I have very fond memories of the Christmas of 1989. It was the year I got my 8-bit NES and my first two games, Super Mario Bros. as well as Wizards & Warriors. It was also the first year I got into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and after watching the show for a while I decided to collect the action figures, so I ended up getting Krang and Baxter Stockman under the tree as well. And, finally, even though the Transformers toy line was slowly winding down, I was still a loyal fan, and I put a couple of the bigger toys on my wish list that year like Skystalker and Skyhopper. It was a fun holiday season, and I have vivid memories of munching on Reese's miniature cups while trying desperately to get Mario and Kuros to jump the way I wanted them to, mashing the Nintendo controller buttons until my thumbs hurt, and tensing my abdominal muscles with each jump until they were actually sore. Good times.

However, the reality was that Transformers toys with no media representation just weren't as much fun. Skystalker was one of the toys I ended up selling off as a young adult, when I was more worried about making that month's rent than clinging to non-media toys representing characters I had never come to truly love. I came to regret it, but it had sure seemed like a good idea at the time! (I kept Skyhopper, though. I'm not sure what that says about me, or either of the two toys in question.)

I started my journey to complete my G1 collection in 2020, and I don't really go in any kind of specific order. I maintain a list on my computer of what I'm still looking for, with approximate market prices, but I'll jump around randomly. (I'm kind of saving some of the heavy hitters for last, since it will be easier to justify to myself spending $200 on Roadbuster or even more than that on Targetmaster Scourge, if I rationalize that it's literally the last G1 toy I need to complete the entire set. Yes, I play these mental games with myself.)

Anyway, I've known for a while that Skystalker was going to be an expensive one. A complete, unbroken toy tends to sell for around $180-$200. I would presume that fewer consumers were buying the 1989 toys, and the production run was probably smaller, too. Also, he's almost Omega Supreme like in the way he breaks apart into many smaller parts. It's common to find Skystalker vehicles that are stripped down and missing pretty much everything. One further problem is that his right wing tends to break at the hinge. I don't know why it's the right wing and not the left, but you can find plenty of left wings on eBay but never the right wing. It's weird.

So I wasn't going after this toy specifically, but it had been a couple of years since I'd checked market prices so I was poking around looking at Skystalker auctions. I found one that was incomplete, with badly-applied stickers, with a top bid of something like $22. I knew it would end up selling for a little more than that, but I was hoping that the awful stickers would be a turn-off for some people. Also, he was missing his ramps, and his right wing did have some damage. I get the impression collectors will pay more for one-stop shopping, and they don't want to have to go chasing missing pieces and replacement broken parts to build a complete unit. Hell, sometimes I'll look at an auction for a toy I've never owned, like Countdown or somebody, and I'll have no idea what a complete toy even looks like. But, I'd owned Skystalker before, so I knew he had everything I needed except for a couple of ramps.

I punched in a top bid of something like $50, because ultimately I was buying a junker and I knew I'd be pouring a little more money into it than that.. Got him for $25.49. Just the Micromaster alone would have probably cost me that much! What a score. Eventually I feel like my luck is going to run out. So, when you guys give me crap for (eventually) spending $200 on Octopunch or Doubleheader, remember that there's a yin for every yang, okay?

So, I get the impression that every Transformers product year had an Autobot toy and a Decepticon toy that were intended as the leaders for that year. It wasn't always Optimus Prime and Megatron, of course, since they were killed off and replaced in 1986, and didn't come back until later. And, I'm not talking about toys like Bludgeon or Thunderwing, who I think were assumed Decepticon leader status by Marvel Comics, and not by Hasbro themselves.. My thinking is that the biggest toys were usually the leaders by default.. Fortress Maximus and Scorponok were probably intended to be the leaders for 1987. In 1988, we got Optimus Prime back, but I've always thought of Doubledealer as his counterpart, who was also a Powermaster and the biggest individual Decepticon for that year.

With that said, I think the leaders for 1989 might actually have been Countdown and Skystalker. Skystalker's tech specs give him a Rank of 9, and he's described as a power-hungry despot who can't wait for the day he's in charge of everything. So, I think he would have overthrown Scorponok or Doubledealer or whoever was in charge before he came along. But, we'll never know for sure.

