POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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

Post by Warcry »

A couple new things arrived in the mail today!

Beast Machines Spy Streak

99% sure I've never seen this in person before. I've been looking for one for a while and this is the first time I've noticed one coming up for sale in Canada. I own all three decos in this mold now, so I guess I must be a fan! The colours look nice, and he makes for a neat Vehicon squad with Fireflight and Nightcruz flanking him.

Fox Kids Transmetal Rhinox

I'd been looking to pick up a TM Rhinox for a while now and wasn't super picky about which deco I got...it just seemed like it'd be a cool toy. It is! The robot mode is fun to mess around with, and it has a lot of personality. The transformation surprised me, and wasn't what I was expecting at all. The beast mode (and especially the rhino-snowmobile mode) feels like a Power Rangers mech mixed with a Ninja Turtles character...I think the only way to make it feel more "90s" would be to slap a bunch of pouches and belts on it. The regular Transmetal and the Armada version don't look anywhere near as silly, and your appreciation of this one will probably hinge on how much you want Rhinox to look like something David Yost drives around. I like "gaudy", so I'm onboard with it.
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Tantrum
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Denyer wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 1:26 am Assuming they're like the Siege Soundwave, which the remould seems to be from photos, the head's glued but on a ball joint and will pop off quite easily. Just take the shoulder cannon off so it's not in the way, get a good grip and pull up. Generally speaking if there isn't one or more screws pinning a head to a neck, and the head isn't a simple rotate left/right one on a peg, modern TF heads are simple ball joints. Can't recall any glued around a neck, and I don't think factory assembly processes would lend themselves to it.
Thanks. I waited until this weekend to swap the head, so I could look at them under daylight and be sure the blues were the same. I also swapped the arms at the bicep swivels, leaving each figure with their original shoulders, and the weapons. Now, Netflix Soundwave has a yellow visor, the red wrist detail, and the red on his weapons and looks much better.

What I didn't expect was how good Legacy Soundwave looks with the inferior parts. I think it's because the rest of the figure's deco is understated relative to Netflix. Black shins instead of grey, plain shoulders, no little gold stripes flanking the tape deck door. Legacy;s gold tape deck trim suits the red visor more than Netflix's yellow. I'm actually curious to see how Netflix would look with the gold trim, especially since his yellow trim isn't applied too neatly. But, getting those pins out seems difficult, especially on Legacy where the inner parts of the pins aren't visible. I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Legacy Road Hauler's screaming face and claw hand are great for "interrogating" minicons.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Tantrum wrote: Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:54 pmLegacy Road Hauler's screaming face and claw hand are great for "interrogating" minicons.
That claw is easily the best thing about the mold. It adds a ton of personality. I don't think I ever pose my Grapple without it.

Is the Crasher wave finally starting to get saturated in the US, or was finding one a stroke of luck on your end?
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Tantrum
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Warcry wrote: Mon Feb 13, 2023 4:06 pmIs the Crasher wave finally starting to get saturated in the US, or was finding one a stroke of luck on your end?
I don't know if anything can be said to be saturated in the US. I found 3 Crasher and 3 Shadowstrip about 2 months ago at my local Walmart. So, I must've lucked out and got there soon after they got a case of black F1 racers. I don't think I've seen Crasher anywhere else.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Generations Selects Tigertrack.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Fox Kids Transmetal Tarantulas

This has been one of my collecting 'grails' for ages and I don't understand why it's so hard to find compared to the other Fox Kids decos. It's easier to find most of the Japanese releases than it is to track down this thing! And even some MOSC examples have chrome damage, so finding a good one is even tougher.

I found a good one, though. It feels practically new. Tight joints, nearly perfect chrome, nearly flawless paint. It even has the pizza cutter, which my regular TM Tarantulas was missing. I've always liked the mold and it looks great in these colours. The mecha-spider looks great in black, silver and grey. The robot mode really pops, being almost entirly greyscale except for the eyes and a few splashes of green. And it's cool to finally be able to do the spider-cycle mode after all these years.

Very excited to finally have one in my collection!
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Nicely understated almost Necron colour scheme there.

Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Bludgeon -- https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bludgeon_(ROTF)

Got one complete for under a tenner plus shipping. I was considering finding a samurai style head for it (maybe the RID2 Warrior one as the Blood DX upgrade kit seems to be scarce now) but he really doesn't need it because the figure is now a rarity in not trying to combine the look of the original pretender shell with the robot mode and it works. It's also nice having a more normal size one rather than the short 1989 type which would be more the equivalent of a Legends class figure now.

