So there I was walking up the steps and got all excited thinking it was my Shockwave Munny but alas, it was just a Transformers Club membership figure.
Not as translucent as in previous figures. Well... at least the jet/plane one.
TF Club Topspin is the 2070th Transformer that I've acquired.
(And yes, I like him holding two guns instead of the official instructions!)
Insomia beckoned me to the computer and I saw some pics at Tformers tonight.
I was never a fan of the Energon Hot Shot mold so I was shocked (and rather surprised) that FP's retooling for the Transformers Club Nightbeat figure actually removes a lot of the suck.
The Hot Shot head really didn't do anything for the body at all but this new head sculpt definitely looks tons better.
Even in the alt mode It really does look like a totally different toy.
Amazing with a little work and a color palette change can do.
Alas, Botcon Richochet still leaves me apathetic.
Now just like the Movie Jolt repaint, I think the car looks great.
Those colors work so well but then once transformed, he just looks so awkward with the black head and hands.
He looks like a total Big Lot Chinese knock-off to me.
Now Richochet, aka the robot originally known as Stepper, is pretty much an exact inverse of Meister, aka Jazz.
Obviously, I didn't remove the flame sticker or anything but you can see from a simple Photoshop invert that they are opposites so to speak. (Jazz would look kinda cool with the blue flames.)
And even though I'm not a fan of that robot at all, I still think that the original Stepper deco would had been far more pleasing to the eye than what they are doing.
The whole Earth-3 theme doesn't do anything for me toy-wise, and I'm just not seeing much in Botcon Richochet to love.
I mean, FP more or less regurgitated Botcon Jazz without varying much from his G1 appearance so I can't figure out why they just didn't do the inverse here for Richochet too like the original Stepper.
If they didn't do any strange wording on him, then at least he could be used as a "Classics Richochet" for those who get off on the Classics stuff.
For the attendee figure, I guess I wish they'd have done something really unique and special since the volume is so low. Something to make you feel like you really get something for the effort and money you put out to travel and then spend hours in a line.
Hell... in retrospect, last year's translucent blue Mirage looks far more exciting than this year's figure. But I love the Mirage mold so that doesn't help me be objective here at all.
Oh well.
I just can't get over the knock-offishness of it.
And Botcon Blurr ?
Sorry. Double plus ungood bot there for me. I'd forgotten about the Armada line until they dredged this one up.
Once again though, the car alt mode looks great. The lightning paint deco is fantastic and the blue on the black is surprisingly sharp.
If for some reason these guys to make it to The Domicile without being sold off, if I even get Blurr, they'll definitely be in car mode all the time.
TJFT!
Wow! For a second there, the little picture over at Tformers.com's post about Topspin here really made me double-take. It looks like some kind of Convoy/Prime.
The plastic isn't final so I suppose we can expect the same level of translucent plastics here in like colors.
I never did sell the other 3. I always figured they'd be the first to go but for some reason, I find translucence appealing.
I suppose I've unconsciously set them aside into the "not for sale" boxes because I'm curious what they'll all look like combined.
Hopefully Barricade will be the center piece since he's very stable. If it is Storm Jet from Superion Maximus then regardless of translucence I gotta dump him. Without some new design for that shitastic tiny waist peg, he's a worthless center piece. (Then again, isn't Barricade being used for that Onslaught figure? If so I doubt it. Who knows.)
What do I love most of about these guys?
Thinking of how fast it takes Evebird to get this on Ebay the second he finds it in his mailbox!
I don't think he's ever had one of these longer than 24 hours.
This guy arrived today.
Like his brothers, he'll stay in the bag until I get them all or decide to sell them off.
I wonder if Evebird has dumped his already. I don't think they ever stay in his possession for longer then 48 hours.
Transformers Collectors Club Breakaway is the 1975th Transformer that I've acquired.
I wish 1975 had been a bit more exciting.
I'm just wondering something.
How many of you who read this here utterly pointless blog belong to the Transformers Collectors Club?
Now if so, I'm curious if any of you care about the yearly membership exclusive
This year's Breakaway is just around the corner and I find it funny that I really haven't talked to anybody who belongs to the club who gives a shit about this, the other previously released 2, or the future 2 at all.
