POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Figures, collectables, customs and collecting.
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HeavyArms
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by HeavyArms »

Siege Refraktor - My third and final Refraktor, unless I ever buy the three pack.

Siege Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime - Amazon AU had both figures on there 20% off Black Friday sale.

Siege Thundercracker - 20% off at Target.
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Tantrum
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Tantrum »

I opened all the stuff I mentioned last time. The only one close to disappoining is Mirage. He's not bad, except for the arms under the spoiler. I like how his wheels fold into his back to make a well proportioned torso with no backpack, and the translucent blue used for the legs. He just doesn't interest me that much. TLK megatron is great, with no underwing kibble. I gave the other to a toy drive, as intended.

I also got Cyberverse Ultra Shockwave and Alpha Trion from Marshall's for $5 each. These are the Voyager sized kiddie toys in the open top boxes. Alpha Trion's articulation is limited to thigh swivels needed for transformation, shoulder pivots to make a T, andelbow hinges. His alt mode has cannons that flip out of the top of the side "wings" instead of the bottom, which hurts the look. Said cannons are red, firing what I assume is meant to be pink energy beams, but loks more like used bubble gum. But for some reason, I like him. Maybe it's the color scheme, or the quality face sculpt. Whatever it is, I don't regret buting him, but can't recommend him in good faith.

Shockwave, on the other hand, is a legitimately good figure. The extra limb you see sticking out of his torso in package does in fact fold into the torso, for a much cleaner silloette. I have trouble getting it out without sticking a screwdriver in there, but that was also the case for getting it out from its in package position.

Articulation is good, except for the rigid cannon arm. Ball jointed shoulders, hips, and ankles. Hinged elbow and knees. Swivelling head. I just wish the extra limb had a fist molded into it to give you the option of a two-armed Shockwave with the canon on his back. The ball joints in the hips are loose, which also affects the crawling tank alt mode.

Siege Spinister is probably my favorite Siege Deluxe so far. The way the rear of the copter folds out of the torso is someting I haven't seen before. That the rear of the copter keeps the blades from rotating when in bot mode is clever, too. The legs folding asymetrically to form the cockpit and underside of the copter reminds me a little of Animated Prowl. My only complaint is that I have a hard time tabbing the rear o the copter into the leg.
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Sades
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Sades »

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Denyer
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Apeface and Spinister. Apeface is charmingly shit and staying in ape-with-jetpack mode.
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Warcry
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

I'm so jealous of you Spinister-owning people. :(
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Tantrum
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Tantrum »

Warcry wrote: Sat Dec 21, 2019 2:18 am I'm so jealous of you Spinister-owning people. :(
As well you should be.

K-Mart's going out of business, and has all their toys 40% off. I got Cyberverse 1-step Wheeljack, Elite Armor Sky-Byte, and Elite Armor Bumblebee. G1 Wheeljack was my first ever TF back in the day, so I have an affinity/am a sucker for the character. That Bee is maybe the only one I've seen that has the shoulder headlights of the toon model; the Broadside looking armor may be OK.

They also had at least a dozen each of SS#5 Optimus and SS #14 Ironhide. I only saw Ironhide once before this. If you have a K-Mart in your area, it might be worth checking for good deals on old stuff they're clearing out.
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Skyquake87
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Skyquake87 »

Having been suitably impressed by POTP Slag* and Swoop, I picked up the other Dinobots.

POTP Voyager Grimlock
Mired in compromise as he is, Gbby tailrimlock isn't half bad. He's a bit pigeon-chested, but otherwise looks pretty decent. In robot mode, anyway. The beast mode is good from the waist up. Downstairs, he's a bit of a podgy mess, with great fat thunder thighs and a fat, flabby tail. It spoils what could have been an excellent update of the original figure. Accessory wise, Grimlock could really have used a gun or sword. The two POTP 'foot claws' don't make for good substitutes.

POTP Deluxe Sludge
Sludge is adorable. He's the one that most tickles my nostalgia bone, having been the first Dinobot I ever owned, back in the dim distant mists of the distant distanceness. This new version feels a shade small, but he looks fantastic in dino mode. The robot mode is also great, spolit only by the cartoon style head, which I never liked.

POTP Deluxe Snarl
Snarl is a slight disappointment. And it's only because the beast mode head is such a piddly thing. It looks rubbish. It's a shame, as otherwise he looks pretty good. Robot mode is great and has the barrel chested look of the original.

Having got all five, I had a go at doing Volcanicus. Won't be doing that again.

*Sorry, Slug is a rubbish, rubbish amendment to his name.
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Warcry
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

My wonderful family bought me a few Transformers for Christmas!

Siege Reflector: He falls into the same category as Soundwave, I think -- a really nice action figure that I'm probably never going to transform to "spaceship" mode again. And I don't think I like him enough to buy him twice more unless I find the figure on deep discount, so I'll never use the camera alt-mode either. But the robot mode is a really nice rendition of the cartoon model, and I really like his accessories. He'll be a nice addition to my early-years Decepticon collection, when I get them out to take photos.

