Closed up Rodimus's trailer and rejigged my tftm/s3 display. Now everyone is a bit more visible.

 

Just saw this on the Twatters...

 

Was that a roll of the dice or did you do some serious blind bag squeezing?

 

Anyone else having a stinker with their orders and held up with shite companies like Evri? I’ve got 6 parcels in play from ShowZ/Gundamit and 2 should have been delivered now by Evri. No idea where the other 4 are somewhere between the seller and Chinese airports. It’s possible they are still on ShowZ premises. A couple of those have been in transit for 14 days despite not having left the ShowZ warehouse.

My MP Trailbreaker via Amazon Japan has managed to do the journey with DHL starting in Japan, on to Hong Kong, then to Germany and arriving in the UK and stopping at Ipswich this morning. I was in Ipswich earlier today. I don’t understand why DHL couldn’t get the parcel out today. Fair play to DHL in keeping the parcel moving but why stall right at the final hurdle. So now it will stay with them until Tuesday/Wednesday which will end up being longer than the time it has taken to do the scenic route from Japan:




I’m pissed off with Evri and want my pound of flesh out of those wankers. Really gutted that I could have received the Jinbao upscale kit v2 today and they have failed to deliver.

I think ShowZ/Gundamit need to review that arrangement they have with Evri.

Man-child me wants my plastic fix!  .

 

Literally the first one I picked up. I was just browsing while my S/O was grabbing some stuff in the homeware aisle and I felt the little antenna on the walkie talkie piece and immediately threw it in the trolley  

 

so far, FedEx wins the prize for worst shipping experience of the laat 5 years.

 

Try Bargain Max for Rodney.

 

I don't think DHL deliver on a Saturday, hence the issue there.
I had DPD deliver today (when Sat service wasn't paid for and I expected it Tuesday).
Evri are usually ok, but I think that's down to the local deliver network. My last parcel to be shipped through then took less then 24 hours (Disney store).
Yodel left my last parcel worth £200 on the doorstep and drove off, claiming it was delivered and signed for... (with a photo on the doorstep and the door closed!).
Royal Mail are just taking the mick. We had a Christmas card arrive yesterday posted at the beginning of December!

But this also arrived:



I first saw it in Disneyworld and passed it up (as it was £35!). For just over half that I am very happy! (yes it is the full opening intro to the 90's cartoon in comic book style)

 

Now that is some brass - er, gold neck!



The matching neck pleases me a ridiculous amount, though caveat emptor the more frictioned fists of SG mean he grips his Beetle-back TIGHT in car mode - good job they have the joints for eventually wiggling it off again for transformation.



I don't understand, chest closed just limits the bend to an angle where it looks like 'Bee/'Bug is sadly noting he has gained weight rather than actually looking down at something/one? What is the intent!

 

Cheers, just waiting to hear back from him if he wants it.

 

I would have thought they would have been a better company given the price for their service. I cannot recall the last time i had something come via them. Might have been something from BBTS at least 18 months ago.

I’ve not often had deliveries from DHL so thanks for clarifying that they don’t deliver on a Saturday. A Herculean effort by them to get the parcel over to the uk in quick time. A pity it was timed with the weekend and bank holiday meaning it will stay there until next week before going out for delivery.

I’ve had a similar experience with Yodel and also experienced them leaving a parcel down the drive way recently in the pouring rain. They never knocked or put with the neighbour. I would have preferred them to take away with them than leave to the elements. Annoyingly we were in the whole time. Bonkers!

I would agree with you on Evri being consistent but they lost their way towards the end of November. All went tits up for them and I’m sure they are making it a lot worse for themselves given their conduct to catch up involves lying and no intention to deliver parcels despite saying they did deliver the customers parcel. They have certainly spoiled Xmas for a number of people and wouldn’t surprise me if the same for NYE. The only positive I can take is that @bcm77 parcel that was in the possession of Evri from the 21st Nov to 30th Dec finally arrived at his house. All my ShowZ orders are coming via Evri and as I said I have two close to being in a similar situation to Brendan’s long delayed parcel and the other 6 at various stages between ShowZ warehouse and Shanghai airport. A couple of them have been in transit although haven’t moved for 14 days and a couple have gone 10 days. I’m more accommodating of ShowZ given their operation was hit hard by Covid.

Less said about Royal Mail. Their strike action has done damage on a number of levels. I’m doing my utmost to avoid them personally and from a business perspective.

Cool t-shirt that. Just need warmer weather to arrive.

 

@SJW,
DHL have a package for me as of yesterday so if all goes well I'm expecting it after the Bank Holiday.

Also,
T-shirts can be worn in all weathers  

 

I've got two at Heathrow. Not a clue who will be carrying them as they haven't got to that stage yet. To be honest I think they're toast.

