Starting from Scratch...almost

When one sells their entire collection and then decides they want to start again, where do you start? Do you try to obtain everything you let go of, or do you explore new opportunities?

This is the question I find myself facing.

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.

C-121 Gurafi and C-122 Noizu KO Comparison Guide

Ever since Knock-Offs (KO's) of the Dinocassettes came out a little while back collectors have been having a difficult time telling the real thing from the fakes. I don't want to get into a debate about real vs. KO, I only want people to know what they are buying. You can already find a guide on C-123 Diaru and C-124 Zauru on HighEndTFs.com but there is no guide for these two figures yet. Since a friend of mine acquired these two last weekend at Savcon (fortunately he already knew they were KO's) I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some comparison pictures so anyone who was interested in trying to tell the difference wouldn't get swindled. Once you get the two versions side by side, all of a sudden the differences become very obvious.

The Oncoming Masterpiece Onslaught

Haha, no, we aren't getting a Masterpiece Onslaught. Yet. And I only say yet because it looks like the Masterpiece line is going from a one-off character focused toyline to an actual series based on recent events. First of all, I want to congratulate whomever is in charge of the Masterpiece line at TakaraTomy; you have renewed my faith. At first I was all against a second Optimus Prime being released in the series, but as more and more releases have been announced I now see the light. I see it was all part of a carefully structured plan to revitalize and revamp the line in a scale-accurate form (more or less). And I've already sung the praises of the recently fixed MP-11. But I am getting a little ahead of myself here.

Twincast can bust it better than Blaster ever could!

Ah, the eighties; when people walked around with huge boomboxes up to their ears and no one said boo about it. Today it's all Ipods and...well...Ipods I guess. This behavior was so pervasive there's even a Transformer commercial showing Rumble walking around this way, it's quite hilarious. Of course this is the commercial highlighting Blaster, the transformable boombox. I can't think of any other transformer that so uniquely personifies the eighties in his alt-mode better than Blaster. I guess Swindler might be a good contender but he really doesn't count because (1) he's a micromaster and not very well known and (2) he was released at the very end of the eighties.