POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Figures, collectables, customs and collecting.
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ganon578
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by ganon578 »

SS72 Starscream (from the Bumblebee movie): I liked the Blitwing figure and expected this to be very similar, but it really wasn't. It's fun in its own right and looks pretty nifty too. The alt mode reminds me of the T-16 Skyhopper Luke's playing with in ANH... it's very swooshable.

Soundwave w/ Ravage & Laserbeak (Earthrise? WFC? Netflix?) from Walmart in the Netflix box. I already have the trio in their Siege forms, but this group looked nice and clean in the package and I've been hankering for something new(ish). I like him quite a bit, even though he's nearly a cut-and-paste from the Siege one. Hasbro even kept the skids built into his forearms, which now serve no purpose. Nice bit of re-engineering to make him into a 'proper' cassette deck, which is tight and boxy. The red visor in bot mode is awesome too.
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by StoneCold Skywarp »

DX9 Montana, DX9 Kukinski, DX9 Giuliano & DX9 Henry
or
Breakdown, Dead End, Dragstrip & Wildrider
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Skyquake87 »

Siege Netflix Deep Cover
Blue version of a figure I picked up barely a month ago. Love this mold, it's awesome. Not bored of it yet, despite owning it three times over already. Has the Siege battle damage going on, which is alright. Not sure about the 'scratches' on the windscreen, but whatever. Paint apps are clean and crisp and it's just another tidy reuse of the mold. Love it.

Generation 2 Silverbolt, Fireflight, Skydive and Air Raid
Already own a G2 Silverbolt and Air Raid, but saw these and thought it's be nice to have the others to do a Superion. Nice that these all have die cast metal parts. Strange the same wasn't afforded the G2 Combaticons, but whatever. Have to say, having red, white and blue limbs compliments the muted red and blue Silverbolt got for his G2 outing. God knows why they thought Gold for Slingshot would be a good colour match. Maybe it was to match the silver Sky Dive has going on. Nice to have a Superion again (I got rid of the CW version ages ago). Can't say I'm a huge fan of the colours Hasbro used for the G2 versions of the Aerialbots. The small robots look decent, but Silverbolt does look a bit... bootleg, which is a shame.
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Clay
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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ganon578 wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 2:39 pm SS72 Starscream (from the Bumblebee movie): I liked the Blitwing figure and expected this to be very similar, but it really wasn't. It's fun in its own right and looks pretty nifty too. The alt mode reminds me of the T-16 Skyhopper Luke's playing with in ANH... it's very swooshable.
Yeah, it's like a skiff, isn't it? Is that the right word? I don't know if that's the right word. I mean the boat with the big extensions on either side and another one down into the water. I wanna call it a space-skiff, but that may not be right.

But yeah, there's something fun about leaning into a problem like the whole robot hanging under the jet instead of trying conceal it away. It's different.
Skyquake87 wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 7:40 pm
I'll be interested to see what you make of Predaking. He's equally compromised, but somehow the five man menagerie carries it off. I think it helps that the originals are unrefined chunky lads, and so is the fancy modern update.
Predaking showed up today! I like it on first pass, but give me a week or so to settle on it and give you a reasonable opinion.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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G1 Cosmos, Powerglide, Seaspray, Warpath, Chase, Freeway, Rollbar, Searchlight, Wideload, Slugfest and Overkill - Bought these from a man from the TCCA B/S/T Facebook page who was open to me paying these off over time .

