POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Figures, collectables, customs and collecting.
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Tantrum
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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LEGO 10302 Optimus Prime - I haven't opened this guy yet. He just came out today, and the shelf at the LEGO Store in Providence was already down to just 2. US$170 for 1,508 pieces is a bit higher than average. But, the LEGO Store was running a promotion so I got a couple small sets totaling 373 pieces thrown in free. Unfortunately, they were out of the Back to the Future car, but said they'd be getting more.

I've opened some of the other stuff I recently got. SS Brawn, Wheeljack, and Ratchet are quite nice. There's quite a bit of painted clear plastic, especially in Wheeljack, which has a reputation for being fragile. But, all 3 of these guys seem solid so far.

All 12 wheels are clip ons that actually roll well. The gaps in the pegs in Brawn's front wheels are used as slots to tab the vehicle mode together, which both covers the gaps and is quite clever. Wheeljack's alt mode reminds me of a very stylized version of his G1 Cybertronian mode, with the windshield far up front, and a spoiler that bends a bit down the sides. But, the resemblance isn't strong enough that I could argue it to someone who doesn't see it.

Ratchet's the only one with limb hollowness. He's also the only one with full articulation. Wheeljack lacks ankle tilts due to transformation. Brawn lacks upper arm swivels for no discernible reason.

These guys are too small to fully justify the $25 asking price, especially Wheeljack. Brawn is smaller than Wheeljack, but he's supposed to be small. If Wheeljack were Ratchet sized, and Ratchet a bit bigger than that, these'd feel like a good value at normal retail. I got them for under $19 each, so I don't feel ripped off.

Windblade Model Kit - I had a harder time building this than other Flame Toys kits, which I've had a harder time with in general than similarly sized Gundam figs. But, the result was worth it. This has a much better face sculpt than my other Windblade figures. She doesn't transform, but her T30 and Cyberverse toy jet modes aren't that great. I didn't bother with most of the stickers since they're very tiny, and putting them on wrong tends to look worse than not putting them on at all.

Selects Artfire & NIghtstick - Of all the G1-with-knees molds I own, this is the G1-with-kneesiest. The Earthrise Datsun does the arms differently, folding them into the sides of the car rather than under the hood. This guy's only real difference from the original is folding the arms together instead of leaving a gap. I'm glad I got the Artfire deco, since the Inferno or Grapple decos would've seemed redundant with my G1 reissues.

The extra accessories are nice. Hotlink's rifle and weapon hand mean he doesn't have a hand free for Nightstick, so I gave him to Cyclonus. Scourge has one of Hotlink's guys. I usually just give blast effects to Mircomasters, but Nightstick looks pretty good with his, so he keeps them. One of the other blast effects is with Artfire's headcannon, the final is with the Micromaster fire engine.

My only issue is that he doesn't roll well. Maybe his legs touch the ground? I don't know if that's a flaw in the design or if I'm doing something wrong.
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Shebakoby
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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just got me a Legacy kickback!
Beware of Troy McClure!
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Denyer
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

The Wei Jiang or Takongzhans Kubian CoolBecomeBrave KO of Combiner Wars Firefly/Fireflight because the originals are thin on the ground now and I didn't want to disassemble Superion, plus I was curious whether the quality of their other KOs was maintained in the straight bootlegs. To go with Legacy Dragstrip for reasons that'll be obvious to UK-based cereal eaters.

It's not bad. The plastic feels subtly different and there's a little paint slop in places, but with some labels and a dab or two of putty in the hip joint sockets (plus the correct gun, I assume the seller had mixed them up at some point as the individual release seems to have the correct one). The red plastic is the correct colour rather than the darker semi-translucent and waxy finish stuff you get on cheaper toys, RTS WIndcharger, etc.

