Oh darn, I just got a message from RobotKingdom saying that my DA-80 has been returned to them due to COVID
I think we've all said that at one point or another. I know I did after I got BP IMS, then again after Gigantor, and again after V-Max, then after Drago and Ghoul...
Great work. I love the color touches. That's really going to help add depth and character to your setup. Thank you, sir. I'm going slow and I took several months just playing with what the MCB "kits" were capable of, testing the decal locations, etc. before I decided on a design for this floor. The left is going to change into a sort of briefing/debriefing area and the scaffold will most likely move into a repair bay, eventually, IF my order of more FEITE chairs ever gets here... (It's lost in the morass of Pitney-Bowes... Unfortunately, a lot of Chinese shipments go through them now and they are horrible at misplacing and delaying things, sometimes for months. )
I feel you on that one... I have several smaller shipments stuck in that bog, some from October and November. Most were bought on AliExpress or via other Chinese sellers. (I still fail to see how using a third-party that has to pay their own expenses just to divide and combine shipments is really that much cheaper for the seller... The business model is confusing when you consider the space required alone.) Thank goodness that none of my true Diaclone stuff has to go through them, so far. With some other toy lines, I'm not so lucky.
If you have the old Gigantor and you wanna switch parts like i did, feel free to ask for advices and i'll help you avoiding damages
Spent some of the morning playing with some Sky Jackets... Was playing around with an idea for one of my "Faux Comic Covers", so don't be surprised to see something similar in the future. Spoiler: As We're Semi-Off Topic for Thread TF Safari is fine, and the sets I order from them get here and they have fixed the one issue I had with several orders. Just know there will be a delay as they have to order these from creator, Feite Li, who only sells via online Chinese/Hong Kong market places, before they can send to you. (They are basically serving as a proxy...) The ones I am worried about, I ordered via AliExpress and have been floating since November. Ordered these there because they had access to pieces from FEITE that TF Safari did not.
I've moved the goal posts a few times... May I never go passed the 849.99 + 68 (sales tax). That was for HasLab Unicron. I've had some purchases in between such as SOC DX Voltez V, Super 7 snake Mountain, and Blitzway Voltron (at least TCP allows me to pay in installments for that).
Personally my threshold for the most I'll spend on a collectible is 500$, with Gigantor being the closest I've come to that. Ideally, if we do get a new GRB, it'll be broken up and each piece will do enough that I can justify them as seperate purchases.
Well, i bought the old one exactly one year ago because he was the closest thing we got to a Diaclone Grimlock, and i bought the new one ONLY to get a red and gold Gigantor... I honestly didn't care about having two, and i couldn't spend so much money (i still have to pay pretty much the same amount of € i spent on this for two copies of the TF/JP crossover, a Blackarachnia replacement because i'm gonna use the spider legs of my copy to fix an old Tripredacus, and two copies of the gridman powered suits). Yet, i couldn't miss the chance to fix his goddamn colors. I had to spend two months eating on a 20€ weekly budget and smoking the cheapest rolling tobacco possible in order to get it, but i don't regret it at all. I mean, look at him... Isn't he glorious?
I think that head looks better in its original colors, not as much with the new colors. Demon mode is excellent and if you ever have an opportunity to get the original Gigantor plus a couple of Warudaros Soldier Types (the dark version) they make a great trio. Not to encourage you... Just checked and this definitely doesn't work. The mystery port remains a mystery!
To each their own. Comparing Ripper to Solider I don't think Soldier should be as expensive as it is... but I've settled it comes down to part count. The legs on solider have a ridiculous part count (but they're also ridiculously awesome). Part of Gigantor's price is the mass. He's arguably more solid than BP. I think the bitter-sweet thing that's plagued the waruders from the beginning (maybe besides the OG suits) was that they're more-or-less a mixture of a parts kit and 'sort of a critter'. I loved my original Gigantor and I still need to ship the new one... What got me to cave on the new one besides digging the Dragonzord-esque colors was the new parts (second sword/arachno-whatever). I think in some ways playing with Solider first has tarnished Gigantor a bit- still get the basic premise of humanoid waruder unit with articulation... but at a 4th-ish the price and a 4th-ish the size. I still have tried the arm mode... but I'm very mixed based on pictures. it's functional... but funky proportions. I do agree that Ghoul Head/Pod Bunker could have been a bit more interesting, but he'd have had less stability and been even more expensive if the legs transformed into something. One thing I do recommend with the ant heads is flipping the shoulder/bicep around, so the round part is connected to the thorax (?). The ant heads themselves have a bunch of really fun combo abilities with all the older sets. Makes me wish there was a two-pack release @ $100 (ideally less- but that seems to be the new price). Also, if you don't have any of the old suits (being re-released with Mega Grappler) they'll open up a lot of play patterns among the entire waruder line. I'm.... not sure I've ever used that.... is it used the land train configuration (rolling fortress- or whatever they call it)?
***sorry for the double post but this felt separate enough with it's own list of quotes*** My first-time moving goal posts with collecting has certainly been with the MP Transformer line. I think that's why i'm trying really hard to pretend that MP Raiden project doesn't exist. Told myself that Prime and Megs were going to be the last of the big purchases. Unicron I still feel is a special case of being a crown jewel for pretty much any TF collector out there. Mine's still in box... and i still debate if he's worth the $1200-ish he's going for now. Part of that is also the fact that I missed out on the HasCon Unicron companion pack. I feel they did Haslab backers dirty there not offering a first dibs. anyway back to diaclone I almost feel like diaclone is more a case of a death of a thousand (not-so-tiny cuts). I started off with Gamma (x6) and a Delta and Buffalo telling myself, 'eh a couple $200' isn't too bad to 'take a look'. At the time BP Destroyer hadn't come out yet, and then that was going to be the pinnacle of 'okay I've checked everything out'. But then the waruder stuff started hitting, one really needs about 4 suits (two of each if you have occasional OCD tendencies). Diaclone has definitely felt like a snowball that's turned into an avalanche. I do think that V-Max/Gigantor is probably going to be the ceiling; perhaps i'm misremembering but I thought the designers said they were a bit nervous about the price for [V-Max] Convoy for a long time because they 'wanted to do it right'. I will say in general diaclone has brought me more moment, to moment, joy than most of my other collections. Transformers have definitely been a once you've fiddled with a bit or can transform it with your eye's closed (exaggerating- a little) they mostly sit on a shelf. But the Diaclone (especially the raid chambers) make good little travel buddies. I'm excited to see where we're heading in 2022... and I've got to expect we'll start to see at least more musing and mock-up of GRB. I guess if there's one thing, I have to appreciate between the TriVERS and the Tactical lines, by-and-large they were self-contained with in their gimmick (so far).
Wading into this Ripper vs Soldier comparison: while soldier looks better, I think that Ripper is the better Waruder unit. The whole idea of Waruders is that they are a configurable army with a wild mixture of different forms. On that front, the Ripper opens up a lot more options with the various parts. The Soldier is a better looking unit on its own but essentially there are only 3 big parts to it… the legs, torso and inner core and limits the integration with the rest of the Waruder army. Anyway, both are great units.
Sorry to jump topic, but just stumbled on this YouTube Diaclone stop motion channel. The guy only has a few hundred views, but obviously put lots of work and humor into it. Check it out and maybe give the guy some views/likes!
