Yellow Sideswipe Part 2

YELLOW SIDESWIPE PART 2 - FIGURE KING EXCLUSIVE 90 "TIGERTRACK"

Having already reissued the regular Transformers Sideswipe a number of times, as well as reissues of Red Alert, reissues of the black and police Diaclone Sideswipe (Deepcover and Clampdown respectively), in mid-to-late 2003 Takara announced and released the reissue of the Diaclone yellow Sideswipe named “Tigertrack”. For many it would be the only chance of owning a yellow version of the Sideswipe mould seeing as how rare the Diaclone versions are.

The reissue was only available through a mail-away promotion through Japan’s Figure King magazine making it a little harder to lay a hand on than the regular book-style reissues and even the E-Hobby exclusives. I made absolutely sure I got in there early and secured one as there was no guarantee about the production numbers.

The packaging for Tigertrack was a real treat and something of a surprise, making strong references to the Japanese mail-away boxes of old for toys like Ratchet, Downshift, Camshaft and Overdrive. I think it’s presented beautifully with the exclusive artwork. As you can see, Tigertrack has been designated “90”, a previously unused number in the Japanese line of TFs, and not to be confused with the already used C-90. A lot of the new character “reissues” are given such designations.

The box also comes with the tech on the bottom, but alas, no decoder strip. Tigertrack is described as being a highly skilful tracker and ferocious hunter. The top of the box has some nice touches too and that’s where I scanned the pic at the start of this article from. Due to the classy packaging, it’s not too much of a loss that you can’t see the actual toy through a cello window.

The first look at the toy itself, looking just as striking and stunning as its Diaclone predecessor. We also get our first look at the Japanese Takara exclusive character collector’s card. Tigertrack’s character art on his card is the original TF Sideswipe’s box art repainted yellow. It’s a slight shame that they didn’t come up with new art for him but at least there’s plenty of that on the box! The inner packaging configuration is pretty much the same as it was for the very first batch of Autobot car reissues and E-Hobby exclusives. You can see that he has a yellow-tabbed launcher just like the original Diaclone. Also present are the standard Japanese-style instruction sheet and the stickersheet, both of which are worth mentioning. Firstly, the instructions have a really nice feature where the character art for Tigertrack is used in conjunction with a photo of the toy and I have scanned that section of the instructions here:

The stickersheet is practically identical to the Diaclone and Transformers stickersheets used in the past apart from a few minor things. Due to licensing issues, the rear number plate/taillight stickers (stickers 6 and 7) no longer say “Countach” on them, they are now blank. In addition to that, the small sticker that goes on the hood (sticker 1) no longer has the raging bull logo made famous by Lamborghini, but uses a picture of three stars instead and finally on the shin stickers (stickers 4 and 5) it used to say “LP 500S” which was the model of the car used for Sideswipe’s mould but now it says “EP 45K”. This is not a new thing introduced purely for Tigertrack though; none of the Sideswipe reissues so far have had the previously-licensed text on them.

It may just be the original Sideswipe art re-coloured yellow, but it makes for a beautiful collector’s card, and I absolutely love these things. I had my Tigertrack card positioned right next to my White Astrotrain card on my shelf, with the respective toys standing beside their cards. Tremendously colourful, tremendously displayable and tremendously collectible. This of course is the first time the yellow Sideswipe has had a collector’s card of any sort since this is the first time this colour of the Sideswipe mould has been released as a part of “The Transformers” toy line.

Yep, I’m delaying on getting to the good stuff just for a moment longer! Here are the accessories that come with Tigertrack; standard Sideswipe hand gun, missiles and launcher (with yellow launching tab). I took one of the missiles off the tree for display purposes. OK, so that’s all the peripherals covered, now what about the main event?

Wow. Reissue or not, this is a beautiful toy that cannot help but catch your eye. The original Diaclones were quite spectacular despite being so simple, and this follows suit. The reissues have tended to be just a peg or two below the originals but I have to say that this Tigertrack doesn’t allow me a moment to miss my original Diaclone Yellow Sideswipes and that really is a tremendous credit to this piece.