On the downside, the semi-automatic transformation mechanism is a semi-implemented liability, not clicking into place and meaning that if you touch the shoulders or arms he reliably attempts to fold back into himself (the wiki refers to this as a minor issue, but for any kid actually trying to play with the thing it'd probably be a deal-breaker). And it's a bit of a shame there aren't some 5mm ports for the weapons to go into for hands-free stabbage, as making the wheel hubs fixed position would been an obvious improvement.

All it all it turns out as much more successful mould reuse than the Whirl it was originally packed with in 2009, good enough to have been a planned pre-tool.

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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Legacy Autobot pointblank w/ Peacemaker

Legacy Crankcase

Bought from Amazon as they haven't shown up at retail.
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Legacy Transmetal II Megatron
Crikey, what an excellent figure this is! I loved the original TMII toy; I wasn't so enamoured with all the spring loaded features (especially the missile above his head, which I repeatedly launched into my face - not smart enough to take it out) so it's nice to have a 'clean' version that is basically the same design and transformation sequence, but without the worry of chrome flaking and projectiles going missing. Robot mode is great, if a bit lanky looking and the beast mode is fantastic. One of the very best Legacy figures and I'm hopeful for a new Cryotek out of this mold.

Legacy Pointblank w/ Peacemaker
Pointblack is a decent figure. He looks a bit weird though. His torso's very narrow and short and he has very wide hips. so looks a bit odd to me. Peacemaker's a smaller version of the original. He's quite nice, but doesn't do anything other than turn into a gun. Saves us from the 94th reuse of the Siege Battlemasters, I suppose but I would have liked at least articulation in the arms. Still, for what they are, they're pretty good and I like the vehicle mode. Nice to have these later era 1980s characters revisited.

Armada Cheetor w/ Cliffjumper
I'm really pleased to finally have these two to round out my collection of the Armada beasts. The black, blue, purple, read and pinkish oranges that are the main bulk of his palette are lovely. Even today, these Transmetal molds still stand up. They're so nicely designed (fingers crossed for reissues with metallic paint instead of chrome) and have really nice design touches - the mechanical greebling and sculpted flesh is superb. Cliffjumper is a nice tubby little Minicon - I forgot that they packed some action features into some of these, the winch is great! The Powerlinx feture is, as with the other repurposed Beast Wars figures, rubbish. It does nothing and just looks very silly, having these cars plugged into animals. And not in a good way.

Transformers The Movie Reissue Hot Rod
I bought this back in December, but think I may have forgotten to mention this one. It's the original toy done up in his intended Pink/Magenta livery. I'm in two minds about whether I miss the chrome or not. The pearly-grey plastic is nice so I don't think I do. A really nice way to do a reissue. I don't know if I'm that interested to see the saturated cartoon tones applied to other reissues that don't really need it. Hmm. I could go for the SS86 figure done in these colours though, which the box art implies was the original intention.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Denyer wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 4:24 pm Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Bludgeon
I remember really wanting one of these when it came out. I'm not sure if the Whirl put me off (it's a Blackout retool, right?) or if it was hard to find around here. Hadn't thought about it for years, until I saw this post. I'll have to check and see if he's as affordable from Canadian sellers, because that's still one of the collest-looking Movieverse Decepticon designs they've done.
Skyquake87 wrote: Sun Feb 26, 2023 10:40 am Armada Cheetor w/ Cliffjumper
Absolutely love this guy! All of the Armada beasts were great, because all of the Transmetal molds were great, but Cheetor is something special. The beast mode is lots of fun to play with and pose, which honestly isn't even the case for most modern takes on the BW cast. The toy looks great in mostly dark colours with no chrome, especially if you have the shiny 90s versions to contrast.

My first instinct was to say "nah" to non-chromed reissues of the original decos but actually, having even more variants of these great toys could only be a good thing. I'd probably buy a few, especially if the other colours were tweaked too.
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Denyer
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

The Whirl's apparently from a voyager Blackout/Grindor but via Evac. The two pack was a store exclusive but it must have been pretty easy to get over here (albeit probably not cheap because of the larger figured packed with it) -- they just don't normally still have the spring loaded purple blades with them. But if you've got other swords, sorted.

I think at the time it was just that I was more interested in getting the voyager Bludgeon, which with the 3P upgrade kit replacing a fairly duff head is still highly regarded now.
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While travelling to visit my parents this weekend, I hit 4 walmarts and 4 Targets, and ended up buying 4 TFs, none of which I've opened yet.

