Generations Selects Powerdasher Zetar

Prelude: Back in the early 80s Hasbro was licensing just about every transforming Japanese toy they could get their hands on for inclusion in their planned Transformers line. Quite a few of them never made it into the cartoon, such as the Powerdashers. 35 years later, though, the Powerdashers are suddenly back and appear as repaints of the Siege Weaponizers. Why? Nobody knows, but Zetar (aka the Drill Dasher) has a shiny new drill head, so who cares? Here we go!

Differences: Seeing as Zetar is a repaint of Brunt (with a shiny new drill head), we’ll just be talking differences here. See my Brunt review for more information on the mold itself. Zetar replaces Brunt’s mostly purple color scheme with yellow and black, same as the original Drill Dasher toy. And, of course, they needed to replicate the original’s awesome shiny drill head, too. So Brunt’s noggin’ had to go and was replaced by a squat little face with a glorious drill on top of it. The face is a very close match to that of the original G1 toy, too, so wonderful work here.

Of course the transformation scheme of the figure doesn’t lend itself to the drill ending up on front of the tank mode, so it needs to be removed and then plugged into the front. Given that the Brunt mold’s transformation requires some part-forming anyway, though, that doesn’t really make much of a difference. The drill makes for an extra weapon another figure can use when Zetar falls apart in Weaponizer mode, too.

So bottom line: an excellent reuse of a pretty brilliant figure. The color scheme might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but how can you not love that awe-inspiring drill head?

Remarks: The Powerdashers started out as mail-order exclusives in the original Transformers toy line and, as mentioned above, that was pretty much it for 35 years. They had some scant comic cameos across the years, but nothing else. It’s even debatable whether they are actual living Transformers or simply drones, what little official material there is about them never made that clear. So, yeah, the Powerdashers are pretty much a blank slate still in regards to characterization.

Being somewhat of a fan of obscure Transformers, I was very much excited for the Powerdashers appearing again. But while Aragon (the Cog repaint) and Cromar (the Sixgun repaint) don’t really appeal, I instantly fell in love with Zetar and his fantastic drill head. There is just so much nostalgia tied up in that design, harkening back to the late 70s and early 80s Anime robots and early Transformers. So if you have so much as a single nostalgic bone in your body, you really need this figure. Even if you already own Brunt.

Rating: A-