Just One More

A strange sequence of events has occurred over the past few months. Either an inordinately large number of vintage Transformers that I still need have become available or I have just finally decided to stop waiting and finish out the remaining figures I need. Regardless of circumstances, I have been purchasing everything in sight. I have probably spent more in four months than I have in the past two years combined.

The Big One

I considered waiting much longer to post this purchase, but as it is I've already had this figure for a while and I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get it out there. For something this big I figured it needed a little gravitas, after all it doesn't come along every day. And it represents thus far the largest monetary investment I have made in any one figure to date. But I knew as soon as I had it in my hands it was all worth it.

C-305 Ranger

I'm trying something a little different with my pictures for the next couple of blog posts. Instead of the normal white background I thought I would experiment with a black background to see if I could get some cleaner, clearer shots of figures. The first figure to endure this process: Ranger.

White Headmaster KO Comparison Guide

For the longest time I have had a friend's KO white headmasters in my possession so I could do a comparison post on them, and I thought it was finally time I returned them to him. This post has been a long time coming.

I could probably count on one hand the number of people who would find this guide useful since most people really don't care about the white headmasters and if they do they are much more likely to plop down the $100 or so bucks on the KO's than spend thousands trying to track down the originals. However, for that small subset of people who are actually looking for the real thing, I hope this helps in identifying any unscrupulous sellers out there.

Nebulan Pirate Radio (not NPR!)

You may have noticed a new feature on the blog lately, over here to the right there is a link to the local podcast: Nebulan Pirate Radio. There is also a stream you can listen to straight from this page if you don't want to download the file. But some may question why it is there at all.

The New Normal

As a Transformer collector I am always evaluating and re-evaluating the market on vintage figures that I still need for my collection, as I am sure all of us do. Recently I have started making spreadsheets to track price changes over time to hopefully give me a good idea of how much I have left to spend in order to complete my collection. But what I saw last night shattered my expectations.

Of Squids and Octopi

You must be thinking to yourself "What? A post that isn't about Japanese G1? What blog am I reading?" Be assured, you're still on Mostly Transformers, but I realized while writing my Rules that I was focusing heavily on one small segment of my collecting recently and I like to diversify every now and again. So while this post is about a vintage Japanese figure, it is definitely outside the box so to say.

Collecting Rules

A good friend of mine brought up a very interesting question to me the other day: what do you collect and why? In response I told him I collect things that fall within certain categories or guidelines in order to maintain some semblance of sanity in this crazy hobby since it is impossible to collect everything. He wanted to know specifics which lead me to actually write down the rules in my head for the very first time. I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to share them here (more for myself than for anyone else) but I figured it would be an interesting read. So without further ado: my Rules.

C-374 and C-375 Return of Convoy Micro Trailers

Even though G1 Japanese month is over that doesn't mean I'm going to stop making new acquisitions in what has become my new favorite category. I've decided it is time to stop screwing around and finally complete this section of my collection before things get even more expensive in the future. A small (albeit important) part of that goal includes Micro Trailers #11 and #12 from the Return of Convoy line.

A fun little side project: Custom SCF's!

So I have talked before about how much I enjoy the SCF line, I only wish it had continued for a few more waves before abandoning G1 and moving on to Armada. But just because there won't be any more "official" figures doesn't mean I can't have a little fun making some of my own!

C-303 Minerva! Or is is Minelba?

For our final G1 Japanese chapter, we get the crème de la crème. In my mind there are two types of G1 Japanese figures: those that are relatively easy to find because they are either unpopular or have reissues, and those that are so incredibly rare you must pounce on them as soon as you see them otherwise you may never have another chance again. Obviously, Minerva is the latter.

D-101 Soundblaster. A Quest Completed!

This is another one of those figures that has been a long time coming. He's been on my watch list for probably at least eight or nine years (more on that later). But for some reason he was always out of reach; either the condition wasn't good enough, or it was too good (MISB) or it was missing something, or the seller just wanted too much. But no longer.

Experiencing Beast Wars for the First Time

Recently my good friend NC Bulkhead decided to sit down and watch Beast Wars all the way through for the very first time. Since he had never seen it before I thought it would be interesting to get the perspective of someone watching it with today's mindset rather than when it first came on back in 1996. I asked him to put his thoughts to paper (or in this case pixels) so I present to you: The Beast Wars Experience!

Japanese G1 Month Continues with C-349 Roadfire!

Here we are in our second week of the month-long G1 Japanese celebration! For this week I was able to find a very nice and apparently hard to acquire Roadfire! I snagged this guy off eBay a couple weeks back on a whim. He wasn't on my immediate "get list" but he was available and I had the cash so I figured why not?

The Metrotitan Awakes!

Whew! Now that the Charticon stuff is out of the way it is back to the good stuff! So this post kicks off Japanese G1 month! Each week for the next four weeks I am going to be posting about a different vintage Japanese G1 figure. The first entry is a massive one: Metrotitan!

