‘Til All Are Displayed! The Collection… well most of it.

I was just looking at the pictures on my “‘Til All Are What Now?” page and thought it was just about time for an updated shot of my Transformers display.

As I sit at my computer typing this out a turn to the left reveals three shelves, each roughly six and a half feet tall, as well as an assortment of smaller satellite shelves. To my immediate right is display shelf 1. Topped by three (soon to be three and a half) shelves of the star of Transformers — no, despite what they would have you believe recently, not Bumblebee: Optimus Primes and Convoys of all shapes and sizes.

Working our way counter-clockwise, shelf-by-shelf from there we have:

• Half a shelf of Hot Rod/Rodimus Primes.
• Ultra Magnus’ (Magni?) and Blaster and his tapes.
• Smaller Constructicons and a slew of Micromasters.
• Constructicons (old and new) and other combiners.
• Scorponok, SkyLynx, and Omega Supreme.
• In the middle is the Dark of the Moon shelf and Kre-O Optimus, which is a bit of a mess at the moment.
• My wife’s “girl Transformers that could kick your tailpipe” shelf.
•  The multiple incarnations of Mirage, Prowl, and Jazz.
• The Targetmasters.
• Finally, the Headmasters and Wheeljack.

On the wall opposite display shelf 1, there are shelves 2 and 3 and two more ancillary shelves.

For this one, I’ll do each shelving unit individually, starting on the top left:

• Various incarnations of Star Saber (except an actual Star Saber, sadly) and Dai Atlas (with an actual Dai Atlas, happily.)
• Two shelves of Minibots and their updates.
• An entire shelf of Grimlocks.
• The rest of the Dinobots, as well as Grimstone and his Dinobot drones.
• The G1 repaints from the newest movies; such as red Ironhide, white and blue Jazz, and Revenge of the FallenSkywarp (look! I finally found my G1 repaint Movie (2007) Starscream!)

Display shelf 3, starting at the tippy top:

• AssortedGods, Monsters, Primes, and one tiny Fortress Maximus.
• The Animated Shelf, including the full 2011 Botcon set and TFCC Exclusive Animated Cheetor.
• The G2 and G2 Classics with all the glorious colours of the rainbow.
• The first section of G1 and G1 Classics Autobots.
• Shattered Glass and the second section of G1 and G1 Classics Autobots.
• The Movie (2007), RotF, and DotM Leader and Human Alliance class toys.
• More Combiners! Predaking!

Display shelf 2, from top to bottom:

• Shockwaves, The Fallen, and movie Megatrons.
• G1, G2, Masterpiece, Classics… just a whole bunch of Megatrons as well as Classics Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge and their updates.
• TheshelfoftheSeekers.
• Soundwavesgalore and mini-cassettes (and updates) galore.
• G1 and G1 Classics Decepticons.
• Japanese Beast Wars, including my beloved Tako Tank.
• Another shelf full of combiners.

The last little shelf is a mishmash of stuff:

• Smokescreens G1, Classics, and Alternators (soon to be joined by RotF and Cybertron Smokescreens once I dig them out.)
• The Generations Junkions.
• Scan series Bumblebee, Sideswipe…
• …Ratchet and Ironhide.
• The Power Core Combiner Autobots.
• The Power Core Combiner Decepticons.

Oh yeah, also Supreme class Beast Machines Cheetor standing to the side.

With the exception of G1 Metroplex and Cybertron Metroplex that stand ever vigilant above my computer (which is itself named Metroplex) and an extra Micromaster Tailwind, that is the entirety of my current display.

However, though admittedly a lot of floorspace is taken up by the display (and yes, I am aware that I am very, very lucky to have a wife that is not only ok with, but actually encourages my collecting and displaying), it only amounts to a little under half of my total collection. The rest are in plastic bins in a closet.

One day I will have an entire room devoted to the collection, until then, I’ll keep enjoying them by occasionally pulling them out of their bins to take pictures of them for this blog. That way I get to share the joy this collection brings me (and yes, a little showing off too.)

Probably the one and only time he can be compared to a “Hero” of anything, Alternity Skywarp!

“In universal stream of Primax 109.0 Beta in the year 2009, the Autobot forces are investigating a mystery”

That’s the beginning of the story of Alternity as recounted by the TFWiki. No, things don’t start making much more sense after that. Alternity is the sequel-of-sorts to the fiction that accompanied the Binaltech toys in Japan. Itself an equally convoluted piece of writing, I didn’t collect any of the Binaltech toys because most of them had already been released over here as the Alternators series. Then, when Alternity was released, I didn’t like how much the characters differed from their intended homages/updates. I mean, there’s a lot I have patience for when it comes to changing Optimus Prime, but making him into a tiny Nissan GT-R is not one of them. Making Megatron into a Nissan 370Z — a.k.a. the Fairlady Z, as it is known in Japan — is just right out.

Ironically, it was the fact that he was so very different from his previous incarnations, that made me decide that I had to add Alternity Skywarp to my collection. First up: that colour. Purple is my favourite colour and this purple, given the ridiculous name of “Witch Purple Pearl” (by whom, I’m not sure), is positively mesmerizing.

Second, the design. The Mitsuoka Orochi might be one of the most reviled car designs by the “experts”, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as I find the design to be pleasantly stunning. Wanting to get a neutral opinion, I took Skywarp to my wife (not a “car person” per se) and asked her what she thought of the design of the Orochi,

“There’s a lot going on with this car. It’s fancy.”

So there you have it.

Named after Yamata-no-Orochi, a dragon of Japanese mythology, I totally get the design aesthetic for which they were aiming. Especially with the snake-like eyes formed by the slits applied to the headlights and the impression of scales given by the hood vents.

The affectation of scales continues on the back along the trunk.

I can understand not liking the design of a car, but with this one, I just don’t understand the amount of outright hatred it receives. Upon transforming him, I was also pleasantly surprised by the little details added to his robot mode to tie him back to the original.

Small wings fold out from his back kibble as well as on his legs harkening back to his G1 alt mode, with weapons cleverly resembling his G1 missile launchers on his arms.

He is a remold of Alternity Starscream, given a new headsculpt, possibly my favourite part of his robot mode.

Mitsuoka states that they were trying to inspire “latent beauty underneath the shivering fear of the Eight-headed Serpent” with “an eccentric design concept of ‘Hero of Evil’”. Very fitting for a Decepticon. Now, giving the Seekers cars for alt modes may prove sacrilegious to some, but as alternate reality takes on my favourite Decepticon go, Alternity Skywarp is one of the best.