Straxus arrives! Also, PowerCore Renegade

Straxus, er, Darkmount has finally been freed from his Post Office prison. I like this guy-a lot. The helmet isn’t quite as feline as I thought, and the lower legs are actually a lot better than a lot of reviews I’ve seen made them out to be. He has waist and ankle articulation, take that Drift!


He is now free to terrorize anything that resembles Blaster.


PowerCore Renegade:
I’ve had the PowerCore character Searchlight in my possession for a few weeks, but never actually picked him up until yesterday and realized that he’s a dead ringer for the Renegade Twin Spin. I’m sure other people have noticed this as well, but it’s the first time I ever took a good look and came to the conclusion myself. It’s striking, right down to the colors and having propeller blades on his forearms. Replace the gray with some beige and you’ve got yet another slot in the Renegade Ranks being filled.


Man, good job Hasbro! I’m anxiously awaiting the upcoming Highbrow-who will be repurposed into Bolt, as well as Tomahawk, who locks right into place as Wrong Way.

Black Animated Prime!

Black Animated Optimus Prime arrived today! Woo!

I thought I was done with Animated, having sold off most of my original collection-then they had to go and release Arcee and that delectable crystal ‘Sons of Cybertron’ set! This however, trumps everything else in the line, even ShadowBlade Megatron.


Love the way the window detailing looks in red. And because Japan loves to torture me so, how much do you want to bet there will at some point be a release of this guy with a Decepticon insignia?


He fits right in on the Black Shelf, now I’m hoping for a Black Animated Arcee. Oh who am I kidding, that’ll have to be another custom in the queue.

Botcon Supplementals: Part One

I started working on this bunch of customs a little while before Botcon, but then got distracted with the trip itself and the subsequent laziness that followed. Now that that’s passed though, here is the first few custom bots that will be sharing the shelf with this year’s Botcon Generation 2 themed figures.

First up, Autobot High Beam.


I liked this guy, he was one of the original ‘gobots’ from G2 that could be used in the HotWheels sets. According to his bio, he’s not considered a fighter by his teammates, but has never backed down from a fight. I like that, and combined with what I think is a very striking color scheme, earned him a custom.
You can see some more pics of him over on TFW2005.com.

Decepticon Jetstorm:


Not my favorite custom, unfortunately the general layout of the original doesn’t match up well enough with the Classics Mirage mold to retain the more defined features of the character in both modes. In robot mode he’s not bad. Obviously he needs some of those original decals to full invoke the feeling of his G2 counterpart, but even without them I think he has a definite G2 Jetstorm feel.

The problem comes in vehicle mode. I don’t know if even the decals would make someone think this is Jetstorm because of how much the black covers the figure without any bright blue breaking up the layout. Oh well, looks like Jetstorm will forever be in bot mode.

Fearswoop!
Yes, *the* original G2 Fearswoop, take THAT cruddy ROTF ‘Fearswoop’ in Hooligan colors!


I like the way this guy turned out, he’s got enough wacky colors going on to really evoke that G2 feel. The downside for me on this custom was a reminder of how I need to strengthen my resculpting skills... or painting skills, maybe both. The face on this was covered up with sculpty in an attempt to recreate his original visor, and though the original sculpt didn’t look too bad, the details completely vanished once paint was applied. Rats. Still, from afar, Fearswoop makes a nice addition to the upcoming Botcon set methinks.


More to come as I prep more final pics!

Drifting thoughts

I just completed both the Decepticon and Autobot campaigns in War for Cybertron, and the whole time I’m zooming around like a madman trying to narrowly escape Trypticon’s endless barrage of missiles and fireballs, I couldn’t halp but wonder…

Wouldn’t Drift’s toy make a neat Generations version of Zeta Prime?



(Credit for base toy photo goes to TFW2005.com.)

Just saw these new pics on TFW2005. To the left is Tomahawk, to the right is Terradive.

Does Tomahawk's head remind you of anyone? Maybe a certain GoBot whose name ends in a single digit number?
No?
I took one look at Tomahawk's Leader-1 head and then Terradive's jet mode and thought "Leader-1 Movie upgrade!" Then went on twitter and saw that even Derrick Wyatt was thinking the same thing, as I'm sure lots of random TF fans were.

So I'm thinking, it's time for me to take the head of one Robot, and put it on the body of another Robot. It's time for Head Swap!

...first you take a head and put it on another's body like if Tomahawk's head was on Terrdive's body, that's a Head swap!


Heeeaaaad Swaaaaaap....
Why the blue? If you don't recall, Leader-1's repaint was a very dark, very nice looking shade of blue,
I think it's nice to break away from all that gray every now and then. That could always be the repaint, right?
I also took away the trident. Seriously, what would Leader-1 do with a trident?

Axer: Quick and dirty

Just saw that 'Axor' is in the Hasbro 'Hunt for the Decepticons' game. He's essentially Movie Lockdown with a new head, but the new head looks pretty cool. Got me thinking about the original ActionMaster Axer it's based on.


How I didn't see the similarities to the Classics Prowl mold is beyond me, so I digibashed something just to satisfy my curiosity.


Considering how quickly and easily this could be done, I may take a stab at this after Botcon. I thought about using Silverstreak, but kind of like him having that light bar. And of course, being coo-coo for two packs, I figured he should keep his cycle partner. Throw in Cybertron Ransak, he already smacks of Axer's motorbike companion. But if you wanted to go for the double homage, recolor that bad boy black like Axer's R.I.D namesake.

(Credit for base toy photos goes to Seibertron.com. Credit for reference pic goes to the Transformers Wiki.)

Omega Doom

With the random Botcon leaks hinting towards us getting a Shattered Glass Ravage and Wheeljack (though I'm hoping it's Slicer, unless the color schemes really are the same, then who gives a crap?) as souvenir figures, it reminds me...
Arg, I still want FunPub to give us Shattered Glass Universe Omega Doom!

C'mon FunPub, give it!
Quick update as of 6/11/10:
I received War for Cybertron Optimus Prime and Bumblebee yesterday and think they're mighty neat! Of course, you know what's going to happen eventually: