Summer 2021 Hauls!!

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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JediTricks
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Re: Spring 2021 Hauls!!

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Ursus mellifera wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:00 am
JediTricks wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:04 am Kingdom Rhinox - a decent bot mode, an ok beast mode, and a horrible transformation separating them
Also, what the eff is up with his robot head? The T30 figure had way better sculpting. I might try to switch them, honestly.
The design is loosely based around the new Forged to Fight design, which is a very odd choice. I am not sure they can swap, but if you can make it work, more power to ya.

Shockwave wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 11:16 am Does a new job count? Because I got hired at a new job after being on unemployment for over a year. It's nice to have a stable source of income again. I start on July 6, and it's almost $1 more per hour than I was making at my previous job.
Big congrats!
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See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
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Shockwave
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Re: Spring 2021 Hauls!!

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JediTricks wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:22 am
Ursus mellifera wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:00 am
JediTricks wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:04 am Kingdom Rhinox - a decent bot mode, an ok beast mode, and a horrible transformation separating them
Also, what the eff is up with his robot head? The T30 figure had way better sculpting. I might try to switch them, honestly.
The design is loosely based around the new Forged to Fight design, which is a very odd choice. I am not sure they can swap, but if you can make it work, more power to ya.

Shockwave wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 11:16 am Does a new job count? Because I got hired at a new job after being on unemployment for over a year. It's nice to have a stable source of income again. I start on July 6, and it's almost $1 more per hour than I was making at my previous job.
Big congrats!
Yeah, we tried, you can't, the ball joints are different sizes, as are the heads themselves.

Thank you!! It's going well so far.
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andersonh1
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Re: Summer 2021 Hauls!!

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Anderson actually bought a Marvel ominbus: Fantastic Four omnibus vol. 2, classic Stan Lee/Jack Kirby material. Lots of good stuff in here: first appearances by the Silver Surfer, Galactus, and the Black Panther; Dr. Doom's origin, the wedding of Sue and Reed and other things that are apparently pretty foundational to Marvel Comics in general. I thought volume 1 took some time to really get good and the quality was variable, but most of the stories in this volume are really good and have made me a fan of these characters.
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Re: Summer 2021 Hauls!!

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MOTU Origins Tri-Klops, Faker and Battle Armor Skeletor. I got the extra Tri-Klops because I sacrificed the one I had for a commissioned custom project. The guy paid me for it, so he got it. BBTS finally got their stock in. They also got Faker, one of, if not my most favorite character. The extra BA Skeletor is to make a custom Battle Armor Faker. Ideally, I would have another Faker to use for that, but distribution of this line is it's worst enemy. The afforementioned Triklops was found once at my local Target (the one that wound up being part of the commission)... and then never again. Anywhere. And I've never seen anything past that wave of figures, in spite of knowing they are getting more product in (this line doesn't shelf warm. Even the evergreen versions of He-Man and Skeletor that are everywhere continue to sell out). Anyway....

Buzzworthy Bumblebee and Buzzworthy Bumblebee 4 pack: So the first one is the Target exclusive that turns into his Cybertronian alt mode from the first episode of More Than Meets the Eye. even comes with the Energon conductors. Honestly, I really like this one. The Transformation is fun and creative and different and even manages to use the G1 cartoon bot mode parts in alt mode, with no faux parts. Impressive. Also comes with a gun and jetpack, which I'm pretty sure are the ones from the Centurion Drone set. The 4 pack is the one with Nemesis Primal, Blackarachnia, Bumblebee, and Fangry. Honestly, it was really just Fangry that sold me on this set. And he's... ok. It's a repaint/remold of Twinferno, which is fine. I like the Headmaster stats detail on his chest... that is until I realized there's nothing to cover it up and it's not removable, so he's just constantly there with his stats out. I mean, if they're going to reference the gimmick, they might as well do it well enough to accomodate that part of it? I dunno. If this is the only reason anyone is considering this set, it's not worth it. Nemesis Primal isn't an interesting enough concept to carry it, Blackarachnia is... fine, I guess, but I do like the colors and deco on the regular version better. The head on this one is more like a Tarantulus head and the chest has like these weird cheetah spots that I think are supposed to reference the texture on the original but doesn't really pull it off well. Instead it looks like she's wearing a cheetah print sports bra. Bumblebee is literally yellow Earthrise Cliffjumper with a Bumblebee head. In fact, I might actually just mold Cliffjumper's head and do that. Oh, it also comes with the Allspark. yay. :| I dunno, I think I'm probably going to sell these off individually on ebay and see if anyone wants them. I think this is the first time I'm not going to recommend something. I'm sorry, but it's just not worth the value. Fangry was not executed well enough to carry it and there's far better versions of everyone else available. Skip it unless you really hardcore love Fangry. Instead spend your money on the Cybertronian Bumblebee, that this is clever and fun and comes with a lot of cool stuff.
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Re: Summer 2021 Hauls!!

