But let's forget all that for the moment, and celebrate my top eight purchases since last year (with apologies for listing some figures I haven't yet properly written up!)...
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| 1. WeiJiang 'Deformation Era' M01 OP Commander This was a no-brainer, surely? It's basis was one of the best official TransFormers molds from recent years, upscaled and improved upon in so many ways, creating what should surely become the benchmark for Masterpiece figures. This would be well worth the money even without the knockoff/upscaled weapons, but they're a welcome addition. |
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| 2. Platinum Edition G1 Trypticon One of my last remaining Generation 1 'Holy Grail' toys, when Hasbro decided to release this - for the first time in the UK - shortly before Christmas 2015, I didn't take long over deciding to buy it as a Christmas treat to myself. While it's a bit clumsy and simplistic by today's standards, there's still something very compelling about it, and I'm always tickled to see it walking along under its own (2x C battery powered) steam. |
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| 3. Unite Warriors Combiner Haunt Leader Grand Galvatron Easily one of the longest, most convoluted names in TransFormers history, Grand Galvatron - ahem - unites several continuities (G1, Armada, TF Prime) into a gestalt based on the G1 Galvatron toy's colourscheme. Its torso alone is more varied and impressive than Hasbro's version of Galvatron, and it's a defined set, with a proper explanation for its components, rather than the 'choose your own random limbs' conglomeration with the most hastily-concocted, throwaway explanation I've seen outside a Timelines character bio. Mine may suffer from a few loose joints, but the overall figure is an awesome sight to behold. |
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| 4. BotCon 2016 Combiner Wars (not Timelines) Airazor A cute femme-bot mold reused to create yet another FunPub Beast Wars tie-in. While the mold isn't the most stable Hasbro/Takara Tomy have ever produced, it's an excellent choice for the character and, for me, was about the only must-have part of BotCon's swan song. |
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| 5. Movie Advanced Dino While it's a huge shame that Dino didn't get an official release outside of Japan and that the only transforming plastic interpretation we have is this Takara Tomy retooling of the Revenge of the Fallen Sideways mold, it's a quirky mold that I quite liked, and this thing is easily acceptable. It could use some third party parts, like the replacement feet available on Shapeways, but the head sculpt is excellent and fits the mold well. |
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| 6. DotM Mechtech Que/Wheeljack Another figure not released outside of the Asian market, this is quite a well-painted figure considering it's a Hasbro-branded figure. It's not perfect, but the overall effect is closer to the earlier movie figures than the more recent ones, and the accessories are cool. |
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| 7. Movie/G2 Dreadwing & Smokejumper An event exclusive boxed set from Japan, released in 2010, this tends to be quite expensive on the secondary market, but I was lucky enough to be the only bidder on an eBay auction with a UK-based seller. The set I got isn't in perfect condition, but it's very cool nonetheless. |
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| 8. Beast Wars Metals Airrazor Honestly, one I would have been happy to skip because of what I perceived to be a simplistic transformation and a silly 'vehicle' mode, not to mention the lack of weapons other than the claws mounted on her wrists, this turned out to be a pretty neat figure, made with some gorgeous plastic... though the 'Seaplane' mode is still daft. |
Honourable Mentions:
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| Iron Factory IF EX-16 Pink Assassin Essentially a miniature, simplified version of Azalea, Iron Factory's take on a Cybertronian Arcee may have a simplistic transformation, but robot mode is every bit as good as some of her larger counterparts and, thanks to the myriad ball joints and double-jointed knees, is actually more poseable than Hasbro/Takara Tomy's own awesome,almost-thirty-years-in-the-making take on the character. The super-cute aesthetic works better here than it did on their 'Windsaber', but her vehicle mode is a bit disappointing... |
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| TF Dream Factory PJ-01 Evil-Blood Blade & UFO Toys UP-02 Mega Arm Not a figure, but two entirely separate upgrades for a figure. If UFO Toys brought a surprise left hook, TF Dream Factory provided the decisive knockout blow with their UV-light spewing Murder Arm, transforming a lacklustre Leader class figure from 2009 into something that looks a lot closer to the movie CGI... in robot mode, at least. The only downside is the mismatched colouring of Mega Arm - seemingly designed for the Shadow Command and Dark Energon/Nightmare repaints more than the original. Rumour has it, upgrades for the legs are in the works... ...then all we'd need is a new body and a new head. Ahem. |
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| KuBianBao Deformation Detective While WeiJaing's upscaled knockoff of Evasion Mode Optimus Prime was a revelation and a true Masterpiece, beyond almost anything Hasbro or even Takara Tomy have produced, this was something of a let-down by comparison. Despite the die cast parts and remolded head, it really feels like a knockoff. With all the metal in the torso, the robot is very top-heavy, and those feet weren't especially useful on the dinky Hasbro Hound. On the upside, it was fairly cheap, so I don't feel ripped off at all. |
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| BotCon 2005 Flamewar Having been hunting for this at a reasonable price for most of the last ten years, I'm glad to have finally added her to my collection. She may be nothing special by today's standards - indeed, the character has even been given a more contemporary body - but this is one of my all-time favourite TransFormers molds, and the colourscheme is cool. |
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| Unite Warriors Bruticus A more G1 cartoon-oriented colourscheme and a proper Blast Off rather than yet another bleedin' Firefly repaint (seriously, Hasbro, how many characters are you going to make out of Firefly and Alpha Bravo?). It's a shame Vortex wasn't more comprehensively remolded, but at least he's approximately the right kind of vehicle. |
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| Timelines Ramjet A toy I wasn't expecting anything from - I haven't bothered picking up Generations Armada Starscream or any of the repaints because the new, smaller mold didn't seem like a huge improvement on the original in many ways other that articulation - but which turned out to be pretty cool. Slightly annoying that the Club's last ever Timelines figure had some of its paint rubbed off in the box because they neglected to add a layer of foam above the toy, but that's happened before... |
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| MMC Reformatted Feral Queen & Nero Queen Exclusively created for the Canadian TFCon 2016, the brought over for TFNation by Kapow Toys, the seventh and eighth repurposings of the Azalea mold look awesome, but certainly aren't deserving of a position in my top eight purchases of the year due to the mold showing its age and a rather brittle feel to some of the materials. |
So, that's it for another anniversary... Next year, hopefully, it'll be a top nine, likely with another few honourable mentions. I figure that, after this blog has hit its tenth year, I'll just keep doing an annual top ten purchases... assuming I'm still buying TransFormers by that point.
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