Transformers

If anyone was missing Action Masters, it seems Super7 is going to scatch your itch with Transformers ReAction figures.  They're up for pre-order on BBTS.

No, they're not the same molds.  Also no vehicles, so Megatron doesn't get that sweet tank his Action Master rode in.

 

I did not buy PotP OP, nor the Star Convoy based on him. I purchased PotP Nemesis Prime from Amiami along with Flexible Prime:

 

Side by side with MS-01X:

As much as I liked what PotP Combat Potato Chip Cart looked like, that was only from the front. Due to the various color schemes required for the transformation, OP looked horrible from the sides and rear. While I didn't take photos of Nemesis Prime from the rear or sides, the color clashes and kibble-tastic eye sores don't exist because of the uniform color scheme.

Based on how solid this guy feels, he's fun to pose and transform. He has quite a bit more play value than I expected.

My only complaint is how horrible the stickers are. I may eventually decide to peel them off and replace them with ones from Toyhax.

On 11/6/2019 at 9:47 AM, Gabriel said:

If anyone was missing Action Masters, it seems Super7 is going to scatch your itch with Transformers ReAction figures.  They're up for pre-order on BBTS.

No, they're not the same molds.  Also no vehicles, so Megatron doesn't get that sweet tank his Action Master rode in.

 

These figures don't look bad, but they don't look worth almost $20.  I know that the Flame Toys Bumblebee model kit includes a helicopter pack inspired by the Actionmaster.  Adding in goofy stuff like that, or a rocket propelled skate board with Jazz would add value.  

@growcian I have that Nemesis Prime, too!  He's pretty cool.  

MP-18+ Streak anime version.  I have all four versions of Streak now (regular, Silverstreak, Bluestreak, and this anime version).  

Also included this nifty little pin.  

I braved Walmart to keep the streak going with Siege Bluestreak.  

Also found this in the diecast car aisle.  These are more the size of Micro Machines than Hot Wheels.  The 70s Camaro Bumblebee is vastly under-detailed.  The other two have molded door panels and such.  

Just venting about my experiences with an eBay seller again.

Before I go into my latest eBay debacle, I need to provide a back story. The TF toy I wanted to buy this time was available at Toy Dojo, or so I thought based on me being able to put it into my shopping cart. I bought from Toy Dojo in the past and had nothing but positive experiences buying from there. When I tried to buy this time, I got an error. The error was, I put a larger quantity into my shopping cart than there were in stock. That's not a good message when the quantity was 1. My alternatives at this point were various overseas stores I never purchased from or take my chances with overseas sellers on eBay. I rolled the dice with eBay.

I should have remained butt hurt and shied away from taking another chance with a different eBay seller. I emotionally recovered from that experience *too* well, so I ended up taking the plunge again. (Fortunately for me, this is not how I would dive into marriages. )

After doing a search for the TF toy I wanted at eBay, I took a look at which sellers were offering the item. I then went to the TFW2005 forums and referenced the good/bad sellers list. There were two sellers with the item in stock on the "good" list. I picked one. If this was Russian roulette, I would have two new holes in my head.

I looked at the seller's recent history to see if the recent negative feedback had any warning signs. The negative feedback appeared to be the result of just a misunderstanding or something going wrong beyond the seller's control. I looked at the recent positive feedback to see if they seemed suspicious in any way (such as positive feedback doping). I saw no such issue. The seller had a feedback of 1940 at the time, 99.3% positive feedback, and was in business at eBay for 3+ years. I wanted to be absolutely sure I did my due diligence to minimize the risk of making a purchase from a scammer.

None of it mattered. Several days after I made my purchase, the seller was moved to the "bad" list. The seller went rogue.

As I waited for the TF toy to arrive, the seller received additional negative feedback and the seller's items were removed from its eBay store. Once the package arrived, it was obvious it was too small for a TF toy. It was a small padded envelope which contained a single face plate for a Masterpiece Bumblebee figure. (This likely came from a KO figure.) Since I received *something*, albeit the wrong item, I couldn't immediately ask for a refund. I asked for a return due to being sent the wrong item. The seller never responded to my return request so I asked eBay to step in. Within hours, eBay found the dispute in my favor and I also received a message stating I will receive a full refund. As of this writing, the refund isn't reflected on my credit card balance. I won't consider having received closure until I see the amount reflected on my credit card balance but that will come some time next week.