G1 Goldbug and Movie Longarm - Bought from a seller on eBay.
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Generations Selects Bug Bite
Nifty repaint of Siege Cliffjumper with Netflix Bumblebee's head. Shame the Beetle alt-mode is absent, but otherwise a great looking figure. I miss the mad 'rad' tattoos of the BotCon version, but it seems ToyHax do a label sheet for that, so might have to see if I can get one. Can't say I'm that mad about the Mercenary sigil. It's a bit crap and also spoilt Exhaust.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Armada Blurr with Incinerator, Hoist with Refute, Cyclonus with Crumplezone, Skywarp with Thunderclash and Thundercracker as well as Energon Snowcat, Demolisher, Prowl and Starscream - I won all of these during a Action Figures Industries auction.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Airazor: Really impressed by this one. There's great articulation on display in both modes, and a great transformation with no unsightly kibble. I was really surprised by how smoothly the limbs folded up for bird mode. And since the alt-mode is a bird and not a car, Hasbro wasn't able to ruin it with ugly pop-on wheels or by making half of the thing out of painted clear plastic! No fake parts either, and no engineering lifted from previous figures...absolutely no corners were cut here. They even managed to make the show model's kinda wonky head design look good! Really solid work all around.

This isn't saying much since the competition is hardly fierce, but this is the best female Transformer toy they've made in ages. Maybe forever? It certainly puts the POTP, Siege and Earthrise efforts to shame, and Kingdom Blackarachnia really can't compete either.
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ganon578
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Clay wrote: Fri Apr 30, 2021 1:33 amYeah, it's like a skiff, isn't it? Is that the right word? I don't know if that's the right word. I mean the boat with the big extensions on either side and another one down into the water. I wanna call it a space-skiff, but that may not be right.

But yeah, there's something fun about leaning into a problem like the whole robot hanging under the jet instead of trying conceal it away. It's different.
I think skiff is right. It seems to fit the mode too! I agree that they really went into it without having to deal with chunks of robot along the way, like some weird sense of design freedom.

The other day I grabbed Kingdom Core Class Megatron & Starscream. They're too small to replace my Voyager sized ones on the shelf, but they're quite well done and fantastic as desk bots. I like the range of articulation they have for the size class, and they have a surprising amount of detail. They're like suped up versions of the cheapo ones you can get from Family Dollar!
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Dinobot, Inferno and SS BB Starscream - A lay-by I picked up from Big W, the red and blue really pop on the Starscream.
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Tantrum
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Friday was 2 weeks since my 2nd shot, so I went toy shopping for the first time this calendar year.

Kingdom Dinobot - The highlight of the ones I've opened so far. It's just too bad they couldn't make the split tail weapon spin freely. There's no thigh swivel, but I think that would've confused me during the transformation, so I don't miss it.

Kingdom Airazor - I had a really hard time getting one of her legs to tab into place in bird mode. The hip joint may be slightly misaligned. I don't know if I'll have to exchange it. Is this a common problem?

Netflix Cheetor - From pics, this looked like the better deco to me. I didn't see the standard deco in hand until I saw a used one at a comic shop today. I made the right choice.

Kingdom Blackarachnia - MISB from the comic shop that had the used Cheetor. She was $25, but I figured it was worth the extra $5 to not drive around to another set of stores trying to find a Walmart/Target that still had her in stock.

Netflix Soundwave - I planned on passing on this guy, since the G1 reissue satisfies my Soundwave needs pretty well. But, he looked good in person, so I picked him up. Not opened yet.

Cyberverse Skullcruncher - I'm hard pressed to explain why I got him. He's not much bigger than the TR figure I have, lacks the headmaster, and has worse articulation. I don't even know if the gator jaw opens. But, he looked god, and what joints he has will probably be tighter than the TR figure.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Tantrum wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 9:14 pmKingdom Dinobot - The highlight of the ones I've opened so far. It's just too bad they couldn't make the split tail weapon spin freely. There's no thigh swivel, but I think that would've confused me during the transformation, so I don't miss it.
I haven't gotten a Dinobot yet, or even seen one, but the reviews I've read say that it DOES have a thigh joint but it's so tight that you need to oil the joint before it'll move at all.
Tantrum wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 9:14 pmKingdom Airazor - I had a really hard time getting one of her legs to tab into place in bird mode. The hip joint may be slightly misaligned. I don't know if I'll have to exchange it. Is this a common problem?
Do you mean where the tab on the gold waist piece fits into the slot on the orange thigh part? After experimenting with mine I can't find any angle where it doesn't just slide right in. But the hips are on mushroom joints...maybe one of them wasn't popped in all the way at the factory on yours? Or maybe the pin was put in crooked on one of them.
Tantrum wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 9:14 pmNetflix Cheetor - From pics, this looked like the better deco to me. I didn't see the standard deco in hand until I saw a used one at a comic shop today. I made the right choice.
Is the shade of blue the only difference?
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Tantrum
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

