The League of Extraordinary Bloggers?

I've been doing this blogging thing now for a couple of years and I've been having a blast.  I wasn't sure I would have much to share when I first started, but now I've got more ideas of topics than I have time!  But is that a bad thing?  Nah.

In addition to posting I also love reading other people's blogs, especially when I run across a new blog.  Finding new blogs of interest isn't all that easy as I've come to find out.  A few days ago I was reading Jasonvorhee's Blog and I saw he had recently joined this League of Extraordinary Bloggers.  Of course I was curious so I looked into it a bit more.

My investigation brought me to the site Cool and Collected.  The webmaster of the site had the idea of gathering different bloggers and giving a weekly topic to blog about.  Sometimes coming up w/ new ideas to blog about can be taxing so I thought this was a great idea.  Even though I still have LOTS to share in the coming months and years I wanted to sign up.

In the process of waiting to hear back from Cool and Collected I found many other great blogs.  Some of them were toy related while others were not, but equally entertaining.  Just a few I dropped in on (including a few I already knew about, but didn't know they were a part of the group) such as:

Toyriffic
That Figures
The Sexy Geek's House of Swag (hey, he collects sports cards just like me!)
Pendragon's Post
Life With Fandom
Eidetic Memory
Fairplaythings
The Lair of the Dork Horde

So in addition to my regular posts and toy reviews be on the look out for League of the Extraordinary themed posts.  If any one else wants to join up they have an open enrollment process so check them out here.

Transformers G1 - Butto D-83

It's hard for me to pass up offers when it comes to vintage Japanese G1 Transformers figures. Thanks to the popularity of the Transformers brand these sort of items don't always come cheap so I don't find myself buying many these days. A month or so ago I was made an offer for an extra TF that I had. In return I received two ramps I needed to complete my Skyhyper figure. The guy also tossed in a complete, boxed Japanese Blot to round off the deal.

I love the vintage Japanese packaging, especially the Scramble City 'bots. When I first got back into collecting one of the goals I had was to assemble all of the individually boxed Scramble City combiners. At one time I had all of the Terrorcons, but sold them off when I was made a ridiculously high offer.

This box has seen better days as you can tell. There is a generous amount of wear to the boxes' edges and the plastic window is a little discolored and fragile. There is even a small hole punched in the plastic.  Bummer.

I know a lot of the G1 toys had simplified transformations, but this guy's toy is a joke. What is Blot's alt mode exactly anyhow?

I have always loved this particular battle scene art.  Too bad there is such a bad flap crease going on here.

When it comes to translating names some of the Japanese names didn't easily translate into English. Blot's Japanese name is often referred to as Butto, but going by his included tech spec card it's Butt. Oh how his momma must be proud! I know it may sound odd, but these little tech spec cards are a huge plus to me. In the past I've been known to buy Japanese TFs just for their card!

Another thing I love about the vintage Japanese packaging is the presentation. I really wish toys still came packaged in styrofoam trays such as this, but no...they are bad for the ecology of the world. Since I already own Hasbro's version of Blot I don't plan on doing much else with Butt other than displaying him in his box. Besides, I don't think there are any differences between Hasbro and Takara's version.

When it rains it pours...

Easter is supposed to be a great day...after all our Lord and Savior conquered death and rose from the grave!  However my Easter Sunday started off when a call from my credit union as we were walking out the door for church.  It appears that my credit card had been comprised earlier today.  I'm thankful my bank caught the charges and called so quickly to verify the transactions, but not really the way I thought the day would start out.  Could've been worse, but OK life goes on.

Then I come home this evening and while I'm gathering the trash through out the house I stop in my office/toy room and I notice a large G.I. Joe Sigma 6 gun laying on the floor as I went for the trash can.  I really didn't think much about it since I was in a hurry.  After my wife and I get the girls bathed and in bed I head back to my room to work.  Thats when I look up and see this:

...a big blank space on the wall where my G.I. Joe display rack once hung.  I re-purposed an old cassette rack to display the handful of loose Joe figures I had opened. It worked well.  Emphasis on worked.  This section of the wall is between two windows so finding available studs wasn't easy.  We had the idea of using those 3M Command Strips for picture frames.  I grabbed the largest size available and I think we used 2 packages of them.  The rack has been up for months.  It was one of the last things I did to my room before the local news crew came over to my house for my interview and spotlight on my Transformers collection.  Apparently one of the strips decided it didn't want to adhere to the wall any longer and CRASH!  Everything came down.  The rack took out a large framed poster and a few carded figures as well.