The original mould/design is a little lacking... narrow waist and in the same red as the back so it's almost as if the torso is hovering in mid-air.
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Warcry wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 12:56 am
Transmetal II Iguanus...
Nice. I still have this and like it a wee bit more than the Universe version (if only because parts of the frill on the TM2 don't pop off all the time), if I'm honest. I love the sculpt on this one. He's asymmetric without totally going mental with it. Love the eye patch and toothy face in robot mode.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Agreed on all counts -- Reptilion might be prettier but Iguanus is way more fun to handle because his frill isn't constantly falling off. The face sculpt is neat but I don't think it really jumps out on this one...from any distance at all it just looks like a big bloody maw full of teeth, though that's something I can appreciate too.

I got a couple more new arrivals yesterday.

Beast Hunters Sharkticon Megatron

Clay reminded me a couple months ago that I wanted to track one of these down. The colours are fantastic and I love the idea of the super serious, growly TF: Prime Megatron cosplaying as a Sharkticon for no particularly good reason. This figure is a great example of how much of a difference a neat repaint can make. It's not a particularly good toy honestly, and if I'd bought the show accurate colour scheme I'd be down on it for having poor articulation, super weak hip joints and a transformation that doesn't try very hard. But it looks so cool standing there with its ridiculous fishgunspear that those things don't bother me too much.

Beast Hunters Skylynx

Seriously, why did I ignore this line when it came out? There are so many cool Beast Hunters toys! Skylynx is a redeco of Skystalker, who I already own. I love the colours -- because they're basically the colours of my local hockey team -- but they look a little weird on a dragon. They work really well in robot mode, though.

The giant wings make this a very top-heavy figure, and my Skystalker is a wobbly mess from the waist down, so cool poses aren't a thing that happen with him. I was happy to find that Skylynx's waist, legs and hips are a lot more stable. You still need to use the tail creatively in robot mode to do much with him, but I feel like I'm getting a lot more mileage out of Skylynx than I ever did from his floppy brother. He's good fun.
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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I really enjoyed putting together a collection of Beast Hunters figures (all sold now). They're such mad colourful things that look like some forgotten '90s toyline. Probably the last time Hasbro went mental with paint apps and different coloured plastics too.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by HeavyArms »

Skids, Prime Arcee, Kickback, Dragstrip, Prime Bulkhead - All bought from Myer with 40% off.

G2 Laser Rod Optimus Prime - From Big W's Toy Sale.

DK-2 - From EB Games.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Studio Series Bumblebee Arcee, Legacy Motormaster - From Big W, did have a it of help from a club friend in acquiring Motormaster, who is quite fun.

Legacy Blaster - From Amazon AU.

N.E.S.T. Bumblebee - From JB Hi-Fi.
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Cor, it's July already! Where does the time go? Here's some nonsense I picked up in June :)

Energon Ironhide
An utterly unloved Tonka toy of a Transformer. He's ugly, has an odd choice of olive mixed in with his otherwise quite pleasant red, white & blues. He is a great toy though, and I am especially pleased that I can combine him with Energon Cliffjumper to make the mighty IRON JUMPER (Cliff Hide the other way around, but that just sounds rubbish).

Energon Insecticon
Another ugly Energon lump no-one likes. He's massive for a Scout class figure. Beetle mode is nice and the Energon weapons work well to give him an attack mode. Robot mode is shite though.

Fall Of Cybertron Soundwave w/ Laserbeak, Frenzy, Ravage, Rumble & Ratbat
I was mucking about with the fancy new Netflix Soundwave and realised I didn't like him that much. Or Siege Soundblaster. So I sold them and bought a bunch of FOC toys. First I got was Soundwave with all his chums. This is brilliant. The execution is flawed (Generations FOC introduced us to the commonplace cost cutting we see now - hollow limbs, pegged on wheels etc), but the gimmick is such fun - I love loading up Soundwave's chest and flinging these data-disc lads out. Brilliant. I like that Soundwave has a proper alt-mode here, even if it still looks odd giving him a vehicle mode.

Fall Of Cybertron Jazz
Excellent vehicle mode, questionable transformation and a robot mode that doesn't quite feel like it's hanging together, but I like it all the same. Can do some poses, but looks awkward and a bit crap doing them.

