SCF: The Truth Who the Eyes Met Before!

What can I say? I'm a sucker for small collectible figures. The Super Collection Figure (SCF for short) line began in 2001 and continued through 2003 consisting of ten waves of six figures each. Each wave released each figure in a color version and either a clear or pewter color version depending on the wave. And of course because they were released in Japan, they were blind packed. Back when the characters of G1 was a scarcity (not like today) collectors were clamoring for anything they could get their hands on; and the SCF line provided cartoon accurate representations of their favorite characters in a small, relatively cheap form.


Now I use the term relatively because in each wave there were chase figures that were usually packaged one per case. With two chase figures per wave that adds up to a lot of extra money. And if that weren't enough, starting with wave 3, Takara decided to start including build-a-figures in each wave, and these were released in either color, clear or pewter schemes as well. God help the poor bastard who tried to complete these build-a-figures and didn't buy them by the case as only one part came with each figure in the box. Thankfully the final two waves consisted of Legend of Micron (aka Armada) figures and no build-a-figures.

Of course as with most things I got caught up in the hype as well. I missed wave one, but managed to obtain cases of waves two, three and four in succession. Then I'm pretty sure I ran out of money; after all I was still in college. Even though the figures didn't transform I found them fun to collect and display. And of course it was always a thrill to find a chase figure, which only happened to me once I'm sad to say. I recently began picking up a few of these again, trying to fill the holes in my collection, but those chase figures are still elusive, even ten years later. Some are easier to find than others, but for the most part these things really seem to be holding their value.

Some of my favorites: the Super God Masterforce figures.

More Japanese characters, from Victory.

In later years Hasbro released many of these figures under their Heroes of Cybertron line (thankfully not blind packed) at domestic secondary stores. Unfortunately many of the Japanese only characters never saw release over here so of course they remain more expensive even today. Although I will credit Hasbro with helping out collectors whether they meant to or not. In Japan, Skywarp was only to be released in a limited number of 200 as a lucky draw campaign much to the chagrin of any fan collecting SCF. When Hasbro released their line Skywarp was part of the very first wave making him much more common and eliminating the need for many a fan to purchase multiple Starscreams and purple model paint.

In all I think the line(s) were a success and would gladly have continued buying figures since there are so many that populate the G1 mythos. However as soon as the popular characters were exhausted the line was pretty much dead and I can see why. Hell, I think they released Convoy (Optimus Prime) no less than nine times and that doesn't even include Powermaster, Ginrai or Star versions. There is only so much Convoy one person can take.