Bagging finished!

Have almost bagged up my entire collection, Marvel and Transformers are all done, on to Lego and my other mini figures. Just looking at my Mega Construx (Bloks) TMNT, shame I wasn’t able to get Splinter (released), lair or a blimp (not released), but I found out they are still doing some TMNT stuff - comic style with the shading. There’s a bit of hope still for the future of the line. What there is no hope for is the metallic rubber on Krang's braces - a lethal mix really, metallic plastic and rubber is never going to last. It's still mostly in one piece but crumbling at the ends, I will attempt a repair with some liquid rubber I have.

I enjoyed looking through my Transformers - Titans Return was my favourite line - Decepticon Targetmasters and Monsterbots particularly. Even if I decide that this entire exercise is not how I want to store my collection, it's been invaluable to review my collection.

I've also moved on to Thunderbirds now, it's one of my minor interests but I still want a set of toys. I have toys from the 2015 Thunderbirds Are Go! line, supersize TB2 and TB3, then regular TB1 and TB4. These scale together fantastically well, and I'm okay with the modern versions. I bought multiples in order to have six pods. My issue with them are that I don't like the TB5, Mole and Firefly. (TB5 is too small anyway, and the latter two have been redesigned to be modular.) So, I bought the Konami TB4, TB5, Mole and Firefly, which are amazingly accurate to the original, but all scaled to be the same size.

I want a set of all five Thunderbirds, with six pods for TB2 and the main pod vehicles. In scale and in some style close to the original. I've investigated various options, but generally TB5 is excluded, and in model land, they seem to be different scales. So not easily doable then. I have the Takara TB2 (TAG) pods, with modular vehicles, which are great fiddle toys for a desk, but what I've realised is that there's no point keeping such toys in long term storage. But I want some Thunderbirds toys. So what to do?

Opened Sky Lynx - I wanted him to be a lighter shade of blue, but he’s actually rather magnificent (obviously). I also like the high level of detail on him which is something I tend not to appreciate. Changed him from shuttle mode to robot mode, might try out the base mode later, but overall he’s everything I want. My Call of the Primatives display is looking great with him, Trypticon, Predaking and Abominus. Just need some good size Dinobots - speaking of which a listing for ‘86 Studio Series Grimlock has appeared, please be a complete set of leader Dinobots!

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I have finished bagging up my entire collection! Well, almost. I've left a few things out on display - Siege/Earthrise figures, a few Marvel Legends and the very large figures. There's still a lot of things to sort through - mostly stands and custom bits/parts and tools. It feels like quite an achievement though. I'm not able to get any more large boxes for the time being so it's a bit of a halfway house, I need to tidy everything up and make sure it's stored appropriately.

I’ve also cleared off my (now single) display shelf and put Apocalypse, Juggernaut, Mystique and Sabretooth on it. I might dig out a Sentinel as well. I realised all of my unopened Legends figures are villains (mostly X-Men), so I’m ready for them to have their moment. Have paid for Leader as well so they are all ready to take over. I think Red Skull is the only character I really need to finish it.

First additions to the shelf are Magneto, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. It’s pretty much a perfect set. Magneto looks a bit young, and despite my no customisation rule - I’m very tempted to buy the Apocalypse wave Mags to get the non-helmeted noggin to put on him. Scarlet Witch looks a bit gothic which for me is a nice nod to the X-Men Evolution cartoon. Quicksilver is another member of X-Factor, for which, hopefully I will get Strong Guy soon. Strong Guy is gong to be expensive as unfortunately, I don’t want any of the other figures from the wave. I have struggled a little with the justification, but given I don’t have him in 3.75” form and want to complete the team I'm going to get him. I think I would have got Forge and Quicksilver regardless, Havok and Polaris I can justify because I also wanted them in their X-Factor costumes, and Multiple Man - like Strong Guy, I’m only getting to further complete the team (though I do have a 3.75" of him). Am hoping for a Wolfsbane soon as well as she's in the same category as Strong Guy.

I've opened the Lightning collection red ranger. I've had him for a little while and it felt like the right time to open it (and get him bagged up). He looks good, perhaps a little grumpy, but I like the unmasked but holding his weapon look. The butterfly joints for the shoulders are a little strange - it seems to have an edge that made me wonder whether it had been assembled the wrong way round but having looked at reviews, this seems to be consistent. Maybe white ranger had them as well but with the armour isn't nearly as obvious. I'm appreciating the energy effect, though I wonder whether it should be red? Anyway, pretty happy and I've got over half the team now. Blue is pre-ordered so just need black and green!

I've also opened Selects Gulf (Skalor). He's great, though I'm not quite sure whether I'd be able to turn him back into a fish without looking at the instructions - his limbs seem to be all over the place! The Terrorcon molds were great and this is no exception. I particularly like the accurate greenish gold paint on his face. It's nice having a new combiner limb not based on an Aerialbot.

I've now committed to a one toy per character rule, so G1 is no longer on a pedestal where I need a modern and G1 version of a character. In a few cases though, I am going to keep the G1 mold version of characters. I will keep my original BWII Seacons rather than getting the new Selects versions, and I will keep G1 Magnificus. And similarly for Diaclone Magnus (I call him Super Magnus). I'm keeping the G1 versions of any characters where a better modern version doesn't exist, or any characters related to the Dinobots and the cassettes.