Fall Of Cybertron Starscream
Holy crap this thing is fantastic. Robot mode looks a bit funny with the squat legs and orthopedic shoes he has for feet, but I absolutely love it. The gattling cannons are great, the tetrajet mode is great fun and the transformation is nice.

Fall Of Cybertron Air Raid
Never really liked this mold on Shockwave, but Air Raid? Air Raid looks glorious. The colours are banging and the flying gun thing really works for him! The weapons he has are silly. I like the sword, but the big long stabby knife? Not so much.

Fall Of Cybertron Grimlock
Time hasn't improved my opinion of this one. Robot mode is nice, and I like the sword and shield. He's really hollow and the dino mode is horribly proportioned, with a big flabby tail end. Plus marks for a light-up feature, but he is very much a 'nearly but not quite' kind of figure.

Energon Skyblast
What a cracking little Basic class figure this is. Nice and chunky, good Jetfire-y colours and some fun weapon me do stuff.

Studio Series Bumblebee Movie Soundwave
A glorified Action Master (or R.E.D., if you must), Soundwave is an awesome action figure, but crikey Moses, couldn't someone come up with something better for an alt-mode? It's as bad as the Siege figure - another Soundwave that turns into a flying box.

Studio Series Bumblebee Movie Ravage
Ravage is pretty much like Soundwave - he turns into nothing and the only reason I bought him was to put in Soundwave's chest. If nothing else, I can pretend I've a budget version of the ThreeZero Soundwave & Ravage set. So I think I'm wining?

Studio Series Bumblebee Movie Brawn
Fandom has completely lost their trousers over this guy. God knows why. He's fun and all, but hardly the Second Coming. I just like him because there's something very Playskool GoBot about the design. His head does look silly. If that's a helmet, he must look ridiculous without it - a tiny face on a massive head.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Studio Series Bumblebee Ironhide - Picked up from Big W.
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Legacy Blitzwing and Elita-1 - Picked up from JB Hi-Fi, who now sell a range of action figures.
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Tantrum
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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HeavyArms wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 6:09 am Legacy Blitzwing and Elita-1 - Picked up from JB Hi-Fi, who now sell a range of action figures.
It's nice to hear of a store adding TFs to their stock. Here, Walgreen's doesn't even stock their own exclusives. They've got a few leftover Earthrise/Kingdom toys that didn't sell for $20, and they bumped the price to Red Alert's $25. They've even got a few Cyber Battalion figures from 5 years ago, like that Jetfire that doesn't have knees. That means if the local Walmart doesn't have what I want, it's a 30-minute trip each way to the next closest TF sellers.

Fortunately, there are multiple sellers there: Target, Walmart, Gamestop, and a comic shop. So, I can hit several stores in one trip. Usually, I find something. But, last weekend I didn't see any of the figures I was looking for: Leader Sludge, Cyberverse Snarl, SS Arcee & Ironhide, authentics Arcee & Wheeljack. I ended up making an impulse buy of ...

Black Zarak - Scorponok was my favorite city-former, since I'm not that into city-formers. I am into scorpions big enough to hold other figures in their claws, though. I might've preferred the original deco for nostalgia purposes. Plus, the mostly black coloring makes the molded detail hard to see in low light, making him look kind of plain. Even the scorpion legs tend to blend together in beast mode. But, this guy looks pretty good, especially the new face sculpt. I like the headmaster, with his scarred chest and eye patch, much more than the original, too.

I've only put him through his transformations once, so I may be missing something. But, it doesn't seem like his bot legs lock into place in scorpion mode. Are they really just held in place by the ratchet joints? Also, the molded studs in the upper arms prevent the guns from being positioned freely.

I find city mode the weakest of the three, but that just may be my disinterest in city modes. The ramps seem too steep for most figure to drive down smoothly, being unable to handle the sharp angles at the top and bottom. I appreciate the thought behind trying integrate the guns into city mode by combining them with the tower pieces. But, that means the tower fronts don't connect directly to the claws, making the towers look less like, well, towers. I may try fiddling with the claws some to try to improve this, but I'm pretty sure the G1 toy did this better.