Here is what the wall / rack looked like this morning.  Here is the aftermath...

As you can see the figures went EVERYWHERE!  Behind the computer monitor, desk and sofa.  If you collect modern Joes then you'll know the figures now come with lots and lots of gear, weapons and accessories.  A lot of these said accessories are now in between the sofa, desk and the wall.  My desk is huge and very heavy.  I won't be moving this desk anytime soon.  I'm hoping that I can slide the couch out from the wall and retrieve the missing pieces.

I'm so bummed and a little upset right now and I have no plans to replace the shelving right now.  I may eventually put up a small section of track shelving like I used in the rest of the room or I may just go w/ those decorative type ledge shelves found at Target or Lowe's.  I'm not sure.  I know it could've been worse, but that doesn't help how I feel at the moment.

So, if you are in the process of displaying your valued toy collection then take a lesson from me.  Don't use 3M Command Strips!  At least not for hanging any type of display shelves.

KO Korner: Super Scramble Basebot G1 Transformers "Menasor"

If you know me very well then you should know that I like the older odd Generation 1 knock-off Transformers.  I'm not talking about knock-off toys where you can't tell the real deal from the fake.  I'm talking about the higher quality 80's Taiwanese toys.  I don't own many thanks in part to other collector's like myself swooping in and snatching them up or driving the price up higher than it should be.  That said today's post is one that I've been waiting to share for awhile now.

Back in the early days of the Internet...well at least early to me I ran across images of wildly colored G1 Transformer Stunticons.  I wasn't able to find any information about the toy for many many years, but the same image always popped up when doing a Google image search.  For me at least it was one of those items I thought I'd never see in person yet alone own.

When I was forced to move my collection to another room in the house it forced me to move a lot of items that had previously been buried away in my crowded closet.  I remember acquiring this item from another fellow Transformers fan for a decent price...much cheaper than I'd image it could fetch on eBay.  I don't think many people have seen this piece so I wanted to share him w/ the masses...or at least with the people that click on and read my humble blog.

Super Scramble Basebot.  I have no idea who made it and when it was released, but I'll go out on a limb and say its of Taiwan origin and probably circa the 90's.  Right off the bat and G1 TF fan should recognize this toy as the Stunticon combiner/gestalt Menasor.  Some may even get the use of Scramble in the name.

The Stunticons will always occupy a special place in my childhood memory...even though I never owned all 5.  Wildrider was the first Stunticon I owned followed by Drag Strip.  I believe I traded something (maybe a few lunches?) in elementary school for Breakdown and Dead End, but I never had Motormaster.  I also like this set for the outlandish colors.  I've been thinking about where to display him now that he is free of his box and I think I've decided the best place for him is to work him into my (crowded) G2 collection.  Why not?  He's got the requisite gaudy color scheme!

Notice the names?  Can we call those names?  What was this mystery company thinking?  I would have even preferred Engrish versions of the original names!

For a knock-off toy I've got to say that the packaging is pretty nice.  Not only does the box have a black plastic carrying strap on the top, but you get this pretty cool looking scene on the back of the box!

If you are familiar with the G1 Stunticons then there aren't any real surprises here outside of Motormaster...or Container truck as he is called here.  That said this will be more of a photo gallery than a traditional review although I will point out certain quality issues here and there.

Container truck (Motormaster) looks surprisingly good in these colors.  I'm a little surprised his trailer wasn't painted silver since he sports the red and blue on the cab of Optimus Prime.  Quality here is really well.  Notice the bull skull on the sides of the trailer?  All of these "Stunticons" feature it.  It replaces the Decepticon faction symbol.

