I got the Omega Prime Haslab! I’ve actually had it a while but because of all the issues I put it off opening it slightly. The chest on mine looks okay though I didn’t try it to see how tight it was, and although one of Ultra Magnus’s doors is a little off white I think I got off okay. I’ll hold off actually playing with it to see if Hasbro does anything but if they don’t then I’ll attempt the fix. From my very quick play with/look at it I think it looks really good. I was having a bit of doubt as to whether I should have bought it but I think it’ll be good. Sounds like Hasbro are planning to send out replacements so fired off my complaint.
Another round of Marvel Legends rumours and…… I’m not interested in any of them, not even a ‘I’ll have a look’. Just nothing. I think my stopping collecting them might actually be happening. I am interested in Shanna though so I’ll need to be on it after SDCC.
And then I started thinking about Missing Link Sunstreaker and…… I’ve put in an order for Optimus. Dammit! I realised though that if they come out with a Wheeljack or Mirage I might not be able to resist. There’s a rumour of Ironhide and Ratchet. I think I could just get the car robot Diaclone based characters - the 12 from 1984, 7 from 1985 and Magnus from 1986. (Obviously Dinobots and cassettes are fair game as well.) I will take the same approach with Optimus as I did with a lot of Masterpiece, basically not open it for a little while and see how I feel about it (as well as see what else comes out), so if I do change my mind it’s easily sold. I think the line is looking like what I wanted from Masterpiece - possible but also (very) toy accurate. Better size for me as well. Grimlock, Ultra Magnus, Ironhide, and Ratchet are all rumoured. Anyway, Sunstreaker is great! I did wake up the next day though and really wonder whether I want to get into collecting another line. I’m definitely down for a Grimlock but I’ll have to give it a bit more thought with the rest.
My collection is G1/Beast Wars (and Car Robots although Takara consider it part of G1/Beast Wars). The Beast Wars and Car Robots is main cartoon lineups only. For Beast Wars II and Neo I go with the original figures rather than modern. Car Robots I’m still figuring it out, Black Convoy is original, Sky Byte is T30 and Omega Prime is Haslab. Baldigus could go either way, if I went original then it’s a repaint of G1 Bruticus, who just happens to be one of my favourite combiners. Plus it would make sense in the context of the Beast Wars II Seacons (I have the originals). So I convinced myself I needed the originals but they’re really hard to get hold of. Almost nothing doing on eBay, but then I worked out how to buy from Mecari (through Buyee). Managed to find an original Baldigus for a reasonable price! Annoyingly thought Dolrailer was missing his chest piece so will still need to try to track that down.
Got a preorder in for Mondo Real Ghostbusters Winston. Apparently Peter is delayed until August (and presumably Egon will be later as well). These will be the most expensive 6” figures I’ve ever bought so I hope they live up to expectations.
A few preorders got bumped forward and so have Star Convoy, Silverbolt and Vortex earlier than expected. Vortex looks really good even though I’m not so keen on the cartoon look. Star Convoy looks great but I’m going to wait and see if there’s a Grandus before deciding whether to keep it - the old Selects scaled much more nicely with Super Megatron and Dai Atlas. Actually in the last month or so I have bought a worrying amount of stuff ‘just in case’ (ML Optimus, Star Convoy, Vortex, X-23). Not a great habit to get into.
I am glad to have Silverbolt though and my plan is to keep it in Superion mode (and the combiner wars individually). I am very impressed with how solid it feels and I feel justified for the first time in buying all the main combiners again. Bring on Defensor!
Vortex also looks great and although the Combaticons are the only ones I’d consider replacing with toy deco versions, I’m happy. (I’ve not actually opened Star Convoy yet either.)
I finally picked up the Mark IV Lego minifig (it came with a bust), the Lego shop had sold out so had to wait a while. Finally I’m done with Iron Man. (Unless Lego care to do any more of the legion armours, or Hasbro fancies doing any more MCU Legends.) I bought another Mark VI helmet so it can be consistent with the previous armours. Pictures of Soundwave have emerged and he looks great, but I realise there was part of me that was hoping it wouldn’t. Think might actually pass on it. Similarly to Missing link, if they do a Grimlock then I’ll definitely be up for it but otherwise that’s a bit of money saved.
Retro Gears finally turned up, I much prefer the colour and head sculpt. I like the retro releases, Seaspray and Brawn pictures have also surfaced and look good. Topspin finally turned up, my Diaclone jumpstarters are complete. Hopefully that’s not the end for ‘Diaclone Universe’ stuff.
That’s it for this month, amazingly, everything I’ve sold this year has outweighed I’ve bought so far, and for the end of July, that’s quite the achievement.