Back to bot mode, the arm joints are strong enough that he can wield Siege Shockwave as a gun, though SW's heels tamper with the angle a bit. I'm a bit worried that leaving Shockwave in this mode for a long time will damage the rubber tube, which seems just a few millimetres too short for reaching its designated hole without strain.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Skyquake87 wrote: Sat Jul 02, 2022 6:33 pm Fall Of Cybertron Starscream
Holy crap this thing is fantastic. Robot mode looks a bit funny with the squat legs and orthopedic shoes he has for feet, but I absolutely love it. The gattling cannons are great, the tetrajet mode is great fun and the transformation is nice.
I had this out recently, to compare it to one od my own new pickups. It's easily my favourite of the three tetrajet Starscreams I own. The guns are some of the coolest accessories I've got, and like you say, the transformation is a lot of fun. I wish I'd picked it up as a different character instead, though. I own so many Starscreams that I tend to forget about most of them, and I feel like I'd appreciate the mold a lot more if I owned it as, say, Thundercracker instead. And speaking of segues...

Generations Shattered Glass Starscream

I recieved this as a gift recently, and I don't think I noticed that it existed before that. I probably wouldn't have bought it for myself, since like I said, I have WAY too many Starscreams. But I don't own any other version of the Siege mold, so it was definitely welcome! It's a fun action figure, very poseable. And I really like the Jetfire colour scheme on it. Of course, it's pretty hard to ignore the elephant in the room...

Image

Yeah, he's basically first cousins with Big Convoy. I was impressed to see that the nosecone folded back to become the robot's air intakes, and he has way less kibble in robot mode than I'd expected. In fact, the robot is just great, overall! But it's hard to find anything nice to say about the alt mode, especially if you stack it up against the FoC toy Skyquake mentioned above. It's about 55% robot limbs by volume, and I'm not likely to transform it again any time soon. And since this is a Transformer, that's a pretty big strike against it.

Vintage Beast Wars Optimus Primal

At least ten of these have been hanging out at my local Walmart since well before Christmas, and I'm not sure if they sold a single one at the frankly insane $70 MSRP (oddly they sold out of Megatrons months ago at full price). They finally landed on clearance for about half that, and at that price I was happy to get one. I've owned the Universe version of this figure for almost two decades (!), so nothing about this toy was a surprise other than the shockingly bright blue they used for the accessories on this release.

It's an oldie by now, but I'd be hard pressed to name a single Transformer that's come out since that outdoes it as a "for all ages" toy. The robot mode is very poseable. The transformation is straightforward but effective. It has a pile of accessories and action features, but none of them get in the way of it just being a fun action figure if you want to ignore them all.

Image

(Why you would want to ignore them, I don't know. They're the best!)

Two and a half decades on, this is still one of the best Transformers ever made. It's totally worth picking up if your Walmarts, like mine, have a pile of the things sitting around on clearance.
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Denyer
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Warcry wrote: Tue Jul 12, 2022 3:36 pmI was impressed to see that the nosecone folded back to become the robot's air intakes, and he has way less kibble in robot mode than I'd expected. In fact, the robot is just great, overall! But it's hard to find anything nice to say about the alt mode, especially if you stack it up against the FoC toy Skyquake mentioned above. It's about 55% robot limbs by volume, and I'm not likely to transform it again any time soon. And since this is a Transformer, that's a pretty big strike against it.
I actually like this one, having customised/ruined mine by melting the "damage" paint apps into something more subtle (the plastic on these things reacts unusually strongly with acetone). Swooshable and easier to get down to a quick transformation than a lot of modern figures.

I had the FOC one and didn't enjoy the scale. Interesting enough line, some stinkers, some nicer designs, but some of them like Prime/Magnus were noticeably undersized. Like with that Classics Galvatron Hasbro compromised with (amongst other things) apparent downsizing. It's got stronger 80s SS vibes to me than a lot of the other SS conveyor belt inclusions in lines.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Tantrum wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 6:21 pm
HeavyArms wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 6:09 am Legacy Blitzwing and Elita-1 - Picked up from JB Hi-Fi, who now sell a range of action figures.
It's nice to hear of a store adding TFs to their stock. Here, Walgreen's doesn't even stock their own exclusives. They've got a few leftover Earthrise/Kingdom toys that didn't sell for $20, and they bumped the price to Red Alert's $25. They've even got a few Cyber Battalion figures from 5 years ago, like that Jetfire that doesn't have knees. That means if the local Walmart doesn't have what I want, it's a 30-minute trip each way to the next closest TF sellers.

