Human Alliance Autobots (Pre-Completion)

I know what's going to happen. I'm going to buy that Hasbro Asia Human Alliance Barricade and Soundwave 2 pack, and within 4 weeks of that I'll have bought the black and then Flash Freeze Human Alliance Sideswipes for the complete set. So in advance of that, I took a shot of all my pre-completion Human Alliance Transformers from across ROTF and DOTM, minus regular Bumblebee and Barricade as I didn't bring them out of storage for the shoot. I didn't even foresee this shoot until tonight.

New Arrivals - Early December 2014 (Part 1)

It's not just been 3rd Party stuff coming in of late, I've definitely rediscovered my love of the Transformers movie lines, and filling gaps in burgeoning collection directions has been a theme of late. In addition to the kind of toys you see int he above image - Human Alliance, Animated and Age of Extinction - you will see the most ridiculous addition so far in these posts.

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.

DOTM Human Alliance Leadfoot

You've got to be careful when pursuing Transformers toys you love, especially of a certain limited sub category or niche, because you can overdose on a good thing, run into something you don't like which can dampen the whole experience or alternatively, fail to stretch out the enjoyment savouring every moment of discovery with it all ending too soon thanks to expedited purchasing or over-indulgence in a short time. This year I returned to buying Human Alliance figures again, adding to Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Jazz and Barricade first with DOTM Skids, then DOTM Roadbuster and most recently ROTF Mudflap. So far, all have been a success, excellent complexity, engaging transformations, movie-matching aesthetic and plenty of charm each to warrant the hard-earned mantle of Human Alliance worthy. Leadfoot and Soundwave were always going to be last on my list because of the images I'd seen online, and my attitude that ROTF was the best of HA, everything after a weak imitation, just not up to the same standard. Was that true of Leadfoot?

ROTF Human Alliance Mudflap

It's dawning on me slowly that the Movie Human Alliance line of larger figures could actually be - across the board - a 100% run of successfully excellent figures. Bumblebee, Jazz, Sideswipe (good luck convincing me otherwise, flaws and all), Barricade and Skids from ROTF and Roadbuster from DOTM have all been excellent figures. They've each had shortcomings and difficulties, but on the whole none have left me cold or unwilling to praise them overall. The strongest is still Jazz, and the hardest to justify to others Sideswipe - and even then the latter has one of the most beautiful alt modes ever seen on a Transformer. With all sub-lines of such quality, the demand is high and collectors tend not to sell the toys often. Add to that short-packing or bad distribution of particular releases and you have astronomical aftermarket 2nd hand prices and a lot of incomplete HA collections. Mudflap is a fine example of this. This year I decided to finally plug those gaps, and finally Project Human Alliance Mudflap is complete.

New Arrivals - Mid-September 2014 (Part 1)

After buying every comic-related appearance of Shane McCarthy's brand new IDW Transformers character "Drift" in almost every cover variant available, it was about time I bought the toy! But that's for a different dedicated post, I also came into possession of my seemingly favourite thing in the world, more repaints.

DOTM Human Alliance Roadbuster

The Movie Human Alliance cars have been the absolute highlight of Hasbro and Takara Tomy's feature film robot offerings with items like Jazz, Barricade and Bumblebee rightfully considered to be Masterpiece quality toys. They are representative of everything that is right/wrong with the movies, depending on your persuasion. I enjoyed the movies, and the HA toys are some of my most treasured possessions. I thought - mistakenly - that the quality ended with Jazz, but since then I have discovered Human Alliance Skids and now Roadbuster. Roadbuster is one of the Wreckers introduced in Dark Of The Moon, based on Dale Earnhardt Jr's #88 Hendrick Motorsport Chevy Impala NASCAR sponsored by the National Guard. Leadfoot and Topspin were similarly weaponised official NASCAR vehicles, but only Leadfoot got a release alongside Roadbuster. Dino and AOE Lockdown never really stood a chance of being given the Human Alliance treatment. Why do the best things in the TF universe have such tragic omissions?

New Arrivals - Early September 2014 (Part 1)

There is currently nothing more enjoyable and thrilling in the Transformers hobby for me than taking a blind chance on relatively recent toys I've never seen or owned from unfashionable lines at collector-clear-out prices, sent carefully to my by conscientious collectors and finding out that they are very good or even great. Having very nearly completed TF Animated, I'm in the process of discovering TF Prime, Beast Hunters and various ROTF/DOTM figures I missed. The Human Alliance Roadbuster you see above from DOTM just so happens to be one of those great undiscovered - or rather un-purchased - gems.

DOTM Human Alliance Skids

The Human Alliance series of Transformers Movie toys are widely regarded as the very best to have come out of the Bayverse group of releases, premiering around the time of Revenge Of The Fallen (ROTF). Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Jazz and Barricade are utterly magnificent creations, but none of the others ever got my attention, so were never bought. I think it is also accepted that after the ROTF range, the HA toys went slightly downhill, I know upon seeing Soundwave I lost heart for the line completely. Recently I purchased the above Dark Of The Moon (DOTM) repaint of the Human Alliance Skids. This toy is now a black vehicle with green stripes, seen for a micro-second in DOTM, and the same mould as the all green version released during ROTF. 

My Dream Collection

There are a few toy lines that have found a place in my heart throughout my time as a Transformers and pre-Transformers collector, and when I imagine what my dream collection would look like, something I could fit into a single room and be able to appreciate properly and fully in terms of quantity just by looking around, it's a pretty clear picture. It involves stuff I have now, stuff I am buying and definitely stuff I have already sold. Apologies in advance for recycled photography. 

Ambassadors Part 5 - and my picks for Part 4

Tuesday night in March means Ambassadors on the TFSource Blog! This week the crew of experts dissect the 3rd Party scene and select their representatives for TFC Toys, MMC, FansProject and iGear HERE. Companies like FansToys and Perfect Effect were omitted because the choice would have been blatantly obvious for each - Quakewave and Warden respectively - and the 4 companies chosen had significantly more product released to date. But, here now are my admittedly meagre choices for Ambassadors Part 4 which involved late European G1, ROTF, Takara's SCF PVC and TF Prime. You can remind yourself of contributors' choices HERE

Under-appreciated Transformers

Taking photos for the Ambassadors articles on TFSource Blog recently, I had to dig deep into what collection I have left to put as many different Transformers from different lines together as I could. Doing this - especially transforming and posing them - reminded me just how amazing some figures are, why I've never thought about selling them amidst the variant G1 and Diaclone exodus, and just how little people speak about them in the Age Of Masterpiece And Third Party.