First purchase of the New Year, a re purchase of sorts.... Come on home Predaking... Deceptidad loves you.

 

Put Victory Saber together for the first time, very impressive. It’s a bit of a first as despite previously owning G1 Saber and Leo, I never actually combined them (not quite sure why).

He’s having a short sword fight with Menasor now.

It’s been a great day for toys!!!

 

Got the Rona for the second time. Don't feel nearly as bad as round one earlier in the year so I'm going to open Scourge to console myself.

 

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, and do take care - I've recently heard from a friend/former colleague who's been off social media for a while that he's had a right old time himself with, and nearly lost his mum to, hybrid Covid-Flu!?!
It may be a mild bout but it's the multiple hits to the immune system that are accruing damage via weakened immune systems that's getting to be a real problem that is being ignored for fun & mostly PROFIT.

Back to a lighter tone, to quote Robert Palmer, "The Lights are ON!"

 

Thanks bud. Yeah, we got our flu jabs in December as I was worried that there might be a double header going round. Not going to lie, I'm going to bed down for a few days just incase, eat chocolate and play with robots !

 

You were going to do that anyway! We all were!  

 

There seems to be some nasty stuff going around, Covid, Flu and a horrible lingering cold. My Kung Fu teacher got Covid a few weeks ago which wasn't bad but he caught flu straight after and that put him in hospital. He's OK now but WTF man.

And it's everywhere. My wife had this flu thing this past week (which ruined Christmas plans) and I shot with one of my friends on Friday, and the next day he tested positive for Covid. I've tested -ve so far (so should be OK) but it's insane how it seems to be everywhere and nobody seems to care.

But y'know, it's like the Govt went on Christmas break on the day of the Nurses strike. I mean, nothing to do with them right? Pfah. Dickbags.

 

I broke MP Arcee's arm  

Man I'm so annoyed about this. I used to always take my toys on my adventures and this is knowing that things could break, but I never take expensive toys.
My obsession with that damn figure means I flew her across the world, she survived 3 flights and 2 coach trips, and somehow I just snapped the damn thing when I turned it funny.

Ugh.

Okay rant over, I'm actually having a wonderful time overall. Super behind on the thread but that comes with the joy of looking forward to catching up at some point. Hope all are well and enjoying the break.

Heres a beach pic with an Arcee with both arms:


I was taking the pic I posted earlier and my daughter came running and splashed a bunch of water to help with the pic. Turns out it did!

Not sure what the weather is like in the UK now, but it's mad that this is one of the last toy pics I took before I left:

 

Repeat viral infections destroy your immune system, Covid is a viral infection, people thinking they "got away with it" when they were onky ill for a few days probably haven't got away with it in the long run. With so much stuff going round that people insist isn't covid, I'm absolutely baffled that people won't wear a mask. Masks work against cold and flus too! Immunity debt is a crazy thing to see repeated in the mainstream.

Hope everyone remains safe and well, I'm still wearing a mask and avoid crowded places, so I'm very pleased I'm seemingly immune to peer pressure. My wife it a local Councillor and she tried to get a mask drive going, but the local doctors surgery said they were more concerned about strep. Because you can only do preventative measures against one disease at a time.

Baffling.

Anyway, I opened my Megalo Convoy, it's exactly what I wanted and exactly what I expected, just replacing my old Galaxy Force release as I didn't like the feet on that. Also got SG Magnus and SG Blaster, although SG Magnus missiles do not fit in the shoulder ports at all as they're painted not molded. Very dumb.

 

You do Kung Fu as well? You really are Chinese Hawkeye!

 

That's the perfect personal anecdote to illustrate the accrued immunity weaking I'm talking about. It's the reason I feel less of a berk for still mask-mitigating where I can (on public transport, and out and about when not at work - which of course being front-facing AND phone calling means masking is out).

The Flu-like thing is what took out most of my crew, including me, who seemed to be the least symptomatic but it still floored me, I barely made it through Panto Schools' Week, and was still hobbled the following week, my chest's still clearing even now.
One of us the whatever it is (we were all intermittently testing and ran clear on viral load tests) went to full blown chest infection (my colleague who I didn't want to leave on her own for schools' week), and the boss went down next worst but first chronologically. And I can't help noting the boss has had 2 bouts with the virus, and the worst affected colleague may have had a second asymptomatic bout as her Teen son went down with it for I believe his second time, so there's a definite chance my single round with the bat-bug might have been my advantage.

 

Thing is though, I would bet my own VS that this is a Hasbro issue and they've simply been unable to supply Zavvi with the original orders, rather than Zavvi willfully screwing people over. Tricky one to manage...

 

Not to cape for Hasbro but this point of view shows a willingness to ignore a LOT of Zavvi's past form, for a lot of folks (myself included) they are at the very least order in-stock items only, and be prepared for the order to fail somehow. Heck, we're within weeks of the Discount Velocitron Debacle where multiple orders were cancelled and refunded, with a lucky few actually receiving their cancelled orders.

 

What are everyone's TF-centric hopes for 2023?

I've got one eye on the restored-to-life SND and their rather impressive IDW1 Prime design. I'll likely count my pennies and stick with the (bigger) Toyworld Orion, but the fact 3P are still looking to IDW1 makes me happy. More please. Maybe they'll do a Hot Rod / Rodimus that hits the mark for me.

I'd like the main line to carry on exploring all avenues of the TF 'verse, because then I win double. I get toys of relatively obscure characters like Jhiaxus, and I save money because at least half of each wave is characters I'm not after.

I'd like more releases in the Buzzworthy and Selects sublines. Why? Because, while I love the humongous leak lists a couple of times per year, that sort of complete picture tends to leave you fewer surprises to look forward to. The two sublines help with that, being a much less predictable proposition. Getaway from Pointblank please!

I'd like the Hasbro designers to be allowed to have more input on who gets made (the impression I get from my muddled memory of various recent interviews is that this has increased on recent years - I'd like to see that continue). Evan said he'd like to do a Velocity and a Mistress of Flame, and frankly I'd buy both.

More generally, I'd like everyone on this forum who's had a shit 2022, to have a less shit 2023  

 

Modest goals like hopes for a Targetmaster Sureshot, and that Earth mode Buzzworthy Hound is easy to snag. Most ambitious hope? Another '88 Headmaster 'con in the next Buzzworthy "Collides" 4-pack, and that if so it's as available as the "Creatures" rather than "Worlds" set!

 

New mold wise, Swoop in SS’86 and Sureshot in Legacy.

Repaint/remold wise, a complete set of Throttlebots (mostly from ER Cliffjumper) and a Thunderclash. How many more truck-formers can they do without making him?!

 

My hopes for 2023! I’d love to see some more G2, Cyberjets would be nice. Thunderclash would be amazing. I hope Armada Prime is great and there are Minicons.
Also would be nice if ROTB is at least a 4/5 movie!

 

AFAIK Suspicions are pointing towards Swoop possibly being scheduled for 2024, unless he's getting some prestigious Fan Channel release like if he's one of the '23 Hascon Exclusives (as the Quint Pit was a Con' thing this is my Hail Mary hope for him getting a '23 release because I, too, would like the damned SS86 Dinos done in '23 so I can stop low grade fretting that this project will go off the rails before the whole team is done).

 

2023 hopes eh

Well I'm pretty convinced we know evreything from listings/rumours so I just hope brawn, bombshell, snarl and shrapnel are done well. Skids, kickback, blitzwing and Pointblank could all have been better.

Wishlist is sideways, swoop, sureshot, windcharger and gears but I'm quite happy to wait until 2024 for those guys.