eHobby Ghost Starscream

Stupid eHobby.  Here I am, getting close to my goal of finishing the US G1 run, and my mind gets stuck on eHobby releases.  The solution?  Why, getting Ghost Starscream, of course.  Besides, it's a Seeker mold, and I love those.

There really isn't much to know about this version of Starscream.  He was released in 2001, over 15 freaking years ago,  I remember seeing him on BigBadToyStore's site for what seemed like the longest time and I just kept passing on him.  There was a point in time where I didn't believe that eHobby figures were real Transformers.  Even though they were released by Takara, I just felt like they were non-entities.  Time and experience eroded that view, so I've some catching up to do.

I really like this iteration of Starscream.  He's just so cool looking, and he reminds me of one of those fabled "Lunchtime Specials" that I keep hearing about on the Internets.  And that nosecone!  The color is so light, yet it looks perfect next to the translucent plastic.  Look at those tail fins!

Look!  You can see through Starscream's wings!  So sexy.

Know the great thing about Takara Seekers?  Working missile launchers!  Know what's great about Ghost Starscream?  Everything! Man, check out those translucent fists!  Check out the translucent...everything!  This is a true piece of beauty.

Here's a profile shot. Starscream is so ghost-like.  I love how that orange canopy just stands out.  If you have to chance to grab one of these, pick one up.  Prices are all over the place on eBay.  I've seen these posted at prices ranging from $100-$200, all MISB.  I've also seen loose or MIB specimens going for $100.  With enough patience and luck, you should be able to get one at a decent price.  I got mine for $100, which I felt was a decent price.

Finally here's a shot of some Seekers, but not all that I own.  Don't pay any attention to the other eHobby Starscream.  We'll talk about him later...

Here they are in alt-mode.  I like Seekers, and I cannot lie.

Masterpiece Thrust

Look, another Seeker.  Man, Takara is really getting their money's worth out of this mold, not that I can blame them.  Thrust was always my favorite of the Coneheads, so surely he'll be my favorite of the Masterpiece Coneheads, right?

This is how Thrust was supposed to look, thanks to design by Floro Dery.  To be honest, I never really paid attention to the character model when I thought about Thrust beyond the head.  Until Masterpiece Ramjet, I hadn't realized that the bulky knees were a thing.  I don't even flip the nosecone up on the original figure.

Until now, I didn't realize just how close to the animation this guy was.  That actually adds a nice level of appreciation to Thrust and Ramjet now.  At any rate, articulation is pretty much what one would expect from this mold that's about 10 years old.  There appears to be a loose waist situation with a lot of these guys now, most likely from mold degradation.  Still, Thrust looks great in robot mode.

My, does Thrust look spectacular in jet mode.  Those VTOL wings look great in Masterpiece scale.

While Ramjet had shells that could fit over the null rays to give him a more cartoon accurate look, Thrust comes with null rays that fold up in this mode and extra missile pods that attach to the wings.  Very cool look.  This is how I wanted Thrust as a kid.  Man, those reds, grays, and blacks are just so gorgeous.  Just based on jet modes, Thrust is my favorite Masterpiece Seeker so far.

As much as I love Thrust, I do a have a minor quibble with the way the wings attach to the body in jet mode.  The right wing, left as you look at the picture, doesn't really want to tab in.  Every attempt to keep the wing in is momentary at best.  It doesn't look so bad in the picture, but it's annoying.  Thrust always looks like he's leaning.

Here's Masterpiece Thrust with his G1 version.  As you can see, they look just alike!

Thrust and Ramjet, together again, at last.  It's amazing what a set of wings can do to a figure.  I didn't really care for Ramjet mainly because of the bulky wings.

And now Thrust gets to live out his fantasy of taking out Prime.

I'm Back! What Am I Doing To Myself?!

Man, it's been awhile since I've posted anything on here.  Checking my posts, I haven't posted anything since sometime in May, which is a long time ago. What have I been up to?  There's all of the usual stuff - work, life, family, all of that, but it really came down to two things - rapid collection expansion and not enough time to document it.  From December 2015 until now, my collection has grown at an incredible (for me) rate.

Me.  This is to scale.

This exponential, unplanned growth meant that I had to spend a lot of time reworking my collection and display conditions.  I have very limited space, so that meant trimming even more.  Binlatechs, CHUGs, and others have been removed.  I still own them, for now, but they're in storage.  I also had to add more Detolf cabinets.

These are older pics, from July, when I was still setting things up and I added even more figures.  But you can judge just how limited my space is.  Still, this is better than the garage.

To make things even more difficult, since I only have about 30 figures left to get to complete my US G1 journey, I decided to up my game a little by going after MIB Action Master vehicles and MOSC Action Master single figures.

I figured that since no one but me seems to like Action Masters that this would be an easy proposition.  Guess who was wrong?  I've only been able to get Wheeljack MIB, and I'm about halfway through the single figures.  This has been an arduous process, and I'm not entirely sure that I have the willpower to finish that particular journey.

Well, thanks for being patient, all three readers.  Starting next week, I'll start cataloging all of my new(-ish) figures here.  Stay tuned!