Siege Red Alert I always get super excited when Hasbro announces a new Red Alert. Then I see the official photos and remember how utterly boring his cartoon model was.The original toy's deep red and silver were what made me a fan of the character, I suppose. Aside from that, he's basically the same as Sideswipe on all counts -- a really good little carbot, but lacking in accessories. On Sideswipe, the lack of a rifle was a disappointment, but one you could get around pretty easily with a Battlemaster or an old accessory. But with Red, the missing shoulder launcher really sticks out and is a lot harder to compensate for. Overall he's pretty good, though.
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ganon578
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by ganon578 »

Siege Spinister!

He looks pretty fun, but I haven't opened him yet. He'll be great to have on my shelf with the MTMTE/Lost Light crews. Might have to search for a cheap TR Krok at some point too.
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Warcry
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

I don't know what's worse, that everyone has Spinister before me, or that so many people are buying him because of the one-note IDW portrayal and not the Marvel Comics badass. :(

I finally broke down and ordered him from Amazon.com since no one locally seems to have him. He's not supposed to show up for a couple weeks, which I assume means that there will be Spinisters everywhere in the city on January 2nd.
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Denyer
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

The LL IDW shelf is one thing I haven't put back out since moving, funnily enough. Pretty much everything else is Marvel or toy inspired. IDW was... mostly fun, I guess? Added a lot to the mythos. But it doesn't have the connection of Earthforce with several years of lines muddled together, or those "two forces opposite each other" spreads that usually bookended the UK annuals.
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inflatable dalek
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by inflatable dalek »

Warcry wrote: Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:25 am I don't know what's worse, that everyone has Spinister before me, or that so many people are buying him because of the one-note IDW portrayal and not the Marvel Comics badass. :(
Now surely this is one character you can't object to there being a new...

...spin on.
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Warcry
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

Denyer wrote: Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:42 pm The LL IDW shelf is one thing I haven't put back out since moving, funnily enough. Pretty much everything else is Marvel or toy inspired. IDW was... mostly fun, I guess? Added a lot to the mythos. But it doesn't have the connection of Earthforce with several years of lines muddled together, or those "two forces opposite each other" spreads that usually bookended the UK annuals.
I hadn't thought about it that way myself, but my shelves are the same. Most of them are grouped based on the old toy subgroups, with a handful of Marvel-based shelves thrown in (classic Wreckers, Mayhem Attack Squad, Blaster's resistance buddies...), and one for the Beast Wars show cast.

IDW just seems a bit insubstantial in the end, I guess? Aside from some of the early Roche and Roberts stuff, the parts that I read were just so decompressed. But that's just how comics are nowadays. I'd swear more happened in a typical UK 11-pager than in entire story arcs of some of the modern books I've read, and Transformers was far from the worst offender.

Marvel also had the benefit of being first where Transformers was concerned, which I think is going to inherently make it more memorable to those of us old enough to have read it at the time.
inflatable dalek wrote: Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:50 pm Now surely this is one character you can't object to there being a new...

...spin on.
Groan. If I wanted to hear awful puns I'd go talk to my wife.

I don't mind that there's a new take on him, but Spinister had more personality than almost any other Decepticon in the Marvel run who wasn't a faction leader (and even some that were!) It's just too bad that so few people seem to remember that nowadays because a lot of it of it happened in 5-page black and white UK stories. When almost every other member of the Decepticon rank-and-file was a boring sadistic goon, Spinister really stood out to me for actually seeming to care about the cause and his comrades' lives.

I'd say the same about Flywheels, too. He was something special in City of Fear and it's too bad that people mostly seem to talk about him as "The Scavenger That Died Early" these days and make big feet jokes, instead of remembering the guy who fought zombies, risked his neck for the Autobots and saved the day with Trypticon.
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HeavyArms
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by HeavyArms »

Siege Cog &
Siege Barricade &
Siege Crosshairs &
Siege Springer &
Siege Autobot Alphastrike Counterforce.

Some were bought while on special with the Alphastrike boxset only being bought because it was on sale, also decided to check the left foot on Slamdance to see if it needed to be loosened up but it seems to move as well as the right foot, so that's good.
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Skyquake87
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Skyquake87 »

...I now want to re-enact City Of Fear, as it occurred to me I've got Trypticon and Flywheels. Smells like death here anyway, as one of the cats has just done an epic dump. Thanks, Milo. You little ginger...biscuit.
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Denyer
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Mmm, dino base guy ended up with Metroplex and base mode Fort Max with micro-scale stuff, due to the size, but if memory serves I did get the original Flywheels close enough that Trypticon was basically the accessory.

