Nothing Groundbreaking

I’ve been having a bit of a think about Haslabs and the potential made to order (MTO) figures. I guess based on Marvel Legends MTO is somewhat lower budget (less risky) than Haslabs, but with the advantage of increased budget flexibility over mainline.

I guess though that most of them will be/are used for leader characters since they tend to be larger. It doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to think that the likes of BWII Galvatron, RID Megatron/Galvatron, Energon and Cybertron Optimus and Megatron/Galvatron could work well for MTO. Maybe G1 Overlord as well. (Assume God Ginrai/PMOP would be mainline since Star Convoy is.)

What does that leave for Haslabs? Metroplex or Rocket Base from G1 maybe? Road Caesar, Grandus (and Sky Garry) and Dai Atlas (with Roadfire and Sonic Bomber) are three contenders from JG1. Rail Racer from RID is I think the main contender from outside of G1.

Who else is there? It’s hard to imagine a Haslab or MTO to order from anything more recent than the Unicron trilogy, apart from perhaps Animated Omega Supreme, but how popular is Animated outside of North America and Europe? If it was a simple transformation it could be relatively low cost at least. Primus is usually also in the discussion but how would they do it? Something more expensive than Unicron seems prohibitive now.

I think the next Haslab will be Road Caesar, but maybe they have a gap to focus on MTO. Glad to see all of the tiers for Liokaiser have been unlocked, really looking forward to it.

Toy Fair! Used to be one of the highlights of the calendar 10-15 years ago but still some decent reveal this year. Vortex looks great, Alchemist Prime looks a great mold but I’ll wait and see if there’s a better recolour. Ramhorn and Ratbat look good, Ironfist looks good, and Carnivac and Topspin look solid. Think might have to get Legends X-23 despite her being in the X-Force costume. Bit disappointed to see a Kit Fisto repack in Black series rather than say, Saesee Tiin who we’ve not had yet. Managed to get preorders in for most of it.

McFarlane getting Mortal Kombat is intriguing, though annoying that it’s 7” scale rather than 6”. The more I think about it though the more I want some larger scale Mortal Kombat figures.

My Joytoy TMNT figures came in - Rocksteady and Bebop. They’re amazing! I’m very tempted by Shredder, the Foot, and Krang but they just seem a bit further removed from what I imagine when I think of the characters (well, Shredder at least). I’m happy with Bebop and Rocksteady for my 3.75” villains collection, more widely I’m very content to have my heroes (the Turtles) as 6” figures and villains at 3.75”.

It’s been a funny sort of month, mostly I’ve been selling - I’ve had my cheapest three months for many a year. Would have been even cheaper without Liokaiser! The two Aerialbots came in, I’m perfectly happy with them they’re just not that exciting. Also had Maximum Spider-Man arrive, a modest improvement on RYV.

2026 leaks! Each time I hope to see Thunderclash bit alas it’s not to be. Good to see the remaining ‘84 and ‘85 Minibots (plus Swerve), and Sureshot again, and G2 Sludge and Swoop. Big Convoy and Quickstrike I’m not sure about, and similarly SS’86 Sunstreaker and Hound but I’ll take a look. So nothing groundbreaking, but ticking along I suppose. Maybe the Titan will be something to capture the imagination?

Tracking my spending

I think writing a very long list of everything I want has been helpful. It gives me a bit of confidence that I won’t turn round in a couple of months and find there some stuff I actually really want that I’ve just been ignoring. I’ve been extremely diligent this year so far keeping track of my spending, I’ve always kept track of it but I’ve taken it a bit further this time in comparing it to my budget and what I expect to be buying. My goal is have my cheapest year since 2020. I’m on track at the moment.

Once again I’ve got lots of things to sell so that’s been a bit of my focus. So far I’ve sold more than I’ve bought. I haven’t bought any Transformers yet but have had the first couple of Legends. Wolverine finally arrived. He and Deadpool are great, I really enjoying messing with them. As much as I enjoy the MCU, Hugh Jackman Wolverine is a part of my growing up (like Tobey Maguire Spider-Man). And Chameleon, he completes my 6” Spider-Man lineup. It’s quite an appropriate figure to finish up as my first ever Spider-Man toy was a Chameleon figure from a pack of Frosties in the mid 90’s. Finally, Ms. Marvel! Did a bit of parts swapping (exactly like I did with Marvel Universe). Very happy to have her finally.

