New to collecting and came across a video review of this figure and fell in love! I was just about to pull the trigger on the SDCC Combiner Hunter pack too But I saw the blue version of this and it looks amaze-balls. I've seen a few on eBay but is it in-stock anywhere? No dice on TFSource or BBTS. As I'm new to collecting I'm not 100% sure where to look other than those two and then ebay and Amazon. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
There is this listing: chimungmung Toy Shop The PE bike is a bit more of a partsformer than Azalea, and they're both similarly quite complex for their size. The arms on the PE one are rather scrawny.
I would suggest emailing Tony at chimungmung before you order, just to be on the safe side that it's in stock . He's a good guy and usually replies quickly.
I have them both. I really like both for different reasons. Azalea has tons more articulation and posability than pe dx but I like the diecast and accessories of pe dx as well. You have to remember that Azalea came out a couple of years after so engineering is different.
If you think the blue is cool you will be blown away by DX-02 Aranea! I have all three and love them. They are dated now in terms of design and engineering but are still fantastic figures. What I love also is that you can let the PE mini figures (PE-05, 06 and 09) ride them in vehicle mode and in return they make excellent target masters. I did some custom paint jobs for PE-05 and 06 to match their respective Motobot partners a couple of years back. In terms of where to buy Third Party Figures it really depends on where you live. But here's a list of stores I generally use. From North America Shipping worldwide: Big Bad Toystore (BBTS for short) TF Source From Hong Kong Shipping worldwide: Robot Kingdom Chimungmung There are of course heaps of other retailers out there but those 4 are the main ones I use.
Considering price and availability the MMC Azalea is way easier for both. Both figures do seem very similar though I really liked the blue Arcee. Not hot on pink at all. Looking at the MMC Reformatted line I see that there is Stealth Assassin Azalea, Zinnia, Eupatorium, Salvia, and Asterisk for various repaints and new head molds. Are there any plans for just a straight up blue Azalea? Right now I'm leaning most towards Zinnia. I'd love Asterisk but she's stupid expensive everywhere I looked.
I'd also repeat that Tony at Chimungmung is a good guy to buy from. I usually don't order from out of the US but the times I did with Tony, he did good by me. No worries at all.
Just wanted to update this real quickly. I picked up a MMC Reformatted Zinna AND a PE DX-01B and the DX-01B is light years superior in virtually every way. Zinnia isn't bad but the transformation is just horrible and the alt mode is just meh. It's nice in robot mode but the DX-01B is in another league by comparison. Plus those accessories. If anyone else ever finds themselves in this predicament go with the DX-01 given a choice.
