July 2006 Archives

Ok. Do I count this as a "transformer" in the collection? I count my PVCs but they are representations of bots.

The Ark? Not so much.

What do you think?

For now I'm leaving it as a count but I could go either way on this.

Number in Collection: 1646

Number in Collection: 1645

Number in Collection: 1644

What a pain in the ass. Mrs. B. managed to get me one from the San Diego Con and then I managed to acquire the 2nd by accident really.

I actually got 2 of an exclusive, which is the only way I buy two of anything now. I'm still shocked.

Number in Collection: 1642, 1643

This repain of Ransack may just be one of the nicest repaints of the Cybertron line.

Number in Collection: 1641

Number in Collection: 1640

Number in Collection: 1639

I found a Ransack GTS!!!

Woot!

Woot!

So if you didn't know I'm not in Cowtown this weekend. I'm actually in Glass City visiting my family.

I decided to do a little geek running while I'm here in the hopes of finding new stuff. I even have been hitting "ghetto" stores that one would normally not think about in hopes of finding new tfs.

I've hit hit 3 ToysRUs, 3 WalMarts, 3 Targets. 2 Meijers, and about 3 KMarts and have found practically zilch.

I was so hoping to find the major new crack I needed but there's just no Alt Mirages, Camshafts, Menasors, or QuickMixes to be found.

I did end up with a Legends of Cybertron Sunstorm, Legends of Cybertron Excellion (Hot Shot), and a 3" Titanium Ark.

That's pretty slim pick'ns.

Giga emailed me that he found me the 6" Titanium Megatron and 6" Titanium Prime which is cool. I don't think they've hit Glass City at all.

Oh. And James. I snagged an original Recon Minicon Team if you want it.

I'm not a fan of statues but I have to say the new Diamond Distribution Soundwave and Cassettes statue looks pretty damn good.

And I gotta admit, Rumble's expression is dead-on perfect for his character.

And yes. I called the blue one Rumble and not Frenzy. 1) There's an animation-only space bridge they are popping out of and 2) why the hell would Frenzy have piledrivers?

And I'll be a Rumble = Blue and Frenzy = Red man did the day I die. Sorry.

Damn! I really really really want a Shadow Recon Reverb figure!

He rocks the balls!

So I'm currentlyhigh bidder for a Botcon 1998 Antagony and a Beast Machines Primal Prime, two figures I've wanted for some time.

The Antagony is really high on my list of things I'd like to have. The Primal Prime figure fills that gap for me of the missing Beast Machine Megatron when he took the Optimal Optimus form in the last two episodes of Beast Machines.

I rarely ever win ebay auctions anymore. I'm fairly conservative with what I'll spend on crack these days and I no longer trust ebay auctions like I used to back in the day. So many of the "collectibles" auctions seem to have accounts with low auction wins that come in and seem to jack up the price. These can't be legit.

Oh. And speaking of ebay auctions, it has been over a week now so I'd like to share one that a friend of mine had.

He needed to get rid of some stuff to buy other stuff so he put up the Iacon Beast Wars Disk set he got.

Now understand, he expected maybe to make back what he paid for them.

Over the course of the auction the damn things went to over $300!!! He ended up cancelling the high bids but the thing ended up selling for around $250.

There was no price gouging or anything. People just kept bidding it up. I think there was one of those "low win" bidders but my friend would never artifically escalate a price like that so it had to be a legitimate person.

The few Iacon disk sets that are currently up are in the more reasonable $20-$30 range which is what I'd expect.

Hell. The things were being sold for $25 at the show even.

But man oh man that was one freaky auction to watch.

I so want this.

I mean. I could have the "Holy Grail" piece for only about $1450 and never have to buy another piece of plastic crack again.

Ever.

In the long run I'd probably save upwards of $10,000 or more over the next 7 or 8 years!

Well with no thanks to Hasbro the addiction will be constantly tested over the remainder of 2006 and in 2007.

I've updated the wishlist that I use to keep track of what I'm on the look out for.

In-friggin-sane.

Found a Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Optimus Primal today and I'm just not warming up to him. I loves me some Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Megatron but Primal is only kinda meh.

Number in Collection: 1638

The reports that Peter Cullen will reprise the role of Optimus Prime in this forthcoming movie called Transformers actually made me smile.

Believe me.

I really don't care about the film.

But with Cullen as Prime you at least have the Optimus Prime in it!

And the fact that they hired a voice actor instead of some celebrity means a lot to me.

Now. If Frank Welker is hired to recreate Megatron I may actually go see this film opening weekend.

And then I saw an IM on my computer...

