Getting old

After my quiet month I've had another bit of a blow out. I kicked things off with Marvel Select Groot. I saw some guys talking about it online and was mildly intrigued. I think it's the best comic Groot available, but I'm not sure about the Hulk hands and I prefer Groot to be in his Guardians costume. It's a nice solid figure though, much like the Hulkbuster figure I bought previously.

I bought a She-Hulk figure for a custom, which I think might just have stopped me buying anything from the US again. It really seems like packages from the US get targeted for duty, which is fine, but paying duty on the cost of shipping as well as the 'handling fee' really takes the piss. I'm pretty much caught up on figures I want for customs now though so it's not too much of a problem. Hello Europe, oh wait.....

A happier purchase was generations deluxe Warpath. I passed on the figure when it was released as I wasn't sure I wanted a deluxe minibot, and it seemed that the figure would get a Hardhead repaint which seemed like a good way of getting the mold. He's a great figure, very glad to finally pick him up as he's always seemed like a figure I missed out on. He was a favourite of mine as a kid so that adds to the charm. You'll notice how I managed that entire paragraph without using the word 'kapow'. Almost.

I bought the movie Doctor Stranges 2-pack from Amazon, partially because it was the cheapest way to get an astral Strange figure (which I just realised I needed), and partially so I could replace my existing Strange head with the movie one. I wanted to do that because my comic Strange has wonky eyes, and also because rather than collecting MCU figures I like to put movie heads on comic bodies. The eyes on the movie Strange weren't great either, but better at least and so he looks pretty good.

I also bought a Konami Firefly model, nice figure with amazing detail though I did manage to break one of the lights on it when taking them off the sprue which was a bit disappointing. Looks sweet with the mole, still thinking about whether to get a Thunderbird 4 to go with.

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My collecting has taken a bit of a backseat recently, mostly because of a lack of time but also because I've caught up on (almost) everything I want. With Marvel 3.75" really slowing down and Transformers being between waves and the rumour mill slowing down, it feels calm. After a bit of a hiatus I've starting working on some customs again so that's giving me something to focus on.

You will all keenly remember me buying some blank female Bossfight studios figures, it's time to reveal what I made them into: female ninjas from Mortal Kombat, Kitana, Mileena and Jade! (I did have to scalp a few Spider-Women....)

For all their multitude of sins, for me one of Jazwares greatest for me was their lack of any female characters. Particularly the female ninjas - they did the male ninjas, fair enough, but they also did the cyber ninjas. Surely the female ninjas are more important! Anyway, I have resolved to make the complete cast of MKI and MKII in 3.75" scale! (As it happens, I think the cyber ninjas are the best figures they did.)

I will mostly stick to the aesthetic from those games, but I will use my Jazwares figures as a starting point. I liked MK3, but the characters don't mean as much. Beyond Ultimate, I've never played another MK game. I note that they basically turned the female characters into strippers, I guess being a princess turned assassin turned fighter didn't pay very well for Kitana. Luckily for Peach, Daisy and Zelda, Nintendo still has the money to pay their princesses a decent salary.

Before I start ranting on about how Mileena still managed to be my favourite character as a teenager without being half naked, I bought Titanmasters Fangry and Lione on Amazon. £15 for the pair, which considering I haven't seen them available in the UK isn't bad. I am starting to feel I'm not getting value for money anymore though. That said, I really like Fangry and it's nice to complete the Decepticon Headmaster junior trio.

Moaning about over sexualisation of women and high prices?! Yep, I'm getting old.

Decade of Classics

I've had a very quiet month, not a cheap month since I've paid for Masterpiece Megatron (not received yet). Time for a bit of reflection...

It is now 10 years since I got into Classics, it and its various successors now constitute most of my toy collection. At the moment that's over 160 figures. What started me off on Classics was FunPub releasing pictures of Thundercracker, Dirge and Thrust. This combined with the Ramjet I'd seen in a shop was enough to convince me that it was time to get onboard.

I thought it would be quite timely to consider the figures' (including those from the 2007 Botcon, given its importance to me) impact on my collection now.

The lineup consisted of deluxes, some repainted Cybertron legends figures, packs of minions, a handful of voyagers, some convenient repaints and fairly random other figures. I'm going to ignore the Cybertron legends and randoms because I didn't buy them. I bought one pack of the minicons - the dinobots, on a trip so they have happy memories attached to them. I did later replace them with the G1 dinobot coloured repaints though (which included a Catilla figure from the Snarl in the predator pack). I don't think of them as Classics though so they sit with my Grimlock figures.

