Monday, February 1, 2021

Several decisions later

I seem to have a long list of things I'm waiting to be delivered. I wonder if I'm done with all the spending I've been doing. In retrospect, I made several decisions. Firstly I decided I needed to get the Sinister 6 and Masters of Evil as Marvel Legends. Then I decided I need Diaclone based (Generations) Transformers figures, then to get doubles of important characters. (I've decided important characters are those from Seasons 1 of G1 and Beast Wars, and the leaders of the various series.)


I got a Siege Ultra Magnus, I also got Netflix Hound. I've set myself the rule that although I'm getting two versions of important characters, they should be different in some way (if only a packaging difference). I think I'm done with Siege now, again. I'm eyeing up another Wheeljack, choice between Netflix and Kingdom, I guess the Netflix version would be a bit more interesting.


Ultra Magnus is great, my only thing against him is the dark blue plastic and the battle damage. He could be amazing. I like the whole white Prime thing (thanks Dreamwave). Transforming him for the first time was quite a challenge - his shoulders were pegged together incredibly tightly, and it took me a while to work out what happens to his butt bumper for white Prime mode. This figure reminded me of the Fansproject upgrade for Classics Magnus. Very happy though, I think I prefer the Cybertronian look to the front of the cab so I might keep this figure as white Prime and the Kingdom figure as Magnus.



I decided I needed 6" figures of the Star Wars characters from the Clone Wars cartoon (not that one), plus my favourite vehicles in 3.75" scale, complete with clones (specifically vehicles I used to have as Transformers). I think that's it..... I rewatched the Clone Wars cartoon (not that one) again. This time, I really watched it. Keeping a mental note of Jedi Starfighter types, the clone vehicles you see. Which characters you see. I hope we get an updated ARC trooper but I'm happy to have some good stand ins. I also realise I probably need a Starfighter for Saesee Tiin and Kit Fisto. Doh! I might need some droids but otherwise I have all the important characters and vehicles in toy form.



I opened Clone Wars/Episode III Obi-Wan and Anakin. They look great but sadly not quite posable enough to recreate the DVD cover. I also got Tsui Choi, apparently he is in Episode III, just very briefly. Good enough for me! I also got Darth Plagueis on some rather shaky ground, I need more little blue alien Jedi (the greens have got a monopoly....). If he was more humanoid I might have passed. He's too cool!




I received Battle Cat but he’s pretty huge so really doesn’t work for a smaller scale, so I will sell him on. I opened my first Kingdom figure - battle gorilla, Optimus Primal. He's got a significant scratch on him, but hopefully I can cover it with some paint. He's great, I opened him whilst watching Doctor Who (starting from the 2005 reboot with Christopher Eccleston). Off to a promising start on both counts.



The rumour mill seems to be going crazy. I accept that the leaders from Victory might not be mainstream enough, but I feel a bit aggrieved that the Throttlebots and Targetmasters don’t seem to be happening. They could just be repaints/remolds. Glad to hear a Tarantulas seems to be planned though.


It’s amazing thinking over the history of Classics/Generations, all the way up to thrilling 30, there was a definitive version of most characters. I changed Bumblebee and Springer a couple of times, but things were simple. There was the odd upgrade to a superior Takara version. Then came the Prime Wars trilogy, a few characters got better versions and crucially it stopped me collecting third party.


The WFC trilogy has been a reboot, and I've replaced a lot! Some like Shockwave, Cheetor and Dinobot definitely needed new versions. I had a look at the list of everything that's been released and which I consider new characters. Flywheels, Spinister, Crosshairs, Apeface, Snapdragon, Scorponok, Airrazor, Beast Wars Scorponok and Tigatron. (Two of those - Flywheels and Apeface had Titanmasters.) So a good few additions to the 1987 and 1996 lineups, plus Spinister, but not that many considering how much I've spent. I can't see myself replacing so many figures again.


I’ve preordered Legends She-Hulk, very happy they’re done the grey version in green. Looks like a great sculpt and it’s more interesting to have her in a different costume to her Universe figure. What I would do if money were do if money were no object is how I make my collecting decisions - I try and do a slightly scaled down version of that extreme. I like the idea of some carded Legends figures but unless I could get an entire team in matching packaging it doesn’t appeal to me. The MCU 10th anniversary figures might have been quite a good line to collect, I’ll keep an eye out for anything new that might appeal.


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I received Siege Bluestreak and Reflector (standalone), Netflix Wheeljack and Hound, and Dragon Shield and regular Black ranger. Bluestreak looks excellent and it will be a tough call whether to keep him or the Earthrise figure in robot mode. Reflector looks good and I will display him with the Pulse set in camera mode. Wheeljack and Hound look good despite me generally not being that keen on 'battle damage'. Dragon shield Black ranger I just got for the headsculpt - the regular one looks terrible, the hair colour is really off! Black Ranger is the first character to really be able to make use of the butterfly shoulder







I've paid my invoice for Super 7 Leonardo, he turned up quickly. Similarly to Raphael he grew on me quickly and although the second head is cool, I can't quite convince myself to not display the default one.



I grabbed an Earthrise Megatron and popped in a preorder for two Scourges. I realise that this really has to be it, even if Generations gets a reset again, I've really bought into the WFC trilogy - I've bought multiple versions of each character and mold. Of course they will do new and better versions and swapping out the odd figure is fine but it's financially and mentally draining to do it to such an extent. So despite saying they should be different in some way, I've doubled up on Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker and Blackarachnia. I did get a spoiler upgrade for Sunny though. Speaking of which, Blackarachnia’s great. An amazing transformation. Kingdom is shaping up to be pretty great. Preordered Magnus and..... done. For now.......