For example, when Takara released TFC#03: Skids, eHobby timed its release with an 'exclusive' repaint, eHobby Crosscut; for TFC#04: Tracks, eHobby had Road Rage and so on.
At the time, with little knowledge of the Diaclone line and its colours (except perhaps blue Bluestreak), I looked at these repaints with derision, and wrote them off as 'cheap' recolours in a bid to milk money from collectors.
However, being a sucker for punishment, I still went out there and bought them all, mostly.
This is Deepcover and Clampdown. Both are recolours of the Sideswipe mold (TFC#07). Deepcover is a homage / reissue to the black police Countach from the extremely rare Diaclone PCDX Giftset (and in a moment of shameless plugging, this is not to be mistaken with the Diaclone late production, perhaps only 1 in the world, black Countach); Clampdown is a homage / reissue of the diaclone police Countach.
This is Road Rage, a Tracks recolour (TFC#4), homage to diaclone / MB red Tracks; and Crosscut (not sure what it is a homage to, I don't believe there is a diaclone Skids that comes in this colour).
Here is a group shot.
Now that I look at them, wow, they do look magnificent.
Here, some other exclusives are pictured - mailaway exclusives black Tracks (white box with black words) and FigureKing exclusive Tigertracks (white box with yellow art). Sitting at the bottom is a reissue Ultra Magnus in diaclone Powered Convoy colours, or some might call early TFTM movie trailer coloured Ultra Magnus.
eHobby also did Decepticons in case you were wondering. From top to bottom, there are (1) anime colour Astrotrain (became exceedingly expensive really fast); (2) Dimension Exploration Researchers (also became exceedingly expensive fast); and (3) Detritus (has remained cheap to this day).
Then, there are the odd sets - Hauler and Sunstorm. At one point Sunstorm was very difficult to get and expensive thanks to Dreamwave's depiction of him. At its most expensive, Sunstorm alone was worth almost US$250. Then, Takara deigned to reissue him again and prices tanked... never to recover.
I end with another group shot of these eHobby exclusive reissues, which back in the day, I thought little of, but today, here and now, i think they look pretty awesome!
Oh, and since they are all MISB, I haven't actually played with them or examined them up close... yet.
Like you, when eHobby started doing their repaints, I was highly skeptical and refused to buy them. I didn't think of them as "official" G1 figures and thus objects of scorn. Within the past four or five years, I've backtracked from that stance and must now pay astronomical prices for all of these guys. Now I grab eHobby figures when they're released.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to ever open these guys up?
I will open these guys up. Definitely intend to actually, just not got round to it. The number of toys I fully intend to open but has sat here MISB for years, is just beyond belief.
DeleteI got *most* of them back in the day, there were a few that I was truly too tired to chase after back then that slipped through the net (there was just so many reissues back then and repaint after repaint, Takara, Hasbro, eHobby, exclusive mail aways, its crazy).
I don't know if I told you this in the email, but I currently have a love-hate relationship with exclusives. Love the idea of owning certain event-based exclusives. Hate both the fact that I will not and the fact that both toylines and characters have been shoe-horned because of this. Yet, however, Diaclones do need love and it is a shame that e-HOBBY (or some other company) gave that love to the Trainbots.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the only existing exclusives I want are the hardest to find. So I am hoping that Million Publishing will, at least, dip into that portion of my wishlist with their next exclusive.
Which ones are you looking for? Not sure that eHobby did trainbots? I'm sure many people would jump on those given the chance.
DeleteHey, i realised that we can't win them all ahem.... just grab what we can and then head off into the sunset... haha
The Wonderfest "Gutto Kuru" Minelba. CM's did a Nightbeat color variant of the figure, and fell in love with the color scheme. Problem is that she is pretty rare, which has me be contempt with the version I bought at TFsource. The other is C-200 Lander, but I am now hoping that Million Publishing will give us a more series-accurate version of him this year.
DeleteAnd I completely agree with you on the Trainbots. I previously told Predaking Sp that the Train Robo were my favorite Diaclone sets. And while I doubt the color variants could be redone, I would not mind seeing Takara Tomy do a "Japan Rail works with Transformers" version of these figures, regardless of them being the original or more like the Generations line.
Oh... And speaking of grabbing what I want, I managed to do that at Anime Expo before meeting the Transformer collector who had appeared on Collection Intervention. :)
hey, i've not heard of all these toys you mentioned.... man, your news is way more advanced than me. I don't think Takara will reissue the trains TBH, they just won't really sell outside of Japan... not many people are obsessed with... trains.
DeleteWho is this TF collector?
I absolutely love those e-Hobby exclusives. I missed out on Astrotrain and the Go-Bots, but got most of the others when they were new. Still surprised we never got a Metrotitan from the Encore Metroplex.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's a thought isn't it? Why didn't they pounce on doing a Metrotitan when they did Metroplex? However, I know that Metroplex Encore sold very poorly in most places, so that could be a reason why.
DeleteOr it could be that Metrotitan has such piss poor colours that they predict his sales would be even worse and just shelved the idea of reissuing him.
There are a few I'm missing, for example Magnificus, which I have so far refused to buy although i have seen again and again
Well I hope you're happy, because all of a sudden last week I had some sort of revelation and decided I needed all these as well. I think it has been all those Diaclone articles I've been reading from Maz lately. So unfortunately I only bought Detritus new and will thus have to go back and pay stupid prices for most of these. However I am happy to report I just snagged a Fire Guts God Ginrai and a Sunstorm ($41!!) so my journey has begun.
ReplyDeleteYes, I’m happy. Welcome to eHobby! Most of the repaints are really nice, and soon, they will be vintages too… they are coming up to 10+ years old now. Soon, there will be a new term, “vintage-reissue”.
DeleteOf course I agree Maz is to blame for a lot of stuff – donuts, delinquency and Decepticons…
Man, FGGG and Sunstorm for $41 is very very cheap. FGGG can go for as much as $250. You’ve got a good deal. You would really p0wn collectors everywhere if you can get anime Astrotrain for cheap, somehow…
Well, only the Sunstorm was $41, but I got both for under $200! Yeah that Anime Astrotrain is going to be a nightmare, along with the recolor minibots. Ugh. When I go broke I am pointing my wife in your direction so she can kick your ass after she's done kicking mine.
DeleteHmm… so about $160 for FGGG. As long as under $200, that’s still a good price. Man, anime Astrotrain and recolour minibots (Dimension Exploration Team), I don’t even want to think of how much I paid for them because I missed them the first time round. Astrotrain I could understand, but I’d never understand why the minibots are worth that much. When we both go broke, our wives can have a discussion about why hahaha =)
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