Session Start (naladahc:gigamatt): Fri Jul 21 15:56:44 2006
[15:56] gigamatt: You now have nem prime. Mrs. B. just called.
[16:10] *** "gigamatt" signed off at Fri Jul 21 16:10:58 2006

It is nice to have someone in San Diego!

I feel really dirty even having bought this today. I saw him on my Target side-trip on the way to the dentist and ended up buying him.

He's just so ugly.

I just never liked Unicron.

Number in Collection: 1637

[7/21 update: Ok. I'll say this. Don Figueroa can make a pen & ink Unicron that is palatable.]

It was a very bizarre day to be a TF geek today.

As the last last few entries over at Plasticcrack.net will show, there's no doubt quite a lot of pissed off fans around the country and probably around the globe.

Hasbro really misjudged this one.

It is almost 3 1/2 hours after they were supposed to go online for sale but Hasbrotoyshop, while at least functionally working now, still lists the figures as "Coming Soon".

I also noticed that the Club is sold out, which probably happened very quickly due to the problems at Hasbro. Even the club had some merchant issues there too.

While not really a contributor to the various TF message boards/sites, it had been interesting to watch the insanity play ouf over at The Allspark.

Oh well.

I hope everyone who wants one gets one.

And I certainly hope nobody manages to acquire a lot of these to whore out on Ebay. I'm still suspicious of all the ones that have been on sale for weeks on Ebay without there actually being product available to these sellers.

Well I was finally able to place an order for a Nemesis Prime.

However, after an hour of time-outs at Hasbrotoyshop.com I decided to pay a bit more for the damn thing and order it from the Transformers Club shop.

Even there I had some problems with the credit card part constantly timing out.

But I did receive a confirmation email from the system so I have to assume I'm getting one.

The Hasbro thing really does piss me off though.

Especially if there are some Star Wars "exclusives" at Comic Con because that means Star Wars geeks are fighting with TF geeks to try and buy shit online and no basic day-to-day online toy merchant sals system can handle the traffic.

It has been an hour and 22 minutes and I still can't get through at the Hasbro site.

Slowly but surely pics of Hasbro's booth at the San Diego Comic-Con and there's some real surprises for the plastic crack addicts out there.

Loves:

Classics Astrotrain is a beautiful sight to behold. Hasbro/Takara needs major props for this figure.

Titanium Oprimal Optimus is great and I'm thrilled that they are including some of these.

My favorite form of Prime, the firetruck from Car Robots (aka Fire Convoy), gets a Titanium release so I'm ecstatic about this one.

Galaxy Force Optimus Prime is a great repaint. I do like the toned down hues.

Apathetic:

I've never been a fan of G1 Scourge and the new Titanium G1 Scourge still doesn't do it for me. Lack of love for the character doesn't help with love of the toy either.

The Galaxy Force Vector Prime repaint looked a thousand times better in the product "photoshop" mockup. Can't say I like the palette at all.

Other

Pics of MP-04 Masterpiece Convoy with Trailer has me pissed off a bit. I'd like this someday since the trailer is so nice on the inside but I can't justify it since I already own MP-01 Convoy and the "aftermarket" trailer. If Roller had been included I'd probably not think twice about wasting scratch on it but thankfully, his omission makes it easier to say no to.

Tformers.com has new pics of a Lugnutz repaint named Hightail and a repaint of the main Cybertron minicon team now called the "Shadow" recon team. I like the occasional translucent redeco so I'll probably snag them.

I could care less about the Hasbro Attacktix game and I especially hate the way they cross-packaged the TF ones with the Star Wars ones. Rarely do the two geeklines mix. Hell. At Iacon One we found a ripped open package with the Star Wars figures still intact thrown into the trash even. I'd probably by some of these new Attacktix TF figures if that meant I didn't have to throw away a bunch of crap I didn't want.

Ok. It is now painfully obvious that Habro had no clue that their site would get traffic like it is.

Everything times out now.

Useless.

Then again, those of us trying to purchase this damn thing and blogging about not being able to get through are truly showing what losers we are.

I am so The Lame!

Of course, Hasbrotoyshop.com is now totally useless. No doubt they are getting hit with requests and the damn exclusives haven't even gone on sale yet.

Fuck!

Fuck!

Fuck!

If your online store can't handle traffic like this don't sell exclusives on it!

So Giga took Mr. and Mrs. B. to the airport early this morning for their trip to the San Diego Comic-Con where they are actually presenting talks at panels.

I've never been to that con but it is indeed the con of all cons. Over a hundred-thousand people attend that thing. Insane.

