Yep
£479.99 on omegalock (not sure how much postage will add) Diaclone DA-95 Robot Base (Ground Dion)
And currently £474ish on amazon japan, with a small chance of either the exchange rate getting better or shipping getting cheaper (shipping had gone up quite a lot since it was first listed there) both could get worse, though - https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/aw/d/B0BCVKZFRL/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=AN1VRQENFRJN5&psc=1

 

Just £7.50 on top of the product price with Omegalock:

 

Oh, Prowl. You and Ratchet were, without a shadow of a doubt, my favourite TFA characters. I still can’t watch ‘Endgame Part II’ without feeling a little over come with emotion.

But man, they had to work to make me love him. In his first appearances Prowl was set up as a totally arrogant bellend. The disdain he felt for the rest of ‘Team Optimus’ couldn’t have been stated more clearly in ‘Transform and Roll Out’, and naturally his refusal to be a team player caused more problems than his skill set would solve.

But he grew as a character quickly. Early on we get his love and respect for nature. Then we understood his guilt and his inadequacies, beautifully illustrated by Jazz simply observing that the resident ‘Cyber-Ninja’ hot shot hadn’t actually completed his training. And then, of course, we see him at his noblest. That melancholy smile, man…where they simply flip his shades. I may be tearing up already. Beautiful, beautiful story telling.

I’ve already written about my affection for Transformers Animated, so I won’t start gushing about all the things I loved about the cartoon and the toy line. Suffice to say, I loved the smart storytelling and the inspired character designs. And Prowl is one of my favourite character designs. But first let me take you back to January 1988 and 2000ad ‘prog’ 555.

I’d started getting 2000ad regularly some months before, but as I get this comic, just after the Christmas where I got Scorponok, my brain is blown all over the place by Simon Bisley’s work on A.B.C. Warriors. It was astonishing. 2000ad was full of brilliant artwork back then, but I really don’t think I’d ever seen anything as beautiful, intense, innovative, or well constructed as Bisley’s work on that strip. I pulled out some old issues to look at it and went straight down the rabbit hole. For many people it’s Bisley’s painted work that stands as his peak, but I’ll always love these monochrome strips, with the impossibly heavy black inks.

And my favourite, and possibly Bisley’s favourite character was Joe Pineapples. To the eyes of nine year old, Joe was incredibly cool. A lethal assassin of few words but great style, with a long angular chin and some pointy edged shades. And Derrick J Wyatt, Prowl’s designer, is on record as being influenced by Bisley’s A.B.C. Warriors. My mind was a little blown upon discovering this. Someone had fused my two mid to late 80’s obsessions. Sometimes I almost think TFA was made with me in mind.

Like so many other characters, TFA Prowl’s figure comes as close to looking like he’s stepped right off the screen as it’s probably possible to get. They’ve leant into everything that’s distinctive about the head design. The chin is massive, the shades are pointy, and the mouth is cut an angle that highlights his aloof nature. It’s wonderful. His body and limbs are long and sleek, with his thighs being absolutely tiny! I love how big and chunky his boots are and seeing the wheels sit so well and prominently is a joy. It’s the sort of thing that probably only makes sense on a Transformer and I’m so glad to see such a thing be embraced. I think my only complaint about this guy is his tiny, insubstantial pelvis. It looks incomplete. Which is such a shame for such a well considered figure.

The bike mode is possibly one of the finest and tightest examples of this notoriously difficult alt mode. It has gaps, but the gaps are designed in such a way as to look like they’re part of the bike. For example his lower abdomen, which sits in the middle of the significant gap, has been designed to look an engine. An engine where some ventilation might be desirable. And that speaks to the amount of thought that’s gone into the design of this bike mode. The arms links tightly around the curve of his lower back to make a seat where all the bot mode kibble is incredibly well integrated. To be honest, the only real bot mode kibble that catches my eye is some fingers and thumbs peaking out behind the read of the bike.

I was both very excited and a little nervous when I saw the first rumours that we’d be getting a Generations take on TFA Prowl. In Legacy we’d seen some…sub-optimal takes on the Prime characters (along with some excellent takes on Beast Wars characters) and the creeping dread that they might fuck up something so dear to me was palpable. But then so was the excitement that they might do it some serious justice. I’m won’t drag it out; Legacy Prowl is a very respectable take on the character.

I should start by acknowledging that G1-ififcation of the guy. Of course all the most stylised extremities of the original design have been smoothed out. The super slender limbs, with their exaggerated length, and – most challengingly for me – the spikey shades and the big long chin, have all been made to look for more ‘normal’. But I look at this toy and all I see is love, commitment and effort. I feel like the design team have tried to honour as much as they can from the original design while making it fit well with the rest of the line. And I think they’ve done a great job.

The headsculpt is lovely. He’s still got a chin that’s much longer than your typical Generations guy, but even with all his sharp edges rolled off it’s still very much yer TFA Prowl. While the thighs are far thicker, they actually evoke the pants of a highway patrol cop a lot better than the original. In fact, his entire pelvis is quite an improvement over the original.

There’s some glaring QC issues on the paint apps. Mine’s…passable, with tiny streaks of gold pain and blue paint on his helmet, but I’ve seen some people with massive smears from his goggles. The inner wheels on his calves also seem to have suffered from a bit of over spray. It’s kinda sad, because the paint decos on this guy are lovely. The gold stripes on his shoulders and forearms really ‘pop’ and I love they’ve taken the care to give his ‘ears’ a little gold highlight.

