New Arrivals - Mid January 2015

And now to the mid-January arrivals. These include two extremely special Japanese releases of Evasion Mode Optimus Prime, both exclusives, a Masterpiece that we really ought to have had some time ago but were still made to suffer for and two things I didn't photograph. Those would be a sealed Arms Micron Wildrider and a Robots in Disguise legends class Bumblebee. To the Japanese stuff!

Evasion Mode Optimus Prime is without a doubt the finest thing to come out of Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. There are a great many versions, some of them harder to find than others. Japan has all the tricky exclusives, and the TF Expo show exclusive "Nemesis Prime" deco is among the tougher ones, but far from unavailable. The one you see here is opened, complete and was 10,000 yen from Yahoo Japan. I must have got lucky with a slight mis-list or bad time of day because it's the cheapest I've seen one sell for.

As beautiful as the matte black surfaces on this figure are in person, as devilish as those black and red features are on his chest and head, and however well they are set off by that almost electric cyan...I can't help but feel he is ever so slightly upstaged by what the TFW UK thread regulars have dubbed "Optiramisu Prime"...

An amazing paint job on the Rusty Version TRU Japan exclusive Evasion Mode Optimus Prime. I'm guessing it's a TRU exclusive because of the sticker on the box. These were offered at Orbital Comics for £45 in store, and to be fair I should have grabbed one immediately in London. I decided it wasn't for me, then learnt the ways of Evasion Prime worship. It's almost Ultra Magnus, but it's 100% gorgeous. These two Takara Tomy decos are easily the best this mould has offered so far, and they transform much more smoothly than both Hasbro versions I have. The Rusty Prime is one of those rare figures I think absolutely everyone should own.

Yup, I succumbed. It's MP-11SW, Hasbro Asia exclusive Masterpiece Skywarp. Finally, Skywarp is available officially in MP-11 moulding to go with Coronation Starscream and Hasbro Thundercracker. Of course Hasbro Asia will do Thundercracker in due course, but for now, this completes the newer mould trio. The price, for what you get, is extortionate. No cape, no crown, no stand, just Skywarp. And yet another Masterpiece Megatron handgun. Is he pretty? Sure, he's lovely and those silver stripes on his arms and shoulders are completely necessary, surprisingly. He's a total bitch to transform unlike the Hasbro Sunstorm I got recently (same story of TT Starscream vs Hasbro Thundercracker) and as he's my 4th MP-11 in just over a year, I opened the box, nodded at the lovely execution and promptly put him in his pre-determined slot in my predictably-arranged MP Decepticon display. 

Then I found some time, and a few iconic Skywarp moments from the G1 pilot 3-parter, and the love came in waves...

I do love it, it cost me, but I love it. I would have regretted it massively had I let it slip through my fingers at opening day prices. When we finally get a Masterpiece Megatron v2, the photos I will be able to take will mean this figure would have paid for itself many times over.

Permission to teleport.

All the best
Maz