FansProject have pulled it out of the bag; colour pictures of Sludge plus a pre-order, prototype pictures of Slag and Swoop, and silhouettes of Grimlock, Snarl and one other (Paddles?). Then pre-orders for Mindwipe and silhouettes of the other Headmasters. Wowsers! Looks absolutely amazing, very excited for the Dinobots.
Planet X have also put up a pre-order for Sludge which makes life tricky, FansProject will be my 'Classics' Dinobots, I could put the Planet X dinos with my Grimlock collection (especially since I've already got their Swoop). With the new pre-orders I don't think I can afford the Planet X efforts when they come out, I might not even be able to get Maketoys Computron. Wait and see I think......
I'm selling quite a lot of stuff on eBay, so some of it depends on how well that sells. I have a spreadsheet to keep track of what I'm selling, it goes back a few years, it's amazing how much I've stuff I've sold! It represents a fair amount of 3.75" stuff, some where better versions have been released, some where I've bought them for customs, but then decided against it. Some are just where I've bought an entire wave and haven't needed all of the figures.
There is also some of that stuff for Transformers, but most of it represents a change in my collecting mentality; when I started collecting it was all about G1 and mostly about reissues. At one stage I owned virtually all 1984 and 85 figures, which has now pretty much been reduced to just the Takara Collection reissues. When I started collecting Classics I bought any figures which have appealed to me (such as Universe Dropshot), I've now refined that just to those who appeared in the cartoon.
It also represents a time when I wanted to get some representation of every character from my other favourite franchises such as Ghostbusters, Power Rangers and Star Wars; I've refined those as I've got smaller (often Lego) versions, or just realised I don't care about those characters. Certainly makes me think twice about buying anything! I feel like I've turned a corner, hopefully it will just be the odd thing here and there now.
When I started off collecting I just bought figures I thought looked cool, over time I've thought more about whether they fit in with my collection, some I've just sold off such as Drift, even Deluxe Classics Bumblebee and Ultra Universe Onslaught. Nice figures, but they don't really have a place as there are now figures which work better with the other (smaller) Minibots and Combaticons.
Some however, I've actually bought additional figures so they fit in, BWII Seacons, I've bought other BWII Destrons to go with them, Magnaboss, Lio and Big Convoy I've bought Maximals and Destrons to go with them. Car Robots Black Convoy I'm going to get Generations Sky Byte to fight against him. Cybertron Scourge, I got Botcon Razorclaw to go with him. I bought Sixtrain many years ago and I've just bought Sixliner (apparently they're brothers) to go with him for my WST display. It's as if I've slowly legitimised them all.
I bought the Lego Creator Ecto-1, really good set and the minifigs are a nice replacement for the 6" Mattel figures which I sold off (I realised I'm not really that bothered about them). As well as Sixliner, I also bought some other figures for my WST collection; Justitoys Blitzwing, I wonder if their quality has dropped a little, the tailfin on the leg came off on mine, upon dismantling I realised it's held in my place by a screw which just about goes into the tailfin piece, so it's not broken but I think I'll need to try not to fiddle with it too much. I also got Kabaya Star Convoy, I haven't assembled it yet, but I will display him with my Sixbro's (Sixtrain and Sixliner).
TFCon is this weekend and SDCC is in a couple of weeks so I will update shortly! Hoping to see some updates on various third party projects and some reveals from Hasbro.
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I think courtesy of FansProject and Maketoys, TFCon was a good one! Great to see more of the Dinobots and Headmasters as well as Computron and Defensor. Quickswitch looks good as well, not sure about Scorponok though, I might well go with the Perfect Effect version as I prefer the standing upright option.
I think Quickswitch is an interesting choice, not many characters beyond Headmasters have had their own mold, most are just repaints (particularly from Hasbro) it makes me wonder how far it will go. I suspect the leaders might get figures, but other than that it will be opportunistic repaints. For example I just got Botcon Leozack.
FP also showed a Classics Prime update which was a little Powermaster-esque, if it comes with a Godbomber for a God Ginrai look then I could be interested. There was no sign of Overlord from Mastermind Creations, maybe at the Chicago TFCon?
Maketoys put up a slide showing that they're doing a series of larger toys; an upgrade for Omega Supreme, Metroplex and now Scorponok. I reckon Trypticon might be a good bet for one of the later ones! Very happy with the showing though; Outback, Abominus, Sky Lynx and Trypticon are the only characters left on my really want Classics versions of list.
Thinking about the Dinobots more, the FP versions will be my 'Classics' versions, though if Hasbro do ever release them I will still get them for my Grimlock collection. I'm not sure about Planet X, I think there will be a lot of pressure on them to get them out quickly, so I hope they can maintain the quality. I could still be tempted to get them if they can. Will wait and see!
I started thinking about third party TF toy companies; FansProject are by far the greatest contributor to my collection, Maketoys have made a solid contribution with Devastator, and Mastermind Creations have given me Predaking and Sixshot. Perfect Effect have really stepped it up with Fort Max. The rest have been mostly just small figures, such as the cassettes or minibots. I have experienced a few other companies efforts, but they just haven't worked for me. It's funny to have become loyal to particular third party companies.
SDCC next week, MU X-Men, come on down...
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Well...... we didn't get MU X-Men, but we did get Bishop, this makes me very happy. Classics Dinobots and MU Bishop, I got exactly what I really wanted in this round of conventions and I can't ask much more than that. So not a right lot of exciting reveals for me at SDCC, some Spider-Man villains, 90's Beast, a decent looking official Superion, so some good stuff. I was encouraged to see Legends BAF Odin as I don't think he's had a regular retail figure before.
I think the remaining few characters I want will come eventually, just at quite a slow rate but with the amazing amount of stuff I want that FansProject are putting out that might not be a bad thing. Dinobots and Bishop, whoop whoop!!!!
