Happy New Year and Happy Lunar New Year! This is my first post in 2022. The 2020s have got off to a really lousy start, and I am hoping 2022 will reverse that trend for this decade. And I can’t believe we are yet at another year of the Tiger. Time flies.

I have a thing for TFs out of Season 4 in G1. Sure, nothing beats the first 2 seasons. But I felt Season 4 had better toys than Season 3. The figures were better designed, better built, and had some interesting new gimmicks that would forever be part of the TF landscape.

Season 4 introduced the “Master” gimmicks, with Headmasters and Targetmasters. Headmasters were the featured figures of Season 4, but I have said many times that I like Targetmasters more than Headmasters.

The Decepticon Targetmasters for Season 4 were Triggerhappy, Misfire, and Slugslinger. All 3 has been updated for the modern day, between 2016 and 2018. However, they were updated as Titan Masters (Headmasters in the modern day). Hasbro would not get to releasing their respective weapons til later, in the War of Cybertron line. The weapon figs are called Battle Masters.

Today I feature all 3 Season 4 Decepticon Targetmasters in their modern CHUG updates, together with their weapons.

Misfire, Triggerhappy, and Slugslinger in alt mode.

With Aimless, Blowpipe, and Caliburst.

Another view of the trio in alt mode.

In robot mode.

Holding the weapons in robot mode.

Action pose.

Some quick thoughts as I look at this trio:

• All 3 base figs follow the same scheme. Triggerhappy was the first mold, and Misfire and Slugslinger are re-works off the same mold. HasTak did introduce enough molding differences between the 3 so they each feel like a unique fig. Great job!
• In alt mode, there’s really no good way to attach the Battle Master weapon figs. Bummer.
• G1 purists would scream bloody murder at the fact that all 3 are Titan Masters, and in G1 they were never Headmasters. Normally I would agree, but all 3 figs turned out so good that I’m choosing to ignore this inaccuracy.
• Triggerhappy is my favorite among this threesome. I think this mold works best on him.

Now I’m hoping that HasTak would get to doing all the Season 4 Autobot Targetmasters. We got Crosshairs, but where is Pointblank and Sureshot?

Transform and Roll Out.
 

On Seibertron.com, there used to be a section called “Before Carly”. The official description of the section went something like this:

“Spike is quite the ladies man. He eventually married Carly, but she was not the only one to have fun in the backseat of Bumblebee.”

This section is really just a picture gallery of hot women in little or no clothing, to be oogled by TransFans, which by the estimation of many is 95% male. To make this section relevant to Transformers (not that hot women need any reason to appear anywhere), Seibertron did two things. First, it is suggested that Spike got his groove on with all the babes in the picture gallery. Evidently he was quite busy before he married Carly as the picture count at one point surpassed 200 (even Wilt Chamberlain would be proud). Second, the women were all given fictitious names that sounded likes names of various Transformers, and it was kind of a game in figuring out which TF the girl’s name were a reference to. It was a shame that this section disappeared. Licensing issues with the images, coupled with the fact that it was hardly ever updated, forced Seibertron to shut down the gallery.

Never fear, TransFans. Hsunami Prime is here to re-instate “Before Carly”, for this one post anyway. Feast your eyes on even more women that had fun in the backseat of Bumblebee below. All names are based on real people’s names that I have seen. The name of the Transformer is written in white below the name of the girl. Hover the mouse over each name to reveal the answer (or hit Ctrl-A). Enjoy!

“Before Carly” rules! Transform and Roll Out!