POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Figures, collectables, customs and collecting.
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inflatable dalek
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by inflatable dalek »

I never did my TFN stuff...

MMC Whirl: Hadn't expected to like this one so much, just a really nice sturdy toy that actually feels like it could be released as a Transformer.

Nickle and the Pet: Nickle was more fiddly than I expected and it's a shame the Pet is such a big boy, but overall a nice little set.

The Good 3P Arcee, the one where it's not wobbly tits and an added rape face: For the Wreckers shelf, very nice little toy.
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HeavyArms
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by HeavyArms »

Studio Series Drift (Helicopter).

Siege Hound.

Siege Red Alert.

Spoiled Rottens 8-Pack 3.
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Skyquake87
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Skyquake87 »

Cyberverse Stealth Striker Shot Shadow Striker
Roughly Legends/Basic scaled figure with a mid-transformational alt-mode with spring-loaded gimmick. Here, it's some pop out rocket thrusters, which rather makes a nonsense of the name. What exactly is stealthy or snipery about a pair of rocket boosters..? The mid-transformation alt-mode is basically her car chassis with her torso and head poking out. It looks a bit like those weird original designs that pop up in Hot Wheels. I've honestly no idea why I'm drawn to these, I think it's because they're good fun to fiddle with and I like how daft they are. The robot modes are all decent, giving a good representation of the animation models. Shadow Striker could use a little more paint - she's nowhere near as colourful as her animation model, rendered as she is in mostly purple plastic with just a few dollops of paint.
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Tantrum
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Tantrum »

Denyer wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2019 8:09 pm
Tantrum wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 10:38 pm Vintage Rumble & Ravage - $20 seemed kind of steep for these. I figured $16 since that's what two mincars go for, and these are about the same size. These were the only ones left, and all the Soundwaves from last week were gone. So, I figure I can't wait for clearance like i did with Optimus.
Carded? They're more fiddly in terms of pieces, for sure.
Yup. The card has 4 square bubbles, one for each tape, and one for each pait of weapons. I guess those chrome weapons are $1 each. I had to return my first pack since Rumble's spring wasn't strong enough to keep his head up.

Siege Red alert - I was going to pass on this, but Walmart.com had it marked down to $13. The store still had him at $20, so I had to have customer service price match it. I like him better than I thought I would. The Sideswipe review here said the mold didn't roll well, but RA rolls fine. Making an axe out of the light bar is delightful. The inner knee pieces which fill out the rear of the car are a clever innovation, though I did break a tiny piece off one trying to force it the wrong way.

The minuses that put me off the figure, battle damaged shins, cybertronian text, dull surprise facial expression are still there, but I don't mind them as much as I thought I would.

CHUG Thunderwing - Used from a comic shop for $10. I thought he was complete since he has his guns and missles. But, when I got him home I realized he's missing his drone. He looks good enough without itthat I don't regret the purchase.
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Denyer
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Springer, but holding off on opening until Impactor puts in an appearance too.

Speaking of pre-orders it's going to be ****ing hard to justify Seacons at the suggested TT mall prices -- getting to 3P combiner heights.
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Clay
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Clay »

Denyer wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:01 pm Speaking of pre-orders it's going to be ****ing hard to justify Seacons at the suggested TT mall prices -- getting to 3P combiner heights.
Are they really, though? Generic deluxe figure for Titans Return was ~$17 to $20, and it's Takara counterpart was typically $40 by the time it got to this continent. Seacon limbs so far have been $40 a piece, so I guess it's just the absence of Hasbro's domestic alternative that's giving people sticker shock.

As for myself, I got a TFC Ares set a couple of weeks ago because it's really cheap now. Overall... I like it, but... yeesh, is the combined mode wobbly. It's much worse than the other TFC sets I have (Devastator, Superion, Liokaiser). I haven't taken it apart to try and doctor anything yet, though.

