Good luck!

 

@Skywarp SCS good luck with the promotion interview.

 

Hi guys, not sure if this has already been noted but anyone that wants the TFCon 2019 MMC R-41 Ultio (Senator Ratbat)can preorder it at Kapow toys for under £80! The listing went up today  

Mastermind Creations R-41 Ultio TFCon 2019 Exclusive - Kapow Toys

Ugh, beautiful aesthetic. Badly want Generations to plunge their foot in the UT designs rather than the toe.

 

@Skywarp SCS: best of luck with the interview!!

 

I just thought I'd drop in here to ask this rather than clutter the sightings thread with this question.

Now I've noticed some of the Later wave (Terrorcons) are on some of the outlet stores for around £14.99 each and that some of the 1st Wave is in Home Bargains for £9.99 each - and that TJ Hughes and some Toymasters have wave one The Last Knigt deluxes for £12.99-£14.99.

So what I got wondering is - has anyone spotted anything that was a size other than Deluxe in POTP or Movie stuff in a clearance place. say some Voyagers. also has anyone seen any cheap earlier Cyberverse floating about anywhere ?

I'm trying to get a feel for where to look for what. Since I have some hideous gaps in both my The Last Knight and POTP collections that I'd like to fill.

I've been wondering did B&M's Toy buyer really only get Authentics in - for example ?

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I bet that Overwatch set has a lot of pieces that would make one heck of a base for a lego Cosmos custom build.
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As for Leg fillers I like most of them and if your a person planning to get both the Autobot and Decepticon Impactor then having different leg fillers is a way to distinguish them.

I personally ordered the ones that come with the extra connectors as I thought I'd be able to lend those to the Brunt Moulds to aid in their use of additional accessories.
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Also I asked before but I don't know if I get a reply but I was asking about Effects parts on ebay as I know some people use them on here - I think they are supposed to be for Figma figures - but i've seen wildly varying prices and I was looking for some buying advice if anyone has any.

Ta.

 

gah - that has been the bane of my employment history - do the work of a senior manager, get paid a clerical fee - bloody infuriating...

 

Good luck, man!

So, I have to admit I was somewhat surprised to see the about of pm's i received yesterday, remonstrating that I'd not given any attention to the accessories that came with this year's Titan, Countdown.

While I'm more than happy to apologise, I do feel some members of the community have let themselves down, with what I can only describe as some very bad vitriol. I'd thank these members to refrain from making further remarks about my mother, or any other member of my family.

Drawing a line under the whole, rather unpleasant, experience I now present to you a hastily prepared ramble on *checks notes* Omega Supreme.

So I never really got Omega Supreme.

Of all the non-Takara derived '85 Transformers he was the one that seemed to make...well, the least sense as a Transformer. Jetfire. Nae bother. Shockwave. Sweet as a nut, mate. Whirl and Roadbuster. They're called 'deluxe' Autobots, so any quirks are perfectly legit. But Omega Supreme? He doesn't even turn into one thing. Like, if you count 'train tracks', then it's three things, and he just sort of falls apart to make them. Sorry man, that's too much for my six year old head to accept. Omega Supreme is such a wrong 'un that you might as well call him Rolf Harris.

It didn't help that he was a total charisma vacuum in the comics. I remember the issues of the UK comics where he was introduced. They were the issues that made me commit to having an actual subscription at the newsagent. I'd gone on holiday and missed these issues, thinking I'd just be able to get them at the Cypriot version of R.S.McColls or something. When I got home and didn't find them dutifully sitting around on the newsagent shelves, I ran round my friend's house to read their copies. Dull. Dull, dull, dull, dull. The stuff with Skids scratching a car and Bumblebee taking photos of Devastator were more interesting than the supposed main event; the introduction of a really big Transformer who drones on about how powerful he is with all the drama of a Dyson commercial while blowing up a bunch of 'Cons in such an un-dynamic manner that it didn't really register that I was reading a bunch of death scenes. It was hard not to come to the conclusion that Bob just didn't know what to do with a character this big and powerful. And, judging from Omega's egregious absence from Target:2006, I don't think Simon Furman had much better of an idea.