Post by Tantrum »

Thanks for the tip on Dinobot. I'm not concerned about the thigh swivel, I just noticed he didn't seem to have one when I tried to swivel his thighs because I thought that's how he transformed. As for finding him in store, I hit 3 Walmarts and a Target this weekend, and only saw him in one. I don't know if that means he's on his way in or on his way out, though.

That is the tab I mean for Airrazor. It went in easier the third time I tried, after not at all the first time, and with much difficulty the second. I can see the hip pins on the thighs are installed differently. The difficult one has the gold hip joint sticking slightly above the grey thigh piece, while they're flush on the easier one. plus, the difficult leg has gold covering the rear of the pin, while the easy hip has the silver pin visible from the rear.

The shade of Cheetor blue is the main difference for me. The wiki has a full breakdown. I didn't notice the red beast eyes on the regular release when I saw it in store, but much prefer the green Netflix eyes.
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Generation 2 Slag
I've been playing about with my G2 figures lately, I thought about getting the Dinobots. So now I have a green Slag. He's cool. The green colouring is a bit mad. I don't really know what Hasbro were thinking with the Dinobot colours they went for. They kind of fall into the 'nice try' category for me, not being as mental/awesome as things like the G2 Combaticons and Sideswipe, but a step up from the pretty boring 'will this do' efforts of the Aerialbots.

I also bought a pile of Gobots!

Buggyman
Superior to Transformers Beachcomber, Buggyman is a flipping ace robot/ beachbuggy. Mine has some wonky stickers that are starting to peel off and some minor paintwear.

Pathfinder
Fantastic UFO lady who does the UFO/Robot thing way better than Cosmos. Absolutely love this figure.

Man-O-War
Charming regular robot man turns into a big gunship type thing.

Deep Dive (Grey Version)
Fun wee submarine chap. Legs are a bit massive in robot mode. Peeling stickers, but otherwise in good nick. Nice.

Bugsie
Weird eggwisked armed alien robot that turns into...a face on wheels? Pretty cool, all the same.

Bladez
Hardcore porcupine space alien robot thing. Arms a thing with this one. Second version of this figure I've owned that's had a left arm that just won't budge.

Klaws
Endearingly derpy alien robot that turns into I don't know what. It looks crap, but there's something I love about this sad little try hard.

Puzzler
I owned this about 12 years ago, so he's no longer a suprise. Like that earlier version, he's loose as heck, but I do like the engineering that went into this combiner. Much more impressive than Devastator, even if the big bald bloke that is the gestalt is a bit gormless. Need to find a replacement for the blue lad, as one of his feet is broken (it was a cheap set) so the gestalt looks a bit drunk. Individual robot modes aren't going to win any beauty contests, being serviceable at best, but the bright colours and great choice of alt modes make this a top set of figures.

Rock Lords Sticks And Stones (I think. The green one with two heads)
It's funny that Rock Lords are quite easy to find on the secondary market, but mostly without their guns. Founds this daft green lump with his silly double headed spiky lolly stick for cheap. He's a bit of fun. Transforming rocks. Jesus Christ. Still can't get over that this was a legit toyline by one of the biggest toy manufacturers in the world. As a line, it does seem to be the sort of 'riding the coat-tails' effort that things like Roadbots gives us today.
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Studio Series B-127 & Galactic Odyssey Collection: Botropolis Rescue Mission.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Beast Wars Megatron

This is a toy that they've made, what, five or six times over by now? Beast Wars Megatron has to be one of the most revisited designs in the franchise, and unlike other old standards like G1 Optimus, there's not much they can do to shake up the formula. The dino legs are his legs, the tail and head are his arms and the torso is somewhere in between. You can't really "fake" any of those parts like we've seen them do with Prime's grille, for example. So on the one hand, the transformation never really changes that much...there's very little difference here, fundamentally, from the tiny Robot Masters Megatron I got from Clay ages ago. Or even from Age of Extinction Scorn, who reused the same basic layout. But on the other hand, they have gotten really good at building toys that use this pattern.

