My Daughter's Hand-Me-Downs

The new Transformers 4: Age Of Extinction theatrical trailer saw release today, so why not focus on some Movie toys? Seven years ago, the 2007 Transformers feature film was new, and the week it saw release in the US was the same week I met my future wife in New York City. It was on the way back from BotCon 2007 and that film's release was inextricably linked to that week where I met her. As we continued to see each other, I bought her gifts, as you do, and as a joke I bought her the above two movie toys from the UK to remember me by as we lived in different countries at the time. Having finally dug them out again on a recent trip back home, they have now been lovingly adopted by my daughter into her growing - and frightening - collection of Transformers.

Argos UK Bumblebee and Prime 2-pack

Voyager 2007 Optimus and Deluxe Concept Camaro Bumblebee

Now I had an embarrassingly large number of these Argos exclusive two packs (were they Walmart exclusives in the US? TRU?) featuring the Voyager Optimus Prime and Concept Camaro Bumblebee. They just looked so beautiful and were selling to foreign buyers very well. I had virtually every release of the Concept Camaro in 2007 but I never actually owned this Optimus myself, so having had it brought back by my wife, before the little one adopted it, I had the chance to mess with it. I like it, I know it's very far from what toys of the era and now can do, but I think it's got a solid truck mode (which all kids will love) and an engaging transformation.

A fun feature of this toy is the Peter Cullen-alike driver that disappears when you open the driver-side truck door. Close it and Cullen pops back down. A lovely chunky truck mode is great for little hands, although my daughter seems to enjoy the rockets, and using them as a screwdriver/key on all nearby doors, more than the toy itself.

In all honesty, I think for my daughter it will have to stay in truck mode. In robot mode there are just too many sections that come unstuck easily. The knees detach from the upper legs and missiles/barrels from the weapons come off far too easily. While I do find the thing pretty poseable and fun, that back kibble is significant. I have no idea if I've transformed him correctly, but I was amused to find out he has two right legs, one assembled back to front. That explains why the truck mode doesn't clip together perfectly. There's no rectangular cavity for the tab to clip into when you fold one of the legs up.

My daughter definitely has a thing for Bumblebee, ever since she spied that G1 keychain for the first time. She's taken a massive shine to my Animated deluxe Bee, and therefore this Concept Camaro from 2007 didn't stand a chance. It's hers, plain and simple.

Somewhere along the line, Bumblebee lost one of his yellow clip-on shoulder things, so I took the other off for symmetry (and swallow-proofing). I had so many versions of this mould in 2007 that all got sold (Battle Damaged, Premium etc), it was really nice to experience the mould again. In all honesty, I should never have been without it, such was my love for it and mission to find one in the UK when it first got released.

I still recall seeing the production sample at Hasbro's Rhode Island facility during the BotCon 2007 tour before it had hit the shelves, exciting times. I can't believe what hot property it was until the distribution was sorted in the UK and US. Issues include arms and legs that are very hard to pose satisfactorily, and a gun/blade that is super loose in his hands. That could just be this specimen though. 

You can actually see Prime's back to front leg through the box front. Oops.

It has actually got to the stage now with my daughter's Transformers that I - the main influence - have commented to my wife that she definitely has too many robots. So I hope I can resist adding more to her (yeah...her) collection because I feel there's already too many there for a 2 year old to appreciate. She's still partial to Powermaster Prime, the minibot keychains and the Fall Of Cybertron data disks, but I think Hot Rod, Classics Wheeljack and probably this Optimus and Bumblebee will be more fleeting interests. I definitely asked my wife to bring these back as much for my daughter's enjoyment as for my own agenda of wanting a wider variety of things to photograph and write about for this blog and Source Blog. This is especially pertinent when I am coming to the end of my 3rd month with no new toys added to my own collection. For the time being, here is Pooky's collection as it stands today:

All the best
Maz