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.

Originally I thought I was going to be content to settle for TFC 18 Reissue Soundblaster when I purchased him in 2006. But as time went on it was apparent that just wasn't going to fly. There is one simple reason why: the packaging. And that leads me into this whole journey. A long time ago, I don't really remember when, I came across a very interesting website with some excellent information and great pictures. This was one of them:

If you have ever visited Maz's site you probably recognize this one. I don't know what it was about that particular picture that inspired me, but I was determined to replicate it one day. Perhaps it was because most of the figures never saw the light of day in America. Maybe it was something about the G1 Japanese packaging. Whatever it was, it lit a fire under my ass.

Original on the left, TFC 18 Reissue on the right. No distinguishing differences noticed.

An interesting variation on Buzzsaw, the vintage has a large ridge on the head which I have only seen on D-60 Laserbeak before.

With my Soundwave that actually survived my childhood.

So I set about attempting to acquire all of the items in the picture, and I definitely didn't think Soundblaster would be the last. Back when I stumbled upon the site he hadn't been reissued in any form so he was super expensive back then. As was pretty much everything else. Especially the Dinocassettes. But life is weird sometimes and things come when they do, so amazingly, I crossed off all the cassettes in the picture first.

Vintage Nemeses!

Last year I happened to find a great Twincast for a good price and immediately snapped him up. So that only left Soundblaster. And just my luck, he finally came along.

Uhhh, 'Cons are outnumbered again. Curses!

So now, finally all these years later I can put together the picture for my very own. It is amazing what motivates you sometimes.

See also:

Twincast can Bust it Better than Blaster Ever Could!
Japanese Exclusive Dinocassettes Part 1: Graphy & Noise
Japanese Exclusive Dinocassettes Part 2: Dial & Zaur
D-108 Slugfest and D-109 Overkill