Christmas time is here...almost

Been a while. Christmas is coming in just a few more days, though, and I thought I'd update.

Firstly, the only TF thing I know for sure I'm getting is the TRU release of the US DOTM Jetwing Optimus. TRU did a 50% off (so, $50) Black Friday sale, and the wife and I braved the TRU by one of the biggest malls in the state on Thanksgiving night, so I went ahead and got it for myself. I'd love to get Metroplex, too, but I'm 100% sure that won't happen. Maybe post-Christmas if I get enough in money/gift cards/etc. My son is getting the Rescue Bots Beam Box system from my parents, so I picked up the Boulder figurine for it. I also got him the RB Optimus figurine (the bagged version w/o a human) for a stocking stuffer, along with Kre-O Custom Optimus. A friend from work has bought him the Kre-O Ripclaw set. I also bought him all 5 Kre-O Seacons a couple months back, intended as a school incentive, but we didn't end up using them, so he'll probably get them too. I think that may be it on the TF front this Christmas.

In other news, the local Walmart continues to suck, most recently only having 2 BH CV Commanders in stock. And, honestly, it wasn't much better than that before Black Friday. In more fortunate parts of the country, people have been finding deluxe Generations T30 wave 3 (which they are also callign 2014 wave 1, to further confuse things). That's the wave with Waspinator, Skids, Goldbug, and G2 Dreadwing. Waspinator I want for sure, and I was also interested in Goldbug some (I didn't get the original version of this mold, and if I get this remold, it'll look like a real upgrade next to Classics BB) and Dreadwing. Skids. not so much; I love the design in the comics but the toy looks iffy.

Also, lots of in-hand pics have surfaced of the wave 4 toys, which I'm more excited about (save for Scoop). Armada Starscream, the new Minicon Combiner (named Centuritron with components Wind Shear, Heavy Tread, and Runway) and WfC/FoC Skywarp to complete the main Seeker trio from that mold.

In addition, pics of the next Generations wave (wave 5) have surfaced, first from the club mag and then online. This one has Rattrap, Crosscut (silver Skids with a new head) and BM Tankor. I'll probably get Rattrap. I'm not REALLY excited about him like a lot of other people, but it does look like the best Rattrap yet and uses his Season 1 design, which the original toy of is notoriously expensive in the aftermarket (and not that good anyway). Crosscut I'm not interested in; he's a nonentity, and while his new head is better than Skids', that mold is just not selling me. Tankor has disappointed a lot of people; his tank mode is a bit skinnier than they would like, and he may not have his backwards legs, but I think he's fine. In fact, I'm really excited about him. I've dug out my BM Mega Tankorr, BWR Tankor/Tank drone, and Energon Signal Flare (I use him as a UT Tankor) out as a result and have been playing with them a lot.

Craziness

Ok, I've made much over these past couple of months over my struggle to transition from full-time TF collector to something more like seasonal help (or whatever. Terrible analogy). So, shocker, I've made a few more exceptions to my "No More TFs" rule.

A) I sold my boxed Botcon 2010 set about a month ago. Got about what I paid for it, which was sort of ok (man, should I have bought the 2008 set). So, as it sells, I get it in my head that I really do want to get TRU's MP Soundwave. But it's initially hard to find, so I rely on a guy I know from TFW to nab and hold onto one for me. And so he does. Of course, literally one day before I'm supposed to meet him, his nephew gets into the package and breaks the thing. So, while I'm not out the $120 plus tax, I am without an MP Soundwave. I finally got to check one of the "local" TRUs this afternoon, and they actually still had one. I had to ask for it (it wasn't on the shelf), but the box was in great shape in everything (this particular release is well known for appearing on shelves in banged-up boxes).

So, I bought it. But, man, am I having some second thoughts. I know I've spent a lot of money on other TFs before, and while I don't think I'd have as much of a problem spending roughly the same amount of cash on T30 Metroplex, I just don't feel like the purchase is justified. I haven't opened the thing, and I've pretty much settled on returning (or maybe selling) the thing. I think my wife'll be happy about that.

B) Holy crap, Sharkticon Megatron. I first saw this guy right around my last post, the weekend when I got T30 Sandstorm and Predacons Rising Abominus (oh, I should add that I've recently picked up legion class Windrazor and Blight, so using Cindersaur in lieu of non-clear Rippersnapper, I also have a complete opaque Abominus). Anyhow, shortly after that, I basically got a hard-on for the thing and have been lusting over online pics for weeks. Naturally, the local Walmart only has a few Predakings, and the Kmart ain't doin' any better. I did manage to find one at a Walmart not too far from the TRU where I got Soundwave today. And man, is Sharktitron (Megalotron?) a cool toy. I really wasn't impressed with it initially, in large part because I couldn't really fit it into my head-canon for the whole Beast Hunters story (because said head-canon didn't, at least until recently, resemble the actual BH episodes very much). But, I figured it out. After SPOILERS Megatron gets killed in "Deadlock," Starscream vows to bring him back/find a way to fight the Predacons, who are attacking not just 'bots, but 'cons too. Soooo, cloning project time! Starcream, referring back to his own successful cloning projects and Shockwave's CNA blending techniques, splices Megatron's CNA with that of a Sharkticon (which, by my fiat, exist in the TFP universe), producing several Sharkticlones/Sharktitrons/Megalotrons/whatever you wanna call 'em. Now, we all know that SPOILERS the real Megatron is going to be reanimated/possessed by Unicron in the Predacons Rising DVD/TV movie, but these clones are totally separate, and are lead by Starscream along with his weird clone of Dreadwing (the BH Dreadwing toy). And, again, the toy itself is just great. Much more enjoyable that the original version of the mold.

C) Remember my angst over the TFSS last year? This year, it's pretty much the opposite. I have largely not cared about the toys/designs revealed for the TFSS 2.0. Until yesterday. The sixth (of seven) toy was revealed to be...Thrustinator? Whaa.....

Yep, I think this is cool. Not sure what kind of doctor I need.

 

So, there he is! Yep, nothing anyone would have ever guessed. This is the kind of off-the-wall stuff that the Club has been lacking for a good while. I'll admit, I've been taken in by a lot of the more standard, expected repaint/remolds. Just look at the TFSS 1.0: RiD Scourge from RtS G2 Optimus? No surprise; we all expected it. Slipstream from FE Starscream? It's the most feminine Starscream ever, so sure; why not? An Ultra Magnus from an Optimus (well, sort of...) mold? You don't say. G1 Breakdown from G2 Breakdown; too easy. Circuit from Axor? We've seen that before. And Jackpot from Jazz? Heck, I couldn't even tell his head was remolded at first. But this? Taking a remold of the original Waspinator (Dirgegun, for the uninitiated) and then reremolding it back into the original Waspinator?! And then gaining demand even at Club prices? Crazy, man. Crazy. Obviously, this is Waspinator, but with his body being a mashed-together version of his "organic" Beast Wars body and his his mechanical Vehicon Thrust body from Beast Machines. It's important to note that the only remolding that the Club themselves have added is the head - and it's a great mash-up of the character's two faces - but all the other remolding was already there from the Dirgegun release. The trick, of course, being that all of Dirgegun's "cyborg" parts are now painted in Thrust's colors. Seriously, I'm gonna have to try for this guy, whether if it's through a trade, eBay or *shudder* BBTS.

 

An Abomination

So, erm, I haven't stuck to the "No More Transformers" thing too well. About the only thing I can say in my defense is that I have avoided purchasing TFs that are on my want list. However, after buying Springer, Slipstream arrived (see last post and yes, she is technically a 2012 purchase), and this past weekend I managed to procure for myself T30 Sandstorm, Predacons Rising Cindersaur/Smokescreen and Abominus. So, yeah. A fair bit of TF.

