Nothing Groundbreaking

I’ve been having a bit of a think about Haslabs and the potential made to order (MTO) figures. I guess based on Marvel Legends MTO is somewhat lower budget (less risky) than Haslabs, but with the advantage of increased budget flexibility over mainline.

I guess though that most of them will be/are used for leader characters since they tend to be larger. It doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to think that the likes of BWII Galvatron, RID Megatron/Galvatron, Energon and Cybertron Optimus and Megatron/Galvatron could work well for MTO. Maybe G1 Overlord as well. (Assume God Ginrai/PMOP would be mainline since Star Convoy is.)

What does that leave for Haslabs? Metroplex or Rocket Base from G1 maybe? Road Caesar, Grandus (and Sky Garry) and Dai Atlas (with Roadfire and Sonic Bomber) are three contenders from JG1. Rail Racer from RID is I think the main contender from outside of G1.

Who else is there? It’s hard to imagine a Haslab or MTO to order from anything more recent than the Unicron trilogy, apart from perhaps Animated Omega Supreme, but how popular is Animated outside of North America and Europe? If it was a simple transformation it could be relatively low cost at least. Primus is usually also in the discussion but how would they do it? Something more expensive than Unicron seems prohibitive now.

I think the next Haslab will be Road Caesar, but maybe they have a gap to focus on MTO. Glad to see all of the tiers for Liokaiser have been unlocked, really looking forward to it.

Toy Fair! Used to be one of the highlights of the calendar 10-15 years ago but still some decent reveal this year. Vortex looks great, Alchemist Prime looks a great mold but I’ll wait and see if there’s a better recolour. Ramhorn and Ratbat look good, Ironfist looks good, and Carnivac and Topspin look solid. Think might have to get Legends X-23 despite her being in the X-Force costume. Bit disappointed to see a Kit Fisto repack in Black series rather than say, Saesee Tiin who we’ve not had yet. Managed to get preorders in for most of it.

McFarlane getting Mortal Kombat is intriguing, though annoying that it’s 7” scale rather than 6”. The more I think about it though the more I want some larger scale Mortal Kombat figures.

My Joytoy TMNT figures came in - Rocksteady and Bebop. They’re amazing! I’m very tempted by Shredder, the Foot, and Krang but they just seem a bit further removed from what I imagine when I think of the characters (well, Shredder at least). I’m happy with Bebop and Rocksteady for my 3.75” villains collection, more widely I’m very content to have my heroes (the Turtles) as 6” figures and villains at 3.75”.

It’s been a funny sort of month, mostly I’ve been selling - I’ve had my cheapest three months for many a year. Would have been even cheaper without Liokaiser! The two Aerialbots came in, I’m perfectly happy with them they’re just not that exciting. Also had Maximum Spider-Man arrive, a modest improvement on RYV.

2026 leaks! Each time I hope to see Thunderclash bit alas it’s not to be. Good to see the remaining ‘84 and ‘85 Minibots (plus Swerve), and Sureshot again, and G2 Sludge and Swoop. Big Convoy and Quickstrike I’m not sure about, and similarly SS’86 Sunstreaker and Hound but I’ll take a look. So nothing groundbreaking, but ticking along I suppose. Maybe the Titan will be something to capture the imagination?

Tracking my spending

I think writing a very long list of everything I want has been helpful. It gives me a bit of confidence that I won’t turn round in a couple of months and find there some stuff I actually really want that I’ve just been ignoring. I’ve been extremely diligent this year so far keeping track of my spending, I’ve always kept track of it but I’ve taken it a bit further this time in comparing it to my budget and what I expect to be buying. My goal is have my cheapest year since 2020. I’m on track at the moment.

Once again I’ve got lots of things to sell so that’s been a bit of my focus. So far I’ve sold more than I’ve bought. I haven’t bought any Transformers yet but have had the first couple of Legends. Wolverine finally arrived. He and Deadpool are great, I really enjoying messing with them. As much as I enjoy the MCU, Hugh Jackman Wolverine is a part of my growing up (like Tobey Maguire Spider-Man). And Chameleon, he completes my 6” Spider-Man lineup. It’s quite an appropriate figure to finish up as my first ever Spider-Man toy was a Chameleon figure from a pack of Frosties in the mid 90’s. Finally, Ms. Marvel! Did a bit of parts swapping (exactly like I did with Marvel Universe). Very happy to have her finally.

