Toy Purchases August 2012

Whelp, I'm still a whole year behind chronicling my collecting habits, lol.

Thinking back, I remember August 2012 being a very slow purchasing month for me. I think that after the insane experience of trying to tackle San Diego Comic-con and grab the SDCC Bruticus set, I was a little burnt out on toys. That being said, I picked up a few things that I had preordered at Big Bad Toy Store and also took one last stab at grabbing some vintage toys from TFSource so i could send some of the Source Points I had accumulated.




The biggest thing I picked up was the release of Maketoys Green Giant (the second 3rd-party Devastator). I specifically went for Green Giant instead of TFC Hercules because of 3 main points. The first was the design. I loved the more anime streamlined design of the separate robots as well as their combined mode. The vehicles also had a certain uniformity that really resonated with me. My second reason for picking up Green Giant over Hercules was quality. While Maketoys was a relative new comer to the scene, TFC has been around for a while and the quality of the plastic and designs are hit and miss. Additionally, TFC released their figures separately over 6 months prior to Green Giant being released and it was reported that Hercules had numerous design and assembly defects, including bad joints and miss assembled figures. The third reason was pricing. At over $100 a figure, the TFC set would set a collector back $650. Green Giant was $360.

While Hercules is a larger figure, in both combined and separate robot modes, I stand by my choice that Green Giant is the better toy. In addition to the standard accessories and combiner parts, he comes with an alternate head that lights up. Also the separate guns from the individual robots combine to become the larger combiner robots main gun. He's a great toy and I dare say probably the best 3rd party robot made to date. He feels and looks better than Fansproject's Corss Fire robot set. Green Giant is a must for any serious Transformer collector.

I also picked up two Japanese Arms Micron Transformers in August, including  Autobot Swerve and the Tokyo Toy Show Exclusive Terrocon Bumble Bee. Both of these purchased were a little frivolous and impulse buys to be honest. Autobot Swerve was purchased because I loved the Arms Micron Breakdown figure that he is based on. They swapped out the head and changed the color palette to Swerves G1 colors, dark red and white. Overall, he's a pretty good figure and I decided I wanted to collect all the Transformers Prime characters, even the non show cannon ones. The only bad thing was, as I described in some of my earlier posts, his head actually broke right out of the package. His neck joint snapped off when I separated him from his zip tie inner cardboard backing. I was pretty bummed out about this and I decided to put him down and leave him where he lay for a night before returning to try and either fix the problem or return him to Big Bad Toy Store.

After a good nights rest, I picked him up and decided I could fix his shattered neck joint. Using a pin and a ton of glue, I refashioned a new neck and securely reinforced the joint. I crossed my fingers and snapped his head back into place. After letting the glue dry, I did a few test swivels and the head was as good as new, probably better considering that new meant broken in this case. Also, his Arms Micron partner is a pretty sweet chain saw weapons too. ^_^

Terrorcon Bumble Bee is a weird oddity. He was a Tokyo Toy Show 2012 Takara Tomy Show Exclusive and the figure I believe references a episode of Prime where Bumble Bee was taken over by the consciousness of Megatron. The packaging make reference of Soundwave somehow converting Bumble Bee into a Decpeticon. Either way he's a black and purple repaint of the regular Prime Robots in Disguise Bumble Bee with the auto transformation gimmick. I think this figure looks pretty cool. It takes on of the most iconic Transformers and literally changes him into a pretty badass looking Decepticon. Terrorcon Bumble Bee comes with Soundwave's Arms Micro partner, which transforms from scorpion to some laser whip weapon. Final word - impressive.

Other than that I picked up a the Kabaya Fortress Maximus set and assembled him. Judging from the assembled figure, he's a pretty good approximation to the original G1 gigantic robot. The Kabaya version stands about 6 inches tall and can fully transform from city, to ship, to robot mode. He comes with both guns and the god sword. Additionally, he has a mini head master that forms his head and a mini Wind Charger and Power Glide figures. These mini figures measure less than a inch high and can limitedly transform from robot to vehicle. Pretty cool miniaturization in this set.

