New Arrivals - Mid August 2014 (Part 1)

Another chapter in the conveyor belt of new arrivals in August. I'm really not wasting any time blasting through Transformers Animated, and I've started on Transformers prime and Beast Hunters - although very select moulds. There is a mix of BotCon and online purchases in this installment. Chronological order has gone out the window as I cannot recall what arrived when, or with what. I just know what I haven't pictured yet! Yeah, real healthy way to go about my collecting. Beats waiting 14 years for a Joustra Diaclone Sunstreaker though, eh?

Takara Tomy deluxe Animated Earth Prime - no battle damage

No shiny paint either

First up, the Takara Tomy single-packed deluxe Earth mode Animated Optimus Prime. Hasbro only released this toy as a battle damaged bot with tattoo-like blueblack/purple paint across its body. Takara Tomy released it in clear plastic too as part of Sons of Cybertron along with a clear Rodimus, and also single packed with no battle damage as a second prize for a Family mart lottery-style draw. I think. So Japanese and store exclusive second prize, ouch. It wasn't that hard to locate though, and there are more around. It's the gold chromed one I'm not looking forward to. Thankfully, this version is much tighter and generally better constructed than the clear version from Sons Of Cybertron which was quite floppy. Nice to have the proper Animated Optimus axe loose and accessible too! $50 shipped, very pleased!

Normal and Elite Guard deluxe Animated Bumblebees

Bumblebee and Starscream were the only Animated toys I kept after the 2011 cull, and Elite Guard Bumblebee was the first I bought when I started up Animated collecting again this year. Problem is, I gave it to a friend as a gift. Finally I bought another (and opened it as planned) along with a regular sealed deluxe Bumblebee which shall remain sealed as a tribute to what got me into the line in the first place and my first Animated toy purchase. I look forward to getting the Bumblebee/Ratchet 2-pack where the yellow Bee has all the Elite Bee moulding improvements.

Animated Lockdown MOSC

Apparently I didn't own enough Lockdowns, so here's the Hasbro Animated deluxe Lockdown sealed on card. I now have a loose Hasbro version to go with the Takara version, Hasbro Blazing, Hasbro Stealth, both Activators versions, Bot Shots and a ROTF Lockdown, so this Hasbro one will be kept sealed as a tribute, again, to a character and toy I'm loving more by the day. I still cannot fathom why I walked past this toy repeatedly on shelves in 2008 when I was buying the Animated cast. I just watched "Thrill Of The Hunt" with my daughter today, Lockdown is cool personified. £20 posted on this one, not quite as cheap as the likes of Sentinel, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Blazing Lockdown and company, this one demands a shade more in the UK sealed, but is still cheap as pretend chips in the US.

Animated Lockdown MOSC...er hang on...

So here's another MOSC Animated deluxe Lockdown. No wait, it;s a Blazing Lockdown with the chainsaw. No hang on, the car is the normal Lockdown and the packaging is a Blazing Lockdown card. A factory error as cool as they come!! No, wait, it's a re-seal. Arse.

Actually I knew that when I bought it, fact is for £8.50 posted one gets a minty loose Hasbro Lockdown (hadn't got mine from AA 2014 at this stage) and I have a free Blazing Lockdown from The Spacebridge here with no chainsaw (or engine), so it worked out quite well. Plus it looks nice and I may just leave it as it is.

Target exclusive Animated voyager Sunstorm with Activators Ratchet

£15 sealed at Auto Assembly, box was wrecked so an easy decision to open it immediately, I now have at least one voyager Starscream clone. I prefer Starscream's deco as the Sunstorm is painted a little haphazardly, especially the white paint on the face which doesn't look good in hand at all. It still features all the infuriating moulding flaws that make Starscream a look-but-don't-touch item. On top of that one of the fold-out arse flaps is missing a pin so it just falls off randomly when not clipped in, and the Activators Ratchet just won;t activate. Maybe because it;s been in robot mode for so many years (I was of the opinion that this would HELP it long term), it just can;t bring itself to unclench. Or clench. Whatever, bit of a duff package this one, and my daughter stole the Ratchet anyway so there goes my plan to make a few quid back on an extra. Sunstorm is pretty though, maybe I should have sprung for the shiny Takara Tomy version. There's a great story about how these were put out for like $8 or so at Target originally, leading to scalpers hoarding walls of this release. I'm quite certain one of those walls is where mine hails from. Toy karma, right there.

Beast Hunters deluxe Wheeljack

In my opinion, and yours, Transformers Prime (PRID) Wheeljack is one of the finest deluxe Transformers mould in history. It really is, bloody gorgeous in both modes, hyper-posable and the best transformation a deluxe class toy could ever wish for. The remoulded Beast Hunters toy is less than £10 shipped sealed on eBay UK so I jumped for it, and it's quite funky. In robot mode he looks like a mad jungle shaman waving that "Disc Launching Falcon Spear" around with his ape-like gait, and in vehicle mode he looks like something Clarkson and co brutalised on one of Top Gear's feature length berk-abouts in the desert. The angel wings are cool too, but for some reason the mould is not as sweet and flush as the PRID version, or even the Arms Micron Wildrider or Prime Dead End, so I hope it doesn't mean the sculpt is degrading, because that TFCC Chromedome is right up there on my Christmas list. Anyway, Mad Jungle Shaman Disc Launching Falcon Spear Beast Hunting Wheeljack definitely blesses the rains down in Africa.

TF Prime Dead End

Stratos inspired

This mould is so good, I bought what someone at AA lovingly called "Levy Roots Wheeljack". £8 sealed at the convention, I've fallen in love with this thing despite not understanding why anyone could want such garish colours and a bizarre head sculpt. I still don't like the Bay-ness of the head sculpt, but with AM Wildrider I have 2 Stunticons in what is nearly the best deluxe mould ever. His green light-sabre style laser swords are wicked too. Excellent toy, moulding and quality is still peachy.

Animated and Not-Animated

Direct from the source comes Mech iDeas Bluster and Trench, 3rd Party versions of the Animated Huffer and Pipes designs of Derrick J Wyatt. These are the screen versions and are exactly as expected, same as the Mario and Luigi "Mushroom Kingdom" exclusives I reviewed last month, but in Transformers colours. I prefer these colours and the packaging is a very nice nod to the Takara Tomy Transformers Animated packaging, shown ably by the Takara Tomy Shockwave "Original Version" below it. That too is new since I sold my Hasbro loose one, now the super tight and shiny Japanese version really impresses. I wanted this mould fresh out of the package and not used or worn, so I paid about £34 shipped, a bargain I reckon.

All the best

Maz