Liokaiser! Really happy it’s him, and with a Deathcobra to boot. It’s always a little bit of a nervous time to see if a Haslab will get over the line, but once they added the Chinese orders it got there quickly. There’s a few promising hints about upcoming figures but nothing anywhere near as exciting. I have to admit that my mind immediately went to thinking how much I also want a Road Caesar. Looking at some online polls for most wanted figure, JRX and Metroplex seem most popular. I’d get either but Metroplex would be my preference.

So quite a quiet month really, I’ve sorted through quite a lot of stuff, the drawers next to my desk were a bit of a disgrace so they are organised now. I identified a few more bits to sell as well working out what custom projects I might work on next.

List to end all lists

Realise I forgot to look at how many things I got from my wanted list from December ‘23. I got Barrage, Chop Shop and Overcharge. Three! With a fourth (Venom) rumoured for this year. My want list this time is half as big but includes groups rather than individuals, surely can do better than three though!

I’m not sure what I’m really looking forward to this year, definitely Legends Ms. Marvel and Inhumans, and possibly Lego Fantastic 4 (rumoured for June). Transformers Ramhorn, Venom and Horri-Bull will be much appreciated to complete some sets. There’s nothing really big that I’m excited about. Yet.

I have managed to get the last X-Men Marvel Legends figure I needed to finally replace my Universe (3.75” scale) versions - Sauron. It’s a bit of a shame since I only made the custom in late 2023 but with having Ka-Zar and Zabu in the scale they needed their savage land nemesis. I also replaced Man-Thing, who was actually an old Toybiz Legends figure. The old one was very skinny though and looked out of place with other Legends figures. (Am still in the market for an X-23 though so not completely done with X-Men.)

Finished the Lego X-Mansion Lego set, getting extra X-Men minions has made me think about what other minifigs characters I want - I really want the Fantastic 4, then I think I just need Doctor Doom and Nightcrawler (my favourite X-Men character). Nice build though even if it’s not quite so impressive as previous sets. Bring on the Baxter building!

A new version of Trypticon has been revealed. I’m perfectly happy with my Titans Return version but it got me thinking: Omega Supreme, Fort Max and Scorponok have all been rereleased - could it hint at a new Metroplex? From ‘84-‘87 we still need Omnibots and Throttlebots (and Sureshot and Slugfest), but in terms of updates of characters that have already had a generations figure, Metroplex is top of my list. With a Metrotitan repaint please.

I’ve made a list of all my preorders and all the rumoured figures I’m interested in (plus a few educated guesses), put an approximate value and added it all up. This is my budget for the year, anything else will need to be covered from selling stuff. (I’ve got a few things to sell still.) What occurs to me is that this budget excludes any playing catchup - primarily no buying things on eBay. I’ve made a list of absolutely everything I might possibly want to buy and having looked through the (Japanese) Generations book, nothing which already exists has been added to my list of wants. Hopefully this is the list to end all lists.

I feel like I’m spending too much year on year and so spent quite a lot of time thinking about how I could reduce my collection or at least the things I want to get, it’s impossible to draw a line. Whenever I draw it there’s always a nagging voice, ‘oh, but what about this character……’. Then it struck me, most of what I’m buying is characters I already have. That’s where I really need to focus my attention if I want to spend less. I have a subsection of my ‘everything I want’ list which is figures I want new updates of so need to start sticking to that.

I got a couple of new purchases - Blokees Swoop turned up. Nice addition to the set, just need a Sludge. The 3.75” Plasma Ghostbusters also arrived, I couldn’t quite be bothered to dig out Ecto-1, but it’s a nice set and I’m happy to be replacing my 6” figures with them (in time for getting 6” Real Ghostbusters).

I am in budget this month!

Jingle Bells

What a year! This has been quite the momentous year of collecting for me. Started off focused on Lego, built my first big build that I designed (Turtles’ lair). I then started thinking about my Transformers collection - realised that my collecting rules were overly complicated and really, all of G1 was fair game anyway and so played a bit of catchup. Did get rid of a few bits though.