From the TFSource haul, I decided to pick up a few vintage figures which included a mint in box Beast Wars Thunderwing, Transformers Cybertron Overhaul (which I forgot I actually already owned, ugh), 2 Transformers Universe mini bots, Brawn and Beachcomber, and a G1 Deluxe Insecticon Chop Shop. Out of all these bots, really the only one of consequence is Beast Wars  Tiger Hawk. I missed out on him originally when he was out in the stores back in 1999. I finally decided to pick him up and scratch him off my to get list. It's kind of weird to look back at a Beast Wars era Transformer. At the time, Tiger Hawk was one of the most sought after figures in the last wave of toys. He and Transmetal 2 Black Arachnia demand top dollar on the secondary market and they were both extremely hard to find in the stores. I think I saw him a few times but at the time, he was a pretty expensive figure at retail and I believe I had a  ton of my money tied up with the Mobile Suit Gundam In Action figure line that just launched. In the end I'm glad I picked him up but opening him and looking back in time to a 13 year old toy is a little hard to take in. While he was state of the art then, he's a total crappy happy meal type toy now. Ah wells, now I just need to get Beast Wars Scorponok and I can finally close the door on this collecting chapter.

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

Botcon 2013

Botcon 2013 was the second Botcon I attended, the first being Botcon 2011 in Pasadena. 2013 was held in sunny San Diego, 9 hour drive away from the California Bay Area where I reside. Early on, a few friends and I decided that if Botcon was going to be held in California again we would attend. Low and behold, the San Diego location was announced and we were on our way. Initially, the group I was planning on going with were my 2 friends, Grant and Randy, who attended Botcon 2011 with me. However, one of my super hardcore toy collecting friends, Shanti, decided to attend as a dealer. He wanted to bring some of the doubles from his vintage Transformers and Pre-Transformers collection to trade or sell.

Product for sale at Botcon

Having had a ton of experience selling at collectible toy conventions, I decided to help him out and work at his booth. Selling solo at a convention is a major pain with no one to offer breaks for restroom or food. In return Shanti offered to allow me to sell some of my stuff too. Seamed like a great experience, a good way to meet other collectors, and a awesome way to offset the cost of the trip by selling some of my unwanted toys.

Prepping for the show was a little hard since work has been hectic lately. I waited till a few days prior to the trip to really start sorting out what to bring to sell. In the end, I decided to bring a slew of Transformers G1 Encore figures, a few extra carded and MISB Transformers from Beast Wars, Energon, etc, and a smorgasbord of random anime toys I had laying around in storage. Over all I brought what amounted to 8 boxes of toys to sell with a value of about $2,500.00. I hoped I could sell half of them if possible.


Registering for Botcon 2013 was a little hectic. I was returning from a business lunch in San Jose when I randomly checked my email while stuck in traffic. I happened to see the Fun Publication email while I was in traffic and started cutting in and out of lanes to get to my exit. While I was racing home to get to my computer I also called both Grant and Randy to let them know to jump on their computers to register. I got home and registered for both the Primus pack, custom class, and extra custom figure. Grant was able to register for the same load out as well but Randy did not get in the custom class unfortunately. I felt bad so I decided to sell Randy my extra custom figure so at least he would have something.

Generations Sand Storm

Grant and I decided to rent a car and head out Wednesday, June 26 and drive down to San Diego. We would meet Randy who flew down Thursday, and Shanti who was driving down Thursday as well. Grant picked me up and passed off a Transformers Sand Storm he had picked up for me the day before. Oh, what a awesome toy. While reusing the Generations Springer mold, Sand Storm is a totally different beast. I don't think he's superior to Springer but I do think there are enough remolded parts on him to make Sand Storm stand out on his own in a major way.

