Are these Studio Series figures due at regular retail or do you need to order them from somewhere?

 

Regular retail. Smyths' website says they should have them in the next 3 weeks.

 

I know right? Great alt mode (and has inspired me to get the G1 one finally, why have I not before? Vampire bat tick, robot tick, delicious G1 clunkiness tick tick)

God help you if you leave a comment on that board though - DON'T TOUCH THE BANG BANG FRUIT

 

3rd Party board is OK for knowing about any faults with a figure you're thinking of getting. Otherwise, AVOID.

 

back with my PotP wave 2 rambles at last...

I know this a bold statement, considering the general freakishness of this particular sub-group, but Submaruader is the most freakish looking of the '88 Decepticon Pretenders. Yeah, Bomb-burst and Skullgrin are monsterous freaks but they've at least got proper faces.
If this sounds like a criticism, it isn't. I'll just kill the suspense and admit that I totally and utterly adore Submarauder. I adore all the '88 Decepticon Pretenders. Everytime I pick one up I'm all "oh, this is my favourite out of the three of them. Yeah, definitely. no, wait...". It wasn't always this way. Submarauder was the only one of that bunch that i saw as a kid. I always imagined that the other must be better and felt like I was getting a raw deal somehow.

But yeah, what the fuck is this guy? Some sort of weird blue jobbie fish man beast. Are those gills? Why're they orange. That's daft. Brilliantly daft. Why are his eyes so low. Is that normal for fish? the goldfish doesn't look like that. Needless to say, it's an incredibly striking, andvery nicely detailed, pretender shell. I love all the scale texture they've put all over him.

The inner robot is a lot less interesting, somewhat inevitably. The colour scheme is great, and probabaly the most striking out of the three, but beyond that there's not much to really comment on. He's got a big forehead? There! will that do? The 'submarine' is as naff as any of the '88 pretender alt modes. I guess it doesn't embaress itself?

I think PotP Submarauder may be the best realised of the 'decoy suits' I've seen thus far. I thought Skullgrin would be heard to beat, but I Submarauder has done it. It's wonderfully faithful to the '88 shell, right down to those wonderful orange gills and the scales. It's just wonderful that they've squeezed so much detail onto such a tiny toy. I've seen the shells for the wave three decoy suits and was quite disappointed. I was sure Bludgeon and Octopunch were going to be the ones to beat. Turns out it's probabaly Submrauder. Also, I heartily approve of his trident weapon mode, a perfect fit for his nautical theme.

If there's any downside to this guy it's the inner robot. It's the cheapest looking of the bunch thus far. The colour scheme is a very poor match for the '88 robot. It's such a shame, as that colour scheme would have worked so well on the little guy. But that's not the most galling thing; there's not a paint app on the robot. It's a pity. Even just a little dab of paint to bring the face out would have been so welcome. Perhaps the shell ate up this guy's budget?

 

If anyone is interested, The Entertainer has Cyber Battallion Jetfire, Bumblebee, Prowl and Optimus Prime available on their website for £12 each - click and collect available if they don't have them in your local store - and, although they show online as 'Out of stock' TOTP wave one deluxes are £17, TOTP Starscream is £24 and the leaders are £35 each.

Not bad, if they ever even turn up. Gonna pop into the one next door to my office after work for a shufty later too.

 

Nice I'm missing Optimus prime of the leaders!

 

Just went into The Entertainer in the Arndale and they had one each of Cyber Battallion Jetfire, Prowl and Prime, no POTP deluxes or leaders, but a few POTP Tailgates, Roadtrap and Battle Slash. Weirdly they also have some TR Galvatrons, so if there’s any left on Friday i’ll get one to repaint into Marvel UK Galv  

 

Still the same old same old TLK toys that won’t budge,the same three TR deluxe shelfwarmers and some Sixshots.

 

I utterly adore the new pretenders concept, and I loved them as a kid so that's no surprise.

Disappointing that the inner bot is the wrong colour, but note that they're now using screws to secure the back piece? Possible that we could sub in an appropriate coloured titan master, or even Skullgrins?

 

Funnily enough I've heard a few reports of him at Entertainers, wonder if the warehouse fellas found a palletful slipped down the back of the rack?

 

@gtf316,
I got a Takara Trypticon ordered today after someone offered me some cash to end one of my auctions early  

@privatespoon,
I'm certainly intrested, only drawback is that I probably won't have the cash until next week once I've been paid for the Badcube Warpath that I've had a bid on. Send me a PM with how much you'd want and I can take it from there.

Had a package arrive whilst I was out doing my stint at the charity store which turned out to be the LG Skids I'd bought from @Knightdramon so a big thanks to him for doing me a nice deal!

I haven't opened it yet as the ferrets are in and I don't want the figure getting all hairy as their winter coats are coming off atm so I'll have a look later once they've gone back to HQ.

 

Dude could pay you to pay to do one for me? I loved that grey looking version more!

 

Swung by both my biggest B&Ms after getting out early for good behaviour, and surprisingly some random Wave 4 TR have finally sprouted?! Perhaps the Brawn/Roadburn wave will trickle down my way after all? Time will tell but for now bugger all on the Legends front bar TLK.
Now home to see all my Warhammery is wheels up, I await with baited superglue tube!

 

Just need to rant... Yodel left a parcel on my front door and said it was left in a safe place. Somehow placing a huge box under a door mat is now counted as safe in a tower block. Said parcel has disappeared since I reached home. I don't understand why the driver would think would think leaving stuff there is safe or a good idea but ffs... Have some common sense of taking it back with you instead of leaving things in a tower block!!!

 

Oh dude, that’s a terrible thing to happen! These bloody Yodel “delivery people”! Several times I’ve changed my mind on an order after seeing that Yodel are delivering it, I get panic attacks whenever an overseas eBay item is due to be delivered!

 

Can't say I blame you, I'm now fighting with Smyths to say about this and now have to wait for them to talk to Yodel! Wtf are you thinking doing crap like this?!

 

God damn, Studio Series Leader Blackout looks so freaking good. I almost (almost) wish I liked Bayformers so I could justify dropping the cash on one. I think the one and only movie toy I ever got was ROTF Leader Prime, and that was the first figure I bought when I started getting back into the hobby. After that it was straight into Generations and I never looked back  

Maybe I can just have him milling around the back of my G1 guys...?

 

It's not my hermes, it's yodel. Yodel are the worst delivery company ever. Sorry for besmirch your name Hermes. Although they have caused issues

Yeah, i too avoid buying stuff if it's delivering by yodel. Sorry to hear about that, there's no excuse for that. Just lazy buggers.


You can say Blackout took a lot if damage and now he wears his skeleton on show as a show of how hardcore he is. A matter if pride, on the generations shelf. After all, rotf bludgeon crossed over. And lugnut made it into generation. Heck, blackout made ut unto animated.

 

I'm waiting to see if or when they do The Fallen, his probably the only character I'll buy from the series