The individual figures (aside from Razorclaw's robot face, ugh) are pretty neat though!. Divebomb, Tantrum, and Headstrong have a neat mechanic that allows the animal heads to fold over and into the robot chests, or they can left behind the robot heads for the classic look, although it's a bit cramped. They've got some iffy bits (Razorclaw's fists are tenuously connected at best), but they've got interesting design choices too. I like how they all have telescoping torsos to give better proportions for each mode. I do wish the combined mode was more stable, though.

Given the choice between the two, well... I'd still buy/recommend Feral Rex, even at full price. It's just that much better. But Ares is a neat set to look into if you're not* concerned about the combiner mode and the price is low enough.
Last edited by Clay on Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: *not, duh
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Denyer
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Denyer »

Clay wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2019 11:53 pm
Denyer wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:01 pm Speaking of pre-orders it's going to be ****ing hard to justify Seacons at the suggested TT mall prices -- getting to 3P combiner heights.
Are they really, though? Generic deluxe figure for Titans Return was ~$17 to $20, and it's Takara counterpart was typically $40 by the time it got to this continent. Seacon limbs so far have been $40 a piece, so I guess it's just the absence of Hasbro's domestic alternative that's giving people sticker shock.
I'm expecting to see a wider release due to the extent of the tooling, whatever else has been said/done so far.

Or for bootleggers to move in, as seems to have happened with eg the deluxe CW Groove plus a lot of other CW stuff, Power Ranger colours Dinobots etc.

edit:

And yeah, relative to complexity and size, 3P combiners have tended to be better value. The Seacons are clever and extensive retools but they're still simple CW figures.
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inflatable dalek
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by inflatable dalek »

Unpacked my final TFN purchase this week as the sticker sheet was missing so I waited on reprolables...

Encore Devastator!

Actually really liked this bad boy. The individual robots were all good fun (I think Mixmaster was the weakest, felt like you just stood him up) and the combination was more intuitive than I expected, making for a surprisingly good if not likely to withstand a stiff breeze robot:

https://twitter.com/InflatableDalek/sta ... 4514294788

Can see why they went simpler with the following ones, but I think he beats all the Scramble City guys.
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Skyquake87
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Skyquake87 »

I like the extra tweaks they gave to the Encore set - the clip on Bonecrusher's arms that holds them together is such a simple thing, but makes such a difference. It feels a lot more sturdy in combined mode than my vintage one. Same goes for the recent Hasbro reissue. I like the Constructicons.
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HeavyArms
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by HeavyArms »

Studio Series Dropkick (Car).

Beast Wars Fox Kids Cheetor.

Movie voyager Ratchet & Commemorative Series Prowl - Picked up both of these from a mate in a local Transformers club, although I still need to pay for Prowl and he's missing a missile.
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Warcry
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

Denyer wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 7:58 pmAnd yeah, relative to complexity and size, 3P combiners have tended to be better value. The Seacons are clever and extensive retools but they're still simple CW figures.
I love the look of the Seacons too, but there's no way I can talk myself into paying full Takara price for them. They're neat retools but the figures they're based on retailed for less than half of what these guys are going for and they were barely worth that.

Speaking of questionably worthwhile purchases, I wound up picking up a Siege Prowl. If we're being honest, I mostly bought him to try and distract myself from the stress of learning that the company I work for just got sold to our biggest competitor.

I really didn't like the look of him in the pictures that I saw, but in person he did look a lot better. CG renders and even photography make his white look a lot worse than it really is. And his robot mode is actually really nice! A lot of people complain about the legs, but they've got great articulation and the silver windows add a nice splash of colour that really improves the otherwise kinda bland look that character-model-based Prowl figures always have.

Unfortunately the alt-mode more than makes up for that, because it's the blandest thing ever. Prowl had one of the greatest alt-modes in the 80s line but this thing just has no detailing at all. It's like they took a Datsun, smoothed everything that made it cool and distinctive, and then gave it a flat paint scheme with the absolute bare minimum of badging or painted detail. The weird clear plastic wheels are the least of it's problems.

