Busy postman

I opened Doubledealer, he’s fantastic! He’s best in robot mode, as some of the panels don’t quite line up properly in his other modes, but he’s great. I got his Powermaster friends as well, I hope to see more 1988 figures.

And so I’ve added some figures to my want list of Marvel Legends, and I’ve bought some straight away. I bought Sasquatch, big (furry) characters appeal to me, and the fact he has interactions with Wolverine and the Hulk add to the appeal. I’m also keen to get a Wendigo, but only if they rerelease him with a classic headsculpt. I really like Sasquatch.

I’ve decided I’m not compromising on figures - if the costume’s not right or the sculpt is off then I’m not getting placeholder figures. I’m tempted by Wendigo and Odin for instance, but need their classic looks. I sense that a Chameleon based his 90’s cartoon look might be in the offering. I therefore need the Sinister 6 (well, Insidious 6 really). I prefer the newer Mysterio figure so he’s in, plus Vulture, Scorpion and Shocker. I was tempted by these figures before but that was the original green gauntlets version of Mysterio, and I got grumpy about having to paint Scorpion’s face (I will). I already have a Doc Ock so just need a Rhino. I figure without Chameleon it’s either the original incarnation (with Chameleon as Vulture) or the second (with Chameleon as Mysterio).

I don’t want to get placeholder figures, but I figure even if they do a classic Ms. Marvel she might have the short hair and bare legs (I need her to look like A:EMH), so have bought the Warbird version. Can swap the head and legs if needs be. Surely we’ll get a classic version with the next Captain Marvel film? If I knew we were never going to get a classic Ms. Marvel then I’d get her in her Captain Marvel costume. Who knows though.

It’s hard after a little spending spree to return to normal, just a little check on the price of something on eBay or Amazon is hard to stop doing. My brain is desperately trying to find something I might need and making the case for it. Over several months there are many things that seem like a good idea, only to be discounted. Those are the sort of things that creep back up on you and suddenly seem like a much better idea than they did before (see above). Siege Omega Supreme and Jetfire are two that I’ve reconsidered a few times. The question I’m asking myself is whether my decision was financial or not. I don’t want to spend lots of money but if money is the only reason then it is something that is likely to haunt me. The new Unicron is another, but with the three of those. I don’t need them to be that big, I like having a couple of Unicron trilogy figures, and.... I don’t really care about them as characters.

Another set of figures I like the look of are the Storm Collectibles Mortal Kombat figures, but (and this is very similar to my reasoning for not getting Transformer Masterpieces), they’re expansive, and crucially, they’re never going to do the complete cast. I want a complete set of things, in some ways that’s where I get the most joy. They look amazing though. I’m also a little tempted by Star Wars Black 6”. I like the prequel Jedi - mostly the aliens. I’m tempted by Mace Windu and Kit Fistu. Maybe Plo Koon. The ‘main’ characters I’m not that bothered by. But I already have the 3.75” versions, and unlike Marvel Legends there’s no sense of characters not being available at the smaller scale, in the wrong costume or being a bit rubbish. The 3.75” versions are fine.

Legends Shocker has arrived. I like the modern costume for old pineapple head far more than the classic, to the point where it makes me like the character a lot more. He has the Deadpool head with one eye squinting which makes me think he has some of Deadpool’s humourous qualities. Anyway, glad to have him for my Sinister 6 (or 7).

Studio Series Jazz and Hot Rod have finally been shown off. Hot Rod looks amazing, Jazz looks a little cheap though I think the white background’s not helping. I would far rather he have more of a toy look than cartoon but with some reprolabels I think that can be sorted out - RTS also needed them. What I’m less sure about is replacing United Stepper, he is very pretty. An Artfire Stepper two-pack could be rather tempting though. (Glad I never got United Artfire!)

Over three years ago, I decided I needed to make a Kintaro from Mortal Kombat 2. I took my Goro figure apart and make a mold for each component and made a copy in resin. Except a few didn’t come out very well. And then some stuff happened (life stuff), and it has sat on the back burner for these few years. I felt strangely anxious starting to make the molds again, but I got there and finally put the resin in last night and am waiting for it to harden. Really hope they come out decently and I can finally starting putting the figures together. If I can’t do it before I move house then could be another few years again. I cast a few heads as well for a few custom bits and bobs. It’s hard resisting the temptation to start 'exiting’ new projects.

