There was some guy who came around here claiming he wanted to own every single produced G1 someone. Skywarp I think? His goal was, literally, to buy every one of them that ever existed. Even the junkers. That right there is crazy no matter how you slice it.

I picked up Bumblebee yesterday. I figure if any figure can make me stop picking up Animated, it'll be that one. It's ugly even in the package. But, I'll probably transform him and decide he's awesome anyway. I'm doomed to collect forever.

I think I'm now at the point where I'm trying to convince myself Animated is the last line I collect. So I give it two months before I give up this one a week pretense and just go insane and buy everything I see.

Nice side-effect of this one a week thing is that, not buying them all the first time I see them? There's always something at the store I want to pick up. So there's no wasted trips franticly searching for something I don't have. At least, not yet.

That Nemmy Prime is hot. Though I still keep wondering why, Scourge/Black Convoy set off this black-prime repaint trend, yet, he's really not all that black in bot mode. He's mostly varying shades of grey. And we really haven't seen that happen again.

Actually complete collection of Sunstreaker toys doesn't sound bad at all :lol I remember seeing someone collecting Giraffe bots and he had less than 5. Sounds like a much less stressful collecting than buying every Convoy figure....

Someone told me about a shop owner he knew who collected gorilla Convoy figures, and he apparently wasn't only collecting the moulds but in numbers as well. He had been buying every gorilla Convoy figures he came across. Obviously he stopped now as I don't see one bidder raiding every gorilla Convoy auctions in yahoo jp.

Wasn't there someone like that on eBay? Buying all auctions of a certain figure?

TFA toys are advertising on tv, so I am assuming it'll be on air soon. Might be on already on cable, though, as we initially heard of June start or thereabouts.

As for the Classics, thanks to Nemesis Prime, my Prime figure is saved from "To Go" box. I'm a bit like that, when I get a Black Convoy figure I want the respective good guy to complement him.
(I need G2 Hero Prime to go with my RiD D-con Scourge, but he's expensive :()

Dig all the way back and there were a few more boat Transformers. Starting with everybody's favorite garbler Seaspray. But, bleh.

And, while I'd love to have a Sunstreaker themed collection, there's been a total of four toys dedicated to him in twenty five years. And only one of those even comes close to being "good." Everybody has a Prime collection, so that's kind of been done to death. I like themes, I just can't pick a theme that I like that presents an actual challenge.

As far as your theory, Prowl is the "wise" Autobot, though in a weird way. He has no patience for the others, yet he's all about "stillness" and understanding and is fascinated with all things in Earth nature.

The new Classics just aren't working for me on any level. The empty bodies when seen from the side, the messed up articulation (SUNSTREAKER GETS SIDEWAYS KNEES AGAIN!), the bad faces, the weak vehicle modes. I want so much to like them like the first batch, but there's no appeal there.

I hate to sound like a whiny fanboy, but they took one of the best lines of all times (Classics 1.0) and really hosed it up. Sure, there are others saying how great they are, but I'm not seeing the appeal at all. They have no magic. It was more than just characters re-imagined the first time around. They had something special about them. They truly captured the character's essence. This time? I don't see it at all.

Are there that many boats? Scourge, *gap in the knowledge*, Tidal Wave(?), Shortround, Thunderblast...one of Land Cross combiner. That's all I know of.

But I love to see people's themed collection. I so much prefer those than "I have everything named Transformers" collections.

I'm glad my theory has some standing :lol I guess Prowl is the brain of the team in that case? I think other people have also said that he's the best bike TF. I still see him on the peg occasionally, really have to grab him before he goes, too....

Classics Prowl, on the other hand, looks worse in every photo I see. I am sure he has neat transformation and stuff, but I can't get over that face. Looks so weak :(

Eh, we all have our particular kinks when it comes to collecting. I went through a phase where I wanted every boat Transformer ever made. Thank goodness that one ended quickly.

The Chin thing in TFA? I like it for the most part, except for Starscream. For some reason, his really, really stands out. I do notice, however, that the smarter individuals have bigger chins, while the dumber ones have compressed heads altogether. So you may be on to something with that theory of yours.

