See all that dust? This little guy is a relic from way back in 1986. The Transformers line was well-ingrained in the pop-culture consciousness by ’86, and new figures were pretty tough to get because they were in such demand. Pipes here was never one of the stars of the line, but he was always one of my favorite minibots. He had precious little screentime on the original cartoon, so many kids at the time weren’t all that familiar with him. Couple that with the fact that he was a repaint/retool of Huffer, and many regarded him as little more than a later-wave throwaway figure/character. Those who skipped him really missed out, though, because he’s actually a better figure than Huffer and a character who has been due for a fair shake (which he almost got) for some time.
Pipes’ depiction in the G1 Marvel comic and the G1 cartoon was actually pretty close to the figure’s actual design and his card art design. The most notable differences are his arms and face. Instead of a red visor, they chose to give him individual eyes, and instead of his “pipes” being his arms, they became attachments to more traditional-looking arms with actual hands. That difference always disappointed me because I liked the idea of his having two straight-up cannons for arms without anything resembling humanoid arms at all. It made him seem more formidable, but now being more familiar with the character, I get why they didn’t go that route.
Pipes is an awesome-looking little ‘bot. The blue and white combo is sharp and the red accents provided by his visor and Autobot sigil serve to make the overall figure command the eye’s attention. The chrome on his arms complements the overall color scheme, and it just looks really cool. Like Huffer, the windows of his cab are solid black. I like it, but it does make him look like a much simpler toy than he is.
There’s precious little to his head/face sculpt. It’s mostly just a blue helmet with a red visor. There is no articulation in his head, so all he can do is stare straight ahead, which is oddly enough for a G1 figure.
There is also precious little articulation at all. His arms can rotate at the shoulders, and that’s the extent of his articulation. This legs don’t move, his waist doesn’t turn — nothing. Like most G1 Transformers, he’s a brick. But that’s all part of the charm. In 1986 our imaginations more than made up for the figure’s very restricted range of motion. Today we’re conditioned to expect insane levels of articulation in everything, but back then we didn’t care.
Pipes’ alt mode is consistent with all the other G1 minibots — a little penny racer-looking truck cab.
By 1986, the rub signs were in full swing, and Pipes came sporting one on the top of his cab. These stickers always seemed a little pointless to me, though, since his giant Autobot sigil was placed practically right next to it on the back of his cab. It was a popular gimmick, however, and kids figures out all sorts of different ways to activate the gimmick (add some kind of heat and either an Autobot or Decepticon sigil would be revealed).
Now, many fans will dismiss Pipes as a Huffer repaint, but when you look at the two side-by-side, it’s clear just how unique each figure is. Their transformation schemes are similar, and their two modes look vaguely similar, but there’s a lot here that’s unique, so it’s unfair to dismiss Pipes for being merely a “blue Huffer.” Plus, his arms hang and move in a much more natural way that Huffer’s do, so he gets points for that alone.
Pipes is one of the better G1 minibots, in my opinion, and one I’m happy to still have. The character hasn’t received a whole lot of attention in any form since his G1 debut — the G1 Pipes is still the only version produced by either Hasbro or Takara — but iGear and X-Transbots, two third-party teams, have released their own versions of Pipes in the past couple years. Pipes also enjoyed a little bit of the spotlight in James Roberts’ More Than Meets the Eye until he was stamped out (if you’ll forgive the pun) of the comic during a particularly hairy sequence. Still, it was great to see him get the modern IDW treatment, so it would be awesome if someone like MakeToys would take a stab at him sometime.
Until that happens, though, we still have the G1 figure to enjoy.