Fortunately, there are multiple sellers there: Target, Walmart, Gamestop, and a comic shop. So, I can hit several stores in one trip. Usually, I find something. But, last weekend I didn't see any of the figures I was looking for: Leader Sludge, Cyberverse Snarl, SS Arcee & Ironhide, authentics Arcee & Wheeljack. I ended up making an impulse buy of ...

Black Zarak - Scorponok was my favorite city-former, since I'm not that into city-formers. I am into scorpions big enough to hold other figures in their claws, though. I might've preferred the original deco for nostalgia purposes. Plus, the mostly black coloring makes the molded detail hard to see in low light, making him look kind of plain. Even the scorpion legs tend to blend together in beast mode. But, this guy looks pretty good, especially the new face sculpt. I like the headmaster, with his scarred chest and eye patch, much more than the original, too.

I've only put him through his transformations once, so I may be missing something. But, it doesn't seem like his bot legs lock into place in scorpion mode. Are they really just held in place by the ratchet joints? Also, the molded studs in the upper arms prevent the guns from being positioned freely.

I find city mode the weakest of the three, but that just may be my disinterest in city modes. The ramps seem too steep for most figure to drive down smoothly, being unable to handle the sharp angles at the top and bottom. I appreciate the thought behind trying integrate the guns into city mode by combining them with the tower pieces. But, that means the tower fronts don't connect directly to the claws, making the towers look less like, well, towers. I may try fiddling with the claws some to try to improve this, but I'm pretty sure the G1 toy did this better.

Back to bot mode, the arm joints are strong enough that he can wield Siege Shockwave as a gun, though SW's heels tamper with the angle a bit. I'm a bit worried that leaving Shockwave in this mode for a long time will damage the rubber tube, which seems just a few millimetres too short for reaching its designated hole without strain.
Yeah, it's nice to see other retailers taking on additional lines, they are also stocking hard to find transformers lines like Shattered Glass and Golden Disc Collection as well as other toy lines like DC Multiverse and Spawn, that I don't necessarily see elsewhere.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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I had a masterpiece Crosscut show up today. Oddly enough, his name on both the box and the instruction sheet is SENATORCROSSCUT, with no spaces. I know it's a Japanese release, but Takara are usually better about that sort of thing.

The vehicle is the same size as Legacy Skids, but the robot is bigger due to the sheer density of parts. What's also neat is that it was (apparently) designed by the same fellow that thought up the Diaclone figure way back when.

I actually passed on MP Skids in favor of Crosscut, which I also have the "reissue" of (using the term loosely as the deco was never part of transformers until then ). I have him chilling with MP Silverstreak (literally the all-silver car mode deco, not Bluestreak). Silver with red and black complements is just a nice palette.
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There were times, as Dinobot had long since concluded, that he really, really, REALLY didn't understand the ancestors of the Maximals.

Case in point: Jazz and Bumblebee breakdancing. Jazz with style, grace, and fluidity. Bumblebee.... not so much.

Rattrap wandered up to the small clutch of assorted Autobots watching the show, getting there as Bumblebee's left foot caught their boombox mid-spin and sent it flying out of the group to crash against the wall and hit the ground a lot harder than he would have thought.

"Ow, man!" The boombox transform, rubbing his head. "That hurt, dude!"

"Sorry. It was the beat. The beat got to me....."

Transformers LEGACY Blaster and Eject: Blaster falls, once again, under the heading of figures I wasn't going to get. It's not that I don't like him, it was more of a "Running out of room" kind of thing. Then I got a Siamese kitten, who sees my figures as bowling pins, so a bunch of them are getting stored in favor of figures that won't lose parts easily. On that front, Blaster seems to be pretty solid.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Studio Series Sludge - Ordered from Amazon AU.
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This was my best weekend for toy shopping in a while. Many of these aren't opened yet.