Megatron is fantastic. The figure looks great. The robot mode is dynamic. The beast mode, even more so. It's a better dinosaur toy than the actual dinosaur toys my son owns. It even has the same sort of "fleshy" feel to it that the old Kenner Jurassic Park toys had back in the old days, because Hasbro basically made Megatron from a hard plastic skeleton with softer, more pliable bits riveted onto it. You need to be a bit careful with some of the hinges when you're transforming him because of that, though. It also makes him a surprisingly heavy hunk of robot.

It might be a familiar formula by this point, but this is a very good execution of that formula.
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Skyquake87
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Generations Selects Tigertrack
This nicely scratches the itch I've had for this figure for such a long time. Of all the funny G1 repaints of the 2000s, this is the one I'd wanted since I clapped eyes on it. I like the MP version but those things aren't fun to play with. This is just lovely. Nice bright yellow, a decent rifle AND the shoulder cannon that splits in two... fantastic. Absolutely love this thing and it makes me happier than my fifth (!) purchase of this mould should.

Netflix Soundwave
I was all set to pass this guy by, but I do like Soundwave and this is a good update. Improved immeasurably over the Siege version by actually transforming into something. Robot mode is nice and beefy and looks much nicer for dropping all the Siege scuffing. Laserbeak and Ravage are a mixed bag. Laserbeak looks ace in robot mode, but it was clearly a bit much to try and fashion anything approaching cassette alt-mode detailing on a Generations budget. The figure suffers the indignity of just folding up into nothing and looking like an emaciated version of whatever they were pretending the Siege 'Cassettes' turned into. Ravage on the other hand looks great in alt-mode, which has nice Micro Cassette detailing, but the robot mode.... looks like a flying squirrel. It is better than the Masterpiece version though, with its pipe cleaner legs.

Studio Series 86 Grimlock
I've not been terribly interested in the SS86 line, if I'm honest. Yet more versions of characters we've had before (and only very recently in the Prime Wars Trilogy), but the size and chunk of this figure really appealed to me. It is as great as everyone says. Not without it's flaws, but a solid update / rendition worthy of the original toy. The robot mode is absolutely fantastic and I don't know what they could have done to make this any better. I like the smoked chest plate, big beefy arms and legs and chest. Comparisons to the Masterpiece version are rife, and I can see why, but really, it's just an really well done update of the Diaclone toy. In beast mode he looks good ...until you get to the tail, which is very wide and flat, like someone lazily sticking their tongue out. In fact, his back end suffers the same problems as the POTP version - it's just a bit too wide podgy looking. I'm also not fond of the weird nylon material used for the beast mode arms. This stuff feels a bit brittle and easy to break, so I won't be twiddling the arms and might have to keep the box for storage, as I suspect they won't put up with being dumped in a bin with other figures.

Super Gobots Herr Fiend
I scored a really nice condition (aside from the stickers) example of the red version of the dastardly doctor. Putting this fella next to my Transformers, it's clear why Gobots never stood much of a chance. I do love their weird classic Sci-Fi charms though. Shame Ban Dai never got a bit more creative with their Car Robots, but hey ho.
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Warcry
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Heinrad is to blame for me buying both of these.

