Transformers Monogram Optimus Prime Keychain

Another Dollar Tree find, these little PVC keychain figurines are similar to the blind packaged figures also found at (some) Dollar Tree stores. I didn't care about owning all of them so I just grabbed Optimus Prime.

Monogram did a good job with the overall sculpt. I'm glad the hands are molded as fists instead of open as some of the others cheap PVCs. Paint apps are hit and miss. I had to look at all of them on the pegs and find the one with the best applications. Too bad the smokestacks were painted silver/gray. The tires molded on the back of the legs were painted gray when I would have preferred if they were black.

The keychain is attached to the head and the plastic clip is the larger size. I don't use it as a clip at all, instead I just stood the figure on my Optimus shelf. Not too bad for a buck.

Transformers Prexio Mini Figures

Hasbro is not shy about sharing their Transformers license with other companies. Recently a small company from Hong Kong, Prexio Limited released some small PVC mini figures to discount stores. These were based on classic Generation One characters such as Optimus Prime and Megatron. My older brother happened to find all 6 at a Dollar Tree store.

The packaging for these mini figures are quite nice, something I didn't expect from an item manufactured exclusively for discount stores. Each figure comes in a small foil bag featuring the original 80's art from the toy packaging.

Each figure stands roughly 2 inches tall and are made of a hard plastic. The figures are in a fixed position so no articulated arms or legs. The paint apps are ok, but some of the colors used are questionable. Don't even get me started about how the hands are posed!

Outside of the hands, I really like this Optimus Prime mini figure. The mold itself is pretty nice, as are the paint apps. The paint on the face is a mixed bag, but I've seen worse.

I never have liked the Bumblebee character, but with his overexposure today I have come to loathe the character. At least this mini figure is based on his classic animation model and not his original toy.

Hands down Grimlock is the best of the Autobot figures. He's got some heft to him and looks like he jumped off the screen. I love his tiny arms.

Here is Optimus alongside one of Super 7's Keshi figures...which are in similar size to the original rubber Decoys from the 80's.

I have mixed feelings over Megatron. There is something about the face sculpt that I can't get past. Yes, it looks like Megatron...but it doesn't. I'm not sure about the black used on the lower portion of his torso or on his legs.

Starscream perhaps looks the worst of the bunch. The mold itself (minus the hands) isn't that bad, it's the color choices made that detract from the figure. The figure is cast in a metallic like silver plastic and in my opinion is too dark to mimic his original silver color in both animation and original toy. The head should have been painted black, just sans the red used for the eyes lacks any other paint apps.

Finally we have Soundwave, everybody's favorite transforming cassette recorder. The mold used for Soundwave gets the job done. It's not great, but it's better that Starscream. The paint apps are serviceable. I do like the large purple Decepticon insignia on his chest, nice touch.

Megatron with Super 7's Keshi figure of the Insecticon, Shrapnel.

For a buck a piece you get what you pay for. Well maybe a little more or a little less depending on the character, but none the less these make for a nice "desk bot" or just something to look at for a few seconds before discarding in a junk draw on placing into your favorite character collection. I'm glad my brother was able to pick up a set for me because I never saw them in my limited trips to the local Dollar Tree store.

Castaways

If you've been following this blog then you know I've been working on adding in new glass cases into my office and re-arranging my collection. I knew before I underwent this project that there would be bots that just didn't make the cut, however I wasn't sure who that would be exactly. How was I going to make these decisions? Will I second guess myself and regret these decisions later on? There were all questions I was asking myself and I'm sure I'm not the only collector to have to ask themselves these type of hard questions.

While I'm far from being done working on the shelves, the first round of castaways have been posted for sale on Facebook and will eventually be moved to my eBay store. It's hard to see some of these figures go, but ultimately I don't have room for everything and I'm starting to build to that "less is more" stance when it comes to collecting...kinda!

 

Back during the original run of Transformers, I had already moved on from the series by the time Action Masters were released, so imagine my confusion when I was getting back into collecting at the tail end of G2. I wasn't that familiar with many of the Transformers post 1986-1987. I had no idea why there were Transformers that didn't actually transform. Later on when I learned about Nucleon and the story behind the Action Masters, it all started to make sense. Growing up with GI Joe I wasn't against action figure like Transformers, in fact I grew to enjoy them for awhile. 

When it came time to move my G1 behind glass, I only had so much room to work with. No longer was I concerned about completing a full G1 collection. It was time to focus on what I like and just run with that. At first I was going to ditch all the Action Masters, but I ended up keeping many of the original characters. I opted to let go the established characters who got the AM treatment. However this meant that my European exclusive Action Masters would be on the fence as well.

In the end I decided to let go of all the European AMs. Of the few that I owned, none of them were complete and many of them suffered from very floppy joints. Personally I love the Decepticons Take Off and Charger and I may have to pick those up again in the future. I know they can tend to get a little pricey on the secondary market, but I'm in no hurry.

I find it so easy to get caught up in collecting Transformers (or just about anything else for that matter) that you lose sight of why you started to collect. I found myself buying Transformers from other countries just because of their elusiveness, or to be able to say "look at what I bought!". This project of mine that I'm undertaking has been a little therapeutic. When just looking a getting rid of a few things it can be hard to pull the trigger. Once I got started photographing toys to sell I found it much easier to look at my shelves and think "who's next?" While I believe I'm done with combing through the G1 toys, I still have many other eras of TFs to consider next.

If space wasn't an issue then yes, I may have kept a few more toys. For example, Gutcruncher and his Stratotronic Jet are pretty cool and I won't let anyone ever make believe otherwise. His jet alone is pretty large, in fact I tried to fit it on one shelf in a Detolf cabinet and it's just too big. I've always wanted to hang GI Joe jets and helicopters from my ceiling and I briefly thought about trying to do the same w/ this toy. Then I came to my senses and thought I could use the funds from the sale of Gutcrucher and other TFs to pay off pre-orders or pick up something else to fill a hole in my G1 collection.

One of the G1 subgroups that I focused on after re-discovering Transformers were the Pretenders. In the mid-90's it seemed many collectors just didn't care about Pretenders, period. Or perhaps it was they were just far down on everyone's priority list of things to buy. Either way it made it easy and affordable for me to pick up a majority of the Pretenders. 

Recently as I have been dusting, inspecting and moving my toys I realized that some of the Pretenders just don't do anything for me anymore. I'm referring to the Classic Pretenders if you will. I never got around to picking up Bumblee and Jazz after I sold my MIB specimens a few years ago, but I still had Grimlock. I don't know what it is about this toy, but it doesn't impress me. While I can see other Autobots hiding in a Pretender shell, I have a hard time buying that Grimlock, the self imposed King of the Dinobots would hide behind cybernetic flesh in a Pretender shell. The little Grimlock figure inside never did much for me either, however it's not a horrible toy. These Classic Pretenders just didn't have a place in my collection any longer..well with the exception of Starscream. I do like the look of his shell and the little Screamer toy is pretty nifty as well. I can see him cowering inside a Pretender shell easily!

Another decision I made as I was painstakingly moving and setting up my new display cases was to get rid of most of the non-Takara/Hasbro toys. I say most of them as I ended up keeping my Encore versions of Omega Supreme and Sky Lynx. I don't own a G1 Shockwave currently, but he too will be the exception. Jetfire and the deluxe Insecticons became expendable. While I like the Jetfire toy itself and have some good memories of playing with that toy as a kid, it always bugged me that the toy looked nothing like his Skyfire self in the old animation. The deluxe Insecticons I never had much exposure to outside of Chop Shop. He still resides on my 1985 Decepticon shelf as I had him as a kid, but the others just didn't appeal to me. Perhaps their characters have been used properly in TF fiction and made more desirable to some, but like others I made the decision to move on without these brightly colored Insecticons.