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MOTU Origins He-Man, Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Prince Adam & Sky Sled, Battle Cat - stupid ass me watched Power of Grayskull on Netflix then found He-Man and Skeletor for $12 the next day at Target and that opened the flood gates. These MOTU-O figures have great sculpting, great value, great articulation, and a great nostalgia feel without being precious. Prince Adam was a clearance item and a fantastic set at that, with the weakest element being the pink power sword's hilt being slightly too big for his hands to hold straight. Evil-Lyn is ok, there's not as much detail to the female MOTU sculpt so this adaptation has less to work around, it makes the knee joint clumsy looking, otherwise she's fine but not as exciting. Battle Cat is the letdown, I got him for $22 and am not thrilled, he's the weakest entry in this line so far because they sculpted him too big compared to the original, but my real issue is that they cheaped out on articulation - just swivel shoulders instead of ball-hinged, and no ankle articulation at all. I had wanted Panthor as well, now I don't. I do like the jaw articulation, but that's not enough. I do have Teela on preorder, but I think that'll be my last in this line.

GI Joe Classified Roadblock classic - really good figure, the new sculpted head and torso look fantastic, way better than the first THREE Roadblocks in this line which all use that first sculpt that looks so not like Roadblock. The drawbacks are the wrist articulation being in/out instead of up/down doesn't work with the big gun, there's no sci-fi styling at all so it isn't a great fit with the others, and the web gear is made of rigid plastic which doesn't work with posing very well. But his face paint is great and he has a lot of presence.

Buzzworthy Bumblebee Origins Bee - $23 is way too much for an open-window box like this, it looks so cheap when everyone can just touch it willy nilly. The figure is decent, kibble in alt mode on the backpack and lower legs, but it's a charming figure with a great head sculpt and faux G1 chest. Transformation is fun if you don't mind panels, and alt mode is a cute little flying saucer despite the MTMTE alt mode actually being a car with wheels and this has no wheels. Panel lines and Bee's face looking out the undercarriage are the drawbacks in alt mode.

GI Joe Classified Cobra Island Baroness w/ COIL bike, Cobra Viper, Cobra Trooper, Firefly, Beach Head - Target finally pulled their heads out of their asses and got this together only a year late. There's not a loser in the bunch, even the COIL Bike which isn't that cool is as bad as expected. Baroness should have had boot articulation though, she's riding a motorcycle after all.
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Re: Summer 2021 Hauls!!

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I still like Battle Cat and Panthor. Yeah, ankle articulation would have been nice, but it doesn't kill it for me. I've been able to find most of this at retail. The only ones I paid more for were Trap Jaw and... I think that was it. I have the following figures, which I'm willing to sell for $15 each, if you're interested. Most are really well done figures: Tri Klops, Mer-Man, Roboto, Man at Arms, Teela, Orko, Stratos, Man-E_Faces. I also have Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor and Ram Man, which I'm willing to let go for $20.00 each, and I also have the Cronis and Keldor two pack, I could let that and Trap Jaw go for $30 each ($30 for Trap Jaw and then $30 for Cronis and Keldor together). I do kind of hate to get rid of these, but the experience of trying to find them (particularly Tri Klops) has killed it for me. So yeah, If you're interested in getting these at actual retail price, let me know.
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Re: Summer 2021 Hauls!!

