What a year! This has been quite the momentous year of collecting for me. Started off focused on Lego, built my first big build that I designed (Turtles’ lair). I then started thinking about my Transformers collection - realised that my collecting rules were overly complicated and really, all of G1 was fair game anyway and so played a bit of catchup. Did get rid of a few bits though.
I then decided to change my Marvel collections so that Legends was focused on the heroes and SpiderMan/X-Men villains, and Universe (3.75”) was focused on Avengers/cosmic villains. But really, I’ve given up any sort of pretence that I’ve still a 3.75” Marvel collector. In all honesty, Legends are just a bit too good now. Hasbro have won! With the Marvel advent calendar and X-Mansion the year will finish with Lego as well. Did grab a few last Legends bits this month as the acceptance sunk in - Black Widow, much better than the old figure, as well as Dracula, Wendigo, and Mojo (the last one upgraded from the Toybiz versions).
In terms of acquisitions, I finally got Deszaras, I completed my leader Dinobots, and made major steps to completing the Insecticons and cassettes in Generations. I got my main Marvel Legends wants, I got my main Star Wars Black want, my final Thundercats want (Snarf), and my main (Marvel) Lego want. Wow! I’ve also got a preorder in for Mondo Peter Venkman and happy that the other three will be happening in the future.
As well as acquiring a few most wanted bits, I made the decision to part ways with a few more Mastepiece figures (just have Grimlock, Soundwave and Raiden left) and my larger 3.75” scale vehicles. All great toys but I haven’t been able to display them for years and with my decision to focus on 6” for heroic characters I can’t really justify them.
I got my penultimate Transformer of the year, Mainframe! Very glad they did him in proper colours, though I think this is the version that should have come with the Ark and then we could have had a fully grey/red/blue version in Selects. I’ve come to really like the Actionmaster characters so glad to have him, plus another for the Lost Light display. My final Transformer turned out to be Overcharge, who I think looks great, a bit more of a 70’s/80’s sci-fi look to him. Most importantly though he gives me hope we might see the last few Diaclone repaints next year.
I’m feeling the need for a list or two. Most wanted Transformers (not featuring any Diaclone repaints but I still want them):
Thunderclash
Skyquake
Liokaiser
Road Caesar
Grandus
Metrotitan
Throttlebots
Omnibots
I think Thunderclash is happening - between mentions of Wreckers, Lost Light, Machine Wars and even the bot himself by Hasbro. Surely! Star Convoy has been revealed (looks great) and so I think Grandus could be likely for the Haslab/MTO offering, and finally Skyquake is also an easy repaint for the Mayhems set. They could almost all be repaints - I’d like a Metrotitan from a new toy accurate Metroplex but it could still be a repaint. Actually looking at the old artwork for Grandus, maybe they could share a mold (or limbs at least).
(Superion looks good as well, one for combined mode though rather than individual robot modes as too cartoony for me.)
Beyond these characters/groups, Diaclone repaints, Actionmasters and Turbomasters (and Predators) get a very honourable mention, as do the 1988 Autobots. They’re a bit different as it’s the team I want rather than the actual character so maybe it’s more about completionism. Thinking about this further a heck of a lot of them could also be repaints.
Yes, it would be great to have more new molds but after Mainframe I really like the idea of there being more Actionmaster inspired repaints, Jazz into Rad and Kick-Off for example. It would really tick off a lot of the very empty spaces in my spreadsheet. Still lots left but pretty much all teams represented in some way. With Hasbro apparently doing so badly perhaps they will dig into the easy repaints a little more.
My most wanted (other stuff, mostly Legends) is:
Yellowjacket
Doc Samson
Gorgon
Iceman (Jim Lee, non-powered up)
Thorbuster
MCU Mk IV
MCU Mk V
MCU Mk VI
MCU Mk 37 (Hammerhead)
MCU War Machine Mk I
Lego Baxter Building
Lego Wayne Manor
Black series Holocomm Darth Sidious
Black series Saesee Tiin
6” Mortal Kombat (Jada?!)
(There’s actually a sniff of a rumour that Gorgon is on his way.)
I could easily add an extra few Legends, but my Spider-Man and X-Men collections are pretty much there. Actually having thought about it a bit more, I’m missing a X-23. If we do get a Gorgon then I’ll swap him out for Laura. The few I do want are mostly for completion and not as exciting. Have to think though, it’s at the stage where I’m only ever to get what I want in very small amounts at a time from now on. Hopefully I get a few of these things by the end of next year. Finished up the year with Deadpool. Merry Christmas all and Happy New Year!
