The Great Cybertronian Write Off - Week 6

After a short break, the Great Cybertronian Write Off returns for 1985's G1 Transformers entries! Myself, Sixo, Toybox Soapbox - with design by tikgnat - have been producing poster-style mini-reviews of G1 Transformers toys daily, with our own photographs, all stitched together and presented in the style of vintage UK and Euro G1 paperwork. Why? Well, in order to give Transformers fans a tiny little something to look forward to daily at a time when most of us are confined to quarters!

Hasbro G1 Reissue Smokescreen - Devolution

In 2003, Hasbro released a reissue of the Generation 1 Autobot car Smokescreen as part of their Commemorative Series line of G1 sold exclusively in Toys 'R' Us. This was after Takara themselves had reissued Smokescreen in 2002 as part of the TF Collection book-style series. It was a wonderful time. The toy you see above is the Hasbro Commemorative reissue of Smokescreen, but with a slightly historical - and custom - twist applied by myself. So what's the story?

Burnout - Hi Res Gallery

This week on TFSource Blog I published an article called Burnout, exploring the causes of collecting fatigue and general disillusionment with Transformers buying and the community. Having not received or bought much in the way of new toys recently, I'm having to get creative with article topics and even moreso with the photography. Thanks to my daughter's toys making for great Masterpiece accessories, I came up with a few images I can be proud of where the figures are demonstrating exhaustion, sadness and negativity. Here's the high resolution gallery of those same images. Enjoy!

TFCC Exclusives Gallery

As an accompaniment to this week's TFSource Blog article on TFCC/TFSS Club exclusives that I own and love, here are the images from that article in much higher resolution for those that appreciate these gorgeous repaints. Not all of them, of course, just Cheetor, Chromedome, Barricade, Circuit and Jackpot.

Goodbye Binaltech

From the very beginning I've been a fan of Binaltech and Alternators, and even when I sold off the latter in one of my many culls, the Binaltech survived. They survived everything, the Diaclone sales, the G1 sell-off, the Animated, CHUG, Movie, artwork and reissue clearouts...you name it, Binaltech stayed. They were at the core of everything I held dear as a Transformers, Generation 1 and model car enthusiast. I even wrote a slew of detailed articles on TFSource Blog to summarise the series up to BT-18 here, here, here, here, here and here, and made a lot of friends by writing the articles at the time of release for TF-1.com here. Having previously declared to the world why I would never sell them here, I have now put virtually all of them up for sale and already said goodbye to a fair few. 

For The Love Of Arms Micron

I'll be the first to admit I don't know anywhere near as much about modern day Transformers as I should, historically being more interested in vintage stuff. I make discoveries these days that are approximately 3 to 10 years behind everyone else! I have been told that Arms Micron toys from Takara Tomy were not met with as much positivity as someone such as myself, walking into it years after launch, are feeling towards it upon discovery and experience. The Japanese TF Prime figures were not more show accurate than the Hasbro versions, and did not feature extra or accurate paint application. In fact, they went completely the other way, and that is the crux of what I find attractive and special about them.

New Arrivals - Late October 2014

The curse is broken! I finally have in my collection an EZ Collection Smokescreen, the Takara Tomy version of the Cyberverse Smokescreen in show accurate colours, presented with gorgeous paint application. I had tried to get this figure from Asia on 3 previous occasions, one got destroyed and returned to sender, two got lost in the mail, and finally via Taobao I have this last variant of the mould I needed. Far too much hassle for such a readily available little figure. Then again, I wasn't going to pay $50 on eBay so...anyway, read on for the other new arrivals.

TFCC Barricade

Officially. One. Of. The. Best. Repaints. In the history of repaints. And that is all it is, there is no fancy new head sculpt or re-modeled bodily or vehicular features, the Transformers Collector's Club Barricade of 2014 is a straight-up repaint of Beast Hunters Prowl, itself a retool of Beast Hunters Smokescreen. The Collector's Club re-imagined the figure as Barricade and I have rarely seen a mould re-purposed with such success. I wrote on the TFSource Blog a few weeks back Why Repaints were bought by collectors, and Barricade is the finest example of how some paint and re-purposing can elevate a great figure to an exceptional figure.

New Arrivals - Mid-September 2014 (Part 2)

Hmmm, lots of things still in the post and long past their estimated arrival date. But let's focus on what did arrive, and both of them were wonderful- and neither of them things that would have remotely registered on my radar even 6 months ago, let alone a year ago. Both arrivals take me one step further towards the full variant and mould completion of the sculpts in question, but at least they're both excellent items in their own right instead of just helping to make the whole more 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.

