Showing that alt modes don’t always have to make any sense to be awesome. Energon Scorponok! Timelines Double Punch!

After two posts from Cybertron and now this guy, you might be able to guess that I have reached the A-E-C portion of the packing of the toys. For anyone not familiar with the “Unicron Trilogy”, Armada, Energon, and Cybertron or A-E-C for short were three back-to-back Transformers cartoons and toylines meant to be one continuity. Whereas Energon is a straightforward sequel to Armada, the connection between those two and Cybertron is tenuous at best (if not just an outright fabrication by Hasbro). All that aside, Energon is easily the weakest of the toylines of the three. In fact, I don’t own a good portion of it. I might have been more able to forgive the glaring mistakes of the toyline if the cartoon dub hadn’t been even worse than the already poor Armada. At the time, I didn’t have easy access to the Japanese version, called Super Link due to the combining gimmick of the series. Maybe watching Super Link would have made it somewhat better or, like with Galaxy Force versus Cybertron, actually downright enjoyable. I found copies of the Japanese releases of both Armada and Energon and maybe after enough years have gone by, I’ll attempt to watch them. Granted, the urge hasn’t hit yet and it’s been ten years since Armada first aired.

Enough ranting, let’s get to the toy.

My initial reaction to Energon Scorponok was, in order:

1. What the ever-lovin’ heck is that supposed to be?
2. Space Scorpion Construction Vehicle Assault Tank. Huh.
3. I think I love it.

I am relatively sure I shouldn’t actually like him, but I do. There’s nothing at all that makes sense about his alt mode, but that’s never stopped me from totally liking a Transformer before. Then, of course, there’s the fact that he is a triple-changer, with a space ship alt mode as well.

His imposing robot mode, the mode that really sold me on this toy, is chunky but still manages to have some pretty decent articulation.

The Botcon-folks would use this mold in 2010 as part of the G2: Redux line to do one of my favourite repaint/remold tricks: provide a transforming update to an Action Master. As with all the Action Master Elites, G1 Double Punch was never released in the U.S. Also, as part of that European-exclusive Generation 1 toyline, Double Punch had some wonderfully obnoxious colours, faithfully recreated in his Botcon release.

Though Scorponok received a slight remolding to be released in the Cybertron line, Double Punch uses the original version of the mold.

Complete with awesome-ly nonsensical alt mode. To this day, I don’t know what they were thinking when they designed it, but I like it.

The original really can’t even come close to Double Punch’s application of the mold. Even the G1 Scorponok homaging head mold is made better in Double Punch’s colour scheme.

Double Punch is clearly the toy this mold was always meant to be.

Trying to make Earth into the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Botcon 2012 Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus!

Remember this guy? I think I last mentioned him in my Shattered Glass Blurr post.

For those that don’t recognize him, that’s the psycho Shattered Glass Optimus Prime (seen here talking to his gallery of dead bodies). Now, imagine having this guy for a brother, the sibling rivalry would be pretty intense. Culminating in a coup attempt by the less-succesful brother, Ultra Magnus, against Optimus, the “Emperor of Destruction”; Optimus took a page out of Movie (2007) Optimus Prime’s book and ever-so-politely ripped Magnus’ face off.

Leaving his brother with a bare mechanical skull where his face once was,  Optimus then had him tossed into prison and went about his crazy business. Escaping from prison thanks to his lackey Shattered Glass Tracks, Ultra Magnus receives an upgrade into a more powerful body but chooses(?) to leave the frightening skull face.

And, oh, what an awesome headsculpt the skull makes. Done in translucent plastic on his toy, it pretty much counts as the best light-piping ever.

The awesome doesn’t stop there. Just like his fellow evil Autobot Tracks, Ultra Magnus’ paintjob is based off a Diaclone toy. “Powered Convoy” is the toy that would eventually be repainted into G1 Ultra Magnus.

Ultra Magnus is traditionally a repaint of Optimus Prime, and the Botcon exclusive is no different. This time he is a repaint of Reveal the Shield G2 Optimus Prime.

One of my favourites of the boxset, the Diaclone-based colour scheme really looks good on this mold. Topped off with the skull headsculpt, it makes for a visually stunning toy. He comes with the mold’s transforming sword, which the Botcon Invasion comic and his bio refer to as the Terminus Blade, an immeasurably powerful weapon capable of splitting open space-time itself.

Skull face and a stabby-stabby sword? Stuff of Transformers nightmares.

One thing he doesn’t manage to improve upon is this mold’s frustratingly awkward alt mode.

