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!

Decepticons Forever! X-9 Jaguar (Ravage)

Sometimes I am amazed at the amount of patience I possess. As I child I had absolutely no patience whatsoever and it took many years for me to train myself to not want everything right now. However sometimes that little kid comes back out when I see other people purchasing really cool things. Fortunately that was not the case with X-9 Ravage here. I originally missed getting him when he was available at retail back in 1999 and then of course his price skyrocketed due to the unique mold, foreign exclusivity and popularity of the character in the Beast Wars show. But I knew that if I waited long enough, eventually one would come up at a reasonable price.

Congratulations Flywheels!

My good buddy Flywheels over at Random Toy Reviews had his Transformers collection featured on local TV last night! They've uploaded a video online for those who don't live in the area to check it out. Here's the link:

Carolina Camera Transformers Collection

Congrats to Flywheels on making us Transformer fans look so good!

After watching the new reality show Toy Hunters...

...I am intrigued to say the least. This show debuted on the Travel Channel last night. It is basically like American Pickers but with toys instead of antiques. The show follows toy dealer Jordan Hembrough around as he tries to haggle local toy collectors for figures he can resell at NY Comicon. Since only a pilot was filmed I have no idea if the show will be picked up for a full season; I imagine that is up to the network based on how many viewers were watching last night.

The show isn't bad per se, however there were definitely moments that were pre-arranged or staged for the cameras. I find it a little too convenient that on the very first episode Jordan just happens to come across the rarest Star Wars figure in existence. Not only that but he also comes across the rarest Thundercats figure in existence! I can't blame them for needing to hype it up a little bit, but that type of discovery just isn't sustainable for a multi-episode show. There just isn't that much out there of that high value. On the plus side we got to see inside the Tomart Warehouse and Jordan got to talk to a lot of previous Kenner employees, some who actually designed the toys themselves.

I was surprised at some of the values of the figures. Maybe it is just because all I have ever dealt with are Transformers, but many of the items he was haggling over didn't even crest the $100 mark. Even the production sample Batman from the Kenner employee himself only sold for $45. This just reaffirms my opinion that collecting Transformers is one of the most expensive toy hobbies out there.

I do hope this show gets picked up for a full season, while I find Jordan a little brash I do enjoy seeing all the figures and learning more about their history. However I must point out that the host doesn't really have a deep familiarity of certain lines (he called MASK a precursor to Transformers) for which I can absolutely forgive him because of his wide breadth of knowledge. I understand not everyone knows the back story on Transformers, maybe they should call me in as an expert :-) It became clear that Jordan is a child of the 70's and not the 80's when he was drooling over Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica figures.

While no Transformers were featured last night (except for one lone RID spychanger Optimus Prime in a half second shot) I do predict that if this show is picked up Transformers will spotlight heavily on it. I'm not sure if it will re-run any more but I'd be willing to bet anyone who missed it can check it out on the Travel Channel's website.

Hmmm, look at that, two posts in one day. Usually I don't have enough to talk about.

Japanese Robot Lion! (Hint: It's not Voltron)

Ok, so I've spoken before about trying and failing to get through the multiple Japanese G1 Transformer TV series. Headmasters was a disaster, however I actually made it through Masterforce (and enjoyed it immensely) and I got about 75% of the way through Victory. In Masterforce I was introduced to a character named Ginrai which was technically a human using a robot body that looked exactly like Optimus Prime (the toy was used for Powermaster Optimus Prime in the US). Ginrai could power up to become Super Ginrai and then even further to God Ginrai. When Masterforce was over God Ginrai became a normal transformer again and even started making appearances in the new cartoon: Victory. Unfortunately Ginrai was badly injured in the show thus leading to one of the greatest callbacks in TF TV show history. Wheeljack, Perceptor and Minerva (from Masterforce as well) all of a sudden made an apperance to try and rebuild Ginrai. It makes me wonder, how many other '84 and '85 Transformers were just hanging around Earth when Victory was going on? Of course they succeeded resulting in a brand new toy for the kiddies to buy: Victory Leo.

Now this guy is a monster of a figure. If you like big transformers, this is one to add to the shelf. Victory Leo transforms from robot to lion to spaceship (kinda). In the show he had issues with his feral lion self, a problem that would be echoed years later in Beast Wars with Transmetal II Cheetor. Anyway, he is a very solid figure with plenty of firepower. Unfortunately he was never released domestically so I wasn't able to obtain him until Botcon 2007. And then six months later I had to sell him again due to financial issues. Then about a year later I bought another one (in much better shape than my first) for less money so I guess I came out ok!

I really love the lion mode, wonderful G1-ness.

The space ship mode leaves a little to be desired.

I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say Victory Leo can combine with Star Saber to form a super huge figure, but I'll get to that later.

Transformers G1 Cel: Megatron

I had the good fortune of obtaining this very nice animation cel recently. In fact, it is the first animation cel I have ever owned. I have always wanted a cel from the G1 cartoon or movie, but never really thought I would actually own one. The G1 cartoon is something that is very special to me, so to own an actual piece of art that was in the show at some point is quite a thrill. It is almost like meeting one of the voice actors! Since I've never owned anything like this before I was surprised at how crisp and clean it was. It is too bad cel animation isn't really done much anymore because these can be very beautiful. I hope to have a few more in the future, but for now Megatron stands alone.

