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.

C-310 God Ginrai - Inside the Differences

SCF God Ginrai

Right, so back to where we left off yesterday, inside the differences between the original God Ginrai giftset and the 2001 reissue. First off let me just say that this set was pretty difficult to find since the reissue is all over the place nowadays. And I can remember back before 2001 it was a pretty hot commodity, going for somewhere around $400 online. Fortunately the reissue cut that price by more than half, but if you are looking out for the original it is important to know the differences. My buddy Heroic Decepticon has already covered this to some detail, so I'll just go over a few things not in his post.

C-310 God Ginrai Giftset...Vintage!

I remember when I first learned about God Ginrai, it was during the first few months of college when I had a T1 internet line and was discovering the world beyond alt.toys.transformers. Powermaster Optimus Prime had been one of my favorite figures when I was little, mainly because of the gimmick of Prime combining with his trailer. When I discovered there was a second trailer that could be utilized as well I completely freaked out. After much searching, I was able to find a very grainy video of God Ginrai's first appearance in Masterforce, uploaded by some devoted Japanese transformer fan. Needless to say, at that moment I decided I needed a God Ginrai, no matter the cost.

D-306 Darkwings Gift Set

Out of all the Japanese exclusive Transformers, Darkwings is one of the less desirable due to the fact that it really isn't that different from the American release; so it follows that there are probably more of these available out there than say, Minervas. But that doesn't mean it isn't as cool or unique as some of the other exclusives. Now Dreadwing is the American counterpart to Darkwings, made up of Dreadwind and Darkwing. Of course Darkwings is actually the combined form made up of the individuals Hydra and Buster. With so many darks and dreads and wings it is very easy to get confused and it took me a long time to be able to sort them all out. Even now I still get a little confused.