POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

The person who got my package yesterday brought it to me, so they're better at deliveries than the postal service!

Beast Hunters Lazerback: ...immediately reminds me why I never got into these guys at the time. The colours are just terrible, and he looks like a dollar-store knockoff. Since he was the first Predacon they released, it's no surprise that I turned my nose up at him and ignored all the rest. It's actually a pretty nice toy now that I have it in hand, but the colours are still totally unappealing.

Beast Hunters Vertebreak: The exact same toy really, and it really goes to show just how much difference a good colour scheme can make. The yellow and orange with the tiger stripes is super eye-catching. He's my favourite of the bunch, I think. The beast mode is super bulky and menacing, he looks like a really hard SOB in robot mode, and the articulation is pretty good as well. The accessories are very nice too. I like that the robot mode has a few different optional "flairs" (attaching the missile launcher above his head, flipping up the shoulder armour, and leaving the beast ears flipped out) so that you can differentiate the two even though there was no remolding done between them.

Beast Hunters Skystalker: I'm a big fan of ice dragons. I think it's safe to blame Cryotek for at least a part of that. Dragons are awesome, sure, but dragons in blue and silver are AWESOME with capital letters. Skystaker is, unfortunately, probably the weakest of the three molds. He certainly looks great, but the rear end of his beast mode is pretty wobbly. Nothing really seems to lock in together the way it's supposed to. I suspect that's going to vary from copy to copy. But the top-heavy robot mode, the awkward robot mode head and the weird wing articulation are all things that don't get the benefit of the doubt.

Beast Hunters Ripclaw: This was the only one I was actually looking for, but I wound up buying the set when I saw it for a good price. She's the one that always seems to be getting the hype, and I'd say she deserves it. Her colours are great, her head sculpt in both modes are really cool, her claw weapon is awesome and her springy tail is a neat gimmick. I'm impressed with the sculpting, too. I feel like the designers found the right middle ground where she definitely looks feminine, but doesn't look like a Barbie doll wearing robot parts. Definitely one of the nicer female Transformer molds I own.

At the time I remember people poo-pooing the Prime Preds for all being very samey, and I can see that a bit since they're all dragons and they all basically transform the same. But a lot of effort was clearly put into making them all feel different. Lazerback/Vertebreak transform from a big bruiser of a robot into a pudgy, beaky thing that looks like a Firecon. Skystalker transforms from a skeletal robot into a fairly standard European dragon. Ripclaw might be the best of all, transforming from a Gothic-looking suit of armour into a Pokemon. There's a lot of creativity here even if they're all build from basically the same template.

They also have a pretty strong "Beast Machines" vibe to them. Firstly because they all transform like the stereotypical BM toy, basically just standing up the beast mode and changing the heads (though they all have at least one extra wrinkle beyond that). And secondly, because they all feel like they were designed from the alt-mode first and robot mode coming second. I like them a lot, and I wish I'd given them a chance when they were new. One of these days I should see about tracking down the bigger ones.

Also, I forgot how the Beast Hunters line had a lot of "marbleized" parts It looked pretty weird on the vehicular characters, but it's super cool that Ripclaw has random slashes of gold in her blue, or that Skystalker has white flecks in his light blue, or Vertebreak has orange fades in his yellow. The pics I see of the figures online all look different, so I'm assuming this is something they did with the plastic (mixing dyes or pigments in) rather than really complicated paintwork. I'd love to see this again one day!
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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I picked up the Prime Preds last year (only one I don't have now is Grimwing) and the have that sort of ugly/ compelling charm about them. Vertebreak is my favourite too, with Riplclaw a close second. Then Beast Fire Predaking (I love it!!!). I went all in on Beast Hunters, as I really like Prime but found the regular figures lacked a lot of finishing. The Beast Hunters versions of Soundwave, Starscream, Ratchet and what have you are an explosion of colour and I love them! Just a shame that Optimus - whichever version you end up with - feels a bit cheap by comparrison. Mostly, I like having a third faction in the mix. Something for Autobot, Decepticon and Predacon alike to get in the mix with! FUN!
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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I feel like I've never seen a lot of those toys in person at all. Unless my memory fails me, Prime and Beast Hunters came out during the time period when local toystores were in full Beehive mode, flooded with multiple Movie and Prime figures of the character that choked up the distribution of new figures really badly. Then BH Arcee joined that mix, being the third almost-identical figure of the same character in a couple years, and that pretty much ate up all the shelf space for BH stuff here. The only ones I really remember noticing at the time were Lazerback, Ripclaw, Krock-Out (who I know isn't the greatest mold but I kinda want anyway) and Sharkticon Megatron. I don't even know what most of the vehicular cast's BH toys look like! Maybe I'll get into those guys one day but for now these dragons are probably going to hang out with my Beast-era Predacons instead.