If anyone just happens to know what episode this is from I would love to know. I've started watching the cartoon again keeping my eye out but haven't seen it yet. I do know it is not from the 1986 movie.

Spaced: The TV Show

My first thoughts upon watching this show were: "How the hell did I miss this?"

I consider myself a pretty big geek, and I like to think I have my finger on the pulse of the geek world. And I don't mean in that trendy "Big Bang Theory" way, but in a "I enjoy intelligent writings, conversation and giant robots" kind of way. So I found myself shocked when I watched Spaced for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't understand how I had missed such an excellent show especially when it was basically about everything I tend to enjoy. The show originally aired in 1999 (series 1) and 2001 (series 2) in England so I'm not surprised I didn't see the originals, but to have missed it for 10+ years since is insane! It's like finding out your house had a secret room that everyone else knew about but you.

And an awesome secret room it is.

First of all, the writing is top notch. Throw in a bunch of pop culture references that appeal to my generation and some great actors and you have something special. Unfortunately there were only 14 episodes completed, but as far as this show goes it is all about quality, not quantity. They have packed more into 14 episodes than most shows pack into 50. And the appeal! It is as if you were watching you and your friends act out these scenes, because this show is so relatable. I swear they have a device that has seen into my mind and stolen my ideas for episodes.

So now I can say I am a fully fledged Spaced fan, and will be for life. In just two episodes I saw a Back to the Future reference, a Jurassic Park reference, and Robocop reference. If that isn't running the gamut I don't know what is.

A quick video!

I decided to take a really quick video of my collection the other day basically as a test to see if I'd be able to post videos to my blog relatively quickly. I hope to be doing this during Botcon in a few days. So anyway, here you go, a very quick and badly lit collection video!

A Little Fun With Photoshop

My wife is a graphic designer so she uses Photoshop quite a lot. We just got a new version of the program on the computer the other day so I decided to play around with it a bit. After going through quite a few tutorials I was able to create a nice custom image based on an old Transformers G1 TV episode. Basically this image represents what I think a movie poster would look like if the original episode "The Ultimate Doom" was released in the theaters.

Everything was created custom with the exception of Cybertron and the Optimus shadow (which was made from a Don Figueroa drawing).

TLC is actively looking for Transformer Collector to feature on a new Reality Show

According to a recent post on TFW2005, television producers are looking for a Transformer collector to be featured on a new show about 'Collections'. You can see the original post here. If you know anything about TLC or have watched any of their shows in the past five years you know that the channel has very little to do with Learning anymore and is more about showcasing the lives of people that probably shouldn't be on television.

Let me say first off this isn't something that interests me. I realize the irony in someone who writes a public blog about Transformers not wanting to have a chance to talk about them on television but I am typically a very private person. Plus, there is no telling how reality tv producers would portray a toy collector. My fear is that they would be unfairly shown in a negative light in order to garnish ratings. Something akin to people being shown as obsessive to the extreme. Even the description of the person they are looking for hints at this:

We are not looking for your common collector, though. We want someone who lives and breathes for Transformers. Not someone who just ha one case or even one room dedicated to their collection, but rather someone whose collection has infiltrated every room.

They are obviously looking for someone who is not what I would consider a normal fan, they are looking for the extreme cases. There are some very nice collections out there, but I don't know of anyone who (publicly anyway) has revealed that their entire house is taken over by Transformers. I also can't see how anyone like that could be portrayed in anything but a negative light on national TV. I'm sure there are more than enough parents out there who think collecting toys means you are some sort of pedophile.

However, if the producers were actually interested in producing a show about real people and how Transformers were a part of their lives (not their whole lives) I would be completely fine with that. But based on the track record thus far, I don't have high hopes.

Rediscovering Beast Machines

Every few years I like to go back and re-watch some of the old Transformers series just to re-familiarize myself with the shows and maybe view them in a new perspective. Today I thought I might give Beast Machines another try. Since the original airings, I've only watched this series one other time probably due to my strong feelings against it from when it first came out.

 The culture shock of being introduced to this show from such a strong presentation like Beast Wars was unsettling to say the least. I understood what the writers were trying to do, but I didn't want to accept it at the time because I saw Beast Machines (as many of us did) as the natural conclusion of the Generation One universe. I actually much preferred the "Wreckers" storyline presented by 3H near the same time which helped ease the pain/transition. Ultimately though, this show represents the end of the 'original' Transformers, without any of this re-booting and universe hopping that currently dominates the mythos.

 Watching the first episode again today brought back all of those feelings of betrayal and hatred that I felt as an angry little teenager. But I was also able to look past that and see the show a little differently. I can certainly appreciate the aesthetic beauty of the show, which was much more stylized and a little cleaner than Beast Wars. As I continue to watch, I hope to gain a new understanding of this story and accept it in a better light than I did twelve years ago. But I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around "I am Transformed!". Maybe I can just tune it out...