I will say it was all pretty opportunistic. I only got Sandstorm due to getting an extra $20 from a family member. I returned an extra Voyager Predaking I got back in March and used the money from that to get the Smokescreen/Cindersaur set, and I bought Abominus because I sold another TF on ebay.

Sandstorm's pretty cool, probably better than Springer, if not in color scheme. He'd be a good base mold for a new Highbrow or Obsidian or something.

I caved on the Predacon Rising stuff (initially I wasn't really interested) mostly because I don't know how easy it'll be to get the three remaining normal Predacons (the opaque, single-packed Rippersnapper, Blight, and Cutthroat). At any given moment, at least one of them is sold out at HTS and they've only just begun to hit retail (no local sightings yet that I know of). Add to the fact that they're on my wish list and may not get them until Christmas (if at all), and you get a fair bit of Cyberverse Abominus Anxiety (I think if I don't get them for my birthday and they're actually readily available at that point, I'll just get them myself. $15 isn't that bad).

 So, I was able to go to Target this weekend, and Rippersnapper's repaint, Cindersaur, who's packed with a pretty sharp-looking G1 deco Smokescreen, looked damned tempting. As yet, my "Abominus" only consisted of Hun-Grrr and Twinstrike, meaning he was only a torso/thighs with an arm. Well, and a smaller arm if you left the other of Hun-Grr's arms in its normal configuration. I figured, with Cindersaur, I could at least let the poor guy hobble around with one foot. That, and Cindersaur's deco is pretty nice. So I got it. I definitely checked out the Abominus boxed set for a while during my time at the store, but was set on only getting the regular releases + Cindersaur.

After playing around with Cindersaur, Hun-Grrr and Twinstrike, I decided that Amputee Abominus was not going to cut it. I mean, it's fun to pretend your combiner has had a few limbs blasted off or that he's in the middle of one of Shockwave's experiments, but at some point you just need the whole dude, especially when Hasbro actually put out an affordable combiner gift set for the first time in twenty years. So, back to Target I went the next day. Picked up Abominus (along with some shoes for my wife). He's pretty awesome. Hasbro did a pretty decent job differentiating him from the standard version, despite them having almost the same deco. Basically, each Predacon has a primary color recast in translucent plastic. The opaque plastics are altered as well, some more than others (Hun-Grr's opaque change is more subtle than Twinstrike's, for example). Also, each of the weapons has been altered from a metallic grey to "Daaaaaaaaaark Energon" translucent purple. It's nice, dark shade that is also pretty vivid. As a combiner, Abominus is pretty great. He's the second legends/legion class combiner we've gotten, after RotF's Devastator (which had SEVEN component bots, and was pretty uniquely awesome). However, Abominus is a lot more like the original "Scramble City" or later Energon 5-man combiners. Particularly, this repaint will draw comparisons to the TFCC's Nexus Prime, also partially made of translucent plastic. Anyhow, what makes Abominus a bit unique is that his torso is the same size as the limbs (shared with FoC Bruticus and Ruination/Xaaron, but that's it) and his knees don't move. People are pretty well used to Combiners without elbows, but a lack of working knee joints is something new. Even Legends Devastator had knees (yes, they're really transformation joints and where the legs connect to the body, at the hips, there's no useful articulation. But don't tell anybody!). Honestly, it's not missed that much at this scale, and I have to imagine that incorporating knee joints would have either compromised the leg bots or made Hun-Grr's dragon heads so floppy the knee's wouldn't've mattered anyway. Overall, Abominus does a fantastic job of taking 5 legion molds and allowing them to combine into a respectable classic-style combiner that uses no extra parts without compromising the individual toys. Heck, the single-packed releases don't even mention that they combine! And whereas there's no way you'd sell me on a G1 Scramble city limb bot without the combiner hook, these guys are all stand-alone greats. About the only one that is off a bit is Rippersnapper's beast mode with its weird hips and how that handles the bot mode head. Other than that, you're golden. You could even call Blot/Blight's transformation inspired, especially at this scale.

