It's that time of year..........

Okay, so there was a certain convention happening this month, but first............ Masterpiece Star Saber! Looks like the business to me, slightly small for Masterpiece, but hopefully the right size for Classics. I have a rule with my Classics not to have the same character twice, I let Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge off as in certain continuities they're not previous characters re-formatted, but with say, Bumblebee/Goldbug and potentially God Ginrai/Victory Leo, I'd only go with one. Not sure which I'd rather have out of the last two.

Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack and Bumblebee are all looking rather good. I'm all paid up for the latter two!

Transformers and Angry Birds? Okay........... then!!!

The Dinobots SDCC set looks pretty damn good, Snarl in particular looks a bit good. I think the gold chrome in particular works rather well. I'm not going to pick them up though, firstly because of cost, and secondly because I'm rather enjoying the possibility of picking up the regular releases at retail and figures which I buy in person always mean a bit more to me. I found Grimlock at the start of the month!

So speaking of Dinobots......... Planet X decided to use Botcon to show off their Sludge prototype. Looks good to me, in scale with Grimlock. Can't wait to get them all!!! Fansproject showed off a colour version of Mindwipe, glad to see it's still in progress.

On to Hasbro! I think the one figure I'm definitely going to get is Powerglide, happy to replace my Maketoys one. Arcee looks really good, was already happy to replace my Impossible Toys figure though. Legends Bombshell and Voyager Brainstorm looks interesting, and Superion could be very interesting.

All of these figures raise an interesting question though. For the most part if I've got an official figure of a character, then an unofficial figure is released I pass quite happily (I've only ever made an exception for iGear Bumblebee because I wanted a VW altmode.) But, I'm not sure what to do when the opposite happens, I've got unofficial versions of all of those figures. I'm happy to replace Powerglide and Arcee, but Bombshell and Brainstorm, I'm happy with my Fansproject versions, what really seals it for me though is that in both cases I've got their buddies in the same scale and that's what I want - Shrapnel, Kickback and Chromedome (and hopefully eventually Hardhead and Highbrow). I am actually choosing unofficial over official which seems strange.

There are a couple of precedents with Botcon figures; Deathsaurus and Overlord didn't work for me, I think Scorponok is in that same category. Actually I think it depends which series they're from - early G1 most characters tend to get their own mold, later on they tend to be repaints that may or not work, if they get a figure at all and so unofficial is the much better option.

The Superion reveal is an even trickier one, currently I've got an Energon repaint with an unofficial upgrade that whilst cool, never really evoked G1 Superion. I remember picking that set up though as one of the best finds of my collecting career. Happy to see what it looks like though and make an informed decision!

The official Nightbeat pictures showed that it was going to be a Generations Jazz repaint, I think it was a great shame they changed it to be Bumblebee. Seeings how we might get a Go-Shooter repaint of that Bumblebee, I think I might just pass on Nightbeat. Leader Megatron also looks pretty damn G1, I will probably though unless it could somehow pass for a Masterpiece version.

So, not an outstanding Botcon in terms of news really, I hope they're holding something back for SDCC!

Make space it's Masterpiece Convoy!

Maketoys have released a few colour pictures of their upcoming Computron, looks good. I'm really excited for the figure now. The bow and arrow, although not his traditional weapon, works really well and serves to make him a bit more unique. And news just in, they're doing a Defensor! I was never much of a Defensor fan but when he's the only Scramble City combiner missing he becomes much more exciting. If he comes out in 2015 then works nicely for me.

Some very unexpected news from Million Publishing, they're doing a Trainbot - Shouki from Classics Astrotrain, seems pretty cool to me. They've also set up a vote for the next figure, some interesting stuff, Omnibots and various re-colours. I'd like to see a Go-Shooter to go with my Masterforce Classics figures.

Some Age of Extinction news as well, Wave 1 Generations Deluxes and Voyagers have been released. Managed to snag Slag and Scorn, hoping to find Grimlock soon! Pictures have also surfaced of Snarl and Slog, look pretty damn cool. I think the bright colours used for the dinobot toys are actually working for me. There's also a G1 style Kreo Grimlock Unleashed with Kreon, looks like a fun set. Hope we get the rest of the G1 Dinos as Kreons soon.

Perfect Effect have released a few pictures of their upcoming Scorponok, I'm going to wait for for a few more pictures before deciding whether to go for the Botcon version. Perfect Effect are also doing a Brave Maximus recolour of their Fort Max. If it was a Grand Max I think I could be tempted. It's hard to imagine that they won't do that at some point.

I bought the Lego Millennium Falcon, managed to get one on sale. Fun build, I think I'll just keep the minifigs and sell the actual ship though. I'll get the new AT-AT at some point. Gotta watch out for the space!

Finally got Masterpiece Convoy, he's in my pile of loot but looking forward to finally getting him in hand.

Also picked up a few Beast Wars II figures, got Apache, Tasmanian Kid and Scuba (US versions though since they're identical) to round out my Maximals. It's good to have Lio Convoy's crew. Also got Thrust and Dirge to go with Galvatron, still need to get BB and Megastorm though.

I've been sorting through all my boxes, so many instructions and parts! I think when you start collecting, you keep all of the packaging. You eventually get to a point where it becomes overwhelming, so you throw the inner packaging away, but keep the box because they can be easily flattened. Then eventually even that becomes too much, that's where I am! I've decided just to keep the packaging which has nice artwork on. Should keep me going on space for a bit. It was amazing going through some of the instruction booklets, most of which I never bothered opening, lots of little bits of generic mail away offers and catalog bits which can easily be thrown away.

I'm now systematically going through my various collections, making sure I actually want everything I've got. Will be taking a few photos as I go, it's a nice way to interact with them. Then it's time to eBay off the stuff I don't need!