Review – Transformers Targetmaster Pointblank (1987)

In 1987, Hasbro brought a number of different gimmicks to the Transformers toyline. Throttlebots. Clones. Six-Changer. But it was the Nebulon binary-bonded Headmasters and Targetmasters that were the truly imaginative addition to the Transformers line in 1987, and even today the concepts can be seen in lines like the newer Titans Return* and Power of the Primes* toys we see in stores today.

Fortunately, those first generation Headmasters and Targetmasters are still out there, even if they’re a bit more expensive these days, so it is possible for us to chase down some of the older toys and still enjoy them. That’s exactly what we’re doing now, as I bring Pointblank from the past and drop him into battlegrip.com so that we can get a peek at one of the older Transformers toys.

Vehicle Mode

Pointblank, as an Autobot Targetmaster, could have only been a car. There’s no way that in 1987 Hasbro was willing to sacrifice their Autobot Cars subline, so it isn’t surprising that they made the first generation Targetmasters all automobiles. Fortunately, Pointblank makes for a slick and fun car, even if the Targetmaster weapon is a bit bulky and doesn’t quite mesh nicely with the vehicle mode. The removable spoiler, which acts a shield in robot mode, adds some cool depth to the toy’s car mode.

Not surprisingly, the toy functions quite nicely in car mode and rolls smoothly across the desk. One thing Hasbro and Takara were very good at with these original Transformers designs was making sure that the car alt modes rolled; unlike too many of the modern Transformers toys of the last decade, those original toys worked as cars and as robots. Sure, the robots were often bricks with little to no articulation, but they were still robots.

Peacemaker

Pointblank’s partner, Peacemaker, shows how far Targetmaster toys have come since Hasbro first released the concept back in 1987. Peacemaker folds over once to create the gun mode, and the small robot has zero points of articulation. Those arms you see are locked in place and do not move at all, making the accessory more of a gun with a gimmick than a transforming robot toy. Still, we had to let the concept reach store shelves three decades ago before today’s Targetmaster-like designs could be as cool as they are.

Robot Mode

One of the things that I enjoy most about early Transformers toys — and a design philosophy we see in the newer Titans Return* and Power of the Primes* toys — is the idea that the transformation design is more playable than puzzle. Even without instructions, many of the older toys can be transformed by just twisting, pulling, and exploring, and Peacemaker is remarkably easy to transform from car to robot. I understand that some enjoy puzzles, but I personally like the Transformers toys that I can switch between modes even while thinking through another project or even on a conference call.

As a robot, Peacemaker falls into the brick design of many of the original Transformers toys. The arms are the only articulated parts of the robot, and even then every bit of the articulation is centered on the transformation and not an attempt to make this an action figure. I hate to admit it, but the newer toys are better action figures than the originals, though there’s still something remarkably fun about the toys like Pointblank that makes it will worth tracking down at least a few of the earlier Transformers to add to your collection.

Closing Thoughts

While today’s Titans Return* and Power of the Primes* toys are a significant improvement in terms of playability over some of the Transformers toys released five or six years ago, it’s tough to beat the nostalgic fun of a design like Peacemaker. A brick of a robot, yes, the overall design is still cool enough that it’s great to look at, a joy to transform, and fits in nicely with my entire collection of Transformers toys. I’ll likely never try to collect all of the original Targetmasters, but Peacemaker was a must since it’s one of the few Targetmaster toys I owned as a kid. Great work, Hasbro of the eighties, and now let’s see you re-imagine the design for release today.