5. "Insiders Guide" to white IGA Tailgate (long...)
Posted by: "Martin Soenderby Lund"
Date: Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:01 am ((PST))
Hey gang,
Have tracked down a very nice white IGA Tailgate for myself, and found
some minute details that probably is too hardcore for most, but what I
personally think is fun and games. :)
As Maz points out in his excellent article on the white IGA Tailgate, it
is indeed the "missing link" between Windcharger and Tailgate, but if you
really go into the minute moulding details, it's actually something of
it's own.
I once sat down and made a list of moulding differences on the Windcharger
mould -- based on the units I had/have access to -- which actually became
much more elaborate and in-depth that I had planned. Also, it became a bit
confusing and hard to access, kind of like the Magnus page on the
Variquest, so I will try not to get into too much detail about it here. ;)
Anywho, for this post the following is the need-to-know info when looking
at the IGA Tailgate:
* Standard Hasbro pre-rub Windcharger :
- light orange/red hull color with grey torso
- narrow stomach indentation
- Takara Japan stamping on right leg
- narrow hub cap indents
* Standard Hasbro Tailgate :
- white hull color with teal torso
- (c) Hasbro 83, 85 on right arm (years blocked)
- limb lettering (various permutations)
- wheel rivets
- narrow hub cap indents
- (c) Takara Co., Ltd. on left leg; Japan 1983 1985 on right leg
(1973 blocked out and 1985 added)
Why I am using the pre-rub mould as the one base reference? Because there
are actually more differences between the pre-rub and the rub mark Windy
than the rub mark and the hull colors, like a difference in the size of
the stomach indentation, as seen here (even though it's a Joustra in the
picture on the left, if is mouldwise identical to the pre-rub regarding
the torso):
http://www.hum.aau.dk/~mslu97/ebay/windcharger/Joustra_rub.jpg
Needless to say, I have found the IGA Tailgate to be more akin to the
pre-rub, as I have categorized the various types of Windcharger releases
based on the torso mould.
Let's get to it -- IGA Tailgate in PAIN STAKINGLY much detail:
* Off-white hull color with dark blue torso
I suspect most of my Hasbro Tailgates are just old (or maybe I need to
clean my glasses -- who knows?), but I find the white color on both the
IGA and Hasbro releases to be very close to one another, but still, the
IGA being a bit "warmer". The off-white happens to be veeeeery close to
Estrela's white Camaro, and the mold detailing on the hood is much crisper
on the IGA than the Estrela.
The torso color is indeed a nice dark blue -- almost metallic, and with a
lot of tell-tale and lovely "swirliness" to it. But still, very much
different than the teal (a slight blue-ish green) used on all the Hasbro
Tailgates I have access to.
* Narrow stomach indentation
And this is why I categorize the IGA with the pre-rub Windy: The stomach
indentation. All rubmark/darker red Hasbro Windchargers I have seen
have a slightly larger stomach area, for reasons unknown. The next item
could also help underline this as having pre-rub relations:
* Narrow hub cap indents
I know that there are a few units out there of the pre-rub persuation
with wide hub cab indents, but I have yet to see one in the flesh. ;) So,
as far as I am concerned, the IGA Tailgate still follows the pre-rub
traits. But now we're getting to the interesting bits:
* (c) Takara Co., Ltd. on left leg; Japan 1973, 1985 on right leg
This stamping is only found on the rubmark Windcharger (note especially
the date 1985) as this is what the un-blocked stamping from the Hasbro
Tailgate looks like. So, the leg moulds are apparently from the rubmark
version, while the torso is from the pre-rub. But what about the arms?
* (c) Hasbro 1974 1983 on right arm, different than standard Tailgate
Compare this to the stamping on the Hasbro Tailgate above. Not much
different except for how the years are printed, but -- and this is where I
should have had access to a camera -- the font used is slightly smaller on
the IGA than on the Hasbro units. Also, the years on the Hasbro units are
printed on top of a block, a block which isn't found on the IGA.
Hatch once most graciously hooked me up with a transitional and/or very
late rubmark Windcharger (thanks buddy -- I still owe you!), where the arm
stamping otherwise associated with the Hasbro Tailgate was present as
well, but here the "original", un-blocked dates were present (74, 83),
which also differs from the IGA Tailgate. So my theory is, that IGA did
their very own tooling of the arms. The next item may help underline that:
* Arm lettering (l/r from rear): A/B
We have arm lettering, people. Introduced on the rubmark Windy and carried
over into the Tailgate mould, the Hasbro releases had them placed on the
inside shoulder sections of the arms. However, IGA placed these letters i
the armpits, which is something I have never seen on any other Windy
mould. Which permutations exist is of course impossible to say, so I guess
I'll just leave it at that.
But I guess the main point here is, that IGA's mould was a Frankenstein of
various accessible mould sections: pre-rub torso, rubmark legs and unique
arms. Gotta love to those mexicans. :) And no, I don't think my unit here
is the one-off Frankenstein, as the original papery Autobot sticker
covering the stomach screw is still present and untampered with.
All this also applies to the yellow IGA Tailgate, as far as I can tell
from Maz' article, BTW, and those feeling adventurous enough to delve into
my Windcharger classification chart can access it here:
http://www.hum.aau.dk/~mslu97/windy.txt
/Martin, REALLY needing a camera by now...
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