With virtually every single 1984-86 Transformers character getting a new figure, there’s not much in my mind that I want redoing, I reckon Blaster, Perceptor, Sandstorm, Metroplex, Devastator and Snarl (assuming he’s the Dinobot not getting a SS figure). That’s not bad. Add to that figures of the Throttlebots, some of the cassettes, Pointblank and Sureshot, and that’s pretty much the entire US cartoon done, and done well.

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The new studio series '86 figures look great! You can see the extra budget for Hot Rod and Scourge. I'm down for Kup and Blurr (though I'm not getting rid of Generations Kup just yet). Jazz still looks a bit washed out but with some Reprolabels should be fine. Grimlock looks solid but to be honest, he's a placeholder until the properly gold chromed version. I'll get him anyway despite the cost. There's a rumour of a Punch/Counterpunch repaint in red. Please be Pointblank! There's an excitement of getting a new character that even new versions of my favourite characters doesn't quite match. I'd like a Sureshot from Mirage, but I think in an ideal world there would be a Slapdash from Mirage and a new mold for Sureshot and Joyride.

Marvel Legends Rhino arrived! He's a slightly older figure now, and really quite expensive. I think a new version is quite likely, but he's one of those big chunky characters that I can't help but like. Even though the head with the eyes uncovered is more cartoon accurate, it's a little too manic (and on mine the eyes are looking in different directions). They've cleverly put the weight into the legs so he's solid, the chest is fairly hollow so it's not top heavy. Looking good.

I'm about to check how my casts turned out. It's a both exciting and anxious time, if they all turned out well then I'll be extremely happy. If it doesn't then potentially I'll have to make another set of molds. Of course if they turn out well then I'll actually have to get on with Goro/Kintaro. Deep breaths.......

They came out brilliantly! The heads in particular came out very well, I think I've perfected how to create a mold of a head - pick a point for the hole that's not the socket where it fitted onto the neck ball socket (back or the top of the head works best). I made a mold from the 2010 Spider-Man 3.75" Lizard, third time lucky! The Goro parts have come out as well, though quite a lot of work will be needed to fill the holes and add working joints. No excuse now, it's time to get the joints and epoxy out.

Having received Rhino, I really like him. I’ve decided to lower my bar for collecting Legends ever so slightly, characters that I thought weren’t quite important enough. So I’ve popped in orders for Kang and Abomination. Kang turned up really quickly. Like Doom before him, this is an incredible version of a classic villain. His green tunic is very 70's futuristic looking. He can't really hold his gun in a satisfactory manner, but otherwise looks great.

I bought Emma Frost from the Hellfire set, I did something a little radical, I changed her legs out. Mostly for stability - she was wearing high heels, but also to make her a little more cartoon accurate. I used the deadly white Black Widow which itself had two advantages, better guns (with smoke and firing effects), but also a replacement head for my vintage Widow who had applied her lipstick whilst driving. Over speed bumps. Good stuff! My X-Men shelf lineup was the 90’s cartoon, having taken this Wolverine and the X-Men inspired picture, I’ve gone with an Evolution lineup for my shelf (Iceman is standing in for Spyke.)

I’ve received Mysterio and Vulture. Mysterio is a lovely figure, I appreciate the gold over the green, comic accurate or not. The special effect pieces are great as well. Vulture is good, there’s nothing else you might want from him. He looks like a bitter old man as you might expect. He feels a little like a filler figure - if we get a cartoon Chameleon I might not keep him. I’ve been wondering how to decide which villains to get, with X-Men and Fantastic 4 I don’t feel too conflicted. With the Avengers I’m getting Kang and Abomination. With Spider-Man I’ve got Green Goblin and the Sinister 6. Perhaps what I should think is that for my favourite characters I should get two of their main villains. (Considering Venom as an anti-hero and Kingpin as Daredevil’s villain.)

So I used the Lizard head for..... Reptile! I now have alternate heads for Scorpion and Reptile. I had a go at making some arms for Sub Zero in light blue resin but I couldn’t fit them so I’ve stuck with the regular arms but with a bit of paint. My human male ninjas are finished (and so all of the hidden characters).