My current workload has kept me from giving this project the time that is needed to complete it, however I couldn't move on to the next step without doing some type of farewell post for those certain castaways. Thanks for hanging around in my collection over the last 10 or so years, but it's time to find a new home and a new owner that will appreciate you more than I.

The Reorganization: Casualties

If you have been following my blog or at least read my last post then you'll know that my toy room / office is undergoing some big changes. I work from home a good bit of the time and I've been sitting at my desk and out of the corner of my eye the far end of the wall (seen below) always bothered me. Sure, I had a lot displayed (Power Core Combiners, Robot Masters, Generation 2 and other mini collections), but I never liked the overall presentation. Plus I've felt the calling to give my Generation 1 collection a proper display so I decided it was time to do something about it. So far one wall of the room as gone from looking like this:

to this:

While the great reorganization is still in phase 1 there have already have been some casualties. It's really unfortunate, but it was was expected. I lost a lot of display real estate if you will when I got rid of the cube shelves and book shelves and went with the 6 Detolf cases from IKEA. However is change bad? Will I miss the castaways?

Generation One Action Masters. The casualties from the recent phase 1 reorganization. I was lucky to fit my G1 collection (for the most part) in 6 Detolf cases. Micromasters ended up on the top of the cabinets along w/ Fort Max, but I'm OK with that. I didn't want to part with those but when it came to the Action Masters (and a few select others) I just didn't know what to do. The old G.I. Joe collector in me appreciates the Action Masters, however they just look odd in my collection. After all, they are Transformers that don't transform. Granted the ones that were paired with vehicles are better and give me that M.A.S.K. vibe, but there must have been a reason why Takara never released these toys in Japan back in the 90's. I'm fine with the story behind the Action Masters (nucleon), but the toys themselves just don't appeal to me that much anymore.

As I was working on loading up the cabinets and working each 'bot in year by year, faction by faction there were some shelves that were a little more crowded than others. Granted I should be able to help remedy this problem with some clear acrylic risers that I just acquired, I began to realize that there are some G1 toys that I just don't care about. Yes, it's true. I know that may sound blasphemous to some of you, but for me that is the case.

I'm a big fan of Pretenders and when I was first getting back into collecting the Pretenders were my main focus. At the time they were easy to find and they relatively affordable. The Autobot Classic Pretenders were some of the first I bought, some loose while I picked up Bumblebee and Jazz complete and MIB. Over the years those toys just didn't hold their appeal as the other original Pretenders did. When it came time to set the cases all I had left was Grimlock and Starscream. The latter is staying because, well it's Starscream and his Pretender shell looks cool. Sorry Grimlock, you just don't have a home in my collection anymore. Same goes for the K-Mart Legends figure. If you have a keen eye you will see AM Megatron in the bottom case to the far right. I don't own a AM Optimus Prime, but I'm thinking I may pick him up and call it quits for that category.

The others that got the boot are the Deluxe Insecticons. They were kicked for a few reasons. 1) I never had them as a kid (minus Chop Shop, which survived the cull) so I don't have the same attachment to the toys as I do say the original Insecticons. 2) Since they aren't made by Takara they don't have that same feel and asthetic as other TFs. This is the same reason why I won't be picking up Jetfire for my collection. I know there are other TFs that weren't made by Takara that are still in my collection (Omega Supreme and soon Shockwave), however those characters were awesome in the old animation show and at least their toys look like their show counterparts...that's more than you can say about Jetfire.

By cutting a few toys it means I won't have that elusive complete G1 set of Transformers, but who cares? It's not a competition. I'm one of the few that actually comes in my toy room / office in the first place. Why should I keep, let alone display something that I don't care for? Plus by getting rid of a few it opened up the space to better display others. 