I'm trying really hard to hold myself to just Animated this year. So far I've been lucky, in that the new Classics really look awful to me, and nothing else appealing is coming, except for Metroplex's encore. That I may have to get just because. Everything else? Meh.

Prowl's closeup is rather interesting. I still think he's a fine looking bloke :lol

I know everyone's sick of CHIN debate, but I always wonder if the length of the chin indicates the characters mental age in TFA? I'm half joking, and half serious!

My Nemesis Prime arrived today, it was only a matter of mixed up EMS number after all. There might be an American buyer who's freaking out that his package has gone to Australia....

I love this Nemesis Prime, but I am aware that I mostly wanted to add him to my elite Sweeps, was the reason I got him. Feeling quite stupid now, but I couldn't help myself.

I think Hasbro kind of set up the scalper market for a major windfall by holding the toys for six months past their production date. A lot of stores had them in stock for several weeks, if not months, prior to release date, and so it was easy for those so inclined to grab them early. The sad realities of adult collectors means that there are way too many folks willing to shell out the bucks, as much as a hundred spot for a ten dollar at retail toy, to get something a few weeks early.

I wasn't willing to do that myself.

The credits for the side-story Animated comic go - Marty Isenberg (w); Dario Brizuela (a); Alex Milne, Marcelo Matere (c). So, the colorists look familiar, and the writer. The main artist I don't recognize at all.

Prowl's up. I'm not real happy with that face shot, but couldn't seem to get it looking any better than that. Sloppy paint apps on some of these new toys. Very sloppy.

Yeah, lots of people seem to be getting toys before its official release, that's why I am so confused! This surge of pre-release, is TFA the first case? As far as I know of (which means since Energon) not this many people had toys before they are out.
If I know I could probably get it at retail, I'd never spend more just to get it early...but I don't blame those who do it, either. Not my money anyway, eh.

Having said that, I have bought SDCC Nemesis Prime, but I know I can't get it at retail so this is an exception, or so I've told myself. But after more than 5 days I still haven't got him, and according to the Chinese EMS page he's gone to America. A line from an old folk song is going round and round in my head.

I imagine TFA's cartoon style would look great in comic books :) I assume it's not drawn by known TF artists?

Looking forward to seeing Prowl gallery. I think I missed out the first wave of TFA toys in the area. I didn't see much, except for Bulkhead and Lockdown. All Primes, Starscreams and Bumblebees were gone.

TFW2005 has been crazy up and down today. I couldn't get to it at all most of the afternoon.

Leader Bulkhead isn't actually out that I'm aware of. However, people that are into Animated to the point of complete obsession have been snapping up everything they can get via eBay for months. I believe I saw the first review of Leader Bulkhead about a month and a half ago or so. He's not actually due for another month.

We're still sitting at wave one in town, and there are people out there that have everything up to wave four. Crazy.

Well, Animated sucked me into comics again too. I've pre-ordered the animated side-story comics. First comics I've bought since about three or four months before Dreamwave cashed it in. Hopefully they're as good as the cartoon. I've officially become an Animated Fiend.

Prowl should be up either tonight or tomorrow on my gallery. Hopefully. If not, I guess I'll have to hold myself to that no opening until Tuesday thing. Sundays always get crazy, and Mondays aren't much better.

and now I discover my first message is posted safely as well. Looks like I'm spamming your place :lol

Aaaaaaaargh

I have typed up a message and it didn't load :cry I normally copy and paste in a case like this, but this time I didn't :cry Can't type it all over again, will report back later. I'll copy this.

Wow the pages here at TFW just didn't load yesterday (my time)! Took me forever to get to Cool Stuff, then eternity until my post displayed. I think my F5 key is a bit thinner now.

Anyway, I tried the flash on my camera, but like you say it's built in and turned out exactly like you said. Not really my style.
At the end I turned the side lights off in my lightbox, and used the extra lamp to light the clear figure from slightly behind. Very shadowy, but better than melting into bright background...and the figure itself looks brighter than doing the same with a white figure I guess.

People have different style of humour indeed. Depending on the age, too, I guess. I seem to enjoy the humorous post by members in their 30s. But don't count on my take on humours, I'm so deadpan that people never think I'm joking. Or I make smartpants comment and upset people. I do it all the time :)

Regarding your gallery, it seems that my res isn't tall enough at 768, I'm not even able to scroll up and down :( Hopefully we'll score a bigger one soon.

Saw a review of Leader class Bulkhead. Is it out already? I'm so behind I have no idea what's going on. Most of the thread at the Toyark is a mystery to me....

Flash really only works for me if I can get either a big boot style flash (to lift it off the camera) or one that's completely separate from the camera body. Close-to-lense style flashes, like in normal digital cameras, just give too much white-out reflection.

I only look in the funnies once every few months. If I see something interesting, I subscribe. And while I don't mind the Shinki thing, I got out of them completely. Sold all of mine even. It was too difficult to find time to fiddle with them, and with four cats in the house you don't leave stuff that small laying around all the time. On top of that, there are a rather large number of funnies threads that aren't, well, good I guess. One of the reasons I always found it so hard to start my own. I MIGHT do OK. But then again, I might be one of those that other people think, "what the hell?"

RE: Your comments on my gallery pages:
There's no actual lock on window sizes, but the pictures are 800x800 with the window scaled to 810x810 or 820x820 (can't remember right off) so if your monitor is less than 800 tall you may not be able to see the bottom, therefore making it difficult to resize. You should be able to grab the maximize button and get a scrollbar along the side, but I only tested that with Internet Explorer and Firefox at low resolutions. Most of my monitors are over 1280 tall now, so I have a tough time testing low resolutions on Mac browsers and Linux browsers.

I'm still loving Bulkhead. Tomorrow is new toy day. Trying to determine if I'm going the route of a Voyager I'm wishy-washy on (Starscream), or getting Prowl for his general awesomeness of character. If I happen to see Grimlock though, all bets are off. He's at the top of my personal wants list.

I have seen some photos with black bg in cool stuff thread, too, but they seem to be taken with a flash? I never use flash, but I recall seeing a picture of Classics clear Mirage taken with a flash and it brought out the detail well. Could be because it was coloured clear, but I might give it a go.

I don't visit Funny forums anymore, unfortunately it looks like a closed group of posters giving each other a pat on the back (always except for Shane's, of course), and too many Busou Shinkis. I thought the idea of the toyline was rather neat, but some people's obsession with them scare me. Obsessing over transforming plastic robot figures are so much more healthier :tongue: Did you get any more?

Thanks for the link! Bulkhead looks really nice. One of the few TFA figures I don't get tired of looking at. I really have to pick him up...
But when I click individual pics, I can't adjust the window size, and when I click the little enlarge icon, I can't view the whole picture. Is this due to my screen resolution (1024x768)? We might be getting a hands me down monitor which is bigger than our current tiny one. Can't wait to see interwebs in bigger res...pictures in Cool Stuff should look so small :lol

There's a guy on a Gundam board I hand out on that has a super shiny black surface on the bottom of his pictures, and a really far away black background on the back. I'm not sure how he makes it work, but it looks spectacular. I may have to tap him for tips when it comes time to try something new.

Clear figures are really tough. You almost have to either backlight them a bit, or shine various spots on a dark background to make the highlights show up properly on the figure. And white figures only work good on white if you aren't afraid of shadows. Unfortunately, shadows seem to be the bane of Transformers photography outside of the funnies threads.

Bulkhead is just a chunky little tough guy. I don't know if you noticed or not, but I have a small gallery of him up behind that thumbnail on my list page. He's so awesome.

I really hope the package will get there today.

I know what you are saying about black background! I did try with black, foam-like sheet as a bg, but it somehow becomes very bright. It wasn't very black to begin with, but the end product was funny shade of grey like you say.

White can be extremely bland when the toy is also white. Not showing off the toy at all :(
I am taking pictures of clear figures (CR Autobot Bros), but white bg doesn't really make the figures look good. Need to be a bit more moody, I guess.

Bulkhead is the figure that actually made me interested in TFA toys. I think he looks simply adorable! I will at least pick him up.

eBay idiots. Why is it buyers never understand the shipping process isn't precise? "I WANT IT THREE DAYS AGO OR YOU'RE AN IDIOT!"