Not having a strong sense of smell is definitely a blessing with cats. And not displaying original die-cast stuff. Touch wood, after a couple of incidents falling off things, our two are okay with being left unsupervised with stuff within jumping reach in this room.
IDW just seems a bit insubstantial in the end, I guess?
Yeah, I like idea books, and was basically okay with only the one title being worth following as long as they weren't crossed-over too much, but LL never gelled in the way MTMTE did. And despite a decent first twelve issues, haven't been inspired to keep up with the new continuity -- the appeal was mostly the art and portrayal of scale.

Fair play to everyone who's enjoying 3P realisations of the DJD and other characters despite the relative lack of page time, though. Enough of my favourite characters only really got covered in profiles.

edit: AFAIK the toys go I kind of approach displaying stuff as shambles and feng shui -- it means bugger all to a casual observer but makes for a pleasant working environment.
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Clay
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Clay »

Just thought I'd pop in to say that I found a Spinister a week or two ago as well. He's lovely, really.

Also, I found Studio Mixmaster last week, so I'm up to 5/8's of Devastator by number, if not by mass. I also grabbed the 2007 Megatron too, and he easily has enough paint for him and the ROTF Megatron both. Bit of a course correction, I guess.

Warcry wrote: Wed Dec 25, 2019 5:15 pm
Siege Reflector: He falls into the same category as Soundwave, I think -- a really nice action figure that I'm probably never going to transform to "spaceship" mode again.
I actually quite like the spaceship mode, in an inner-pretender-robot kind of way. I won't say that it's good by any means, but I do think it has a charm to it.
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Warcry
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

I took my son to Toys'R'Us today to let him pick out something for himself during their post-Christmas clearance, and I found something for myself as well: the Siege Battle Squad. I had the originals as a kid and I've always loved the entire team's colour schemes, but Direct-Hit and Power Punch were always the coolest. I'm happy to say that still holds true, because these two are easily the best Siege Micromasters. Part of that is because neither of them needs to turn into a whole alt-mode, and since they both basically transform into a box the robot modes are nice and chunky and stable. They can actually be set up in action poses (as much as their simple articulation allows, anyway...they're still Micromasters) and mostly they balance really well.

Really my only complaint is that they feel a bit incomplete without Meltdown, Half-Track, Vanquish and Fireshot to hang out with. But I guess that's my complaint with all the Micromasters, since (with a very few notable exceptions) they were always characterized more as teams than individuals.
Clay wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:12 pmJust thought I'd pop in to say that I found a Spinister a week or two ago as well. He's lovely, really.
Sure; rub it in, why don't you? :( :( :(
Clay wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:12 pm I actually quite like the spaceship mode, in an inner-pretender-robot kind of way. I won't say that it's good by any means, but I do think it has a charm to it.
Even as someone who actually liked Pretenders, I can't say that I played with them in vehicle mode much as a kid. But poor Reflector has a bit more going for him than Landmine or Bomb-Burst, at least. And I should say that I've seen people do really cool things with multiple Reflectors in a combined spaceship mode. I've seen some especially creative stuff done with people who were mixing and matching the TV and toy-colours figures.
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Skyquake87
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Skyquake87 »

Transformers Authentics Grimlock & Megatron
Saw these in B&M and thought they looked pretty neat for the £3.99 price point. Roughly Scout/Legends sized representations of the big legacy names in Transformers. They're fairly cheaply made figures aimed at the discount shop market. And that's no bad thing. Better to have the genuine article than a knock-off. right? These are actually quite nice. Good, chunky little figures with balljoints for a decent amount of articulation. The sculpting is nice and there's even some decent paint apps! Honestly, I think these are great. Can't vouch for the quality of the same figures blown up to 6" scale which i also saw.

Platinum Edition Trilling 30 Predaking Reissue
I just wanted this because I liked the brushed gold look. And it comes in a nice red box with some nice character art on. And because I really like the Predacons. As fancy as the box looks, with its 'fantasy situation' the insides are a bit dull, with Predaking just sitting in a cardboard tray with a scrunched up bag of weapons and some crumpled instructions and japanese label sheets. Still, the figures themselves are excellent. The moulds have held up well and everything is nice and tight. The figures remain as hefty as ever, with their use of die-cast. The combined mode is still a glorious looking totem pole and is brilliant.

Studio Series Scrapmetal
Ended up importing the TT release (interesting that these lack the numbering system of their western counterparts, when most Japanese collectibles of this ilk have some sort of catalogue number). He's a cool little figure, turning from a back hoe to robot and back. I like him. He's well detailed and looks great. I'm really liking these Studio Series Constructicons. They've been great so far.
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Denyer
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Warcry wrote: Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:33 pm Really my only complaint is that they feel a bit incomplete without Meltdown, Half-Track, Vanquish and Fireshot to hang out with. But I guess that's my complaint with all the Micromasters, since (with a very few notable exceptions) they were always characterized more as teams than individuals.
Mmm, whilst the pairs are nice, would rather have the rest of existing teams than keep hopping all over the place. And whilst the mould choices are what they are, not having, say, Fixit kinda sucks. But it's far more noticeable with the combiners.
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