While I suffered nowhere near the amount of anxiety I experienced from the previous eBay scammer debacle, this latest experience pretty much tells me I shouldn't buy TF toys from overseas eBay sellers. Buying TF toys from overseas eBay sellers works well enough for a lot of people. Based on my two most recent experiences, going that route doesn't work at all for me. While my recent experiences can be blamed on bad luck, they were negative enough for me to conclude I shouldn't bother with buying TF toys via eBay. If there's a TF toy I want but my only options are dubious overseas web sites or overseas eBay sellers, I'll just live without it.

Now that I got my venting out of the way, I'll mention something else. I'll post photos of another recent TF toy acquisition some time next week.

I acquired another character in my "owning an upgraded version of my G1 toys" quest. I made the purchase from The Chosen Prime.

Below is the second release of "Aegis" from X-Transbots. The first release didn't have various extras the second has (such as additional faces) and various parts previously in silver are now colored white.

Now a comparison with the G1 equivalent:

Now the pictured G1 toy isn't Trailbreaker per se. He's the Diaclone toy who was repainted and repackaged as Trailbreaker. (That's the reason he's painted blue instead of black.) I don't remember how I came to even own this toy as a child. However, I still have him and wanted to get the modern equivalent.

Side by side with MS-01X:

I later added the Autobot insignia thanks to Toyhax:

Because I didn't know how the engineering works, I ended up chipping some paint on his arms at his wrists when I tried to transform him from robot to car.

Pros:

• Swappable faces not included in the original release
• Beautiful sculpt
• Beautiful alt mode
• Beautiful paint job

Cons:

• The complex engineering makes the transformation require a little bit of time to understand it
• Potential for paint chipping without understanding how the transformation works
• The knees don't bend very far Edit: There's bend at the top of the red part of his legs for the transformation. This looks like a part of his thighs. This bends quite a bit but getting a bend here looks slightly strange because you expect the knee to bend and not the thigh.
• Some of the white parts look lame compared to the previous version's silver

I really like this version of Trailbreaker. I like the sculpt, I like the proportions, and the swappable faces are huge pluses for me personally.

Edited November 13, 2019 by growcian

XTB Trailbreaker has been on my radar lately.  Looks pretty cool.  Sorry to hear you had trouble with another scummy eBay seller.  I love that you just happened to get the Daiclone Trailbreaker as a kid, I had Daiclone Blitzwing (or a bootleg) as a kid.  

The one thing that really annoys me with XTB is their love of repaints.  As much as I like getting G2, Diaclone and other crazy stuff like police Skids, the toy based Stunticon set that they just started releasing (before any version of Motormaster, too!) really bugs me, because those are the versions I want.  

I have MP Hound preordered, so I just need Ironhide, Inferno, Red Alert, Hoist and Trailbreaker to complete the MP series one and two cars set...  I'm hoping for XTB Kup and Blurr to complete series three, and some Battlechargers from someone.  

11 hours ago, Galvatim said:

XTB Trailbreaker has been on my radar lately.  Looks pretty cool.

XTB Aegis is an easy recommendation based on what I've experienced out of the box.

 

11 hours ago, Galvatim said:

Sorry to hear you had trouble with another scummy eBay seller.

I have my closure now. I checked my credit card balance and I received the refund.

 

11 hours ago, Galvatim said:

The one thing that really annoys me with XTB is their love of repaints.  As much as I like getting G2, Diaclone and other crazy stuff like police Skids, the toy based Stunticon set that they just started releasing (before any version of Motormaster, too!) really bugs me, because those are the versions I want.

Ouch. 😖

I was fortunate with the second release of XTB Aegis. By the time I pondered whether to buy the first release, he was pretty much gone from my trusted retailers' inventory. That and not having multiple face plates for different expressions didn't give me enough of an incentive to buy from an eBay seller. When the second release (with the repaint) was shown to include multiple face plates, I immediately placed a pre-order. XTB loving repaints worked out for me personally but I can see how the policy implemented as you described is an abuse to you. 😫

Edited November 13, 2019 by growcian

On 11/12/2019 at 8:52 PM, growcian said:

XTB Aegis is an easy recommendation based on what I've experienced out of the box.

I ordered Aegis from BBTS...  Got the latest wave of Micromasters with Ratbat and Rumble, and Battlemasters, including Rung, ordered too.  

I also snagged one of these awesome black and gold MMC OX Sphinx figures.

I generally feel neutral or look forward to redecos or repaints, the XTB Stunticons/Berserkars are frustrating due to how quickly XTB seems to be pumping out the redecos.  I've been considering MMC OX's Combaticons, but I'm hoping for Carrobots based redecos.   MMC tends to be as repaint happy as XTB, so it seems worth holding out.  

