Something else I sold on a while ago. Let's see what I can remember. As soon as I saw one of the Dreamwave-style Takara reissues in the flesh at a TF show, I knew I'd have to get at least one. By the time I got around to getting one, the Autobots they had released up to that point had all been ones I already owned, except Skids. Never seen one, never transformed one, so it was ideal.

These Takara reissues of course have Dreamwave style art for the box front pictured above, and I think Skids' boxart is awesome. Released in tandem with No.4 Tracks.

The box back shows all the contents of the set. One thing I liked about these reissues was the decision to have new boxart but retain the original G1 art for the collector's card (shown later). As you can see the already available Prowl and Jazz reissues are shown on the back, as well as the just-released Tracks and then-scheduled Megatron and Smokescreen. All the inserts/booklet contents are also shown. these would all eventually fit into a binder included with the DW-style TF Collection #0 Convoy reissue.

These reissues all open like a book, so onto the first page:

On the left, some nice Skids art and on the right, the classic 1985 box back art for Japanese Transformers. "T/F WORLD CARD 03" as it says.

It goes on to document Skids a little further, his "Data File". I'm not sure what it says about him as I never bothered to find the translations, but the art is still quite impressive. A couple of screenshots from the very few episodes in which Skids featured in the US cartoon's second series are in evidence also.

Sludge is also documented in this particular booklet. Why?I have no idea.

Then comes what seems to be some mini-episode summaries with further screenshots (one of em looks like S.O.S. Dinobots) and a really nifty poster including a White Astrotrain in there somewhere, more early Dreamwave art I believe.

Then you turn the page and cool stuff starts to happen!

Some information on other JTF Autobot releases from the same era with the same old catalog art, and of course, Skids sitting nicely in the packaging surrounded by his accessories. The baggie with his paperwork is neatly tucked in underneath the section containing the toy itself and is accessed (just as the toy is) via the flaps on the top and bottom of the package. Speaking of the main event...

The toy + accessories are in a tray with a plastic cover which is secured in place with some sellotape. The paperwork is pretty standard too; sticker sheet, instructions (Japanese), opinion form and the nifty collector's card. In the above picture you can also see the robot points attached to the flap of the box. Looking at the green tray, each of the accessories has a label. Well presented I thought.

Here's the stickersheet, different from the original in that it has Skids' new Japanese designation "96" on there and the Japanese TF logo. Originally he was available in Japan in the VSZ giftset where he would have just had the US Skids stickersheet.

I absolutely love these Japanese Transformers collector's cards. Even though the format for the reissue cards is different from the original Japanese ones, I like them very much. The front has the original Diaclone/TF art for Skids, and the back has his stats. I have to say though, I much prefer the DW art for Skids. The original Diaclone mega-chin they gave him just doesn't sit well with me...

Skids' weapons:

Now I opened this reissue immediately, but it took me a week or so to apply the stickers. I decided I was going to enjoy it fully, and I thoroughly enjoyed applying the stickers, taking weapons off the sprue etc...it's what these reissues are for at the end of the day.

Here is a shot of Skids in car mode without the stickers applied:

Kinda bland. And now some shots of him in car mode WITH applied stickers:

Aahhh much better :) Honestly though, the stickers really add to this figure, and I think they're all quite nice. Another great feature of this figure os that many of the doors open.

The mini-scooter is of course supposed to go in the back, but the TF Skids and hence this reissue do not include the Diaclone scooter.

Now Skids isn't loved by all fans, but I think he looks good in both modes and has a good transformation. I loved the Autobot cars where the doors acted as wings in robot mode. And I also love that you can load Skids up with so many weapons. Here he is in robot mode pre-stickering:

And post-stickering...

Markedly different, I think you'll agree. Did I mention how much I love all those weapons? Also, I transformed the arms slightly differently to how it instructs in the manual, but I think he looks less gimpy this way.

Now he seems to be standing ok, but many of the DW reissue Skids had a slight problem standing because one of the wheels that you fold under to form his feet is obstructed by excess plastic underneath the rear section of the car. This can be fixed by some handy exacto-knife work, but be careful. The results are worth the effort though, as without the work he can look pretty lop-sided in robot mode. Apparently, even the E-Hobby exclusive Crosscut has this problem too. Shame really, but easy enough to remedy.

One of the other fun things you can do with the DW-style Takara reissue Skids is to open up the cardboard tray he comes in and reform it to form the stand as shown on the back of the box:

I think it looks funky, and I imagine it would look even more impressive if you had all the reissue Takara DW-style Autobot cars all lined up on their stands. I wonder how many people actually bothered to explore the stand and display their cars this way.

Overall, I was impressed by the Skids figure and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring all the provided gimmicks; Super-firing weapons, applying stickers, making the stand, checking all the the funky artwork inside, the data file etc.. These are thoroughly well-presented and highly collectible releases. Some of the very recent releases have even more imaginative features too, the Sideswipe and Inferno have recoloured eyes, the Prime and Megatron come with weapons featured in MTMTE, Starscream has been released in cartoon colours etc.

You can't go wrong with these, at the very least make sure you pick up your favourite Autobot car as a DW-style Takara reissue. No elongated missiles here, and plenty of funky artwork to go around. Gotta love those collector's cards. They're also not particularly rare or expensive if you know where to look. The quality wasn't bad either, except for the wheel/standing issue.

For the sake of completeness, "Skids" was first released in the Diaclone line as the No.6 Honda City R (red), and then in the Wrecker/City S two set as a silver version of the City R, the City S (silver). The silver S was then released individually. The red City R comes with and without sunroof. The red City Rs and the silver City S have different heads to the later Turbo/TF. Then came the black No.9 Diaclone Honda City Turbo (basically a black Diaclone Skids). The Black City Turbo had the same wheels as the City R/S, but the later blue Honda City Turbo (the true blue predecessor to Skids) had different simpler wheels, and after that came the red Honda City Turbo. After these Japanese Diaclone releases, Italy had the blue and red City Turbos in the GiG Packaging, and of course there was the blue US Transformers Skids which was short-packed. The Japanese only received the TF Skids in the VSZ giftset alongside Sunstreaker and Buzzsaw. After that, the mould saw release again only in late 2002 as the Takara DW-style reissue, accompanied a little later by the E-Hobby reissue of the grey City S as "Crosscut", complete with scooter and original red masked head and boxart from the Diaclone Wrecker/City S giftset. Time to breathe...

All the best
Maz