Earthspark Hashtag

Prelude: Wow, I almost forgot to write the prelude. The humorous opener that’s supposed to get everyone interested in reading the rest of the review. But it’s getting hard, you know? I’ll give it a try, though. Hashtag is basically the modern-day internet addict, who spends most of her time online and considers the real world secondary at best. Is that a meta commentary about the Transformers online fandom? Or just about the current state of society? Whatever the case, it’s also a Transformers toy. Takara Earthspark Deluxe class Hashtag, to be precise. Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Hashtag is a figure that was originally a Warrior class toy but then got redesigned into a Deluxe class figure. More on that below. The figure itself does have a bit of a female air to it with a somewhat curved torso, but could just as well work as a male character, too, I think. The head captures the look of Hashtag from the Earthspark cartoon quite well, including the antenna that looks like it’s actually a hair style. Nicely done.

Personally, I very much like the look of the figure, the dark purple and grey colors work well and I love those shoulder pads that are actually part of the vehicle front. Hashtag has a miniscule backpack, really just the hood of the car folded backwards, otherwise she has a pretty clean silhouette. Articulation is pretty good, though more Warrior class than Deluxe class, as she is missing wrist and ankle movement. Still good enough for quite a few dynamic poses.

Hashtag carries two black blaster pistols as weapons, which she can hold in hand or store in one of three different places on her body. Either on the tabs on her lower legs (rather solid), the tabs on the side of her waist (not so solid) or by slotting the sights of the guns into the openings in the folded-back hood on her back (slide right back out). Personally, I prefer storing them on the back of her legs.

Now Hashtag has something like a secondary robot mode, because the Warrior class figure she was originally intended to be, was part of the “Combine & Ride” gimmick line. Twisting her lower body around, Hashtag folds up her legs and positions them over her shoulders as shoulder guns. Very much reminds me of Energon Towline (see the comparison pics I made), who is the surveillance van that Hashtag used to be. In their redesign, though, Takara removed the combiner port that was on Hashtag’s back, so she can no longer combine with the roof of other C&R figures’ vehicle modes. Not sure why they didn’t just leave that gimmick in place, to be honest.

Bottom line for the robot mode: pretty nice. I cannot really say how well it captures Hashtag’s robot appearance from the second season of the Earthspark cartoon (more on that below), but she looks very nice and the robot mode has no real flaws worth mentioning. The not-quite-there Combine & Ride gimmick is interesting and doesn’t really hurt the figure any.

Alternate Mode: Hashtag transforms into a kind of pickup truck. The transformation is pretty basic, she lies down on her stomach, pulls in the legs, and pulls the car hood over her head. That’s pretty much it. The resulting pickup truck does look pretty realistic… at least from the front. The truck bed, on the other hand, well, it’s hard to overlook that it’s two robot thighs you’re looking at there (and a bit of robot crotch, too, if you’re looking hard enough). Also, I’m not sure what those two thrusters pointing diagonally upward at the rear end are supposed to be (apart from guns in the cancelled combiner mode, naturally).

The rather strange truck bed aside, though, we have a nice vehicle mode with some painted details and a nicely sculpted front bumper. We have highly visible head syndrome on the underside, sure, but ever since the Bumblebee Movie we tend to accept that as canon. The two blasters from robot mode can be mounted on the sides of the truck bed.

On top of the driver’s cabin, you can see a rectangle that just screams “something is supposed to happen here” to the discerning Transformers fan. In this case, though, nothing happens. The panel is a replacement part for where the “Combine & Ride” plug used to be, that would have allowed other C&R figures to plug into Hashtag’s roof. Since that gimmick died a sudden death, Takara simply closed up the hole with an extra panel.

Bottom line: a decent car mode, though the open truck bed with the visible robot legs does drag it down a bit. 

Remarks: Cards on the table, I stopped watching Earthspark after the first few episode of season 2. I loved the first season, but the beginning of season 2 turned me off completely. So I only know Hashtag as she was in season 1, where she wore the guise of a G.H.O.S.T. surveillance van. Given the ending of season 1, I can imagine why she chose to select a different alternate mode for herself, of course. I still would have liked a properly-sized toy of her with the surveillance van alternate mode, but I’m happy to have her in any form at last.

As mentioned above, this figure was originally intended to be released in Hasbro’s Warrior Class with the Combine & Ride gimmick included, which would enable Hashtag to become an upper body to plug into the roof of another Warrior class figure’s vehicle mode or have other C&R figures plug into her roof in vehicle mode. Takara reengineered the figure, took out the gimmick, and replaced the bright pink paintjob with a darker one more in tune with her season 1 appearance.

I ordered this figure of Amazon Japan only a few weeks before the Hasbro Deluxe figure was announced and I had no idea that the Combine & Ride gimmick even existed at the time. I only figured that one out as I wrote this review, to be honest. Had I known everything I know now, I might have waited for the Hasbro Deluxe. Still, it’s a nice figure, nicely portrays Hashtag (who previously only had a Tacticon to her name), and rounds out my Earthspark Terran cast. So while not a perfect figure, it’s good enough for what it’s supposed to be. I might still check out the Hasbro Deluxe one of these days, though.

Rating: C+