One of the areas where they’ve really gone above and beyond is the articulation. Prowl has all the leg articulation and poseability that you’d expect from a Cyber-Ninja, and he also has the stability to support a number of high kicking one legged poses. I’m not sure I can think of another Generations figure that can rock a one legged pose so confidently. He’s even got a little ab crunch.

I swear that it’s not just my deteriorating eyesight (I just got new glasses); these fucking instructions are getting harder and harder to see, never mind read clearly. Is the ink really that expensive?

The bike is far weaker than the ‘bot mode. It’s got plenty of nice touches, and it’s a handsome bike in many ways, though I’m not convinced that making the windshield rounder was a great choice. But however nice it might look, the massive gaps in places are impossible to ignore. And they’re visible from nearly every angle. When I look from above there’s a gap behind the seat. From either side I’ve got a choice of four gaps to pick from, one of which looks big enough to get Starsaber’s Brainmaster through. And then we’ve got some visible bot head behind his windshield, even when you push it all the way forward. Urk! In it’s defense, it does manage to hide the fingers and thumbs in a much tighter way, with the back of the hands forming a rear light.

There’s rumours of more TFA stuff coming down the line. From what I’ve seen we’re due to get some of the more predictable characters. While I’m still excited to get new versions of Optimus or Bumblebee, I’d be rrrrrrreally excited to see some of the more far out characters, like Oilslick, Lugnut, or Lockdown (say, that Junkion car sure looks a lot like…)

 

Seems like we’re in the same boat in 2 ways! I got smashed by a bug on Sunday, pretty scary stuff. Pulling through now though, just about!

My BBB Parkour is in the same shipment as yours, and I don’t recall seeing that delay before but it doesn’t look to have delayed it much. Might even be out today…?

 

The recent chat about Diaclone DA-95 Robot Base, AKA Diaclone ‘Trousers’, has rekindled a longing. However, perhaps for the better, I don’t think it can be justified

Also, is it outrageous Omegalock want £7.50 P&P for domestic shipping on a £480 figure?

 

Coming to a theatre near you in *checks notes*...summer 1988.

Fuck I'm old.

 

A1!

Animated Prowl influenced by JP, that makes sense! Bisley ABC Warriors = top Bisley for me too. Got the collected edition and it gets re-read regularly.

Am now picturing Prowl with one foot on a decapitated kneeling android corpse, calmly aiming a sniper rifle. He'd do it you know.

Now, somebody post Nemesis' nose.  

 

RE: Ground Dion, I hate, HATE telling people what to do, even jokingly but if you don't get it now it will cost an absolute fortune later, Diaclone has had a big surge in popularity with Battle Convoy/Great Robot Base project and now prices are escalating for every single thing in the line.

With that, here are the first package pictures, it's done and will be officially released on Saturday.  


Make space in your storage facility!

Callouts for days!

By land or by sofa it is coming!

Free plastic garage included to justify insane cost!

 

ID are getting SS Scourge in today but can't ship him until the street date of April 10th.

No wonder I sharded it  

 

£480? And I thought Iron Factory was expensive! (Except when someone (or someone’s mum) labels a job lot ‘small Transformers’ on eBay and you get five toys you didn’t have for £63).

@barry Young me also thought Joe Pineapples was Jack the Biscuit (that was long before Bisley, though). I used to make him out of Lego repeatedly.

Bisley-wise it’s always his work on Sláine that sticks in my mind…

 

I only bought/kept three Animated figures: Blurr, Roddy and Prowl. I have never been able to appreciate what everyone else seems to have been able to about Animated - whipcrack smart show and very well realised toys - because much like the Bayverse I just couldn't "cope" with the aesthetic.

To be fair to Animated I think I was more a reaction to "oh Gawd not another one....." In relation to EVERYTHING going Bruce Timm and Teen Titans Go!

But something about Prowl did appeal. Also his design seemed like he was more Jazz than Jazz with that facial expression. So I was a bit disappointed when this Legacy version was revealed and he was now a dumpy, squat-legs rather than the Louche, rangy design he should have been. But that's just me. And I'll get one when going cheap just to transplant the head (that I like) on a spare Animated body.

Now somebody tell me they head won't fit.

 

Someone in the Sightings thread has just had Kapow ship Scourge, so not sure whats going on here.

 

Initially I was wondering what impact I had on Animated Prowl till realisation dawned….

 

He told me he always liked your style.

 

Newage Artfire arrived yesterday but I've not had time to do anything but have a brief look at the alt mode due to being distracted by something way more important,

Rebecca by Brendan Mitchell, on Flickr
RIP Rebecca ferret 2015-23     

Over the past few weeks she'd lost a lot of weight and then over the weekend lost the use of one of her legs and was clearly struggling so with her being up there in age there was only one option left so she took her final journey this morning.

To her credit she made sure she got a last bite in and the vet copped it!  

 

fuck.

Brendan mate, I'm so sorry. She was a wee legend. We'll miss hearing about her antics.

 

Hasbro UK never enforce the street dates so so e stores just send them.

 

Here's me hoping that the GE WFC stuff comes in ASAP just to get it over with, can never trust any of the dates Hasbro put out atm