More NEST Global Alliance is on its way

Payday was finally last Friday, and I went ahead and ordered some new (and sort of new) stuff from HTS:

Battlefield Bumblebee vs. Infiltration Soundwave Battle Pack

Voyager Class Mindwipe

ROTF Legends Class Soundwave, Wheelie, Power Armor Optimus Prime, and Bluesteel Sideswipe

The thing I'm most excited about here is Mindwipe. This is an update of the G1 character of the same name, which I knew about as a kid but never owned (I did own, and still own, his buddy Weirdwolf). This new version is a new, different character set in the Movie universe, with a design to match. No longer does he possess a bat mode; rather, he transforms into the nocturnal tactical bomber, the F-117 (or, at least, a close approximation), which, honestly, doesn't look much different from a bat. The bat motif carries over even more strongly in his bot mode. Additionally, even though ROTF Mindwipe isn't a Headmaster, unlike his G1 counterpart, he can combine with a smaller robot - scout class Skystalker , a stealth bomber UCAV, can dorsally dock with Mindwipe when they're in alt mode. Pretty neat, even if I won't have Skystalker until later.

The 2 pack is of secondary interest, if only because both toys are either repaints (Soundwave) or remolds (Bumblebee). However, both are pretty different from the other versions I own, and the 2-pack also includes a NEST patch (I'm a big sucker for patches) and the mail-away form for the Recon Ravage repaint, which I'm buying mostly to convince Hasbro to do another mail-away offer in the future. Hey, it's a deluxe for only $4.95.

The legends are a source of some ire. I have not once seen the two toys from this wave that I actually want - Soundwave and Wheelie - in stores, despite alledgedly being availabel since early December. I really don't want the Optimus and Sideswipe repaints, since they look very similar to the originals, but this was the only way to guarantee that I'd get Soundwave and Wheelie, and I wasn't about to miss out on them like I did with the last wave of Universe Legends last spring.

Also, Botcon registration is supposed to start this month, and I'm going!