So the Micromaster component of Skystalker (which is arguably erroneously named) is a unique mold, not available anywhere else within the toy line. As a vehicle, he's a bright orange Porsche 911, the same type of vehicle as Nightbeat, though the lines of his car mode are interrupted by the tremendous hinge on his hood, and the robot toes poking out of the top of the roof. Since the boxed Micromasters got stickers, he is adorned with an honest-to-gosh Decepticon symbol on his hood, as well as decorative grey stickers for his spoiler.

He transforms like Roadhandler or Stakeout, with the hood flipping behind his back and the back of the car unfolding to become the legs. As a robot, he's got a light purple body, black upper legs, and orange arms and feet, with a yellow-painted face and eyes. He's got what look like lasers or missile pods flanking either side of his head, and he's got a helmet with a dramatic head crest, reminiscent of Prowl or Galvatron. His arms are a bit on the short side, but he's a cool Micromaster, one of my favorites from G1.

It really bothers me that he's named after the vehicle he pilots, though, and that "Skystalker" does in no way, shape, or form describe the little car that he turns into. He's an itty bitty Porsche. He isn't stalking the sky, or doing anything else in the sky. (Many years ago, ATT poster Merytneith wrote some fun fan fiction about the Micromasters and actually came up with a good explanation as to why a car was calling himself Skystalker. That was the newsgroup back in its heyday! Good times. I hope Mery is doing well.)

The Skystalker vehicle is a fantasy design meant to evoke the NASA Space Shuttle in broad strokes, only with more futuristic styling. It would definitely not be mistaken for Sky Lynx or Astrotrain. It's actually two separate vehicles, with the larger of them mostly light grey with dark grey wings and a turquoise cockpit. It's got four guns, two mounted to the nose and two more underneath the main wings. The detachable shuttle pod, which connects to the top of the space shuttle, is mostly blue with grey wings, and a couple of non-removable grey guns mounted to the front. (Hmm, it's supposed to have a black dual-barreled aft cannon as well, but I didn't get that piece. So it was missing a little more than just the ramps, apparently.) A Micromaster figure can ride in either cockpit, though the small shuttle pod has no canopy glass to speak of.

The space shuttle transforms into an assault base, mostly accomplished by turnign the shutle upside-down and opening up various panels to turn it into an assymetrical station with a main ramp, a control panel, and an elevated platform. The main wings fold up, ostensibly to serve as battle shields, and guns plug into them in the same spot. The small shuttle pod flips upside-down and connects to the space shuttle nose to form a command tower with a gunner station, usng the dual lasers and attaching a couple more guns to the folded-up pod wings. (The small pod relies entirely upon the strength of two small black struts to support it. It's not a great design.)

The finished base could reasonably be manned by five Decepticon Micromasters, if one sat in the gunner station, another occupied the elevated platform, a couple were in the control station, and a final trooper stood upon the rear section as a lookout. The control station is interesting in that it includes a foot-peg for a Micromaster, and seems designed for a Decepticon to be partly hidden, as if it were a technological foxhole. There's a peg-hole for a weapon, but no dedicated gun, so it's likely they would have to borrow a gun from somewhere else on the base, or maybe get one on loan from Skyhopper or somebody. Aside from the main access ramp, there are also two side ramps to allow easy access for ground-based Decepticons. Also, the ramps will connect to any other Micromaster bases (whether they're Decepticons or, heaven forbid, Autobots).

Pretty much all the stickers used for the 1989 product year were total garbage. Doesn't matter whether it was Crossblades or Groundshaker or Pretender Bumblebee—the metallic foil would peel away freely from the paper backing almost immediately after application, even just from casual handling. So, I knew I was going to be replacing Skystalker's stickers, regardless. I've got some coming from Toyhax along with, if I remember right, stickers for my Pretender Grimlock and an extra unstickered G1 Jazz who lives on my computer desk. (Normally I feel like reproduction stickers are a tiny bit disingenuous, but in the case of the 1989 stickers I will make an exception, due to the incredibly poor quality of the Hasbro stickers.)

