I recently had a couple of rather large boxes arrive from BBTS, I got rather screwed on customs charges but that was quickly forgotten when they arrived...........
A quick summary of what I got:
Generations Blurr, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Megazord and Titanus, Marvel Universe Galactus, Hawkeye, Phoenix, Mystique and Captain Britain, FansProject Swindle and Blast Off, and Piranacon. (Plus a few other miscellaneous Marvel figures.)
Several months ago I decided to re-arrange my collection according to the Dreamwave War Within factions plus a few other factions based on the G1 Dreamwave and IDW comics. I've been meaning to re-arrange my collection slightly so with these new figures arriving, I decided to take a couple of days off work and do it properly.
The Power Rangers have gone into storage, hopefully I will have room to display them at some point.
I extended my faction idea slightly to include my Marvel figures - I've created a villains faction based on IGN's 100 greatest villains (http://uk.comics.ign.com/top-100-villains/), then for the heroes; the Avengers, Defenders and X-men. Basically I only get a figure if I know the character and if they fit into one of the factions. I've also got a 'Sinister' faction for Spider-Man villains not in IGN's top 100, and a 'Brotherhood' factions for the corresponding X-men villains. (Oh, and I've made an exception for Punisher.)
I've then teamed up the Marvel factions with a Transformers faction - Wreckers with the X-men, Avengers and Fantastic 4 with the Autobots, and Defenders with Lightning Strike Coalition. The Brotherhood with the Decepticons and the Predacons with the Sinister faction, and finally the Illuminati with the High Council. (I'm waiting for Professor X and Doctor Strange first though.)
I have to say, spending 2 days opening toys and carefully re-arranging my shelves was fantastic. Totally selfish, but fun and and satisfying to finally get all the small things I've been meaning to do with my collection (like open some figures I've had for a while, apply stickers, etc) done. I'll take some photos soon to demonstrate the set-up.
I've had Device Label Blaster opened for a while, I think he's a great figure and good counterpart to Music Label Soundwave. Some kibble admittedly, but a good face sculpt and nicely posable. Similarly with Arcee (Valkyrie), I'd heard bad things, but I'm really happy with her - I've got a nice kneeling pose out of her and she looks pretty badass with her pistols. The only thing I didn't like about the figure is that it's painted rather than being pink plastic. These 2 figures plus Blurr have nicely finished off my 'Resistance' faction (Hot Rod, Arcee, Doubledealer, Gnaw, Wheelie, Blurr plus Blaster and his Cassettes.)
The Predacons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Predacons) faction also did rather well from the new arrivals - FansProject Munitioner (Swindle) and Explorer (Blast Off) joined their Energon/Universe counterparts to form Bruticus, who is easily the best ever combiner (and even better than Superion). A posable combiner who just has an amazing presence, truly FansProjects greatest achievement. Here's hoping they have a go at Devastator (and then Defensor and Menasor.........). Speaking of Devastator I've also got all Crazydevy's upgrades now so at some point I'll have a look at them.
Snap Trap also joined the Predacons.
Marvel Universe Galactus is simply awe-inspiring - he's 19" tall, and dwarfs every other toy I have (apart from Fortress Maximus!). This will make more sense when I take pictures, but I have a couple of metal bars in my display cupboard using the holes that the shelves normally fit into. I then have Galactus looking like he's holding on to one of them up, and then using min-mags (little magnets that fit into the holes on the bottom of every 3.75" figures), I've lined up my villains by the order on the IGN list.
The other Marvel Universe figures I got were pretty cool, and I feel a little bad not taking my time opening them, but it had to be quite clinical. It was good to get Hawkeye though, as my Avengers are pretty much complete now (I still want to get Ms. Marvel, but I've got everyone who I consider to be the key members).
I had 2010 Unicron arrive from Robotkingdom.com a couple of weeks before the BBTS shipment. I've held the Armada version, and to me the 2010 version is far superior (maybe because I'm a g1 fan at heart). Even so the figures is and always was quite stunning in scale, a fine addition to any collection.
I have to admit I'm rather proud of my collection, again pictures soon. As I've said before, I feel I'm almost done, there are spaces for Generations Jazz, Tracks, Scourge, Perceptor and co, as well as Marvel Universe Invisible Woman, Professor X, Rogue and Beast (c'mon!!!) , and although I could probably name about 50 more Marvel characters I'd like, really there are only a few left that I really want.
It's back to the waiting game now, waiting for Generations, Reveal the Shield, Marvel Universe and waiting to see Hasbro's plans (presumably at ToyFair in February). Waiting also to see whether we'll get a Dragonzord and some decent Thundercats figures from Bandai, as well as some good 3.75" Batman figures from Mattel.
Bruticus, Galactus and Unicron are ready to take on the world!!!