Once you get all the pieces into the right places, it looks great, but getting it there involves lining things up just so in a number of areas — especially when getting the back wheels aligned. One wrong push to align the tabs in the back and you can dismount the doors and windows in the front. Almost always re-aligning the doors and windows leads to accidentally releasing the tabs in the back. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Overall, the mold is good but not a lot of fun to transform.

So, Ultra Magnus leads Tracks against the heroic Decepticons Treadshot, Soundwave, and Straxus in Botcon 2012′s Invasion!

Whoever will come to our rescue?

This guy is just full of surprises. Botcon 2012 Shattered Glass Straxus!

As a surprise addition to the promised five (now six!) back-to-back posts, we have someone that was quite a surprise to me when I got him.

Mentioned previously in Transformers fiction only in a conversation between regular universe Cliffjumper and Shattered Glass Sidwswipe, we got a brief glimpse back in 2008 at what would eventually become the entire basis for his character,

“Straxus is insane, where you come from? I always liked his poetry.”

In the regular universe, the evil Decepticon Lord High Governor Straxus is a borderline lunatic and just an overall jerk. In the Shattered Glass universe, the heroic Decepticon Straxus is known as the Bard of Darkmout. Poet, philosopher, and all-around great guy, he was a surprising addition to my Shattered Glass display when he was given as the Attendance Freebie toy at this year’s Botcon. Usually the freebie toy is a repaint of one of the molds used in the exclusives, which Straxus was not. He is, of course, a repaint of the G1 Straxus toy released in the Generations line.

Given a rather bright paintjob, there was initially a lot of speculation as to the origin of his colour-scheme.

The answer proved even more surprising than his inclusion as a Botcon exclusive. From ’89 to ’92, a German comic book called Condor Verlag published Transformers Comc-Magazin, reprinting the Marvel US and UK comics jumping through the chronology quite a bit. What they were best known for were their wildly miscoloured covers. The cover to issue number 10 depicting Straxus’ floating head actually served as the inspiration for Shattered Glass Straxus’ paintjob.

You know I love me some obscurity. It doesn’t get much more obscure than that.

A story of overcoming adversity. Botcon 2012 Shattered Glass Treadshot!

I am supposed to hate this toy.

I can hear the collective “BWAAAAAH?!?” now. How can I possibly hate a toy this phenomenal looking? An amazing paintjob, with a great new headsculpt, on one of the best molds to ever be created in Transformers history? Everything in my collecting DNA tells me I should hate it. That’s how.

To understand you have to be aware of the only correct answer to the question,

“What is the single worst robot mode in Transformers history?”

See, Shattered Glass Treadshot is actually a double-homage to two different characters in two different toylines that shared a single mold. Armada Side Swipe — yes, there’s actually a space in the name, *sigh* — and Universe Treadshot. His name, obviously, comes from the Universe toy as does, oddly enough, the silver striping down the length of his alt mode. The rest of his colouring in alt and robot modes come from the Armada toy.

So, what is the single worst robot mode in Transformers history?

GAH! What the heck is that?!?

As hideous as it is, a simple 2D picture of Armada Side Swipe doesn’t do justice to how bad everything is about him. Trust me, if you haven’t yet and get the chance to, look at this thing in person, it’s outstandingly bad. Then promptly throw it into a fire, for everyone’s sake. Of course, Hasbro wasn’t content to release this thing upon our collective collections, no, they revisited this mold three more times. Then they re-released the last version in a box set. Let me just state that once again: Hasbro put this mold out FIVE TIMES.

I don’t know what the fandom did to warrant one release, but we must have done something pretty horrible to justify five releases.

When there was news of a Heroic Decepticon Treadshot from the Shattered Glass universe being released in the Botcon 2012 Invasion box set, most, myself included, assumed that meant an update to the G1 Decepticon Action Master Treadshot. The Botcon folks do so love giving actual transforming updates to Action Masters so it made perfect sense. What didn’t make sense was an homage of a character that was horrible in the cartoon and had the most universally despised robot mode.

You know what makes even less sense? The fact that Shattered Glass Treadshot has managed to completely overcome the handicap of his heritage by being a positively awesome toy.

Also, he had a pretty good showing in the Invasion comic book.

Bravo, Shattered Glass Treadshot way to redeem the worst, dark corner of the Transformers toy universe.

“Damned straight. I’m bringing sexy back to the name Treadshot.”

Maybe this will even be enough to allow Armada Side Swipe out of his box of shame hidden in the farthest corner of the closet and onto the display…

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa!!!!