So, unlike the rest of the much coveted 'not available in Blighty' range, I had no burning urge to get my hands on Omega Supreme. Sure, a passing curiosity, but nothing that vexed me as much as Swoop, Blaster, Fort Max or the Predacons.

However, come 2013 and my renewed interest in collecting G1 figures, he wound up being one of the first ones I got. Alas, for no better reason than the Encore reissue was going at a good price.

So it was a pleasant surprise when I discovered what a great figure Omega Supreme was. Much, much smaller than I'd always imagined, but still great. The robot mode was weird, and if I'm being totally frank, felt more like something from Gobots than my beloved Transformers. But just not in a bad way. He's a big dorky looking robot with a claw for one hand and a ray gun for the other. His proportions are all over the place and he doesn't walk, he rolls! I can't even imagine how I'd have played with him as a kid. He just doesn't feel like you can put him up against the Decepticons. I never had this issue putting the Dinobots against the Insecticons.

It's the alt mode where he comes alive. And where he starts to make the most sense as a Transformer toy.

Maybe he's not the greatest, but he's the first 'bot with a base mode (No, Optimus and his trailer do not count). I remember at the end of 2013, when I'd got Omega, Metroplex, and all four of the 'Special Teams', feeling a visceral surge of joy when I started to build the start of a Cybertronian settlement, populated by Minibots and combiner limbs.

"Where do Blast Off and Brawl go?"

"By Omega's launch pad, silly!"

I mean, don't get me wrong. He's still a weird component of a city, but only through adult eyes. Of course you'd have a rocket base surrounded by train tracks that a little tank rolled round. It's a joyous play pattern.

The transformation is...fucking weird. I still remember doing a double take as I took his legs apart and realising they formed multiple, unconnected parts of the base. Oddly though, it's a very well designed and intuitive transformation. Before writing this I hadn't actually transformed Omega for a few years and I was worried I'd spend ages trying to remember how it all went. No such worry. This was conceived to be something that a kid wouldn't struggle with. There's a deeply satisfying logic to it all.

And as my Cybertronian settlement began to grow, with the addition of Scorponok, Powermaster Optimus Prime, Fortress Maximus, Trypticon, and Overlord, inevitably it wound up incorporating those Micromaster bases.

And of all the Micromaster bases, Countdown's 'Rocket Base' was the cream of the crop. A massive thing and the inevitable centrepiece of any Micromaster city. And the serendipity of both Countdown and Omega having a rocket component, the arrival of Micromasters in the Generations line, and Omega reaching the front of the Titan queue was just too much for the Hasbro design crew to pass on.

Of course a few (I don't want to say many. I'd feel like I was overestimating) of us looked at the prominent featured Ark, launching in the background of the Siege promotional art work and reached the 2+2=5 conclusion that in a loving tribute to 'Transformers: Animated' Omega Supreme was going to transform into the Ark. Oh well. Can't be right all the time.

Now, Omega had a significant change from the earlier prototypes photos we saw and the final product. Somewhere along the line his hips got changed due to failing the 'drop test'. It's a bit of a pity, a)because the original design was a lot more elegant and shapely, and b) it meant release was delayed by some months. I'm used to getting my Titans around July, and this guy didn't arrive until October.

As soon as I got him out of the box Omega impressed me. For one, he was play ready in ways that none of his predecessors were. No assemblage. No stickers. No fiddling at all. Cut the plastic ties, slip his 'wings' in and you're away. Then secondly, this lad was ungodly poseable. Of our citybot Titans Omega is easily the best 'action figure'. Whatever work they had to do on those hips was worth it just to be able to get him stand so dynamically (if that's not a massive contradiction), not to mention the satisfying interaction that ridiculously well articulated claw gives with your other figures (crush a Seeker between those claws, if you're on the fence about this). Within minutes I was unhesitatingly proclaiming Omega to be the best Titan yet. And I think I stand by that. No mean feat considering he's still a total charisma vacuum.