Personally, I think I'd get a little bored since I'm not all that into panels and all but I'd like to go once at least and use it as a "meet-up" for all the people I know out there.

Oh. Yeah. What does the con have to do with plastic crack?

Well Hasbro will be start selling Alternator Nemesis Prime at the con and at their online store at 9 am tomorrow!

I've told Mr. B. to stay clear of the con version so I'll just snag it online. I've got email reminders all over the place and sticky notes to remind me in case I get pulled into a meeting or anything.

I can just imagine what I'd have to say if I was... "Er... excuse me all. I have to take a 15 minute break to order an exclusive-but-not-really-exlusive transforming pick-up truck because I'm a loser. Be right back."

I'm hoping Hasbro has a give-away freebie like they did last year and that the B's will snarf up what they can.

I opened up Deepdive's instructions and low and behold, the photo on the back of the packaging for the Giant Planet Minicons has him transformed wrong.

Yes. I didn't read how to transform him I just did it.

Yes. I was wrong.

No. I didn't question it since he was that way in the photo on the back of the packaging.

But honestly, I'm not sure which way is better.

I actually like the way I originally transformed him.

I don't know why. I just do.

I hate to say it but I think Longarm may be the most hideous Minicon I've ever seen.

There's just zero love here for this guy.

Number in Collection: 1636

Deepdive is also total awesome love.

You kind of have to "imagine" he has hands but it works as is. Unlike his one friend who sucks to all high heavens.

Number in Collection: 1635

Overcast is total awesome love.

All Transformers collectors should own an Overcast.

Number in Collection: 1634

Number in Collection: 1633

Number in Collection: 1632

You have got to be fucking kidding me!

It blows my mind what people put up for auction and the starting bid/buy-it-now prices these people list.

If you are willing to pay $55 for a Star Saber box or $50 for a Star Convoy box then you really do need to seek professional help from a qualified therapist.

Believe me.

If you even think about clicking on the Buy-It-Now buttons for these you have problems.

Even more so since you'll also be paying $10 to have an empty box shipped to your ass!

Oh. And if you think that the $34.99 for this Star Convoy reissue is good you are right. It is fantastic!

The $35.00 shipping charge? Oh the humanity of these people! It fucking blows my mind!

I think there needs to be a custom Micromaster or Minicon named "Taint".

I think that I may need to find a way to rectify this glaring lack of awesomeness soon.

Umm... I dropped $50 for Botcon 2002 Catscan why???

I really liked the packaging and his appearance in print but I just had to open him up and well, he's less than appealing in the flesh (or plastic) as it may be.

I don't know. The dark face/head just doesn't work for me.

Oh. And a funny little side item about BW 10th Megs.

I noticed on his box that there was a sticker over something on the back. It didn't make sense but after peeling it off it appears that the entire box design made it through several quality checks and I'd imagine the other mock-up steps that are typically done with a typo.

This entire first production run of boxes has Predacon spelled wrong on the back.

That's a major no-no in the design/print industry.

Hell. I feel bad when I leave typos in the blog entries..

Well. Maybe not as bad as I should.

Number in Collection: 1631

So yeah. We drove to Fort Wayne and geeked out a bit at Iacon One last Saturday.

View the video entry at You Tube of our lameness.

Number in Collection: 1630

So as you can probably tell from from a ton of my posts today I ended up going to the Iacon One convention this weekend in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Evebird, Mr. N., and Giga and I trekked there in the Evewagon and it wasn't too bad of a trip. Getting there seemed to go by pretty fast actually and Fort Wayne is about right on the edge of the distance I can tolerate riding in a car at any given time.

The trip was good. The con?

Wow. Much like 3" Beast Megatron this little Optimus Primal is also one of the tops in the Titanium line so far.

The other figures just seem like customs someone hand painted.

I've seen kitbash/customs that are better than most of these so far.

I'm curious as to why his "helmet" sides are black though. Color mistake? Bad model sheet?

Still. It doesn't ruin a good figure.

Number in Collection: 1629

He's pretty crappy, much like the others.

I'm thinking he'd probably be at least decent in "galavatron" colors instead of the rainbow hue too.

Number in Collection: 1628

Yes. I own 3 Micron Densetsu versions.

Yes. I own 2 Armada versions.

Yes. I own the Universe Ultra Magnus repaint.

And I have him again in perhaps one of the best paint jobs ever.

But did they fix his shoulder that were configured wrong in previous releases?

Number in Collection: 1627

Yes. I own the 2 Armada versions.

Yes. I also own the KB Exclusive Energon version.

So now I have a 4th of a mold I really don't like.

