What I Got This Past Four Months

Once again, even though I only get a few items a week, if that, I can't make myself post each week, so here are several weeks worth of What I Got This Week.

A few weeks ago I purchased something I really wanted, that I really shouldn't have spent the money on, and last week I ended up trading it for something I had originally had on pre-order, but canceled in order to purchase that which I shouldn't have. For a few days the Exclusive edition of Sideshow's 12" Red Cobra Ninja figure was mine, but after taking a few awesome pictures I realized it would be better to have the Green Lantern Classics wave 2 figures, so I found a guy willing to swap straight over. So GLC 2 arrived this week (that is, it arrived the week that I started writing this post, something like four months ago). Stel is an awesome build a figure (though the crotch piece on this one is defective, I have purchased an alternate Sodam Yat for the BAF piece, but have not yet opened it).

A week or two later arrived my set of DCUC 17, the Anti-monitor/Skittle Lantern wave, and it is awesome. Hands down this is my favorite wave in a long time, quite possibly my favorite wave of the entire line.

In other DCUC news, I picked up Jonah Hex and The Creeper from the Bane wave a few weeks back, Hex is quite nice. Just a week or two ago, with the use of some $5 off coupons I picked up Toy Man and Bronze Tiger from the Apache Chief wave. I also picked up the Batman Legacy Mr Freeze, but decided to return it so I could buy something else. So now I need another one.

Several weeks ago I got a few really awesome things, like the Transformers Collector's Club Exclusive G2 Classics Ramjet, which is garishly awesome.

A couple weeks after that the free Collector's Club membership figure arrived, Sideburn! This makes 5 repaints of this figure I have, I believe? I'm only missing 3 of the 4 Japanese exclusive decos.

Found the TF DOTM Thundercracker - a G1-esque repaint of DOTM deluxe Starscream, which is supposedly quite a good figure. Of course, having bought one I now hope for G1-esque Starscream and Skywarp repaints, and of course Dirge and Ramjet retools (and might as well do Thrust too). But I'm too lazy to go take a picture of it.

I bought a custom Ultra Magnus from a guy on TFW2005, this one a mash-up of RID Optimus Prime and RID Ultra Magnus, with a decent paint job. Honestly, it looked a little better in the pictures, though in reality, that's just reality not living up to my unrealistic expectations. This is the second custom Ultra Magnus I've purchased, and while I was really excited to get both of them, due to extreme lackage of funds I'm considering selling both of them off. Also too lazy to take pictures of it at this time.

Over the course of several weeks I found the lost waves of Transformers Reveal The Shield, including Voyagers Solar Storm Grappel, Lugnut and Deep Dive, as well as Deluxe Bumblebee, which I don't need, because I already have the first black-stripe repaint of Classics Bumblebee, but why not have two of them with different striping? I don't know, so I bought it. I probably mentioned it previously, but then again maybe not, so somewhere along the way I also found RTS Perceptor.

Because I like the Cybertron Legends Seeker mold a lot, I picked up a TF Dark of the Moon Legends 4 pack at TRU, with a coupon I had so it ended up being only $7 or something.

Speaking of liking that mold, I picked up four of the Cybertron Legends Seekers, Sunstorm, Starscream, and the two con exclusive versions: Ramjet and Skywarp. Awesome little guys. This one's Skywarp.

Through a trade at TFW2005 I finally picked up the final TF Generations figure I was missing (until the new figures start shipping), Wheeljack! Via a different trade I picked up the arm I was missing for Energon Wing Saber, who is awesome, now that he's complete.

Recently I found TF Dark of the Moon figures on sale, and bit on a couple I've been eyeing since the line began: Voyagers Optimus Prime and Skyhammer. I'm about done with DOTM figures now, unless we get some G1 decos of Skywarp and Starscream. Sometime previous to this I had also purchased Voyager Megatron, who's not bad.

Again via TFW2005 (I knew joining that place was a great idea) I picked up a couple more TF Henkei's, two of my higher desired figures, Dirge and Thrust (Still need Henkei Skywarp, Ramjet and Ghost Starscream, if anybody wants to help out). Yes, I already have the Generations versions, and yes, I still want the Botcon versions. Let it be known here and now (if it's not already), I am a sucker for the Decepticon Seekers, and will try to buy pretty much any repaint of my favored ones (Starscream, Skywarp, Dirge and Ramjet), and will usually grab the other two if I can as well. In yet another TFW2005 transaction I picked up my first Japanese Mega SCF figures: Star Saber and Victory Leo, who are kinda cool, I haven't played with them much yet, but they're supposed to combine into Victory Saber, and that sounds neat.

