Sunday, April 24, 2016

Will it ever arrive?

As seems to be the story of the year, I've given up on the new TMNT Mega Bloks arriving in the UK, so ordered online. I ordered the Krang set as well as Rocksteady and Bebop. They're awesome! When I was a kid I remember pretending I had Turtles Lego, this is what I imagined I was playing with. I think the scale is strange with Krang, but the quality of the bricks compared to, say, Kreo is much better. The look of the figures is spot on - it's what I wanted from the TMNT Lego, the minifigs use ball joints so pretty dynamic. I'm looking forward to displaying them with my Ghostbusters firehouse on the fire escape or running across the roof. I really can't wait until the van comes out, if they do a blimp I will cry with excitement!


Botcon! I'm super excited about the news from Botcon, granted it's mostly confirmation of the various leaks, but Weirdwolf and Highbrow to complete 8 of the 9 the main Headmasters (need Scorponok), Groove and Computron, and a hint of Overlord! I'm thinking of going for the Hasbro Computron as I prefer the toy accurate combiner head, I'll display him in combined mode, apart from Strafe who will be with the Lost Light crew. (Could be another stand in job for Alpha Bravo.) I do prefer the Takara Lightspeed and Nosecone, but as legs it makes no odds. Also I prefer Afterburner to be orange despite the green windscreen. The new combiner hands and feet are just icing on the cake!

So it seems that the 7 deluxes will get various repaints (Brainstorm already is a repaint), but there are rumours of Getaway, Triggerhappy, Doublecross and Quake. Sweet! In terms of who else I want, assuming we get Broadside, Overlord and Trypticon, I think it's mainly the Dinobots and Scorponok, but I'd quite like some Terrorcons and Throttlebots. Anything else like the Targetmasters and Powermasters would also be welcome, but for me they really are just background characters.

Some random Transformers 3.75" appreciation! Of all the toys I have in storage and not display these are the ones I miss the most.




Although I believe the Marvel Legends 3.75" comic packs have arrived in the UK, I decided to get them online individually cheaper (I don't want Cap Falcon). Another Iron Man for the Armoury and a couple of characters to go in storage. I think I only know who Machine Man is because he had a 6" Legends figure recently but you never know, they might just turn up in the MCU.


I also ordered Swindle and Brawl online, I'm still hopeful to see Vortex, but just in case I don't see them it'll only be one figure to pay too much for. I'm still not sure about Blast Off - along with Groove I hope we see the Takara shuttle version. I decided to keep Swindle by himself because all of the combiner limbs (and Decepticons generally really) he is one of the few to get anything resembling characterisation. After reading MTMTE I'm keener on having figures of the the more interesting characters (Swindle appeared briefly at the start of the series to sell some 'snuff' videos to Rewind).

I hadn't messed with the Rook mold before, but it's great! Initially I though the Offroad mold would have been a better choice, but the squat look does work well for Swindle. The head sculpt is great, the altmode is neat, if not clear in what it really is. However, I love this figure! It really has character.


I wasn't expecting to like Brawl, I didn't like the colour in pictures and had heard about the waist problems. The waist on mine indeed didn't look neat (I found an alternative configuration which I think looked okay, despite showing off the serial number), but again, I really like this figure! It's everything I want from a Brawl figure despite the waist.

After leaving the Stunticons separate, I decided to combine the Combaticons, but replace Swindle with Drag Strip (my least favourite Stunticon). I had to take a screwdriver to Onslaught as the combiner port was a bit stuck, but I think he looks great with his legs on. I wasn't sure about the colours based on pictures, but it all works nicely, I might end up painting the head in silver. Hope to get some arms for him soon.


Combiner Wars has been absolutely brilliant, I love every single figure. A few years ago I had FP upgraded Superion and Bruticus, plus Menasor and Maketoys Devastator and was ready to buy their Defensor and Computron. I don't regret going official one bit. Having the four scramble city combiners, posable, with properly interchangeable limbs is everything I had ever dreamt of. I think the oversized Devastator is a thing of beauty despite my initial reservations about the scale. A few years ago I might have been tempted by the Perfect Effect upgrades, hand/feet replacements, now I'm perfectly content to pass and save the money. I think Computron is going to be a great end to this line!

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Happy Shopping

I got the new 3.75" Marvel Legends so have got Spider-Man Noir to complete my Shattered Dimensions lineup:


Triton for my Inhumans (need Gorgon and Crystal!):


I found Generations Onslaught, (come on deluxes!):


I got fed up of waiting for Asda to get Black Series 3.75" Kylo Ren so I ordered online:


And in other very exciting Star Wars news, I got K'kruhk! He is one expensive fella. I put together a couple of scenes from the Clone Wars cartoon (do I still need to keep on saying the original non-CGI one?):



And so my alien Jedi army is complete. Yay!!!


I've also had a small delivery from Vortious customs, I highly recommend him. I bought some coats and hats and stuff (if you look at the Spider-Man Noir picture above you'll notice he's suitably dressed. I also updated my Adam Warlock with a coat instead of his cape as inspired by the A:EMH cartoon (I replaced the photo from two months ago: http://transformersandstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/customs-are-in-air.html).

I also upgraded my League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (really can't remember whether I ever mentioned them before). Invisible Man has a hat and cane now and Mina has more suitable attire for the period! (as well as a scarf.) Previously she was the blonde woman from the Indiana Jones line.


I also got a coat for Multiple Man to make it clear who is the alpha version.


I'm still enjoying MTMTE, I decided I needed to get a Crosscut to go with my Lost Light crew, I read some reviews describing him as Skids with a better deco, I really liked Skids so sounds good to me.


Speaking of the Lost Light, it occurred to me that it might be worth getting G1 versions of the characters who don't have Classics versions (of those that are toy based obviously). This had me looking at Thunderclash, who because of GPS is very expensive. This then got me started thinking about my collection of leaders - maybe I could get Skyquake as well (who looks pretty cool). This somehow then got me thinking about my longstanding aim of creating a Micromaster City, this then got me thinking how with a bit of time and money you could create an awesome diorama with ramps connecting everything.

However, a lot of the transformers with base modes were Japanese exclusives and so ridiculously expensive. It would be amazing if the likes of Dai Atlas got a reissue, but probably not going to happen. Even though he's a big old brick Grandus kind of appeals to me. Star Convoy was reissued about 10 years ago so a bit more affordable. So I'm not going to do anything for the time being, but if anything does get reissued that could well set me on the path to getting round to doing something.