Takara boxed number 31 to 36: Constructicons

Slowly, I turn to the Destron (Decepticon) portion of the "01 to 49 Quest" that I am on...

These are Japanese boxed numbers 31 to 36, the Constructicons. Who doesn't love the very first G1 combiner there is. Well, love it or hate it, there is just something about the lime green and purple colour schemes of these guys that work.

Finding these guys individually took some effort as well. Actually, back in 2010, when I was at Mandarake Nakano, there was a very nice set of 31 to 36 MIB that I could have bought, but then back then, they were considered repeats and there were other higher priority items on my list (and luggage space was limited).

Early Takara Japanese Autobot "cars" MIB

About a year ago, I conceived of a "mission" in my mind - I wanted to acquire 'proper' versions of the TFs that mattered to me.

Over the years, I have gone and acquired a lot of TFs from 1984 to 1992, all in the name of completion. Also 99% of them came in USA boxes or packaging, but many were without the ever elusive 'bubble insert' that tends to go missing (or even when present, is quite pointless). For the Japanese section of TFs, my collecting aim up till that point last year was that if there is an equivalent USA release, I would get the USA boxed version and not the Japanese boxed version. This means that I would not have gotten a 01 - Convoy MIB because I would have gotten a USA Optimus Prime MIB; however, I would get Japanese pieces that had no USA equivalent release, for example Artfire.

The 'mission' then, was to also acquire all the early Japanese TFs. In particular, I wanted my focus to be on numbers 01 to 49, which were the earliest Cybertrons and Destrons in the Japanese line (ie; both Autobots and Decepticons were mixed into the 01 to 49 numbers).

After about a year and two months, these are the Cybertrons (Autobots)...

MP-20: Wheeljack and other Wheeljacks (Generations, Japanese Takara MIB, USA MIB, G1, SCF and Hard Hero)

Once again, what's worth doing is worth over doing.

Took a shot of my Wheeljack family after I transformed MP-20: Wheeljack, which is an awesome mold by the way.

Pictured with: 03 - Takara boxed Wheeljack (2 pcs), USA box pre-rub Wheeljack MIB, Generations Wheeljack, loose G1 rub-sign Wheeljack, SCF Wheeljack and Hard Hero Wheeljack.
(acknowledgements - Takara boxed Wheeljack from jgon, Hard Hero Wheeljack from Fatbot)

1987 Takara exclusive (variant) white Headmaster heads - Kaku, Lodoney, Lione, Trizor, Shuffler

After more than 6 months post obtaining these, it is finally time to reveal them and talk about them. For one reason or another, my blog is suffering from a substantial backlog of posts - I have close to 70 posts worth of photos and materials ready, but yet to be posted.

A sign that I am enjoying other things in life surely.

I start off with the money shot - almost a full collection of the 1987 exclusive Headmasters, in colour and in white. I am missing a white Loafer of course. Oh, goes without saying that I would pay good money to buy one from whoever has it.

Back row (L to R): white Lodoney (Rodney), white Kaku (Kirk), Loafer, Lodoney (Rodney) and Kaku (Kirk)

Front row (L to R): white Trizor, white Lione, white Shuffer, Trizor, Lione and Shuffer

Shelve re-arrangement - Autobot cars to the front!

This was toward the end of July, a couple of days before E and me left for our Euro vacation. That day, I decided to (once again) rotate and re-arrange my toy shelves. This time, I really wanted to feature the early year 'Autobot cars' and sort of rotated them all to the front.

Specimen-17's sale of the decade (perhaps) - lots of rare G1 figures AFA-ed, MISB, MIB

Beginning from a couple of days ago till somewhere in mid-September, long time UK seller Specimen-17 will be selling a very large lot of Transformers - mostly AFA pieces, Japanese G1 (MISB and MIB), USA G1 (carded, MIB, MISB) and other exotic paraphernalia.

For a sale of this scope and magnitude, Specimen-17 is currently in Beijing, China, assisting a long time collector auction off key pieces of his collection. The collector is known to me, was active on the Australian Transformers Boards and we are good friends - this is why I am doing a shout out here.

E and I have personally seen his collection in Australia before we all moved back to Asia. With hand to heart, I can say that his collection is one of the most breath-taking and stunning collections that I have seen. The depth of the pieces he has to the rare and exotic nature of the items are really something to behold.

Some of what is on auction right now includes such pieces as AFA Arfire MISB, AFA dino-cassettes, AFA Masterforce figures, MISB Japanese, USA and Euro-exclusive figures and more.

Okay, enough of the hard-sell, go see for yourself...

eBay.com page: http://www.ebay.com/sch/specimen-17/m.html?_ipg=50&_sop=3&_rdc=1

eBay.co.uk page: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_ipg=50&_ssn=specimen-17&_sop=1

(I included 2 pages because eBay kind of displays strange on my browser and depending on which site I use, a different number of hits is show; weird, but I don't know why).

Good luck bidding, I know I want to win some of those puppies too!

~ HD

so this year, I will be at Auto Assembly!

This weekend, I will be at Auto Assembly in the UK.

Long story short, I guess, I'd say that Auto Assembly is the UK's annual version of a TF convention by fans.

How this all came about has been pretty fortuitous. It wasn't planned, at least not from the very beginning. E and I were always going to take a vacation during this period, after her secondment at a client's office ends. This year, she wanted to go to Europe and decided on Paris, London and Switzerland. It was during the planning stages of the trip that I realised I would be in Paris on or around the time AA is happening.

Initially, we weren't supposed to be in the UK during the AA weekend, but on realising that there is a true blue TF-convention on at the time, E sort of moved mountains to make sure our schedule aligned with some part of the convention. She even booked a nice room at the hotel where AA will be held.

Needless to say, I am very excited to be attending perhaps my first even TF dedicated convention. Looking forward to meet my buddies Maz, Morg and Specimen-17 too.

Thanks a million to E for making it possible!

~ HD