Remembering that our old toys actually exist!

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:10 am

Sadly, I am not. My oldest son suggested a coup (bloodless or otherwise) in our new town, but I'm thinking it might be better to just wait a year or two to see how things are run here.

Then the coup.

Post by **Denyer** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 2:28 am

Dug out Darkmount, was reminded how neat the mould and fact of getting a homage is, and now I'm thinking that United Straxus looks a bit nicer...

Also, this thing's about two heads taller than Jhiaxus.

edit: Having said that I seem to have mistransformed him with the chest not brought down.

We really need a Jhiaxus in G2 colours...

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 12:13 pm

Binaltech Laserwave
Still the best version of Shockwave, in my books. I found the original toy a slight disappointment when I finally got hold of one, and this guy delivered exactly what I was looking for. Unlike the original, he's slightly more beefy (well he would be, turning into a car) and looks less like a strong breeze would take him out. The diecast gives him some superb weight, and the sparkles in the paintwork make him superior to the western Alternators release. He's not without his problems. The mould was designed first for Meister, and Takara have not though to make any alterations meaning the robot head is a right pain to get through the slot in the bonnet.

Prime RID Vehicon
One of the very best Deluxe scaled Transformers ever. A really elegant design that has a neat transformation and superb sculpt. The vehicle mode is a brutal looking muscle car. An excellent excellent figure. So much so, that I have 9 of them!

Transformers Collection Huffer & Gears
Along with Gears, I loved the portrayal of these two grumpy old men as portrayed in the Ladybird book 'Autobots Lightning Strike'. And the toys are just darling. A super cute little orange tractor cab and little blue truck, respectively, they look great and the robot modes are ace too, nice cutesy little blocks that show up the likes of Bumblebee and Cosmos.

Beast Wars Manterror
With his He-Man sounding villain name (and looking like one too), Manterror is one of the more dafter excursions in Beast Wars. A largely successful rendition of a Praying Mantis, he features some superb articulation (mainly in the arms) in robot mode and has this neat disc launching gimmick. He has nice, shiny and solid green plastics neatly accented with a few dabs of paint and those clear blue plastics. Transformation isn't as simple as it looks which is a surprise and whilst not as mad as Injector, he offers similar levels of weird fun.

Post by **Clay** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 5:15 pm

Skyquake87 wrote:Binaltech Laserwave
He's not without his problems. The mould was designed first for Meister, and Takara have not though to make any alterations meaning the robot head is a right pain to get through the slot in the bonnet.

Try pointing the head straight up as if he's looking at the ceiling. The front of the car will rotate more easily then.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 9:33 pm

Or, try to not have the head platform level in robot mode position when you try to fold down the hood. This way the mass of the head moves in tandem with the opening of the hood instead of trying to find the one sweet spot when they meet at the final point.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:00 pm

Thanks guys, I don't transform him that often...so Always have a right fiddle trying to sort that out!

Post by **Clay** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:43 pm

My turn! I dug out the Seacons this weekend and, in the spirit of Age of Extinction, used them as riding mounts for the Legends Terrorcons.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:58 pm

Back in Athens for a bit, had a chance to play with some of my remaining figures---get some of them back.

Prime FE Vehicon: I actually dig this one far more than the RID version. The RID version basically compresses the roof on the legs, but that leaves it with one panel arms and a thin, static torso. FE trades that neat trick for proper arms, chunky legs and vastly superior articulation. I love the clear plastic folding and beefing up for his forearms via panels, I like the gun that can store in car mode as well, I love the layers of plastic on his lower legs and the generous amount of paint/clear plastic ratio. Big and beefy on par with the 2010 Generations deluxes.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:48 am

Clay wrote:My turn! I dug out the Seacons this weekend and, in the spirit of Age of Extinction, used them as riding mounts for the Legends Terrorcons.

Brilliant!

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Mon Mar 02, 2015 3:25 pm

Did a bit of a sort and a little more of a clearout today, and in the process took Takara Prime First Edition Voyager Bulkhead out of the Prime storage box (yeah, no Prime figures going - just love the designs too much!).

First Edition Bulkhead remains one of the best Transformers ever. I just absolutely love him. The transformation is so cool, and the two modes so wonderfully awesome! I love the metallic finish of the Takara version too (although appreciate this is less cartoon accurate than the Hasbro one, but this makes no difference to me as I have no attachment to the cartoon, nor have I really seen more than 10mins of it ever).

Yup. Bulkhead is just wonderful!

(And helpful when procrastinating from preparing university lectures...)

Post by **Warcry** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 6:20 pm

Bulkhead is a fantastic toy! I've got the Hasbro version and I definitely prefer the brighter, show-accurate colour scheme, but you could paint the thing cyan and blaze orange and it wouldn't take anything away from it. The engineering and transformation are fantastic! I'll have to get mine out again soon.