I then decided to change my Marvel collections so that Legends was focused on the heroes and SpiderMan/X-Men villains, and Universe (3.75”) was focused on Avengers/cosmic villains. But really, I’ve given up any sort of pretence that I’ve still a 3.75” Marvel collector. In all honesty, Legends are just a bit too good now. Hasbro have won! With the Marvel advent calendar and X-Mansion the year will finish with Lego as well. Did grab a few last Legends bits this month as the acceptance sunk in - Black Widow, much better than the old figure, as well as Dracula, Wendigo, and Mojo (the last one upgraded from the Toybiz versions).

In terms of acquisitions, I finally got Deszaras, I completed my leader Dinobots, and made major steps to completing the Insecticons and cassettes in Generations. I got my main Marvel Legends wants, I got my main Star Wars Black want, my final Thundercats want (Snarf), and my main (Marvel) Lego want. Wow! I’ve also got a preorder in for Mondo Peter Venkman and happy that the other three will be happening in the future.

As well as acquiring a few most wanted bits, I made the decision to part ways with a few more Mastepiece figures (just have Grimlock, Soundwave and Raiden left) and my larger 3.75” scale vehicles. All great toys but I haven’t been able to display them for years and with my decision to focus on 6” for heroic characters I can’t really justify them.

I got my penultimate Transformer of the year, Mainframe! Very glad they did him in proper colours, though I think this is the version that should have come with the Ark and then we could have had a fully grey/red/blue version in Selects. I’ve come to really like the Actionmaster characters so glad to have him, plus another for the Lost Light display. My final Transformer turned out to be Overcharge, who I think looks great, a bit more of a 70’s/80’s sci-fi look to him. Most importantly though he gives me hope we might see the last few Diaclone repaints next year.

I’m feeling the need for a list or two. Most wanted Transformers (not featuring any Diaclone repaints but I still want them):

Thunderclash

Skyquake

Liokaiser

Road Caesar

Grandus

Metrotitan

Throttlebots

Omnibots

I think Thunderclash is happening - between mentions of Wreckers, Lost Light, Machine Wars and even the bot himself by Hasbro. Surely! Star Convoy has been revealed (looks great) and so I think Grandus could be likely for the Haslab/MTO offering, and finally Skyquake is also an easy repaint for the Mayhems set. They could almost all be repaints - I’d like a Metrotitan from a new toy accurate Metroplex but it could still be a repaint. Actually looking at the old artwork for Grandus, maybe they could share a mold (or limbs at least).

(Superion looks good as well, one for combined mode though rather than individual robot modes as too cartoony for me.)

Beyond these characters/groups, Diaclone repaints, Actionmasters and Turbomasters (and Predators) get a very honourable mention, as do the 1988 Autobots. They’re a bit different as it’s the team I want rather than the actual character so maybe it’s more about completionism. Thinking about this further a heck of a lot of them could also be repaints.

Yes, it would be great to have more new molds but after Mainframe I really like the idea of there being more Actionmaster inspired repaints, Jazz into Rad and Kick-Off for example. It would really tick off a lot of the very empty spaces in my spreadsheet. Still lots left but pretty much all teams represented in some way. With Hasbro apparently doing so badly perhaps they will dig into the easy repaints a little more.

My most wanted (other stuff, mostly Legends) is:

Yellowjacket

Doc Samson

Gorgon

Iceman (Jim Lee, non-powered up)

Thorbuster

MCU Mk IV

MCU Mk V

MCU Mk VI

MCU Mk 37 (Hammerhead)

MCU War Machine Mk I

Lego Baxter Building

Lego Wayne Manor

Black series Holocomm Darth Sidious

Black series Saesee Tiin

6” Mortal Kombat (Jada?!)

(There’s actually a sniff of a rumour that Gorgon is on his way.)

I could easily add an extra few Legends, but my Spider-Man and X-Men collections are pretty much there. Actually having thought about it a bit more, I’m missing a X-23. If we do get a Gorgon then I’ll swap him out for Laura. The few I do want are mostly for completion and not as exciting. Have to think though, it’s at the stage where I’m only ever to get what I want in very small amounts at a time from now on. Hopefully I get a few of these things by the end of next year. Finished up the year with Deadpool. Merry Christmas all and Happy New Year!

