Hey all!

I thought I should let you in on my schedule of photo shoots and Tech Spec/figure reviews for the upcoming weeks.

In the immediate future

I have a couple of D-cons that work as a team from the Bayformers that I want to feature: Blackout and Scorponok. I got my second premium Blackout in this Monday, so now I’m cleared hot to do this shoot. Like the DD Brawl shoot, I hope to add also some story shots to this one with Blackout & Scorponok versus human soldiers in a desert scene as well as experiment with some “flying” scenes as well. Please tell me what you think as I know you're all not shy!!!

I may also do another Bayformer in the desert and among Ancient Egyptian ruins with the standard design Starscream model from the 2007 Movie. Part of this is also to give Bill (my terrain engineer) time to design the sets for a jungle scene for these next two shoots.


Introducing a New Scenery Set...Jungle

The first of these new shoots will be for Bayformer Bonecrusher, both in Jungle variant and standard coloration. The bio on Jungle Bonecrusher tries to make a case for Bonecrusher surviving decapitation by Optimus and doing some down time in the jungle (similar to the DD Brawl bio as well to cover for his demise from Bumblebee’s well-placed shot in a chink in his reinforced armor). So I wanted to have an appropriate set to honor that at some level.

With the second jungle shoot, we will begin a series of going into a “no longer in production” toys/models mode. For this first "blast from the past," it has a link in the present through a re-use of its mold in the new Universe Classic 2.0 Bruticus. I recently received Cybertron Scourge in the mail and already had Cryo Scourge and Bruticus as well. All are mint, so this should be a good shoot and it will also feature the difference between Scourge and Bruticus to help the TFW2005 community avoid scalpers as they’re quite close in pigmentation. Bill is hoping to build a set fit for “the King of the Jungle [Planet]” to feature these three all together.


Other Ventures with Autobots...

So far, a lot of this has been about D-cons. Bill and I will put our heads together for an Energon Bulkhead & Quickstrike shoot as well as an Energon Landmine/Landquake one as well. Not quite sure how that will look or what the theme will be.

I also have a bunch of the 2007 Movie Jazz figures (standard, premium, final battle, and G1 repaint), so the most suave and stylish of A-bots will have his own feature as well. I was pissed that he got bumped off in the movie , so I hope to give him a tribute.  

Also Bill (hopefully) will soon begin a special piece of terrain construction that will create a statue/memorial of “the Queen of Speed [Planet],” so a Override GTS shoot is also in the works. That should be really cool! We've gotten a broken Override figure from eBay and Bill hopes to transform her into a fitting memorial/statue. We also are talking about a race track-like set to feature Cybertron Hot Shot and Crumplezone (regular and dark) as well. Should be cool! 


Tales from inside of Unicron...

I also am working on getting another MISB Energon Scorponok to go with the one I already have. I have a Cybertron Dark Scorponok en route to my home as we speak, so this should be awesome shoot as I can feature all three of his modes at once. For this shoot, Bill hopes to have a crashed spaceship looking set which could represent the beginning of the Energon series when Scorponok was in a stronger leadership position in the ravaged shell of Unicron. My Alpha Q toy will also probably put in an appearance along with a retinue of Terrorcons, as I have multiples of each. This should be pretty cool and good for the boards to have lots of good Scorponok pics as he seems to have been demoted as a Bayformer in the last movie. I hate what Bay did to him! You will pay for committing this slam against Scorponok!  


Stay Tooned for more...

Some of you also know that I’ve been making noise about the Animated line as they’ve seemed to have grown on me. I hope to work with Bill to create an appropriate set to feature some of these figures as well. Okay, the subtitle was bad – I couldn’t resist!  


Anchors Away My Boys, Anchors Away!

As a former Marine infantryman, we always had a soft spot for the US Navy in our hearts as they would give us rides wherever we needed to go! In the Energon line, the Decepticons had an impressive navy of their own. So supplementing it somewhat from other generations, I hope to do a shoot that features Tidal Wave (both Armada and Energon), Mirage & Dreadwing, Thunderblast, Sharkticon, and the 2007 Movie Shortround re-mold Storm Surge.


Closing Thoughts & an Invitation

I can’t give a strict timeline on these things, but we’ll do what we can. If you have any requests, we’ll see what we can do to put them in queue for you. While I’m not a “reviewer” per se as I think there’s plenty of good folks who do that already on Youtube and other places, I do think adding to the TFW2005 community through this kind of gallery work and resources section will be helpful. 

 

Poll results are in!

Hey all!

It looks like some of my ideas were on for those who submitted their ideas (thank you for doing so!) and some others I hadn't considered are in too.

While I had focused a lot on Energon and Cybertron lines, it seems that 2007 Movie & ROTF and Animated were some hidden considerations. I hadn't planned as much with Animated, but I do have almost the whole line in my possession (actually, I think I have ALL of the released figures!) so I can get those posts up soon!

I was out of town for a week and when I got home my lighting tent had arrived! So now I can do awesome shots of figures in a stark white environment, esp. of Longarm Prime/Shockwave, Waspinator, and Samurai Prowl as I will soon have two of each of those figures (just waiting on Sam Prowl for second one). I will also talk with my terrain designer, Bill, about some mid-21st century Detroit scenery. As a Michigander, all I can say is I REALLY HOPE that's the future of Detroit! We used to avoid the Big D because it was violent, now we avoid it b/c everyone who could leave has left it!

Thanks again, and I do hope to get back into the picture business as it's a fun hobby for me. I also hope to get out some additions to earlier shoots of DD Brawl, 2.0 Dropshot & Overload, and Blackout & Scorponok in the form of these tent lighting shots that just feature the figure - so stay tuned!