£2.50 worth of happy

I bought some more Bossfight studios figures, this time three female blanks - blue, purple and green. More details soon on what I plan to turn them into! Great figures though I don't think I need the nipples to be so prominent.

I caved in and bought Zelda from the World of Nintendo line. Not much in the way of posability but a nice figure. Need a Ganondorf to go with!

I finally got round to buying the four mini micromaster bases to create the zone base (from Zone funnily enough). I had the garage set as a kid so it's nice to have it again. Am going to make a little city on my desk!

So I thought I would hit up an out of town supermarket on the way home. It was a bit of an epic trip, walking down country lanes, no pavement in the pouring rain with darkness setting in. I had hoped to find some W3 Transformers Legends, sadly nothing doing. I did find Power Rangers Mega Construx (nee Bloks) blind packed figures, with a white ranger right in the middle of the picture on the front! This is remarkable for a couple of reasons, I don't think I've ever gone to a shop and found something I didn't even know existed that I wanted (since I was a kid at least). Secondly, I really wanted a white ranger to go with the other six rangers I already had (from the 20th anniversary set).

I was feeling lucky, so grabbed a bag and bought it. I got a green ranger, close but not quite there. On the way home it occurred to me to find the codes for the white ranger online. I duly found (two sets of) the codes and decided to go back the next day. On the bus I checked the code of the green ranger I already had, no match. The UK had yet again another set. I realised I would have to delve into the dark art of bag feeling. I found something I thought was the white rangers sabre and so started to walk to the checkout. Then something clicked, I might have the putty patrol figure. I went back and resumed my feeling (in retrospect I did have the putty patrol).

The red ranger and Lord Zedd both have long stick like weapons, pink ranger and the putty patrol have semi-circular weapons. Green and white ranger both have short stick like weapons. I sorted through several bags, and using the green ranger code that I already knew, eventually found something which a short stick like weapon with a different code to the one I already had. I bought it.

Success! Rarely has a £2.50 item made me so happy, I walked towards work back down the country lanes. It was a bit misty but a clear sky day, the sun was just coming up. Everything seemed right with the world! I had a little read online about bag feeling, there's guides to several of the different Lego series. It was quite an interesting look at a fandom I don't know much about. With transformers we discuss the ethics of third party figures and KOs. With Lego they talk about the ethics of bag feeling, but particularly where the person is army building or re-selling the identified figures (so depriving other people a chance at those figures). I feel that my identifying one figure was fine.

I'm not sure if it's just that I am easily satisfied, but online no one else seemed very happy with the new figures. I think the white ranger is the nicest figure in the wave (nice gold decals), so maybe that helps. I agree in comparison to the TMNT figures they are under articulated, but they are consistent with the ones I already had. I now have a complete set of rangers, this makes me happy! Incidentally, the green ranger I already had is much better than the new one, it has the dragon shield and is a nicer shade of green.

In other news, I've re-bought Universe Countdown. Partially I think because of his appearance(s) in IDW as a full size transformer, but also because I've watched Zone, he's fair game for my Classics collection. There are now a handful of toys I've bought, sold and then re-bought, Botcon Razorclaw, Generations Drift and now Universe Countdown. (Razorclaw being a particularly ridiculous example because I then sold him for a second time!) I really like the Cybertron Defense figures so it's good to have a representative in my collection again.

Toy Fair is finally here! Was really excited about the potential Transformers Marvel Legends 3.75", Mega Construx Turtles and maybe, just maybe some Super 7 Thundercats news. This feels a little bit like deja vu from SDCC (or maybe NYCC, feels pretty familiar anyway!).....

So Trypticon and Overlord look great, can't wait for them, but we did know about them before. Transformers wise, I think Pounce and Fastlane are the only other two I want. Metalhawk and Nautica look interesting, but given they're in box sets I'm not sure I'll go for them. Hopefully Takara will do something with all four clones. That was it, nothing else to get excited about. Booooooo!

Takara did partially redeem the weekend though, Masterpiece Dinobot! Oh yeah. I'll start waiting for SDCC then.

Happy New Year!

Transformers Classics started off as 1984/85 characters with some fan favourites from later years (Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus). As Classics turned into Universe and then Generations it became 1984/85/86 with fan favourites from later years. With Titans Return it's become 1984/5/6/7. With the sole exception of Scoop all other later characters have been some what opportunistic repaints. So will they extend it to 1988? I really don't think so, they'll have done Overlord and God Ginrai (whom I have just got, looks great, can't wait for God Bomber), I don't think there's enough interest for those characters (those characters being Pretenders), they will do some of the double Targetmasters (e.g. Quake) and headmaster juniors when they're convenient repaints, but otherwise it's time for the beasts. That said, I didn't think they'd do the 1987 characters, we're getting figures I never thought I'd see! There's a sense of no figure is off the cards and that's exciting.

I bought an Avengers Assemble Falcon as I wanted a more modern costume for him (read, more EMH). He's quite chunky, and I think I might get rid of the stripes he has, but it's amazing how good the Avengers Assemble line was in retrospect - I've also a Leader, Black Widow and Iron Man from the line. I've popped a movie Falcon head onto the figure (I was going to use it for another custom, but it didn't fit).

I finally got round to opening my Titans Return Galvatron, he's a decent size, great sculpt, but yep, severely let down by the headmaster gimmick. So unnecessary, so will look into a Shapeways upgrade for him.

I got my Panthro, great sculpt. He looks amazing with Lion-O and the twins. A few rumours are emerging about a deal by Super 7 to get the Thundercats license. Super hopeful that they put out the remaining Thundercats. (And for other collectors' sake, mutants.)

Photos have come out of wave 4 of Titans Return, Broadside, Quake and Chase look great, just hope I can get them!

I've been quite prolific with customs over Christmas (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year by the way!), I've completed Odin, given Hydro-Man his classic look, given Iron Man a bit more paint and given Black Panther an EMH makeover (the sculpt is perfect for it). I've also completed Toad, Pyro and Avalanche. They still need a bit of work (Pyro needs his flamethrower backpack for instance), but fairly happy. Going to take a bit of a break now to sort a few things I've been putting off out (like publishing this blog!).