I actually enjoy when they start shipping because I love to see how quickly it takes for a certain someone who frequents here to have it up on ebay. I think last year's was up on ebay in 5 hours from being delivered!
Now me? I've never opened them and really hated the Energon combiners for the most part. The reuse of 2 molds per combiner just didn't do it for me and the so-called hands and feet made out of the energon weapon things just made them all look kind of shitastic to me.
However, with that said, I'll be extremely happy if the center main figure is a repaint of Barricade, the Bruticus Maximus.
He's the only one I really love and his alt mode is great. Steamhammer blows and while I don't mind Storm Jet, his form as a combiner has much too weak a point of contact. My Superion Maximus just never stays together at the waist. It is just a poor design.
Oh well. What can ya do. Barricade will definitely be worth the $40 membership to me.
So. Do any of you give a shit anymore about this figure?
C'mon. I know deep down in the deepest depths of your geekage one of you must.
So the final Botcon set figure Dreadwing has been revealed and as expected, it is a repainted and slightly head-retooled Classics Jetfire.
I'm no fan of this year's set.
It isn't because of FP's attempts here, I suppose I just don't give a shit about these characters.
I'm not a die-hard G1 purist at all so I can take or leave G1-inspired characters.
Dreadwing here is pretty much a non-entity to me as a character so there's absolutely nothing fiction-wise to excite me. He's just a grey toy repaint that could have been named anything.
If TF Universe was still around as a line we'd probably get a more garishly painted Jetfire repaint so I suppose the more subdued Botcon palette should be applauded here.
I suppose the apparent love some TF geeks have for the Dreadwing character comes from the Marvel US or UK comics which I just can't read for more than a few minutes.
Oh well.
Like Bugbite, Dreadwing will no doubt make a ton of people happy.
Hell, they even spent the cash on retooling the "regular" head too.
I'm now officially more excited about tracking down the Botcon 2001 Tigatron exclusive than any of this set.
Personally, I can't see how people can be more excited about the 2007 set and now say the 2006 was lame.
I just don't see it.
So I was clicking through all of my TF sites today and lo and behold the TF Club site was updated with a future comic cover for their inhouse book.
I'd imagine that this will tie into the GRC toys derived from the Classics (and possibly Cybertron) lines.
You've got Classics Ultra Magnus leading a variety of characters, some of them "based" on current toys.
From what I can see, you've got Elita-1 (from the Cybertron Thunderblast mold), Springer (from Cybertron Vanguard Hot Shot), Power Glide (from possibly Cybertron Brimstone or Cybertron Jetfire --- I think), a very blue "Huffer" (from Cybertron Armorhide), and 2 others I can't make heads or tales of.
One on the bottom right is too vague and the character between UM and Grimlock looks almost like a Grimlock himself.
I'm thinking the Primus attendee-only toy at the GRC will be another decepticon like the rest of the box set so that leaves some of these characters open to being show-exclusives like last years Megs/Waspinator and Laserbeak/Buzzsaw 2-packs.
So this is going to sound a bit stupid coming from somebody who has a site devoted to Transformers and has wasted entirely too much time on them but... and I mean this... Is this a good Thundercracker?
Truth be told, beyond his appearances in the G1 cartoon, I have absolutely no real familiarity with this character. He and Skywarp are pretty much just differently colored Starscreams to me and that's about it.
My apathy for the G1 seeker toys is pretty solid and I've only ever had them given to me. I've never sought out to buy either the originals or the coneheads.
So. Is this repaint a good Thundercracker?
Well, I didn't really have much to say so I wasn't going to bring the topic up.
But 2 people wondered what I thought about the recent reveal of Botcon 2007 Dirge so I might as well post about it.
Botcon 2007 Dirge? Well... he looks pretty much like I expected he would from the mold.
If this is indeed the final paint deco then I can't complain. He looks like what a modern repaint of the mold would look like from his old-school G1 counterpart, especially if using the G1 animation model sheet as a guide.
He's a perfectly acceptable G1-inspired Dirge even without retooled wings. Is he good enough to come down to being a $40 repaint? I don't know. Each TF geek has to make their own call on that one.
Now I figured retooled wings, especially Dirge's wings, would be the cheapest route to go but obviously I was wrong.
Now Thrust? He's gotta have retooled wings. He'll suck a bit if he does not. The lift rotors are very important to his overall appearance.