The mould is quite different to the Diaclone that was released way back in 1983 in many small ways (a line here, a ridge there etc) and if you look at the main headlight tampographs (these used to be stickers on the Diaclone), the text reads “Rally Racing” but on the Diaclone it reads “Rallye racing”, the extra “e” after “Rally”. Now to me it seems that it probably should say “Rally” as the reissue says because that makes more sense to me, and therefore that the original Diaclone text had to be changed a little to avoid any licensing issues. Of course I may have got that the wrong way around, but the difference in spelling is there for all to see. You may also notice that none of the factory stickers are misaligned, that is in fact because the black on the doors and roof is now painted on. No factory stickers have been used on the doors or roof.

You may also have noticed that I did not apply the stickers on this reissue. This is because unlike toys such as Skids, Astrotrain and Tracks, I actually do not think the stickers do a great deal for Sideswipe with the possible exception of the small hood sticker (Sticker 1) but even that no longer has the Lamborghini logo so I decided to leave it on the sheet. Also, this way, it harkens back to the look of the Diaclone I used to own and I admit I do prefer it this way without the stickers. The now-painted details are more than adequate. Now for the figure mode:

Still a great sight, the successful contrasting of yellow with black, white and silver chrome does wonders for Tigertrack’s appearance. Only one small gripe here, if you look at the first robot picture, you can see his left foot (on your right) is slightly lopsided and not totally straight. A minor issue but it’s there nonetheless. The transformation is exactly the same as for the Diaclone (obviously) with everything fitting snugly enough on transformation back to vehicle mode, but slight alterations in the moulding around the shoulders/doors makes things just a little different to before, but it’s hard to specify so I’ll leave it, but it is different though!

Ok, so this is a Transformer right? So where’s the rubsign? Underneath the chest section of course…

I was wondering why they’d put it in such an out of the way place seeing as how regular Sideswipe’s rubsign is on the door and Red Alert’s is on the roof, but then this IS supposed to be a reissue of the Diaclone, and so it should resemble the Diaclone in as many ways as is possible while still being a Transformer, so the rubsign is positioned in a way that it is not visible in either mode from traditional angles. Well that’s my theory anyway, in reality it could just be because they wanted to vary things a little or it may have something to do with the character’s covert nature as a silent tracker…now for a closer look at the chest and head section of the reissue compared to the original Diaclone:

The pic on top is the original Japanese Diaclone and the bottom pic is Tigertrack. If you look closely at the two yellow connecting pegs attached to the hood (the ones that slip underneath the windshield) just below and either side of the figure’s head, the Diaclone has two circles on the end of a straight section but the reissue’s pegs are a different shape. Also the Diaclone figure’s head has a silver face and a small amount of silver on his forehead amidst the black section, the reissue however has a longer silver section on its forehead that goes along the top of his head for a bit. Not huge differences, but differences nonetheless.

The copyright on Tigertrack reflects the fact that most of the TFs produced nowadays by Takara are made in China, and there are two blocks on the back of his waist where it may once have said “TAKARA JAPAN” like the old Diaclones and TFs. This is visible in the above pic.

This has got to be the best reissue so far for me and one I did not hesitate to purchase. It is beautifully presented and there is a good deal of personality in all the features of this release, from the packaging to the card to the toy itself. It is one of very few things G1 that remain in my collection and I see no reason to ever part with it. The quality is excellent and it has only very minor issues which are barely worth mentioning as they don’t affect the functionality or display qualities of the toy. Yellow Sideswipe is gorgeous and this reissue is no exception, so if you love this piece and cannot get your hands on the Diaclone, this is MORE than an adequate substitute. OK, so it doesn’t have the rarity factor or prestige of an original Japanese Diaclone (although these Tigertracks are not so easy to get nowadays, heck, they never were), but trust me it is easily good enough for anyone who wants a yellow Sideswipe, and that’s coming from someone who has owned both the originals and the reissue. Who else’s word do you need? ;)