Seriously. No.

Botcon 2012: The Toys

I skipped taking pictures of the toys that are readily available on retail shelves now and just concentrated on stuff that is out soon or not going to be available for a while.

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One of the big surprises is that Hasbro is planning to release the MP-10 Optimus Prime complete with trailer. Here’s hoping it isn’t too much of a pain in the tailpipe to get ahold of, as most Toys R Us exclusives tend to be.

Not too much of a surprise for most was the Fall of Cybertron Combaticons retail release. However…

…the beautiful SDCC exclusive version of the Combaticons caught almost everyone off guard. Much like the Hasbro MP-10 release, here’s hoping it’s not too difficult to get ahold of. The SDCC exclusive Transformer Prime sets weren’t that hard, so fingers crossed for that to hold true.

Definitely going to be a must have for the the seemingly more game-accurate colours.

The “Rust In Peace” Transformers Prime SDCC exclusive is one that I will have to wait and see the price of before I commit to it. I already have the translucent purple Takara release of Zombie Cliffjumper on his way to me right now. Also, the packaging is just a little too morbid for my tastes.

Eep.

In the Cyberverse Commander series, we have an awesome Ultra Magnus. The Prime aesthetic with a the Animated homage is perfect.

Dreadwing, looks like we won’t be getting a Skyquake at all?

I actually have this guy sitting next to me, having found him at a Toys R Us on my post-Botcon roadtrip. Though the Legends-class and Cyberverse stuff usually goes to work with me, just like the Dark of the Moon Commanders that don’t have a larger toy, e.g. Powerglide, Guzzle, etc., the Prime Commanders that don’t have a corresponding larger toy will be in the Prime display at home.

Speaking of not having a larger toy, whether or not this guy will see a Hasbro release of his Voyager toy is still up in the air. This makes me very sad.

I still don’t know what to think about these Cyberverse battle suit guys. I like the playset idea a lot but I guess I am more worried about where they fit in, display-wise.

I guess Optimus Maximus doesn’t come with an Optimus Cyberverse repaint while Bumblebee’s Battle Suit does come with a Bumblebee repaint because Optimus is a Commander and Bumblebee is a Legion-scale figure?

Speaking of Bumblebees, I will most likely skip the Leader-class sized “Weaponizer” Bumblebee.

Still not decided on “Weaponizer” Optimus. With both the Deluxe and Voyager sized Primes, I will most likely pass on this one too. Of course, I said that about the ridiculously large Animated Roll Out Command Optimus Prime and somehow he ended up in my collection, so who knows?

I have a marked disinterest for the most part in the Kre-O stuff, with the exception of getting my hands on the Kreon of my favourite Autobot (and Fan’s Choice Hall of Fame Inductee!) Wheeljack.

The annoying part is that to get the little piece of pure awesome that is Kreon Wheeljack, I have to buy this guy…

…AND this guy. Why? Why must Wheeljack be in this “Street Showdown” two-pack with Knock Out?

Here’s a set I will be glad to purchase. For roughly $12 I get three vehicons Kreons…

…and a Cliffjumper! Awesome.

This Vortex Kre-O set caught my attention for its bright colours alone. Most likely not enough to get me to buy it, but it’s still pretty fantastic.

The Fall Of Cybertron Generations stuff was pretty amazing. Can’t wait to get my hands on Jazz.

Fall Of Cybertron Optimus is much more boxy than his War For Cybertron incarnation. Even after seeing it in person, I still can’t decide if I like it or not. Maybe the game will sway me one way or the other.

We’ve been needing a figure of this guy since the first game. He turned out wonderfully.

This is my current most anticipated figure from the Fall Of Cybertron stuff. Depending on how well they come off in the game, I might have to get a couple Insecticons.

Last but certainly not least, is my Botcon haul. I don’t usually to buy too many toys at the convention itself, I mainly just look for bargains. This year was a pretty good year for bargains, such as RotF Ramjet that I got for $5. I grabbed an RtS Bumblebee to turn into Hubcap, once Venksta’s “RF-008 Hub Scout” hits. I also have a tradition of grabbing a Kabaya kit, this year I was aiming for Hot Spot and Deathsaurus, and ended getting both of those as well as a free WfC Optimus. Though, my favourite find in the dealer room was getting my hands on Human Alliance Soundwave finally.

Botcon 2012: The Everything Else

This is the random “Stuff at the Con” post with a special little hangover from the Panels post.

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The hotel for the convention was amazing. Maybe a little too pricey, but definitely classy.