8 hours ago, Galvatim said:

I also snagged one of these awesome black and gold MMC OX Sphinx figures.

Holy 💩, MMC went all out with the "Sphinx" theme via that color scheme. 😅

 

8 hours ago, Galvatim said:

I generally feel neutral or look forward to redecos or repaints, the XTB Stunticons/Berserkars are frustrating due to how quickly XTB seems to be pumping out the redecos.  I've been considering MMC OX's Combaticons, but I'm hoping for Carrobots based redecos.   MMC tends to be as repaint happy as XTB, so it seems worth holding out.  

I've had (and still have) a different problem with repaints from another company. I missed out on the initial release of FT-16 Sovereign and I've been watching any potential news for another production run like a hawk. A repaint (FT-16M) was then announced, only for pre-orders at every online retail store I could think of closing (in what seemed like) within minutes of the product page going up. I kept checking every day to see if additional pre-orders would be taken *somewhere* but I eventually gave up.

I waffled with the initial FT-16 release and ended up regretting not making the purchase. When the FT-16M was announced,  I didn't waffle; I intended to place the order ASAP. The decision to make the purchase was then made for me because by the time I tried to place my own pre-order, the window for that closed.

While repaints have worked out for me recently as evidenced by MS-01X and XTB Aegis, that hasn't always been the case.

Your situation seems to give you an advantage by holding out when dealing with repaints. Mine requires me to not waffle and hope I get lucky with each (re)release. 😓

On 8/5/2019 at 4:50 PM, Galvatim said:

Hasbro Pulse is selling a 3 pack featuring the first reissue of 2 of the Japan exclusive dino-cassettes, along with Frenzy.  

 

On 8/5/2019 at 8:05 PM, baldylox said:

I went ahead and pre-ordered those cassettes!    And those dinos were NOT the same as the ones I had.  These look pretty cool tho so I'm happy to get them.  I still want the other 2 packs tho!  

 

So has anyone heard about these guys?  I had totally forgotten about them until today.  I checked my order via email and it said they were due to come out on 9-8-19.  We're 2 months past that date now and I haven't gotten any word about them.  Has anyone else?  If not, how do we check on the status of these?

 

I just tried to check on it myself using the email they sent me and it asks me to log in.  When I put my info in, it says it doesn't have my email on file.  Umm… you sent me my order number and confirmation to my email you asshats.  Now what do I do?

 

 

Billy

28 minutes ago, baldylox said:

 

 

So has anyone heard about these guys?  I had totally forgotten about them until today.  I checked my order via email and it said they were due to come out on 9-8-19.  We're 2 months past that date now and I haven't gotten any word about them.  Has anyone else?  If not, how do we check on the status of these?

 

I just tried to check on it myself using the email they sent me and it asks me to log in.  When I put my info in, it says it doesn't have my email on file.  Umm… you sent me my order number and confirmation to my email you asshats.  Now what do I do?

 

 

Billy

I actually haven't ordered anything from Hasbro Pulse.  I checked the thread on the 3pk on TFW2005, and it sounds like a shipment of it was lost/destroyed, or at least that's what Hasbro is saying in regards to the mass cancellation.  https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/transformers-vintage-g1-mini-cassettes-3-pack-gurafi-noizu-decepticon-frenzy.1178014/page-16#post-17294735 

@baldylox Have any friends in Canada?

https://news.tfw2005.com/2019/11/16/g1-mini-cassettes-3-pack-gurafi-noizu-frenzy-available-at-amazon-ca-400717

Maybe Frenzy diverted the shipment out of fear of Youtube's changes to enforce COPPA?  

@Galvatim I wrote to Hasbro Pulse yesterday and got a reply today.  They said the same thing, something about part or most of the shipment getting damaged in shipping so I wasn't the only one whose order got cancelled.  It sucks for sure.

I *do* know someone in Canada!  Good ol' @salica does so maybe she can help me with that 3 pack.  😉  I'll ask her.  Thanks for the heads up on that!

 

 

Billy

@baldylox good luck, I hope Salica can hook you up.  Looks like the set is going for about $55 on eBay, which sounds expensive until you look at this:  https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/detailPage/item?itemCode=1076898653&ref=list&dispCount=240&keyword=Transformers cassette&lang=en

Yeah, the vintage version are RARE.  Honestly, this reissue will be valuable, too, if there's not another production run.  The demand is there, though, a set of all 4 Autobot dino-cassettes would be cool.  

