Back to customising!

Picked up a Lego Batwing set, the design of the wings is simple but effective in creating the shape.

I had decided to pass on the studio series Frumble guys but looking into them, they do look a lot better. I’m not keen on the cartoon look so ordered the red one. Needed something to bump up the cost so scrolled through the Marvel Legends section: hologram Iron Man, various comic Iron Men, MCU Ironheart, Iron Monger,…… you can see the pattern. But then hit upon Phoenix. I was trying to avoid buying duplicates of the same character but given I’ve already broken that rule, Phoenix is a key villain and has a great headsculpt so easy choice.

I realise I’ve not made any progress on the Mortal Kombat customs I’d been working on so to kickstart my creativity again, I thought I’d tackle a couple of easier ones. Firstly, Mr Knight (from Mister Negative), then Poison Ivy and Penguin (with the Batwing I inadvertently seem to be on a Batman kick). Poison Ivy I’m not quite sure about, I might come back to it if I can find a better hairpiece. Penguin is movie style in comic colours.

Also cracked on with Ka-Zar and Shanna, not really too interested in the characters but it’s a good excuse to have a sabre tooth tiger in the collection. I finally feel inspired to do some actual MK customs!

I spent a bit of time looking at my list of Marvel projects (I’m okay having a few MK, a few Batman, a few TF, and a few others), and it’s ridiculous. It has to be honest, contributed to my feelings of stress, like I’ve got loads of things to do but no time to do them. This is crazy since it’s supposed to be fun! Over the last year or so I’ve really managed to get my collection sorted out - got it organised and sold off the bits I don’t want. But, it’s always a work in progress and always a little backlog. It’s the size of the backlog that counts and so I’ve identified some projects which I’m just not going to do, and then some projects which are small - I want to get the list down to a manageable size, say about 20, and so after this round of Mortal Kombat customs I’m going to  tackle some Marvel bits - some of which I could do in an evening.

First batch of Mortal Kombat customs:

Following on from the sabre tooth tiger, I took a trip to the natural history museum recently which inspired me to think about beast wars again and so decided to take the plunge and pick up the last Beast Wars II figure I need - Diver! Frogs are my favourite animals so he seems necessary, I’m not sure if I would have dropped the money for any other animal.

After a bit of initial reluctance, I’ve backed the Giant Man Haslab, it’s bigger than I want, and there are no meaningful extras (Yellowjacket for example), but it looks great and for me, he’s a key Avengers character.

Bombshell turned up, I’m not so keen on the cartoon deco but have to admit, he’s very photogenic. They’re complete and though it pains me a little, they are an improvement (although the consistency helps tremendously). Bring on the Deluxes! Also got Shadow Striker and Bludgeon for some Cyberverse goodness (I’m hoping the Super 7 Bludgeon can be the Marvel version). Shadow Striker has some very strange proportions but given it’s a redeco of a future RID figure I suppose it makes sense. It’s a decent headsculpt at least. I’m enjoying the double hands on the sword possibility with Bludgeon.

I’ve worked out how much I’ve spent in the last year, much much happier compared to the year before that. Lego and Haslabs are still out to get me this year though!

King not cuddly

New Hawkeye turned up and, impressed! Definitely a much better headsculpt and having a bow in a different coloured plastic looks better. The sky-cycle is just there to bump up the price but helps make the shelf display a little more interesting. It has even triggered a second and third wave of purchases as I take a closer look at Ant-Man and Tony Stark……

I also ended up looking at my collection spreadsheet again and ended up buying this fella as well. Hear he might be turning up soon.

Medix also came in, I bought it as I got Rescue Bots Medix for a young relative. The mold looks good in white and the red guns really compliment it. I’m not really sure where it fits into my collection but I’ll hold on to it for a little bit.

I also started thinking about Targetmasters and ended up with this. Whoops.

Nova Prime finally turned up. He looks great, white truck transformers are ace. Just need one more, I hope they don’t clash….

The Grimlock collection keeps on growing, I think this is the cuddliest one yet. (I think the Slag is better though.)

There’s been a couple of things that I’ve thought about, decided it was too expensive so then forgotten about until……

Really want a combiner wars Road Caesar now! And finally to finish up with I got some Studio Series Brawns. He was top of my wish list for Minibot that needed updating (mostly height related), bring on Outback! I suppose we need a new Gears and Windcharger, but Powerglide seems the most pressing to me, and probably Seaspray.

Grimlocks

I want the rest of the Diaclone repaints! Riggorus, Reboost, Loud Pedal and red Mirage. I think Reboost and Mirage have a certain likelihood on the basis of being red (potential Target exclusives). Loud Pedal and Reboost already had names so that helps their chances, and now Riggorus - yellow Trailbreaker has finally been named. Trailbreaker is an Earthrise mold so perhaps less likely to be released again (though Twintwist still happened), Reboost is a Legacy mold so perhaps more likely. 

Loud Pedal is an unpopular mold but has only been used twice, whereas the rest have been used multiple times. So which one (if any) gets a figure is far from obvious. My gut tells me Mirage is most likely, but my brain tells me Reboost (update: Mirage got mentioned by Hasbro at SDCC!).

If I was being really crazy, the Trailbreaker mold would be a good option for G1 Scorch, if they fancied doing more Turbomasters (though I suppose Hoist would technically be a better choice), they could do a Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus style release with two heads, or two backpacks, to cover both bases.

There’s also Diaclone Topspin, Insecticons, Dinobots and Constructicons, but I’m not so interested in them. A complete set of Diaclone cars would be something truly special. Omnibots (also mentioned at SDCC!) and an Overcharge would also be nice, surprised we haven’t had those. Blitzwing is a Legacy mold so still time I guess!

