Mould Completion (New Arrivals - Late August 2014)

A superb weekend of deliveries, both postal and in person, from friends and strangers. The theme is most definitely mould completion and variants from Transformers Animated to Prime, FOC and Generation 1. Variety is what it's all about when it comes to keeping the hobby fresh, but the fact is I already own every mould featured in this post. A leopard cannot change its spots, eh?

Beast Hunters Legion class "Bluestreak"

Let's start small. You may recall I started collecting the legion class Beast Hunters Smokescreen figures. I thought there were only 4 of them (Prowl, Stealth Smokescreen, Sky Claw Smokescreen and G1 Smokescreen) but I forgot Bluestreak and later learned of the Transformers Go! EZ Smokescreen. The latter is in the post and the former arrived this weekend. One of very few actual blue "Bluestreak" toys we've ever received in the hobby, and a lovely penultimate step to mould completion on this one.

Family Mart exclusive C prize Animated Activators Skywarp 

I already have a loose Family Mart exclusive Japanese Animated Activators Skywarp, but this carded one was an absolute bargain and looked lovely in its packaging. I couldn't pass it up. That purple nosecone is so Mexican G1 variant Skywarp that it was always going to swing me. Plus, I still don't have a voyager Skywarp...

Animated Electrostatic Soundwave and Ratbat

It's basically Soundblaster

With Hasbro Ratbat and SDCC Knights of Unicron Ratbat

Thanks to Morg at Masterforce.co.uk for delivering this one by hand, it's been a long time coming but I finally have the Hasbro repaint of Animated Soundwave, this is "Electrostatic" Soundwave. Surely we all just see it as Soundblaster? He comes with the marvellous Ratbat keytar, and is also shown above with the SDCC exclusive Knights of Unicron Ratbat which is one of two I bought from Lena on eBay. One came complete, the other was missing all his innards. Ah well, we know what we get from Lena.

TFCC exclusive Animated Jackpot

Possibly the best use of the mould?

Great paint job, weirdly brittle joints

This has also been very long in coming considering I have virtually every other Transformers Animated exclusive, this could actually be the easiest of them all and yet took me the longest to get at a good price. The Animated take on Actionmaster Jackpot is beautiful, with a super new head sculpt. Morg offered this to me some time ago but a couple of auctions and a friend's bargain made me think the price was too high. A couple of months later, a bunch of lost auctions and I went crawling back asking if it was still available. Worth every penny, what a delightful looking figure. Something about the ball joints scares me though, they are extremely tight and I can imagine that just the slightest amount of mis-applied pressure could result in breakage. One to admire from afar methinks. Transformers Collector's Club exclusive, by the way, they've had some nice ones.

Takara Tomy Animated Rodimus. Purple shiny.

This is the last of the Animated arrivals, a Takara Tomy deluxe Rodimus. I have all the special colours of this mould - Sideswipe, Black Rodimus, Clear Rodimus, Breakdown (on the way) - and yet none of the basic versions. So here's the TT version complete with shiny purple sections courtesy of Colin Pringle/Specimen-17 in China. If you haven't already, you really need to see the things he's selling for his friend here.

FOC Soundblaster and Buzzsaw

Even more mould completion! I have FOC Blaster and Soundwave plus all their Data Discs, this was inevitable. For £18 delivered I couldn't say no to a UK DIscussion Thread member's sealed FOC Soundblaster, surely less than retail! It comes with my 11th Data Disk, Buzzsaw. The voyager mould is really classic Transformers goodness and the discs are a gimmick that will never get old. Everything about these toys is a success and I recommend them to everybody.

TF Prime Dark Energon Wheeljack

My love for the deluxe TF Prime Wheeljack mould does nothing but soar, and having bought Arms Micron Wildrider, Dead End and Beast Hunters Wheeljack recently, the Dark Energon clear blue Wheeljack was at the top of the shopping list. Another massive thank you to Morg. This figure is pretty gorgeous in the clear blue with tinted red windows, an example of how to execute a very simple repaint. Just the Transformers Go! Hunter Wheeljack, TFCC Chromedome and hopefully an unpainted prototype left to round off this stellar deluxe mould's run of variants. Oh and...

Arms Micron Wheeljack

No coloured paint application, comes with stickers

Targetmaster style Micron comes unassembled

...Arms Micron Wheeljack was another version of this spectacular mould I needed, and I wasn't too fussed until I was shown exactly what the deal was with Arms Micron.The toy is completely white, reminiscent of an unused G1 Wheeljack or Diaclone Lancia Stratos - great seeing as just how much the vehicle mode is modeled on a road-going Stratos - and has a stickersheet. How retro! How utterly divine it looks all in white. he comes with a targetmaster-style Micron that has to be assembled off the sprue and hexagonal peg holes moulded into the hood and a remoulded wing also for accommodating the Micron. I had no idea AM were so far removed from TF Prime. This thing is a shattering flashback to the Diaclone and G1 era, and possibly my favourite presentation of the mould. I can't wait to see what the all-white robot will look like. I almost feel like getting another AM Wildrider, but unused, just to have a plain grey one without stickers applied.

Chinese KO white Rotorstorm

Craptastic, yet wonderful

Still nothing on the original though

Icing on the cake, again from Colin in China, one of two bootleg G1 Rotorstorms. Anyone who's spent any time following this blog will know how I came to have a G1 Rotorstorm in my collection and what a joy that experience was, not to mention the incredible toy itself. The epitome of what was good about Generation 1, now in more colours! Admittedly this white, green and red repaint is a heap of crap, as is the blue KO seen at the head of this post, but they look good together with the original. Imagine a Machine Wars Sandstorm and Universe Whirl added to the mix and what do you have? Mould completion. When I saw a carded white Rotorstom on another TF collector's blog, I told Colin (another massive Rotorstorm fan) and the search for the KO began in earnest on Taobao. It took mere minutes to find them and Colin's Chinese contact mere minutes to secure them. Cheap, cheerful and totally essential for anyone who worships this mould like I now do. Sadly, they were shipped sealed bu the white one was completely off the card when I opened the box, but looking at the other one, I suspect the adhesive was based more on good thoughts than anything chemically sticky. They come with a stickersheet as well and a cardback covered in G1 Rotorstorm art. The cheeky buggers even put Autobot stickers on the factory sticker beneath the rotor blades! In these colours that fantastic head sculpt looks very Road Caesar. I love it.

TF Animated sticker book

OK I lied again, there is one more Animated piece I got, but it isn't a toy and yet it might be my favourite arrival of them all. A TF Animated sticker book! Seriously the book is full of character art, the stickers are awesome and when the iPhone 6 is released in time for my contract upgrade, that honking great Lockdown sticker is going on the back of the phone. There's even a sticker showing Lockdown's vehicle interior, complete with a chain-made steering wheel. Just brilliant.

A great weekend, jackpot indeed.

All the best
Maz