Sidetracked - MP-18 and Scoria (aka Dinobot Slag)

Random pic of the day....

Maz's ambassador series - Third Party TFs and my selection of TFX-01: City Commander

So it's now up to Part 5 of Maz's ambassador series and enter a further contribution by me - for the Third Party FansProject Ambassador - the City Commander armour!

Read Maz's article here.

I took some photos for the purposes of the article, and thought I should just share it here for everyone to see (since the article can only accommodate a limited number of photos per contributor).

PE-DX03 - Perfect Effect Warden aka IDW's Fortress Maximus - a short review

This is one of the best third party toys I have ever seen.

It's not an embellishment, it's quite the truth.

I have been there from the beginning, since FansProject's City Commander, commonly regarded as the third party toy that started it all. And I still think Perfect Effect's PE-DX03: Warden is one of the best third party toys out there.

It hits all the right notes. It's highly detailed, beautifully sculpted and there is so much play value - it transforms into so many relevant things. Also, there are die-cast parts and the tank threads are rubber!

Amazing yeah?

It is at once (1) IDW's Fortress Maximus (based very closely on Milne's design way back from Spotlight Arcee); (2) an add on kit to G1 Fortress Maximus; and (3) a headmaster of the G1 variety.

I am truely delighted, yet surprised, that PE could make the jump from what to me were a string of pretty mediocre releases to this marvel of design, engineering and construction.

So here it is, with a Milne page that is no doubt the inspiration for the toy.

Today's Acquisitions - Japanese G1, whitened Jetfire, MPs, FP Roadbuster

Today was surreal. Actually, it was a crap day all things considered, but I won't go into that.

The evening was good though. Met up with a good buddy to collect back the Jetfire he helped me to whiten. It went from a mustard colour to this...

In hand images of FansProject CA-13: Diesel (aka not-Motormaster)

After a really long wait, it is finally here... FansProject's version of Motormaster, one of my favourite G1 characters.

Above, he is pictured with the Japanese version of his G1 counterpart, D-50: Motormaster, a rare piece in itself.

I just got back home with this piece. What makes it extra special is that I picked it up together with 3 other local TF buddies, whom I have gotten to know recently (we already have a What's App group and talk daily!). It was great to pick this up together, go for some food and a drink and to meet them for the first time.

No, I didn't buy 2. One box is for an old friend in Singapore.

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.

Just received! Charticon exclusives from Arkvander - Landshark and custom tech specs plus bonus(?)

This year, I really wanted to go to Charticon, the inaugural unofficial Transformers convention in Charlotte, USA, organised by some of the nicest and bestest collectors around, including Arkvander and Flywheels.

Due to work (both E and myself), we could not go. However, there were just lots of goodies to be had there, exclusives, customs and other things.

Long story short, I requested Arkvander to help me pick up a small number of items, if he had the time. Very graciously, he did. And he's sent them to me and I received them today.

I will talk about each of these items in due course but would like to mention here that the biggest surprise and delight was actually receiving these 2 custom SCF figures - hate spore coated Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus!

More acquisitions - Quakewave (aka Shockwave), Terminus Hexatron (aka Sixshot) and Generations Trailcutter (aka Trailbreaker)

The story here is - still very busy. And weekend was good, spent time with E, who didn't have to work this weekend. So in short, not a lot of opportunity to update, but here it is - another update!

As part of my consolidated acquisitions post on 23 July, I updated that I bought FT-03: Quakewave, aka Shockwave. Here are some more pics of this absolutely amazing figure.

CA-12 Downforce and 02 x FT-03: Quakewave, 1 for me and 1 on behalf of a friend.

From what I can tell online, mine is the third wave of Quakewaves - therefore, it comes with lots of extra goodies. The matte coloured fist and laser gun comes free.

Here is Quakewave laid out with all the parts it comes with - the purple parts form another left arm, where the 'hose' is on the underside of the arm. Great that FanToys is giving fans a choice of how and where the want the hose to be.

Yes, it lights up too!

consolidated acquisitions - G1 Jetfire, Senator Ratbat, MP-12T, Quakewave, CA-12: Last Chance, Martian Manhunter

I have been very busy over the past week and really did not have too much time to post here and update  things. I actually have about 5-6 posts, with photos already prepared and uploaded, but no opportunity to do final edits and to post.

Those will have to wait till after I do this quick "bulk" update of the things I have been picking up.

From left to right:

• G1 Jetfire, complete and unused (Matsushiro variant) - no doubt, i will write more about this at some point in the future.
• FansToys FT-03: Quakewave, aka Shockwave
• Transformers Generations (Japan): Senator Ratbat
• (top) Tokyo Toy Show exclusive, MP-12T: Tigertrack
• (bottom) FansProject CA-12: Last Chance, aka Dead End
• Justice League, New 52: Martian Manhunter - this will join my Justice League figures here.