However, from the moment we found out that this release of Abominus would have clear parts, people have been worried about its fragility. I have to admit I do hesitate to remove and tack Cutthroat back on to Hun-Grr's arms many more times. I'm sure I'll be fine leaving this set in combined mode once I have all the other standard Abominus dudes. And I'm hoping that Hun-Grr and Twinstrike (yes, I like his new name better, if you couldn't tell) get repaints. Seeing as how I already have Cindersaur, I now plan to get Divebomb (an Autobot defector repaint of Cutthroat) and Rot-Gut (the MTMTE Blip-inspired Blight redeco) as well to make up a crew of Auxiliary Predacons. Yes, I'm aware of the upcoming other Blight redeco, but it's as himself, and I don't need three extra feet guys.

Get Abominus in some form. This is the kind of thing we should be supporting with our dollars.

Slipstream

While the Club didn't get around to mailing the first TFSS figure (Scourge) until earlier this summer, this does at least mean that there is only a month between shipments at this point. As such, my second TFSS toy arrived in the mail today - Slipstream!

I commented a bit on Slipstream last year when I did a run-down on the whole set of six TFSS figs. The character originated back in 2008 (!) in the second season of TF: Animated as one of several "Seeker" clones of Starscream. The first, and only (so far) female Seeker, Slipstream can count on that feature alone as built-in appeal for a fan base. To be sure, she showed up again in 2010 in the WfC video game (a design which I hope still gets a toy some day). Fast forward to 2012/13, and the TFSS has produced a version of her that looks like she walked right out of TF: Prime.

She is, of course, remolded from TFP First Edition Starscream, one of the better deluxe Starscream molds out there and certainly one of the most feminine. The head is all new, but as I stated, still easily fits in with the TFP design aesthetic while further feminizing the design and setting her apart from the masculine Seekers that use this mold (it has been repainted into Skywarp and Thundercracker as well). However, I suggest mistransforming the torso, as correct transformation will produce Starscream's typical hunchbacked look, which doesn't work well for a female.

All in all, she's a pretty great figure!

Green Propeller Task Force

That's what I call them, anyway.

If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, it's a set of four voyager class TFs: Energon Bulkhead, Universe Springer, HftD Highbrow, and T30 Springer.

Why these four? I guess it all goes back to Energon Bulkhead. When this guy came out, back in the fall of 2004 (!), it was part of the very G1 homage-heavy Energon line and in the midst of the franchise's 20th anniversary. As such, people assumed that Bulkhead (who came before the now-famous bulky autobot bruiser of Animated and Prime) was an homage to G1 Springer. It made sense - Energon also saw characters like Rodimus get homage toys, and Bulkhead was a green autobot helicopter, that, while it lacked a true third mode, could have a ground mode thanks to its ability to combine with its walker-mech "accessory."

Anyhow, one year later, Hasbro releases the orange rescue copter Evac as part of the Cybertron toy line, who then got repainted into an official Springer toy as part of the Universe 2.0 line during the franchise's 25th anniversary. Seeing that I never use UT molds as G1 characters as the repaint was intended, that meant that this Springer would be my UT Springer. This also meant that Bulkhead, also being a UT character, definitely couldn't be the UT version of Springer, despite the design similarities. Now, granted, I had never really been sold on the E. Bulkhead = Springer idea, for a few reasons, but now I had to decide for sure on a separate personality for him. Whoever he would be, in my mind he'd function as UT Springer's mentor and partner/friend (the mustache and his characterization in the show indicated that he was an older 'bot).

Enter 2010's Hunt for the Decepticons Highbrow. Like most of the HftD toy, it was designed to be part of the movie universe (basically a "latter-day" RotF toy), but it was also the first new Highbrow toy, by name, since G1. While he did have blue and gray in his color scheme, it was more dominated by the dark WWII green of his P-38-ish alt mode and therefore the guy didn't look much like G1 Highbrow at all. In fact, they only thing they really have in common is the fact that both of them have twin propellers in alt mode and a head gimmick (G1 = headmaster; HftD = sliding visor).