I know Evri gets a bad rep. I know why. I've worked with people who came from Hermes with tales that would make your skin crawl and yet.. they're the only company who have never let me down with a delivery. Our local driver is a straight up hero who goes out of his way for you. My Navigant arrived from Show Z via Evri before Christmas.

 

Top 10 3P… with some significant cheating…
10… I’m going to cheat, and it’s a joint between Scifigure Aegopter and Caic, Toyseasy Ship and Dream Star Planes. All slightly complicated, but fantastic alt modes and good bot modes.
9. Monocrat Megatank. Took ages to get it, but it’s worth the wait. Big and gorgeous.
8. FH Energy’s Commander. Big. Bright. Silly. Fun. (BBSF)
7. DS Seekers - 3 seekers that look good in both modes for less than a single official MP? Excellent.
6. FH Pyro. Had him as a kid. Bright and fun. Will not be parting with him.
Cheating properly starts here…
5. TFC Satan bots. 4 so far… bbsf, nice transformations and they look good together.
4. XTB toy Menasor and G2 Menasor. Had the toys, love the g2 bbsf, so got both (minus one from the g2 set.) trailer is a bit of pain to transform, but the fact you can have Menasor posed with shells on and leave the bots out is a winner for me.
3. TFC Poseidon- just like Satan booths, it’s a big load of BBSF, and it’s impressive that the limb bots can all do bot/monster/arm/leg/weapon transformations. Plus it cost more or less the same as the takara version.
2. Moon Studio raiden. None of the QC issues I had with takara Shouki, lots of nice paint, transformations are pretty straightforward and it goes on Lego tracks. Excellent.
1. MMC G2 Bruticus. Big. Bright. Silly. Fun. Transformations are all nice and easy. It’s big and bright. I love love love it. I almost want a second set…

Getting 3P down to 10 was really hard…I tried to think about a mainline top ten… but there’s nothing that’s really stuck with me - I’d have to go through what I’ve ordered/what I haven’t sold, which isn’t a great sign.
Buzzworthy Blackarachnia and Black Zarak (x3 now..) are good? Victory Saber might be ok once/if I get QC issues sorted? Otherwise… eh…

 

Same with my local Evriman. He’s excellent. Makes you sick, doesn’t it?

 

Top of the Bots 2022

Honourable mentions:

• Victory Saber - only just too late to get in on the list, but compounded by being something of a slow burner. To Vic's chagrin, he appeared in that hinterland where he's too late for the 2022 list, too early for 2023. Expect the same for Derek Saurus next year. Still, I have a strong feeling that this is going to be one of the greats... once I get some goddamn pledge on that floppy antenna.
• Legacy Armada Starscream / Hot Shot - again, too late to make the cut. But even in these early days they're impressive, Hot Shot especially. There's something genuinely exciting about them that, say, Pointblank lacks. But then maybe Pointblank will grow on me as well.
• Combiner Wars First Aid - from TFN, very good value (the seller was apologetic for not having a HFG to go with him - oh nooooo), and all the more irritating that it's taken this long to get one. Honestly, he's shot to the top of the list of CW moulds, surpassing even Dead End and his siblings. Just a perfect little guy.
• 2007 Movie Longarm - lad
• Animated Blackarachnia - lad-y

And onto the top two...

#2: Cybertron Evac



Oh how I love thee, let me count the ways... Actually I had to check that I got Evac this year, and yep, a January purchase (and very good value too). Dear christ is Evac a good lad. It's great to have such a standout toy with a non-military helicopter mode, and turning into such a gentleman of a robot just adds to his accomplishments. Like SG Magnus, Evac manages to hold two identities at once for me, the other one being a grown-up Bigromaster (like Micromaster but big) version of Blazemaster. It kinda works, that Blazemaster would mature, get that chip off his shoulder and turn into a respectable leader who is keen to put his past behind him.

Also he's hot. No, no questions at this time.

#1: Energon Landmine



Just has to be.

I try to reserve the top spot for toys which aren't just high quality, but exciting. I felt that way about Rodimus last year as well, that picking the figure up immediately brings joy to my cold, shrivelled void of a heart. And Landmine certainly does that.

There's just something unrestrained about Landmine. He turns into an absolute juggernaut of a truck with a colossal battering ram of a plow at the front, a crane at the rear and a great big chunk of awesomeness in between. He turns into a decent enough robot, who then staples huge claws and a backpack onto himself so he can tear things to pieces. The term 'brute mode' never sat right for me with his wave-mate Bulkhead, who just got some extra kibble and looked awkward doing it. But Landmine becomes a brute in every sense. He will carve your turkey be smashing it to bits. He will sign your workplace leaving card by leaving no survivors or rubble standing more than 3'. He will perform your bar mitzvah respectfully and politely, then proceed to smash seven hells out of anyone who threatens to spoil your good times. He will look straight into the eye of Unicron and spit. He would flip the bird at Primus, except he only has two fingers on each hand. He'd just punch him instead.