Due to the recent storylines in MTMTE and RID, and the recent "biggest Transformer ever" 30th Anniversary Metroplex just being released, there is no surprise that the Titans are at the forefront of most transfans' minds these days. Since there were technically only two "titans" released in the G1 line I thought this was a perfect time to get one of these guys a little more exposure.

Charticon Exclusive Baleful Head Upgrade

The final Charticon exclusive I want to cover was one that almost didn't happen at all. Originally I wanted to do something special for the wonderful committee of people I had working on the convention with me. Eventually I decided a "staff exclusive" head upgrade might be a good idea and I was originally going to keep it a surprise for everyone. But obviously that didn't pan out as I expected.

Charticon Exclusive Snipenose

Here we are still riding the Charticon Train. The next figure in our exclusive line-up was the custom class Snipenose figure. After we had decided to homage Quake with Warpath we thought it might be a good idea to give him a companion in the form of Needlenose. With Needlenose's recent resurgence in popularity in the RID comic, this seemed like another one of those no-brainers.

Charticon Aftershock, A Personal Look

Let me preface this by saying I know Flywheels is planning on doing a review of this figure if he hasn't already. Because I don't want to go over the exact same things I decided to make this post about my personal experience in creating this figure over the past ten months. This thing has been my "baby" and I am very proud to have such a nice finished product.

It is hard to even know where to start. When we first set up the idea of this convention there was no doubt in my mind that we were going to do an exclusive. And because I am very passionate about transformer toys in general, I decided I wanted to do an exclusive that would exceed all expectations, something that would literally be the best of the best. Did I achieve that?

Fansproject Glacialord Fangro

When I first heard hints of this "new" combiner from Fansproject I wasn't really interested, for the same reason I wasn't interested in their Steelcore figure; it isn't an update or homage to any existing Transformers character. However that was back when I thought these figures were going to be in the same vein as City Commander and Warbot. Once I realized what they were actually doing everything changed...

Charticon Exclusive Tech Specs

Whew, it feels like I've been gone forever. Charticon took up so much of my time I barely had room for anything else (which I know my wife didn't appreciate, lol). But now I've got my time back and since we aren't going to have another show until 2015, I have some time to get back to the blogging community I love! It is amazing what six months away will do, especially to your stats! I was running around 5-6K visitors per month in December and then when I got super busy it dropped dramatically back down to 2-3K per month. But that doesn't really matter that much, I just missed talking about my favorite hobby!

So I thought the first couple of "return to the land of the living" posts should be about some things we did for the show, and this initial one is a doozy!

European Black Zarak at Botcon!?!?!

I found this amazing picture yesterday over on Roboplastic Apocalypse and it has gotten deep into my head! I can't stop thinking about it! There is a very good chance this is a custom of some sort, but the box just looks so well done that it is hard to believe. However Heroic Decepticon commented that the styrofoam is obviously from Scorponok and the figure looks to be painted instead of molded in the famous "GPS" gold color.

If anyone happens to see this guy at Botcon I would love some better high-res pictures so I can get a good look at that box. And it's too bad it is a custom because that would really compliment Overlord very well.

UPDATE!!! See below!

Japanese Headmaster Shuffler, the Elusive Exclusive

Pretty much everyone knows about this figure by now, it used to be cloaked in obscurity five or ten years ago, but with the advent of the KO reissues a couple of years ago the Exclusive Japanese Headmasters became a lot more common. Personally I thought as soon as the KO's hit the market the vintage figures would be super easy to find. What I didn't count on was a lot of other collectors like myself who only want the real thing. So while the price on some of these guys may have dropped, their availability never increased. So a couple of months ago I finally found the last color Headmaster I needed, and it of course is the rarest of the bunch: Shuffler.

An Interesting Variant, 16 Megatron

I know it must seem like Tombstone around here; I hate not being to update as often but when something truly special comes along I have to just make the time. I love variants, especially when they are Japanese G1 variants, and just like 48 Astrotrain, 16 Megatron has some very drastic differences from the American release. Drastic enough to warrant a purchase? Damn straight.

American Generation One Autobot Giftsets

As I am finishing up my American G1 collection one of the last things on my list are the giftsets. I've had the easy-to-find Superion giftset for a very long time now, at least three or four years; but Defensor and Computron have always eluded me as being either too expensive or completely unavailable. But as things tend to do, it always comes in waves...

The End of an Era

It took me over three years and I don't even want to know how much money, but I have finally completed my US Tech Spec collection, including all gift set gestalts and targetmaster/legends variants.

What's This???

So. Frakkin. Busy. Even though much time has passed, my love for Transformers has not waned. But I am finding it hard to find subjects to discuss. My vintage figure budget has been on hiatus ever since September of last year and everyone else already has all the new stuff so I don't really feel like I have a lot to contribute to the community as a whole.