Kingdom Dinobot

A rather flawed toy, but I like it in spite of the flaws. The beast mode is a confluence of bad ideas -- those hands, that derpy head, conflating modern "realistic" raptor body proportions with 90s Jurassic Park style leathery skin -- that's somehow even less than the sum of its parts. But a very clean, kibble-free robot mode mostly makes up for it. Dinobot is a nicely poseable robot too, which is good because I can't imagine I'll want to transform it to beast mode very often. He also pairs up really nicely with Paleotrex, and carrying around a sword and shield made from a dead enemy's skeleton just feels like a natural fit for Dinobot. I think those two are going to be a pair for a while on my desk.

Studio Series 86 Hot Rod

Hot Rod was literally my hero when I was a little boy, so it's impossible for me to be objective and this toy makes me really happy. But it's almost as flawed as Dinobot. The elephant in the room with this toy is obviously the size, considering the Voyager price tag. The immediate counter-argument is "it's way more complex than a Deluxe", and that's not wrong. This is clearly a toy that was designed to be a Voyager. The problem is that (much like Kingdom Blackarachnia) it feels like scale extremists snuck into Hasbro HQ after the design process was finished and shrunk down the CAD designs to be the size that it's "supposed" to be rather than the size that the design itself called for. If Hasbro had made this exact toy, with exactly the same engineering, at a standard Voyager size, it could have been one of the best figures they've ever made. But they didn't, and the end result is...rather less than that. And the issue here isn't a "value for money" thing. I got the toy on sale, and anyway I've paid far stupider amounts of money for worse Deluxe-sized toys in the past. It's that too many parts feel too delicate, too many tabs are too small and too many transformation steps have too little clearance. If Hot Rod was as substantial as Dinobot, the toy would be a lot more fun to handle.

Hot Rod looks great -- five year old me literally had dreams of owning a toy of Hot Rod that looked this good. The robot mode is super neat, nicely poseable, with no kibble to speak of. The car mode also looks great. The accessories are nice, albeit none of them feel essential to a character like Hot Rod, who spends all of the movie running around blasting folks with his wrist guns and most of his TV show and comic book time hanging out with a Targetmaster. The transformation manages to make sense of the three or four different ways he was shown to transform in the movie, but between the small size and the fiddliness I don't really find myself feeling very enthusiastic about transforming it.

All in all, May was a good month for me.
Image
Skyquake87 wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 8:02 pmGenerations Selects Tigertrack
This nicely scratches the itch I've had for this figure for such a long time. Of all the funny G1 repaints of the 2000s, this is the one I'd wanted since I clapped eyes on it. I like the MP version but those things aren't fun to play with. This is just lovely. Nice bright yellow, a decent rifle AND the shoulder cannon that splits in two... fantastic. Absolutely love this thing and it makes me happier than my fifth (!) purchase of this mould should.
Okay, so this makes me feel not so bad about wanting to buy Selects Deep Cover when I already own Sideswipe and Red Alert...

I like a lot of what Siege had to offer, but I feel like the space!Lambo is one of the ones that really separates itself from the pack. The number of folks you see on other sites pining for an "Earth-mode" retool kind of baffles me, though. It already looks like an Earth car so unless they're going to make him a licensed Countach, how would it be any different?
Skyquake87 wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 8:02 pmNetflix Soundwave
RED EYES, BOO!
Skyquake87 wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 8:02 pmRavage on the other hand looks great in alt-mode, which has nice Micro Cassette detailing, but the robot mode.... looks like a flying squirrel. It is better than the Masterpiece version though, with its pipe cleaner legs.
I feel like the only decent cassette Ravage toy they've ever managed was the 2008 Universe one, and every attempt since then has gotten progressively worse.
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HeavyArms
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Re: POST YOUR NEWEST ACQUISITIONS!

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Kingdom Ractonite - Bought from Amazon AU.

Studio Series Dino (DOTM) - Bought from Target.
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T 30 Nightbeat & Scoop,
Siege Impactor & Mirage,
Shattered Glass 2-pack (Optimus Prime & Ratchet) and
Studio Series Bonecrusher (TF1) -
From the TCCA Freight -Forwarding service.
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