Speaking of...

Kingdom Blackarachnia: A surprisingly well executed figure of a character model that really shouldn't be able to transform at all. It looks great, it's pretty poseable, and the transformation works surprisingly well with almost no kibble or fake parts in either mode. The face sculpt is a highlight...one of the best they've done in years. But it's just too small! Not in a "value for money" sense, but in a "this would be broken in five minutes if I gave it to my kid" sense. It really feels like a toy that was designed to be 25% bigger, then shrunk down in the CAD software because it was too big to be in show scale with the rest of the line. There are a lot of joints that you'd want to careful with because of how small they are, parts that struggle to stay tabbed in bug mode because the tabs are so tiny, and some transformation steps where there's not much clearance for the moving parts. It's a good figure, but if they'd made the exact same toy scaled to be an inch taller it'd be a great one, so that's a bit disappointing.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Generations Selects Bug-Bite & Megatron (G2) - Both bought from EB Games, the latter was paid for with some pre-order deposits that were lost during the COVID-19 lockdown in my state.
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Unicron
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Hard Hero Unicron Statue: I've been wanting one of these since it was revealed as a Botcon exclusive back in 2002 and I finally managed to acquire one recently. It's as big, stupid and cool as I expected. Unfortunately it has to remain boxed up as I nowhere approaching a suitable place for it, especially since I'd want to put it in some kind of display case in order to avoid dust.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Generations Hubcab - Bought online from EB Games.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Megatron (BW): Having never owned any of the previous renditions of BW Megatron's T-Rex form, I figured I had to snag this one today when I found it. Really solid representation of the character. Transformation and posability seem pretty good. Feels a little small for a Leader, in my view.
I've never been big on 'realistic' beast modes, but this one works well. Probably gonna be leaving him in robot mode though.

Hope they get around to doing his first Transmetal form at some point
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inflatable dalek
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Cyclonus!

Doesn't go as flush as he does in the pics, but still an incredibly fancy big, purple boy.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Studio Series Scourge - I think Scourge is going to be a hard figure to find, both because he's only packed 1 to 2 in favor of Hot Rod and he's not getting repacked in the next wave with Bumblebee Starscream and also because people may want to buy extra Scourges for the Sweeps.

Decepticon Runabout, Thrust, Hot-House - Got these guys from a delivery from the TCCA's freight forwarding service, but at least two of these should have been at regular retail.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Selects Sandstorm: The Classics Seekers convinced me that Ramjet has the best configuration of the bunch, and Sandstorm here just underscores that for me. Putting the entirety of the wings on his legs gives him much better range of motion in the arms than Starscream. It helps the figure feel a whole lot less static, and where Starscream felt like he was really hurt by the lack of a waist joint, this guy I really don't notice it on at all. The deco...I just can't believe this is where we are now, that we're at the point where we're getting new toys based on random unreleased G2 concept art. Is he the most obscure Seeker redeco ever? Top three, certainly. But just like Acid Storm back in the Universe days, I find that I'm way, way happier to have this guy than I would be for any of the "real" Seekers. The base colours are really nice, the camo deco on the jet mode looks great, and the minimalist robot mode is surprisingly striking. And since he was molded in the right colours from the get-go, he's not slathered in easily-scratched paint the way Starscream was. A really fetching army-builder, I have to say! If you like having Seeker background thugs, he's a nice addition.

However, the fact that this is the only Conehead you can buy in Canada at all is pretty galling. And really, the only Earthrise Seeker aside from Starscream that seems to be at all attainable anywhere (the Thundercracker and Skywarp set was a TRU exclusive but it sold out right away, Thrust seems to be slated for the same hell and Amazon Canada appears to have declined to fulfill anyone's Ramjet/Dirge set). And Siege was much the same...only Starcream was really easy to get, Thundercracker was a line-ender with spotty distribution and all the rest were store exclusives with questionable availability.