Wheeljack, my favourite Autobot and Fan Choice Hall of Fame inductee.

The Souvenir sets were spectacular this year. The “troop builder” set, the Insecticon-coloured Shattered Glass Junkions are wonderful, but my favourite has to be Classics Spinister.

The toy displays were impressive this year. I maintain the person that put the Kre-O one together had to have the most fun.

The Cyberverse display was a pile of duplicates having an all-out battle.

The Prime toyline battle was also a Transformers Clone War and sadly…

..underneath the display was the remains of a very deceased Cliffjumper.

Now that’s a display of fandom.

This graffiti-ed Utimate Optimus Prime was sitting over with the Hasbro folks.

The large TF Prime Optimus Prime spent the entire convention flipping off the Dealer floor.

The customs were sparse, but what was there was pretty awesome.

This custom Grandus was gigantic, the only drawback being the entire aircraft carrier worth of kibble hanging off his back.

Grandus’ base mode.

Grandus’ main alt mode was this aircraft carrier.

Using the Cobra Commander repaint of the Cobra Headmaster head and the repainted body of the 2010 Highbrow mold, we have the Cobra Commander headmaster. Brilliant.

In the category of “What Hasbro Should Have Done”, we have the three movie Wreckers weaponized in Deluxe class.

The first prize winning diorama, Very Angry Birds.

It actually took me a moment to realize that the rubble War For Cybertron Optimus Prime is standing on is the head of Trypticon. Pretty cool.

During the Transformers Collectors Club panel came the exciting announcement of their upcoming Figure Subscription Service.

Breakdown using the G2 Breakdown headsculpt was expected and very welcome.

Animated Jackpot, definitely not expected but awesome nonetheless.

The controversial choice, Scourge. I am firmly on the “Woohoo!!” side of that.

Slipstream finally gets her toy.

Glorious. My eyes hurt a little but it’s worth it.

Oh. Em. Gee. That is all.

And the free membership club toy, Depth Charge! Too much awesome.

 

Botcon 2012: The Panels

This year, the Botcon panels were brutal, at least on Saturday. Back-to-back panels with no lunch break was not the best plan. Coupled with the constant, on-going technical difficulties, that definitely made this the weakest year for panels in my experience.

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MSTF, the Transformers version of Mystery Science Theater 3000, was a blast this year. It was good to see it back again.

MSTF, now with more Troll-Fan-Impersonating-Muppets

More of the Adult Swim like segues between MSTF’ing

Ah, Tommy Kennedy, rife with potential for MSTF.

The MSTF folks demonstrate the dangers of the Hate Plague.

The panel of the always awesome Mr. Derrick J. Wyatt.

Just in case we didn’t already think he was awesome enough. Mr. Wyatt gave some free Animated toys to a little kid that asked, in all sincerity, why he could not see Transformers Animated on the TV any more.

The Garry Chalk and David Kaye panel started out a lot of fun, but soon devolved into painful awkwardness when fans continually asked them to “Do [so and so character] in [insert unfunny scenario here]. Garry tried his best to play along but you could tell David was over it.

As one of the only panels to address the actual toy design process, the TFCC panel is always one of my favourites. Here’s one of the breakdown sheets for this year’s ‘con exclusive Shattered Glass Treadshot.

More breakdowns for SG Treadshot.

Head turnarounds for the entire exclusive boxset.

The obligatory “No Photos Once The Panel Starts” photo of the Hasbro panel. This year had some good stuff, including the return of Generations in Voyager class! Sadly no mention of the TF Prime First Edition molds.

The “Bee in the City 2: Electric Boogaloo” reading was a hilariously entertaining cross-continuity romp.

I dropped by the Transformers Constuming panel long enough to take a photo of the amassed cosplayers.

Boton 2012: The Cosplay

Like last year, I am splitting my Botcon recap into four posts. This time it will be: the cosplay, the panels, the toys, and the everything else.

First up: the costumes continued to impress this year. Though not nearly as many as last year, Transformers Prime took my favourite costume with Breakdown.

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This tiny Optimus Prime (he’s five years old) was the first costume I saw at the convention. Too cute.

The tiniest Bumblebee at the Con was none too happy about having to stop for photos. Angry ‘Bee is aaaaadorable.

A different take on the usual Starscream girl outfit.

I can’t quite tell if she is just an anime girl who ran off with Drift’s sword or if she is meant to be the anime girl version of Drift.

Revenge of the Fallen Rampage was intricate and a toy-accurate yellow.

