Howdy! So here we are a quarter of the way through the year, feels like it's barely got going! Generations is almost done pre-Movie, we've had Toy Fair, Marvel Universe is looking exciting and there's some awesome third party stuff on the horizon. I've tried to be a bit more careful about my spending so far this year and aside from some (quite) big spending on WST custom boxes, I've managed to achieve that. Combined with selling a load of stuff on eBay it's looking good.
So, Toy Fair; for me the most exciting news was Jazwares announcement of some 3.75" Mortal Kombat figures (in addition to the previously announced Street Fighter figures). I'm hoping for the entire cast of MK Trilogy and Streetfighter II! Pre-orders went up on BBTS last night for the first wave of MK - most of the classic and robot ninjas plus modern Raiden and Johnny Cage. That's about a third of the way there already!
Also announced were a good few Marvel Universe figures - Invisible Woman (finally!), Doctor Strange and Quicksilver. Great stuff, although we won't be seeing most of them until Autumn. There's also a scout sized Powerglide coming in the Transformers Movie line which looks Classics style, which is lucky as I was just weighing up the benefits of Ultra Universe Powerglide.........
Had an amazing delivery from BBTS (and only got marginally screwed on custom charges!). Most of the Generations Figures plus Wave 16 of DC Universe (Azrael Bats and Bane yay!). Great to finally catch up on those figures, plus got Wheeljack very shortly after he was released. Some excellent figures which I'm slowly opening. I found Windcharger here as well, very strange that he's so hard to find in the US but relatively easy here. Makes a change!
I think the only other news to talk about is the large number of very interesting/exciting third party figures/Knock-Offs on the way. From FansProject we've got Classics style Insecticons and hopefully Broadside (it's been on the cards for a while). Perfect Effect are releasing Reflector (they've really got those small figures nailed), Mastermind Creations are doing some brilliant stuff with their Heart of Steel line - Shockwave and the Insecti-train. Shockwave makes me want to cry with happiness - potential Classics stand-in, Steampunk aesthetics and a boat (other than Seaspray, I have no water based Transformers).
TFClub are doing a Classics style Devastator which looks great, but I don't think I can justify the cost (rumoured to be $90 a pop) - I've already got actual (Energon) Classics Devy plus the Crazydevy upgrades for the G1 version. If FansProject do an upgrade then I'd be far happier. The Hybrid style Dinobots from Justitoys are apparently still on the cards (just hope they're a decent size).
Finally KOToys are doing KOs of the Japanese exclusive dino cassettes, delighted if I can actually get hold of those. Also they're doing a Universe Sunstreaker/Sideswipe kit with all the heads to make it into the various characters including G1 Breakdown (presumably using the Botcon head) which is pretty sweet. I'd rather it was a straight up knock off but a kit could be fun.
So there we go, exciting times ahead plus all the repaints of the Generations figures that have been hinted at through the instructions - Ratbat, Gears/Skids, Reflector and more. Hurrah!