However, HftD Highbrow sure did have a lot in common with Energon Bulkhead. Both were intended to be older characters in-fiction; both had spinning propeller weapon gimmicks, both had wings on the hips armed with rockets, both had really long lower legs, both had visors covering their eyes, both had alt modes whose noses tilted up when landing gear were deployed, both were predominately green, both had transformable weapon-hands...etc. So, all the similarities, in addition to the toyless Animated Highbrow also being an older, mustachioed Autobot, lead me to conclude that I should rename E. Bulkhead as Highbrow. And thus he has remained. He and his buddy UT Springer have had a few adventures with HftD Highbrow in the past few years, and the three looked great together. What they really lacked was another good Springer to allow UT Springer to have a multiversal counterpart to join in on the fun. I owned Botcon Springer (a CDF Hotshot repaint) for a while, but he didn't quite cut it. RotF Springer was only a legends-class toy, so that wouldn't fly (they really need to remold TFM Incinerator into Springer for TF4). And last fall, they remolded HftD Tomahawk into another pseudo-G1 version of Springer, which I was not going to fall for.

Good thing I didn't, as hasbro just put out Thrilling 30 Springer as part of the Generations line this summer. Who I now own, so he has taken his place as part of the Green Propeller task force. Now, I'd still like a good, deluxe-class G1 Springer (triple-changing not necessary), but thanks to the China Generations remold, I don't think we'll see that anytime soon. Oh well.

Well, almost.

Ok, so I picked up Springer today too. So sue me.



But that'll be it.

Last Stand of the Wallet

Ok. The past few posts have been kind of gloom and doom, what with me highlighting my downturn in interest in transformers. I even compiled a list the other day of what remaining items I want that are being released between now-ish and next March (which is as far as we've seen as of SDCC). I plan on not buying anything on that list, which is not overly short, especially if you don't count what are now "pipe-dream" items for me (Metroplex, MP Acid Storm, etc), but instead hope to receive them as gifts over the next year or so. I've sort of tried this before, as I detailed here back about this time in 2010, but I feel like I'm approaching it a bit more seriously this time around. Finances are tighter than ever around here, and I'm going through some other lifestyle changes that make halting (at least mostly) toy purchases for myself a very prudent thing to do.

However, there was one more splurge I had to go for: The Wreckers.

Yep. They've been sighted more and more frequently and locally over the past couple of weeks, and I had the opportunity to find them today. It worked out pretty well, too - I found all five at the first and only store I checked at (one reason I wanted to go ahead and get them was being worried about finding all five, especially with how Impactor is likely to be scalper bait). It was a pretty expensive splurge, but thankfully not as much as I paid for the original Combaticons versions of the molds back in November, thanks to Walmart having deluxes on sale for $13 instead of $15.

I have to say, the Wreckers are pretty cool for what they are. If you know the FoC Combaticon molds, you know their flaws and limitations, but if you can or already have gotten over those (and I pretty much have), the new Wreckers versions bring a lot to the table.

Firstly, there's HOLY CRAP WRECKERS COMBINER Ruinations. This is possibly the greatest plastic nod to a joke in a Transformers comic, specifically when Rotorstorm tried to intimidate Overlord in Last Stand of the Wreckers by announcing, "Wreckers! Combine!," knowing full well that they had no such ability (actually, no Autobots had that ability in IDW continuity at that point). More to the point, this is a NEW Autobot combiner that has never existed, so we're not just dealing with another rehash of Superion. I'm sure this if because Hasbro didn't feel like the Combaticons couldn't be feasibly remolded into any other existing Autobot combiner team, but I'm not complaining. To cap it all off, "Ruination's" head is really that of "Emirate" (a misnomer) Xaaron from the Marvel and IDW comics, who was historically associated with the Wreckers and Impactor in particular. So that's pretty cool. I mean, it's hard to imagine Xaaron hanging out in Impactor's torso and occasionally tearing up the battlefield, but then again, that's what imagination's for.