The paltry accessories are also pretty disappointing. We know that the shoulder guns exist because every other iteration of this mold comes with them, but they left them out here to save a couple pennies. The rifle is also a bit of a waste, because it's based on the Prowl's G1 rifle, but the sculptor only replicated about half of it before giving up. The original Datsuns's rifle was one of my favourite Transformer accessories ever and I've been waiting for ages to see it replicated by a modern figure, so this halfhearted effort with the stock and magazine left out really let me down.

Prowl here is definitely the most disappointing Transformer I've bought this year. The mold is good, and this figure had a lot of potential, but the final product is just so...vanilla.

But at least he gave me something new to be angry at for a while, instead of real life?
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Clay
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Clay »

Warcry wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 4:01 am I love the look of the Seacons too, but there's no way I can talk myself into paying full Takara price for them. They're neat retools but the figures they're based on retailed for less than half of what these guys are going for and they were barely worth that.
I don't think it's that bad. They're on Hasbro Pulse for $34 each, which is about $5 less than what I paid for the Takara versions of the TR Targetmasters. Again, I think it's the lack of the cheaper domestic offering from Hasbro that's putting people off, although I don't blame anyone who'd rather pass.

Speaking of questionably worthwhile purchases, I wound up picking up a Siege Prowl. If we're being honest, I mostly bought him to try and distract myself from the stress of learning that the company I work for just got sold to our biggest competitor.
Lovely! My department at the university has been put out for contract bidding, so I know how you feel. Will you be absorbed or are you gonna bail?
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Warcry
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

Clay wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 10:03 am I don't think it's that bad. They're on Hasbro Pulse for $34 each, which is about $5 less than what I paid for the Takara versions of the TR Targetmasters. Again, I think it's the lack of the cheaper domestic offering from Hasbro that's putting people off, although I don't blame anyone who'd rather pass.
I'm not disputing that, but I wasn't super keen on paying import prices for TR figures either (even though I did few times). And Titans Return figures were a whole lot more interesting to me than a set of combiner limb repaints! A figure needs to be pretty special to get me to pay that much more than domestic prices for it.

Also, I've been warned that Pulse charges some pretty insane shipping charges to Canada so that's not really a good option for me.
Clay wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 10:03 am Lovely! My department at the university has been put out for contract bidding, so I know how you feel. Will you be absorbed or are you gonna bail?
I'm not even sure if I'll be given a choice. My job doesn't really exist in the new company. We're small enough now that everyone basically has to do six different things, and in the absorbing company all the different things I do are different jobs in different departments. So even if they keep me (and all the management going out of their eay to reassure me that they will actually kinda makes me think the opposite...) I'd wind up pushed into a different job that I suspect will feel like a massive step backwards. I don't really feel like starting from zero at a new company in a job I didn't even choose, so I've started sending off resumes. Unless the new company offers me something that's actually in line with my experience, I'll probably be heading for the door as soon as I can find something better.

What about you? Would they find another position for the people in your department if things are contracted out, or would they just do a mass layoff?
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Clay »

Warcry wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 2:03 pm I'm not disputing that, but I wasn't super keen on paying import prices for TR figures either (even though I did few times). And Titans Return figures were a whole lot more interesting to me than a set of combiner limb repaints! A figure needs to be pretty special to get me to pay that much more than domestic prices for it.
Like I say, it's the lack of a cheaper domestic counterpart that's putting people off. I get that and don't blame anyone for passing, but the prices aren't anomalous like Masterpiece figures.
Also, I've been warned that Pulse charges some pretty insane shipping charges to Canada so that's not really a good option for me.
Their shipping options for me were either "free, in X business days" or express mail at a rate of $40 per item, nothing in between.
Unless the new company offers me something that's actually in line with my experience, I'll probably be heading for the door as soon as I can find something better.
You could always go north to Canada and start life anew!

What about you? Would they find another position for the people in your department if things are contracted out, or would they just do a mass layoff?
Nah, it's this. Basically, Kentucky has had an underfunded pension crisis brewing for decades. Things finally came to a boil in 2015 when we elected an urRepublican as governor (seriously, the guy had tried to primary out McConnell in 2014 as senator because he thought he was too liberal). Anyway, now the goal is for all Kentucky universities to start shedding as many positions and departments as possible to get away from the pension costs set to nearly double next year.

