Giddy up! It's Hasbro versus Takara in Optimus Prime / Convoy trailer Race Day!

Trailer Race Day happened on or around 4 September 2014. I took the photos on 4 Sep 2014, but it is only now that I am documenting it and writing it down.

I was at home alone that night because E was working late, after having picked up a variant of 01-Convoy from a HK collector. I suddenly realised that I had a lot of Primes on hand... and I asked myself: 'I wonder which variant of Prime has the most powerful trailer'.

And then I thought further, 'Just how powerful is the fabled VSX-style 'super' launcher. Is it really that super?'.

I grinned and resolved within myself: 'I have the Primes, I have the time - let's have me a Trailer Race Day!!!'.

Generations (2013) Blitzwing - this is not a review

The other day, I was rearranging my CHUG shelf because I needed to make space for this-super-duper-awesome-new-Generations-figure...

I cleaned the shelves out a lot, meaning I transformed and kept a number of pieces so that I had space to display new pieces.

Then I came to Generations Blitzwing. Yeah, he was on the shelf too. And I wanted to transform him into tank mode to keep him. In the process, I re-discovered, all over again, what a piece-of-fecal-matter-toy Generations Blitzwing is.

I don't think I want to waste more cyber space talking about this toy sucks giant slick beef balls, so I decided to take some shots and show them here.

Here comes Devastator (a third party toy)....

"Take that, you piece of fecal matter!" *stomp!*

"... and that and that and that..." *stomp stomp stomp!!! crush, crush!*

Next, Devastator stabs Blitzwing with his own Electron Scimitar *scene too gory and is censored*

Hasbro Generations Skids (#009) - A Review, Part 2 - sizes, weapons, QC fixes

This figure is so good, I had to do another part, while having coffee... (I think of the Gassy Autobot too).

For this post, I'm going to focus on (A) simple size comparisons; (B) some QC issues and (C) the weapons that the toy came with. 

For the size comparison section, I will simply compare Skids with some recent and past releases. 

For the QC issues portion, I hope to address a number of common issues that I have seen other post about online - (i) balance issues because the toy is back heavy; (ii) the legs cannot bend forward at the hips.

For the weapons segment, I want to talk about just how refreshing it is for Hasbro to finally give us a modern day toy with a sizable compliment of weapons.

Takara Masterpiece MP-17: Prowl (pictorial) review

So as I mentioned yesterday that I got MP-17: Prowl and that I will transform him during breakfast today.

Well, I did. In fact, I felt like I was 10 years old again, because I got out of bed earlier than usual and could not get back to sleep, too excited at the prospect of playing with Prowl.

Japanese box 09 - Prowl MIB; USA boxed pre-rub Prowl MIB, unused; and MP-17: Prowl MIB

What else is there to say other than that its another wonderful figure to the already stella MP line. There is very little not to like about the figure - it's a work of art.

The car mode, is spot on in terms of its styling and scale, continuing from the strong precedent set by the Lamborghini molds (MP-Sideswipe, Red Alert, Tigertrack).

After transforming MP-Prowl, I proceeded to take a number of gratuitous photos... haha. Here they are...

In the photos are various Prowl incarnations: (1) rub-sign Prowl MIB (no insert); (2) Japanese box 09 - Prowl MIB; (3) USA boxed pre-rub Prowl MIB, unused; and (4) MP-17: Prowl MIB

FansProject CA-11: Down Force aka Drag Strip (Menasor) - in-hand review

So this hit Hong Kong's shores yesterday - FansProject's Causality CA-11: Down Force, aka Drag Strip. According to TF Source, this has been renumbered, it was supposed to be CA-12. Oh well, what's a few numbers?

After a very intense and busy day of work, I met another buyer at the train station and sold him my loose Generations Warpath. Then proceeded to the toy shops to pick up Down Force. The weather today was really intolerable. Heat and high levels of humidity.

Out of the 4 not-Stunticon robots, Down Force was probably the one that I was most looking forward to. First, there is a strong yellow colour scheme, but second, its vehicle was also one of the more unusual vehicle modes among the other not-Stunticons, which were just 'vanilla' type cars.

Holding it in my hand, my strong positive vibes for this figure increased - the yellow body colour and blue windows works really well together.

Takara boxed D-52: Drag Strip, USA carded Drag Strip with CA-11 Down Force.

Front of the box.

Hasbro Transformers Generations Wave 2 Triple-Changer SANDSTORM review

Here's my review of Hasbro's Transformers Generations Series 2, figure #003 (Wave 2), Voyager Class SANDSTORM.

I don't usually do reviews, but this figure is just too awesome and so I decided to do a review.

Sandstorm is from Wave 2 of the 'relaunched' Generations Line and it is the only the figure in Wave 2. The assortment is something like 2 pieces of Sandstorm and 1 piece each of Springer and Blitzwing, where the latter 2 are from Wave 1.

I'm just going to say here that Generations Blitzwing is a huge disappointment and what I term a 'crappy' figure. Sandstorm on the other hand has far exceeded my expectations.

Here, I have pictured Generations Springer and Sandstorm with their G1 Japanese counterparts C-83: Sandstorm and C-84: Sprung. I think they look awesome together. After 27 years, finally, worthy homages to these 2 characters that are not forced or repurposed from existing molds.

Generations Springer and Sandstorm side by side, both still MISB.

A shot showing the 'box art'. I do like the box art, its larger and better than most previous releases in the Generations line and also has a hand painted quality to it.

The back of the box. Layout is pretty decent and shows each characters' 3 modes. There is also a profile write up and tech specs thrown in for good measure. Sandstorm registers as "10" for both Courage and Skill... really? I just did a quick check and guess what? The Tech Specs for Generations Sandstorm matches that of G1 Sandstorm!

Review - Takara MP-11: Destron New Leader aka 'Coronation Starscream'

MP-11: Destron New Leader aka 'Coronation Starscream' was released last week.

I picked up mine on Saturday from the shops - gratuitous photo on the right.

Cost me HKD$899, not too bad, I thought.

The key question in my mind and, I guess a vast majority of collectors' mind, is "Why should I get yet another seeker mold?"

I already have MP-03: Starscream (aka 'greenscream'), Masterpiece Starscream (with Japanese Takara sticker), MP-06: Skywarp and MP-07: Thundercracker. That's like 4 of the same mold - do I need another?

And my answer turned out to be a 'yes'.

Why?

Because MP-11 is molded differently. For starters its done away with the hateful and honestly silly hip-fins that the designer thought would double up as samurai scabbards (wtf right?). The poorly designed feet which made it very difficult for prior seeker molds to balance on the gound without the supporting stand, is fixed for MP-11. The kibble in robot mode that hangs off the jet air-intakes are also removed (how I hated these, always pops out when I try to transform the jets).

MP-11 fixed almost all the little things I disliked about the previous seeker mold and also gave Starscream a new, more G1 accurate head-sculpt. All are big plus' in my book. Also, the inclusion of a proper crown and cape means I can junk the third party (not so great quality) crown and cape set. It's all good. E likes this piece too.

The new Starscream, tada!

I read that there was some fan-rage about the colours and the shade of grey. I personally think that both are fine and that the grey kind of matches his G1 grey colour and is a shade more accurate than the white of Masterpiece Starscream (anime colour one).

'My fellow Decepticons...' (the armless Jetfire has his limbs in a H2O2 whitening jar... heh)