November Hauls!

[Shockwave]

October hauls: Hybrid Style Convoy. Saw this at a toy shop for $45 and could not pass it up. It's basically an MP Prime but like 1/8 the size. My only complaint with it so far is that the crotch scrapes against the ground in vehicle mode but I may have it transformed wrong for that part.

Movie 2007 Barricade light bar. I seriously just bought the light bar. My custom Barricade looks LOADS better with it. Some modification was needed.

November Hauls: RTS Bumblebee: Went to the earlier mentioned toy shop and got this for $15. I like the classics Bee mold much better than the current Generations one. Which leads me to...

Universe Sideswipe: Exchanged Generations Bee for a Sideswipe with no roof (I replaced it with a Red Alert roof) for customizing. I'm planning to make a Generations style Knockout with it but am waffling on who's head to use. Right now I'm thinking Tracks.

Star Wars black 6" R2-D2: Finally pulled the trigger on this one. I'm generally pretty impressed with it with a few exceptions: The head swivel middle leg gimmick. Really Hasbro? Weren't we over that 5 years ago? It didn't work then and it doesn't work now. My other complain with that is that gimmick is probably what prevented them from creating a compartment in R2 for the extra accessories. They really missed an opportunity there. It's not a bad version, but I'm not sure it's $20 worth.

[andersonh1]

I can't believe I didn't post this back in the October hauls thread. Doctor Who fans may be aware that two missing Patrick Troughton stories were recently recovered from a tv relay station in Jos, Nigeria. Thanks to the BBC's policy of treating television as disposable up until the mid 1970s, the BBC's copies of these stories were destroyed, so these are copies that were sold overseas back in the 1960s. Thanks to ITunes, I now have "The Enemy of the World" and "The Web of Fear" on my computer, two stories I never thought I'd ever see. And I expect I'll double-dip on these and get the DVDs whenever they come out. I'd have waited, but I hear we won't see those until next spring.

[Tigermegatron]

I ordered 30th Rhinox today from the HTS.com web site. It was a pre-order,the item will be in stock on December 16.The item cost $19.99, I used a 15% off promo code to save $3.00.

HTS.com's TF toy prices,I think are fair & a bit below what some USA retailers like TRU,Target,Walmart & Kmart offer.

[Onslaught Six]

Did we merge/rename threads?

I got some long-ago paid for GI Joes in the mail today--Ultimate Duke and Cobra Commander. Duke is based off the Retaliation flick and has a shitload of guns, while Cobra Commander is based on his classic incarnation (using almost an entirely new mould) and has a cool helicopter backpack thing that's exactly the kind of ridiculous crap he would have in the cartoon. He also has possibly the best hooded CC head on any figure ever. (He has both heads, so no worrying about choosing.)

Now I just need Quinn, Jinx, Colton, Lady Jaye and maybe the black ninja and Blind Master, and I'll be done with everything I want from the line. Oh, and Mouse, and Clutch's head.

[Tigermegatron]

Did we merge/rename threads?

For the past few months,I've been using the edit button,To change the month in the subject header.

[BWprowl]

I ordered 30th Rhinox today from the HTS.com web site. It was a pre-order,the item will be in stock on December 16.The item cost $19.99, I used a 15% off promo code to save $3.00.

I thought you didn't like Rhinox and thought he was ugly?

Anyway, picked up Construct-Bots Wheeljack last night, after a whole lot of hemming and hawing. I’ve been waffling on this toy for what feels like months. He and Soundwave both look like neat enough toys, and I WANT to love Construct-Bots as a line, but bah gawd I wish they’d just let it be a bunch of NEW guys in this new system and aesthetic and everything, instead of having it be more passes at worn-out old characters. It feels like such a waste, there’s no need for these to be yet-more variations on Starscream and Wheeljack and all, and just comes off as a crass compromise to get a nostalgia-driven audience to go in on a new line that otherwise really sells itself to people like me who crave innovation.

It sucks too, because as a toy/set, Wheeljack’s pretty damn neat. The Scouts, Ironhide and Starscream, were interesting enough in a proof-of-concept sort of way, but at the slightly higher price-point, Wheeljack really ‘works’, he feels complete, like a toy unto himself. The extra clip-on kibble bits and panels help him feel more ‘filled in’, and the additional weapons give you more options for customization on the base figure, and the extra bits will certainly be useful for future fully-custom builds. Even his vehicle mode, greebly sci-fi truck that it is, feels more solid and legitimate, and gives you the tools to do that with other prospective custom vehicle modes.

It’s just too bad he’s Just Another Wheeljack. And that distinctive head isn’t going to let customization turn him into a lot of guys other than Wheeljack. I wish the heads for Construct-Bots were more customizable or generic, to better facilitate custom-ing various parts together into more passable Original Characters Donut Steel, instead of what’ll invariably just look like Soundwave’s Head On Some Other Body. At least new characters without twenty years of played-out history behind them wouldn’t have this problem with using their distinctive noggins. Ironhide’s head is decently generic, at least (indeed, they just recolored it and used it for Blitzwing), and Starscream and Thundercracker already use different builds in this line, so the Seeker head could conceivably be plopped onto any vaguely-jet-based body and still work just fine.

I wanna get a couple more sets before I really start messing with full customization, that Thundercracker looks nice, and the quality of Wheeljack here makes me wanna try Soundwave too. I also just really wanna support this line so Hasbro’ll expand it and cut loose with it. Maybe start putting out packs of random, more generic heads.

