[YouTube] Optimus Prime

https://youtu.be/Yfo1x7GRVNI

We lost Optimus Prime's voice actor Peter Cullen on August 26th. Of course, he voiced dozens of other characters throughout his career, including Transformers' Ironhide, G.I. Joe's Zandar and Airborne, Dungeons & Dragons' Venger, and Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh. It's always sad to lose entertainers that had an impact on our childhoods, and we've lost quite a few since I began this blog, though I don't often post about loss. Peter Cullen is a bit different from others, however, in that his influence continued into our adulthoods for those of us who grew up on 1980's cartoons, because the Transformers franchise has been going strong for decades. In that time, there have been quite a few different Transformers animated series, live-action movies, and video games starring Optimus Prime, and it's always been Cullen's voice that we've heard. You can't think of Optimus Prime without hearing his voice; it's perfect and hard to imagine anyone taking over that role in the future.

The video is longer than I expected, as I somehow went on for ten minutes about the 1984 Hasbro toy of Optimus Prime. It's a simple one to transform, and has hands that need to be added when switched to robot form (unless you want fists for headlights). Opening the trailer reveals Roller and what the manual describes as a mechanic/artillery robot, which features a radar dish, claw arm, and rocket launchers. Roller can be equipped with a gas line for refueling others or it can hold Optimus' gun. While the manual shows Roller as gray and the rockets as silver, the first U.S. release has a dark blue Roller and black rockets. There are variations and I'm not certain if the U.S. had other colors, as all I could verify is that there is a European version with a gray Roller. Unfortunately, some of my stickers are peeling, especially the Autobot logos on Optimus' arms, which have a tendency to fall off.

I took a wide variety of photos, some with LEGO road plates and other Autobots, and sometimes I swapped Ratchet with Ironhide. Also, I tried to hide it, but it's probably obvious that I'm missing a piece of Wheeljack's rear spoiler. While I could have used another Autobot, I wanted to stick with main characters from the first cartoon and I don't own all of them, plus someo f my others have broken pieces too. You'll notice I was messing around with image filters as well, and added audio to a couple photos.

 

LEGO

LEGO + AUTOBOTS

AUDIO 

       

The Robot Invasion (Boys' Life - December 1984)

Over the past month I've acquired a handful of old comic books and magazines, primarily in search of more video game ads to scan. In the December 1984 issue of Boys' Life, I came across an article about robots that I thought worth sharing. The beginning of the article is about industrial robots, an interesting look back on what people were saying about robots 40 years ago compared to today, when many similar discussions revolve around artificial intelligence. After that, it's primarily about personal robots, most of which can be considered toys. My uncle had a Tomy Verbot that I believe is currently sitting in a box in my basement, though I don't recall using it very much or what exactly it could do, other than hold things.

[YouTube] 2-XL

https://youtu.be/NoWvtavxoDY

2-XL is an electronic toy from Mego Corp. first released in 1978. Designed to look like a robot, the toy speaks and interacts with users by reading 8-track tapes. One tape was included with the robot, which I believe was "General Information," and a variety of others were sold separately. You can see in the box and toy side-by-side photo below that that my 2-XL doesn't match the box image exactly, namely the eyes. I've got the second version of the toy that released in 1980, though they obviously didn't update the packaging. There is a price tag on the top of my box that indicates it retailed for $69.99.

2-XL box (1978) and toy (1980).

Although it may appear to be just for kids, there are many tapes for all ages and some that might only appeal to adults, such as "50's and 60's Nostalgia" and "TV and Movie Challenges." In most cases the tapes include questions that can be answered using the buttons on the face of the toy. Some tapes do require users to follow along in a tape's instruction manual, use a pen and paper to solve problems, or complete activities in the manual. 2-XL often spouts jokes and makes humorous comments in between questions or while waiting for answers.

Answer panel and "Talking Calculator" tape.

Mego Corp. stopped making the toy in 1981 and would declare backruptcy in 1982 before going out of business in 1983. Tiger Electronics re-introduced 2-XL in 1992 with a modern look. Of course, 8-track tapes were a thing of the past at that point, replaced by cassette tapes in the music industry and that's also what the 1990's version of the toy uses. If you were a kid in the early '90s you might even remember seeing 2-XL on a television show called Pick Your Brain that was hosted by Marc Summers. The show featured a large version of the robot and was voiced by Greg Berg; the original toy was voiced by its inventor, Michael J. Freeman.

A 2-XL ad from Toys "R" Us (1992).

I've got a bunch of photos of my 1980 toy and scans of the few documents I still have. Also, since I opened it up to see if I could improve the sound I took a couple photos of what the inside of the toy looks like.