April 2005 Archives

Remember the days in 2003 when I only had about 50 Transformers and they all fit on one shelf in the corner of the old House of Love II?

WooHoo!

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Siddhartha Gautama. Where are you?

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In my car is the Osaka Exclusive I've been eagerly waiting to own for almost 4 years now.

And quite frankly it is a bit underwhelming being a small box and all.

Therin lies the main contradiction of the collector mentality and inherent flaw in being a collector: there's more satisfaction and excitment in tracking down an object than in actually having it.

No doubt Siddhartha Gautama would understand this.

Damn you post office!!!

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I made it late to the Post Office today and wasn't able to obtain my Osaka Exclusive Car Brothers set that I bought the other week.

Maybe tomorrow.

And then all I have to wait on is two chase PVCs and Car Robots God Magnus and I'm set.

I'm trying to stay off Ebay too.

Yes. I talked about crack. Sue me!

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So I've rethought the attic based on setting the filter in the tank and so forth.

I shall not destroy the G1 shelf but destroy the Energon shelf instead! See. It fits well with bots on each side. When the light is on it'll fill the entire attic with warming love too.

Now Number 6 will be incredibly jealous since I've decided to go with a small tropical community environment instead of goldfish. I'll probably start out and cycle the tank with 3 small long fin zebra danios, then after a few weeks add a small pleco or 2 small grey corydoras or other bottom scavengers. Then probably finish it off with some other hardy basic fish like Tetras or guppies (though they could get out of hand). Well, maybe a couple of ghost shrimp. We'll see how the tank and bio bed handles it once everthing is established. Who knows what'll change my mind between now and then.

But... I could go completely horridly unreal and go with black mollies with the black gravel with black everything else then put in some of those albino corydoras. That'd be practically an abonimation against nature.

And I learned something very important while cleaning up the attic shelves. I can no longer have the "buy one to open, buy one to save" mentality that often plagues toy collectors. There's just not enough room here. I separated out an entire pile of duplicate TF Energon figures. Thank god most of these were bought on clearance or substantially reduced prices. This'd even make a pretty decent lot on Ebay if one needed a wide range of Energon shit. Perhaps. It'd help pay for the aquarium stuff.

I'll probably be fairly picky with my Transformers Cybertron purchases too. There's just not a whole helluva lot of the Galaxy Force stuff that I like so I don't see bothering buying the domestic releases. I'll probably snag a few and the bots always get better as a line matures. Then again, I could probably part with much of my Armada and Energon line to make room for new things.

Collecting-wise I'm pretty much going to focus on Takara G1 releases from Masterforce and Victory and the ever fun to track down Micromasters stuff.

And I've decided to be picky too. I'd rather spend $300 for a mint figure with all accessories and box than spend $100 on 3 figures that may be rare but are missing pieces. You just can't find accessories to figures that were never released in the US. It is just too much of a pain in the ass. Poor Robowang's drama over a domestic released accessory is nothing compared to what it'd be like to track down a piece of a Japanese only figure. Not too mention if it never arrived once you bought it.

Anyway. Life goes on in the world of fishes and plastic crack and attics with too much shit in them.

Only 33 from 1300!!!

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So I had been mildy concerned that my crack count was off by 8-10 figures.

However, I've spent the rest of today auditing and cleaning shelves and there were 2 boxes of PVCs that I had someone forgot to add to my spreadsheet... and this doesn't include the ones Mr. E. forgot to take yesterday. (And yes, I do count my PVCs into the total.)

According to my current inventory I have 1267 Transformers and direct Transformers-related figures in the attic.

That means I'm only 33 from 1300!!! Scared of that shit!

And on another note, I think Mr. E. should name his blog "Carnage in D-Minor".

Ugh!

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That Robot Masters #24 Reverse Convoy really looks like a total turd. I mean if it was a G2 "tank" Megatron it'd be ok but the one Convoy (Optimus Prime) head and one Megatron head just makes it look shitastic. I may not buy this one after all.

And what the fuck is up with more repaints of Microns from Takara? 'Mericans bitch about Hasbro having repainted the Spychangers so many times and yet here's Takara, chugging out repaint after stupid repaint of the goddamn microns (minicons) from Micron Densetsu.

And these new ones are just frigg'n white plastic to boot. Not even any actual "re" to go with your "paint" on this one.

Reissue more G1 Micromasters for Hoontsake!!!!

Oh so rainy day.

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So what do you do when it is cold and dreary outside?

Why you invite Mr. E. over to help clean and reorganize Transformer shelves. Duh.

Bwahahahah!

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Umm... why is this filed under the category: Toys & Hobbies > Action Figures > Transformers > Beast Machines on ebay?

Drool...

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Man oh man the things I could do with these shelves.

Trixter posted some links (link 1, link 2) to Japanese sites with some extremely culturally non-'Merican drawings of Transformers.