So, it's more a case of the job still being there, but rather it's there through an external company without any of the benefits of working for the school directly (insurance, pension, tuition waivers, library access, sick and vacation time, etc. etc.).

For me personally, it's fine as I need the kick to get me out and onward anyway, but in any other capacity it's a major loss of one of the better employment options in a small town.
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Siege Refraktor - Haven't found that many of these around my area, maybe a couple of others across stores in two different towns. May buy a couple of others if I find them but may just buy the Refraktor 3-pack instead.
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Studio Series Constructicon Hightower.
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

Siege Jetfire pretty much if you want a show accurate of the cartoon version of Skyfire (which honestly is what they should've called him) then this is the figure for you. He's pretty much the same height as MP Shockwave.
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Skyquake87
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Skyquake87 »

Cyberverse Spark Armour Prowl w/ Cosmic Patrol
Nice figure with a fun Centurions style add-on armour. Prowl himself could have used some paint, or some stickers at the very least. He's very plain all in white. The figure itself is good, and a decent Legends scale figure. The armour looks decent and makes for a fair looking space ship thing. A good set, but feels overpriced for what it is (as Skybite did).

Siege WFC Brunt
Bought mainly to pal around with Trypticon and his little car pal, but he's actually a cool figure in his own right. It reminds me of Tankor off of Beast Machines in robot mode. As with the other weaponizers, he doesn't really transform - just falls to pieces and you build him back into his alt-mode. The tank mode is nice and I appreciate the swiveling turret. Much of the play value comes from jamming his body parts to other figures in the range (tm).
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by HeavyArms »

Cyberverse Alpha Trion.

Siege Ultra Magnus & Cyberverse Spark Armor Sky-Byte & Driller Drive.
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Warcry
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Re: NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Warcry »

I'd really wanted Siege Sixgun, but because my local stores are just flat out not bothering to stock most Generations price points again, I figured I'd missed out on him. But I guess he's getting shipped again in wave four, because I found one (and no other Deluxes if memory serves) at a store where Mirage and Impactor had just been sighted. I went by hoping to see if the Wreckers' leader was worth the buy, but this guy was a really nice consolation prize.
Skyquake87 wrote: Sat Sep 28, 2019 6:51 pm As with the other weaponizers, he doesn't really transform - just falls to pieces and you build him back into his alt-mode.
I know that this is accurate to the original figures, but I do wish they'd put just a bit more thought into the alt-modes for these guys. Sixgun suffers worse from this than Cog, because you need to totally dismantle the dude to transform him and the end result doesn't really look like anything anyway.

But the guns are his real alt-mode and in that role I think he does a much better job than Cog. He colour-matches really nice with Prowl and Sideswipe, and the guns formed from his arms and legs are pretty convincing. The torso bits don't really do much for me, though.

He looks really nice in robot mode, but I definitely had to slap some polish on a few joints to keep him from falling apart. Not really a surprise with Hasbro products these days. :( His articulation isn't quite up to par either. In particular, the shoulders are really awkward.

Overall, I'm surprised how much I've enjoyed the Weaponizers. Turning them into guns for other figures is nice but I actually think I've most enjoyed the ability to swap parts or combine the two of them into a giant double weaponizer.

Image

Unfortunately this is another in a string of cool ideas that Hasbro wasn't willing to fully commit to, so there's only three Weaponizer bodies to mix and match from. I know the leaders do technically come with some similar bits, in practice they're way too personalize to swap around in the same way. I'm not sure if anyone else can even wear Magnus or Galaxy Prime's armours except each other, and anyone who puts on Shockwave's add-ons is just going to look like they murdered him and turned his pelt into a cape. I'm hoping the next line will bring us a few more of these guys. Maybe Slammer or Roller or someone like that? Or maybe, if they're willing to go a bit off the beaten path, a Victory Leo to go along with the Star Saber and Deathsaurus that have been teased for ages now?
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