A tiny acquisition - Japanese S.T.A.R.S. pin / badge

Sometime ago, I bought a very mint, unused Japanese S.T.A.R.S. set in mailer box.

Sadly, it was missing 2 things - (1) the badge and (2) the ID Card.

A buddy from OZ Formers, Mick, was kind enough to help me secure a pin direct from a Japanese lady seller to help with completing my S.T.A.R.S. set.

It was not cheap, but now that I see the beauty, I'd say its worth it.

Here it is:

For completeness, this is the S.T.A.R.S. set:

~ HD

Latest additions to "My Favourite Blogs" side bar

Like my buddy Mr "Mostly Transformers Redux" Arkvander, I'm always on the look out for Transformer related blogs and reading content. 

When I come across ones that I like or are great for sharing, I will add them to my blogroll, which is the section I call "My Favourite Blogs" on the side bar.

Over the last couple of days, I have added the following:

Pax Cybertron - great site, well taken photos, great reviews of G1 and recent releases. 

Robot Points - featuring Ras and his (very) rare toys and prototypes. 

Transformers Seminarian - who works in a seminary, who writes about Transformers, and other stuff.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to 'up and coming' aka relatively newly formed blog sites, which are also very well done and deserving of the community readership's support!

Optimal Omega's Transformers - passionate articles about his collecting journey and childhood toys. 

A G1 Journey (aka Staying in the Box) - Matt's G1 journey, also extremely passionate and detailed articles with loads of high quality photos of G1 pieces.

So, pop a beer open, kick back, head over to these great resources and enjoy!

~ HD

Transformers Scramble City Stuntron D-50: Motormaster MIB unused

For some years I have been hearing about the rarity of a D-50: Motormaster. For some years, I have been struggling to understand why it is rare.

I mean, it's just Motormaster. It's 1/5 of Menasor. Most people would not even bother buying it individually without the other 5 Stunticons (or in Japan's case, Stuntrons). What in the world is it then?

The "rarity" of this piece really piqued my interest when such high powered collectors like Puffmarko and HighPrime appear to be looking for this piece. HighPrime has been looking for it on TFW2005, Seibertron and Shmax for sometime. And when a guy with a collection like Puffmarko's appears to be looking for this piece, I stand up and listen.

It is also noteworthy that on the Shmax collector's database, it shows that only 2 people own a D-50: Motormaster (one of them is me). Given, that Shmax is not representative of an item's rarity, that is still very little people owning this piece.

This is what Fred of Fred's Workshop, the ultimate guru of variants, has to say:

"D-50 Motormaster was the hardest of all the original four Scramble City leaders for me to find. It didn't matter if I was looking for a loose one or a sealed one, launcher equipped Motormasters were tremendously scarce... On top of that, a sealed or boxed D-50 is even rarer, and I've talked to dealers at Botcon and other collectors who have stated that Menasor giftsets are more common than sealed/boxed D-50s. And that's saying a lot!"

On my trips to Japan, I've actually seen D-50s, but being sold as a set with the other Stunticons and at stupid prices and not in good condition. So I've ignored those. So, one day, must be about a month ago, I was walking around the toy shops here and my usual shop had a set of unused Stunticons! Yup, they had D-50, D-51, D-52, D-53 and D-54. Obviously selling as a set.

I ordinarily would not be interested. However, work has been so busy at the time, I don't think I've bought much of anything for the month, so I thought, maybe here is a chance to buy something. It'd be a frolic, sure, but Menasor was my favourite childhood combiner and here is a chance to buy it unused and score a rare D-50 at the same time. At the back of my mind, I also know I'd never buy a Menasor giftset because I hate the damn ugly box art.

After chatting with Maz and VF1, I decided to buy the set... ta da!

Diaclone dino-robo No.5 Swoop vs Transformers G1 regular release Swoop

Today we talk about Swoop. Yes, the Dinobot Swoop.

Here he is...

In my quest for cartoon accurate Dinobots, I've hunted down "Canadian" red faced Slag, and then also Diaclone dinosaur robo No.5 Swoop.

Cartoon accurate Dinobots

I have also previously compared the Canadian red faced Slag with the regular USA released Slag, just as now I will compare the Diaclone dinosaur robo No.5 Swoop ("Diaclone Swoop") with the regular USA released Swoop ("G1 Swoop").

First, a bird's eye view of the birdies... the eagle eyed should be able to spot some differences already (just ignore my yellow G1 Swoop's beak)

G1 Transformers Scourge, assortment #1, painted top

I bought this sometime ago.

I bought this from one of my favourite online sellers, the legendary "Sector-17 Trading Post" ran by TF fan extrodinare, Specimen-17 (who also contributed to my Vanguard article).

There isn't that much to say about this piece that I have not already said online over the years, except that I love it and that I've always had a soft spot for Scourge, since young. I don't know why, but something about him just works. Perhaps the colour scheme, perhaps its the alternate mode? It could even be that beard!

Oh, and the fact that he is metamorphosed from the dead remains of Thundercracker really helps too. And then, to add another random fact, I edited his Targetmaster box art for Botch's Box Art Archive too.

And then we get to the toy - "this is such an awesomely pristine piece" was my first though when I got him. What's so special about this piece? Well, it's actually the 'rarer' first assortment release of Scourge that has the painted top, unlike later releases which has a stickered top.

I have one other painted top Scourge, so this piece will join the ranks, but its so awesome, I just might not remove it from its packaging....

Maz and VF1's Diaclone and Transformers toys for sale

Maz and VF1 are selling some minty and sought after Diaclone / Transformers pieces.

If you are a TFW2005 member, their sales lists can be seen here:

• Maz's G1 / Pre-TF / Proto BST (contact Maz here)
• VF1's Diaclone sales list (contact VF1 here)

If you are not a TFW2005 member, here is what is potentially up for grabs (if not already gone!).