Oh, it looks like I haven't talked about the Kabaya candy toys here. They're awesome! They're cheap little snap together model kits that are sold in Japan, and imported to the US for slightly greater costs, but they're totally worth it. I have 3 sets from the first two waves (of 3 sets each), Star Saber, G1 Ultra Magnus and Classics Jetfire, and picked up all of wave three, which consists of Classics Starscream, Powermaster Optimus Prime, and Apex Armor (which can combine with Powermaster Prime to form their supermode). They're lots of fun to assemble and sticker up, they're small but decently detailed, and they transform (well, they parts-form, but that doesn't bother me). There's a combiner set of six smaller figure that I want to get, and wave 4 has recently been announced to contain Rodimus (MP look it looks like), Classics Inferno, and Victory Leo (I wonder if he'll combine with wave two's Star Saber to form Victory Saber?).

And winding down on Transformers, I picked up two Heroes of Cybertron figures: Megatron and Powermaster Optimus Prime. Cause I'm a bit of a sucker for Prime. In another trade from TFW2005 I acquired a few Energon figures: Ironhide, Jetfire, Signal Flare, and Strongarm, also a Cybertron Legends Optimus Prime.

Somewhere along the line I lost the super cool nifty chrome weapons that came with FansProject G3 trailer, but luckily I was able to trade for them recently. Yay! Also grabbed HFTD Leader Class Optimus Prime at a discount store, and I traded for the pretty awesome Darth Vader / Death Star Transformer.

My cousin spent large amounts of money to go to SDCC this year, and brought be back a few presents, which he kindly let me buy from him. So far I've only paid for DCUC Swamp Thing and TF Prime Matrix Prime, so those are the only ones I have to take pictures of, but he also picked up Gentle Giant's Ralph McQuarrie Concept Snowtrooper mini bust and the DC Bishoujo Evil Supergirl for me, provided I get around to paying him for them before he throws them on eBay (He sold Evil Supergirl like the first week).

The new Women of DC Universe series 3 Harley Quinn was released in June or July, which is awesome, and I finally was able to get the Ame-Comi Harley Quinn statuette for a decent price. And the Ame-Comi Minis wave 2 has been released, of which I so far only have Wonder Woman. And somewhere in there I got the Women of DC Universe series 2 Catwoman.

A new World of Warcraft wave was released a while ago, and I picked up Judge Malthred, and finally found a decent enough price to pick up the Forsaken Queen herself, Sylvanas Windrunner. I also picked up the exclusive Panderan Brewmaster figure, who is completely huge, and I have absolutely not place to put him, as my WoW shelf is full since He-Man and Skeletor moved to it once I had Battle Cat and Panthor.

I've become quite inactive over at the TrekToy forums, but right before I did I was lucky enough to win one of their contests, and a ridiculously huge package was mailed to me, containing Star Trek Scene It? Along with bonus Hot Wheels Star Trek vehicles, including some I think were never released on their own, such as the original, classic Enterprise, the Enterprise A, the Enterprise NX-01, and the Narada, so that was cool.

Speaking of Star Trek, Deep Space 9 is my favorite Trek series, and I've been working at acquiring the DVD sets over the last couple of years, so that someday my wife and I can watch them together, since we've gone through most of the Original Series, and most of TNG. I got seasons 5 and 6 for something crazy like $24 total, now I'm only missing 2 and 4.

I still check up on Masters of the Universe Classics from time to time, desiring the odd figure here and there, like Faceless One, he looks awesome. Several weeks ago I picked up Count Marzo for the excellent price of $12 shipped off eBay, which is $8 plus shipping under retail, and he's a nice figure, I like him.

Marvel Universe. It's a line I've wanted to be into, and I've started collecting it at least three times, but each time I've dropped it after only a week or two. But I still have a few figures from it, and I recently got a couple more, nice big ones: World War Hulk and Apocalypse. These will join the other big ones I have, Juggernaut, Colossus, etc, to face off against my GI Joes.

Oh yeah, and I got the Masterworks Sentinel and it is f-ing HUGE! And I love it! Every time I walk by it I have to push the little button that makes him say things like, "Mutant, halt!" Or, "Unregistered mutant detected!" and other awesome stuff, in his very awesome voice. It's a fan-freaking-tastic figure, and EVERYBODY should go buy one. He's totally worth the price.