Except for Jetfire which I bought from eBay (from eBay seller 'The Mint 1980s Toy Store and Museum'), all the above were bought from retail in Hong Kong, even MP-12T.

I have one further thing to add about MP-12T - do yourself a favour and read what Maz has written on the lineage and significance of this piece. It is more than a hollow repaint. After reading what Maz has wrote, I am sure am glad I did not pass this up and potentially have to pay high secondhand market prices.

Maz's brilliantly researched and written article is here - Who is Tigertrack? - Part 1. Be sure to check back for Part 2!

I end with a gratuitous close up shot of Jetfire.

***

For more Quakewave photos and review, see my 28 July post here.

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.

kindof review - MakeToys Mobine Series - Paladin / Chaos, aka The Fallen

Quite excited since I picked this up last night. Was probably one of the first persons at the shop to pick it up because I was talking to a shop-owner friend in his shop when I saw the stock arrive.

Having already pre-ordered this, and incidentally having the receipt in my wallet, I popped over to the next shop to pick it up.

Here it is. Out of the box already! The MakeToys Mobine Series - Paladin / Chaos, a toy meant to be The Fallen, from Dreamwave's War Within: The Dark Ages comic series.

Having removed it from its box, I thought I'd share some thoughts on this here. The thoughts are going to be random, hence why I titled this a 'kindof review' - it's not really a review.

Here he is in robot mode. I gotta say, for a character that is evil, my, the toy is pretty majestic. You'd think that having a colour scheme that is 90% black might be a little 'boring', but no, Chaos is far from boring. There are lots of little orange details on appropriate parts of him, very likely intending to simulate the sort of fire that the Fallen has always portrayed with.

Oh, and he comes with a kindof huge sword too, which is a plus. A quick google image search shows me that the sword design is pretty faithful to the sword he had in the comics. Very nice, MakeToys. It also goes without saying that the poseability is top notch, as usual for MakeToys products.

Review - Dr Wu Vanguard upgrades for Classics / Henkei Seekers - Starscream,Thundercracker and Skywarp

I bought these together with a number of other things week before last. To be honest, I don't know what they are called and really cannot be concerned enough to find out.

So, I will just call them Dr Wu Vanguard upgrades.

What they actually are, is in fact more interesting than what they are called. From the photo below, it can clearly been seen that these upgrades were meant for Classics / Henkei seekers - it is meant to be their arm lasers. What also stands out is the nice illustrations on each individual card - obviously meant to be Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp.

The back of the packaging also has bespoke art.

Acquisitions - FansProject not Wildrider, BT-20: Argent Meister and Dr Wu Seeker cannons

It's been awhile since I have listed acquisitions here. To be honest, the acquiring never stopped, just that I've been slack and listed some but not others.

This neat little lot, I bought last Saturday. Nothing very controversial or difficult to get, 4 pieces of third party products and BT-20.

Here we have from left to right:

- FansProject Causality CA-10: T-Bone MISB. Name makes no sense to me. How is the name even reminiscent of Wildrider?

- Dr Wu upgrade parts for the Classics / Henkei Seekers - Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp. These look like they would fit nice and appears better than the large silly monstrosities that passes as cannons originally part of the seeker toys.

- BT-20: Argent Meister MIB. Why am I now trying to finish up my BT collection? I blame Maz and his poetic words and beautiful photographs. See what I mean: "BINALTECH BT-01 TO BT-04" and "BINALTECH BT-05 TO BT-08"

third party madness

It's incredible, the recent slew of third party Transformers product being released. 

While I generally loathe third party products that knock off existing Hasbro / Takara products (eg: iGear MP-seekers Thundercracker), I'm usually pleased with innovative original third party designs (eg: most of the FansProject stuff).

In quite an unprecedented move, I have actually pre-ordered a number of upcoming third party products  that will be released as soon as by the end of this week. Unlike many other collectors, I don't have to wait for them to ship, but merely have to rock up to the shop and pick them up after work, all in a day's work style and all.

I pre-ordered these:

• TFC Toys - Uranos Blackbird, aka not-Silverbolt.
• Master Mind Creations - Terminus Hexatron, aka not-Sixshot
• Toy World - TW-H01, Hardbone, aka not-Hardhead
• FansProject - Causality CA-09: Car Crash, aka not-Breakdown
• FansProject - Causality CA-10: T-Bone, aka not-Wildrider
• FansProject - Function X-2: Quadruple U, aka not-Weirdwolf
• FansProject - Function X-3: Smart Robin, aka not-Brainstorm
• Make Toys - MB-01C: Mobine Chaos, aka not-The Fallen

Looking forward to end of the week!

~ HD