On Thursday, May 25, 2023 at 6:15:44 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:

> So, I get the impression that every Transformers product year had an Autobot toy and a Decepticon toy that were intended as the leaders for that year. It wasn't always Optimus Prime and Megatron, of course, since they were killed off and replaced in 1986, and didn't come back until later. And, I'm not talking about toys like Bludgeon or Thunderwing, who I think were assumed Decepticon leader status by Marvel Comics, and not by Hasbro themselves.. My thinking is that the biggest toys were usually the leaders by default. Fortress Maximus and Scorponok were probably intended to be the leaders for 1987. In 1988, we got Optimus Prime back, but I've always thought of Doubledealer as his counterpart, who was also a Powermaster and the biggest individual Decepticon for that year.
>
> With that said, I think the leaders for 1989 might actually have been Countdown and Skystalker. Skystalker's tech specs give him a Rank of 9, and he's described as a power-hungry despot who can't wait for the day he's in charge of everything. So, I think he would have overthrown Scorponok or Doubledealer or whoever was in charge before he came along. But, we'll never know for sure.
>

In support of your surmise, apparently the shuttle minus the Micromaster was renamed Thunder Arrow and served as the base of operations for the Decepticons/Destrons in the Japanese series Victory. So if not the actual leader of the opposing team, at least the headquarters, equivalent to the Victory Undersea Base in G1, or the "Darksyde" in BW.

On Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 11:29:58 PM UTC-6, Evil King Macrocranios wrote:

> For some reason people on Facebook tend to engage with strongly Micromaster posts, moreso than the '84-'85 ads I post. I had one guy write that so little Micromaster media exists that he liked seeing his favorite team (the Rescue Patrol) in anything, even ads.

That's so bizarre. I would have expected it to be the other way around—that people would engage the most with the 1984-85 advertising, because it features everybody's favorite characters. But, I guess I can understand the sentiment. One of my favorite things that people do on YouTube is take animated footage from the toy commercials to create theoretical theme songs for G1 as if it had a season six, season seven, etc. and includes the only time we got to see guys like Quickswitch, the Seacons, etc. in cartoon form.

> I kinda wonder what those sellers who expect to get over 200 for it are smoking.

I think it's a combination of factors. At least some sellers who own complete toys had to piece them together themselves, which took time and effort and money. So, really, you're paying for the convenience of one-stop shopping, without having to do the work, do the research, and spend the time yourself to hunt down individual pieces.

> On the back of Skystalker's box the battle graphic looks like Skystalker is attacking Countdown in a small patch of grass. I kinda wonder how small Micromasters were really supposed to be in tech spec continuity.

That is comical. The artist must have thought that the Micromaster toys were literally the actual size of the in-universe characters!

> Yeah that's definitely the best plan. Good luck finding one with the connector in a junker lot.

So, I usually come back to these reviews later with updates on my adventures, but for some reason I didn't do it with Skystalker. He kind of represented a stopping point for me, because I had to break away from buying vintage G1 toys for the forseeable future. (My wife got screwed over at work, earning a promotion but ending up taking a huge pay cut less than a year later, so we're tightening our belts a bit and I'm trying to keep the toy purchases to a minimum.) I had this idea that I was going to buy a new shelf kit for the Detolf cabinet, find myself some junker parts, apply his replacement stickers, and then come back here with more stories. Only some of those things ended up happening.

So, anyway! I asked the original seller if he happened to have the double-barreled black cannon for sale, and I think he was like me—cobbling together a good Skystalker from parts, so he had some extras left over. He also had a couple of the missing ramps! I don't know why he didn't just include those in the auction to begin with. He sold the parts to me for like ten bucks. It didn't come with the connector, though.

I also ended up getting a second blue shuttle pod, because I wasn't satisfied with the way the black struts on mine were so wobbly and loose. The Skystalker I owned growing up came late enough in my life that he honestly never got a lot of play time, so I wanted one that matched my memory of the toy, having tight joints and being in good condition. My eBay records show me that I got it back in June for seven bucks plus shipping.

So at this point all I was missing was the little black connector piece, and yes, it's the smallest and rarest and most expensive piece of Skystalker to buy separately. I just went for it and got one from a seller in Italy for €33.83, or about $37 USD. Like, I needed the piece. I couldn't not have it. There's no way to mount the dual cannon without it. (You'd think the people who made 3D printed replacement parts, or resin reproduction parts, would be all over this specific piece. They could probably make a fortune.)