Frank & Sons Loot

On the way down south, Grant and I decided to make a pit stop a Frank & Sons collectible show. Having been to Frank & Sons previously, we knew there was a Korean vendor that sold Sonokong toys for super cheap and we both wanted to stop by and see if there was anything interesting for sale. Grant picked up Sonokong Car Robots Rail Racer set MOSC for pretty cheap. I picked up 3 Beast Wars II Sonokong Auto Rollers (Auto Jetter, Auto Launcher, Auto Crasher) and a Sonokong Microman Reissue Cassette Copter Spy Heli. All 4 toys are pretty good and the total was $26. I wanted to complete the Auto Rollers for a while and missed out on the clearance sale at Big Bad Toy Store several years ago. Spy Heli also puts me one toy closer to completing my Microman Reissue collection.

Custom Class Blast Charge

Once we got to San Diego, Grant and I checked in and called it a night after grabbing some Vietnamese food. Thursday we got up and headed straight for the Town and Country Convention Center to attend the Custom Class. The custom figure was revealed as Blast Charge, a orange and brown camouflaged Warpath with the new Strika head (super similar camo to G.I.Joe Tiger Force). The figure is a dull choice for me. I was not excited at all but I wanted to make the best of the experience since I already paid for it. I was surprised that the class was so basic. We were handed a set of tools that we had to share and the figure kit which is basically a set of parts on sprue with hardware. The instructions were not very intuitive and I actually made 2 mistakes during assembly. I've put together a ton of plastic model kits, fixed and modded transformers before and I found the only challenge with the class revolved around confusing instructions and the fact that certain steps had to be done by the class staff. I found it strange that the pin holes were all too small and our hand drills were a millimeter too small to provide clearance. Additionally, we were not given the opportunity to glue parts together or hammer pins into place. 

Overall the class attendees were either close friends of each other, who stuck to their own groups, or socially awkward. I have to say it was a unique experience but I do not know if I would attend the class again, especially if I have the ability to just buy the figure separately. 

Botcon 2013 Set

By the end of the class Randy had flown in and I met up with him to grab some food. Grant stayed behind to finish his figure and also planned on attending the unofficial Encline Customization Class afterward. After grabbing a quick bite, Randy and I got in line to pick up our show badge and figure sets. This was actually a pretty easy experience than the long drawn out debacle that Botcon 2011 badge pick up was. I had a little snafu with my badge pick up (I was given a different persons badge by mistake, Steven Ng from Seattle), but after returning to the line and fixing the situation I was off to the Club Store to pick up this years club figure sets. I picked up 2 full sets of the show exclusives, one for my friend Justin who could not attend this year. Overall badge pick up and store purchases totaled 2 hours! My 2011 experience totaled 6 hours and I still had to get a ticket voucher to go back to the store the next day because it was too late. I guess Fun Pub is actually learning how to run a convention. Ha. 

Termination Box Set

Reviewing the toys that night I found I had a broken Obsidian which would need to get replaced the next morning at the trade in booth. This years Botcon set is a hit and miss for me. The Termination Machine Wars Box Set has a few winner and a few big question marks. I love Megaplex, Strika, and Hoist. I think all 3 figures are pretty good. I'm not a fan of the Movie-verse figures so Obsidian, with his awkward designed head and arms, and Skywarp with his action boobs really left me scratching my head. Additionally, I don't understand why they did not group Obsidian and Strika as a separate set and put in some of the other Machine Wars specific character in the box set. As it is, the box set is a Machine Wars / Beast Machines mix. I also do not like the window box which has paint smudges on the window. I also think having the foam showing in the window looks bad and the joke KB price tag makes the set look cheap. An additional note, I learned several days later that there was a misprint on Skywarp which Fun Pub printed the wrong emblems on his wings and also that Hoist is miss-assembled and his shoulders are backwards.

