Decisions, Decisions

I've hit upon something of a dilemma recently, which came as a bit of a surprise to me.  Normally, I'm an up for anything kind of guy when it comes to buying figures.  There are very few G1 figures that I don't want or will not purchase.  The exceptions are pretty much the Powerdashers and Mini-Spies.  Now I've run across another subset that is giving me fits - eHobby exclusives.

There are only a few characters that I actually want: Anime Streak, Nucleon Quest Convoy, Road Rage, Crosscut, Roadhauler, Clamp Down, Deep Cover, Ghost Starscream, and Tigertrack.  Not a lot, right?  Those nine figures are ridiculously expensive. 

Deep Cover tfwiki.net

Oh, they aren't priced like Star Saber, or Metal Hawk, but for what they are, they're expensive.  I think that what it boils down to for me is that I'm paying so much for a figure that I know I'm going to open.  Because what's the point in having a figure if it stays in the box, forever locked in a prison?

"I was in one scene!  Don't keep me imprisoned!"  tfwiki.net

Each and every time I look on eBay for one of these guys, my circuits sizzle.  The worst part is that I only have myself to blame.  Whenever I would see a preorder for anything eHobby when they were released, I would just let out a little laugh and scoff at the very idea of spending more money on what was essentially a repaint.  I was ignorant back then.  The history behind the repaints were lost on me.  What's more, I never considered the eHobby figures to be "official", whatever that means. 

My ignorance is going to cost me tfwiki.net

By the time I finally wised up to what I was missing, prices went through the roof.  Of course, as eHobby offers new G1 repaints, I've been getting them now so I don't have to pay through the nose for them later.  So far, eHobby has only offered the black Ironhide repaint and the Shattered Glass Blaster/Soundwave box set.  I was hoping for a Grand Maximus repaint when Fort Max was released last year, but that has yet to happen.

Lonely eHobby Ironhide

While it may seem as though I'm complaining and lamenting my past decisions, I'm not.  Nor am I trying to talk myself out of buying any of them.  Really, I think that I'm using this time to come to peace with future decisions.  Only future knows what it holds, so we'll cover that ground when we get to it.

Platinum Edition Optimus Prime and a Really Bad Joke

So not too long, I received at my UPS mailbox a nice little delivery from BigBadToyStore - Platinum Edition Optimus Prime, also known as Year of the Horse Optimus Prime.  Why Year of the Horse?  Because of Chinese New Year, silly.  I'm actually a Snake, which works for my personality, according to friends that want me to enter politics.  At any rate, why'd I buy a repaint of Masterpiece Optimus Prime that features so much gold, especially when I hate gold?  Beats me.

Here's Prime in his box.  As you can see, it's a box.  I want to say that Guido Guidi did the box art, but I'm horrible at these things.

Prime's Bio

Side of the box

As referenced in the above picture, YOTH Prime is 12 of 30, making him extremely rare.  Apparently, only 30 were made and I snagged the 12th one!  I'm sorry, my producer is telling me that I'm incorrect in my assumption.  It turns out that YOTH Prime is part of the Thrilling Thirty line.  I really thought I had something rare.  Whatever, I'm still ok with that.  Did you know that my YOTH Prime has a self-esteem problem?  He's so down on himself that he was constantly staring down at the floor when I opened up the little cardboard flap on the front of the box.

"I'm so sad..."

Enough of the box, time to pull this guy out and see how he measures up.

One of the first things that I noticed with this version of the MP-10 mold is that his feet are certainly sturdier than my original MP-10.  Mine have gotten a little loose over time.  My MP-01 suffers the same affliction.  Oh, there's also the altered Autobot insignia on his right shoulder.  From my understanding, a horse is added to the logo?  I'm not really sure.

The darker reds and blues make a difference on this guy.  That's the main draw for me, actually.  I know that they're not the original colors, or close to them, but they just look so striking.  Then there's that gold.  Ugh.  Gold, the color I hate more than anything.  My wedding ring (sorry ladies) is actually white gold because I hate the color gold.  Still, the rest of the darker colors kind of minimize the gold accents for me.  Kind of.  That's a lot of gold, though.

Prime comes with the standard Energon Axe.  Really, I'm sick of seeing this as an accessory.  Can't we get a Prime that comes with a jet pack, or extra gun?  Really, I would have gladly gone without the axe if this version came with Roller.  Speaking of which...

