January 2015 Hauls!

[138 Scourge]

And now for the first haul of the year. Whrn I bought Arcee the other day I was super impressed with it, and had enough left on a gift card to pick up another deluxe. I wound up going to pick up Chromia. First thoughts on it are that I don't like it as much as Arcee, but it's still looks pretty good in both modes.

[BWprowl]

RID Warrior Class Grimlock - I'd been thinking about this one since we first saw pics of the toys, mainly predicated on the fact that RID15 Grimlock's dino mode is goddamn adorable. After seeing DvD's review say that the toy was apparently pretty good, I went ahead and picked it up. It's indeed a nice little toy. Simple, but works with it well, similarly to Strongarm from the same wave. I like how unassuming his Robot Mode is, nothing about it really screams 'turns into a giant green dinosaur' save for the dino arms on the back if you catch sight of them. Transformation is rather clever too, feeling like a natural evolution of the 'classic' Grimlock scheme; the legs/tail in particular are interesting. Dino mode is exactly what I wanted it for: an adorable stompy monstersaur that's only a 'Tyrannosaurus' in the most basic fantasy terms, and it looks great like that. Woulda been nice if he'd come with some sort of weapon or accessory, but as-is, still a fun toy.

I've actually turned out to really like the 'philosophy' or what-have-you of what RID15 and its designs have been doing so far. Yeah, the altmodes are nothing new or interesting, but there's lots of new stuff like Strongarm and pretty much all of the Decepticons (with their vehicle-to-animal-bot style), and even the 'retreaded' characters like Bumblebee and Grimlock are SO far away from their classic, idiomatic interpretations that they still feel brand-new and interesting (as opposed to TFPrime or even Animated which were basically "G1 run through a Photoshop filter"). They keep this up and I really could be all-in (I'm even thinking of getting *Bumblebee* for chrissakes!). Now I really hope the cartoon turns out to be half-decent.

[BWprowl]

Found Combiner Wars Drag Strip and Alpha Bravo at a Target, so I bought them. I'm actually more impressed than I expected to be with both of them. They're definitely a step up from the last Generations Combiners we got (Bruticus), being bigger and way more solid, less problems with hollowness, or that 'airy' plastic Hasbro was using at the time. Counter to the Bruticus Bunch, which I was glad I was able to just get as a set, these guys feel satisfying on their own, as individual toys. Drug Trip has a great-looking vehicle mode, with a nice robot mode marred only by a weird-lookin' headsculpt and kind of a cruddy chest. His sword is cool though and I like that he can hold his fistgun or mount it on a shoulder. Johnny Bravo, meanwhile, is just excellent all-around. I would have no problems getting this guy just as a kickass new helicopter Autobot, so that he'll also be combining into Superion is gravy. Love his colors, love his dynamic look, love his interesting foldy-boot leg transformation, love his giant DUAL CHAINGUN weapon and his arm-missiles, love that he's a new guy. He's just a bit of everything I wanted. But yeah, both these guys are great and I can't wait to find the rest of the wave if they all live up to this.

Oh, also grabbed the first couple volumes of Flowers of Evil at Barnes & Noble last night. The anime adaptation of this was a friggin' masterpiece, but despite that most signs point to no on the rest of the story getting adapted, so if I want to follow it, I'll have to read it. No sweat, here we go!

[andersonh1]

So of course I've been buying Transformers comics from IDW for what, almost 10 years now? I think Infiltration was published in 2005, which seems like a long time ago now. In any case, I'd never paid attention until recently to the fact that one of their lines is the Library of American Comics, where they collect mainly old newspaper strips in hardback form. They've gone back to the beginning and published stuff like Steve Canyon or Dick Tracy or Gasoline Alley, etc. What they've also begun publishing is the old Superman newspaper comics. The volumes I already own were published by a different company, and since I enjoyed them I went looking to see if anything else had been collected, which is how I found out about IDW's collections.

Anyway, IDW's Superman: the Golden Age Sundays 1943-46 arrived yesterday, and it's a huge book of Sunday comic strips, which had their own separate continuity from the daily strips. It's the size of Transformers Legacy, for those of you who own that book. It's hardback, with one of those ribbon bookmarks you rarely see any more (and while that sounds like a little thing, I'm always looking for bookmarks since I'm usually reading multiple books at one time). The comics are obvious scans rather than full reconstructions, but they've been cleaned up so that the quality is pretty good. The stories in this book hit right when WW2 was dominating the media, so it will be interesting to see if they explain why Superman doesn't just go and end the war all by himself.

[BWprowl]

Girls in boxes! Yeah, a whole shipment of fembots arrived from BBTS yesterday, bringing me Generations Windblade, Chromia, and Arcee.

Windblade’s the most mixed bag, being ungodly fiddly, especially in the wings going to vehicle mode. So many tabs and swivels and hinges and flip-out bits. I appreciate that her vehicle mode has the rotating fans, and her multitude of uses for her scabbard in robot mode, but there are issues as well. The legs in robot mode are kinda unstable themselves, the ‘heels’ not being great at helping her stand up, and she feels a little thin and flimsy in places, though that could just be her lithe design. She’s taller than she appears at first glance. Also, selfishly, I wish her headsculpt looked more like Sarah Stone’s art of the character (since that’s what even turned me onto the design in the first place), but given that this toy existed and produced before Stone could draw her like that, it’s hardly fair or plausible. Maybe for the inevitable ‘replacement’ Windblade Hasbro rams up our asses in a couple years? God knows they can’t just make one toy of a character anymore.

