POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sat Apr 05, 2014 11:08 pm

Beast Hunters Optimus Prime - £13 on clearance from Home Bargains and probably about all he's worth, really. Went for him as the Leader Class version of the same just looks awful with its tiny head and slight whiff of oversized version of the Voyager.

Initial thoughts are those I have for Transformers Prime as a whole - a sort of weary sigh and the feeling I should like this more than I do. Its like I can see its good but just have the feeling that this isn't as good as it could have been.

As a toy for playing with, he's good though. Much more stable in robot mode than the earlier Voyager toy and doesn't look like his limbs want to be in 27 different places at once thanks to some more sturdy and thoughtful joints.

Tantrum · Post by **Tantrum** » Sat Apr 05, 2014 11:17 pm

I picked up the wave 4 micro-changers at Walgreen's last week. The designs are quite good. I especially like how half of Alpha Trion's alt mode parts form his sword, and the other half form a backpack to balance him so he can hold the sword without falling over. Barrage's body is similar to Hardshell's, but his insect head is different, with the mandibles being both adorable and creepy. Iceberg's alt mode is different from anything else in the line so far.

Even the cars each have slightly different builds, with different hoods and trunks, so even with all the others, I don't think I've seen the same car build twice. Rodimus and Brakedown come closest, since they both have spoilers. But, Rodimus has an angled piece for the hood to represent the shape of his engine. It doesn't quite work, so I may try to build him as a Winnebago.

My only gripe is that the quality control has gone to crap. Rodimus's waist is chipped, so it doesn't quite fit all the way into his torso. Brawn's chest tampograph is too low and off to one side. Rhinox has a blotch of paint on his leg. Sandstorm's arms have the black paint smeared up onto the orange shoulders, which don't match the rest of him anyway. Wildrider/Break Neck's legs stick, and I'm worried about them breaking if I move them too much.

Heinrad wrote:Went into Big Lots(aka Where Unsold Toys Go To Die Or Be Discounted), and found something I didn't mind paying the discounted price for.

For the not too bad sum of $15, I got the KRE-O Optimus Prime. All five trillion pieces of him.

Okay, there aren't quite that many, but there are a lot. What I can't figure out is why they've got a G1 Prime head on a Movie Prime body design.

The Quest for Energon and Beast Hunters Primes use the same head sculpt. Megatron and Bumblebees head were receycled for QfE, too. I guess they wanted a generic, all purpose Optimus head sculpt.

Post by **Clay** » Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:46 pm

Got Cybertron Downshift and Red Alert late last week from ebay. I had had them before and sold them in 2006 or so with lots of others, but always missed them. Quite happy to have them around again. Nice and simple, decently articulated, and key gimmick doesn't compromise either figure. Good stuff!

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Fri Apr 11, 2014 9:20 pm

In my futile attempt to collect the Prime TV cast (stop laughing at the back), I picked up Transformers : Prime Beast Hunters Predacons Rising Sky Lynx.

Lovely Plastics (in comparison to Optimus, mentioned above), all shiny and tough. Good detailing, colours are excellent. Weird pipe cleaner of a robot mode and good, if slightly less posable than hoped alt mode.

In common with the other Predacons, he's pretty terrible. Shame really as there's some good work put in here p*ssed up the wall with a terrible robot mode and transformation. And on mine, a right leg that constantly falls off the ball joint.

Hooray for Hasbro! You guys are awesome!

Heinrad · Post by **Heinrad** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 12:42 pm

Following Hasbro's current trend of delving into the oddities for the Generations line, I picked up Centurion.

Yes, good old Centurion, been there since... Well never, really. He's a mini-con combiner. A fighter jet, a helicopter, and a tank combine to make this little guy. Although I do have to say they would have done better to make the poor guy a little bigger. Mini-con sizing + Ball joints + Cheaper plastics = A nice little figure that the arms tend to pop off of, be it in combined mode or individual robots mode. The only one that doesn't have to worry about parts coming off is the tank(Heavy Tread), and he's about as posable as a brick in individual mode.

EDIT: Poor old Centurion loses some cool points. I read the packaging wrong. Apparently his name is actually Centuritron. I think I'm just going to stick with Centurion, though. It sounds better.

Post by **Clay** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 12:47 am

Got a big, BIG box from BBTS back on Monday, but have only now had time to start going through it.

Unique Toys Mania King: nice Galvatron update, almost completely reconciles the animation robot model with turning into a cannon thing. Put back in the box for the moment.

Mastermind Leo Dux: Razorclaw has real arms now! Very nice figure overall, and while the Feralcons have been released far behind schedule, I can appreciate the company taking their time and getting them right. Feral Rex should be overwhelming when completed.

G2 Boosticus: Nice upgrade that gives the combined mode a proper look. If you haven't heard of this one, it comes from a a customizer on the Radicon forum, and feedback driven from the start. Even the decision to have it produced in plastic instead of just printed on demand from Shapeways was community chosen.

Also got Generations deluxe wave three (Armada Starscream, etc.), Rhinox and Whirl, but have yet to open them. Trying to pace myself!

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:28 pm

Trip to London y-day, and a very dangerous can of worms opened...

BT Streak: Got this as a present from a comic book store which had lots of nice and current releases. At first I thought it was a knock-off because the paint on the autobot symbol on the gun was PRETTY DODGY, but other than that, he's fine.

After years of mostly plastic and small-ish figures, I'm kind of in awe of how GREAT some figures were 10 years ago. Streak is big, articulated, painted all around and full of die-cast. I played with him all day and then picked up MP Smokescreen...weight wise, felt as if I picked up a deluxe.

