Japanese Transformers Takara D-99: Apeface and D-100: Snapdragon MIB

The first thing I gotta say is that these 2 were not part of my loot of 36 G1 Japanese Transformers.

D-99: Apeface and D-100: Snapdragon were bought some time ago in HK and somehow I have 'forgotten' about them and forgotten to write about them here.

D-99: Apeface, with USA Apeface MIB (box not pictured), D-100: Snapdragon, with USA Snapdragon MIB (box not pictured), and another loose Snapdragon. The intent is to be able to have Snapdragon in Robot, Plane and Dragon mode displayed all at once.

To be fair, they are 2 of the few Transformers in my display cabinets that actually have a dedicated section. So, I'm not being that bad to them.

D-99 and D-100 with my Bluestreak dedicated shelf. For more, see here.

For collectors who has been following or reading my blog for sometime, you would know that Apeface and Snapdragon are 2 of my favourite Transformers - certainly my favourite Headmasters, but high on my list of favourite TFs. I have written about them more extensively back in 2008 / 2009, so I will not go into detail here - links to my previous posts are provided at the end of this post.

Let's start then, with a closer look at D-99.

Charticon exclusives - Custom Tech Specs - G1, Movie, Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory and MTMTE

On 12 October 2013, I received a surprise package from a buddy collector friend. It was a good surprise for a weekend and I talked about the contents of the package in my post here.

These were the contents.

For this post, I want to focus on some particular items in the package – the Charticon exclusive custom Tech Specs!

Look at these wonderful slices of (neo) history

Before going any further, I would like to say that these look and feel just right – they are excellent representations of Tech Specs and have an unmistakably G1-esque feel to them.

Meticulously designed and laid out to be reminiscent of G1 Tech Specs.

These were created by Arkvander for the purposes of Charticon and he has written extensively about them here. They were used as sort of 'door gifts' that were blind packed and then later offered up for sale.

Custom SCFs - Hate-plague infected Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus

On 12 October 2013, I received a surprise package from a buddy collector friend. It was a good surprise for a weekend and I talked about the contents of the package in my post here.

These were the contents.

For this post, I want to focus on 2 particular items in the package – the custom Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus SCF figures.

laddies in red

Oh, you probably were going to ask why they are all red. Yes, that. There is an excellent reason – these figures are meant to reflect the events in the G1 episodes “The Return of Optimus Prime”, a 2-parter. In that episode, some puny humans discovered a type of spore, that causes a hate-plague if it infects robots. Humans are unaffected. Once infected, the Transformer turns complete glowy-red and can on-infect other Transformers by touch. During the course of the 2 episodes, more and more Transformers were infected and among them, you guessed it, Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus were infected.

Make Toys MT-03: Hyper Novae (aka Nova Prime)

I was writing about this and thinking - what a different topic this is from the posts of the past couple of weeks. There has recently been so much to write about - G1 (as always), Japanese G1 (as always), comics (MTMTE), convention stuff (Charticon) and others.

Today's Transformer collector is spoilt for choice, and a very busy person it seems!

This is about a Third Party Product ("3PP"). I don't intend to go chapter and verse into what these are because they should be quite familiar even to the average collector.

MT-03 in brown mailer protective box

I recently (meaning when it was first released) acquired the MakeToys MT-03: Hypernovae, aka Nova Prime. Like FansProject and MMC, MakeToys is Third Party company whose releases are now synonymous with quality, great design and just pure awesomeness. The one downside is that their products are expensive.

MT-03 set me back close to USD$175. I consider that pretty steep for an unofficial product.

This is the very first release of MT-03 and therefore, it comes with exclusive clear orange parts and silver stickers.

Here, I have taken it out of the brown mailer box -

• bottom: actual MT-03: Hyper Novae box. I like the design. White background, grid pattern, lots of Japanese words!
• middle: Hyper Novae in "tanker" mode in his insert. The silver sticker sheet in front is supposedly exclusive to the first release.
• top: paperworks packet and first release exclusive orange parts. These requires cutting out model kit style and some assembly.

Transformers 1985 G1 Jetfire, Masushiro version, unused

This was something I acquired almost 2 months back in July, but I have procrastinated and have not posted further about it till now.

This is the "Matsushiro" variant of Jetfire, one of the sort of obscure G1 variants like Diaclone blue Fairlady Z (aka 'blue' Bluestreak), Diaclone blue chest Swoop, Canadian red face Slag, blue-ear Cyclonus, painted-top Scourge and metal chest Springer, that I wish to obtain.

It is, considered a fairly significant variant to me.

I got this piece unused and in very minty condition from an eBay seller.

IDW's More Than Meets the Eye #22

I feel like I am 15 years old again - waiting with great anticipation for a new issue of IDW's More Than Meets the Eye, like how back in the 90s I waited for new issues of Jim Lee's and Chris Claremont's 'Uncanny X-Men' (then later 'X-Men') or Todd McFarlane's 'Spider-Man', then 'Spawn' or Ghost Rider.

Rewind.

This happened on 16 October 2013.

Maz messaged me to say MTMTE was going to hit the comic shops that day. I went straight to my local comic shop in the evening and grabbed a copy of MTMTE #22. It's that exciting. It cannot wait. Seriously.

Went home after entertaining some friends.
Took a shower.
Brewed a cup of tea.
Laid out my 'bots - Rewind, Tailgate, Swerve and Skids (which is an Encore, who cares. He forgets, I forget).
Sat on my comfy leather chair.

Started reading MTMTE #22.

Read it all the way through. Pausing only in the middle to whip out my copy of Transformers: Generations to have a look at the Thunderclash toy.

Blown away. Again.

Like I said, I feel like I am 15 again.

James Roberts made me feel young. James is awesome.

~ HD

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Related Posts:

• MTMTE by any other name would still be the greatest Transformers comic series, ever
• MTMTE is a masterpiece, but what about other IDW Transformers titles?

Charticon 2013 exclusive - Get Right Robot's Landshark MISB

A couple of days ago, I received a surprise package from a buddy collector friend. It was a good surprise for a weekend and I talked about the contents of the package in my post here.

These were the contents.

For this post, I want to focus on a particular item in the package - the Get Right Robot Charticon exclusive Landshark.

What is Charticon you might ask? It is an unofficial Transformers themed convention organised by fans, for fans. It took place in Charlotte, NC, USA from 9 to 11 August 2013. The next Charticon, as I understand it, will take place sometime in 2015. I am looking forward to it!

So now, on to Landshark. This is the description and intent behind this figure from the Charticon site "Our friends over at Get Right Robot have let us know they will be offering an exclusive figure of their own at Charticon: LANDSHARK! Landshark will come with a brand new head and new custom weapons not to mention an awesome paint job! These awesome Gnaw homages will only be available in very limited quantities at the show and will not be sold online. "

The moment I saw promotional shots of this guy, I knew rightaway that I had to get it, somehow.