I haven't been buying Star Wars items much for a number of years now, probably since the first three years of serious collecting were devoted solely to Star Wars, but one thing I've always had a soft spot for is Clones, and scaled prop replicas, of which I have quite a few. But one I didn't have was the plain, vanilla, scaled Clone Trooper Helmet, by Master Replicas, and I managed to picked it up for the unbelievably low price of 6 dollars and change, off eBay. oh yeah, and Free Shipping. Damn, that's awesome, if I may say so myself. Also, they're fantastic items, very nicely detailed.

The new Mortal Kombat line by Jazzwares has arrived, and they're pretty okay. I'm kinda going back on forth between thinking they're very nicely sculpted, and thinking that they're kinda lacking. Sub-Zero is quite nice, but Scorpion is a little bit messy looking, though it could just be the paint. The 6" figures are so far base on the MK9 looks, while the 4" line that should be hitting soon are based on the more classic looks, like from MK3, and I can't wait to find those. And let me take this opportunity to say, yet again, that Tanya is my favorite figure, and I want her in the 6" line in both her regular and alternate costumes (as seen in Deception and Armageddon, since I guess right now she's NOT going to be in MK9, because they are lame).

And that, I think, wraps up this post, that as been in the works for far too long, and has now lost all relevancy. But oh well. I think if I ever have a huge list of acquisitions to report on, I'll do so just with pictures, and leave off the commentary.

The reason I really wanted to get this post finished, was so I could move on to my newest obsession, Kamen Rider W! Of course, I haven't been able to wait for this post, so I've already posted a few pics of misc W items. But now the floodgates are open.

2007 Review - Part 1

Well, about the middle of January, I wrote out (on paper!) a big old long post, looking back some of the more memorable (to me) items and such that I bought or was looking forward to last year. Now that's its nearly April I figured it was about time I got around to typing it up and posting it.

Experiences

We'll start with some memorable experiences. First, in August I became a member of the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers - the Lucasfilm sanctioned Star Wars costuming club. I served the Emperor as a Royal Guard until just recently, when I sold the costume. I plan to acquire an Imperial Officer's uniform next, planning a Captain in the Imperial Navy (Captain of a Star Destroyer, thank you very much). I've only been to 6 or 7 events, as most take place an hour's drive or more away, but there's also a family I've seen 3 or 4 times that drive from the far side of the state (5ish hours) so I can't complain too much. The most recent event was on New Year's Eve, at Provo Town Center mall, I even got my picture taken with Ronald McDonald (that's me on his left).

The other experience I want to talk about briefly is that I watched a significant portion of Star Trek. A few years back, during school, I worked at a place that allowed me to watch a lot of TV (it was actually part of my job), and for a couple of months I was able to watch several episodes of ST: The Next Generation and ST: Deep Space Nine. Since then I've wanted to watch all Star Trek, in order (well, maybe not Voyager). Early last year I purchased the first season of the Original Series, and my wife and I watched them all. We really enjoyed them, and about half-way through those we borrowed all 10 movies from a co-worker and watched them, as well. We're now almost done with the second season, and I should probably start looking to pick up the third and final season.

I really like the original crew - in particular Kirk, Spock and McCoy (of course, who doesn't love those three?). I enjoy the Spock/McCoy interaction, all the emotion vs logic. And of course, Kirk really is too entirely awesome. While some of the effects are a bit primitive, or some of the costumes are a little lame, for the most part I don't notice those things, and it's just an excellent show with lots of great stories. I'm really looking forward to finishing it up, and then moving on to The Next Generation.

Purchases

Moving on to items I purchased last year, I can say that like 2006, I spent far too much money this year. I couldn't possibly talk about everything I bought last year in one post so I'll just hit the highlights (but I do intend to at least post pictures of everything, someday).

2007 was the year that I really branched out to collecting things other than Star Wars. I mean, I had a couple of items here and there (like a Batman Begins figure), but I wasn't researching or anticipating figures in other lines. Until Spawn and Mortal Kombat. I happened across a couple of figures at TRU that I couldn't put down, so I got them. I mostly expected them to be one-off purchases, and the MK figure was for sure (in fact, I returned that one and got two better characters off eBay), but it was that purchase that freed me to get into Spawn figures, which led to Halo figures, which led to DC Comics figures (Batman and Superman), which led to 2008 being a very Halo- and DC-centric year.

I bought three Halo 2 figures, but stopped, as the ones I wanted were a little too expensive, and I decided to wait until the Halo 3 figures McFarlane began producing this year. Now that I have received all of mine from the first series, I should be reviewing them in a few of weeks.

