Transformers: Titans Return Triggerhappy

 

Found in November and still not appearing with regularity, the third wave of Titans Return Deluxes was a good bunch overall. It contained a surprisingly likeable repaint, a total surprise of a figure, a surprisingly flawed figure, and a totally surprising transformation scheme.

Surprise! Titans Return Triggerhappy is the clear winner of the wave. Like Twinferno, Triggerhappy is a figure I was super excited about, having had one as a kid and seeing the 2016 version as a nearly perfect update. Aside from now being a Headmaster, that is. OG Triggerhappy was a Targetmaster, and Blowpipe, his partner, transformed into an overly large blaster. But no longer. Blowpipe is now a Titanmaster, and thus turns into Triggerhappy’s head.

Totally natural. I move like this all the time.

Triggerhappy’s transformation is an absolute joy. Deceptively simple, the figure looks like it should be a basic flip up jet nose, fold up robot legs deal, but the marvel comes in the form of the robot torso. The entire torso spins around on a peg, so that the waist of the robot forms the back end of the jet cockpit. It is a total surprise in hand, and one that really, really delights. I spent a few minutes trying to get things to line up before I realized that it was impossible because I was leaving out this step. It was another one of those coveted “wow” moments, the ones that you really appreciate and love as a grown man playing with toys. Unlike Twinferno, all the parts of Triggerhappy line up great and the alt mode is super solid. But, more on that later.

In robot mode, Triggerhappy looks like Triggerhappy. As a kid playing with the G1 version, one thing I always loved was the chest cockpit. The Seekers had chest cockpits, and so in my young mind, all Decepticon jet mode characters should have chest cockpits. Decepticons, at least: I can’t rightly say what I thought about jet mode Autobots. Probably just that they should have car window boobs or something to that effect. Anyway, I’ve always felt that there’s an important visual unity among robots with either cockpit chests or with the nose of the jet hanging off the back of the robot, and figures that don’t follow this pattern always do seem lightly odd to me. While this does restrict the transformation scheme or body layout, for me, the stronger team aesthetic vastly outweighs a generally predictable transformation. Another extra strong part of the Triggerhappy profile is the arms. Sure, they just form the sides of the vehicle, but it’s the vehicle parts on them that make them so distinctive. 

The shoulders are topped with the two paired jet engines, and the wrists accommodate not only hands, but the twin double barreled blasters that the jet mode features. The jet weapons fold up and run parallel to the robot arms, but can be deployed in robot mode if the hand is folded away. As a kid, I always thought Triggerhappy was like the ultimate weapon: carrying a blaster, having paired cannons on each arm and, thanks to imagination, the arms could be flipped around to have the engines pointing forward, which I always imagined were grenade launchers or something like that, some kind of additional weapons. Kind of like that scene in Transformers: The Movie when Daniel can’t figure out how to get the exosuit to transform (because he was an annoying dumbass) yet makes the arms turn into some kind of blaster to save his dad and Bumblebee. Thanks for that, Daniel. Anyway, the robot mode is about as poseable as a modern Deluxe can be, and isn’t hindered by the larger arms at all. Because of the transformation Triggerhappy has a waist joint, which is pretty cool.

The Titanmaster here is Blowpipe, and is a completely competent head. The face is a nice one, but while I remember Triggerhappy having a mouth, Titans Return Triggerhappy has a full face plate. I prefer the face plate, as I don’t understand why robots would need functional mouths when they don’t eat or drink and their faces are made out of metal; a face plate is also way, way cooler. So the face plate isn’t an issue, but it is a difference if that concerns you. Blowpipe gets to sit in the excellently rendered cockpit of the jet mode, and it looks like a ton of fun for him. The weapons are, again, in the Highbrow style, so they are good both as robot weapons and as a seat for a Titanmaster. And, on the subject of the Titanmaster, I feel I should add that Blowpipe's little face is the face of G1 Triggerhappy. So there. It's meta.

Jet mode is the G1 futuristic fighter jet of old, now perhaps not looking as futuristic as it once did. Original Triggerhappy came out in 1987, and at that time, we were all still enraptured by this “world of tomorrow” type of vehicle, this kind of space aged “distant future” of the in-universe year 2005. At this point, I don’t think there’s much about the design that’s ‘futuristic,’ because we’ve seen it before. In the late 80’s, vehicles like this and Hot Rod and Blur were super out-there designs; not to say that I see cars like Hot Rod and Blur every day, but by now, they’re more like expected, standardized kinds of vehicle designs for what a future vehicle may look like. The typical futuristic, I suppose (patent pending). Triggerhappy has a fold out front landing gear, and again, Blowpipe rides in a cockpit that is among the best designed in the line so far, right up there with figures like Blur and Highbrow and Hardhead. The weapons plug in underneath the wings, giving Triggerhappy a really beefed up, bristling with firepower appearance. A good look, really. Overall, jet mode Triggerhappy is excellent and cool, the kind of vehicle you imagine you’re flying around in as you ride your bike around the neighborhood as a kid, pretending your bike is some kind of fighter plane or an X-Wing or something.

Triggerhappy really is the winner of Wave 3, hands down. While Twinferno wound up in second place due to nepotistic nostalgia, Triggerhappy is without question the highlight figure he was expected and anticipated to be. It was recently revealed that a Slugslinger and Misfire are on the way, although we don’t exactly know when, and that they will both be made from the Triggerhappy mold, and that’s fine. The toy is solid enough that repeated uses shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It will also be super cool to have all three of the Decepticon Targetmasters redone in the updated style, something that I’m personally looking forward to. They look to be pretty substantial retools too, not simply repainted or anything like that, but featuring a bunch of new parts and even, it looks like, enough alterations to the robot modes so as to get the chest cockpit thing out of the way so that it’s not visible; Triggerhappy was the only one of the three that had that. It makes you wonder if the Autobot Targetmasters are in the works as well, for the sake of parity.

As I’d said with Weirdwolf, one of the greatest joys that an action figure can provide is a sense of that childhood excitement that you had when you were younger, and Titans Return Triggerhappy does exactly that. I can remember getting the original at a KB Toys in a rare display of affection from my mother, who then rectified the situation with more typical (for her, at least) mom behavior, so coming to own G1 Triggerhappy was always a real bizarre, bittersweet experience in my memory. Trying to not let this get all kinds of off the rails at the end here, but recently in a write up of the Generations Insecticons I wrote about how even as a kid I always tried real hard to keep my toys in good order; but not Triggerhappy. My Triggerhappy broke: the translucent cockpit plastic was basically glued in, if I remember correctly, and the toy fell off a table or something and the plastic popped out. I was never really upset about this, because despite really liking the toy I’d built up a generally negative feeling towards it. I know that that is a really random and nonsensical to the casual observer story, and I’ll possibly just take it out entirely, but at any rate, I am happy to have a Triggerhappy that I can be happy about. I’m beginning to worry that my articles may be trending too confessional, and for some reason I think that that’s bad blogging form. So maybe Triggerhappy doesn’t bring me joyful childhood nostalgia, but it does hit emotional buttons for me from my childhood, and I guess I’m always grateful for that on some level.

 

Titans Return Triggerhappy is a fantastic toy, easily the best out of the third Deluxe wave. I can’t accurately call him the best Deluxe in the line, not yet at least, but he would definitely be in contention for that title. I’ve seen some complaints about him on the fan sites, but I don’t get it. This is a terrific toy; bring on Slugslinger and Misfire.