Which is as neat a segue way as I'm going to find into talking about what frustrates about the 'bot. Weirdly, at least to my eye, they've stuck very true to the sort of glaikit expression that defined what little of the guy I've seen in the cartoon. Of course I understand; he's had his emotions scrubbed so he's not going to smile, but I don't count determination as an emotion and furrowed brow denoting focus would make the figure that bit more handsome than the slack jawed expression we get. Hr really looks like he's trying to remember if he unplugged his hair straighteners.

And then there's the proportions. You don't really notice until you take a step back and really look at the guy, but those legs are RRRRREALLY long. Like, at first I thought his arms were stumpy. But then I looked at his torso and figured that they were actually in proportion. That extra length the hips and pelvis provide almost demand shorter thighs. But hey, if this is the cost of making the guy so beautifully articulated and well balanced, I'll take it.

The transformation to base mode is refreshingly easy while still being pretty clever. But Christ, moving those thighs into the correct position tests your nerves. With each ratchet I was waiting for something to crack and explode. There's two things that really jumped out about the transformation, namely the way the rocket doesn't split into two parts, but rather forms the 'shoulder blades' and arms of the figure, and the neatness of how the wings fold out into the tracks and how those tracks are so well elevated above the ground. Very clever!

But despite that cleverness, there's something about the base mode that leaves me cold. Perhaps it's the feeling that the 'base' component (as opposed to the tank or rocket components) feels more like the centre of the whole thing, which was never the case with the original. At least in my eyes. And this 'centre' is kind of bland. so for it to overshadow the tank and the rocket kinda sux.

But that's no sleight on either of those other two parts. The tank is a solid little unit and trundles along quite merrily, though not too smoothly on the tracks. I must admit I was a little disappointed that the turret couldn't rotate, but I get it. And the rocket feels like a near perfect mash up of Countdown's prototype rocket and Omega Supreme's original rocket, not least for the opportunity it provides to hide Countdown in there. Just, uh, remember to get him out before you change modes.

Last year I was wondering, somewhat naively, if we were even going to get a Titan in 2019. Predaking seemed like such a consummate effort and with all the noise made around Fort Max and Trypticon winding up in discount in so many retail outlets, that the possibility didn't seem to out there. But here we are, with an even better and more sophisticated figure than we've seen before. And, as fun as Omega Supreme is I'm actually more excited about what he portends. If Scorponok, most definitely not a charisma vacuum, is going to half as good as this guy then we're in for the Titan to end all Titans. I cannae wait!

 

@barry Another excellent nostalgia trip back to the Future, Mister B!

Seems I've been stewing over what makes the blue-handed Earthrise OP pics so Sus in the back of my mind, and it suddenly popped up from the ol' brain recesses this morning - there's no snaps of him actually holding his rifle!
The very action that often proves the undoing of even the sleekest paint job when it comes to clearance tolerances. I raise my eyebrow a little higher and take a step nearer my skeptical boardmates.

 

The more I look at that chest plate there the more I'm convinced that that bit at least is intended as a pretool for Scorponok. Does it open, Comrade Baz?

 

Cheers Chris! All positive feedback is nice, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't sweeter when it comes from a respected peer. From Yorkshire.

WUT OH!!! Yeah, that's gonna be one to watch out for.

It's kind of mad. This figure shouldn't be so contentious. Am I naive for thinking 'do Prime right' is a straight forward goal?

Yer lad's abs flip open, but only to release the tank which makes up the rest of the chest. The upper section with his Autobot insignia flips up, but just to allow the head to hide and the turret to go in place. You thinking the clear transparent section is going to form the cover to Scorponok's tech spec?

Having hand a good 'in hand' sesh with Omega, I think he's his own thing, and unlikely to be retooled into Scorps. For the record, I'm equally sceptical that there'd be any degree of reuse from Trypticon to Scorponok. An idea I've seen frequently mooted. Fort Max from Metroplex was the outlier, it would seem, and Titans are going to be unique molds. At least for the foreseeable future.

