This is an idea which works, the other X-Men related characters I have considered are Captain Britain, Psylocke, Dazzler, Banshee and Alpha Flight. Captain Britain works in Excalibur (he is Excalibur for me really), Psylocke works in the Blue team, but they don’t work anywhere else (although they do work together as siblings). Also I have them in 3.75” form. Dazzler works as part of the X-Men team in Pryde of the X-Men, but nowhere else. Banshee with the First Class lineup, but nowhere else. (Banshee stands alone in this list as the only character currently without a modern figure.) With Alpha Flight, Sasquatch works as part of the Hulk’s supporting cast, but given I’m quite keen not to recreate my 3.75” display, it again doesn’t make sense (I would like 3.75” Dazzler and Banshee though.) So after all that, I need Multiple Man, and hope we get that rumoured set, as well as Wolfsbane and Strong Guy. I have now started a ‘don’t need’ list, characters which I’ve convinced myself I don’t need! It's quite therapeutic.
Another area I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about is villain teams - the Brotherhood, the Sinister Six and the Masters of Evil. Mostly because of the new Scorpion - he looks so good. A quick check of eBay shows expensive some of the Spider-Man villains are. Also, if I’m going to get Chameleon I’d rather the 90’s version rather than the suit. I will pass! For the Masters, the recent version of Abomination doesn’t work for me and he’s the main attraction, so will pass on them as well. The Brotherhood on the other hand, like X-Factor, I don’t have (non-custom) 3.75” versions of them combined with them being in my favourite cartoon ever. They’re in and luckily they haven’t even made them (yet), so no extra trip to eBay needed!
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Apeface, Spinister and Crosshairs! And Astrotrain. I think this is the most exciting announcement in a long time. Where to start. Okay, firstly, three characters I don’t have, secondly, three characters from 1987/88. The last line to have so many characters from that era was Titans Return, which I wonder whether these toys are leftover concepts from that line - we had a Apeface titanmaster (but no body), we got an Astrotrain so maybe this was a design that wasn’t used. And Crosshairs was heavily rumoured, especially given we got the Decepticon targetmasters. (Though some of that was actually about Orion Pax). I’m torn on whether that mold would have been a better choice. Bulk wise I think Crosshairs is somewhere in between. I also quite liked the idea of making all of the ‘87 targetmasters headmasters since it was fairly arbitrary in the cartoon who became what.
The reveal of Apeface and Crosshairs means we are down to eight more characters to complete the US Headmasters lineup (four Throttlebots, two Autobot targetmasters, one Horrorcon and Scorponok). I think the rumours of Crosshairs in Titans Return have only served to fuel my excitement for that character. It’s also an extra character for my Lost Light shelf.
Spinister is also very exciting (also for Lost Light reasons), with Needlenose the likely winner of the recent fan poll, I’m so glad I picked up Quake to complete the trio. He helps complete my Mayhem Attack Squad. So it’s only Astrotrain who I’m not too worried about, the thing that could have swung it was the train mode being a more classic steam engine. Also, I like my trio of triplechangers from Titans Return (such a good line!).
The prospect for more 1987/88 figures is looking good, Pointblank from Punch/Counterpunch, Slapdash from Mirage, and a new dune buggy mold for Sureshot and Joyride. Target and Powermasters done!
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I have got Legends War Machine and Rescue. I’m going to try and collect all of the MCU armours, regardless of who is/was using them. War Machine is big so he doesn’t have a BAF piece. He looks great, I guess given I like Transformers it’s not surprising that I like a very mecha looking action figure. I like the matte finish. As always he’s very well weaponed up, it’s a great shame we didn’t get the Mark IV (or V), I’m still hopeful we might get a new and improved Mark I at some point as that’s still my favourite, we also never had a unmasked Don Cheadle head so perhaps they’ve got something lined up. Bring on the Iron Man Mark 85! Rescue looks really good though she does have a very long neck, not so bad for this helmeted head but I saw on line the Pepper Potts head is too high on it. All round looking good though.
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I've spent a bit of time studying the hallowed G1 scale charts for Transformers. I had already identified that I would like a deluxe based Devastator, voyager (or leader) Dinobots and seekers, a larger Sky Lynx. One thing I hadn't really considered was a larger Broadside. Commander class Broadside would be great!
Thinking about scale, it occurred to me that I haven't compared Siege Soundwave to Device Label Blaster. Size wise they're a good match, though Blaster is a lot more bulky with much more kibble. I'd be very reluctant to get rid of Blaster - he's a working USB hub, but also he turns into a laptop. That's pretty novel. I can ignore the kibble, the main issue for me is the difference in detail, and specifically the battle damage on the chest door for Soundwave. I'm sure there will be a new Blaster at some point, but at the moment I feel I would rather have a Soundwave without the extra detailing.
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