Got another Marvel Legends figure - Karnak. I like this pose I’ve got him in, but really, he’s nothing without his fellow Inhumans - where are Crystal, Gorgon, Triton and most importantly Lockjaw? Crystal and Lockjaw are on my most wanted list with Wolfsbane and classic (Ms. Marvel) Carol Danvers. If only there was a film with her coming out soon…….

I got the fourth Trainbot, I haven’t really messed with them much yet (I’m not a fan of Masterpiece complexity). I think once they’re all out I’ll decide how I’m going to display them. Choo choo.

Also got the new Guardians ship, just for the minifigs though:

Here come the Grimlocks. G2 Grimlock first, the colours are great! Between Bumblebee, Sunstreaker and the X-Men, dark yellow (‘gold’) is a great colour for toys. Need his other lost mates. Then Earthspark Grimlock, smaller than I was expecting and not great quality plastic but looks really good in both modes.

I remember when SDCC was the most exciting event of the year. MCU wise there wasn’t any particularly exciting news. The only Transformers reveal that I’m interested in was Nova Prime (which we already knew about), though some interesting stuff from the Q&Q. Marvel Legends, Mark II Iron Man was shown off (again, we already knew about that). Blade was a bit of a surprise and so I’ve immediately pre-ordered it. Other surprises were Marvel Selects Crimson Dynamo - looks good, and Mezco 3.75” TMNT - only 5 POA but look good. The next wave of of Jada’s Streetfighter has Guile (think will pass on Cammy), so a few decent bits at least.

I’ll get back to working on my Grimlock collection, the Robosen figure looks amazing but far too rich for my tastes.

Well that’s just Prime

Nova Prime is rumoured. Which got me thinking, maybe I need a Sentinel Prime….. Which got me thinking about my collection of leaders. Maybe I need an actual G2 Optimus Prime, or two. With stickers perhaps……. Bit if I’m using Netflix Prime as G2, maybe I need an extra G1 Prime….. Wow, Nova has cost me quite a bit.

And how better to celebrate falling off the wagon (or perhaps getting back on it) than to actually open the light box that I bought about a year ago. It was really fun messing around with it. It’s been a long time since I bought so many Transformers, but I think that’s the leaders part of my collection well and truly sorted now. I might also need the Car Robots leaders as well if they do them in Legacy. I really enjoyed this little burst of spending, it’s been quite exciting but also fairly well constrained.

I decided to try out the new Lego Hulkbuster. It’s a bit larger again than the last one but actually looks like the one in Infinity War. It feels like the missing link between regular Lego and technic, pretty impressive! The last two seem very generic in comparison. So much so that I swapped a few parts over from the now slightly rubbish original on to the second very generic one to make a better Age of Ultron version.

Legends Kraven came in, nothing too crazy exciting, apart from his expression. Just need a TAS Chameleon to complete my Spidey villains. I’m fairly sure I got a miniature TAS Chameleon figure in a box of cereal when I was a kid but didn’t really know who it was.

Legends Beachcomber also came in, wasn’t expecting much but it’s actually really nice. The old legends scale figures aren’t all that obvious for the ‘84 minibots since Bumblebee and Cliffjumper are still short, but for the ‘85 minibots, Powerglide and Seaspray seem very short.

Decided to give the new Jada Streetfighter figures a go. They’re 6” but they do look good and balances amazingly well. Chun-Li ordered!

And last but not least, Snarl! What a unit. I don’t find the flat gold and metallic gold as troubling as I thought I would. He’s great and chunky. Very happy!

DP Kart

Blob! That’s the Brotherhood complete. A bit like my X-Men lineup, it’s an amalgamation of TAS and the X-Men Evolution series and they never actually appeared in this lineup. Also they should have Mystique keeping an eye on them.

Built Lego Quinjet and picked up the GOTG3 Rocket set. The Quinjet is more interesting than I thought it would be given it’s all grey, and happy to have a Rocket minifig with the comic style uniform.

I was quite excited about the prospect of the Batcave but it’s not really for me, I think I was hoping for something a bit more expansive and possibly something above the cave - preferably Wayne Manor. Several hundred pounds saved anyway! Will get a Batwing though.

And now for something completely different. Still the most fun scale!

Legendary Villains

Saw a picture of Marvel Legends Spiral online which looked pretty cool. Saw a comment about her being in the Children of the Atom game and …….

I can’t help but want to get complete line ups! My aim is to get the important and favourite characters, but there’s something about getting the most interesting and colourful characters so adding Spiral, Silver Samurai and Omega Red to my Legends lineup is not too much of a stretch, and in the case of the latter two, a couple of extra Wolverine villains is all good.

It’s a tough call on where to stop with Spider-Man and X-Men villains,  could easily get them all but there’s some very obscure ones which aren’t necessarily all that interesting. Part of the reason for getting Spiral was that I don’t have a 3.75” version. Generally sticking to favourite and main characters, and minor characters only if they’re part of a team is a good plan.

Decided to get Lady Deathstrike as well after watching X2, and after a bit of thinking and googling Spider-Man villains, decided also need Sandman, Electro and Hobgoblin. Then preordered Kraven, plus Baron Strucker for good measure. Went through cast lists of my favourite cartoons and have got all the ‘main’ characters. Think all sorted now!

Preordered Beachcomber but otherwise quiet month for Transformers. Keeping a close eye on Lego as well, with the Avengers Tower rumours firming up, I might also need a Quinjet. And now I think about it, maybe a Batwing (especially if the Batcave rumours are true).

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Ordered a Lego Quinjet, and Baron Strucker and Ronan arrived. I’ve gone from X-Men villains, to Spider-Man villains, and finally on to Avengers villains (sort of, Ronan has been a villain for most Marvel heroes at some point). It’s been all about the Legends this month!