*Image Courtesy of Seibertron.com

The remaining other sets are also hit and miss. I love the Rainmakers set which consists of Sunstorm, Bitstream, and Hotlink (Hotlink still sounds like a 1-800 sex line). The Classic Seeker mold still retains it's classic sleek style and adding 3 more characters to the Seeker Armada is a godsend. The other set includes Electron and Sand Storm. Electron is a gold recolor of Hoist (with his shoulders assembled correctly!). I like him but i wish he had a baton like his G2 original counterpart. Sand Storm is a recolor of Movie-verse Skyhammer. And again, I'm not a fan of the Movie-verse design aesthetic. His Mech-tech type weapon has no lock to extend the blade gimmick out for display and I just can't get over his copter blades wrapping around his chest. To me, he's just a poorly designed mess and a waste of a good slot for a more interesting designed Transformer figure. The show figure is Star Scream based on Movie-verse Terra Dive. Meh. It;s a nice figure and probably one of the better Move-verse figures but he really does not do much for me and does not even look like the original Machine Wars Star Scream figure at all. I sold both my Kreon sets to my friend, Justin, so I don't have an opinion on them.

e-hobby Insect Clone Army

Friday morning, I met up with Shanti in the morning and started set up for our booth. After setting our toys up we chatted with other dealers and I sold a few things early to interested parties. Overall I believe I sold $700 worth of items on my first day. On Saturday I worked at the booth for most of the day. I took a break to attend the Hasbro Brand Panel which unveiled some interesting direction changes for the toy line. I have to say I'm not a fan of their size problem fix. Enlarging the figure and dumbing down the transformation complexity and design will definitely alienate me as a consumer and collector. Also, adding the Lego Bionicle type figures does nothing for me as a collector. I know they are trying to aim for the kids market which is the backbone of profits for Hasbro and their retailers but this new direction will probably help me save money ... which is a good thing I guess. I was excited to see some of the new figures like Skids, Whirl, Gold Fire, and Double Dealer though. Also, Shanti picked up a Loyal Subjects Soundwave figure for me, super nice of him. 

Botcon Loot

On Sunday, I decided to do a little shopping. Overall my sales were pretty steady. A bunch of my high ticket Robotech Toynami and Yamato Veritech / Valkyries sold and I felt like I had money burning in my pocket. Previously, I had talked to Shanti about getting first dibs on some of the toys he was selling and I was able to pick up some pretty choice items, including a slew of Kronoform sets and a loose e-hobby Insecticon set (Minus Energon Cubes). The Kronoform sets included Togor, Modulator, and Invaceptron. Taking a break late in the day, Grant and I walked the dealers room and I picked up Transformers Galaxy Force Blue Ramble (the last regular Ramble figure I was missing from my collection) and I slapped down the $320 and finally picked up Encore Fortress Maximus! Overall Sunday was pretty exciting. I met both Ryan Yzquierdo from Seibertron.com and Jack Hurwitz from Tformers which was a treat for me since I follow both of their sites religiously. Also Jack helped me out a long time ago when I bought my Brave Maximus and it was missing his head master. He emailed Big Bad Toy Store on my behalf which was truly a stand-up move for a website owner to do for a reader.

Now totally tapped out, it was time to pack up. Overall, it was crowded but not insanely so like my past experience in 2011. I was left feeling like there was less attendees this year for some reason but I can't be sure and this is only a feeling I had. Plus I was mainly in the dealers room for most of the time. After it was all said and done I sold about $1454 in products, came out paying for the show and all my new acquisitions with $104 to spare! I brought back a single box of toys that I was unable to sell and a additional full box of new toys. It was totally fun. I have to think about if I ever want to attend the custom class again. I'm not sure it's worth it. The show figures were hit and miss with a ton of factory flaws but some grerat stand out figures. Selling at the show was totally awesome and it was great to meet a lot of fans and also hang out with my good friend Shanti. Hope to do this again sometime soon in the future.

Togor says "Sayonara"