Secondly, the remolding! All of the Wreckers, of course, got new head molds. They all look great, especially Impactor (who, as I'm sure you know, has never had a toy until now!). Whirl is probably my second favorite, though he could use his antenna on the right side that he typically sports. Topspin, uniquely, gets a second remolded part in that the panel his 5mm port is molded into is now hinged (the port itself is new, too) to lift up - Blast Off can't do this.

Thirdly, the WEAPONS. Holy crap, you get an arsenal here. On top of the weapons from the original versions of the molds, each Wrecker gets his own unique new, big weapon with some kind of action feature. Impactor gets a nice cannon that shoots his trademark harpoon (and it combines with the Onlaught-style twin cannon in such a way as to simulate a harpoon hand), if with a hair-trigger. Topspin gets a DotM Rachet-style rifle with swing-out circular saw (the rifle's barrel is pretty big!). Twin Twist gets a weapon with his spinning drill bits on the front and a small cannon on tip (the trigger for the drills). Roadblock gets and interesting gun with three opening barrels (?). It looks pretty cool. Lastly, Whirl gets a nice, big multi-barreled gun in which said barrels and be pushed forward and spin as they do so. One big problem with all of these, though, is very inconsistent handle tolerances. Some weapons can barely plug into the others at all. All the original weapons work together just fine, but try sticking Whirl's swords onto the sides of his gun. At least on my copy, they just flop down in their ports. Not cool. Luckily, there are enough ways to mount weapons that you can work around this, but still, it's aggravating. I may have to lather some posts or ports up with nail polish.

So, there you have it - my last major TF purchase for myself, or, at least, that's the plan. I'm posting the list of others I want below:

Transformers: Prime: Beast Hunters

·         Cyberverse Legion class (~$5) [$30]

o   Bluestreak  – Jan ‘14

o   Rippersnapper (white/teal aquatic dragon) – out soon

o   Windrazor (green/tan dragon with large wings on arms) – out soon

o   Blight (blue/light blue/yellow dragon) – out soon

o   Air Vehicon (purple/silver flying car- Aug ‘13

o   Ace Vehicon (white repaint of Air Vehicon w/ orange gun) – Jan ‘14

·         Cyberverse Commander class (~$9) [$27]

o   Ultra Magnus (blue/red/silver truck with opaque hammer) – Jan ‘14

o   Bludgeon (green/orange tank with skull head) – Jan ‘14

o   Unicron Megatron (Bronze repaint of Megatron w/purple sword – Jan ‘14)

Transformers: Generations

·         Legends class (~$10 2-packs) [$50]

o   Optimus Prime & Roller (Red truck with smaller blue truck) – out now

o   Megatron & Chop Shop (Grey tank w/reddish beetle) –out late summer/early fall ‘13

o   Starscream & Waspinator (Grey/red/blue jet w/green wasp) -  out late summer/early fall ‘13

o   Swerve & Flanker (red/white truck w/black jet) – Oct ‘13

o   Tailgate & Groundpounder (white/teal sports car w/blue/silver bulldozer) – Jan ‘14

·         Deluxe class (~$15) [$105]

o   Orion Pax (wave 5 young Optimus; red/blue sci-fi truck w/comic) – Aug ‘13

o   Megatron (wave 5 black stealth bomber w/comic) - Aug ’13

o   Thundercracker (wave 6 blue/silver sci-fi jet w/comic) – Sept ‘13

o   Waspinator (wave 7 larger green/yellow wasp w/comic ) – Jan ‘14

o   Armada Starscream (wave 8 red/black/yellow w/clear swords) – Mar ‘14

o   Mini-con 3-pack (names unknown;  wave 8 green/black set of tank, jet, helicopter that combine) – Mar ‘14

o   Skywarp (wave 8 black/purple/grey sci-fi jet) – Mar ‘14

·         Voyager class (~$20)

o   Rhinox (green/grey/gold rhinoceros from Beast Wars show) – Jan ‘14