This got weird.

Anyway, Landmine's a good toy and I like him.

 

Haha. I’d like to agree with that about t-shirts but @Loosecannon t-shirt would be wasted on me with the weather as it is. Give me sunshine and it would be worn with pride.

Graham our local Evri driver cannot be faulted. He’s been excellent. It’s their process of getting the parcels from Customs to the local depot and in the hands of the local driver that seem to be the problem. I’ve not had a parcel lost by them yet and I’ve had alot over the last 6 months given the output from JoyToy on the Warhammer line that I’m ordering from ShowZ. However two are close to potentially being AWOL. Fingers crossed.

 

Top 10 of 2022 in no particular order

TransArt Megatron

what else can be said, he is incredible in his size and stature with a transformation that apes the original with new engineering that finishes the Tyrannosaurus mode off nicely he is only let down by having to swap the tail between modes and his shoulder forward rotation being friction joint rather than ratchet, due to the construction it was unavoidable but a small flaw on a beautiful figure (as the TFNation bar saw with people gobsmacked at the sight)

TransArt Rattrap, sure I only opened him on Christmas day but he is incredibly clever in his transformation and just looks perfect to me, cheeky little scamp



Victory Saber,

Hasbro pulse, really good figures that were a hair away from perfection (Star Saber not being able to move his arm outwards into a crucifix hindering his swordsmanship and Holi still having crap hip ball joints are the only detractors on my copy fortunately

Legacy Inferno
The insane ant is here and worth the wait, possibly the best Predacon recreation piping Tarantulas to the post, just need to get him his proper gun



if going this year new release then Jhiaxus but if not I am going with the G1 Raiden KO I picked up from @glaug just a lovely little set of some brilliant Diaclone trains. Ironically I’ve never owned a G1 Devastator of any description but I don’t see how he could beat these locomotives. I like trains



I would say the G2 Motormouth I have on card but since he is unopened it doesn’t really seem fair

Honourable mentions

Pink Hot Rod, Deadend, Terrorsaur, Cosmos, Kingdom Red Alert, Tarantulas and Blaster

 

Evening all.

I've left it to the last, and I've still got six yearenders stuck enjoying the dubious hospitality of the Jubilee Mail Centre for distressed and wayward Robots but here's my 10. If I can remember 10.

10. Blue Blue Streak. I still hate the way he's built, and it's not a '22 mold. But it's an actual Blue Bluestreak. And he's gorgeous. So he's in. Let's hope his crappy plastic lasts the year out.

9. BW Inferno. I'll be honest, apart from his comedy value I never liked Mad Ant much, he was just too one-note in a Series that had almost too many well rounded, great characters. He suffered by all comparisons. And his original toy, and Scavenger TM "upgrade" were a bit underdone too to my liking. But this new version isn't - it's great. Pure, mental BW batshittery of the first order.

8. Road Ranger, or the Orange Pipes. Love the mold, and this is just "different" enough to hit my Red Shirt is Orange Shirt button.

7. Wrecker Springer. Cheating a bit on a figure that's three years old, but it's Springer and it's my list. He's in.

6. SS Sludge. There was a time when he would have been No.1 with a lot of bullets. Now........he could have been better, but he's just about good enough to stay in the complete-the-team game.

5. Armada Scream. Now this is cheating - my copy is still in Postal Jail Hell - but I have had a go on somebody else's and that was enough to tell me I like him a LOT more than I thought I would. And I'm one of those rare oddballs that don't give a shit about the "missing Minicon." Fight me, if you dare.

4. Laser Scourge. I was pretty indifferent on Laser Prime, something about him felt off, underdone. And I hate those shoulders. But going RID Scourge......that's more like it. Sometimes all a mold needs is a goth-over.

3. Jihaxius or whatever my autocorrect wants it to be. Again he's a marmite choice - love or hate, and I love it. Crappy alt, questionable colourscheme and glorious Robot. Plus I NEVER thought the mainline would go this Yaniger. Utterly 90s extreme done right.

2. Tarantulas. Would NOT have put money on this at all, but here we are. Following on beautifully in the tradition of the Transmetal Nutter being one of the best of the '90s, we get this almost perfect deluxe.
Take a bow you cackling psychedelic loon.


1. Motormaster/Menasor (or 4/5s of him)

I've got so many Stunticons you would have thought this would have been one of those Hole-in-head situations, but it's not. He/He and They are far from perfect (I can't even join in the Breakdown bashing as I don't bloody have him in hand yet) but this is Hastak doing what they do well - spectacularly. And I love it. Love wins.

Do one more Combiner next year please Hasbro and I'll stay in the game. Promise.

That's the year, I'm not even bothering with an Hon-mentions because.......I can't think of anything else.

It's been that sort of Year.

Have a good'un all. Or nearly all.

 

Have a very happy new year everyone.