Grave Considerations: Moving, Part Five

We are finished moving.

Transformers: Masterpiece Shattered Glass Optimus Prime

The Shattered Glass concept is one that certainly has its detractors. There are people who think that the role reversal narrative of evil Autobots and heroic Decepticons is bad, or overdone thanks to the dearly departed Transformers Collectors Club, former purveyor of Botcon and all of its original fiction.

Those people are wrong.

But, this repaint of MP-10, the rebooted Masterpiece lines’ Optimus Prime, is the leader of the evil Autobots of the Shattered Glass universe. It is, plainly, a purple repaint of the MP-10 Prime, a smaller version of MP-01 Optimus Prime – the figure that launched the Masterpiece line – that was to signal the relaunching of the Masterpiece line. It is also the first exposure I have had to the MP-10 mold, despite it being a few years old by now and having been made available several times over. My collection contains MP-01 Prime, and I’ve just never felt much need to replace it. But, a Black Friday sale and a love of the Shattered Glass concept, and this MP-10 was in my hands.

Grave Considerations: Moving, Part Four

It is the last Sunday morning that I will wake up and pace the floors of this apartment. It is the last Sunday morning where I will make my coffee and then write something for the Coffin in this place; the last Sunday morning I will turn the volume on the television way down and play video games. It’s not the last Sunday morning where I will grind my teeth at a Souls game, that’s for sure, as last evening I started up Dark Souls II and in two months the Dark Souls remaster is coming out. Some things are forever, after all.

Grave Considerations: The End of Toys R Us

Sad news recently for children of all ages, as the simmering story of Toys R Us has apparently reached its apotheosis. Long subject of stories of financial difficulty, it is now apparently final that the retailer will be closing all of its locations in the US, UK, and around the world. I cannot really speak to Toys R Us’ around the world, as the only ones I’ve seen outside of the US were one we drove past in Toronto and one that we went to at the Mall of Berlin, but for myself, and countless other children, regardless of age, Toys R Us’ demise is the end of an era.

Grave Considerations: Moving, Part Three

So. I was recently packing up my toy collection, specifically Masterpiece MP-06 Skywarp, and I began thinking about how many times I have moved certain pieces in said collection. For that Skywarp, this will be the fourth time. Each time, I have transformed him back to jet mode and put him in his box. As may be expected, his box is pretty ragged at this point. Last year in the fall I began throwing away boxes I’d been hanging on to, and the Masterpiece boxes escaped that purge but not notice. I am kind of thinking that once we complete this move and figure reemerge from their cardboard prisons, that those boxes may be next on the chopping block.

Even the smaller, more modern Masterpiece boxes. I packed up Exhaust and Loud Pedal into their boxes, but put Toys R Us Bluestreak in a plastic bag, because his box was far too large to justify packing for what amounts to be such a small figure. Toys R Us Soundwave as well.

TFC Toys Poseidon: Mentarazor

Amidst the chaos and bustle of moving, it was decided that a distraction was necessary. For Christmas, my wife got me half of the TFC Toys not-Seacons set, and I bought the other half. So, as has been mentioned in passing since mid-December, I have been in possession of the TFC Toys Poseidon team, but like so many other cool figures obtained over the last three or four months, there hasn’t been time enough to deal with them. The original intent was to take pictures of each member of the set and begin reviewing them in February: I was successful with four of the six, and then, our moving plans took shape.

So, let’s try to take a look at the first member of the team to be released: Mentarazor, the Seawing stand in.

Grave Considerations: Moving, Part Two

My wife and I are moving in 20 days. Our cat is moving with us, but he doesn’t seem to be all that concerned with it. Nor is he doing any work to help us, but I suppose that is to be expected. We have begun the process of packing, starting with the pieces we have on display, a very large task for each of us. Last weekend we began boxing up figures that were still in their packages, things like Masterpiece Transformers and such, which necessitated their transformations to fit in their boxes. I had a thought as I was transforming the old MP-06 Skywarp: this figure has moved with me three previous times, and I was converting him for packaging and transport a fourth time.

And then, I’m packing new things. Things that have never moved before, because I bought them here. Disassembling and bubble wrapping Hades and such, boxing up third party figures and practically forced to wonder if, all those months ago, long before this move was a reality, long before we’d even seriously begun to consider it, I’d made the right choice in throwing away all of those boxes I’d been keeping.

TFC Toys Ares

 

 The 2018 Toy Fair was a few weekends ago, and Hasbro revealed its Titan Class Power of the Primes Predaking. (It’s awful. It really is. – mr) To celebrate that, let’s talk about a much better Predaking, TFC Toy’s Ares. Ares is, of course, the combined form of Nemean, Phlogeus, Conabus, Aethon, and Phobos.