Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Random Thoughts Part 100

It "snowed" here in good ol' Alabama yesterday and they "snow" has basically frozen and I'm now surrounded by ice.  Seeing as how I've been playing with the kids outside, I haven't really had a chance to finish the article that I was working on, so I'll just post some random thoughts.  Why is it up to Part 100?  I can't remember where I left of with the last one and I'm too lazy to go back and look!

Masterpiece Wheeljack is a reality now that I've seen the prototype pics.  I'm loving him so far, even if others are thrown off by his chest.  I upgraded my preorder for the version with the coin and the anti-hypnosis device.  I am wondering if the wings will come off during transformation or if they're integrated into the car mode.  Either way, he looks great.  Now if only we can get a prototype of Bumblebee, Ultra Magnus and Star Saber...

www.bigbadtoystore.com
As I was going to bed last night, I received an email from BigBadToyStore letting me know that they had just put up a preorder for an exclusive Masterpiece Bluestreak.  Before I even had a chance to react, I had preordered it.  There aren't even any details about it yet, but that's how much I love Bluestreak.  Hopefully it's the Diaclone colors. 

I can't find the wave that has Skids in it.  It's becoming a thing.  What makes me really ticked off is that I run a store!  Just two weeks ago, I ordered 12 cases of Generations figures to create a display, in the hopes that I would get Skids and the wave with Scoop.  The orders were cancelled by my warehouse, just as they've been doing since November.  I finally reached out to the big wigs at the Home Office to find out what the deal was, and they're blaming trouble at the ports where the ships come in.  This is not a good deal, man.  Not good.  I could just buy the entire wave from TFSource, but what's the point of that if I only want the one figure?  He's going for like $40 on eBay for some reason, so I'm apparently not the only one.  I'm hoping for a Takara United version like they're doing with Waspinator.  At least I don't seem to be the only person that's having this problem.

www.tfsource.com
I've been really thinking about getting a Diaclone Fairlady Z.  I've been told that they go for $20,000 USD.  Is this true?  If so, that's insane.  Or is it insane that I think $3,000 is a fair price?  Why would I think $3,000 is a good price for a toy?  Have I been bitten?

I got a new light tent!  It's huge - 40 inches!  I can fit everything in there.  It even came with two lights that are brighter than the sun.  Since I have such a huge backlog of pics that I'm reviewing, look for those in a couple of months.  Speaking of which, I'm going to try to clear up the backlog by going to two posts a weeks, with the second post being on Fridays.  So, look for that starting this Friday.

Hey, if you want to talk Transformers, you can look me up on Facebook - I'm Alex Mendoza. 

Things have been busy here at the house, winter fun aside.  We're expecting baby number 4!  Here's how I announced it on Facebook:
That's it for this week!  Next week - back to regular articles!



14 comments:

  1. Wait, your wife is Prowl? Your daughter is a Jumpstarter?!?

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    1. My daughter is a Jumpstarter. It led to a difficult birth, what with the ginormous feet...

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  2. Also, do I need to look for Skids for you? Though he may have dried up here.

    I'm not sure what peeing match we're all having about the weather. My wife grew up in DC and I had been there when there was a layer of frost on the ground and the whole place ground to a halt.

    We've got this deep freeze going on despite the snow. The freeze eased up today, it's a balmy 20-something degrees, but supposedly we've got three days of snow coming in...which has been the pattern: snow, deep freeze, snow, deep freeze...so tired of it!

    I don't have 7 feet of snowbanks at the end of my driveway like SOME people in Toranah, but I saw the pic of Atlanta highway gridlock and I thought, "you know, I can still see the grass beneath some of that snow..."

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    1. If you happen to run across a Skids, I'd appreciate it. My patience on that is wearing thin.

      As far as the winter weather, it's odd. I've lived in Niagara Falls, Buffalo and West Lafayette, IN and never had this kind of problem. Then again, my only driving experience was in Indiana, as I wasn't old enough to drive in the other places. The problem comes with the fact that no one here has any experienced with driving with ice on the ground. I witnessed someone turn into a parking lot, and the driveway in had ice on it. They whipped in like the street was normal, and they began to skid and hit the pole holding the stop sign. My sister-in-law lives in Birmingham, AL and got stuck in her car for close to six hours on the street. I was amazed. People were acting like the world was coming to an end. The coldest it got during the day was like 31 degrees. Funny stuff.

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    2. I'll do what I can to search for Skids around here. Scoop and that wave may be showing up soon if they haven't already, so hopefully Skids didn't dry up. Not helping is that pattern I described is still going on. (Sorry, I just saw your reply today.)

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    3. Thanks! I knew I shoulda just preordered the entire wave...

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  3. Massive congratulations on the upcoming addition! So what's more exciting, a new kid or MP Wheeljack? :D

    New light tent with lights brighter than the sun, shadowy preorders, increased posting... You've got it all going on! Glad to hear things are going well. And for my money, Bluestreak will be the Diaclone blue version, but I guess we'll wait and see...

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    1. Thanks! Since they're both due around the same time, I can be super excited and no one will be the wiser!

      I so hope that the new Bluestreak will be the Diaclone. I'm like 100% sure. Then again, we could wind up with a Golden Lagoon version. Which would be awesome, but gaudy. BTW, I managed to finally approve your request on TFW2005!

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  4. I like these "Random Thought" posts that you do Alex....lots of things to think about.

    Ugh.....another MP preorder....I just can't do it, especially since I already have that figure.......but the Diaclone colours would be pretty sweet looking.

    Congrats on the upcoming new addition to your family.....I'm in the same boat myself (1 month to go and counting for our 2nd one) so I completely understand how you can be so busy.

    That new light tent sounds really exciting too. I'm in the process of trying to come up with the same kind of lighting environment that you have....just looking for some new changes and improvements in my photography.

    What were you using prior to this new light tent?

    Looking forward to your next post.

    Cheers,
    Joe

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    1. Thanks! The prior light tent that I had was a little 16" kit from cowboystudio, but it was just too much hassle. The lights were kind of bright, but they got super hot. This new setup isn't nearly as hot and it's much brighter. The link for the new one is
      http://www.cowboystudio.com/product_p/ez1624kit_tent.htm

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  5. My light tent is a 24" one, Have to be able to fit Fort Max and the new Metroplex in it lol.

    The last Diaclone Bluestreak I seen was $32k MIB. when I can buy new car for less than the price of a toy, I'm out lol.

    Skids wave hasn't shown up here either, getting kind of perturbed. I am really excited for him, so I hope I can find him soon.

    Congrats on the new addition

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    1. I swear I just choked on my sandwich reading that price! I asked my wife if I could buy Diaclone Bluestreak after the new one us born and I get all if that paid off, and I now have a black eye.

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  6. I found my Skids by trawling TFW2005's sightings threads, and eventually tracked him down at a Kroger of all places. It was a long search, though, and so far that's been the only time I've seen that wave in a store (admittedly I haven't gone out looking since).
    Distribution on the Generations line has been pretty good up to this point, though, so I dunno if it's time for desperate measures yet.

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    1. I've been doing a lot of digging into this Skids issue and I've come across some interesting tidbits. I'll be showcasing that info in the next article.

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