SS Junkheap - Bought at Target with a couple model kits (Gundam and Izuku Midoria) that were on clearance, plus some ketchup. The self checkout change return was misloaded, apparently swapping the $1s and $10s. So, instead of getting $7 back ($5 + $1 + %1), I got $25 ($5 + $10 + $10). So,everything but Junkheap was basically free.

Creatures Collide 4-pack - 4 Deluxes for $74 is a pretty good deal. I'd considered all 3 of the insect molds, but passed since I already own a decent Kickback and Waspinator, and have no attachment to this version of Scorponok. But, these black redecos should make good minions for Black Zarak. Plus, an actual VW Goldbug/Bumblebee.

Hasbro'd been trying to eliminate plastic windows. Sometimes, they leave open space in the box, which can allow for damage/head stealing. Other times, they use closed boxes, which can hide toy swapping. This set is almost the perfect solution. A honeycomb pattern of small gaps in the top allows you to verify that the toy in the box is the toy on the box, with holes too small to actually do anything to the toy. I say "almost" because there's an inner cardboard liner that obscures Scorponok. I checked multiple packs to see if this was a one off, but all of them obscured Scorponok.

Galactic Odyssy Micromasters - A six pack of minicons Gamestop originally priced at $32, clearance to $26, then had a 50% all clearance items sale. So, 6 little guys for $13.

Authentics Arcee - This figure is a far better transformer than the Earthrise/Kingdom one. Making the robot pistol the car antenna is quite clever. This is the first time I've ever seen a transforming G1 Arcee and thought it didn't have enough backpack, lacking the behind-the-shoulder kibble. I have only two complaints. first, the head sculpt looks a bit like a monkey. Second, the extending joints in the legs are currently stiffer than the ball jointed knees, causing the lower legs to pop of when transforming the legs. Hopefully, the stiffness means these extending joints won't fail soon.

Earthrise Arcee - From Ollie's for $13. I hate this transformer. As a a non-transforming G1 Arcee figure, it's pretty good. The headsculpt is great, much better than the chimpy Authentics or derpy T30 versions. The articulation is decent. It's basically a RED figure made with proper plastic.

But, I've tried to get this fool thing into car mode twice, and only gotten close. Getting the backpack peg to fit in the hole in the back of the torso is harder than it should be. I have no ides if I'm folding the legs correctly, as they don't seem to tab into place. I get everything as close as I can, and it doesn't seem like there's enough ground clearance to not scrape the bot chest against the ground.

There's an upgrade kit to replace the backpack with a screen accurate one, allowing you to have the car and bot at the same time. I may look into this. Another issue is a brown stain on the rear passenger side fender. It's not horrible, but it's another knock against the alt mode of what I'm going to consider an Action Master.

Earthrise Airwave - Another $13 Ollie's purchase. This is exactly what I want from a discount figure. I don't see myself transforming this guy often, since I find the ramp joints used for the partsforming to be awkward. But, I respect the attempt to cram as much functionality into this guy as possible.

The bot mode is nice, except for the short head. It's short to fit the alt modes better, but at least in the aircraft carrier mode, it could've been taller and stuck out a bit. It'd still look good if decoed correctly. I like the asymmetrical arms.

The aircraft carrier looks good, except for the fist sticking out from the front. I've got one of the Micromaster jets on it. It's a bit too big, but that's OK. The long ramp that attaches to other base modes looks fine, but I don't like base modes so I doubt I'll use it. The missile launcher mode is the only real clunker of the 4.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Robots! Picked up a few bits this month which I have been enjoying.

Weirdwolf w/ Monzo (Chinese KO)
One of the many, many bootlegs of G1 toys available on the aftermarket. Quality is surprisingly good and it's nice to own this again. I did have an original one some years ago, but it was in a bit of a mess, with some weird pink goop that someone had spilled inside it that had solidified over time. So it's nice to a have a fresh one. Enjoyed putting the stickers on and having Monzo ride him around in wolf mode. Good times.