I have a ton of seekers spread across a few different molds going back to Energon Starscream, so it's no issue for me. But -- and this is something that Clay has made me think about recently -- I'd bet that newer fans are going to find an army-builder like Sandstorm less than appealing when the army he's supposed to be a part of more or less doesn't exist. He's cool, but 90% of the appeal of random Seekers like this is building up a squad of goons in every colour of the rainbow and Hasbro's made that very difficult lately.
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Masterpiece MP-46 Blackwidow (Beast Wars)
Blackarachnia! My favouritist Transformer ever! I'd seen this on a video of Sixo's on Youtube and was blown away by incredible she looked. The robot mode is fantastic. Show accurate, with that gorgeous mix of black, yellow and bronze on the go. The sculpting and design work is fantastic. The paint apps and finish is incredible. I can't quite put it into words just how stunning she looks. Transformation is something that needs doing with great care, as she's very delicate (so thank Primus the instructions were easy to follow). The beast mode is ...okay. The highly visible robot parts are something that continues to plague the MP Beast Wars figures, but working from stylised animation models that cheated a little with where things went, I can see why there are some compromises like this. A relatively tiny figure for the range, Blackarachnia makes up for her small stature with an excellent web stand, a grappling accessory and a couple of alternate faces. She also has a flip out visor thing, to represent the climax of Season One. I'm really happy with her and think she's great and easily deserving of the Masterpiece tag. Brilliant.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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About a week or so ago I found SS86 Jazz at Walmart. Passed on Kup and Blurr, since I don't have any interest in those two. But Jazz is pretty great. Very clean aesthetic (as it should be for the cartoon) but I think it has enough panel detail to work in a Classics collection. Even though I have the ToyHax updated POTP Jazz, this one easily replaces it on my shelf. Transformation is pretty fun, good articulation, and everything seems to work well. "up:
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Unicron
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Optimus Primal: Well, being that I got T-Rex, I had to get Monkey to go with him. And basically everything I said about Megatron applies here too.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Just when I thought I was pretty much done with collecting Transformers, Kingdom comes along...

It's Beast Wars again, but I don't mind as I've only kept the Transmetals, a Fuzor (Injector) and two Transmetal II figures from the original line (Blackarachnia and that lizard lad, whose name escapes me... bloody hell, what was he called?! Igunanus! That's him! Hooray brain!

Optimus Primal
I loved the MP, but the CGI alt-mode didn't do it for me. I get it's accurate to the TV show and blah blah blah, but I liked the toy aesthetic better, with them all textured with fur and that. And this is just fantastic. What a great, great figure. Absolutely love it. The texturing is excellent and he has most of the features of the original toy (albeit without the shooty missiles, because we're grown ups now and official fun sponges) , save for the mace (which I've heard you can cobble together from one of those bone-formers I won't be bothering with). Really nice sculpt and design and smashing paint apps. Transformation is fun and the beast mode is excellent (shame they still haven't made him look like a proper silverback gorilla, but whatever). I love it. Big cross looking monkey. With swords pegged in on it's back.

Blackarachnia
After getting the Masterpiece, I was worried this would be a bit of a let down, but far from it. Stunning figure that pretty much hits the same beats as the Masterpiece figure, but improves on that design (at least in terms of transformation and making the beast mode more cohesive). Lacks the spangly paint job, but is bloody brilliant all the same. Only gripe is the lack of wrist swivels, which would make her waiving her claws about look a bit more natural. Beast mode is impossibly creepy, looking like an actual real life spider. Love it.

Cheetor
After the stone cold excellence of Optimus and Blackarachnia, Cheetor feels a bit underwhelming. Mostly because he's a bit odd looking in robot mode. The legs are a baggied up with animal limbs and the feet look a bit small and flat. His shoulders are very wide, but his torso's very narrow and pinched. He's just a bit off, you know? Not helped by the odd choice of powder blue. Where he excels is in a brilliant transformation and a fantastic beast mode. So, for that I'll forgive the odd looking robot mode. Just after I ordered this, I saw the Netflix repaint. Having got Cheetor in hand, I wouldn't want to pay a premium for him, "more accuarte" paint job or not.

Can't believe how excited I am with these figures. Beast Wars is still my absolute Transformers jam. Is this how everyone else has felt with the G1 recycling?