So I've poured about $85 into my Skystalker restoration at this point, and I'm technically still not done, since I still need to replace that broken right wing. (As I said, you basically never see the right wing for sale on its own. The left one, all the time, but never the right.) It's not nothing, but still less expensive than a lot of the complete toys you tend to see on eBay.

But, as I said, the vintage G1 endeavor is going to take a backseat to other things for the moment. When this all went down, I was in the middle of trying to figure out how to build a good Targetmaster Scourge, and I got as far as buying the body (no head laser or Fracas) for $55, but now he's just sitting there like a doofus, with no hat and no Targetmaster partner. Well, I'll get back to him some day.

Zob (I was really hoping to nab a 1985 Venom before they came out with a neo-G1 version and drove up the secondary market pricing, too)

On Sunday, September 10, 2023 at 1:26:44 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:

> So, anyway! I asked the original seller if he happened to have the double-barreled black cannon for sale, and I think he was like me—cobbling together a good Skystalker from parts, so he had some extras left over. He also had a couple of the missing ramps! I don't know why he didn't just include those in the auction to begin with. He sold the parts to me for like ten bucks. It didn't come with the connector, though.

I think you can't expect sellers to know everything about what goes with what, even if they are selling items in such a way that it appears they know what they have. I've always been weak on '89-'90 era G1 knowledge. Before the Cybertronian guides were published I'd sell stuff from those years on ebay with only a slight inkling of what guns go with who. I remember one buyer in particular asking me if I had the purple panels that went with the Monster Pretender shells and I was all, 'Oh that's what those are! Yeah I can throw those in, too!'

> I also ended up getting a second blue shuttle pod, because I wasn't satisfied with the way the black struts on mine were so wobbly and loose.

I like how the little pod has ports on the wings to mount more weapons if you have 'em. I ended up with some extra Groundshaker missile launchers and they are exactly the correct color of plastic to match the Skystalker pod wings.

> So at this point all I was missing was the little black connector piece, and yes, it's the smallest and rarest and most expensive piece of Skystalker to buy separately. I just went for it and got one from a seller in Italy for €33.83, or about $37 USD. Like, I needed the piece. I couldn't not have it. There's no way to mount the dual cannon without it.

Yeah I was so proud of myself for piecing a near complete set together for $107.39 but then I saw how integral that connector was and ended up paying $37 for one. Totally wiping out my savings lead. I could have just bought the cheapest complete set for the same amount it took me to piece everything together. Plus adding to the cost I had to get reprolabels but I would have done that anyway.

> (You'd think the people who made 3D printed replacement parts, or resin reproduction parts, would be all over this specific piece. They could probably make a fortune.)

I wonder if existing Skystalker owners who are missing that one part is a large enough market to justify the work. It's been over 30 years. I figure everyone who wanted one complete already accomplished that by now. I realize I'm really late to the game in tracking this toy down. Paying 37 dollars for that tiny piece of plastic connector is my penalty for coming in last place.

> So I've poured about $85 into my Skystalker restoration at this point, and I'm technically still not done, since I still need to replace that broken right wing. (As I said, you basically never see the right wing for sale on its own. The left one, all the time, but never the right.) It's not nothing, but still less expensive than a lot of the complete toys you tend to see on eBay.

My shuttle core was missing the right wing, too. I did have a set of Skystalker wings from a lot of parts I bought a while ago so I was set. But when I put the right wing on I immediately saw that horrid stress flashing happening. I had to take it off and trim down the nub the wing tab pops onto. Better to carve down the shuttle main body (of which there are many available cheap) than to damage that wing any more than it already is. I'm very impressed with how good a quality that Skystalker plastic is. So hard and strong and hefty.

> But, as I said, the vintage G1 endeavor is going to take a backseat to other things for the moment.

So Skystalker marked the tail end of your original G1 collecting days and now it's at the tail end of your modern era G1 collecting days. It kinda rhymes. I would like to stop getting distracted by latter era G1 and focus more on my 1984 related goals. So maybe Skystalker represents an end of sorts for me, too.