Can’t imagine the jokes the fanboys had regarding how effeminate Transformers Prime Knock Out was.

My favourite costume of the convention. Even if he is [SPOILERS] in the cartoon series.

Animated Swoop was my second favourite.

Swoop had an impressive and articulated wingspan.

Arcee was mobbed on her first pass through the hotel.

A girl, dressed as a girl Transformer? Unheard of.

Teenage… or a little over teenage Sari.

Crazy-face Animated Blitzwing, the best of the three Animated Blitzwings.

Animated Prowl made a Botcon return.

Slo-Mo, the time manipulating villainess from Transformers Animated.

Mostly, kinda sorta, entirely not really related to G1 Sideswipe. Shattered Glass Sideswipe!

Some of the official Shattered Glass universe is clever repainting related to established characters with reversed personalities, some of it is traditional paintjobs of established characters with reversed personalities, and then there’s the 2008 Botcon exclusive Shattered Glass Sideswipe. He is neither a clever repaint related to nor traditionally painted like Sideswipe. Heck, he doesn’t even have a reversed personality. Also, he now has a cute little boisterous, loudmouthed Mini-con friend, ironically named Whisper.

First up: his paintjob is from G2 Drench, complete with “Turbo” stamped on his tail-end.  Second: his personality is the reverse of Armada Wheeljack rather than Sideswipe. Second and a half: Armada Wheeljack is also where his toy’s mold comes from, explaining why he now has a Mini-con that triggers pop-up, gullwing-door mounted missile launchers.

If M.A.S.K. taught us anything, this is also a flight mode.

So, why is this guy Shattered Glass Sideswipe?

Because he basically has G1 Sideswipe’s head. For reasons that still mystify, the Takara designers that made the original Armada design of this toy gave him a Sideswipe homage for a head, despite neither Takara nor Hasbro calling the character Sideswipe.

Fine, so that’s why he’s Sideswipe rather than Shattered Glass Some Other Guy. Why the non-Sideswipe related personality?

With it’s sliced through Autobot symbol and tacked on Decepticon symbol — the Armada Wheeljack toy is specifically created to be an heroic Autobot who has gone over to the evil Decepticon side. This detail being built directly into the toy, Shattered Glass reverses the colours on his insignias and becomes an evil Autobot that has joined the side of the heroic Decepticons.

Once again, fine, that why he’s the ex-evil currently good guy and not some kind of reverse G1 Sideswipe. I really am fine with that, G1 Sideswipe’s personality was an extreme rule-bender with a penchant for underhanded tactics, the reverse of that sounds remarkably boring. Though the toy is definitely not one of my favourites to come out of the Armada line, most of my complaints are with the robot mode’s lack of useful articulation.

His paintjob works best in alt mode anyway so that’s usually how I display him. Speaking of which, why the G2 Drench paintjob? Because Hasbro was going to release a repaint of Armada Wheeljack as G2 Drench as a part of the Universe “Battle in a Box” subline but never did.

…What?

Seriously, Botcon folks, you had me up until then. The head and the chest detail went together perfectly to give us a Shattered Glass Sideswipe that is more interesting of a character than he should have been, but the paintjob is just an odd choice. They did justify the colour choice in his bio. In fact, it and the explanation of how he came to find himself on the other side of the battlelines pretty much makes up his entire bio,

“Once part of Prime’s elite Seeker unit, Sideswipe was feared as the most ruthless of the trio. Drench, the team’s leader, believed that there should be a balance between a stern hand and compassion. Though there was a difference in philosophy between the two, there was also a mutual respect. However, for Optimus, these were not traits he found appealing in his sub-commander and when the opportunity arose, he had Drench killed. Sideswipe, though ruthless, was loyal and did not agree with the fate that had been dealt to his fallen leader. Sensing a conflict in Sideswipe’s “loyalties,” Prime let Sideswipe walk into a staged ambush in which he and a fellow Autobot were left to die. Though the companion, who had been there by mistake, was killed, Sideswipe survived and ended up being accepted into the ranks of the Decepticons. While Sideswipe fights for different reasons than his new comrades, he fights nonetheless. As a tribute to his former commander, Sideswipe has taken the colors Drench once bore as a constant reminder to Prime that vengeance is coming.”

…Okay. Nevermind. You got me with that one. Shattered Glass Sideswipe takes on the paintjob of his dead boss to remind the psychopath Shattered Glass Optimus Prime that he’s going to revenge-kill him one day?

Well played, Botcon folks, well played.

‘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.)