Velocitron Override - Clearanced to $17. As a fembot whose head sits behind the cockpit of her Cybertronian car altmode, I'm treating this as an OSKO of the Minerva figure Walgreens won't stock until next year.

This is the only figure I bought at any of the Walmarts. Otherwise, it was just derpy plushes, wave 1 Earthrise, reissue Starscream, and a lot of Junkheaps. And of course, Legacy wave 1 Deluxes they're still trying to get full price for.

Legacy Inferno - One nice thing about the open packaging is that I was able to play with the bot head and open the mouth, verifying that the screaming ant man is as great as I'd hoped.

Legacy Evolution Needlenose - I hadn't planned to get this guy. But, reviews have been good, I like the knight style visor, and had the original as a kid.

Legacy Evolution Scraphook - This is the one I'm most excited about. I like the Junkion aesthetic, and a tow truck is an uncommon alt mode. There's rumors that the Evolution Junkions have an intended combined form. Even if they don't, I'll probably be able to cobble one together like I did with my weaponizers.

I was hoping to find Skullgrin and Tarn, but no luck. Newbury Comics had Skullgrin for $35, but I'm not paying that for a Deluxe. One of the Targets had Leo Prime, who I think is Tarn's wavemate, so hopefully I'll find him soon.
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Cyberverse Skullcruncher because a discount retailer has gotten them in stock at pretty much the normal price for deluxes now, and I have a great deal of fondness for the character and was curious. I'm fairly glad I did.

In most respects it's a better toy than the Titans Return one. The hips are still ball joints but don't fall off at the merest touch, although the wrist claws will be missing from most examples five minutes after being given to a kid despite the better moulding since there's no pin on them or smarter design work. And he's not a headmaster this time because apparently it's okay for kids to swallow the claws but not his noggin.

On the downside, how the f*ck did this design get approved? Who said that it didn't matter that this mechanical crocodile toy doesn't have opening jaws because what kid would want a mechanical crocodile with THIS name that did THAT? That it's fine to throw out the defining action feature of a big f*cking reptile with big f*cking teeth in service to a secondary transformation gimmick with energon "armour" that isn't even available in crocodile mode? It's as incompetent as Hasbro's distribution strategy.

On which note he's a crocodile rather than an alligator, apparently, because someone copied an error from the Wiki for the TR one and it seems to have stuck.

Image
https://i.imgur.com/sbuFj5g.jpeg

I'm obviously wondering if I can re-engineer this. There are moulded points on both the inner and outer opaque jaw pieces that suggest that there originally were pins, and the pin in the snout and the spring-loaded apparatus for the transparent jaws wouldn't be too difficult to remove. Adding a TR titanmaster would be particularly fun. But the croc head fundamentally can't pivot up or down due to the way it clips into the body so it'd be a bit of a hollow victory.

For the moment whilst writing this I've just removed the translucent sword tip in the tail so that the gun can peg underneath it, and the spring and "armour" on principle. If I can get the snout pin out cleanly at some point and then file down the white hinged plate I can probably glue the lower jaw to it, but that'll do for now.

Shockingly badly done as the gimmick is, the croc mode does look fantastic as an update of the original.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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I always thought that Cyberverse Skullchruncher was just a simplified redo of the TR toy...I had no idea it was so hampered by gimmicks that it couldn't even open the beast mouth! Am I interpreting that pic right and the mouth actually hinges open at the nose?

Legacy Tarn is disappointing in some fuzzy way that I'm actually having a lot of trouble pinning down. It's a great likeness, and the robot mode is very poseable without any kibble at all. Colours are great, especially with all the transparent pinky-purple on the cannons. I should like it a lot more than I do, but something is holding it back. There are a lot of minor gripes...clear plastic is used in a lot of places where it's not really appropriate or helpful, but not to give the head light-piping, which would have looked amazing. The transformation is extra-fiddly, especially considering he transforms into a vague heap with guns piled on and hands hanging out the back. And he's small for the size class. Not "SS86 Hot Rod" small, but he doesn't quite match the presence of recent Primes or Megatrons. None of these really should be deal-breakers but the whole figure just leaves me feeling vaguely unsatisfied.