Liokaiser! Really happy it’s him, and with a Deathcobra to boot. It’s always a little bit of a nervous time to see if a Haslab will get over the line, but once they added the Chinese orders it got there quickly. There’s a few promising hints about upcoming figures but nothing anywhere near as exciting. I have to admit that my mind immediately went to thinking how much I also want a Road Caesar. Looking at some online polls for most wanted figure, JRX and Metroplex seem most popular. I’d get either but Metroplex would be my preference.

So quite a quiet month really, I’ve sorted through quite a lot of stuff, the drawers next to my desk were a bit of a disgrace so they are organised now. I identified a few more bits to sell as well working out what custom projects I might work on next.

List to end all lists

Realise I forgot to look at how many things I got from my wanted list from December ‘23. I got Barrage, Chop Shop and Overcharge. Three! With a fourth (Venom) rumoured for this year. My want list this time is half as big but includes groups rather than individuals, surely can do better than three though!

I’m not sure what I’m really looking forward to this year, definitely Legends Ms. Marvel and Inhumans, and possibly Lego Fantastic 4 (rumoured for June). Transformers Ramhorn, Venom and Horri-Bull will be much appreciated to complete some sets. There’s nothing really big that I’m excited about. Yet.

I have managed to get the last X-Men Marvel Legends figure I needed to finally replace my Universe (3.75” scale) versions - Sauron. It’s a bit of a shame since I only made the custom in late 2023 but with having Ka-Zar and Zabu in the scale they needed their savage land nemesis. I also replaced Man-Thing, who was actually an old Toybiz Legends figure. The old one was very skinny though and looked out of place with other Legends figures. (Am still in the market for an X-23 though so not completely done with X-Men.)

Finished the Lego X-Mansion Lego set, getting extra X-Men minions has made me think about what other minifigs characters I want - I really want the Fantastic 4, then I think I just need Doctor Doom and Nightcrawler (my favourite X-Men character). Nice build though even if it’s not quite so impressive as previous sets. Bring on the Baxter building!

A new version of Trypticon has been revealed. I’m perfectly happy with my Titans Return version but it got me thinking: Omega Supreme, Fort Max and Scorponok have all been rereleased - could it hint at a new Metroplex? From ‘84-‘87 we still need Omnibots and Throttlebots (and Sureshot and Slugfest), but in terms of updates of characters that have already had a generations figure, Metroplex is top of my list. With a Metrotitan repaint please.

I’ve made a list of all my preorders and all the rumoured figures I’m interested in (plus a few educated guesses), put an approximate value and added it all up. This is my budget for the year, anything else will need to be covered from selling stuff. (I’ve got a few things to sell still.) What occurs to me is that this budget excludes any playing catchup - primarily no buying things on eBay. I’ve made a list of absolutely everything I might possibly want to buy and having looked through the (Japanese) Generations book, nothing which already exists has been added to my list of wants. Hopefully this is the list to end all lists.

I feel like I’m spending too much year on year and so spent quite a lot of time thinking about how I could reduce my collection or at least the things I want to get, it’s impossible to draw a line. Whenever I draw it there’s always a nagging voice, ‘oh, but what about this character……’. Then it struck me, most of what I’m buying is characters I already have. That’s where I really need to focus my attention if I want to spend less. I have a subsection of my ‘everything I want’ list which is figures I want new updates of so need to start sticking to that.

I got a couple of new purchases - Blokees Swoop turned up. Nice addition to the set, just need a Sludge. The 3.75” Plasma Ghostbusters also arrived, I couldn’t quite be bothered to dig out Ecto-1, but it’s a nice set and I’m happy to be replacing my 6” figures with them (in time for getting 6” Real Ghostbusters).

I am in budget this month!