I bought the Grimlock, but quickly replaced him with the Henkei version as I liked the paint deco on the head. He is a homage to the Pretender version of the character so when the Fall of Cybertron figure was released he was also replaced. He now also sits on my Grimlock shelf. I also replaced Bumblebee with the Henkei version, who I then replaced with the Universe legends figure, who I then replaced with the iGear Beetle figure, who I then replaced with the Generations scout figure. (The iGear figure now sits with Universe legends Starscream and Jazz, and Henkei Grimlock as a pretender classics homage.) I also replaced Cliffjumper with his (legends) Henkei figure, and then similarly with his Generations figure.

I also bought and replaced Starscream with the Henkei version, who is still in my collection. I repainted the original into Sunstorm which I also still have. I held off buying Astrotrain because he was white and so got (and still have) the Henkei version.

Of the other deluxes; Mirage, Hot Rod, Ramjet, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Dirge and Thrust are still in my collection. I think the seekers should probably be voyager, but I really like the mold, especially the coneheads, and with owning Masterpiece Starscream, I'm happy that I've got at least one super detailed seeker figure. Hot Rod has his Reprolabels on and is holding his G1 targetmaster guns. Mirage has held up very well, so I've never really considered replacing any of them.

I bought Optimus Prime and despite buying an Age of Extinction 2-pack with a chromed redeco, I have stuck with it (I painted over the yellow paint apps though). With Megatron, I bought the Henkei version and again, despite buying Hegemon have stuck with it as my definitive Classics version of the character (chrome Prime and Hegemon were sold). I've kept my Ultra Magnus and Jetfire despite buying the newer leader versions, the difference being that Magnus has replaced his predecessor on the shelf, but Jetfire has not (I think of the leader as fitting more with my Masterpiece figures). I might display Magnus in a Dreamwave homage pose where he's breaking out of the armour so kept the voyager. I bought and sold the FansProject upgrade for Ultra Magnus, at the time it came out it was very exciting, but the headsculpt never really worked for me.

I bought (Walmart Energon repaint) Devastator some time after he was released, but sold him in favour of the Crazydevy upgraded G1 version. (I think Fansproject missed a trick on an upgrade kit for the Energon repaint.) The Crazydevy set-up was replaced by the Maketoys set and finally the Takara Combiner Wars set who is just awesome (like Jetfire I think of him as half Classics and half masterpiece).

From the Botcon box set I also got Bugbite and Dreadwind who I eventually both sold - I couldn't find a place for Bugbite to fit in and Dreadwind as a repaint of Jetfire didn't really work for me (hoping for a new version!).

Classics completely changed my collecting, if it hadn't have come along I think I would have stuck with G1, maybe until I had them all. Instead posability and sculpting became all important. I started paying attention to conventions to see what new figures were coming out, suddenly what was in the news was important! I still have several of the original figures in my collection and on display ten years later. They did well enough to get a continuation as Universe and went from strength to strength. What a line!

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Starscream as a character irritates me, whiney and back-stabbing. I accept him as a main iconic character, and so am willing to admit that no collection is complete without him. But bugger me, if I haven't accidentally bought a ridiculous amount of toys of him. Grimlock I actively buy toys of, Starscream, I just seem to acquire them!

Part of it is I think because of his altmode (and because Megatron and Soundwave have non-vehicle alt modes, which are dated or non modern toy friendly), Starscream has become the poster boy for the Decepticons. Robotmasters, Classics, WST and Masterpiece he was up there from the beginning. The other reason of course is because he has multiple easy repaints.

So I collect G1 reissues, Classics, WST and Masterpiece, so I should have 4 Starscream toys. I indeed have a Starscream from each of those lines, but then I have a custom bi-plane Starscream from Movie Rampage, I have a custom from a GI Joe Skystriker, I have a legends version to go with my Classics Grimlock to act as a Pretenders homage (with Bumblebee and Jazz). I did have a G1 black Starscream and a Kreo build once, but since have seen sense and sold them. I also have BWII Starscream, Starscrem if you will (technically a different character, but could have been a G2 release). I was all set to buy the Play With This Too homage. Now I'm also thinking of buying a ghost Starscream to go with my Beast Wars figures. I can't stop!

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Have got Masterpiece Megatron now, yeah, he looks amazing, but I think my appetite for expensive transformers is getting seriously diminished. Titans Trypticon and Scorponok, Masterpiece Shockwave (if they do a toy accurate one) and Blaster, then hopefully that should be it.