They really love that "super deformed cute" look for Transformers in Japan. Hell... it goes back to the bumpers on Transformers Victory back in 1989 from what I can tell. And the fans produce a lot of it as these sites show.

But then Trixter posted this image and I now realize I need to poke my eyes out.

I'm glad she posted that one link though. It had even more Japanese TF links from one of those old school web rings.

Thanks Trixter!

Guess what? More toys!

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And the excitement never ends here at the Attic of Love in Cowtown.

More frigg'n Robots In Disguise Spychangers arrived as well as an extremely disappointing and major waste of money known as Galaxy Force Master Megatron from the new line. (I'm skipping the Hasbro version!)

And the meows fill all the spaces.

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This is the danger you face in the Attic of Love when you clear any space on a shelf.

It is a wonder my Micromasters aren't more of a mess.

And the meows fill all the spaces.

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This is the danger you face in the Attic of Love when you clear any space on a shelf.

It is a wonder my Micromasters aren't more of a mess.

1226 or 1235?

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Several of Takara PVCs arrived today to fill the gaps in the collection.

Matt also found a new TF Universe Blastcharge while he was out on a geek run today.

And while entering these new figures into my spreadsheet I realized that I so badly need to do a full audit of the attic.

In an effort to make certain lines more manageable in Excel I pulled some areas out of their lines and gave them their own worksheets. By pulling out the PVCs and the Spychangers it just made it easier since there are so many of these individual groups to keep track of.

But somewhere along the way I've introduced a possible error. Now I was trying to clean up some data that I knew was downright incorrect and so I did move more than just those 2 lines out.

But now, I'm somehow showing total Transformers at 1235 but the manual assignment of new figures I'd been doing for my recent additions reads 1226. Somehow 9 are either real and should be added or phantoms and need to be eliminated.

Ugh. I so don't want to audit this stuff. I'm tending towards the spreadsheet count.

I wish they had window boxes.

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Robot Masters Magazine Exclusives are in the house! Woah!

Decepticon SoundwaveWhen all is said and done, and the universe as we know it ends (either by natural process or some kind of magic supernatural god-on) the one thing that every being in existence will agree on is that Soundwave kicked an incredible amount of ass.

For those that don't know, Soundwave is the Decepticon that could transform into a walkman, carried a small army of soldiers in his chest who could transform into cassettes, and more or less never failed Megatron or the other 'cons.

He was so beloved by his troops (and no doubt fans) that even after he and Blaster, the Autobot boom box, fought each other to the death, his spark was given a new body and he returned to fight another day.

Now Soundwave was given life on tv by the great Frank Welker. Non-TF geeks will know him best as Freddie Jones from Scooby Doo. But if you stayed and watched movie credits you'd realize that Welker is hired for tons and tons of stuff every year just for his animal noise ability. He is that good!

And in 1984 he gave Soundwave, with the little help of some reverb, a voice that was unlike any other character. Soundwave said little but rarely needed to. He got his point across quite often in less than 6 words.

And this is was this post is all about.

Here are some great examples of Welker's Soundwave in MP3 format:

Example 1: "Free to go... to Cybertron"
Example 2: "Rumble...Laserbeak...Ravage... prepare for battle."
Example 3: "Eject..."
Example 4: "The Autobot jet is afaid to fight."

They are all excellent examples of why Soundwave rocks.

He's so memorable for the lack of words which practically borders on speech impediment for him.

But then, in one episode, they had to go and ruin it.

Here's Soundwave actually trying to say a real full line of dialogue about an Incan Legend.

It makes ya cry.

Oh well.

He still rocks.

As long as he keeps his words to less than 7 or so.

A very crack day. 21 in fact!

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Nineteen Robots In Disguise Spychangers arrived today. I only spent $10 on 'em and that's one helluva deal since the tiny tins versions still retail for about $3.99 or so each.

However Matt snagged the new Alternators Shockwave and Wheeljack at a Target this afternoon.

WooHoo!

I am totally going into debt for the amount of crack I purchased this week. Thank god this coming Day of Odin is pay day.

Ruination awakens!

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Outta control but happy!

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Ok. Effective today there has to be a curtailing of crack purchases and a moratorium from Ebay.

Yesterday presented me the opportunity to finally acquire the one exclusive I've wanted for years and later last night I got the other 4 exclusives I'd been trying to get.

Robot Masters Magazine Exclusives

Yup! I got the Robot Masters magazine "black" exclusives of Convoy, Beast Convoy, Beast Megatron, and Starscream for $60 cheaper than what they are retailing for in the online stores. That means I only need to snag the Victory Saber exclusives now and my Robot Masters line will be complete.

And... of course it isn't over yet... I snagged an auction of PVCs that included the non-Chase Deszarus that I needed, Star Saber, Lio Kaiser, a complete Star Convoy, and unfortunately the pewter version of the chase figure Scorponok.

The color Scorponok easily goes for $40+ and I figure this will be one I can repaint so I'll have my own custom Scorponok for about $4. Not ideal but that gap will more or less be closed. (I plan on repainting a clear Soundwave as his reborn Soundblaster persona too.)