Along with watching Star Trek I decided that I really like some of the vehicle designs—particularly the Enterprise —enough that I needed a couple ships for my shelves. I set out to get each version of the Enterprise, and was happy to find a Japanese company, Furuta, already had a Star Trek line. They've made several Trek ships around 3-4 inches long, including all of the Enterprise versions (except the NX-01 from the series Enterprise). The Japanese sure to love to blind-packaged stuff, and have rare, hard to find chase variants. In this case, the Enterprise E (from the last three movies) was the chase version so by itself it tended to sell for $20-$25 on eBay. Of course, that's my favorite version, but I didn't want to spend that much on it, so I was lucky to find someone selling a lot of 11 ships, which included all the Enterprise E and the other versions, for a very reasonable price.

I also discovered Corgi International was making a few die cast metal ships in a 6-8 inch scale. They released 3 in 2007, of which I picked up 2—the Original Enterprise, and the Enterprise-D. I hope they continue this line soon, particularly with my two favorite ships the Enterprise-E and the TNG era Romulan Warbird.

Another line I branched into this year was Spawn. It started in May-ish when I saw Spawn X from the first animated style series hanging on the pegs at Toys R Us. The animated Spawn figures are in a style similar to that of the animated Star Wars Clone Wars cartoons, I just couldn't pass it up, and it's been downhill from there. I collect mostly Spawn himself, but occasionally other characters are appeal to me enough for me to get them. I really like the look of Spawn, and McFarlane Toys does an amazing job sculpting the figures. Some of my favorite figures so far are Spawn VI (masked version in particular, but the unmasked is pretty good too) and Medieval Spawn III (both from Series 20), Issues 7 cover art, Raven HellSpawn 2, and of course the animated figures - particularly Raven Spawn and Commando Spawn.

While I'm talking about McFarlane Toys toys I also began and stopped collecting the Dragons line. I found the Eternal Dragon Clan 5 at TRU, and couldn't pass it by. That led to buying a couple older ones off eBay (one of which I've since sold, and getting another one from series 5—the Sorcerer Dragon Clan—and one from series 6—the Ice Dragon Clan. There is still one more I'd like to get, Ice Dragon Clan 7. The line has since ended with series 8, and McFarlane has moved on to a new fantasy line called Blade Masters (or something like that). There are a few figures I would like but I'm not really considering getting any soon.

As mentioned earlier, I started getting into DC Comics figures big time in 2007. Particularly, I'm a big fan of Batman, Superman, Supergirl and Green Lantern, but there are a few other characters I like as well. I learned that DC Direct makes a bunch of great DC figures, and they're really aimed at collectors, although I'm sure kids would enjoy some of them, but they're really a specialty marked company, so prices are a bit higher than the lines by Mattel. One of the great things about DC Direct is they often release figures based on particular comics, so figures are made in the style of the artists that worked on the comics.

My favorite line right now is the Superman/Batman line, based on the comic series of the same name. Most of the waves from that line are based on the artwork of Ed McGuinnes. You can see pictures of some of these on my wantlist of his figures. The second series is based on Michael Turner's art—which I love, his Batman is how I will always picture Batman now—and the recently announced series 6 will be based on the fifth major storyline from the S/B comics: Enemies Among Us.

Unfortunately, I didn't get into DC figures until the end of last year, so I've got a lot of catching up to do, but that's what eBay is for, and so far the best way (read cheapest) I've found to get them is to buy lots of several figures at once, as they usually go for a lower amount per figure as opposed to buying one figure at a time. 2008 will be heavily focused on DC figures, between the various DC Direct lines, and between Mattel's DC Universe Classics line, so you can expect to see several reviews of DC figures this year. Most of what I got last year was the end of Mattel's DC Super Heroes and getting all the good Green Lantern figures DC Direct has released.

I got into swords for a little bit at the beginning of the year, mostly due to learning that there were replicas of the swords from the Highlander TV series and movies. I'm not a big fan of the movies, but I quite enjoyed the TV series. In my extremely outdated series of posts on my overall collection I mention the Highlander figures and the Highlander Swords which I own, so I won't do more than point to those posts and say that I really like swords, those are fun to play with and are some of the favored items that I purchased last year.

I also got several Lord of the Rings items, mainly Gentle Giant items, but a couple SideShow/Weta items as well. Again, I talked about these item in a previous post so I will only say here that my favorite items is probably the large Balrog statue (by SS/W), which I got a rather good deal on, thanks to a friend of mine that lives in New Zealand, works for Weta Workshop and actually worked on the LOTR films. It is an excellent, highly detailed piece, and is quite possibly the best non-Star Wars item I own. The detail in the sculpt and paint is amazing, the thing looks almost real to me. I'll probably do a detailed review of it someday.

Well, that seems like enough for this post. I'll write up my Star Wars summary and post that as part two.