Oh, I also grabbed the third Scarlet Spider trade the other day, since it had an issue I'd missed, and I might as well keep getting this series in trades anyway, since I have like, two and a half already.

[andersonh1]

Did we merge/rename threads?

For the past few months,I've been using the edit button,To change the month in the subject header.

Ah, that's why I couldn't find the October Hauls thread. Let's just start a new thread rather than rename the old one when we get to December and avoid the confusion.

[Shockwave]

BW Bonecrusher. This is gonna require some explaination. So I'm a Freemason, and I also belong to other Masonic organizations. One of them is called Eastern Star (which is basically Freemasonry for men and women) and our groups are organized into chapters. Each chapter has both a male and a female leaders known as Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron. The chapters are governed by a grand chapter that oversees the organization throughout the state and that's lead by a Worthy Grand Matron and a Worthy Grand Patron. And each year we elect new ones who choose a theme and mascot for the year. Well this year I'm going in as Worthy Patron for my chapter and our mascot is a buffalo. So I decided to be the only one with a Transformers buffalo.

[JediTricks]

5 weeks' worth of pull comics resulting in RID and MTMTE 22, Dark Cybertron 1, Batman 66 #4, and The Star Wars #3.

Then Amazon delivered my preorder of Hasbro Star Wars The Black Series 6-inch Han Solo. Han is pretty good, he's not quite as good as Luke from wave 1 because the sculpting isn't quite as tight, the body proportions aren't quite as solid (he's a tad lanky and skinny), and the eyes are the wrong color; but overall the figure is good and satisfying as the best Han Solo figure Hasbro's put out in a decade. The likeness is good from the sides, but not quite there from the front due to the mouth not quite hitting its mark, as well as Ford's face being notoriously difficult to capture. Vest and gunbelt are removable, a Stormtrooper belt with working holster are included and look good; the figure also has removable hands to swap with his gloved hands look. Overall, it's pretty good.

October hauls: Hybrid Style Convoy. Saw this at a toy shop for $45 and could not pass it up. It's basically an MP Prime but like 1/8 the size. My only complaint with it so far is that the crotch scrapes against the ground in vehicle mode but I may have it transformed wrong for that part.

I'm pretty sure that's not right, there should be ground clearance across the whole thing.

Star Wars black 6" R2-D2: Finally pulled the trigger on this one. I'm generally pretty impressed with it with a few exceptions: The head swivel middle leg gimmick. Really Hasbro? Weren't we over that 5 years ago? It didn't work then and it doesn't work now. My other complain with that is that gimmick is probably what prevented them from creating a compartment in R2 for the extra accessories. They really missed an opportunity there. It's not a bad version, but I'm not sure it's $20 worth.

Yeah, that leg gimmick takes an ok figure - although considerably underscaled - and takes it down many notches. The leg extends too far, the 3rd foot doesn't bend to the right angle (it doesn't hold at it, anyway), and the leg retracts on its own when you roll the figure, all that on top of your point about the internal gimmicks being nerved in favor of a very un-collector-like gimmick.

Anyway, picked up Construct-Bots Wheeljack last night, after a whole lot of hemming and hawing. I’ve been waffling on this toy for what feels like months. He and Soundwave both look like neat enough toys, and I WANT to love Construct-Bots as a line, but bah gawd I wish they’d just let it be a bunch of NEW guys in this new system and aesthetic and everything, instead of having it be more passes at worn-out old characters. It feels like such a waste, there’s no need for these to be yet-more variations on Starscream and Wheeljack and all, and just comes off as a crass compromise to get a nostalgia-driven audience to go in on a new line that otherwise really sells itself to people like me who crave innovation.

This line definitely wouldn't exist if it was new-character-based, there simply isn't enough market interest in the brand by itself yet. They are looking to steal attention from other building toy brands by using the Transformers characters that are identifiable, if they went on their own for the whole line it'd never had been picked up - retailers are choking on failed lines due only to being unknown commodities, some better than Constructbots. The big "if" is holding out for later waves, but at that point one has to ask themselves why a new character would end up here when it could be used in the mainline - the only real reason would be to create a new character cheaply, seeing as all it needs is a new head and name, the rest of the figure can be existing parts. But right now I really don't know if this line will get there. Hasbro definitely is thinking about the "create a new character" aspect judging by how that was the focus at their Comic-Con breakfast, but I think it's more about kids creating their own characters to attach to rather than Hasbro creating new characters.

Did we merge/rename threads?

For the past few months,I've been using the edit button,To change the month in the subject header.

Ah, that's why I couldn't find the October Hauls thread. Let's just start a new thread rather than rename the old one when we get to December and avoid the confusion.

Agreed. I've taken care of splitting the topics.

BW Bonecrusher. This is gonna require some explaination. So I'm a Freemason, and I also belong to other Masonic organizations. One of them is called Eastern Star (which is basically Freemasonry for men and women) and our groups are organized into chapters. Each chapter has both a male and a female leaders known as Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron. The chapters are governed by a grand chapter that oversees the organization throughout the state and that's lead by a Worthy Grand Matron and a Worthy Grand Patron. And each year we elect new ones who choose a theme and mascot for the year. Well this year I'm going in as Worthy Patron for my chapter and our mascot is a buffalo. So I decided to be the only one with a Transformers buffalo.

Wow, that's quite a thing!

[Onslaught Six]

Job get. Working as a cashier in Walmart. Not amazing, but whatever.