Protectobot Streetsmart Quickie

Here are a few pictures of the upcoming Hasbro Transformers Protectobots Emergency Response "Streetsmart", once upon a time known as "Streetwise", back when G1 Protectobots made some big fellow named Defensor. This toy will be released with a repaint of TF Prime Robots In Disguise Ratchet as "First Aid" and a repaint of Cyberverse Arcee as "Groove". Streetsmart himself is a repaint of the Beast Hunters Prowl mould - itself a later version of Beast Hunters Smokescreen. The set is believed to be due for release in mid-September 2014.

New Arrivals - Mid August 2014 (Part 2)

When I started this blog I did not expect to be posting "Oh look what I just bought" segments every bloody day, and I still don't expect it to continue in that vein. For now though, it's what is dominating my hobby time, especially as I am constantly looking at moulds and toy lines I had ignored up to 2 months ago. Almost every direction my collection is going in right now is a result of toys people have placed in my hand and said "I dare you to hate that". This is the result. 

New Arrivals - Early August 2014

It's been so long since my last post (end of holiday in Iceland, crisis of collecting faith, Auto Assembly) that I'm no longer sure what toys arrived when, but I've got some pictures so it's easy enough to cobble together an update! I've got a post coming where I will show what was available in Iceland in terms of Transformers at retail, then something on Auto Assembly 2014, so between these posts hopefully nothing will fall through the cracks, neither on the blog nor in my actual collection.

Masterpiece Autobot Cars Pictorial - May 2014

  

Exactly what it says on the tin, a very short pictorial of all the Takara Tomy Masterpiece Cybertron Cars (Autobot Cars) we've had so far displayed alongside each other in both modes. What this serves to do is show just what the potential for this series is when we finally get to Wheeljack and Bumblebee, some actual new moulds. Before we get that far though, we'll have MP-18S, the toy-accurate G1 all silver Bluestreak. That will make it 4 - 4 between the Datsuns and the Countaches, so August and MPs 20 and 21 cannot come soon enough. Oh, MP-10 Hasbro Optimus Prime is in there too. Enjoy!

New Arrivals - Early May 2014

Long time no new toys, and I still haven't bought anything. So step in the wonderful Mr JB Martin to send me a timely box of 3 unused loose reissue Commemorative Series Autobot cars. Just in time for my upcoming birthday, I can't even put into words how happy this package made me when I opened it yesterday, so unexpected it was, and such a hole they fill from all the G1 car-based Diaclones I have sold recently, leaving me with virtually no representation for these toys. 

Diaclone "Sample Smokescreen"

In 2007 a host of prototypes, samples, pre-production materials and other such vintage behind-the-scenes treasures were unearthed via ex-Hasbro employees in Rhode Island. Alongside original G1 amd G2 boxart, hardcopy resin prototype G1 Hot Rods, Headmasters and mock-up unreleased Generation 2 Autobot cars and jets was something of astronomical significance historically to the Transformers character "Smokescreen". This is a post on the production sample Diaclone Car Robot No.11 Fairlady Racing 280Z Turbo that was sent to Hasbro by Takara, probably in 1984, in order to be evaluated for a Transformers release.

Mexican G1 "Smokestreak" Quickie

Smoke...Streak? Surely that's a mistake. Well, yes, it was a mistake, one that was repeated, repeated again, repeated to a slightly lesser degree and then finally corrected. It's actually a great shame that Plasticos Iga in Mexico ever bothered to correct their release of the Autobot Smokescreen because their 'mistakes' were sublime. The reason for the collector-given nickname "Smokestreak" is that while the toy is clearly presented in Smokescreen colours, three of the four versions of the Mexican toy actually had a large number of Bluestreak's moulding features, including one release that was 100% Bluestreak - just painted up in red, white and blue.

Ambassadors Part 4 - and my picks for Part 3

In the now standard Tuesday night fashion, Ambassadors Part 4 is live on TFSource Blog HERE, with excellent choices from our contributors for Euro exclusive Generation 1, TF Prime, SCF PVCs and ROTF. Don't you love Transformers acronyms? Part 3 last week (HERE) featured community bigwigs picking ambassadors for Japanese exclusive G1, Generation 1 1987 to 1990, Armada and Binaltech/Alternators. Here, then, are my choices for those lines.

Recent Departures

If one is going to collect expensive, rare toys as a hobby, then one must accept that somewhere down the line certain things have to be sacrificed in order to continue collecting the high-end, obscure stuff, or one must switch to cheaper more accessible pursuits...or even cash in on the rare figures in one's collection and accept that other priorities take precedence at certain points in one's life.That's where I'm at, and here is a look at some of the special Transformers and Pre-Transformers items I've said goodbye to recently.