For me, the older toy I've been paying attention to recently is Generations Trailbreaker. I really didn't like the Hoist that came from the same mold, and the figure's caught a lot of flak for being quite small by Deluxe standards, but it's well-designed and a fair bit of fun to fiddle with. The vehicle mode is especially good, which surprises me a little because the cannons and forcefield equipment that the designers didn't bother hiding actually fits far better than it has any right to.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 8:42 pm

Apart from that long standing bugbear of current Generations toys that is the lack of paint (apart from on Skids wheels, which have a sarcastic amount), I do like Trailbreaker a lot. Great fun little toy.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 9:21 pm

I was packing up a few figures to post out after selling on eBay and couldn't resist getting a few Legends out...

- Prime Beast Hunters Abominus: (Inspired by Clay) I still really want to love this guy... Each individual is a clear improvement on the G1 figure, but the combined mode still seems lanky and messy. I mean, each limb is just a monster tagged on to a really weird torso... Insanely fun though!

- Legends of Cybertron Seekers: I got all eight out. I think that's all they ever made. I wish they made more. This remains the best Legends/Legion Class mould, yet was one of the first! So disappointing they only went down hill from here. I have three versions of Starscream, two of Ramjet (WTF?), one of Skywarp, one of Thrust and one of Sunstorm. Where is Thundercracker? And where's Dirge? I guess Hasbro hadn't figured out Seeker-Sales yet at this point...

Post by **Clay** » Mon Apr 13, 2015 11:38 pm

Most appropriate thread for these pictures, I think.

Took these pictures a while ago and finally uploaded them. Here's AOE Rusty Prime side by side with G1 Prime. I really like them as a pair. AOE Prime goes from a truck roughly the same size as G1 Prime into, well, Movie Prime, and does so by basically turning inside out. It's a... tangible metaphor for the franchise over three decades and how far it's come, both in engineering and in pop culture.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Sun May 31, 2015 10:16 pm

Been playing around with THS-01 Galaxy Convoy today while working. Really awesome figure - love the small scale, great detail and die cast. Weighs more than Arms Micron Bulkhead!

Still annoyed I'm missing two hands (came with two duplicates and seller said I could return just these and they'd send replacements - ten years later and I'm still waiting...). So if anyone's interested in selling hands PM me!

But, yeah, amazing figure. Tempts me to find THS-02 - but the truck mode looks so weird in pictures. How is it in real life?

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sun May 31, 2015 10:24 pm

numbat wrote: But, yeah, amazing figure. Tempts me to find THS-02 - but the truck mode looks so weird in pictures. How is it in real life?

It fared a lot better back in 2005/6 when it came out as a miniature MP Convoy---I don't think it holds that well today, with MP10 in the fold.

Truck mode was ugly as a sin, robot mode was cool enough though.

Plenty of pics here http://www.collectiondx.com/toy_review/ ... yle_convoy

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Sun May 31, 2015 10:37 pm

Thanks - so THS-02 basically looks amazing in robot mode but bloody awful in truck mode... Frustrating!

THS-01 is so awesome though - I'd totally be in to collecting a line like this at the same small scale. Shame it doesn't seem to be on the cards.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:26 pm

Dusted off the six Classics-style Deluxe Seekers again. I do really love the mould. It's a shame the six were released over such an extended period in different lines though, as they don't quite gel as a team as well as they could have. Although Starscream was my favourite as a kid, he's (Classics version) clearly the poor sibling of the rest here. Similarly, while Thrust was my favourite Conehead, Ramjet is the winner here I think. If only you could position Dirge's leg-wings like you can Ramjet...

Not quite so old, but I guess pushing a year, I also got Generations Voyager Sky-Byte out for my desk. Such a fun toy! And a big Voyager too. And, bonus, he looks great.

So, of course I also had to get TFCC Deluxe Scourge out to stand with him. Also a fantastic mould, and painted the way it deserves, but man is he a midget? He's actually shorter than Generations Arcee who I also have on my desk (and who I love still). It's good there's an upcoming release of the mould in similar colours - if you get the chance I'd highly recommend it.

These do remind me how much fun mainline figures can be, when done right, and HasTak have done a lot right.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:09 am

Got Fansproject City Commander and Classics Ultra Magnus out to see if that displays well against Combiner Wars Leader Megatron...

Answer - nope. Megatron is just too tall...

On the plus side it has reminded me how much fun Ultra Magnus is with the City Commander armour, and I finally got round to giving him an Autobot insignia on his shoulder. He also looks good next to the recent AoE re-release of Classics Prime - they both have this slightly-more-detailed-paint-applications vibe going on than other 'Classics'.

On the down side I realise that Masterpiece Ultra Magnus probably makes City Commander and Classics Ultra Magnus superfluous to my collection... I may need to do another cull.

Post by **Denyer** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 12:45 am

numbat wrote:THS-01 is so awesome though - I'd totally be in to collecting a line like this at the same small scale. Shame it doesn't seem to be on the cards.

A lot of people seem to put DX9 War in Pocket stuff alongside HS Convoy.