Twelfth Anniversary

Somehow I neglected to log this anniversary on any of my calendars this year, and only remembered it yesterday... Mind you, there would have been a good reason for skipping this year, as I've only bought ten official TransFormers toys and two Third Party figures due to my finances being somewhat less stable this year than they were last, thanks to this whole COVID-19 situation. Really, the only reasons I bought anything after March of this year was that I started selling a few bits and bobs on eBay. I figured I may as well divest myself of a handful of duplicates and toys that just don't seem to fit in my collection anymore - things that, according to the all-powerful KonMari Method, no longer spark joy.

One might think that having a selection of only twelve figures to work with, organising a top ten and a couple of Honorary Mentions would be simplicity itself: just organise things in order of preference... But this year's slim pickings have been highly targeted. All have been toys that I was really looking forward to, or that I had high expectations of. Certainly, some turned out to be a bit disappointing, for one reason or another, but the main problem is that I feel as though I'd be doing my latest three purchases an injustice by attempting to include them at all, since they only arrived in the last week. I really haven't had time to decide whether they've met (or exceeded) my expectations, let alone fully get to know and appreciate them.

With that in mind, I'm going to present only a Top Nine this year, with my most recent purchases being honorary Honorary Mentions because otherwise this list would feel disappointing.

So, let's get on with it:

Revenge of the Fallen Bumblebee

You know, it's honestly starting to feel as though the Revenge of the Fallen toyline just isn't going to leave me alone... As I've been sorting through the toys I had in storage, I keep finding more of them... I know it was pretty much the biggest TransFormers toyline in quite a few years, and had myriad spin-offs and sublines, but this is getting a bit silly.

Also, I really, genuinely hate that what now appears to be the final RotF toy in my collection is the first Bumblebee from that line, and techically just a minimally altered re-release of the Camaro Concept toy from the first movie's range. There's almost a poetic irony to it, considering it'd forgotten I even had this thing...

So, let's get it over and done with...

Binaltech BT14 Wheeljack

If the choice of the contemporary Ford Mustang for Grimlock seemed strange, using that same bodytype for Binaltech Wheeljack made no sense whatsoever. Going by artwork available online, it seems as though the plan had originally been to make the second usage into Windcharger, but with Hasbro renaming Overdrive as Windcharger for the western market, Takara Tomy dropped the idea. Their Windcharger head sculpt ended up being used for the Alternators-only release Decepticharge and the Binaltech-only Arcee - both made using Overdrive's Honda S2000 mold - and the mismatch between the head sculpt and the way it attached to the body was very apparent.

Wheeljack certainly isn't an obvious candidate for a muscle car vehicle mode, having always been some form of racing car in other toylines, but let's give Takara Tomy the benefit of the doubt, and see what he looks like...

TransFormers (Movie) Strongarm (Target Exclusive)

Based on an Energon/Superlink Omnicon mold which I declined to purchase when it first emerged, something about movie Strongarm nevertheless tickled my fancy, because I can remember having to return the copy I originally bought to the Harrow branch of Woolworths for a replacement, because parts of it had become glued together during its construction. Whether this means it was a Woolies exclusive in the UK, I can't say...

I can also remember being somewhat interested in the BotCon 2005 'Descent into Evil' repaint as Outback (named Fallback in that set for legal reasons), but have never felt like paying the secondary market prices for it... It's possible I bought this to see if it would be worth trying to acquire Fallback, or it may simply have been a substitute.

Either way, this is the first - and, so far, only - iteration of this mold I own, so let's have a look...

TransFormers Animated Wreck-Gar

While the robot characters in TransFormers Animated weren't particularly plentiful, what they lacked in numbers, they more than made up for in personality. The small cast seemed to have been perfectly selected for what they were able to add to the storytelling potential of their situation.

A prime example of this would be Wreck-Gar, who was given an entirely new origin story - no longer leader of the Junkions, a race of transforming (and partsforming) robots which evolved separately from those of Cybertron - he was, instead, the innocent creation of Sari Sumdac's AllSpark key. Introduced with no idea of his own identity, his occasional appearances served to develop his character, though I seem to recall his fate was left very open-ended.

Perfect Effect PC-18 Upgrade Kit for GodJinrai

Picking up the upgrade sets for Powermaster Optimus Prime/Super Ginrai had two effects on me. First and foremost, it somewhat restored my confidence in Perfect Effect's output... but, perhaps just as important, it left me wanting to ensure my Legends Godbomber/Super Ginrai combination was as good and 'complete' as it possibly could be.

The stock Godbomber figure is far from perfect and his components, when added to Super Ginrai, leave the figure substantially less stable than he was in his basic form. Given that the PC-16 set puts a little bit more weight onto the robot's back (in the form of Jinrai Prime's legs), his weak ankles leave him even more prone to overbalancing and falling over backward.

With that in mind, to be perfectly honest, the only part of this figure I was really interested in was the ankle supports for the God Ginrai gestalt...