629 Hottobot.

I actually don’t remember if what Thomas says in the first panel is true, or was ever true.  That part of my life is so distant now I see little more than a mist when focus on it is attempted.  I never had Bluestreak as a kid, but I thought his bio was cool in the comics and stuff.  Haunted by the destruction of his hometown, he tries to drown out the memories with constant banter.  Some of the back stories for those guys were pretty advanced concepts for an eight year old.

Eventually I got a Bluestreak of my own.  He was the second Alternators mold that started as Smokescreen.  They gave him a new head though, which is really all I ask for in a remold.  At least give us a new face.  I have the Ricochet repaint of that same mold too.  By that time the mold was apparently showing some wear.  The parts don’t fit as cleanly as the Bluestreak’s.  The Alternators line was one of my all time faves.  Of course I never could collect all the figures.  As with all Transformers toy lines towards the end they made it far to difficult to obtain the last few guys.  I’m missing Mirage, Ravage 2, Hot Rod (Or Hot Shot, or whatever they call him now.), and the generic Japanese guys from the Kiss Players line (which are arguably not part of Alternators anyway).   There may have been more, but I’m not aware of them if there were.

I always considered the Masterpiece line part of Alternators too.  Someday I’d like to get the Grimlock they did.  Hopefully I’ll run across a relatively cheap American release at some point.  Megatron was my last insane Transformers toy purchase and unless my fortunes change drastically it’s going to stay that way.