New Arrivals - October 2014

Mercifully haven't done one of these posts for a while as they were literally taking over the blog, and October has been much slower in terms of arrivals which again I am pleased with, but here's a quick run down of what's new. In this first picture you can see a number of figures already reviewed on this blog like Human Alliance Leadfoot, KO Animated Activators Lockdown and the wonderful die cast KO Activators Bumblebee, but also a sealed Takara Tomy Animated Electrostatic Soundwave, sealed Hasbro Animated Rodimus Minor and sealed Hasbro Animated Ironhide (none of which are sealed any more) and Hasbro Animated Skywarp.

In addition I received a FOC Soundwave clear test shot with a clear data disc Laserbeak too, and that was reviewed here. You may also have noticed that he doesn't come out great on a white background, hence the use of black backgrounds in the dedicated post. Lucky Draw gold Animated deluxe Megatron and Optimus Prime also showed up as part-trade reward for saying goodbye to a much-loved Diaclone, but man was it worth it. LOOK at those things! Dedicated post ready and will appear on the blog soon.

Two very important Wheeljacks for my shrine to the TFPrime Wheeljack mould. I finally bought the Japanese Transformers Go! Hunter Wheeljack, the Takara Tomy version of the Beast Hunters Wheeljack which doesn't have the smoky black sections on the white chassis and replaces much of the red sections on the wings and mace with gold and black. The quality of this one way outshines the Hasbro, with nowhere near the looseness exhibited. Finally, the last of my favourite deluxes sealed came courtesy of a UK website that had them for £8.00 only!! Take that eBay sellers who wouldn't accept £20 best offers (seriously, why even have the feature if you insist on selling £0.01 cheaper than BIN price?). So I now have Animated Blurr, Animated Bumblebee, Animated Lockdown, TFPrime Wheeljack and ROTF Lockdown sealed, my favourite deluxes in gorgeous preserved form.

This is today's arrival, the latest, including a boxed Japanese Animated Blackout - meaning a good friend will get my current loose one - and the all gold EZ collection Legends Animated Prime. I really never considered going for these exclusive Legends, but interesting ones kept appearing for a pittance or in lots from Japan so a healthy collection blossomed, and I went completist mad on them as everyone expected me to. Just the all and semi-clear Bumblebee and Prime to go for the full run of Animated legends variants.

Also in that picture you can see the Japanese "Fight Of Start" giftset, which contains Animated deluxe Cybertronian Mode Optimus Prime and deluxe Cybertronian Mode Megatron. This is a unique set as this is the only way to get Cyb Mode Prime in Japan, and it has the shiny colour scheme which some love and some hate. Of course I love it, even if I prefer the Hasbro one. The Megatron is also the only way of getting that figure with no battle damage in grey, except it isn't grey it's silver. Again, a lovely set of variants that took way too long to track down and cost more than it should. The collectors cards are gorgeous for this set. Sadly by the time Blackout came out they were no longer being included.

This is a picture I wanted to include because at a recent UK Transformers pub meet, TFW user Kirk_A asked a great question: "If for whatever reason you lost all of your collection tomorrow, which five Transformers would you buy back first?". After the initial round of "I wouldn't buy any!" "I'd be free!", we named the first toy we'd get, then expanded to five toys. Here are mine: MP-11 Masterpiece Starscream, Binaltech Smokescreen GT, TFPrime Wheeljack, Animated Blurr and ROTF Human Alliance Jazz. That's right, no Generation1 and no Diaclone. No Mirage!! The fact that I own these toys and they are right here, yet I can't stop gazing at the photo tells me all I need to know about these figures.

Last but not least, Masterpiece Wheeljack arrived. Much more on him soon. Needless to say, he is everything I wished for and more. Easily, comfortably, effortlessly the best Masterpiece Autobot car so far. Well done Takara Tomy, he's a beauty.

All the best

Maz