Cherry picking

Endgame was the event of the year for me, absolutely amazing. I enjoyed it so much I went to see it twice. My favourite film ever! Also went to see the Last Skywalker on the opening day, really good, though I think I’ve had enough Star Wars for now. I would like a nice Jedi 3.75” Rey figure, might have to check out the Vintage line one.

Toy wise has been great with Marvel Legends (mostly playing catch up), my favourite figure from the year is Nightcrawler, slightly biased though as he’s my favourite character. Honourable for Endgame War Machine. Transformers Siege has also been great, I’m very happy with the figures I’ve got. I think there are four categories of figures, ones for customs (Sideswipe/Prowl), ones because they're a better version of a character (Hound/Mirage/Springer) ones that are a much better version (Ironhide/Ratchet/Reflector/Megatron/Soundwave/Shockwave) and new characters (that haven't had a new figure since G1) - Flywheels, Crosshairs, Spinister and Apeface. Sort of a sliding scale of necessity. Also the latter group sets up me needing Snapdragon, Pointblank and Sureshot (more than before).

I think Ironhide/Ratchet/Crosshairs has been my favourite figure (mold). Have dabbled with a bit of the new Power Rangers line as well. I bought Fortress Maximus from Titans Return, so with Scorponok confirmed. I feel I’m in a good place.

Having said that I was doing well not buying random things, I have just bought Legends (comic) Gamora, the Guardians are complete! Sort of, would still like a Phyla-Vell, but unless she's in the next Captain Marvel film it's really unlikely. All of the teams, Avengers, X-Men, X-Factor, Illuminati, Guardians, main villains (unofficial team) are just a figure or two away from completion. The Inhumans need several (especially Crystal and Lockjaw), but Fantastic 4 are complete. I now have all of the figures I want that have been release, Kingpin is sort of an exception, but I reckon he'll get a standalone release eventually and indeed, there is a rumour to that effect.

Paying for Gamora has caused me to think over my list of things I've been putting off getting - my shopping backlog. Most of them are 3.75" related, and so I had a read over a few 3.75" threads and have got a renewed excitement for the scale. Found a good deal on a Hiya Predator figure (my previous Amazon order ended up cancelled). Had a look for a good deal on Rey as well. The other thing I’ve been putting off, but now have renewed enthusiasm for is the Vitruvian Hacks horses. Will need to save up.

Super 7 have shown/hinted at wave 2 of their Thundercats figures, Tygra will be a must  have for me. Think Mumm-Ra is as well - I’m not going to get any of the villains for Turtles or Power Rangers, but Thundercats is a bit different. Mostly because I had Mumm-Ra as a kid, but also because I have Rita, Shredder and the mummy version of Mumm-Ra as (custom) 3.75” figures in my collection already, so adding this version of Mumm-Ra makes sense.

If Tygra and Mumm-Ra are in wave 2 then I just need Cheetara, ghost Jaga and Snarf. Little bit tempted by the new Thundercats - Pumyra et al, but I didn’t know who they were as a kid so think should pass.

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I have Gamora, it's a great looking figure but I can see why she didn't get a general retail release. My main (and only real) issue is the colours, in that Entertainment Earth boxset, Star Lord and Rocket are in the 2008 Guardians colours, would it have killed them to do the same with Gamora (and Drax for that matter)? Swap the gold for red, dark green for dark blue. The layout is spot on, just need to switch the colours!

I have a New Years resolution, organise my collection! I think I've had that as a resolution before, but this time, a different focus. I've always tried to put as much of my collection on display as possible, the result being crowded shelves where you can't really see most of the figures. My aim is to store the figures in a way where I can easily find and look at any figure. A filing system of sorts for solid objects. Though I still intend to have some stuff on display, the idea being that everything will have its own space in the box. I'm going to get several of the large flat Ikea boxes so that things won't get lost at the bottom. And have each figure next to its instructions and accessories.

I've started with my Legends figures as most of them are in a large deep box. Wow, I've got some great figures! Such a good selection of characters, though initially I was quite undecided on whether to get some of them, there are no characters I want to get rid of. I think the weakest is Venom, I'd be happy to replace him, that buck just isn't great. I can't see myself needing or wanting to replace any of the others. That buck is particularly bad for him, just about okay for Sabretooth, fine for Captain Britain and Luke Cage, and actually pretty good for Bishop. I think if there's a bit of kibble then it's fine, but otherwise you just can't seem to get an authentic look out of it.

I've been thinking about figure replacement. I have a collecting philosophy of one figure per character (except Grimlock, Ravage, Iron Man and associated characters). If a new better figure is released then I've slowly updated. Particularly if the new version is a more appropriate size class or in a costume I'm more familiar with. But when is good, good enough? When does the cost and inconvenient of replacement become too much? I've resisted replacing Omega Supreme and Jetfire. I also have resisted the crowd funded Unicron. Thinking about Omega Supreme and Unicron, I like that the versions I have are Unicron trilogy repaints. I actually bought original versions of both as presents for others so I feel a significant attachment to them.

