Those of you trying to remember who's Runamuck and who's Runabout, RunaBout is the Black one.  It's simple!  Keep that in your brain.

Anyway, it feels like six decades ago Hasbro had their last "vote on some stuff to see who we'll make," and we chose Runamuck, and so Hasbro made Runamuck (at regular retail), and they also released Runabout (as a Target exclusive).  They were the two Battlechargers back in 1986, which meant you pulled them back and they raced forward and autotransformed into robot mode.  Y'know, like 1987's Throttlebots but with autotransforming. 

Because of this, their robot modes were pretty simple!  The roof of the car flung forward, and there were sort of arms and sort of a face, and both wheels stayed behind on the ground.  They didn't really have arms (just door panels folded out) and so the guns attached on the toys by clipping over their shoulder.

Well, now you can replicate most of this again, just minus the pull-back motor autotransforming!  Runamuck and Runabout's weapons can be held in their hands, sure, but there's also 5mm ports on the tops of their shoulders so you can have them don their weapons like the original toys.  And even the character models drew both sets of wheels behind their feet, and so, yes, these new toys have two sets of wheels behind their feet -- though one set's fake, while the real rear wheels fold behind their torso!  Ridiculous cartoon accuracy isn't just for 1984 characters, my friends!  The Battlechargers are getting in on it, too!

Their transformation(s) are... a little more involved than the other carformers in Stege/Earthrise so far?  Like, they've been finding a nice happy place where transformation isn't super simple but also isn't annoying complex.  Things just go where they're supposed to, easily!  But the Battlechargers kind of throw a small-sized wrench in this trend.  Even forgetting that they have fake roof-chests in robot mode that they... honestly don't seem like they need to have, there's a lot of fiddly manuevering in the robot shoulder area during conversion.  It's not a fun time!  I mean, it's not the worst or anything.  It's just not fun.  The bar has been pretty high for a while, and this kind of whiffs it right below.  

Runamuck comes with Runabout's gun.  Runabout comes with... both of their guns, which combine end-to-end.  

Yay, the 2012 Transformers Collectors' Club membership figure, Runamuck, arrived in my mailbox today!  That is super good, because not only was his inseparable buddy Runabout fairly lonely, but because it arrived before I head out to BotCon tomorrow evening.  Sweeeeeet. (I will have a table in the Artist Alley again this year.)

I will say this: Runamuck (white) is waaaaaaaay way prettier than Runabout (black).  It's the cream and the orange and the gold.  They're just empirically more interesting than black/red/silver.  That's right, I'm stating it as a fact.  Try and stop me!

There isn't much left to say about the mold itself that I haven't said already.  This is my fourth version of it (Tracks/Wheeljack/Runabout) and I'm going to be getting a fifth version of it tomorrow night at BotCon (SG Tracks).  It's a good mold, so if I'm gonna have a lot of something, this is a good thing to have a lot of.  And they're all characters I like, so even more bonus.  (Well, I don't know what SG Tracks' personality is yet, but he's visually Road Rage, who I do like.  If I end up hating SG Tracks, I'll be happy to pretend he's Road Rage instead.)

This year's "get free with your membership" toy is Runamuck, and the Beavis to Runamuck's Butthead, Runabout, is one of this year's Transformers Club "you pay for this one" exclusives.  Runabout (renamed "Over-Run" because of trademark reasons) is gonna be on sale very soon!  And the sweet part is, Runabout comes with a box that fits both him and Runamuck, since the freeish Runamuck is a bagged exclusive.

My favorite of the two is Runamuck, the membership-included one.  The orange and white and gold makes me happy.  Runabout intrigues me less, since  he's black and red, which isn't as uncommon a color scheme, but you can't have one without the other.

So if you want the Battlechargers, I'd sign up for the Club to get Runabout and then keep your eyes on the web for Runabout/Over-Run to go up for order.  I'm pretty excited for them.  And for their box art!  It's Marvel-tastic!

Oh, and I guess there's a Shattered Glass Drift going up for order, too.   If you like both, uh, Drift and Deadpool, you'll like SG Drift.

One more thing: With your Club membership, you get a Recordicons strip by me in all six issues of the magazine.  I may show off a sweet panel from the first strip tomorrow or the next day.  I am super excited about it. Actually, my copy of the magazine just arrived, so I'm gonna blather about it now.

Simon Furman's not the only guy revisiting a branch of the original Marvel Transformers universe this year, 'cuz BotCon (and Shattered Glass) are Marvel-bound this year as well!  This gives me the opportunity to feature all sorts of new little tape dudes I didn't previously have access to.  And so in the first Recordicons of the year, I pit Ravage against Ravage.  And in subsequent installments, I have some similar ideas I plan to attend to.

Anyway, I'm just super stoked, because I just wrote my first canon-for-thea-Marvel-Comics-continuity bit of fiction.  That old stuff was my best friend when I was a kid.  I am not joking.

So, dudes, if you want a year of Collectors' Club magazines featuring my Recordicons strips, plus the Runamuck toy included in the subscription price, that'd be pretty swell.  If you dig Transformers, I recommend it!  Here's the website.

Remember, the one with the "b" in the name is the black one.  ...except for in this case, because Runabout's name is now Over-Run.  Dammit, FP, you broke my mnemonic device!