I get what you're saying with the white background thing, but I'm still bored with it. I tried green-screen backgrounds, but there were some ridiculous reflections from it. I really like the flat black backgrounds, but it's hard to get black to look flat enough to not have that weird grey colored shine from the lights. Some day I'll get around to completing an actual set piece and use that, but for now I guess the white will have to do.

I think Animated has me going crazy. I'm actually considering picking up the "sidestory" style comics IDW is putting out for them. I just can't get enough of the story or the characters.

Bulkhead is a big pile of awesome. If you get a chance, pick him up. He's squat, but damn is he cool. Plus, he breaks everything he touches. His quote is even about him breaking everything. AND he's supposed to be an artist. There's a perfect blend of irony and humour if I've ever seen it.

It's good to know that it has a good storyline. I haven't really followed through any TF cartoon since Armada (and I skipped a few episodes), so it'll be nice if I get to have something I can look forward to every week.

The good thing about the white background is that it shows the toy and toy only. I'm not good at explaining, but for example our backroom has a very nice banana yellow wall. I took some pictures in front of it, but the colour reflects too much. I love outdoor pics other people take, but I don't have a nice backyard. Now that I mentioned it, I need to pull out those pumpkin vines. Funny we didn't harvest any pumpkins at all, but the vines are like 5 metres long :lol

Back to the eBay story, looks like my time has come to meet a scary buyer. Auction ended on Friday night, he paid straight away, I sent it on Saturday. he's in the next state and it should only take 2 days. It's Wednesday and he hasn't got it. He's going to file a claim if it doesn't get to him early next week. That's after I sent him a scan of the receipt and he acknowledged that I indeed sent it.

Yeah, I'm hooked.

I'm a big fan of Anime in general, because the storytelling is always so much more fullfilling than western cartoons. That's why Beast Wars appealed to me the first time I saw it because it felt like I was witnessing a good story, even if it was being made up on the fly.

Animated doesn't feel quite that spontaneous, but it does feel the most consistent I've ever seen a Transformers cartoon of any kind. Kind of weird to see that. Of course, I'm only four episodes in so it's hard to tell if that'll keep going.

It felt good posting in cool stuff again. I spent about a half hour running around the house last night trying to find something, ANYTHING to use other than a white background. I had nothing that seemed like I could carry it through more than one or two set of pictures. What I really want to do is do a setup like the old catalogs. I've got white sand and black backgrounds are easy to make with flat black paint. All I need to find is some dark colored rocks. I've been looking for those forever though, and it seems like I never can come up with a good match size and color wise.

So, I ended up back with the cardstock background. Oh well.

I stopped posting pictures because I stopped buying toys. I started again because I started buying again. I started buying again because, damn it all anyway, these characters are awesome and the toys, once you know them as characters, even in a minor way, are incredible.

And yeah, looks like you see my plan plainly enough. Every toy gets a face on the list and a gallery on their own page. Not happy with some of Blackarachnia's pictures, but it had been a long time and I'm really out of practice. I may re-shoot some once I'm back in the groove. Tonight's toy opening night at my house. I get to see if Bulkhead is as awesome as Blackarachnia has been so far. And if I have time, gallery number 2.

It's bloody awesome that you've posted pictures again. Looking at them I think we all have different style even if the bg is uniformly white.

It's always a bit sad for me when people grow out of Cool Stuff thread. I do feel like I'm left behind...you can laugh, yeah I'm being juvenile.

I appreciate your recommendation of TFA. To be honest I'm a bit worried that I might not like it. See, my background is probably a bit different from most members here, I grew up with only Japanese anime. That's all I know. I haven't really watched any Western made cartoon except for the ones my kids watch, and not much of it. My idea of cartoon is strictly 70's and 80's Japanese giant robot stuff. My favourite TF shows are BW Neo and Car Robot, both regarded lowly even among Japanese fans because they are too anime (by this I mean having rather old fashioned story and style).

I suppose I shouldn't worry, though, like I have no intention of starting posting TFA hate messages or anything. I'm hoping that I'll like the show so that I could enjoy the toys more.

You have got a nice list going there. Looks like you are ready to fill them up, all those columns having enough room for mugshots :lol