I’m quite excited about the toys coming out this Summer, Super 7 Raphael, Scorponok and Legends Strong Guy as well as Kingpin and the Skywarp/Thundercracker set. Virtual SDCC in a month’s time!

New York heavy

Bagging up my collection has caused me to think about the history of my collection. (I'm on to Titans Return now.) To start with I was collecting reissues, keeping all of the boxes and so I left the instructions and spare parts in the boxes. The vintage toys I bought generally didn’t have instructions and most pieces were stored on the figures. Eventually as Classics started I just kept all of the parts loose in a big box. As I started selling things off I realised how difficult it was to find things again and so started sorting things by which ‘faction’ they were in (according to Dreamwave). As new things came out and it got increasingly tedious to even find the right bag for the faction, I realised storing things by toyline made more sense. I’m now storing them with the actual figure, even more straight forward! It would have made life easier to have adopted a system earlier, but when I started I was only going to get a ‘few’.

Bagging up Combiner Wars feels different to most of the older figures, I feel sad. They’re such great figures. I remember my initial reaction as ‘I’m happy with my third party stuff’ which turned into ‘these are great’, and eventually, ‘hope they do Computron and Abominus’. Which they did! I remember getting the Aerialbots in TRU before they were released in the US. I remember the disappointment of Wave 2 not getting an (official) UK release (and the panic of getting the Stunticons online). Then the happiness of finding the Protectobots at Tesco. I didn’t mind the way the 5th members of the team were handled - it was really exciting getting them as exclusives. What a great line. I didn’t get burnt out on the molds until Power of the Primes with Darkwing and Dreadwind - I got the Liokaiser around the same time, and only then felt fed up with the Aerialbot mold(s).

Talking of Abominus, I’ve never actually bothered combining them before, and I've not used the Perfect Effect upgrade set I bought. The bits all turn into separate weapons which is great, but I'd rather just have really good hands and feet. (Purple versions of the Computron parts.) I don't think they're too compromised and the feet are a very similar size. I like the idea of Computron and Abominus being a later generation of combiner, and therefore improved. He looks pretty great on my desk, though I've always wondered whether they would look better with a unified colour scheme - light grey, purple and blue perhaps? It wouldn't actually mean too much change - just make Rippersnapper and Sinnertwin grey rather than beige and yellow respectively, then it's just a matter of making them all the same shade of purple and blue.

I've opened Wheeljack, he's a little bit great. I'm so happy I've decide to upgrade my 84/85 Autobots. He's less of a bright white than Siege Prowl and Ratchet, but he really makes the old Generations mold look a bit chunky in the legs (it was a good figure though). A very pleasing transformation. Bring on the rest of them!

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I went for a walk today and found myself wondering why I was packing up my collection. I realised there are some good reasons. I find my display stressful, there's not enough space to display everything and what's not on display is hard to get to so I never rotate it. What is on display I can't see very well as most of it is up high on shelves. It means I know exactly where the accessories and instructions are for everything, and finally it's a chance to review my collection - do I need everything? Everything should serve a purpose, even if that purpose is recreate a scene from a comic. But to recreate that scene, are multiple versions of characters justified? I do feel sad packing things up, but overall it feels like a positive thing to be doing - to feel like I'm in control of my collection and not the other way round.

If everything should serve a purpose, what should say, Optimus Prime do? What do I want from it? I want him to look like he does in my mind - a sort of toy/cartoon/comic hybrid. I want him to display well with the other '84 Autobots, I want him to display well with Megatron, and I want him to display well with the other Autobot leaders. Earthrise Optimus does all of those things, the G1 and Classics figures do not (given I have WFC versions of the other '84 cast).

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Some interesting Marvel Legends preorders have popped up - tempted by Spider-Man, Green Goblin and War Machine, but have just popped in a preorder for Moonknight for the time being. Initial shots of Green Goblin show him having super crazy eyes, but the more recent images look much more sensible. The Strong Guy BAF wave has also gone up, expensive.

Sky Lynx is on his way! Wasn't expecting him until August. I've pretty much packed away all of my Transformers now, but have left most of Siege plus Abominus and Predaking out (so I can see how they look with Sky Lynx). I felt really sad putting the Dinobots away. So far I think I'm up to about 10 large IKEA boxes of toys (including Marvel but excluding the Titan and Leader Transformers). All that remains now is Lego/mini figures and Thunderbirds. Despite having bagged pretty much everything up it's amazing all of the leftover stuff - stands, parts, booklets. Haven't quite worked out where it will go in this brave new world.

I think I’ve realised the problem with my collection - too many things that look awesome by themselves. I made a bucket list over 10 years ago which included ‘getting my collection organised’, only now do I am doing that.

With my Lego figures I think I might position it to being more of a New York theme. I have the Ghostbusters firehouse, I have the Mega Bloks Turtles hanging out on (and hanging off of) it. The only Marvel Lego figure I really want to keep is Spider-Man, perhaps because he has such an iconic look, but it's starting to feel very New York heavy, which makes sense since so of my favourite cartoons were set there growing up. I might get the Lego Friends set and Statue of Liberty to really finish it. Maybe exceptions for Deadpool and Batman. I like my Lego Star Wars, Thundercats Minimates, Mega Bloks Power Rangers. But otherwise I think I'm going to get rid of everything else (I don't really have much else - Avengers and Justice League figures really). I quite like the idea of a Turtles lair as well, might be a project for some point.