Here's Prime with his trailer opened up into base mode.  Aside from the obvious translucency of the trailer, you should notice two things: first, the giant Autobot insignia on the back of the trailer and second, the lack of Roller and Spike.  I could really care less about Spike, but an Optimus Prime without Roller is not Optimus Prime.  Well, I guess he is in every other continuity, but not G1, by Crom.  I would have shown you a picture of the trailer in it's proper mode, but with all of the pictures I took, that one seemed to have been completely forgotten about.

Here's a closeup of the - repair bay?  Satellite?  I've never been too sure about what it is.  That seems to be a recurring theme with my collecting - I don't know a lot.  Makes me wonder what I'm doing collecting and writing a blog.  At any rate, it's always reminded me of the scout from "More Than Meets the Eye" when it went looking for Earth alt-modes for all of the broken Transformers on the Ark.  I can hear it now "Explore!  Explore!"

Here's YOTH Prime with MP-10.  Man, that gold just really stands out. 

Aerial view

YOTH and MP-10 Primes in robot mode

 Whelp, that's it for this post.  While the gold on this iteration of Prime is far from subtle, the striking colors and cool translucent trailer kind of make up for that.  If you already have MP-10 or the Hasbro version, then you pretty much know what to expect with this figure.  Now, I believe I owe you a really bad joke, as the title suggested.  So, I'll have to set it up a bit.  Anyone a fan of the band Styx?  It's ok, you don't have to admit it, no one ever admits to liking Styx.  Unless they're drunk and doing karaoke or alone in the car.  Hopefully if you're familiar with Styx, you'll get this.  It's been going through my head since I got YOTH Prime.

I actually went on imgur to make this

Thank you!  Goodnight!

Glacialord Part VI - Glacialord!

So one day, while checking out the great PaxCybertron site, I saw this picture:

PaxCybertron.com

Even with only 3/5 of him completed, Glacialord looked impressive.  I had to get him.  And I have.

Here he is completed.  Before I go any further, I'd like to point out one thing that I love about the combination process.  While the feet are part of Razorspike and Tailclub's animal modes, the fists are another matter.  The fists are actually hidden in Glacialord's top cannons.  Pretty nifty.

Glacialord is pretty impressive.  He's wide-bodied and I was instantly reminded of Defensor.

As you can see, they both have thick torsos.  Glacialord is taller, but both Defensor and Glacialord have very similar looks.  Even their heads are similar.

To create Glacialord's weapon, Fangro and Tailclub attach their weapons to Tuskor's.  It looks pretty neat.  Have I mentioned how tall Glacialord?

He's pretty much the same height as Superion, the tallest of the Scramble City combiners.  Which reminds me - Glacialord is based on the Scramble City techniques.  You can make any of the limbs whichever limb you so choose.  Neat.

I don't think I could have asked for a better entry into 3rd Party products than the RetroFuture project.  It sticks pretty closely to the G1 aesthetic while adding it's own little twist.  Maybe I'll try out another 3rd Party product.  Thanks to PaxCybertron and Arkvander for giving me my first glimpse of this wonderful figure. 

Adventures in Toy Hunting!

Has it been a couple of weeks since I last posted a non-review?  I need to slow down some.  The reality is that I dedicate like one day a week to working on the blog, and it's been pretty hectic so I haven't had a chance to sit down and write.  Enough of the excuses, it's rambling time!

As much as I love where I live, there have been a few times over the twenty years that I've lived here where I've contemplated moving.  The reason?  Lack of a collector community.  Let me explain.  We have two comic shops now.  When I first arrived, comic shops were like 7-11's (something else we don't have here) - one on every corner.  Now my options are limited to a guy at a flea market, or the awesome comic shop that I actually frequent.  And by frequent, I mean I show up when my Transformers comics come in.  If I actually want to buy a vintage Transformer?  I'm out of luck.  Seriously out of luck.  Still, I do like to try to find what I can locally and as such, I struck out a few weeks ago and did some looking around at places I rarely go.

First, I went to the flea market, of which I'm not a fan.  It's always crowded, everyone is smoking, and the only wares for sale are knock off designer clothes and handbags.  At any rate, there is a guy there that you could charitably call a vintage toy dealer.  He's more like a guy that finds toys on the side of the street and sells them.  I've talked about this guy before, and for some reason, I decided to give him another shot.