This, coupled with great detail to car accuracy and detailed interiors, I fear, pushed me once again into BT collecting. Which is odd, considering I had almost the entire run years ago but sold them all to buy the henkei/classics stuff.

Thankfully, having the experience of handling all the moulds before, I know who to avoid and who not to get duplicates of, but thankfully most of them can be found for preeeetty cheap these days.

Post by **Clay** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:21 pm

I still have my complete Binaltech collection. From my cold, dead hands they'll be wrested!

But they do kind of put the watermark on where Masterpiece could be improved, design wise. MP Streak is nearly perfect as-is, but if they worked out how to do the detailed interior too like Binaltechs have? Well, that'd be something else.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 5:09 pm

Nah, there's no reason for cross-improvement on either at this point. Different lines trying for different things at different times as well.

The MP cars are too packed and "heavily" engineered to have a proper interior, and they are too small to support it as well without suffering [see Alternity Convoy/Megatron's chairs, or Bumblebee's chest].

I don't suppose you've got any doubles in your collection?

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Apr 14, 2014 9:50 pm

KO Fansproject City Commander -- possibly not as tight a fit as the real thing and a few of the colours are a bit different (blue shoulder launchers with silver missiles, for example) but a few Sharpie highlights and some Autobot stickers and it was well worth picking up a Classics Magnus for.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 7:48 am

TRU had a flash sale last week which also included a buy one get one half price offer on Transformers, so picked up BH Ultra Magnus for £14.99 and FoC Soundwave for £6.99.

Ultra Magnus is pretty cool, although a remould of the earlier Optimus toy, he feels much more sturdy on his feet. The Beast Hunters adornment of wings is a bit of a swine to attach to either robot or vehicle mode though.

FoC Soundwave has been something of a revelation. I'd got rid of my of FoC Bruticus and Shockwave on account of them being deeply disappointing toys, but Soundwave is good fun. He's nice and chunky with good solid joints, some minimal but well applied paint apps. He's a good size for a Voyager toy too. It puts me in mind of the dumb fun of the Unicron Trilogy figures. Laserbeak is a forgettable piece of nonsense though. As a spring loaded toy, he isn't much fun to play with and can't really do much. He gets stuck in the launcher on my toy too, which rather saps the fun out of the gimmick.

Post by **Denyer** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 7:40 pm

Still on the subject of upgrades, the Dr Wu head/gun for Blitzwing really makes it.

FoC Soundwave has been something of a revelation.

Yeah, the Blaster variant certainly came out nicely.

Post by **Warcry** » Tue Apr 15, 2014 8:28 pm

I had FoC Soundblaster for a while -- a great toy, especially with some data discs to fling around! It doesn't look like much but once I had it in hand I couldn't find many bad things to say about it.

I ended up passing it along to my nephew though, as Masterpiece Soundwave more or less rendered every other modern incarnation of the character superfluous for me.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 5:30 pm

Heads up all you Kreon Microchanger fans in the UK! (I can't be the only one, can I?) Today I found Wave 3 in my local Morrisons (Ipswich). Woot! I had heard this wave would not get UK distribution (at least not at mainstream retail), so I was very surprised. Could this be good news for an eventual release of Wave 4?

Wave 3 Kreons I picked up were:

Nosecone
Thrust
Nemesis Prime
Ramjet
Huffer
2x Kickback (one has been rebuilt into Shrapnel already)
Long Haul
Beachcomber
Seawing

A very nice haul indeed. Unfortunately my Nemesis Prime has a dodgy chest tampo, but I'll live.

These will go well with my recently-acquired-from-Clay Kreon Guzzle. Thanks to Clay for the trade, btw. Always a pleasure to deal with, and a very nice man.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 5:41 pm

Sorry for the double post, but more Kreo today. I bought the Command Center from The Entertainer. Using a few parts I already had, I now have Kreon Impactor & Pharma. Woot!

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:47 pm

I have Wave One of the Kre-On MC Blind packs and the first four combiners. The poor quality plastics noble the line for me, the wrist sockets in particular seem incredibly fragile.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 5:45 pm

True enough, the QC can be pants and the wrists are more prone to fracture than an old person's hip. For me though, the cute factor is irresistible. And I don't know if I will ever get an Impactor, Pharma or Tarn toy any other way. I have a lot of fun with the mix and match creative possibilities of the Kreons.

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:21 am

I just picked up Rhinox while on a road trip coming back from my parents' house for Easter vacation. I have not seen him ever in the stores, so I got a little excited. I was bummed that he was the full full price of $23, but my wife said I should get it and call it an Easter gift. I didn't argue. I saw Whirl too, but I'm not all that jazzed by him since I don't read the comics.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:29 pm

Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Shockwave!

HE.IS.MEGA.

I are very happy

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:31 am

I picked up the 2007 Movie Deluxe Bonecrusher figure. He never turned up at stores near me in 2007, and cost a fortune online. He only seems to have gone up in cost, but I managed to get him for £10 GBP from someone on eBay, which is actually less than he would have cost had he been in stores near me even back then!

I had bought Jungle Bonecrusher (who did appear in stores around me back in the day), and I do love the colours on that version, but I've just had this itch through the years to have the movie colour version - which was really heightened by the release of the DOTM Deluxe Optimus Prime, allowing a proper showdown at last!

Sure, the mould has its faults (all that kibble hanging off the arms basically is the issue), but it's such a fun and different mould that is forgiveable. He's so dynamic as well, really allowing poses reminiscent of the motorway battle, which has to be the top highlight of the original film for me. Bonecrusher is just so hardcore, even if he only has a few minutes of clobbering time onscreen.