It's TFNation 2019 Weekend, and I'm Not in Birmingham...

Yes, for the first time since its inception, I decided to skip TFNation this year.

The main reason for this is that my finances aren't especially stable right now - not bad, by a long shot, just not good enough that I can comfortably spare the money I'd have to spend on transport, accommodation and entry to the event.

Unfortunately, there's not as much in-the-moment coverage of the event (other than attendees live tweeting or Instagramming, perhaps) compared to BotCon, which had pretty much dedicated media coverage on the fan sites, so I'll have to wait pretty much until it's all over to see what I actually missed.

I'm not blown away by the guest lineup this time - but then, it's never really been about the guests for me anyway - though the fact that Flame Toys, makers of all those super-stylised non-transforming action figure model kits, are listed as being in attendence is of mild interest. I'll be keen to see if they showed off anything new, but if it doesn't transform, I'm generally not that interested.

As far as the other guests go, I've mentioned before that I'm just not particularly interested in the comics (even less now they're a more direct advertisement for the toyline) and, much as it's cool to see some of the voice actors from the TV shows and movies, they tend to tell the same sorts of stories. Had the guest list lived up to the promise of this year's Beast Machines branding, I'd have been far more interested, and may even have run the risk of overspending to see what was on offer... So there's not a great deal to regret on that score.

There's a strong chance that I'm not missing out on buying anything I can't pick up at a later date - WfC:Siege Brunt is very high on the list of figures I want and, of course, I'd have been likely to pick up as many new Studio Series figures as possible, particularly the Devastator components. Other than that, I think the only likely purchase would have been Perfect Effect's Jetforce Revive Commander. Hopefully nothing I'm going to miss out on entirely by passing on this event.