So. Yesterday was an expensive night.

And all I can say is thank god the tax refund is coming!!! That is making this possible.

Normally I'd be horribly guilty the following morning after spending so much on plastic crack but these are all figures I need and some of them are figures I've wanted for ages. That Osaka seems to be emitting an anti-guilt/anti-depression aura around me.

So now I can rest for a few months and only need to find Alternator Shockwave and Wheeljack before being inundated with the Cybertron line.

Oy kolendy!!!!

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I now own an Car Robots Super Car Brothers Osaka ToysLand Show Exclusive!!!

pic from http://mykooltoyz.tripod.com/s-carbros-ex.html

This set is one of my "holy grails" for my collection!!!

There were only 1500 pieces made for the Osaka ToysLand Show from September 2000 and now I am the proud owner (or will be when it arrives) from Singapore.

Tranformers Energon: RIP

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Well it appears that the last episodes of the godawful pile of animated shit known as Transformers Energon will finally air in late May on Cartoon Network.

Now I thought the previous series Transformers Armada sucked pretty hard but the sequel series may have surpassed it.

Good riddance.

Let's see how badly they turn Galaxy Force into Cybertron.

More crack. Go figure.

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A Chase/Bonus Gold Takara Victory Saber PVC and a Predaking Reissue Giftset have arrived and joined their brethen in the Attic.

A longshot by any means.

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Should demons rise from the depths of hell and angels descend from the sky then you'll know that I have decided to get married.

But, if I do, these guys will definitely top my cake.

A Public Service Announcement

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FYI:

Just because it is a "robot" and its parts appear to move and change shape does not necessarily mean that it is a Transformer.

Understand this important lesson and find enlightenment.

More but also frustrated.

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So Takara's MP-2 Ultra Magnus arrived yesterday. I found him online the other day for only $99 and broke down and bought him. Of course I wasn't going to get him since he's just a repaint of the Masterpiece Convoy mold but something about his minimalist white and gray (not that that palette seems to appeal to me or anything) was nice and he and Convoy would make great bookends to the Binaltechs and Alternators. And I guess I had the money to burn too.

Also snagged a Robot Masters #23 Lio Convoy which really has a nice metallic paint job like RM #10. The Convoys, no matter the version, tend to look good accented with the metallic paint.

This post over on Tfans.com shows and advert that implies there will be 5 more Convoys added to the Robot Masters line. And thankfully one of them is God Fire Convoy, my favoritest Convoy of all time.

I can do without another reissue of the godawful "Super Pants" Armada version and even the Power Rangerish Energon one but I am most definitely looking forward to a Beast Machines Beast Convoy.

No Big Convoy though which kind of sucks. He'd have been a nice addition.

I've actually gone a bit overboard on the TFs lately. Especially with winning some auctions that were just plain stupid on my part.

This auction for the original RID Ruination will finally allow me to open one up. I have Rail Racer and Landfill on my RID shelf but needed a Ruination too. (I'd have rather found the Car Robots Baldigus gift set but this'll do.)

And then I fucked up and bought this auction for a Chase Deszarus PVC thinking I had the standard one when in fact I bought the chase figure at OTFCC2004 last year and need the standard one. Grrrr...

I can never seem to win the full color one so I settled for the Chase/Bonus gold Victory Saber PCV from here. Not great but needed.

And then I fucked up again winning this auction only for the chase/limited edition Convoy in Cab/Trailer mode when in fact I also seem to own that one too. I thought I had the shitty clear one but I have both. Grrrr...

What I really need to win is this auction of the 4 magazine exclusive Robot Master repaints that will complete the line. I've currently got it and I'm willing to go a bit more too for these.

Of course, the damn RM Victory Saber exclusive is now shipping.

Grrrr... fucking loser completist.

It isn't accurate but it would work...

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Would you all still respect me if I built a new Windows PC from scratch using this case?

Or would you taunt me, call me names, all the while pant-hooting and throwing feces at me?

Updates and things.

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There hasn't been much action on my part in regards to My So-Called Cracky Life and hence the few updates.

There's a Predaking giftset that should be arriving sometime this week. I wasn't going to buy it but an email from Mr. E. convinced me the seller's price was good so I went for it. Saved about $40 over Bigbadtoystore.com and the like so I don't feel too bad.

Also have Masterpiece Ultra Magnus and Robot Masters Lio Convoy w/DVD coming. (It sucks the balls that I'm being a completist on the RM line. Well... I still don't have the overly expensive black magazine exclusives yet.)

Oh, and if the rumors are true and Michael Bay ends up directing the live action Transformers movie my hopes for something kick ass and yet adult accessible have been thrown out the door.

Like the song says...

�Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies.
I guess Perl Harbor sucked,
Just a little bit more then I miss you.�

But they didn't say how many he has...

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If this guy from tfans.com can have a Victory Saber then I really need to get one.

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