 

Awesome read. Also is it weird that the first record I look for when I see anyone's record collection is 1000 Hurts by Shellac. That bastard stands out anywhere!

My Encore OS has been in his box for so long I've thought about selling him. I have the Fanstoys version which beats it in almost every way - with the ease of the transformation being the one obvious exception.

Like you said, never had him as a kid but always wanted one!

 

Is it too cynical of me to suspect that the makers of Transformers are highly aware of not killing their goose by making sure to leave the wiggle room to every so often produce new, better golden eggs instead of providing a lifetime guaranteed perfect egg out the gate?
My first thought when the rather G1 toyetic look of ER OP was, "Okay, 'Toon correct edition coming soon."
Grey hands cemented that.
I mean I'm still up for him either way, the more I see of him the more he seems my ideal Prime, a veritable Masterpiece in the Mainline but, as @Napalm has stated elsewhere, there's the great chance we are being played like fiddles by Has/Tak because this foment of speculation is prime Brand Engagement™️, innit?
It seems we have them right where they want us!

 

MMC Kultur and MakeToys Rioter Despotron. Think they look good together despite the different aesthetics.

 

Well folks! How's things? Somehow it's been nearly a month since I checked in here....

All been pretty much quiet on the TF buying front for me for the last while. Got FT Blurr though which is pretty nice but not attempted the, by all accounts, unfun transformation yet.
My monies have been diverted to totally getting immersed in Marvel Legends X-Men figures. I blame @scubaboy31 for this.... You know what you did Dan!!!!  

Still been cracking out the photshop images, no idea what I last posted in here so here's the last few that i'd posted on Instagram/Twitter/FB

The Unicron one goes against my normal method for these of only using pics taken by me or asked for from others, as the Unicron pic is from the Hasbro Pulse site. But as I have the beast of a figure on order I thought I'd go ahead and use it anyway as i'll never be able to fit it in a lightbox!

Transformers UK Comic 320 - FULL HD by Kevin Gorman, on Flickr

Transformers UK Comic 210 - FULL HD by Kevin Gorman, on Flickr

Transformers UK Comic 160 - FULL HDa by Kevin Gorman, on Flickr

Transformers UK Comic 266 HD by Kevin Gorman, on Flickr

85 Cat by Kevin Gorman, on Flickr


sw1 by Kevin Gorman, on Flickr

 

So jealous! So much wants, not enough time or money!!! lol

Amazing job lad! as Kup would say

 

Sales
POTP Prime - £35
Grapple - £10
Silverbolt - £5
Blitzwing - £5
Cliffy is free if you buy 3
Lot for £50
P&P - £4

 

Cheers Steve! And no, it's not weird at all. That awesome sleeve design just begs it, really. I remember going to get it from Jumbo in Leeds one overcast morning in the year 2000.

Is it weird I'm gutted that no-one's high fived me for the Sun City Girls records?

No, not at all. Since seeing the first pictures of that lad I've been talking about how the last thing Hasbro want to do is make the 'perfect' Optimus. I mean, the thought has always been there. You don't want to make the perfect...well, anyone really. Even an obscure figure like Topspin, who I honestly can't imagine getting another pass anytime soon, is compromised by the Headmaster gimmick. It's just never felt so blatant before! I almost miss the days of getting a pretool of Octane or Motormaster as my Optimus option. It almost felt more honest.

Reflector
Function: Reconnaissance
"See and you can know, know and you can destroy."

 

"DRIVE ME CLOSER! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD!"

 

Also...
WAVE POUNDER IS BACK!
good to see you Kev! Loving the new stuff, but particularly the '85 catalogue recreation (or as I know it, the cover of the 'Arrival from Cybertron' Betamax video).

 

After being drenched by a passing car from head to toe (arsehole didn’t slow down or stop to apologise and too far away to get a picture of his number plate on his shitty red POC!) paying customs fees & picking him up, let’s home this good doctor can help cheer me up