 The base mode is still present and at first glance it doesn't look any different than Motormaster's.  The little "chest car" is even included.  Upon further inspection of the toy however you'll notice one small change...

...the inclusion of the spring loaded launcher!  One of the reasons the Japanese version of Motormaster is so sought after is this reason - the launcher.  For whatever reason Hasbro removed the spring loaded launcher feature for release outside of Japan.  I never understood this as it works really well with the little "chest car".  I was totally surprised to see that this KO had this feature.  I never knew this and I'm sure this comes as news to other fans as well.  I guess this mystery company was able to knock off the original Takara mold at some point in time.  The only quality issue I wanted to bring up are the arms.  I found it really difficult to free up one of the arms to fold down when transforming into base mode.  It could be just my specimen had this problem, but I felt I was going to break the toy trying to free this one side.  That said I don't plan on transforming him into base mode often if at all.

I never thought of this until now, but doesn't "Motormaster" almost look like some Shattered Glass version that the guys at Fun Publications & Botcon would dream up?!  He just looks heroic with these colors.  He comes with the same large gun and sword only the gun is now a purplish blue and the sword is black.

Next up is Tying up car (Dead End).  The dark burgundy color has been replaced with a brighter red.  The plastic seems to have a slightly cheaper feel than "Motormaster".  It's not bad, but it is noticeable.  The window paint apps aren't very sharp looking as they have a sprayed look.

I never was a fan of the vehicle guns, but for completionist sake I wanted to include a few pics w/ the gun attached.

See how shiny the plastic looks?  This is an indication of the quality of the plastic.  Again, it's not bad...it's not dollar store quality, but it isn't Hasbro quality either.  The joints are really good and the stickers applied very easily.  The only paint app in robot mode is the silver applied to the face.  I tried to get a close up, but the focus on my camera didn't want to cooperate with me.  The paint is a little sloppy, but almost expected.

Destroy car (Wildrider) is my favorite.  I love this mold -- even in these colors.  I like how the center of the hood is still a sticker like on the original.

You would think his vehicle gun would be yellow instead of red since he doesn't have red anywhere else on the toy...or maybe I'm just overthinking things too much.

A few quality issues here.  First and probably most obvious is the sloppy paint app on the face.  Horrible!  Also the fist peg on the gun is slightly undersized and just wants to wobble around in hand.

Poison gas car (Drag Strip).  Talk about a loud looking Transformer!  I always loved this toy as a kid and I still do.  The stickers are dead on for the originals, though I think I applied the "racing stripes" incorrectly.  Oh well.

At least his vehicle gun "blends" in with the other colors.  No issues with the gun, in fact it plugs in very tight in the back (no jokes here please).

Decent facial paint app here, but like with "Wildrider" the gun's peg is undersized for the fist.  I could barely get him to hold the gun to snap the picture.  It appears the fist hole may be too shallow.

And finally we have Cross county car (Breakdown).  I'm sure the likeness to the Generation 2 Botcon exclusive toy was not intentional...or was it?  You can see the silver paint on the windows has taken some abuse and started to scratch off.

Of all the silly vehicle guns I like this particular mold the best.  Not sure why so don't ask.

There may have been some similarities in vehicle mode to the Botcon G2 version of Breakdown, but those similarities end here in robot mode.

While there are some shortcomings with this set the group still looks pretty awesome.  Enough about the individual toys you want to see them combined, right?

Behold!  Super Scramble Basebot.  Not bad, eh?  I'm still getting that Shattered Glass vibe however...

Comparison time!  OK, there really isn't any comparison to the real deal.  Of course with this being a Scramble City combiner you can rearrange the 4 smaller TFs into any configuration that you want.  I just decided to assemble him like I had my G1 Menasor.  The combiner parts are very close in color to the original, although you can tell them apart when side by side.  I really like the fact that the sword is black instead of chrome.

You never know what kind of quality to expect when buying old knock-off toys such as this, but I'm happy to say that this is one of the better old school KO Transformers I've seen.  If you aren't turned off because it's a KO the colors may do it for you, but it's these eclectic things that make this piece so attractive and desirable to me.  I hope you enjoyed this look at a rarely seen piece of Transformers KO history.