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.

My Daughter's First Decepticons

Apparently my sweet and innocent little sweetheart did "not have enough Decepticons", so the corrupting influence otherwise known as Morg has attempted to balance the fight against my daughter's growing Autobot ranks. Seeing Transformers products through the eyes of a young child has certainly opened my mind, as the Fall of Cybertron Data Disks would never have registered on my radar had Morg not kindly gifted them to my girl. 

My Daughter's New Recruits

For those of you who read my post on My Daughter's Transformers, you'll be thrilled/horrified to know she's added more troops to the roster, through no choice of her own! Her growing collection of Transformers is fueled by inspiration that lies somewhere between her fascination with certain members of my collection and her father's need to collect vicariously as his own activity has ground to something of a halt recently. Here then, is the result.

Selling Art Is Hard

When Alternators and Binaltech were huge, I bought as much original box artwork for the Alternators toy line as I could get my hands on. Why? For investment purposes? Hell no, have you seen the artwork for Alternators? Created by Transformers comic and toy industry legends Marcelo Matere, Alex Milne and Guido Guidi amongst others, they were the lovechild of the best official TF artists around and the best looking Transformers toys we'd had in years. If I had not bought them at the time when they were offered by the artists themselves at conventions, I might have lost the chance to get them forever. Having these pieces of unobscured, full-size history was the mightiest honour and pleasure an Alternators/Binaltech fan could experience. And I loved them, and displayed them fully.

Ambassadors Part 2 - and my picks for Part 1

This week sees Part 2 of the "Ambassadors" series of articles I am - or rather my friends are - writing for TFSource Blog on which toy they'd pick to represent an entire Transformers sub-line or category. This week's chapter covers Generation 1 1984 to 1986, Masterpiece (controversial!), Animated and DOTM. You can find that HERE and last week's Part 1 featuring Generation 2, Pre-Transformers, Car Robots and Classics HERE. I'm going to put my own choices for Ambassadors Part 1 in this post.

My Daughter's Transformers

Pooky's bots

Like just about any other parent who has an interest in Transformers - be it collecting or reading comics, watching cartoons etc - I've introduced the hobby to my child as well, in this case my 2-year old daughter. Nearly all of it is aimed at older kids, but with supervision I've been confident she won't do herself - or the toys - any harm.

Although in the case of Masterpiece Smokescreen, I was happy to look the other way.