TakaraTomy: Transformers Masterpiece MP-25 Tracks

As the Transformers Masterpiece line continues to gain some incredible momentum going into 2016, today we’ll take a look at it’s massive gain in style — Tracks.

When it comes to Autobot personalities, especially of the early toy line and the first two seasons of the cartoon, there were a ton of characters.  If you were to stand out from the pack, you had to make an impression.  You could be the plucky little guy, or the angry little guy, or the cranky little guy.  You could be the big stomping badass, the little stomping badass, or the redneck badass.  Or, you could be Tracks.

Being a 1982 Corvette C3 Stingray is one helluva a way to make an impression.  Painting a flaming Pontiac-style Autobot on your hood ups the ante significantly.  But then you add an impressive amount of weaponry and some freakin’ wings, and you start to see where Tracks just can’t help but be a hot shot. A lot has been made about Tracks’s, uh, preference over the years, but I’ve always thought that was a moot point.  Track’s biggest hard-on would have to be for himself — the dude couldn’t be bothered to check out anybody else.

Here’s his original bio:

“Looking good is what life is all about.”

Called “lousy Earth-lover” by some fellow Autobots because he prefers sleek Earth car form to original robot form. Thinks they’re jealous of his good looks, but they feel struggle against Decepticons should be his top concern. As car goes 280mph… uses wings under rear fenders for sub-sonic flight. As car or robot uses launcher to fire heat-seeking incendiary missiles 60 miles. Has blinding black beam gun.

Fair enough, right? But to be totally honest, I never really liked Tracks as a kid. Or rather, I felt like I should like Tracks, with his excellent car mode and cool flying mode and everything, but his snooty cartoon persona just didn’t click with me.  That, and my G1 version practically disintegrated shortly after getting him.

But now here’s this nuts Masterpiece version, and, man, does it make a case for Tracks’s awesomeness.

In addition to the Stingray in a striking metallic blue paint job, we also get a surprising amount of accessories to go with: we get a mini Blaster and Raoul figure from the “Making Tracks” G1 episode, as well as his black beam gun.  There’s also a barrel piece to mimic the blaster’s deployment in vehicle mode and a flight stand.

This is cool stuff, but the flight stand stayed in the box. Raoul? Back in the box. Even the Blaster, cool as it is, can’t be stored with the pistol in vehicle more (you can fit one at a time under the cab), and he really can’t hold or store it well in ‘bot mode.  So this is a lot of set dressing for an Autobot car, and the only piece I display him with is his gun. Hrm.

Anyway, the ‘vette mode is really slick.  Paint is top-notch, as I mentioned, and the licensed GM goodness definitely comes through. There are little things that keep it from being flawless, like the continued trend of plastic tires and the wings making for some iffy ground clearance, but overall this may be the best-looking Autobot care in the line yet. Add in that opening hood feature,and I’m willing to overlook the giant robot head behind the windshield.

Flight mode is fairly straightforward. You open up the fastback to untuck his robot arms, position the wings, and push up the tail stabilizers. The arms tab into the front rockers, and you’re good to go.  The beam gun barrel clips into the front license frame to complete it. Like the other accessories, though, I think it will live in the box.  It’s a nice touch, but would’ve been much better if incorporated into the figure somehow.

‘Bot mode transformation isn’t as nice as the other Masterpieces, at least in my opinion.  The Lambos and Datsuns transform pretty intuitively. Tracks’s is more involved like, say, Wheeljack, but it’s more fiddly. I like my transformations like I like my women. Tracks is complicated and requires some patience, so that ain’t it.

Once you’re sorted, though, he makes a pretty handsome ‘bot. The face sculpt is truly excellent, and that paintwork carries over really well to the ‘bot mode, giving Tracks one of the more involved sets of paint apps we’ve seen in this line. Articulation is good, even great in some spots, like the ankles and hips — his crotch plate is hinged to free up more movement.

But there’s some stuff I don’t care for.  He’s a bit hollow, despite some good intentions to fill in his sides and back, and his hood/backpack is nowhere near as low-set as it looked in the promo images. Even the box shows it in positions you can’t really mimic.  And that section, combined with the shoulder parts, don’t tab together quite as nicely as I would like. All this effort, and the rockets that piece reveals are little less than impressive.  Nothing that I would call a deal-breaker, exactly, but it’s just little stuff that nags at you and keeps him from the head of the pack.

So, while maybe a bit of a mixed result for me, Tracks still definitely stands apart from his car brothers as a truly unique figure among the other Masterpieces.  I maybe wish they’d put some of that effort used on his accessories back into some final polish, but that’s probably a more preference thing than a genuine fault.  So this one is going to make or break totally on your preference set — if you like the Masterpiece Seekers more than, say, Bumblebee, this guy will probably work for you. If you prefer the simpler, sturdier stuff, he may not. But either way, he’s gonna look damn good doing it.