I got this strange letter today in the mail about Fun Publications.
The address is a printed label so it came from some distribution list.
The 4 sheets inside are really bizarre.
The first is a print out of some Fun Publications business ID stuff.
Two of the others are pictures of Brian Savage's house and stuff.
The fourth is a brief history of Master Collector, the GI Joe Club, and basically implies, along with the photos of the house, that the hole Fun Pubs thing is some kind of sham or something.
There's no return address really. Just a sticker that says "Let the Buyer Beware" and looks like it was sent from Fort Wayne, Texas.
Anybody else get this?
It appears that it is from someone that got a hold of the FP Transformers Club mailing database and has a major grudge against Savage and FP.
Very strange.
I only say that since the name on the mailing is the name I give to groups like this and not the full name I use so it has to be from a database.
Very strange indeed.
Any of you that belong to the club get this?
I had a few minutes tonight so I ripped out the Club Exclusive minicons and snapped a few shots for the archives.
You my collector-mentality is fading when away when I ripped open expensive exclusives these days.
No more of that "mint-in-the-box" shit.
Astro-Line is great but he came from a fun little mold.
I may open these guys some day. The colors are all over the place and I think it totally works better than the previous reissues of the Armada Jetfire mold.
The new head is nice too. Very G1 Astrotrain!
Transformers Club Exclusive Astrotrain with the minicons Starcatcher, Astro-Hook, Astro-Line, and Astro-Sinker are the 1837th through 1841st Transformers that I've acquired.
I'm totally in love with her.
She's all orange and stuff.
Transformers Club Exclusive Airrazor is the 1835th and 1836th Transformers that I've acquired. (I got 1 for the boxed set and 1 for the loose set from Botcon!)
I like this specific mold and all but does anyone really care about these "exclusives"?
I know Evebird's go from his mailbox to ebay in about 3 minutes when they arrive and I've just thrown them up on the shelf never to be opened or probably looked at again.
And while I'm on the topic of Transformers exclusives, where the hell is the Armada redeco as Astrotrain and my two Airrazor exclusives I ordered?!?!?!
I paid for those quite some time ago and obviosly, they never shipped since I haven't seen a single person post pics or do any kind of post about them.
So Remy Rodis has a gallery of Club Airazor up and all I gotta say is "Damn! That's a mighty fine retool/repaint!".
She's great!
She's quite the brightly colored figure but honestly, if you go to the original Airazor, it works!
He even did a pic of both of them.
Please. Airazor. Get here. Soon.
So I came home to another Master Collector with a Transformers Newsletter in it and behold... the Evebird article appears!!!
While uncredited on the printed page, you can rest comfortably at night knowing that I, Nala, put much love into the scanning of those deleted and unused Transformers movie cels.
Of course, you can view more of Mr. Evebird's insane collection of rare Transformers shit over at The Transformers Cel Arkive.
So as expected, the first "major" exclusive figure from the Transformers Collectors Club will essentially be the defunct TF Universe figure of Spacewarp, a repaint/retool of Armada Jetfire.
I had always planned on buying Spacewarp, so depending on the price I may pick up the figure as Astrotrain.
Apparently they are asking for suggestions on the figure.
My "likes realistic vehicles alt mode" side says dump the large decepticon logo, darken the colors a bit, and tone down the lighter colors a shade or two. (This is the same side of me that questions why G1 Laser Optimus has his name written on him, and why they thought it necessary to do the same to some of the Transmetal Beast figures. *shrug*)
Of course, that's pointless since this really isn't a realistic vehicle of anything and well, the homage to G1 Astrotrain is pointless since when they turned him into a Decepticon, they threw out the actual Space Shuttle color palette for the darker greys, purples, etc.
The other side says just leave the thing as-is and just include the retooled head, painted so it is consistent with the rest of the figure. Then it would at least be sorta-kinda like it was intended.
But I guess it really comes down to what the price will be. At retail, one can expect Spacewarp would have been about $25 or so. As a club exclusive? At this size a figure? I think we'll probably see at least a minimum $60 price tag with $80 more likely.
Hell. Based on the cost of the single Botcon-type exclusives $130+ could even be expected.
Would it be worth that much to me?
Nah.
Three Armada Jetfires in various packages and colors is enough for me.
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