Chromia’s pretty much exactly what I wanted. The TFP Arcee mold already worked well, and I like the way the remolding on this one bulks her up considerably (especially love her new arms) while simultaneously resulting in her compacting down spectacularly for Lightcycle mode. Unlike Windblade, her looks are immediately evocative of the comic version, which is pretty much 100% of why I wanted her in the first place.

Arcee was ordered somewhat as an afterthought. I originally didn’t even care about getting her, but eventually came around since, hey, the fact that this toy exists is pretty amazing; I had previously been in the “Believed it would never happen” camp. And she turns out to be a pretty cool toy! She’s dynamic and posable, great colors and paint all over (just terrific use of black between the white/pink, especially around the legs). Love that she can ‘holster’ her guns. Head’s a little too G1-cartoony/humanoid for my tastes, but that’s what this toy’s specifically trying to do, so I can’t really fault it for it. Transformation is actually a pretty interesting shellformer spin, like the way the hips pop out and fuse with the back shell, and the weapon storage is keen. Her teeny little wheels work well overall too. I did have to eXacto out those idiotic ‘blocks’ at the bottoms of her hands so she could hold her weapons non-doofily, and if her hands wind up breaking or something later because of that, so be it. Fun toy, and again, impressive that they actually made the Arcee everyone said they wanted, but never actually thought they’d get.

[andersonh1]

I saw a couple of Windblades and a Chromia at Wal-Mart today, the first time I've seen either at retail. But my actual purchase was Nightbeat, who again has finally appeared here for the first time. I was tempted to buy Tankorr (I'm always happy to see a new Beast Machines figure) or Waspinator, but in the end Nightbeat won out, mainly because I don't own the mold or any version of Nightbeat, so I wanted to add a version of the character to my TF collection.

I'll write up my thoughts when I've had a chance to open the package and fiddle with him a bit. He looks great though. Repaint or not, it's a good homage to the original.

[BWprowl]

I got a new car! Well, new-ish, it's a 2011 Subaru Impreza, and it makes me very, very happy. My old '02 Sebring was almost literally falling apart, and I'd been hemming and hawing over upgrading for some time now, and when I saw this Subaru available for a cool 15 grand, I had to go for it. After the shaky, slow-to-start, wide-turning Sebring, the sweet power and 4-Wheel-Drive of this Subaru is just wonderful (I've wanted one of these cars for almost half my life, actually). I actually enjoy driving places now! Seriously, ecstatic.

Oh also, my brother gave me a late Christmas present yesterday: Dinosaurs Attack! Trade paperback! And I thought I couldn't get any happier, but getting the comic version that I never got past the first issue of (thank you very much selling-out single issues in comic shops) of one of my favorite things ever? Aw yeah.

[Shockwave]

Congrats on the new car, I think you win the thread for this month.

I just got the Star Wars Black Astromech droid that was in the background of that one scene that one time in Return of the Jedi. Because Astromech droid. I seriously can't have enough of these.

[andersonh1]

Yeah, congrats on the car!

Today's find: the Batman Archives vol. 1 at a local used bookstore. It looks almost new, so someone took care of it. Between my store credit and the fact that it was already half price, I wound up paying $16 for it, so it was well worth the cost. JT, you've read the first 10 stories in the book, because they're in the Batman Chronicles vol. 1. But the book contains the Batman stories from Detective Comics 27 to 50, so there was enough new material to make it worth the purchase. Not to mention that it's the higher quality paper so the colors really pop.

[Onslaught Six]

While everyone's off freaking out about RID15 (that's what I'm calling it and fuck what anyone else says), I've been more focused on the other RID. I think some of this is a mental need to hurry up and grab all the shit I'm still missing before it becomes too drastically hard to differentiate them via eBay, etc. Although I don't think I'm in any danger of guys like, say, Side Burn or Urban Ruination from getting confused for RID15 toys, other guys like Prowl or Ironhide, who are more likely to get a toy with that name in the new line. I'm not taking any chances, here!

Subsequently, I got:

-RID Tow-Line/Wind Sheer and Skid-Z/Skyfire, sealed on card. Yes, this despite buying Skid-Z individually online and Tow-Line at a toy show last summer. It turns out, the jets are drastically hard to come by, so I bit the bullet and bought both pairs sealed. I'll sell off the doubles later on. Speaking of which...
-A complete set of Predastooges. I bought BW Stinkbomb under the impression he was Gas Skunk at a toy show, and grabbed a Darkscream online to pair with him. Unable to find a loose Slapper, I bought an entire set. Now I have an extra Gas Skunk, damn it. (I'm fine with keeping Stinkbomb around since he's technically a different toy.)
Once you have all three together, they're actually quite pretty and a sight to behold. They have a lot of common colours and paint flourishes that definitely don't come off in the animation, like the silver painted claws on everyone and the orange chromed bits. I can't wait to put them on my RID shelf next to Skybyte and Gigatron! It's a dream come true after nearly fifteen years.

Weird thing: The Predastooges came wrapped in half-torn pages of a Dark Tower comic. What the fuck? I mean, sure, they arrived safely, but...who the hell just has that laying around and decides to use it? Buy some bubble wrap, dude! Or if you're cheap, use newspapers and coupon sheets you get in the mail for grocery stores you never go to--I do it all the time! But definitely not ripping up some comic or other. What the damn hell!

...So, anyone want to buy the two show Flipchangers and a Darkscream?