The great reorganization project is far from over. I'm working on adding risers to the cases before I start to photograph those. Then it's back over to the wall that houses my track shelving to begin to set up other TF collections. Will this project ever truly end? That's a question I ask myself all the time. However I have to say it's been a fun ride thus far and I look forward to finding the time to get some more work in and eventually finish this project...for now.

P.S. I haven't decided how I'm going to sell the Action Masters and other select G1 toys, but if you have any interest please send me a message at flywheels@yahoo.com

You should Play With This Too - A Kickstarter Campaign you must check out

I"m going to take a few moments from reviewing toys, to talk about some new toys in the works that you must simply check out. While this may be new to some of the readers, to many you've probably already heard of a new company called Play With This Too. PWTT for short, is comprised of many former guys from the likes of Hasbro, Mattel, IDW and other companies. Having worked on such popular toy lines as Transformers, G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Masters of the Universe and many other lines, these guys have come up with a new series of action figures they are calling the Lost Protectors.

They just launched a new Kickstarter campaign on Friday, February 27th for their new series of figures and in less than 24 hours, people had pledged nearly 40% of their initial $80,000 goal. Now these guys don't need me to help them achieve their goal(s) as I'm sure they'll hit their marks, but how could I not say something about them when they have, basically, new versions of some of the classic Generation One Pretenders that I so dear love?

One of the first figures in the series is Desolataur...or Skullgrin as I'll refer to him. Now this is an early resin prototype here, but look at just how awesome this thing looks. You can read up on the Kickstarter campaign page to learn more about the figures and the series in general, but I just wanted to share a few pictures and see if those alone will be enough to entice you to check them out.

One of the neat things about these figures are that the pieces will be interchangeable with other figures in the series...or with other 6 inch action figures (to some degree). Think of Hasbro's new Mashers figures, but way better sculpted and with more accessories.

Where as the original G1 Pretenders had smaller transformable robots that hide inside the Pretender shells, these come with what PWTT is calling Tech Drones. These are 3 inch tall figures assembled via 5mm ports or pegs. You can also disassemble the drones and use their parts with the larger figures as weapons or accessories.

If you aren't familiar with how Kickstarter campaigns work, here is an example of how this particular campaign works. If you pledge $55 and the main goal of $80K is met, then you'll receive the awesome Bloodbath figure (aka TF G1 Pretender Bomb-Burst) sometime next February or March. Simple as that.

Or you can pledge $55 and receive the awesome Desolataur figure. I'm currently on the fence over with character to back, as you can only choose one...unless you have a 2nd Kickstarter account I'm assuming.

Now there are other versions of these two figures, some exclusive to this Kickstarter campaign that you can check out as well, but I'm mainly interested in the G1 Transformers themed characters...such as the two above.

Larger, closer look at the pending Desolataur figure

They also have several stretch goals to meet after the initial goal has been met. What is a stretch goal you may ask? Well essentially the more money that is pledged to them, the more items available for purchase will be unlocked. Some of these are new heads or accessory packs that are compatible with the Lost Protectors figures or other similar 6 inch figures. Some of the later stretch goals include new characters such as...

Jetstrike, an obvious homage to TF G1 Pretender Starscream! They even have plans to do the other seekers using this mold!

"Thundercracker and Skywarp"

Check out their version of TF G1 Pretender Grimlock, aka Boneyard. Nice, right? Looks like the Tech Drone even turns into a little T-Rex.

There is so many cool things they have planned...assuming they can get the initial goal met. I for one hope they succeed as I can't wait to see what these look like in person. I'm in the process now of trying to decide at what level I can afford to support. I encourage you to take a few moments and check out the Kickstarter campaign if anything you've seen here intrigues you.

Generation One Transformers Prototypes

I've got another review in the works, but in the meantime I thought I'd share some nice resin prototype pics of some late G1 European Transformers that I found online years ago. Enjoy!