I’ve received Ms. Marvel so I can put together a season 2 A:EMH display. Need a classic Ms. Marvel and a Yellowjacket really. Incidentally, I pulled out my Mark VII Iron Man for this picture, and realised he was missing his shoulder. I searched right through my Legends box trying to find it. I then looked at a photo from when I got the figure, it was always missing and I didn’t notice! Weird and annoying.

Kingpin arrived! He’s wonderfully accurate to the comic. Just perfect for what I want. He completes my comic versions of the Netflix Daredevil show lineup as I also opened Elektra. As expected she’s pretty great looking.

I keep on seeing 6” Black series Star Wars figures, I haven’t bought any but it did lead me down a bit of a rabbit hole. I think with my 3.75” collection, I developed some sort of criteria for buying figures - main character, force user, alien, whether on the Jedi council sort of thing. I can’t quite remember exactly. I do like me some random background alien Jedi though. Looking through some toy websites I may have found a list of every single Jedi that appears in a film or Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon (not that one) episode. I may have googled each one to see whether they are an alien and whether they have a figure. I may be checking eBay regularly to see if they become available at a reasonable price...... So my new criteria are get all alien Jedi, and important human Jedi from the films and clone wars cartoon (not that one), and Ahsoka Tano from the clone wars cartoon (yes, that one). But Eeth Koth and Adi Gallia are excluded because I have Agen Kolar and Stass Allie and they're more or less the same characters but with different actors.

I got Sora Bulq and Que-Mars Redath-Gom now. Let's be honest here, they look like they might have been victims of the Jedi purge and then somewhat un-ceremoniously brought back to life. Alternatively they might have been filming the Geonosis scene in Attack of the Clones, realised they needed some more Jedi and sent someone out to get some extra masks from the joke shop....... The articulation on Sora isn't great, he doesn't have knees but he does have an action pose so it's not too troubling. It's nice to pick up a few extra Jedi so happy to have these figures.

My postman has been a busy man!

Really really organised

I set myself an objective several years ago to 'organise' my collection. I don't think I actually knew what that meant at the time, but I have finally got here now. I've packed up my entire collection into IKEA boxes. I've got 15 of the boxes with the largest footprint (of which 12 are the really shallow ones and 3 are just huge). Within each box, each figure is bagged up in an acid-free baggy, with instructions, parts and a little note to say the name and year of the figure. Large figures are wrapped in bubble wrap. 

The boxes are organised, so of the shallower boxes, two are G1 (one Actionmasters, Micromasters and reissues, one everything else), one Beast Wars (actual Beast Wars rather than the Generations figures), one everything in between Beast Wars and Combiner Wars, one Combiner Wars, one Titans Return and Power of the Primes, two 3.75" Marvel (one Avengers/street/mystic, the other X-Men/cosmic), one 6" Marvel, one video games and Star Wars (and other 3.75" stuff), one Turtles, Thundercats, Ghostbusters and Power Rangers, and one Masterpiece, WST and non-transforming Transformers (vinyl/Kreo). Of the large boxes, one is Metroplex, Trypticon, Omega Supreme, Unicron and Sky Lynx. One is Fortress Maximus, Scorponok, Predaking, Overlord, God Ginrai and Dai Atlas. The final box is my Lego Ghostbusters firehouse, Lego AT-AT, Minimates Thundertank, TB2 and TB3, and various 3.75" vehicles.

I started doing this because I wanted to be organised. As it happens I'm going to be moving house soon so am really well set. I've sold loads of things off as well, a mammoth task in itself. A few bits I was a bit reluctant to list, but I did it. I am organised now!

My collection is much simpler now, before I had G1 reissues, G1 leaders, G1 animal based Transformers ('Primatives'), Classics, Masterpiece, WST/Micromasters, toys I had as a kid, and Grimlocks and Ravages. Now I have most things in one collection - I have the best version of each character, so if a character doesn't have a modern update then it's the G1 figure. I no longer have G1 as separate collections. I have very limited Masterpiece and WST collections, and still have my Grimlock and Ravage collection, but otherwise it's one big collection. This meant getting rid of most of my reissues and G1 toys, and..... it feels good. For ages I kept them because they were the first things I bought when I started collecting, and you 'need' G1 Prime in your collection, and I had some of them as a kid. But, yeah, it feels okay. I feel free now, it's a good feeling! 

