DAY 17- Hooligan (Generation 2)

January 17th, 2015. Day 17 of 365.

Ah the early 90's. I remember them well. Teenagers with Attitude defended the same Californian city over and over again with giant robots. Sega claimed to be doing what Nintendidn't. I learned how to potty train and popped my older brother's waterbed for throwing out my pogs.

Good times.

Coming off of a several year long hiatus in the United States, Transformers came back in the early 90's with their second generation of robots in a toyline called "Generation 2". While the initial line began with many mold reuses from Generation One, many new toys were produced in the three years the line existed with my favorite subclass being the Generation 2 Cyberjets. The Cyberjets were small (think Modern Scout) sized Transformers all based on real world aircrafts (regardless of how outlandish their paint decos became) with unprecedented levels of articulation- something RARELY seen in Transformers up until that point, paving the way for the style of Beast Wars which launched the year after.

Hooligan and his other Cyberjet brothers were the beginning of the era that started my love of the Transformers brand. While I no longer have the toy, one of the few hand-me-downs I had from my older brother before I started caring about Transformers was a junker Generation Two Space Case alongside a few G1 Pretenders without their shells or weapons. Before Beast Wars had begin to air, I was neck-deep inside one of the biggest toyline crazes of the 1990s: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. That line was full of inarticulate bricks and static toys, and the lone Space Case I had amazed me in comparison to the experience I had during my early Power Ranger days.

I never knew for years what that toy was, as I wasn't aware that the toy was even a proper Transformer until the early 2000s when I first discovered the internet. Instead as time went on, Beast Wars began to air and as I began to buy and play with the Beast Wars style of figures (especially the Basic class flipchangers) memory began to fade of the cyberjet style that came before, only to return to me from a junker table in the back corner of the BotCon 2012 Dealer room for $3.

"You paid $3 for me?! I should push you down some stairs and maybe also light you on fire."

And of the cyberjets, Hooligan is my clear favorite. Apparently a massive prankster and overall jerk, Hooligan transforms into a highly detailed unproduced variant of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, albeit one decked out in a tiger-print style paint scheme. In vehicle mode, Hooligan has folding landing gear under his nose cone, and his wings can retract and extend.

For robot mode, his articulation count may be pretty low with his seven points of articulation. (EDIT, 1/18/15: He has NINE joints. I... look, man. I'm bad at math.) However, every single one of these joints is a balljoint with massive range (except for his head, whose balljoint range is limited in most directions) allowing for Hooligan to pull off some dynamic and impressive poses given how old his toy is.

Whatever you do, don't tell him he's actually incomplete. I'd like to be able to sleep tonight without being 1) on fire and 2) killed by being on fire.

And to make matters more hilarious, Tamashii Stage connections fit PERFECTLY in Hooligan's exposed hand in vehicle mode, and the unused missile launcher storage in robot mode. You're pretty great, Hooligan.

Day 17 Complete. 348 Remain.