The upcoming article is about Takara’s ‘Penny Racers’ cars - little pullback toys that could change direction with the help of coins.  Very few of you probably remember these, but I thought there was enough there to warrant a tribute.  They’re actually even a little bit before my time, but I remember having ‘em and they gave me an excuse to make a logo with giant pennies.  So there.

Just got a TF question from reader Kyle Turner: “Sorry to bother you with a completely random mail from a reader, I know how busy writing these articles can keep a person, but you seemed to be the person to ask about this one. I remember as a kid, a particular Transformers gestalt that had a weird black & orange lion thing as the body of it (or maybe it was the leg, I don’t remember.) I know that description of the toy would bear a remarkable resemblance to Voltron, but it wasn’t Voltron. I can’t for the life of me remember what the thing was called. Am I remembering something that didn’t exist?”

Answer:  That’s an easy one.  Predaking.  It was one of the last gestalt teams from the line, made up of the Decepticon Predacons.  It’s got a real high price tag these day, which is expected since the Predacon combiners are far larger and better made than any of the other gestalt teams.  I remember selling a complete Predaking for something like 300 bucks even before I started X-E, so I can only imagine that it’s going for at least that much nowadays, if not higher.  Here’s a few pics…