@growcian I missed out on FT-16M, too.  I have the original, yes, but did kind of want a second.  I really kick myself for missing both FT-29 Quietus and FT-29T.  Supposedly, Fans Toys has said that FT-16M and FT-29T aren't limited editions, and may go into production again.  

 

5 hours ago, Galvatim said:

Supposedly, Fans Toys has said that FT-16M and FT-29T aren't limited editions, and may go into production again.

I hope you're right. I resisted buying both versions of Quietus because I wanted to be sure I could acquire some version of Sovereign first. Now I can't buy any version of Sovereign or Quietus without another production.

1 hour ago, growcian said:

I hope you're right. I resisted buying both versions of Quietus because I wanted to be sure I could acquire some version of Sovereign first. Now I can't buy any version of Sovereign or Quietus without another production.

I know you're feeling a bit gunshy about Chinese eBsay sellers, but I've bought from this one without any issues before: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Transformers-FansToys-FT-16M-FT16M-Sovereign-MP-Galvatron-Figure-Chrome-In-Stock/323980872669?hash=item4b6ec3cbdd:g:s0gAAOSws11dy8LU

Higher price than BBTS, but still decent.   

Got my Aegis (among many other things) from BBTS.

I got lucky, mine is the VLE Very Limited Edition, with gray shoulder and wrist accessories.  

Pretty cool figure.  

MP Thrust was also in this package.

Not awful, but the MP-03/11 mold is really showing it's age.  I still need Dirge to complete the set, I'm considering Maketoys' version.  

I got a few Siege figures, Rung, Ratbat, Rumble the other Battlemaster shipping with Rung and the Micromaster combiner 2pk.  I'm happy to have a toy of Rung, even if he's tiny.  

Siege Jetfire is cool.

Looks good with MP-10.

Not bad with MS-01X.

OK with MP-44.  All the panel lines from transformation help MP-44 look alright with Siege Jetfire.  

TE-01 matches the worst with Siege Jetfire.  Jetfire's gribbles don't mesh with the full cartoon look.

Even though I could not care less about the cartoon scale chart (it's not like the animators did, either) MP-01 is clearly too tall.  

I may have to look into getting a 1/48 scale VF-1S, I've always preferred the toy Jetfire to toon Skyfire.  I only spent $60 on Siege Jetfire, and it was worth it.  It'll be about $75 total after I get the 3rd party antennae add-on.   

Since I'm too lazy to take and upload my own photos...

I can't get the highlighted part to peg in properly in plane mode. I'm wondering whether I'm just not understanding the transformation or if it's just not designed to peg in at all.

Yeah, those panels don't clip into place very well.  

There's a tab that slots into the chest piece/intake.  It doesn't line up quite right, but if you flip the toy over, it's easy enough to line up.  You may have to push the piece down into place.  I'm hoping it's just a tight hinge, and not bad design that ends up stressing the plastic.  

Replying to a somewhat older message...

On 9/20/2019 at 5:26 PM, Galvatim said:

I recently acquired the Megs light up faces set. Mine didn't include batteries. I didn't find a piece of paper which might pass as a manual in the box. Unless I'm missing the fine print somewhere, the battery info is not on the box itself. I tried looking the info up online but found nothing.

Do you know which type of button cell batteries the head uses?

Mine came with batteries installed.  I can take a look when I get home tonight.  

Which version of MP-36 do you have?  I've got the THS knock-off.  The head kit doesn't match exactly with the finish of THS, and the head won't come off anyway.  

15 minutes ago, Galvatim said:

Which version of MP-36 do you have?  I've got the THS knock-off.  The head kit doesn't match exactly with the finish of THS, and the head won't come off anyway.  

I have the official Takara Tomy MP-36.

@growcian Looks like the head uses 2 LR41 batteries.  

I've been thinking about getting MP-36+.  

5 hours ago, Galvatim said:

I've been thinking about getting MP-36+.  

I avoided getting the Plus version because my preference was to buy the grey color Megs. I don't care for the chrome toy look of the MP-36+. I also never owned the original Crotchtrigger so MP-36+'s color scheme doesn't score nostalgia points with me.

Color references:

http://hi-r.hatenablog.com/entry/mp36%2B_megatron

Also, based on this:

On 9/20/2019 at 5:26 PM, Galvatim said:

I got that light up head set for MP-36.  It's cool enough that I may need to get another MP-36 that matches the color, as the THF one is off.

You made it clear you want the colors to match. Considering how all over the place the colors are for the MP-36+, it might not do what you want.

If you knew all about the colors already, well, then, um... Never mind. 😅