Feeling Good

Feeling quite good about my collecting at the moment, got some fantastic Marvel Legends figures last month (and Ms. Marvel has been revealed/confirmed!), plus finally sold a load of bits that I made the decision to get rid of a long time ago.

Shaak Ti has been revealed for Black series, fantastic! I only wanted three more figures and that was one of them (the others being Saesee Tiin and holo Palps). This happened at more or less the same time as my most wanted Black series figure finally turned up! Prequel Yoda. The head-sculpt and printing is very nicely done.

Talking about most wanted, I put in a preorder for the extortionately priced Mondo Real Ghostbusters Peter Venkman. Talking about preorders, I’ve been looking at the Joytoy Turtles stuff. Most of it is fairly stylised but I like the look of Bebop and Rocksteady. Pretty expensive though.

The new Constructicons look great, I will be buying two lots since I’ve decided that for the big five combiners (Devastator, Superion, Defensor, Bruticus and Menasor), I need them individually and in combined form (the other four I will keep the Combiner Wars versions but since CW Devs was supersized I will replace it). All up though, quite a good set of reveals. The Fallen was also shown off with a picture of Star Convoy on the side (I’m not convinced I would have identified it as such), but there is some suggestion that bits of look like Powermaster Optimus Prime. Makes sense for a remold. I hope the focus is on PMOP though, as I feel he (God Ginrai) is the one who most needs a decent figure (those ankles!).

Couple more Marvel Legends rumours, Triton, Chameleon and Mandarin. Nice! The Inhumans are a strange team, I don’t really know them but they rather appeal to me. (There’s a strange parallel between the prequel Jedi and the Inhumans, my new most wanted Jedi is Saesee Tiin, my new most wanted Legends is Gorgon, both have bull like features! Kit Fisto is like Triton……)

The Chameleon and Mandarin rumours really got me thinking - I had decided to focus on heroic characters in 6” scale and more villainous characters in 3.75” scale. (With an exemption for important villains such as Mandarin.) But then I thought how cool it would be to have the Insidious Six (from the Spider-Man cartoon) in figure form, and how fun to have the X-Men game characters in the same scale as Streetfighter. So I’ve made a bit of a change to my thinking - for Avengers and Fantastic 4 I will do my scale plan (especially since I’ve made lots of custom 3.75” A:EMH villains), but for Spider-Man and X-Men I will get everything in 6” (I say get, apart from Hydro Man I already have them, so really I mean keep). I also grabbed the new Phoenix (force) since it was available at a decent price.

Important villains is quite a subjective thing - I’ve come up with the following (based on the characters I think are important enough to warrant a space on my shelf. Importance is easily conflated with favourite! But I think Loki, Dr Doom, Magneto, Red Skull, Mandarin, Ultron, Ronan, Thanos, Norman Osborn, Kingpin, Sabretooth, Carnage, Dormammu, Abomination, Apocalypse and Galactus. (Some of those probably aren’t that important in a wider Marvel sense but from an individual character’s perspective, Iron Man for example.)

I received some Transformers. First up was Xaaron who I thought I wouldn’t like too much, but I like the Reflector mold, and although I didn’t read too much of the Marvel comic with him in it he’s a welcome addition for my Lost Light crew. (I’m not going to keep Flame.)

I also got Dinoking. I didn’t get the actual core Dinobots so these figures are all new to me. Dino modes are mostly a bit rubbish but the bot modes are pretty reasonable (apart from Rairyu). Combined mode is nice and I enjoyed putting it together. Overall, happy!

Also got the new Sludge plush (very glad I didn’t just jump at the SDCC version).

In less exciting news, I got Quake, who’s is neither a new character or mold. The mold does fit the character better than Hardhead though. I like him more than I thought I would.

I’ve decided to expand my Maximals to include the four ‘96 characters who weren’t in the cartoon - Wolfang (almost in the cartoon), Razorbeast (key IDW character), Armordillo (had him as a kid) and Polar Claw (he’s a polar bear!). Anyway, got the Wolfang reissue.

Finally, I bought the Lego X-Mansion (yay!), and got the couple of extra bits. I won’t open it until Christmas but the freebies are fair game. I also bought myself the Lego Marvel advent calendar, it’s a rather expensive way to get Venom but it’s fun. It’s Christmas……..