Transformers: Titans Return Triggerhappy

 

Found in November and still not appearing with regularity, the third wave of Titans Return Deluxes was a good bunch overall. It contained a surprisingly likeable repaint, a total surprise of a figure, a surprisingly flawed figure, and a totally surprising transformation scheme.

Surprise! Titans Return Triggerhappy is the clear winner of the wave. Like Twinferno, Triggerhappy is a figure I was super excited about, having had one as a kid and seeing the 2016 version as a nearly perfect update. Aside from now being a Headmaster, that is. OG Triggerhappy was a Targetmaster, and Blowpipe, his partner, transformed into an overly large blaster. But no longer. Blowpipe is now a Titanmaster, and thus turns into Triggerhappy’s head.

Transformers: Generations Insecticons: Kickback, Bombshell and Shrapnel

 

 Ah, spring. That magical time of year when the weather begins changing and a man’s thoughts turn to being on the lookout for bugs to squash in the apartment. It has taken quite some time, but we’ve finally got a complete trio of the G1 Insecticons, all in the same size class and generally similar appearance. I’m not sure if we want to call them “Classics” Insecticons, but they may be as close as we’ll ever get from Hasbro.

Ah, Insecticons. Some kind of special forces saboteur specialist bounty hunter covert operations team, apparently capable of handling any role the Decepticon cause asked of them. They were the first of the subgroups, and as I recall were meant to oppose the Dinobots for a while, until the Constructicons appeared.

So, how to proceed? Do we start with the best one and work our way down the line? Do we start with the new guy, and then work backwards in time?

TFC Toys Hercules: Exgraver

Just couldn't decide, honestly.

I think they both look pretty good.

 

 A few weeks ago, I got an excellent deal on eBay for the full set of six Hercules figures and the Rage of Hercules add on set. So now, I own a full third party combiner. My plan is to look at each figure individually, and then write on the combined form later. I will begin with Exgraver, because he was the first figure from the set to be released.

Transformers: Platinum Edition Liokaiser

 

 

The Platinum Edition series of Transformers toys is a loosely organized series of collector-focused, collector-grade, mostly reissued figures. In spirit, it finds its origins in the beloved G1 book-style reissue figures that first began appearing in 2004/2005 area. Those were, and would largely continue to be, Toys R Us exclusives, and were the first domestically available presentations of G1 figures like Ultra Magnus and Starscream and Grapple since the 1980’s. This line, then titled the Commemorative Series, would eventually provide reissues of Soundwave, Perceptor and the original three Insecticons before morphing into the Platinum Edition line, which would spread its label over a vaster array of toys: G1 reissues like the Predacons; special editions or packagings of existent and current figures like Fall of Cybertron Grimlock and the Combaticons; and even new, otherwise unattainable figures like the Weaponizer class Ultra Magnus from Transformers: Prime. G1 reissues would continue, including another Perceptor as well as Coneheads and Trypticon, along with random Bliztwing and Astrotrain recolors. Platinum Edition essentially means toys with a gussied-up paint job and manufactured exclusivity, kind of a retail-level Botcon piece, I suppose.

Transformers: Titans Return Twinferno

I have been really hesitant to call any of the Titans Return updated figures with altered names by their new names, but Twinferno is pretty cool.

Twinferno is a “Classics” update of Doublecross, the G1 Monsterbot. I had Doublecross when I was a kid, and that prompted me to be extra excitable when this new version was first shown in pictures. This was all set to be the first place figure in the wave for me, until I got the final member out of his package. Then, through no shortcomings of his own, Twinferno ended up in second place; but again, as I’ve mentioned with Hot Rod, there isn’t really any shame in not coming in first with this set of figures. Also, in the case of this specific figure, there is a lot that’s going wrong; but for me, nostalgia is going to carry the day here. But man, what could have been . . .

Mass Burial: Dodheimsgard - Satanic Art EP and 666 International

By the late 1990s, black metal scenes around the world were beginning to settle in to what they would ultimately be known for and as. A sense of normalcy, relatively speaking, was blanketing the genre, and the biggest genre shake up was coming in the form of exacerbations of preexisting black metal conditions, things like the rise and sudden popularity of the symphonic strain of black metal, or the initial rumblings of blackened thrash. Some of the original Norwegian bands like Enslaved and Emperor were beginning to move in different directions conceptually, and incorporating different elements and influences, but there wasn’t really anything that was really startling. So Emperor was getting a bit more symphonic, or Enslaved was getting a bit more psychedelic. But then, it happened.

Star Wars: The Black Series Jango Fett

 Another “Had It Forever, Finally Gonna Write About It” toy, Black Series Jango Fett is a figure I have seen at retail I think three times, including the instance when I purchased it. How fortunate for me: it seems my area is entering another blink-and-miss-it period for toys. The first Jango sighting was at my local comic shop, where I glanced at him but fairly easily walked away; I’d probably just picked up my $100+ load of over a months’ worth of comics. The second time was at a Target where I saw him, considered him, and then ultimately left him, for reasons unknown. The final time I believe was just a few days later, where I decided that I was going to buy him. And I did.