Beast Wars Cybershark Reissue
I've not been terribly excited by the Beast Wars reissues. Maybe it's because they don't feel particularly special, compared to say the 10th Anniversary or Telemocha reissues. The different era these came from which saw Deluxe figures carded means they don't feel 'collector-grade' like the 1980s reissues do. Despite how good the figure is, I don't feel blown away by buying him again. The plastic feels as good as the original, with just a very weak spring mechanism on the tail weapon being the giveaway that this isn't a vintage figure. I don't know if I'm up for any more of these Beast Wars reissues. The price certainly puts me off. And yeah, inflation and all that, but I still can't square playing vintage Ultra class prices for a Deluxe figure. Maybe I'm just not so jazzed for these as I did pick them up at the time, whereas the 1980s figures weren't something I had much of. Hmm.

Legacy Iguanus
Picked this up on a whim as I thought it looked neat. Robot mode is excellent. Loads of sculpted detail and I love the use of the original toy's outer shell as a cue for the robot mode. Sadly he displays Action Master Elite levels of transformation design and turns into the most unconvincing motorcycle I've ever seen, which kind of spoils things.

Studio Series 86 Exo Suit Spike Witwicky
This is kind of nice to have. Transformation's okay and you kind of get something that looks like the onscreen vehicle mode, as viewed through the lens of Heath-Robinson. What is horrific about the figure is that Hasbro have cut out the back of Spike's head and scooped his brains out, leaving him with this horrifying gaping hole. He looks like that fella I saw in Bizarre magazine once who'd lost his entire face (eyes, nose, everything) and top half of his jaw to Ebola. Urgh.

Commemorative Series Rodimus Prime
I'd given up trying to own one of these as everytime one pops up for sale, it goes for silly money. I found one a guy was selling loose for a more reasonable sum and was surprised when it arrived that it came with the box and some unapplied labels, which I've now badly applied (hooray!). I love this thing. It's simple and it's daft and not very good, but there's something incredibly fun about him. I love that the trailer feels a bit more involved with play for the robot Rodimus than Optimus' does in some ways. Diecast feeties and rubber tyres are definitely the way to go with this lad. Great stuff.

Studio Series 86 Sludge
I like Sludge. He was the first Dinobot I ever owned, so this scores highly on the nostalgiaometer. Robot mode is nice and chunky and I like his big beefy cannon. Transformation is an unnecessary fiddle-fest, with some needless showing off done for the legs to the back of the beast mode part which sucks all the fun out. I'm sure I'll warm to it after a few more goes, but right now, I don't like it. As with seemingly everyone else's copy, mine has slightly loose hips and knees and appalling soft ratchet joints, so he's not really good for doing much in the way of posing. Dinosaur mode is excellent, although a bit on the small side, but that doesn't surprise me when its the scaling for robot mode to make these all look good stood together that they've gone for. I give it 48 hours before it starts yellowing.

Studio Series 86 Junkheap
Nice retool of the Wreck-Gar mold. I like it. I could go for another two Junkions, to build up a bit of squad of these fall apart dirt bike loons. Not really too much exciting to say about him. Wreck-Gar was great, so this guy is great. The colours are great, the new head and faring pieces that double as arm mounted things are great. He's just great.

Legacy Tarantulas
This has just blown me away by how good it is. I was expecting a a horrible reuse of the Blackarachnia mold, but no. Tarantuals has got one all to himself and he looks fantastic. The original toy wasn't the greatest and I wasn't much of a fan of the original animation model, which seemed very podgy, and I'm glad the designer must have felt the same. The figure borrows some of the dynamism from the still-excellent Transmetal version of the character and applies to Tarantuals original incarnation. The sculpting is amazing, the choice of plastic colours is great, the paint work is lovely and he is just an absolute banger of a figure. Transformation is decent, and the alt mode is brilliant. Easily a contender for my favourite figure of this year. Fantastic.
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