I am stickering it tonight and maybe taking pics of it too so that I'll have the newspaper flyer ad colorization done by Monday. It's a neat little ad from a store called Zayre with Skystalker, Groundshaker, and two micro teams in a mountain setting. Then it's back to doing '84 era colorizations. I would really like to have as much '84 done as possible so I can have a webpage done in time for the 40th anniversary.

> Zob (I was really hoping to nab a 1985 Venom before they came out with a neo-G1 version and drove up the secondary market pricing, too)

Better to pay more for it when you eventually have the money than to pay any price that you can't really afford now.

On Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 10:21:22 PM UTC-6, Evil King Macrocranios wrote:

> I wonder if existing Skystalker owners who are missing that one part is a large enough market to justify the work. It's been over 30 years. I figure everyone who wanted one complete already accomplished that by now. I realize I'm really late to the game in tracking this toy down. Paying 37 dollars for that tiny piece of plastic connector is my penalty for coming in last place.

You'd think that if there was so little competition since everybody has already built their G1 collections, then there'd be little or no competition on eBay at this late stage. But, that's clearly not the case. Despite being decades old, there's still a clear demand for G1. There really are some toys that have virtually no value on the secondary market (like the vast majority of Star Wars produced during the 1990's, especially the carded figures themselves) but Transformers is not one of them!

I'm not sure I see the inherent difference in a Skystalker strut as opposed to many other parts that seem to be commonly reproduced, like Jetfire armor parts or Monster Pretender weapons. Also, with the advent of 3D-printed parts, it wouldn't be hard to recreate a properly-shaped strut even if it wasn't a 100% visual match. It remains mostly hidden, so it would just have to have the right pegs to do its job.

> Better to carve down the shuttle main body (of which there are many available cheap) than to damage that wing any more than it already is. I'm very impressed with how good a quality that Skystalker plastic is. So hard and strong and hefty.

I have worked with plastic from that era on occasion for custom projects, and it always surprises me how thick and dense it is. They weren't messing around back then. It's hard to cut through.

> So Skystalker marked the tail end of your original G1 collecting days and now it's at the tail end of your modern era G1 collecting days. It kinda rhymes.

How true! I'm not out of the game completely, though. I plan on jumping back in as soon as my financial situation is a bit better. I always envisioned myself completing my G1 collection some day, so I'm not going to let a little setback completely waylay that.

> Better to pay more for it when you eventually have the money than to pay any price that you can't really afford now.

That's a good point, and it's what I keep telling myself. I'll spring back eventually. If nothing else, I can start selling off some unwanted, unloved toys to fund my G1 collection. Better that than the other way around!

Zob (plastic crack addict-at-large)

Yeah, I had this guy as a kid. He had no US media representation as far
as I remember. He kind of faded from memory.

Then many years later, I saw Transformers: Victory, where this
Decepticon shuttle served as the main Decepticon ship/base in the
series. I don't think it ever Transformed, though.

That made me dig out my old toy, and it was a mess. Missing all the
parts, and yes, that defective wing had broken off. I managed to get a
good deal on a mostly complete one years later at a local convention.
Did a little mixing-and-matching with my old one.

I am NEVER going to transform this thing, as I don't want the wing to
break off!

The little Porsche was recolored blue and was one of the main Autobot
characters in Transformers Zone. This was a rare toy packed in with the
VHS that I'll never be able to afford, so I just painted the orange guy
blue. I probably wouldn't do that now, but what can you do.

On Thursday, May 25, 2023 at 4:15:44 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> Eventually I'm going to have to replace the right wing as well, either by getting a junker with an intact wing or biting the bullet and just buying the wing on its own, which I expect might get expensive.

As I said, you almost never see the right wing available for sale on its own. It's always the left one, for some reason. But, I spotted an auction last week for an unbroken right wing for $19.99, lowballed the seller because I'm a cheapskate, and got it for $17.

I was very, very scared to attach it, because vintage G1 plastic is extremely brittle. It was probably fairly flexible when the toy was originally manufactured and assembled, but not now. I was absolutely certain I was going to break the wing if I tried to install it. So, I whittled down the little blue nubs on the vehicle base so I could slide the wings onto the pegs a bit more easily. It worked well, and the new wing is much tighter than the old broken one.

Zob (not sure if I'm quite ready to jump back into full-blown vintage G1 collecting again, but hey, for seventeen bucks...)