Not a Haitus...

...Just a long delay, partly due to having been rather busy with work over these last few month, and partly because I haven't felt particularly motivated to churn through the mountain of drafts this blog has accrued. I might decide to put a hold on them and focus on getting newer stuff up, with a view to getting some of the older stuff done afterward, or in between.

I've picked up loads more TransFormers: Prime stuff recently, including two First Editions - Bulkhead and Arcee - which are about all I'm interested in for the time being. For those who are curious, the full list of Prime toys in my possession is:

On Distribution

Sorry, another opinion piece! That said, I have picked up a fair few TF:Prime figures lately and have a write-up of Voyager Starscream in progress. With any luck, there will be more interesting stuff up here soon.

And, as it happens, it's TF:Prime toys that I wish to write about... broadly speaking. All of six months ago, I picked up the whole of Wave 1 of Hasbro UK's TF:Prime toys. They were pretty cool, so I was looking forward to more. I was a little disappointed that the UK wasn't getting First Edition (largely because of Deluxe Starscream and Voyager Bulkhead), but the main line toys were not half as bad as I'd expected, based on reports from the American fan sites.

The problem has been the distribution.

Rubbish 'Update'

Yep, after another long break, I'm back with another text-only update.

The good news is that the quiet time coincides with intermittent employment, so I've actually had some income recently. The bad news is that while I've been working, I've been even less inclined to update any of my blogs.

This post is a bit of an opinion piece, for those who may be interested, and it's come about because of a similar post on a blog I read. Specifically, it's about the Official TransFormers Collectors' Club and their new 'Figure Subscription Service'.

TransFormers Collectors' Club 2005-2009 Members Incentive Gestalt (Timelines) Nexus Prime/Maximus

(Members Incentive Monday #8)

It's impossible to discuss this, the completed gestalt result of Fun Publications' first five years of running the TransFormers Collectors' Club, without briefly touching on the controversy of its name. After much to-ing and fro-ing between Fun Publications and Hasbro, the name 'Nexus Maximus' was agreed upon but, by sheer coincidence, this name was already taken by... a certain other 'adult toy'. When this was revealed to the Club and Hasbro, they hurriedly changed the name to 'Nexus Prime', and told the world they had done a 'safe search' on the original name, by way of an explanation for the slip-up. It's a wholly believable story, but ever so slightly sloppy.
For the first four years, the club gave away the equivalent of a Scout-class figure, each a recolouring of one of the 'limbs' from the Energon/Superlink Bruticus Maximus and Superion Maximus gestalts. 2009 brought the torso part, Heatwave, and the remolded gestalt head (built up from certain aspects of the components' heads). Each part was molded using a good deal of translucent plastic, so the end result is quite striking, moreso when lit up.

TransFormers Collectors' Club 2009 Members Incentive (Timelines) Heatwave

(Members Incentive Monday #7)

I have to confess that, after a rather disappointing first few years of Members Incentive figures, Heatwave actually managed to be an exciting final component for the Club gestalt. Firstly, it would feature a whole new head sculpt to make the combined form - Nexus Prime/Maximus - a truly unique robot... Secondly, the Energon/Superlink Barricade mold was the only Energon/Superlink torso that I didn't already own in some form at that point.

TransFormers Collectors' Club 2008 Members Incentive (Timelines) Topspin

(Members Incentive Monday #6)

And so we come to the penultimate component of the TransFormers Collectors' Club Members Incentive gestalt, Topspin, based on the Stormcloud/Blackout mold from Bruticus... Meaning the component parts of Nexus Prime are basically Aerielbots and Combaticons - neither of the Constructicon Maximus parts were used. It also means that all but Landquake and the Torso component are flyers...