Flash & Boss (Turbomaster)

Hurricane & Scorch (Turbomaster)

Talon & Snare (Predator)

Falcon (Predator)

Turbo Master (Action Master Elite)

Windmill (Action Master Elite)

Transformers G1: Octopunch (Pretender)

QUICK INFO:
Name: Octopunch

Line: Transformers - Generation One (Hasbro)

Subgroup: Pretenders
Function: Salvage
Motto: "Anything that can sink is worth sinking."
Year: 1989
Price: $14.99 (approximately)

Bio:
The terror of the deep. If he's not stealing sunken treasure or ancient artifacts, he amuses himself by smashing holes in submarines and cruise ships. Electrically-charged, razor-tipped harpoon gun momentarily short-circuits on contact. Also armed with vice-like tentacles that stick to any surface. So strong underwater, he can wrestle a whale to a standstill. Inner robot converts to metal-rending, deep-sea radar and acetylene torch gun.

What? Two reviews in the same day? Well I had so much fun reviewing Bludgeon that I decided why stop? Why not review one of his toy assortment cohorts? This time around we will take a look at probably my favorite of the 3 smaller Decepticon Pretenders, Octopunch.

Octopunch comes with the outer Pretender shell, diving helmet, white harpoon gun, pair of purple crab legs, small maroon gun and inner robot.

Now I can see why Octopunch wears a diving helmet...that is one ugly mug he's sporting! On the right side of the head is a large metal plate that has been welded together. It's a shame this piece was not painted as it is easy to overlook. I'm not sure what a octopus would look like if it had a humanoid head, but I'm guessing this is pretty close. Just like Bludgeon a lot of care and detail was put into the design of Octopunch's head.

 

If you flip the back shell portion over you'll see there is a set of small round holes that allow you to clip on the purple crab legs...almost making a back pack if you will. The inner robot fits inside the shell very similar to the larger Pretenders. There is plenty of room in either leg to fit the smaller gun as well. I have to hand it to the designers for making all of the accessories self contained on the toy. The crab legs and gun are rather small and I can see how these pieces are easily lost. The ability to store all the parts on or inside the shell is a very nice feature.

Like just about all of the Pretenders Octopunch has very little articulation. Both arms can rotate a full 360 degrees. It would have been nice if the tentacles on the arms had some sort of articulation, but as they are they are in a fixed position. The plastic is a little softer however so they are slightly bendable. If you are a video gamer as myself you can't help but to think of a Big Daddy from the game BioShock. I love the whole diving suit and the helmet. The large unpainted skull on the belt buckle is a nice feature. I should also mention that Octopunch has a slightly hunched stance.

Octopunch's inner robot stands about 2 1/2 inches tall. As part of the beast mode design, the robot arms are in a fixed bent position. The arms still rotate a full 360 degrees though. On the sides of the arms is a small hole that allows the robot to wield the small maroon gun. There are no peg holes in the robot's fists. I find it rather interesting that Octopunch's inner robot shares the same basic color scheme as Bludgeon. Coincidence? Transformation from robot to crab is rather easy. Slide the lever on the chest down to hide the robot head. Fold the arms down by the robot's side. Flip the figure over and attach the crab legs to the peg holes on the side of each arm. Pose the legs/pinchers as you wish. You can open and close the pinchers by pulling on the small tabs on the side.

I love the crab mode. It's small and rather simple, but different and fun to play with. The only paint apps on the figure is the red used for the crabs eyes. There is also a small hole on the top of the crab so it can wield the small maroon gun.

Of all 3 smaller Decepticon Pretenders, Octopunch stands out as my favorite. I can't say that he's my favorite because I never had him in my childhood (I didn't have any of the Pretenders). There is just this unique charm about the toy that sets it apart from other Transformers. This is an easy toy for me to recommend, but like Bludgeon and many of the other smaller 1989 Pretenders he doesn't come cheap. I don't actively track G1 prices, but expect to pay $65.00 plus for a loose complete toy.