Combiner Wars hasn't been forgotten yet though - I've just ordered Computron so along with the TR deluxes, my most wanted list has taken quite the battering.
I also haven't forgotten about Marvel, I've been eyeing up the TRU 3.75" Civil War 2-packs, no sign of them in the UK, but I was keen on Iron Man in his NOW! armour (black and gold looks sweet!), after reading a review though I found out that a more accurate version was released (sadly with 5 POA), in the Avengers Assemble line. What's good though is I found it for £6 on eBay rather than paying through the nose for the TRU set. It needs a bit of paint to make it really shine, but as I want it for my armoury, the articulation isn't too much of a worry. Hope the sets do turn up in the UK though as I also want the Black Panther, however, I'm willing to wait as even if they don't turn up, I can see it being re-released when the BP film comes out.
I picked up Quasar at FP and bought Living Laser online (seems like we're not getting that wave in regular UK retail), both will go into storage for the time being.
Wilykit and Wilykat are great, even if we don't get a full set of T'cats, they look great together (thankfully they didn't just release one of them!). Fantastic sculpts straight from the cartoon.
I started the year on a Star Wars kick (which I don't regret at all, K'kruhk in particular looks great next to my desk), after that I went a bit Batman and started tracking down figures for making custom of his villains, I then started planning a few Marvel customs that I'd been giving a bit of though to. There's something about my brain which is always thinking about the next thing. Anyway, I've decided that if I'm not displaying figures, then there's no point in having them which caused me to start thinking about Mortal Kombat. The figures aren't great, but after a few touch ups with paint hopefully they will be passable, but one reason I don't display them is because key characters are missing - I've got Shao Kahn's throne (which also has chains for 2 characters), Sonja and Kano are the obvious candidates for the chains ala MKII), but they don't exist. So I've worked out how I'm going to customise them! All in all its been a bit of a crazy month so need to try and calm it down for the rest of the year.
I think I've run out of characters I could possibly customise (I even gave some thought to Professor Monkey for a head!), but I am very well stocked up now. Actually, I read a few articles about collecting versus hoarding, collecting is when you display your collection and know where each thing is, which is me so I gave myself a pat on the back for being a collector not a hoarder (which psychologically sounds more worrying), then I realised that all of the figures I'm buying for customs are being hoarded - I don't know where they are, I've forgotten about some of them and they aren't nicely displayed or organised. So yep, I'm a collector and a hoarder! Well, until I get round to actually making the customs.
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Prototype pictures of Broadside have surfaced! Great to get confirmation, actually it means my list of wants (but not released) is down to 10 (need Dinobots, Terrorcons and Scorponok), which is a nice round number to be down to. He looks quite chunky, I can't quite see it as Broadside yet though, think he needs a white head to really hit it.
I have just received Hasbro Computron, I opted for Hasbro as I prefer the toy look rather than the anime. Scattershot is noticeably better than the stand alone version with better colours (not just red), with the same nice vehicle remolding from Silverbolt. I really liked the original use of the mold, so perfectly happy to have it again. The new robot mode head is nicely done so job done. Shame we couldn't have got a new gun for him as Silverbolt's is so distinctive.
Lightspeed and Nosecone do seem like repaints of other characters, but as they're gonna be legs I'm not too worried. Afterburner is a nice reuse of deluxe Groove, just not sure what's going on the green plastic for the windshield. Strafe was one of the reasons I opted for the Hasbro version - I wanted a toy accurate version to go with my Lost Light crew. He's perfect apart from his guns not being removable (I would rather they missed out Scrounge).
So overall, a nice set, just about distinctive enough from Superion to be Computron, lacking a few little things that would have finished Combiner Wars on a really high note. There have been a few rumours that we might get an Abominus (based on comments at Cybertron Con), I really hope this is true, but also that he also has the better hands and feet as although they are both scramble city style, they are both later toys so it would it reflect them being the next generation of combiner.
Had a great day shopping today, bought Chromedome (no Highbrow on the shelf, will pick up Weirdwolf and Mindwipe later) and found Titanmasters Horri-bull, Squeezeplay and Siren! Was all set to buy them online so delighted to be able to save the money.
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It occurs to me that I'm enthusiastically counting down my list of wants, but really they're my must haves, I still have plenty of wouldn't minds - it would be nice to have all the Targetmasters, Monsterbots, Powermasters, Headmaster Jnrs and Pretenders as Classics. Maybe Piranacon as well? Yeah, that takes me up to about 50 odd toys so Hasbro can keep on milking this cash cow for a little while yet!