Maybe it's because this doesn't quite live up to the character's portrayal in media? IDW made him not just a Phase Sixer but a Phase Sixer killer, and Cyberverse turned him into the most powerful of a race of perfect Decepticon super-soldiers. Whatever you might think of either version of the character, Tarn is consistently a larger-than-life menace, figuratively if not literally. Rendered in plastic as a Voyager-sized toy, he kinds just feels like another guy? It's hard to see that same menace in him when he stands eye-to-eye with goobers like Ramjet. :lol: I think I'd actually like the toy a lot more if I had no idea who Tarn was, because it is a good figure.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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After seeing a few Legacy Skullgrin for $35 with sloppy paint apps on the shoulders, a $30 one with nice, crisp paint seemed like close enough to a good enough deal that I bit. I saw Legacy Evolution Deluxes again today, so I may have missed the chance of seeing regular Legacy Deluxes (post wave 1) at retail.

Looking at what's coming up, there's not much more I'm looking for, and it's not out for a while. Minerva would be nice, but I can wait for Walgreen's to stock her in 2024. RotB Wheeljack looks interesting in pics, but I don't think he's even in wave 1 of the movie toys. Earthspark Thrash is a ways off, too. I'll probably pick up the other Junkions to go with Scraphook. Tarn's the only thing I might see soon.

I've seen him in Cyberverse, so I don't quite fit Warcry's criteria of having no idea who Tarn is. But, I don't know what a Phase Sixer is. I vaguely remember reading about it when I stumbled across Tarn's tfwiki page and thought he'd make a good use of a Decepticon sigil Kre-O piece. That build ended up around 11.5 inches (29 cm) tall, so I expect the Voyager to be my smaller Tarn by some margin, anyway. Shame about the lack of light piped eyes, though.
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Denyer
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Warcry wrote: Mon Mar 06, 2023 2:21 am I always thought that Cyberverse Skullchruncher was just a simplified redo of the TR toy...I had no idea it was so hampered by gimmicks that it couldn't even open the beast mouth! Am I interpreting that pic right and the mouth actually hinges open at the nose?
Yep, the jaw is effectively wired shut. They've completely thrown away the playability of the alt mode, unless "grinning inscrutability" is a concept taught to six year olds which they find entertaining.

Craft knife, superglue and a little bit of white paint. The jaw can stay closed with friction even with a titanmaster inside it, but I think I should probably varnish the hinge as well.

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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Earthspark Deluxe Twitch.

Generations Selects Behold, Galvatron! Unicron Companion Pack - Bought at half-price from Amazon AU.
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Dinobot stared at the spray bottle in Rattrap's hand. "Do I even want to know?"

"Well, I heard that we're gettin' a cat, an' I wanna make sure th' cat knows that th' Stainless Steel Rat is lots betta'n some mangy furball."

As Rattrap was speaking, a white lion with a golden mane walked up behind him, golden orbs glowing with an inner brightness.

Dinobot's optics widened slightly. "Are you sure of this, rodent?"

"Oh, yeah, no stupid furball's gonna boss me around."

Quietly, the lion transformed to robot mode.

Rattrap sighed. "He's right behind me, ain't he."

Dinobot nodded.

Rattrap spun, bringing up the spray bottle. "NO! BAD.... kitty?"

LioConvoy just stared down at Rattrap.

Rattrap pulled the trigger, reflexively spritzing water on LioConvoy.

LioConvoy looked down at the water beading on his chest plating, then looked back at Rattrap. "What do you expect me to do, hiss?"

Transformers LEGACY Evo-Lution Leo Prime: Or LioConvoy, which is what I prefer to call him. Long ago I got the LioConvoy figure through my local comics shop, and I have to say, this one's a nice update. I do kind of wish he did the spinning mane thing in robot mode, but he's a lot more posable, so I'll take that over gimmicks. I will say the Evo-Lution bit is a bit.... m'eh. That being said, from what I've seen of my soon to arrive Metalhawk, the whole Evo-Lution thing is just sticking guns together. Or in this case, sticking guns onto mane pieces and flipping out leg claws.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Heinrad wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 8:42 pm LioConvoy looked down at the water beading on his chest plating, then looked back at Rattrap. "What do you expect me to do, hiss?"
Net time, Rattrap should add a drop or two of vinegar to the spray bottle. That works for real cats, anyway. Not sure about Supreme Commanders.
Heinrad wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 8:42 pmOr in this case, sticking guns onto mane pieces and flipping out leg claws.
Isn't that just what LioConvoy does? I'm pretty sure my Robot Masters one does all of that (and has the spinning mane too).

Does the lion head look as much like an undead ghoul as it does in pictures?
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Supposedly they don't like citrus scents either. Which either varies a lot depending on individual cats or is total bollocks, from the reactions of ours. Fortunately the territory marking of cat #3 didn't persist past the first week or two.

The face on LioConvoy still looks like the vampire Lestat, apparently --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0RCQ9grmRA
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