***

Maz's sales list

G1 UK Classic Optimus Prime MISB - Production sample (Bought direct from ex-Hasbro head of R and D)

The gold-boxed Classic Optimus Prime was released in the 1991 second wave. It might be hard for you to believe, but this is a staggeringly rare packaging variation these days, especially this English language release which doesn’t even say “Classic” anywhere on it, instead it says “Original”. By that point we would have had Powermaster Optimus Prime so maybe Hasbro felt the need to make it even more clear that this release was based on the vintage G1 Optimus Prime. This is not to be confused with the easier-to-find Spanish version of the gold-boxed Optimus Prime.

Contact Maz here.

***

VF1's sales list

(1) Diaclone Train Robo set (unused contents)

(2) GiG Powered Convoy instruction sheet

(3) Diaclone Dia-Attacker MIB (comes with 2 fists)

(4) GiG Countach (aka Sideswipe) box only

Contact VF1 here

***

If either Maz or VF1 cannot be contacted, I can help pass the message along, email me - secrets@HeroicDecepticon.com

eHobby - Dimension Exploration Researchers MISB (aka eHobby Minibots)

This was one of the eHobby sets I was the least keen on getting, back in the day. I could have bought it on retail, but given the deluge of reissues back then, I just was not interested in another seemingly senseless repaint.

On hindsight, getting this might have really been a good idea, given how much its gone up in price. This set was also one of the few eHobby sets that I do not have and I have been looking on and off for it.

Then I came across a TFW seller who was selling 4000+ pieces of Transformers and decided to get a large amount of items for him for upgrading purposes. He also had this set MISB, so I thought, why not, opportunity buy.

So here they are:

• Bug Bite (recoloured Bumblebee)
• Bad Boy (recoloured Powerglide)
• Treds (recoloured Warpath)
• Small Foot (recoloured  Gears)
• Pathfinder (recoloured Cosmos)
• Road Ranger (recoloured Huffer)

MISB MIB box.

1987 Headmasters Japanese exclusive dino-cassettes: C-121: Gurafi, C-122: Noizu, C-123: Dairu and D-124: Zauru with D-108: Slugfest and D-109: Overkill

I posted about my D-108: Slugfest and D-109: Overkill acquisitions a few days back. I wanted to lump in images of them with the other dino-cassettes, but I thought, wait a minute, that wouldn't do them justice.

So here we are, a separate post for them - together!

Dramatis personae:

• C-121: Gurafi (Graphy) MIB
• C-122: Noizu (Noise) MIB
• C-123: Dairu (Dial) MIB
• C-124: Zauru (Saur) MIB
• D-108: Slugfest MIB
• D-109: Overkill MIB

Now, some photos!

D-108: Slugfest and D-109: Overkill with C-121: Gurafi, C-122: Noizu, C-123: Dairu and D-124: Zauru.

1987 Destron dino-cassettes, D-108: Slugfest MIB and D-109: Overkill MIB, unused

It all started back near the end of December 2011, when I posted about the 4 pieces of 1987 Headmasters exclusive W-cassettes (aka "the dino-cassettes" to many).

To recap, I talked about and reviewed each one in some detail:

• C-121: Gurafi (Graphy) MIB
• C-122: Noizu (Noise) MIB
• C-123: Dairu (Dial) MIB
• C-124: Zauru (Saur) MIB

... and then I wrote a piece of all of them together, which can be seen here. Even took a gratuitious shot of them with the Autobot and Decepticon communicators for good measure - see below.

This was the money shot.

One comment that came back from fellow collector buddy Arkvander (check out his wonderful blog at "Mostly Transformers Redux"), was this:

"You really need the Japanese releases of Slugfest and Overkill...but not before I get them!"

"Don't temp me, sir. I might just decide to fly to Japan over a weekend and solve this issue, for both of us! =)", I responded.

"YES!", he replied.

I wasn't previously looking for the Japanese Destron "dino-cassettes", after all, these were common enough and had even been reissued. But Arkvander managed to sow a seed in my mind, which sprouted into the determination to also find these 2 cassettes! You devil, you! (by the way, this post is dedicated to you).

Some unexpected acquisitions - Triggercon, Triggerbots, dino-cassettes

So I saw some auctions in eBay. One of which was for the Japanese Destron Dino-cassettes - Slugfest and Overkill.

I bid on them. But lost because someone kept upping the bids to unrealistic levels.

After 2 to 3 days, the seller who is based on Hong Kong emailed me and said that he has lodged complaints on the winning bidder who bid on more than 1 of his auctions and would not pay. He even gave me the non-paying bidder's name.

So I thought to ask - "do you still have the toys?" (I know, I know, he might have shill bidded them himself and then just ask me straight instead of giving me a second-chance offer; so all this is a sham).

Anyway, I spoke to him over the phone. The guy could hardly speak English, so spoke to him in Canto and he was complaining about how the person didn't pay. So I asked him, how much did he want for the pieces. And he said, "just deduct off the ebay fees from your highest bid and we go from there?"

"That's not too unreasonable I thought"

After a few conversations, I managed to press the price down even further. And he was fine, he said didn't want to talk too much about the price, he's fine. So I met him at a train station after work a few days ago.

And lo and behold, he was a guy I'd seen before. A friend of the shop I frequent. I was comforted that at least, he probably isn't a cheat.

So I paid, and cash-and-carry. Felt really good. Never did get to just walk somewhere and pick up vintage Transformers in places like Sydney.

Triggerbots MOSC - Backstreet, Override, Dogfight.


Triggercons MOSC - Ruckus and Windsweeper.


Will talk more about D-108 and D-109 later!

~ HD