More confirmation of Overlord which is great news - leader class apparently. Plus Black Shadow which hopefully means a decent sized Thunderwing. That would just leave Shockwave and Dinobot as the two remaining undersized toys (Galvatron was previously on the list). Exciting!
I found Highbrow today! Great to have all four Autobot headmasters (don't think I mentioned Brainstorm), they're a great set and having them is one of my milestones. Highbrow is particularly significant as the last character I wanted for my Classics collection that I've never owned a toy of (Broadside will be the last character I get a toy of that I don't currently already own, but I did briefly have the Fansproject figure). I also found a Gamora which I had decided to pass on and make a custom instead, but I saw her on the shelf so got her as a stand in until I get round to the custom.
The rumour mill for Titans Return is going crazy. Every few days there seems to be more. Well, I for one for one am very excited, Throttlebots, Targetmasters, Overlord, plus even more as Titanmasters. I don't think my spending will be reducing just yet! I'm quite happy to have say Repugnus and Grotusque as Titanmasters as I have the G1 versions, but having Doublecross as a deluxe is cool as he's the best Monsterbot! Perhaps they could have an agreement where they take turns getting the body... I wonder if there might be a few Titanmaster only characters where Takara does a repaint of an existing deluxe to give them a body.
The wave 3 of deluxes is going to be great - my favourite Monsterbot, Targetmaster and Powermaster!
Abominus is also one of those rumoured, I think he is one of the few I'd have to get the Takara version as anime accurate would be so much better (call of the Primatives!). There are potentially quite a few leader figures coming that are exciting - Super Ginrai, Overlord, Sixshot, Deszaras, Thunderwing (from the rumoured Black Shadow) and Star Saber (surely, if they're doing Deszaras). If they did Abominus then someone like Piranacon could reuse the molds. Beyond that there are several Targetmasters, Powermasters and Pretenders which would be cool to have as deluxes, but in each case they're doing or have done my favourite characters so I'm happy to sit back and just see what happens.
I read an article by Maz recently and he was talking about collector burnout, one contributor said that when they buy a load of transformers, rather than opening them all at once, they open one and save the rest. I realise that I do something very similar - I rarely open things as soon as I get them, but if I do it tends just to be one figure at a time. It's all part of the appreciation process, I also have a little tradition of having a hot drink whilst opening which is something I started doing so it takes a bit longer to open the thing up. I think appreciating each item is very important, but I do remember very fondly getting an absolutely huge set of parcels from BBTS and opening them all up in one session. I got most of the Transformers Universe 2.0 lineup in those boxes!
Anyway, as I put Highbrow onto my Lost Light shelf, I realised that although I think the MTMTE comics are great, one good reason to have a Lost Light shelf is that it gives a reason to put certain characters together in a more interesting way than the G1 year they were released. It's get pretty packed on there though, as it stands I just need to squeeze Getaway in there, but could be a few more soon.
When I bought the Supersize Thunderbird 2, I can't remember if I ever really entertained the idea to buy six so as to have all of the pods. I think I thought about buying an extra so I could put the mole in one. Maybe another one on top of that for the firefly. So when I found out a 'pod builder' set was coming I was delighted to be able to pick up the mole vehicle.
I was however, even more delighted to find out Takara was putting out a similar set with an extra pod. I'd have to get one, no wait, I'd have to get two, no wait I'd have to get three! Suddenly the idea of six pods was feasible. In the event I've bought two Takara sets as the shipping per set from HLJ was lower for two than three. I figure I'd build two elevator cars and have the one mole and firefly.
I was a bit worried that the Takara sets were gloss not matte, this is one of the reasons I like the new toys as they look more like models than toys. In person (and in low lights), this is not that obvious so it's fine. I had thought I might get a third because it would be neat to have three elevator cars, but because of the change in the pound/yen exchange rate though, it's pretty expensive and in fact, cheaper to buy another TB2 set to get another pod. I've changed my mind on the elevator cars because although two fit in one pod, the design means they can't actually get out. I have therefore opted to make the fourth vehicle the VTOL flying thing (which can't actually get out of the pod either, but hey ho). Also, one vehicle per pod makes sense so as to have one less empty pod.
The set is great fun and feels a lot less wasteful than buying a TB2 to get an extra pod (although more expensive). I am toying with the idea of painting the treads on the mole and firefly to add a bit more interest (and so they look a bit more like the originals), and I wish TB4 was the same shade of yellow/orange as it looks a bit pale in comparison, but overall I'm very happy to have these updated vehicles in my collection. One thing extra to mention - the set comes with stickers to make the pod either 1, 2 or 3. Perfect for those who want to pod build!