But of course, you know I am the lame.

Number in Collection: 1626

I picked up the Beast Wars souvenir set at Iacon One too.

I gotta admit for something so simple I really do like them.

It is great that they did their souvenir set so that it relates somewhat to Botcon 2006's Beast Wars set yet is something never released before by Hasbro or Takara.

Picked up 3 more Micromasters I needed. The fourth (Slide) is an extra since I already have one but the dealer wouldn't separate them.

Number in Collection: 1622, 1623, 1624, 1625

Man I loves me some Roots.

I picked up another one to add to the minicon collection.

I think he's pretty much my favorite minicon of all time.

I just wish he spoke and did something in Galaxy Force.

Number in Collection: 1621

I won this Kabaya G2 Megatron kit as a door prize.

Number in Collection: 1620

Slowly but surely I'm picking up the various con exclusive figures.

Number in Collection: 1619

These boys rock!

I dropped $100 on them only to come back to Cowtown and see this news.

Of course, Hasbro can never remotely package something as beautiful as Takara did with these guys.

None of my photos really come out due to the cellophane and my lack of studio lights.

Numbers in Collection: 1617-1618

Too much going on this afternoon to blog about the recent finds but I went to Iacon One yesterday.

It was ok. I was expecting a bit more in terms of dealers but the organizers did an admirable job for trying to start a new con. I'll no doubt support it in the future if it stays in the 3 or so hours from Cowtown driving range.

Got a Kabaya Micron Booster Roots (one of all time fave minicons), a Botcon 2002 Catscan, the Takara 10th Anniversary Optimus Prime/Megs set, some Micromaster combiners I was needing, the souvenir set, and a kabaya G2 Megs kit I won as a door prize.

More later if I have the time.

Was it someone who comments here looking for a Cybertron Wing Saber?

If so, please leave a comment here again.

I found another one if you want it.

For the life of me I can't figure out who or when someone asked me about him.

I've been a reader (and rare commenter) on The Movie Blog for a little over a year now.

I noticed it was down the other day but didn't think anything about it.

And then today I read this.

I already said I didn't care about the future Transformers movie.

Is there any possible way I could care even less now?

There was a time when I only had about 40 or so Transformers.

That was before the plastic crack addiction really went into full swing.

Back in 2002 the collection fit on one shelf in the office at the old Apartment of Love.

It now consists of the entire attic of the House of Love at clocks in at around 1616 figures.

Bad craziness.

Wow. In a couple days I'll be off to Iacon One.

The plan is pretty much to make a day trip of it.

Fort Wayne is about 3 hours from Cowtown so we can make it there and back with ease. We'll only be doing Saturday and pretty much only going for the dealer room.

I gotta admit I find it harder and harder to sit through panels these days and pretty much like about 5 passes through the dealer room and then calling it quits.

I don't have it in me to sit through panels anymore.

I never really did though.

I'd imagine it has a lot to do with the fact that convention panels are pretty much identical year in and year out. Sure there may be different guests but on the whole every single possible question has been asked of them. Truthfully, I'd rather have a beer or two with a voice actor and shoot the shit than have to sit through a panel with them being asked to do the same shit every year.

If he's free I suppose I should try an commission a piece from David Willis. I probably could do that via email though.

I'd really like a full color G1 Shockwave done in his Shortpacked! style.

You may recall I bought some of his original art for Giga last year and those turned out beautiful once I mounted them and framed them.

Since I took off work tomorrow I plan on working up here in the Attic of Love and trying to clean up the general mess it has become. Gotta do a minor water change in Number Six's tank too.

I'm due for a new complete photo gallery of the Attic. I should get one in prior to the summer cons.

While this is a bit premature with 3 more figures still to be acquired, I've got to put my two cents in on the recently released Titanium Series figures that I do have.

This includes War Within Optimus Prime, Unicron, Beast Megatron, Sidewipe, Jazz, and Starscream.

Well...

Number in Collection: 1616

Number in Collection: 1615

Number in Collection: 1614

I was looking at Remy Rodis' new 10th Anniversary Beast Wars Optimus Primal gallery and you know what? I don't think I'll take a liking to this figure.

There's just something that doesn't jive well with my expectations of what a "Primal" figure should be nor with what I thought current engineering and design could give.

However, with that said, if the head was retooled slightly and his redeco was more white, I'd totally love this as say Magnus Primal, the "brother" of Optimus Primal in the tradition of the whole G1 Prime/Ultra Magnus brotherhood thing.

In fact, the gorilla mode in this pic makes it even more a Magnus Primal for me.