Transformers: Generations Drift

 

I know that I’ve been writing on some older toys recently, but these are mainly focusing on figures that are somehow new to me: either I’ve never experienced the mold before, or it’s a new character to me, or something like that. 

Drift is from 2010 I think, and this is/was the very first figure he ever had. Drift was introduced in the (I think) excellent “All Hail Megatron” miniseries that IDW Comics ran in 2008. He was introduced to much auto-disdain: Drift is a street race car armed with a very samurai sword and shows up to eradicate a swarm of Insecticons that had been running rough shod all over Cybertron, besting the ragtag group of Autobots (actually comprised of some heavyweights. . . ), basically instantly establishing himself as a Marty Stu (right? That’s what you kids are calling a male Mary Sue character these days, right?). 

Transformers: Adventures Roadblock

Adventures is the Japanese name for the current Robots in Disguise line, and includes some of those figures alongside repaints of older toys. One such repaint is Roadblock, a repaint of Generations Scoop and a reference to the G2 toy of the same name.

Transformers Universe: Stormcloud

 The repaint is an integral part of most major toylines. Here’s the boring reason: each toy is made through an expensive process of design and steel molds and boredom, apparently. The repaint is the companies’ opportunity to make extra profit on the existing mold(s) by reusing them. Since the initial investment has been made, theoretically all the money made on repaints should be profit. Repaints are usually different characters of similar type to the original. The Transformers brand has counted the repaint as part of its backbone dating all the way back to 1984 and the first wave of toys. The Seekers, the Autobot Datsuns, Ironhide and Ratchet, Soundwave’s cassettes. Later waves would bring the Coneheads, and retools like Hoist and Grapple, modified versions of the existing Trailbreaker and Inferno. 

Star Wars: The Black Series: FN-2187 (Stormtrooper Finn)

 

A quandary: how does one, devoted solely to collecting Imperial-esque figures, incorporate a non-Imperial character into one’s collection without having to explain why there’s a deviation from the purely Imperial inclusions? 

A resolution: one waits for the Stormtrooper version of said character.

Not really screen accurate, but...

After seeing millions of jacket-wearing Finns plugging up store space for months, I found a Stormtrooper Finn, First Order designation FN-2187. I had to buy it, because he’s a Stormtrooper. This had been my justification since I’d first found out about the toy: I can just keep his helmet on, just like troopers Han and Luke. And, he also adds some context to my Poe, obtained thanks to his inclusion in a two pack. 

 

 

Grave Considerations: Transformers Combiner Wars

It has been known that the Combiner Wars line would be ending at the end of 2015, and that 2016 would see the start of a new toyline. I have written on a lot of the Combiner Wars figures, and while there are still a few coming that will no doubt be covered before things are really over, I wanted to take a bit of time and discuss the line as a whole.

This was a line that gave Transformers fans and collectors an opportunity to get updated versions – quality updated versions – of G1 combiner teams. In many ways, it was a continuation years later of the “Classics” line, that one which has been resurrected on and off if not officially then in spirit for certain, from 2007. Combiner Wars carried that torch by providing representations of G1 characters in as close to G1 as possible of a fashion, and the results were generally terrific. On the whole, figures were posable and detailed, and were very good looking. The Deluxe class worked great for the limb bots and the Voyager size allowed for large, imposing looking combined forms that captured the proportions of a five robot combo so well. 

Transformers: Combiner Wars (and Generations) Trailbreaker(s)

  

Damn it Combiner Wars, stop making me buy you.

The second set of Autobot repaints yielded two good figures and two boring figures. Smokescreen and Trailbreaker are colorful and interesting looking toys; Wheeljack and Hound are boring as all get out. I knew from the moment I saw Trailbreaker in a store that I would be waging a war against myself until I bought him, and I think I did a good job of holding out for a while. Had I not bought him now, I’d have picked him up on the secondary market at some point.

Star Wars: The Black Series: First Order Flametrooper

It has been said that the day before the start of C2E2 my wife and I visited our local comic shop. The shop carries a lot of figures, and occasionally they get Black Series stuff. This trip, they had some figures from the newest wave, the Jango Fett wave I’ll call it, and I grabbed two of them. The first one was the Frist Order Flametrooper.