Toy Fair Extinction

Transformers: Age of Extinction, okay, first film I wasn't expecting much, pleasantly surprised, second film, extremely hopeful, disappointed, third film, again not expecting much, but quite good. Fourth film, okay............. I'm quite looking forward to it. The Superbowl trailer looks pretty much what you'd expect, Grimlock looks cool, I'm hopeful once again. Please have a vaguely coherent plot, don't waste the Dinobots like Devastator was wasted in the second film and I'll be happy.

At the Wonder Festival in Japan a Megatron Mega Drive was shown, looks good to me. I realise that Transformers are eventually doing crossovers with most of my other collections (Lego and 3.75" scaled stuff, and now video games).

The New York Toy Fair; some pretty exciting stuff although nothing too crazy, Generations Leader Jetfire was leaked a few days before, but properly shown at the fair. Looks amazing, but I currently display my Voyager Jetfire with small deluxe FOC Shockwave. I have Shockwave in a flight stand so he's vaguely the same height, that just wouldn't work with a leader. Of course, if they decide to give Shockwave the Voyager he deserves then that could change. In addition, I feel quite sentimental about Voyager Jetfire as I actually bought him in person, so I'm thinking I'll pass at the moment (I have a rule to only own one version of each character), but I'm open to having my mind changed!

I'm all aboard for a set of movie Dinobots, they're slightly funny colours (in the trailer they just look metallic), but look like decent molds, especially Grimlock.

Roadbuster who was hinted at in the Hasbro website leak was confirmed and shown and all good, I'm pretty happy with the deluxe Roadbuster, but it'll be good to have a figure that scales well with the new Whirl.

Nightbeat was shown as a repaint of Generations Bumblebee rather than Jazz, suits me, especially as I don't have that mold. So, nothing too crazy in the Transformers news, but some solid looking toys which I can look forward to. One surprising thing which was revealed which I'm quite excited about is Loyal Subjects vinyl Slag and Snarl, Slag was shown previously but Snarl is exciting. (I've just opened the Grimlock which I think is pretty neat piece of 'hipster trash'!) I'm also up for the Potato Head Grimlock figures, available in both robot and dino mode! Poor Sludge continues to be the most ignored character of G1 though, no reissue and absolutely no homage whatsoever. I think the Justitoys WST Sludge is about the only love he's had.

The legends figures were also shown, Swerve and Gears, plus Tailgate confirmed. Look good (and pre-orders have just gone up at BBTS to ward off any fears of them not actually turning up at retail). Cliffjumper was also mentioned, if he gets a bit of a remold I could be tempted.

Good to see a teaser silhouette of MP Bumblebee, looks like I'd expect and looks to be a VW! Also an interesting comment from Shago Hasui that getting licensed cars is easier due to Takara's merger with Tomy. Hopeful for Jazz and Ironhide (Porsche and Nissan) in the future!

On the Marvel 3.75", equally nothing too unexpected due to an early sneak preview of the Legends Guardians of the Galaxy figures. I'm all up for the BAF Groot, will be pretty expensive for one figure though. Deathlok, Ares and Whirlwind were the only figures that were completely unexpected, but good to see ionic Wonderman, Red She-Hulk and Death's Head. I'm still sticking to my rule that I'll only display characters that have appeared in some sort of media that I've seen or read, so three of those six will go straight into storage, but I've learnt from bitter experience that there's not point passing on anything as there's a really good chance those characters will turn up in something soon. Especially Red She-Hulk, as I reckon she'll turn up in Agents of Smash at some point.

This month I have pre-ordered Perfect Effect's Fort Max, looks pretty amazing from the photos so am looking forward to getting that. Also looking forward to seeing their Scorponok which they've hinted at. I bought the new Lego Batmobile in store which is a pretty nice build. I think sitting on the sofa in Winter with a hot drink, watching Top Gear and building some Lego is about as relaxing as it gets! I think I may have found my happy place. The Batman minifig works really nicely, a good fusion of an iconic toy and an iconic character. They really got it right when they designed the basic minifig all those years ago.

I had an absolutely amazing delivery from BBTS at the start of the month; Generations Whirl, Doubledealer, Rhinox, Trailbreaker, Sandstorm and Black Shadow. Mastermind Creations Sixshot, Tantrum and Headstrong. Fansproject Motormaster, Dead End, Weirdwolf and Brainstorm. KFC Steeljaw and Planet X FOC Swoop, plus the last waves of Marvel Universe. I'm slowly working my way though it, Planet X Swoop is brilliant, I can't stop looking at it. If they release a Slag, Snarl and Sludge I will be very happy to use them as my Classics Dinobots with the official Grimlock.

Fansproject Motormaster is also brilliant, but fairly time consuming to transform. I've just put him into robot mode so I've yet to experience Menasor. Rhinox and Trailbreaker are great figures, very happy additions to my collection. Steeljaw is a nice little figure to compliment Ramhorn, looking forward to Overkill and Slugfest and hope can get the Ratbat (without Soundwave). Thinking about it, I've barely made a dent!