With Siege I have replaced the odd Classics and Universe figure. The main ones left in those lines to be replaced are Hot Rod and Cyclonus, who in my mind have yet to be bettered. With the coneheads I'm sticking with Classics/Botcon, with the Lamborghini and Datsun 'bros', I have stuck with the Universe figures. With Starscream and Wheeljack revealed in Earthrise, coneheads and Sunstreaker are likely on their way. I'm sort of hoping they don't look too good! With my re-organisation of my figures I intend to place the Ark crew figures together. Do they work as a group of 18 toys from across 13 years? The style has evolved from G1 reimagined to faithful updates. If certain figures don't fit in then I could be tempted to update, or possibly even go back.

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There have been some more rumours for Earthrise, I thought I would see how many figures are left on my want list. (Assuring the rumours are true.) Turns out there are 50 which is a nice a round number. In addition, it’s the end of the decade and it’s been 10 years since I started this blog and I used to be rather keen on a ‘wants’ list. In January 2010 I put down a list of 50 so what better time to see how I did and put down another 50.

20 of the 50 were 3.75" comic book figures, but I will assess them on both a 3.75" and 6" basis. 14 were Marvel, for 3.75" we got them all apart from Kingpin and Pyro (I made customs though), 6" wise, I haven't got Elektra or Sandman but we have figures of them all apart from Pyro (again). Good job Hasbro! Six were Batman villains, I collected several in 6" scale, I think (but am struggling to remember), I got them all apart from Poison Ivy. In 3.75", I got Mr. Freeze and Bane though I heavily customised the latter. I have plans for customs for the other four. One day...... So not bad, my main observation is that when Hasbro stopped making 3.75" Marvel figures I switched to 6" and have almost lost interest in Batman. Strange.

The 30 Transformers on the list was a bit of clean sweep, every single one was made, though I never got the Botcon Sunstorm and so still have my custom, and my Huffer is an iGear figure rather than the Legends Prime repaint. So the 50 figures I want (all Transformers):

1. Star Saber (Leader)
2. Victory Leo (God Bomber equivalent)
3. Deszaras (Leader)
4. Thunderclash (Leader)
5. Pointblank (Deluxe remold of Punch/Counterpunch)
6. Sureshot  (Deluxe remold of Mirage)
7. Joyride (Deluxe remold of Mirage)
8. Slapdash (Deluxe remold of Mirage)
9. Goldbug (Legend)
10. Wideload (Legend)
11. Freeway (Legend)
12. Searchlight (Legend)
13. Rollbar (Legend)
14. Venom (Legend)
15. Barrage (Legend)
16. Ransack (Legend)
17. Overdrive (Deluxe)
18. Camshaft (Deluxe)
19. Downshift (Deluxe)
20. Eject (Legend)
21. Minerva (Deluxe)
22. Hosehead (Deluxe)
23. Waverider (Primemaster)
24. Stranglehold (Primemaster)
25. Toraizer (Titanmaster)
26. Blacker (Voyager remold of Onslaught)
27. Laster (Deluxe remold of Sunstreaker)
28. Braver (Deluxe)
29. Leozack (Voyager remold of Starscream)
30. Jallguar (Deluxe remold of Combiner Wars Drag Strip)
31. Deathcobra (Deluxe remold of Vortex)
32. Grimlock (Leader)
33. Slag (Voyager)
34. Sludge (Leader)
35. Snarl (Voyager)
36. Swoop (Voyager)
37. Paddles (Voyager)
38. Hook (Deluxe)
39. Mixmaster (Deluxe)
40. Longhaul (Deluxe)
41. Bonecrusher (Deluxe)
42. Scrapper (Deluxe)
43. Scavenger (Deluxe)
44. Airrazor (Deluxe)
45. Beast Wars Scorponok (Deluxe)
46. Cheetor (Deluxe
47. Tarantulas (Deluxe)
48. Dinobot (Voyager)
49. Terrorsaur (Voyager)
50. Tigatron (Voyager)

That is quite literally every figure I could think of, it completes just about every possible set, still a couple of gaps from characters who appeared in the Japanese G1 cartoon but I've tried to keep it realistic - make use of remolds where possible. I want new versions of the Dinobots (bigger) and Constructicons (smaller). I plan to have a go at some customs of the Omnibots. I'd like reissues of the Trainbots and Multiforce, but looks like we are getting Trainbots of some sort and the Multiforce have already been reissued. Will see how I did in 2029!!!

There is a line I wrote in 2010, I long for the days where I’m cherry picking from the Transformers and Marvel lines, that’s what I’m doing, I’m where I wanted to be. Happy New Year!