Here's a nice shot of his stall.  He actually cleaned up and organized!  Yes, this mess is actually organized.  At least he doesn't have the rack of figures that are zip tied to the rack anymore.

Feeling brave, I actually spent about 30 minutes digging around the place to see what I could find, Transformer-wise.  What I found was the same headless Warpath that he had the last time I was there like 2 years ago.  Price?  $10.  On to other ventures.

About a week ago, I had to buy a new headset for the 360.  I generally prefer the wired headsets, but I have kids and they've already broken 3 headsets, so I decided to go wireless.  I didn't feel like going to a GameStop, so I decided to try out a used game store by my house called "Play and Call" or something like that.  What I saw when I walked in was pretty impressive.  They had vintage games and systems!  Dreamcast!  Nintendo 64!  Old Sega!  NES!  They also had cheap game accessories that I wouldn't put near my 360.  As I wondered around place, I realized that they had a second room.

In this second room were quite a few long boxes of comics.  A lot of the comics that they had were Marvel Transformer issues.  And a lot of early 1990's Image.  I mean a lot.  Like Darker Image?   They had it.  Same thing for a lot of Youngblood.  However, they did have a wall that had this:

They had a ton of 1990's Star Wars figures, which aren't pictured, but they had quite a bit of MISB M.A.S.K. and Go-Bots.  I don't know how well everything will show up in the above pic, since I took it with my phone, but there are some deluxe Go-Bots on the middle shelf.  The prices were a bit high for me, the deluxes were $50, when I think they should be around $30.  I didn't bother talking to the guy working there since he was pretty swamped, but if I were so inclined, I'm sure I could haggle the prices down. 

So that's what I have available to me if I want to shop locally for vintage toys.  A disgusting flea market stall or an overpriced video game shop.  I wonder if my wife would want to move to Singapore just so I can buy Transformers locally?  Whelp, guess it's time to stalk eBay and the forums again...

Glacialord Part V - Tuskor!

Ah, the majestic wooly mammoth.  The titan of the frozen tundra.  The owner of the biggest pair of tusks ever.  The leader of a disparate group of prehistoric mammals?

Tuskor was released last summer as a sort of early bird special at TFCon along with Tailclub and Fangro.  Since I don't keep tabs on the goings on of 3rd party companies, I had no idea about them until I read some reviews about them from Arkvander's Mostly Transformers Redux and Pax Cybertron.  After reading these, my curiosity was piqued, but I couldn't find the three that had been released for less than $500.  There was no way I was going to pay that price.  Thankfully, Fansproject released everyone later in the year.  Tuskor was part of my shipment of Megazero and Razorspike.

Having a mammoth isn't anything new.  In Beast Wars Neo, there was Big Convoy, who was a Mammoth, and then there was the TFCC exclusive Ultra Magnus which was a repaint of that figure.

Big Convoy TFWiki.net

 The mammoth mode is pretty bulky, as befitting a creature of this stature.

Sadly, Tuskor's legs don't move while in this mode.  There is articulation with the trunk, but I would have liked some leg articulation.  However, this is a very majestic looking figure.  Let's see how the trainer looks while mounted on Tuskor.

Safari, anyone?

Transformation is pretty straightforward, and after a few twists and some folding, you have a robot.

Wait, something doesn't look right.  Oh, I forgot a step.

That's better.  I'm not really sure why the trainer is needed if there's a head readily available for use.  At any rate, the mammoth's back forms a shoulder mounted shield.  I'm still not a fan of the idea of a shoulder mounted shield, but at least I don't have to worry about misplacing it.  Tuskor's gun is his trunk.

While not going to Big Convoy extremes, Tuskor does have some considerable back kibble.  Still, it looks good.  Articulation is pretty limited, but that's the point of this subgroup.  There are a few nice features about the figure that really come in to play when forming Glacialord, but we'll discuss those when we get to him.  Coincidentally, that's the next post!  See you next time!

Glacialord Part IV - Megazero

www.fpcore.com

Imagine my surprise when, anxiously expecting word on when the last three components would ship, that I log on to Facebook and saw the above picture on the Charticon page.  To go with the picture, was a little story about how the shipment that contained Megazero had been damaged by the Chinese shippers and was now lost at the bottom of the ocean.  Gullible me, I didn't even consider for a moment that this was some sort of prank from the Fansproject people.  Word soon spread that Fansproject had secured a second shipment from a Korean warehouse.  Again, gullible me.  The point of the Retrofuture project was to make it seem as though these were old figures that had been unearthed only recently.  Sometimes, sometimes I just don't think well.  That's what I get for trying to relax while at work.