One thing that has worked very well in these figures favour is that they don't have vehicle modes and have to put up with crap clip on wheels that don't roll. Hasbro's aptitude for action figure seems to have really worked out for the Beast Wars. Quality's great, figures look awesome and I've not put them down since I bought them. Hooray! Looking forward to Rattrap and Megatron, when they eventually show up. And that Kingdom gives us more Predacons.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Studio Series Optimus Prime (Dark Of The Moon Jetwing version) - It took a couple of years but SS 44 finally showed up at Australian retail in some form.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Rattrap: Actually reminds me a lot of the original BW Basics. A bit smaller, but ticks all the boxes: a mess of ball joints for fun posing in robot mode, and a beast mode that looks great but does absolutely nothing. The transformation is a bit more involved than in days of old, but it's not complicated or difficult and nothing feels fragile. A very solid reminder of why I missed this price point so much when they scrapped it for Micromaster teams a couple years ago.

And yeah, I know I said "I have no reason to buy the Kingdom toy, Generations Rattrap is great!", but I changed my mind pretty quickly after actually handling Generations Rattrap. Then I remembered that, no, it's not great -- it looks great. But it's no fun to pose, play with or transform. The new one is kind of the opposite...it's tiny and it doesn't look like much, but it's a lot of fun. They complement each other pretty well -- the old one's a great shelf toy and the new one's a great desk toy. Neither one is as cool as the old Transmetal, but that goes without saying.

Image Image
Skyquake87 wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 8:32 pmCan't believe how excited I am with these figures. Beast Wars is still my absolute Transformers jam. Is this how everyone else has felt with the G1 recycling?
Rattrap and Blackarachnia make me about as happy as Spinister or Misfire or Triggerhappy did, so I'm going to say yes! The Fossilizers are what really have me excited, though, on account of being new Beast Wars characters.
Skyquake87 wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 8:32 pmOne thing that has worked very well in these figures favour is that they don't have vehicle modes and have to put up with crap clip on wheels that don't roll.
I hadn't even thought of that, but you're totally right. The sorts of corners that Hasbro have cut lately aren't as evident on a spider or a rat as they are on a sportscar.
Skyquake87 wrote: Sat Feb 06, 2021 8:32 pmAnd that Kingdom gives us more Predacons.
I think all the skeletons are Preds so far, but if you mean show characters I'm pretty sure it's just Megatron, Scorponok, Dinobot and Blackarachnia. Maybe Waspinator was on one of the leak lists too, actually, now that I think of it? I'm hoping to see Tarantulas, Terrorsaur and Inferno at some point, but these lines zip past so quickly now that it'll probably be in whatever line follows Kingdom if it happens.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Warcry wrote: Wed Feb 10, 2021 2:55 am
I think all the skeletons are Preds so far, but if you mean show characters I'm pretty sure it's just Megatron, Scorponok, Dinobot and Blackarachnia. Maybe Waspinator was on one of the leak lists too, actually, now that I think of it? I'm hoping to see Tarantulas, Terrorsaur and Inferno at some point, but these lines zip past so quickly now that it'll probably be in whatever line follows Kingdom if it happens.
Terrorsaur can be had from Airrazor by flipping the animal mode 180 degrees relative to the robot, and Taratulas is an even more obvious retool of Blackarachnia. Waspinator would fit the modular/weaponizer gimmick by coming apart in the same way Kup does, as it fits both characters pretty well.

Scorponok seems to be the odd man out to me, but he's actually in the listings whereas Terrorsaur and Tarantulas aren't. <shrug>
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Masterpiece Arcee!

Never expected to want this one, but it turns out from photos fans posted on Twitter, she's actually a much better toy than the official pics make her look. hugely poseable and, whilst the slightly too low chest is an odd choice, it's not as distracting in person and she's actually a lot of fun.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Warcry wrote: Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:49 am Kingdom Paleotrex feels a lot more intricate than the Weaponizers and Modulators.
[...] how do you stay mad at a toy that looks like the Jurassic Park logo decided to get up and go for a walk? Obviously, you don't. Weight qualms aside, this is a really good partsformer.
Yeah, jointed dinosaur skeleton for the win and the other deluxe looks quite fun as well.

I'm sure I've acquired other TFs in the last few months -- and two are right in front of me, Fangry and Squeezeplay bodies to go with the titanmasters... it doesn't seem like Terribull will be joining them due to being fragile and rare and people not listing broken ones -- but I've lost track. Been picking up MOTU bits and pieces more recently.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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G1 Inferno & Hardhead - Won in auctions from Action Figure Industries, I've got some nostalgia for Inferno and while I'm reasonably happy with Hardhead, the simpleness of Hardhead makes me question if I will ever buy any of the other -masters.
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