible they didn't include it in his instructions. Basically it's his beast mode standing on it's heads. They've got a pic of it on the wiki I think.

I've seen the "unofficial" base mode on tfu.info, but nothing in either the Western or Japanese instructions. I don't think there's any connecter on Hun-Grr you can use to hook him to the cities like the others. Scattershot has the intermediate cannon mode, but I'm pretty sure there isn't a connection spot on him either.

Warcry wrote:You seriously remember all of those off-hand? Wow.

Aside from the handful of actually good episodes, the cartoon all sort of blurs together for me.

Well, the title sequence was an obvious one to remember. Five Faces of Darkness ("Cogless or not, we're going to fight!") made it a plot point and then promptly forgot about it, so it sticks out accordingly. Carnage in C Minor gets special mention in that it's also the only time we see Scamper's robot mode. And Ultimate Weapon is just kinda obvious.

It helps that my memory is extremely visual. It's one of the few benefits of Aspbergers...

That does make sense. Metroplex being the "good guy" and all, producing him in greater numbers than his 'Con counterpart is a very Hasbro thing to do. And since Scorponok is more or less the same size as Trypticon they wouldn't have wanted the two 'Cons on the shelves at the same time, but Fort Max is so much bigger than Metroplex that it probably wasn't as much of a concern for them.

Fort Max was a single-year Christmas run as well, so he became a US-release Holy Grail due to its size, cost, and relatively limited run. Scorponok was oddly out for a little longer than that, so it wasn't too hard to find him in comparison.