Thanks to the "Korean warehouse find", my Megazero shipped on January 20th, and arrived at my door two days later.  Gotta love two day shipping.  So, was Megazero worth the imagined anguish?

Whoops!  Antlers are transformed incorrectly!

Megazero is an Irish Elk, which died out around 8,000 years ago, but newer studies seem to suggest that they may have died out more recently.  At any rate, I like this alt mode, it's unique.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of any actual Transformers that have had a deer or elk alt mode.  Also, I can't think of any other Technobot to compare him to, so that's pretty nifty.

To the Isle of Misfit Toys!

Once you slide the tab on his back, the trainer can ride.  I actually had trouble getting the trainer out after I took this picture.  I pushed him in way too far, but luckily, nothing broke or got scratched.  Megazero is constructed well.  With the way that the trainer is on Megazero's back, I keep wanting to make reindeer jokes.  No clue as to why, but they keep popping in my head.  Perhaps the trainer is working with Megazero so he can join in on the reindeer games?  I'll stop now.

Here we have Megazero in robot mode.  There really isn't anything exceptional about him, but I like the way the colors work on him.  The elk head turns into a sword.  I'm not really keen on it, since the sword isn't really held correctly; the edge should be facing out.  I suppose I could turn the handle, but these things only occur to me as I type up the review, not during the photo shoot.

Here's Megazero from a different angle so everyone can get a better look at the sword.  Megazero's elbow joints are amazing to me, for some reason.  They're the only point of articulation on him, and I'm fascinated by them.  I'm a weird guy.

Overall, Megazero isn't anything to write home about.  His robot mode is what I've come to expect for a figure that is trying to mimic G1 style figures, albeit slightly updated.  The sword could have used more work, but it serves it's purpose, I suppose.  The most interesting aspect to Megazero is the elk mode - it's a mode I've never seen before.  I think that if I wasn't displaying Glacialord in his combined form, Megazero would be the one that I'd keep in alt mode. 

Coming soon to a computer screen near you: a giant beast lumbers across the frozen tundra, desperately searching for sustenance.  In the distance, he spots another of his species, but something's off.  This beast doesn't have a scent.  The mammoth charges at the interloper, only to discover something amazing.  The scentless mammoth before him changes shape before his very eyes revealing a metallic warrior - Tuskor!  Tune in next week for "Not Without My Tusks!" starring Sally Field and Tuskor!

Glacialord Part III - Razorspike

So after the initial shipment of Fangro and Tailclub back in November, I had to wait an entire two months for the rest of the team.  It was a long two months; so long that I had actually forgot about the order until someone posted on Facebook that they had gotten confirmation of their shipment.  Thankfully, once Razorspike and the gang shipped, it only took two days for them to arrive.  What's Razorspike like?  Let's take a look, shall we?

"You smell somethin'?"

Razorspike's alt-mode is that of a wooly rhinoceros.  Like the Fangro and Tailclub, he's very G1-esque.  The shield on his back has a slot that can be pushed back to allow the trainer to ride.

Beastmaster

I don't know why, but I get a chuckle out of the trainers for the Retrofuture set.  The idea of these guys riding robotic prehistoric creatures just screams '80's to me. 

Here's Razorspike in robot mode.  To stick with a theme from the last couple of reviews, Razorspike reminds me of Nosecone from the Technobots.  The body types are similar - they're both wide bodied. 

So I've copped a couple of poses from the magnificent photographer brr-icy.  While pouring over his blog and Flickr account, I just realized how much better the figures look when posed like this.  You can get a better sense of the detail on the figure.  Hopefully, he's ok with that.  I hope. 

Overall, I'm very impressed with how Razorspike turned out, even if I put on a sticker or two at a crooked angle.  I couldn't find the tweezers that I use for applying decals.  Guess I'll need to buy another one.  One thing that I didn't do while shooting pics was to show the shield.  Like Tailclub, the foot for Glacialord can mount on a shoulder as a shield.  I'm still not a fan of that, as it looks odd to me.

That's it for Razorspike,  Next up - the odd saga that is Megazero!