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Ordered a format I have not tried before: the Starman Compendium volume 1, which is essentially a 1400 page trade paperback. I'll have to report back on how readable a paperback of this size is, whether there's gutter loss, etc. I remember reading the first year of this series but not the rest, because I quit reading most comics for a while in the mid 90s. But I enjoyed what I read and always intended to go back and read more, so this was a prime opportunity to get half the series in one book for $35. I copied the contents from Amazon because there's something like 55 issues in one book: Starman #0-42, Starman 80-Page Giant #1, Starman Annual #1, Starman Annual #2, Starman Secret Files #1, Showcase '95 #12, Showcase '96 #4, Showcase '96 #5, The Power of Shazam! #35 - #36, and The Shade #1-4. Given the blurb on the cover, it appears we have the existence of the Stargirl tv series to thank for the existence of this book.
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Re: Summer 2021 Hauls!!

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Ok, so I know I said I'm done with toy collecting and collecting in general BUT, my wife and I just took our honeymoon in Disneyland last week. And do you really think I would go and not buy stuff? Yeah, I bought stuff. But, I have to give myself credit for holding back far more than I would have before giving things up. So, with that said:

Honeymoon Hauls!: Custom lightsabers from Savi's Workshop. My wife and I both did this and we both have lightsabers that are unique to us. And they're pretty freakin awesome! Each one has parts that you select when putting it together, meaning that there's very few that are the same (in spite of this, as I looked around the room, I saw 4 others with my same configuration. But at least the blade colors were different). Also, each one has a crystal in it that determines the blade color and you can buy the other color crystals from the shop after the experience, which I did. My wife chose blue for hers and I chose purple so I bought the 4 other remaining colors, so we could change them if we wanted to. I also got some more droids. But, I did not get that many, nor did I find the droid I was looking for. Everything was decorated for Halloween and every year Disneyland has exclusive holiday themed Astromech droids, one each for Halloween and Christmas. I was looking for the Halloween droid for this year, but it was already sold out everywhere. I did get a 5 pack of droids which are the first ones you see going into Galaxy's Edge (depending on where you enter, they were the first ones we saw). I also got a BB Droid.

Jedi and Sith Holocrons: This is way more of a story than it should be. So I saw these in the store after the lightsaber experience and thought they looked cool but didn't feel the need to get what I thought was a glorified nightlight. On our last night there, we were cruising around Downtown Disney and decided to go into the Star Wars Trading Post to see if they had better stuff there than in the park itself. Which they did. But, one of the things I saw in one of the cases was what looked like a pink Kyber Crystal (for the lightsabers). I asked about and was told there is no pink because no one in Star Wars uses a pink lightsaber, there's only purple. My wife then makes a comment about how she thinks my lightsaber looks more pink that purple and they told me to go get it, bring it back and have a look at it. I did and we determined that it is, in fact purple. Then we started talking about putting the crystals into the holocrons. And apparently they are WAY more than just nightlights. In addition to turning whatever color crystal you put into them, they will also say quotes from whatever character wielded that color lightsaber. In addition to that, there are two other crystals, one red and one green that will always be the voices of Darth Vader and Yoda respectively. These two crystals essentially turn them into a magic 8 ball and answer questions randomly, using quotes from both characters. On top of that, if you place the Sith holocron on top of the Jedi one, they actually interact with each other! Yeah, they are WAY more than just lights. All of this got demonstrated in the store, so I bought one of each and the two "magic 8 ball" crystals. We also got a puzzle cube and a metal gift card.

I also got a Black Widow shirt from the Guardians of the Galaxy gift shop. My wife got some t-shirts and sweatshirts and of course, her lightsaber.

We also spent a day at Universal Studios. Went to Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Got some Butterbeer and the mugs that go with it, my wife and I both got wands, and she got a Jurassic Park t-shirt. I went on the Transformers ride, which was fun, but obviously has not been updated since revenge of the fallen. The gift shop also didn't have much that I wanted on account of most of it being movie bots and I don't care for the movie bot aesthetic. I did see SS86 Wreck Gar, but.. yeah, since I'm selling off almost everything in that scale, I just couldn't justify it.
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