Eugene and Springfield Targets and Walmarts got full wave 1 runs. I picked up Ultra Magnus from the Olympic Walmart, sideswipe from the W11th Target, and Skytread from the W11th Walmart. The only things left on the pegs as of yesterday was a bunch of cogs and the Micro/Targetmasters.
This is just the start of Siege distribution, so hopefully they'll be restocking soon. Both of the leader class figures are great. The price point, however, is not. Ultra Magnus is pushing it a bit, but it's such a great figure. It has a decent alt mode and two outstanding robot modes, so I can't complain too much. After finally finding an Optimus Prime, I am blown away that I can't find even a single part that is carried over unmodified to the Ultra Magnus cab. Even parts like the head are subtly different and not just 1:1 copies. Shockwave on the other hand is just ridiculously small for the price. The base figure is fantastic, and I could get over its size if it were at the voyager price point or even stand-alone as a deluxe. I also admit I've grown to like the modular bits somewhat, but I didn't really need or want them, and I would have rather that plastic been used to bring the base figure to a more respectable size. Complaints aside, I am really enjoying this series. The figures are so much more solid than CW/TR and I am constantly transforming and posing these.
I don't know what all they got because my wife only sent me a picture of the Studio Series (KSI Sentry and Dropkick) but it looks like the Esplanade Target (on TV Highway in Hillsboro) has Siege figures in. I'll be honest, I wish I had the money/space to collect both Studio Series AND Siege because man, Siege looks pretty awesome.
I've had Shockwave and Ultra Magnus for almost three weeks and I don't think I've gone a day without fiddling or poking at either one of them. If they made Shockwave bigger and charged the same $50 MSRP, he'd look seriously out of place next to his Siege mates... Think Ultra Magnus will be an anomaly in size as other future Siege Leaders won't be as big if they are keeping true to a scale... Anyway, Shockwave is glorious and he has that unspoken pure awesome space segway mode... Behold! Segway Shocker, Space Cop! Now you must own him.
Size never bothered me much in Transformers. I suppose that comes with the territory as a Gundam fan. When you pay 150 bucks for a model kit that's shorter than a Prime Wars era leader because that kit is goddamn awesome, that's when you know you're a true Gundam fan. Anyways, yeah. I got my Shockwave the last week of December actually. I love it. I don't mind the battle damage paint at all but I'm happy that the paint is relegated to his add on stuff and not the main 'bot himself. The figure is the most perfect retail Shockwave to date, and I just can't see myself getting any other retail Shockwave after this. It's the closest to perfect you can get.
I think you may be confused, Magnus' core robot is a completely unique mold from Prime, so it makes sense that nothing is shared.
I didn't mean to dissuade anyone. I really do love the figure but I personally think $50 is a bit of a stretch. That's just me though, lord knows I've paid more money for smaller 3rd party figures so there's that. The figure really is about anything you'd want for a G1 Shockwave of that size. The detailing is spectacular, the articulation is good, and the transformation is reminiscent of the MP in ways. I knew the core bot was different, but I had expected SOME of the parts to be carried over, like the head and maybe the shoulders or something, but yeah, completely different. I was very pleasantly surprised!
I did not know PlanckEpoch was building gundam models also, our next meetup should be a transformer and gundam meetup i guess. I have bought more models than Transformers recently. but 3 of my models in the last month have been transformers - nemesis prime, optimus prime and star starscream.
I've actually been into Gundam since 1996! I was so psyched back in 1999 when the High Grade Universal Century line debut that year. My first kit from HGUC was the Gyan. Unfortunately it is also the only kit I have left from those days. I'm honestly more of a Gundam fan than a Transformers fan nowadays. Around 2007 or so I got out of Gundam but I got back into it in 2014 because I hated Combiner Wars so much I just went back to the IP that I knew would never screw with what I loved of it in the first place, haha! But now I love Gunpla all over again. I did some simple paint jobs back in the day but I just straight build nowadays. All my paints that I used to paint up Watchmaker models dried up and I just don't have the tools for serious paint jobs anymore. Though I am planning on some repaints in 2019!
I have not done custom paint on my Gundam models just have been building them from kits, i started last year. before the models I had purchased a number of the Gundam Fix figures - attached are the ones i have built so far.
Nice to know there are other Gundam and Transformer fans around. Like PlanckEpoch, I have been a fan since the 90s when the no grade Wing kits were out. I was even more ecstatic when I found an MG Char's Zaku 2 at a Toys R Us. Sadly, then Gundams left the shelves and, where I lived, there wasn't much opportunity to get more kits so I switched back to the first robots I collected: Transformers! Been collecting them together ever since. On sightings topic, Jantzen Beach Target had the following: -2 Siege voyager Megs -1 Siege voyager Optimus -2 Leader Shockwaves -1 Leader Ultra Magnus -some wave 2 Micromasters and Battle Masters -SS voyager Megatron and Brawl -1 clearance BB Blaster cosplay weapon accessory thingy from the movie (Discounted to $10) -3 clearance SinnerTwins (down to about $9)
Update: W11th Target restocked the shelves, and then promptly ran out of siege again. This time I managed to snag Megatron and Shockwave and I can say I am VERY satisfied with both
The Sherwood Walmart had 1 Siege Megs, 1 Siege OP, 1 Skytread, and a handful of the smaller guys last night.
Long story short- I'm a Gundam fan as well, I just wish I had enough time to work on my ever-growing backlog...
I have placed all my Gundams back in boxes since "00" ended. I was planning to get those line too but TF's had dominated by wallet since TF: Prime toyline was released. I had a few chances in the wild recently to get both SIEGE Megs and Prime and most of the deluxes and micromasters but passed on all execpt for Cog which I planned on installing for my Fort Max. SIEGE seems to be a really good line but like Wraith Prime, I just cannot justify $49.99 for a "leader class" that is technically a size of a Broadside Voyager. When Magnus was first introduced I was so excited but ended up getting a THF MP KO Magnus instead. For a few more dollars, I have an MP scale Magnus. I am expecting a Quietus very soon too so I might end up passing SIEGE line as a whole.....Until maybe SIEGE Galaxy Convoy arrives.
