It goes without saying that the other Dinobots need to be voyager, if not leader (and Devastator needs to be smaller). As attached as I am to them, I think the seekers need to be voyager as well. Similarly, Shockwave, Soundwave, Cyclonus, and maybe Scourge and Blaster. Deluxe Cyclonus is great, but he should match the seekers. Music label Soundwave is also great, but small and a different aesthetic to Classics.
Now, Starscream, Soundwave and Cyclonus already have voyager figures. They’re just not quite what I want (i.e. not repaints, combiner torsos or FOC versions), so would still be as much placeholders as the figures I have now are. Also, I can’t see them doing of all of the required recolours/remolds of Starscream. This new Cyber Battalion line might just work for Shockwave though.
Maybe Galvatron should also be a leader. Which would match Ultra Magnus. Oh dear.... thinking about scale is the path to madness.
Anyway, I have Perfect Effect Reflector, I think he needs to be deluxe. Finally, my cassettes are a mismatch of companies (Hasbro, Perfect Effect and KFC), styles and sizes, I want them all as legends. Maybe I do need to get the Titans Rumble figure.
Phew! Following on from last month, that doesn’t really add many deluxes to my want list. It seems to be all about the Legends.
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I got me a Rodimus prime! I was surprised at myself at how excited I was for this figure, considering a few years ago I had no interest. In combined mode he is one chunky robot. It's impressive, but that Hot Rod’s legs form the arms doesn’t really work, and it does look a bit strange in any sort of pose.
When I started collecting Classics I decided to strictly only get one version of each character. (Though it was some time before they really started remaking characters.) I made an exception for Megatron -> Galvatron as one of the few comics I bought as a kid had them face off against each other.
My personal head cannon for the Movie is that Skywarp and Thundercracker became Cyclonus and his armada, and the Insecticons became Scourge and the Sweeps (I know the animation isn't consistent with this). Since all of these characters appeared separately in Dreamwave and IDW, I conveniently decided to ignore this as well.
I later decided to put together Grimlock and Ravage collections so increasingly I was ignoring my own rule. With my Marvel collection I had the same rule, but there were some characters I wanted multiple versions of - Wolverine and Human Torch for instance. So I came up with an idea to split my collection into four - Avengers, X-men, cosmic and street/mystic. Within each of those four, each character could only appear once, so taking Wolverine as an example, he could be an X-man or an Avenger so I could buy him twice. I then decided to start an Iron Man armoury and a Spider-verse collection, but those aside, I sort of stick to my rule.
Anyway, where I'm going with this is that I had considered replacing my Hot Rod with this new one, but the smaller figure I think makes a better Rodimus Prime - the gun and head are both appropriate. The larger combined form is then is a kind of Powermaster Rodimus (which incidentally was planned once upon a time). I could have Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime in my collection I suppose. No replacement then! The smaller Rodimus also scales better with Galvatron so all good.
I found Grimlock a while back, but wasn't that enthused so have only just opened him. He is very impressively chunky. The robot mode is great, very happy. The T-Rex mode is weird, he has Masterpiece Grimlock's head, then the less said about the rear half the better. Apparently this is because he's a combiner torso for the other Dinobots, though Dinobots don't combine so I'm not sure I believe this.
If you have all the Dinobots I suggest opening Grimlock last because the others don't seem nearly chunky enough after opening him. I'm dreading to see how small Sludge is going to seem.
Talking of Sludge, I made a sword for my Loyal Subjects vinyl Sludge over 2 years ago, but at the time I didn't have any styrene rods to make the handle. I've finally done it!
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Having listened to a podcast from last year I'm suddenly quite excited about Captain Marvel. Particularly because Nick Fury and Coulson are coming back. It being set in the 90s and coming out between the Avengers films is potentially quite an interesting story telling set up because the film will feature the Kree-Skrull war. If someone dies in Infinity War they could reveal them to be a Skrull and have them come back. Interesting!
I've finished a few of the custom bits I've been working on: Ghost Rider's bike, I've given Finn-T'Challa a Boseman-esque beard and painted Poe-Bruce's shirt and jacket. Magneto has had the benefit of a bit of paint and I've made Bishop less shiny (by painting him). If I'm honest I've kinda been putting off working on my Kintaro custom as I'm fed up with making molds and casts. Baron Strucker next......
