I cannot wait for Missing Link Convoy next year. I thought I would never need to buy another G1 Optimus Prime toy after the initial reissues in 2000-2001, but here we are. I hope some Of the other original car robos get the same treatment.
I think it's a great idea and I do hope they give other toys the same treatment. (Do Grimlock next!) For those who aren't aware of it yet, the Missing Link Convoy toys are updates of the original toy, giving it articulation and added accessories. https://news.tfw2005.com/2023/08/08...timus-prime-official-promotional-video-492401
Yay! Transformers has always been a big love for me, but at this age I have to curb my collecting and curate the collection in general. This Blaster is one of the last TFs I bought that I was really happy with before swearing off buying more! Hasbro quality (not only materials but design aesthetics) has gone down the tubes. I know the third party stuff is an option for some but I'm kind of a "stock" guy (even though my fave TF ever is an "Optimus" by Wei Jiang ). Spoiler
Argh. Every time I see one of those I am reminded of my trip to Osaka in 2008, when I saw multiples of Rodimus, Galvatron, and others on the pegs at Mandarake for 1,000 yen each.
oh man, i was such a "hardcore-casual-collector" years back. i just buy a magic square figure once in a while nowadays. One line i loved was the TF Animated toys. the show made them look like they were people wearing spandex with alt-mode details (dumb)--but the toys were doing things with the engineering that i had not seen done before. simple but smart. i was able to grab lockdown a while back, and optimus and hot rod i held on to over the years. i wish i grabbed the Transformers Prime toys back when they were fresh. they looked like the TF Animated stuff, but more polished.
Love Lockdown! The Animated Blitzwing is another fave. Beast Wars was actually my gateway into TF collecting, it’s when I took notice of a new kind of engineering happening! Machine Wars was still happening at the same time, but they were still mostly bricks (and I also love them).
When I was a kid I had many of the original toys, plus several knockoffs including those "Ancient Animal" Dinobots and a copy of that Diaclone camera combiner (what would have been Reflector). My not-Grimlock was always my fave, so if that toy gets the super-articulated treatment I will be a very happy dino. Maybe they can include an apron and a crown for him. However, like @Vombie with Animated and @rattanicus with Beast Wars, there was a "sweet spot" where I really got hooked on one of the toy lines as an adult, and that was Beast Machines. Back when Matt Alt and I used to write freelance articles for Toyfare, we were recruited to work on a Transformers insert for the January 2000 issue: https://randomtoyreviews.blogspot.com/2011/04/toyfare-transformers-beast-machines.html Hasbro sent some early prototypes to the Wizard offices for photography and I got to handle them. I was impressed by how they leveraged the translucent plastic to achieve some neat effects, plus it was nice to see cars, jets, and other vehicles brought into the line again. Beast Machines was short-lived but there were many superb toys in the line. I'm very impressed with the modern-day Hasbro Transformers. And like the current Star Wars retro figures, they're made in Vietnam, which still boggles my Gen-X mind. In the past couple of years I've picked up the following: War for Cybertron: Earthrise Deluxe Quintesson Allicon Studio Series 86-08 Deluxe Gnaw Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection Deluxe Cosmos As you can probably tell I am drawn to the weird creatures or vehicles that aren't Earth-based designs. They're not just fantastic toys, but the robot modes are excellent as action figures, with an impressive level of poseability. I'm hoping the Terrorcons or Piranhacons eventually get a scaled-up Studio Series treatment, I wasn't a big fan of the Combiner Wars versions so I passed on them. I'd love to be reunited with a clunky version of this goofy guy again:
So I’ve been a transformers fan my entire life, and while I watched the animated show as a kid, but I was more into the comics as an adolescent and pre-teen. I got heavy into beast wars the TV show, and I watched beast machines but after that I was strictly toys. By 2000, I was mostly collecting vintage and reissue G1 toys that had their roots in Diaclone and Microchange. Although the 2000 line with Fire Convoy had some great toys. I stuck Diaclone because there was a consistent scale to the figures and they were the toys of my childhood. I’ve got to get around to filling some gaps in my collection. Anyone have a reissue Togertrack they’d be willing to part with for under $500? Lol.
Because I loved Beast Wars, I loved Beast Machines as well, especially the notion that Cybertron's origins were biological! I love those toys also and still have a bunch. Since then I pick stuff up sporadically, just the ones I can't do without The G1 stuff is the most beautiful but I don't have much; love that there's reissues!
Oh also just to get it out of the way: I don’t care for the live action movies. I saw the first Michael Bay film and that was enough. I’ll take the 1987 animated movie though anytime.
I have the regular MP10 and a handful of other masterpieces figures. At one point I was dipping my toes into them and third party stuff that was similarly scaled but I stopped mainly because of space. Big toys require so much valuable real estate in my display cases.
The oversized Grimlock Masterpiece bootleg looks very cool and still readily available but yeah, space is an issue.
More details on those Missing Link Optimus Primes: https://news.tfw2005.com/2023/08/25...voy-optimus-packaging-variants-details-493479 Ooh, STYROFOAM! Also, Slime House TV recently paid a visit to Transformers YouTuber Toys R Russ and his collection is staggering:
That’s cool that it’s going to have styrofoam, but I could just as easily done without it. I really really hope that for the 40th anniversary of the g1 line my resurrect the g1 reissues and we get all the original 84-85 bots that weren’t reissued in the early aughts. Specifically, but not limited to: Wheeljack, Mirage, Artfire (because we got Stepper already) Grimlock, Slag, Snarl, Swoop, & Sludge. And let’s not forget Diaclone recolors we didn’t get: red (lift ticket) and blue Hoist, yellow and blue (Breaker DK1) Trailbreaker, Police Sunstreaker (aka Cordon), Red Sunstreaker, red Skids (actually it’d be a black Crosscut at this point), Black Skids, Mekki Ultra Magnus, Black Tracks (Loud Pedal), Blue Bluestreak, and red Mirage. And then the lost G2 recolors for Sludge, Swoop, mirage, Grimlock, Ramjet and Sideswipe. And then maybe a yellow tracks (to reference the yellow binaltech release), a Mexican Policia Prowl, Green Hoist with a Trailbreaker head.
