Where is everyone going? The Exodus

I've become aware of an ever increasing trend in the Transformers community lately: longtime prominent collectors scaling back by orders of magnitude, or getting out of the hobby altogether. I must admit I am not immune to this recent trend as I have recently written about on this very blog. But why are so many collectors seemingly abandoning something they have spent years of their lives working on and obsessing over? I don't know for sure, but I have a few theories.

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.

Movie Optimus Spychanger..."GASP!"

Yeah, that's right. I bought a movie figure. But it isn't really a movie figure. Technically it is a movie repaint of an existing Robots In Disguise figure. And it was a total impulse buy; I was just browsing eBay the other day and I happened to come upon it. I didn't really know a whole lot about it but I thought it would be something cool Flywheels would like, but upon checking his Shmax page I discovered he already owned it. Big surprise (he has, like, everything). But the seller had it for half off at what seemed to be a pretty reasonable price especially for a Japanese exclusive so I bit the bullet.

I'm Raiden your hard earned cash! Yes...yes you are.

Around roughly the same time I discovered Road Caesar I also discovered Raiden. The year was 1999 and I was just starting college. Access to a constant T1 Ethernet port had opened up the entire internet to me and I was beginning to learn about all of the exclusive lines and toys in Japan. Raiden really stuck with me because I have always been a big fan of trains. I used to go down to the rail yards with my father and just watch the trains come and go when I was little. Cabooses were my favorite and I was most disappointed when they were retired from rail service. Unfortunately Raiden has no Cabooses, only engines. But they are still very cool little engines.

The trainbots that make up Raiden are a bit of an oddity. They were part of the original Diaclone line (much like the constructicons) but were not brought over with the rest of the toys due to what Hasbro deemes "cultural differences". Anyone who knows anything about Japan knows that trains are just a part of life over there, unlike here in America where air travel is the prominent method. Personally I think if they had been brought over earlier as part of the '85 or '86 line of figures they would have worked just fine. Kids obviously love trains, especially when they all combine into a giant robot. Unfortunately the trainbots never made it to the US so Raiden became a Japanese exclusive as part of the Headmasters line. And that makes him very expensive today. It took me over eight months to find all six figures in good condition.

From left to right: Shoki, Suiken, Kaen, Getsui, Seizan, Yukikaze

Shoki, leader and upper torso of Raiden

Getsui, Night Warrior (aka ninja) and right leg

Yukikaze, Cold Warrior and left leg

Suiken, Tactical Warrior and left arm

Seizan, Mountain Warrior and right arm

Kaen, Hot Warrior and lower torso

The Thunder and Lightning Warrior, Raiden!

I still think this guy would have been a great adversary to Devastator (rather than the Dinobots) not to mention successful in America. Back in 2001 Takara pulled this move again when they released JRX as part of the Car Robots line; another combining set of bullet trains. Those figures were released under the Robots In Disguise line in America and as far as I know sold just fine.