A Different Kind of Galvatron...maybe?

Of all the toys I received as a kid, few hold the kind of real estate in my memory that the original Galvatron does. Christmas 1986. I remember tearing open that box and finding him there in his cannon mode, that massive neon orange barrel staring back at me, and thinking this was easily the most impressive thing I'd ever owned. 

Ehobby 88 Roadhauler...or is that Hauler...or maybe...Loadhauler?

Talk about a toy with a complex history. When the Ehobby reissues first started coming out back in the early 2000's, this guy was an immediate standout. In my efforts to rebuild my collection, I knew I had to bring this guy back into the fold. The last time I owned him he was completely sealed. But I managed to snag one that was opened and yet unused. So let's take a closer look...

One Year Later...

So despite the fact I have "officially" ended my Transformer blogging days, it doesn't mean my collection doesn't still continue to grow and evolve. I suppose my ultimate goal is to have my very last post reflect a completely finished collection room, and when I say finished I mean all the G1 figures and boxes complete and displayed, and all ID tags in place. Things like Masterpiece won't be done for a while so that section will always continue to grow.

A Curator's Dream: Realized (and Thanks for all the Fish)

It has been nearly a year since I began my journey to acquire two of every G1 figure and put them on display. A lot has changed in that time, some good, some bad and some unexpected. But if there is one thing we can count on in this life, it is change. So without further delay, I present what will probably be my final post

A Very Special Gift

Charticon provided me with many opportunities. It gave me the chance to meet people I had only known online prior, it allowed me to experience running a convention from the "other side" as it were, and it provided me with invaluable insight to the community as a whole. One very unexpected result of the show was that I was given some wonderful gifts for helping some people out. This is the first of these.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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?

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!

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.

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.