Dave's Japanese Toy Rant: Headmaster Juniors 3-Pack I ordered this set from Beaman's Toys (www.beaman.com IIRC), lucking out and getting the last set in stock after Megabee went on his emailing spree and told everyone he knew about these toys. This is a genuine Takara product, a three-pack of Fort Max, Optimus Prime (Convoy) and Chromedome in 5" (13cm) tall reproductions, which I got for $20 plus shipping. How come so cheap? Well, I think part of the answer lies in the date on the box, 1991. This set wasn't released at the same time as the Headmasters, rather it was sold shortly before Takara shifted their efforts away from Transformers and to DaGarn. So this is probably a "second printing" or something on that order. The toy also lacks a code number, which all Japanese TF toys had (originally C-## or D-## for Cybertrons and Destrons, the 1992 toys had TF-## instead, and some of the artifacts had other codes, like T-1 and T-2 for the talking Galvatron and Rodimus toys). Each figure has its own styrofoam block, rather than one large block to hold all three at once, which suggests that the toys were also available separately, and this 3-pack may have been made up of leftover leaders that didn't sell in the first issuing. Also of note is that while there's descriptions for each of the characters, there's no numerical techspecs. Enough with the packaging and pedigree, on with the toys. Chromedome: A good choice for shrinking down to 5" tall, since he doesn't have a whole lot of detail to lose. Looks very close to the original in car mode, but has a few simplifications in robot mode, such as lack of hands. His chest is die-cast, with the rest being plastic, a step up from the original IIRC (I don't own a Chromedome). The techspec wheel on his chest has no covering panel, and is disconnected from anything...it just spins freely. It shows two different sets of specs, which is odd, although suggests either putting Fort Max's head on him, or duplicating the effect of using one of the Headmaster Warriors (heads sold separately of a vehicle in Japan). The head doesn't unfold into a figure, rather you take a set of legs and snap them onto the head...another hint at the low cost, since they could have made an honest-to-goodness miniHeadmaster at that size, but didn't. The robot's face is the right color, but you can see how it was spraypainted with a too-small mask, so there's this bit of orange floating in a larger face than the paint can cover. The stickers, despite being six years old, went on easily and aren't flaking off or slimy or anything like that. Prime: Essentially, this is just the original Prime cab shrunk down to 5" tall and without the opening cab (the head just pops off rather than rotating down into the cab). It comes with a fold-up cardboard trailer which is way too small even for this shrunken Prime. Like Chromedome, the chest is die-cast metal. Aside from the plastic wheels, the vehicle form is also quite good and comparable to the original (ignoring the trailer, of course). The only real problem with this toy is the robot head, which doesn't stay firmly in place, and doesn't have the eyes painted. Fortress Maximus: This is NOT the toy ripped off to make the Uranus 5-in-1 toy. While the production values are higher, there's less detail due to the smaller size, and several parts (double-barrelled gun, ramps, etc) are gone, plus this one can only transform into block spaceship mode, not into city mode. In a way, it's more of a Fort Max Actionmaster. Like Chromedome, the head has clip-on legs (although Cerebros gets Fort Max's face on his chest, which looks bad). Unlike Chromedome, there's no die cast metal in this one. Transformation involves a lot of removing parts and putting them into different pegs instead of swinging them on hinges, marking this as probably the least faithful of the trio as an adaptation. To make matters worse, his face is painted solid orange, which is just wrong. Dave Van Domelen, gets to get up 5 hours earlier tomorrow than he did today, whee....