Despite having lots of things to get rid of, I don’t regret any of it. It was all part of the journey. The only thing I wish I hadn’t bought into is third party figures. Perfect Effect’s Warden (Fortress Maximus) is the only one I have left. Upgrade kits on the other hand, I am glad I bought and although I don’t have any of those anymore, they also feel like part of the journey.

I have got rid of figures I really like, figures that remind me of being a child. But they’ve spent the last ten years in a box. And just because I’ve got rid of a figure, I still have those memories. There are many great figures which I don’t have, but you know what? I don’t need to own them! My collection is mostly a concept in my head, I enjoy the thought of having complete groups or sets. That means I don’t need multiple versions of the same characters, G1 toy or not. With all the selling I always think ‘never again’, but the combination of rearranging my collection and WFC putting out great new versions of characters meant a lot of sell at once. Hopefully I can stop my list of things to sell building up too much again, I know the staff at the local post office very well now. 

An aside from this is I have a bit of money to play with now, if a WFC Black Zarak or Marvel Legends Galactus is announced then I'm all in. (I do need to own those.)

My Mastepiece collection is now Prime, Grimlock, Soundwave, Bumblebee, and MP-36+ Megatron. I previously had the regular version which didn’t quite work for me. I wasn’t immediately sure about this ‘toy’ deco version but once I got him into a pose from his G1 boxart I was sold. He looks great and a good counterpart to Prime. (Who has dead eyes, I’m wondering whether to paint them, perhaps in yellow.) I’d get a Blaster if/when they do him, but am now very happy with my minimal Masterpiece collection.

Speaking of Bumblebee, I actually opened him. Even as a kid I appreciated VW Beetles because of Bumblebee so it's great to have a figure with that altmode. The colour is perfect (it's a bit like the Legends X-Men), gold/light orange colour. I found Bumblebee's G1 cartoon face didn't work for me, so very glad to find I had the alternate face with toy look (I'd forgotten I even had it). Grimlock, Bumblebee and Megatron all have their G1 toy looks. Need to work out how to get Prime and Soundwave to match.

Strong Guy (wave) turned up. This is the first time I've bought an entire wave of Marvel Legends (I did once buy an entire wave of DC Universe to get the BAF Bane). Sadly I don't want any of the actual figures but Strong Guy looks great, he adds quite the presence to my display - I've got X-Factor displayed with the Blue and Gold teams, a little Excalibur (Captain Britain, Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde), and a bit of X-Force (Cable). Need Wolfsbane. 

Pulsecon! Beast Wars Megatron, Blackarachnia, Optimus Primal and Rattrap. Warpath and Cyclonus! They all look great. But I’m not sure about whether I need them. I plan to pick them up and make a decision when they're in hand. If Megatron has the option of removing the tail to reveal a hand then would definitely need that. Cheetor is a done deal. Also some promising hints from the ark work they showed off.

The leaked Hot Rod and Scourge looks amazing, Kup I'm not sure about. I really like the Generations figure, but I think the new one will likely fit in better with Hot Rod and probably Blurr when we see him. I think Kingdom Ultra Magnus, Rhinox and Waspinator are also going to fall into the same category of ‘not quite sure’. Tracks, Huffer, Airrazor, Dinobot and Tigatron I think are going to be dead certs. Gears is in the artwork, a definite maybe.

The Marvel Legends reveals weren’t overwhelming, but the 21 characters I wanted were down to 20 with the Falcon reveal (and one of my top wants as well). It's exactly the version I want. I then came across a preorder for the Hellfire set, I kind of assumed that it would be really hard to get and/or very expensive. But I got it at a reasonable price and so have Emma Frost, my list is quickly down to 19. Her outfit doesn't match that from Wolverine and the X-Men, but given we're unlikely to get another option soon, I'll take it. Green Ranger is in the next wave of Power Rangers so will almost be done with that. Super 7 have shown off their next wave of TMNT - Donatello for me. Preorders in.

Had a bit of a switch up of my Marvel Legends, previously I had my all X-Men display but now have got what I consider to be the most 'pure' display. 90's cartoon X-Men, A:EMH Avengers, Spider-Man and Fantastic 4. Seems like a long time since I had Avengers and Fantastic 4 out. So many great figures.

My mind is still searching for things I want, Mega Bloks Splinter (from the Technodrome set) and a sword for POTP Predaking. Both on their way! I'm eying up a couple of Lego sets but I don't think there's anything else I've wanted but dismissed. I'm really really caught up.