The best looking ass in all Transformers belongs to this guy. Admit it, if you're a fan of G1, you've spent more time than you care to admit looking at the glorious ass of the Ark as it sticks up in the air from the base of Mt St. Hillary. A few years ago, Hasbro decided that the Ark need to become a Titan Transformer. I've often longed for an Ark playset and so grabbed this guy. What's he like?
Well, today I intend to reveal that very information to you.
The EPOS card is a Japanese credit card that often has cool artwork on the cards in a variety of flavours and they have just started producing 2 types of Transformers credit card. One features the comic artwork above and the other is a black card with the Autobot and Decepticon logos on them. To be honest, the cards looking bloody great. However the problem with EPOS and other Japanese CC companies is they don't have the reach that companies like VISA/Mastercard have, so really there is no point (They are also kind of expensive with monthly fees and whatnot).
Obviously I was not so interested in getting a card, already having a few and need only one. Plus, they are hesitant to offer them to non-Japanese people. They were offering some freebies if you applied, but you had to be successfully approved and I believe you also had to actually use the card before getting them. That's a few too many hoops for me to be bothered jumping through, so I didn't bother. Enough ranting about companies capitalistic tendencies...
I went to another pop up shop a bunch of years ago, and that one was just a tiny stand, so I wasn't expecting much.
 |
| Shining Series 01: Shining Roll Out |
I saw some of these guys on a Transformers Discord chat and thought they seemed decent enough and thought I would like to get at least one to experience for myself. While browsing the website, I saw they actually had a Shattered Glass Optimus Prime version and in the same box is a rather cool looking Grimlock too. Hrm, I says...
And then I had ordered a box with Shatty Prime and this single "Shining Version" of Optimus Prime. Essentially these guys are blind box purakit figures. That is, figures that you need to assemble yourself. I ended up actually using Aliexpress, because these guys don't have a Japanese distributor and even Amazon US seems to have a bit of a spotty range. And so this arrived in the post one day.
Hooo, boy. This little fellow I waited a while for. Some reason when I saw the original colour version of this guy from the EarthriseKingdom (all those lines blended together there...) line, I just had a feeling that there was a white version on the way eventually. Thus I held off buying and bided my time; lo and behold! I was blessed by the news that the toy coloured version (this one) was planned.
Kingdom is the purple one. I decided to not link to the TT page, as it'll eventually disappear.
Woot! Now I just had to pray to the Plastic Gods that Taktom saw fit to release him here. And they did, as a TT Mall exclusive (which there was a lot of going on at the time). While the exclusives were a pain, it did mean that I just had to be on the internet ball to get one.
Obviously I did. And here we are now.
More preamble to follow:
Moar DINOBOTS! Goddam life is good. Sludge is one that I always wanted as a kid and never got. I didn't get any of the Dinobots actually, until I got a gold box Snarl. The Studio series took the wind out of Takaratomy's Generations Selects coloured versions made from the POTP figures, but with nicer paint, and personally I appreciate that as these Studio Series ones are looking good and a leader sized = Darn bigguns.
Now it's time, after all the lovely fun I had with the Legacy Stunticons, I have finally managed to gather the whole team for the joy that is Menasor! YEAH.
Just for the record, here is the individual dudes:
Finally, it is time to finish this awesome little team with a group shot of monsters/robots and a combined batch of
Eeeeeeeevvvviiiiiiillllllll!
Good old Optimus Prime! What a champ, what an icon this red truck is. Here I have the Earthrise version of Optimus, which I rather put off getting for some reason. I heard that it was actually a pretty good figure with a rather nice transformation, but for whatever reason, I was never deeply compelled to hunt one down like I have with many, many other figures.
Were my initial feelings correct? Or had I made a huge mistake and the part of my life without this toy in my possession was a huge waste of never to be claimed again biological energy?
Here we are ladies and gentlethings, the last of the Stunticons has arrived! Not only that, it is my favourite character! Oh boy oh boy, the Legacy Stunticons have been pretty good so far and gotten some nice homage action going, I sure do hope they gave my beloved Breakdown the respect he deserves! I mean, the vehicle modes are all pretty different, while I can easily accept using the same bas transformation schematic, surely, surely they wouldn't just use a repaint and call it a day right?
Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Back when rumours were floating around about this guy, I raised a curious eyebrow. The rumours were saying that the trailer would be the base of Menasor and it was very G1 Cartoon looking.
I thought to myself, "You know, that might actually work!"
Then the pictures, it looked nice! Motormaster was to be a commander sized toy, which pleased me greatly. So far my experiences with Commander toys has been wonderful; Sky Lynx is a blast and Rodimus Prime is great fun. So there I was preparing myself for the unholy glory of the bullying leader, the first nemesis of Optimus Prime, the square headed tough guy, to blow me away.
Can he live up to the hype?
Stunticons, Stunticons, how shall I count the ways I love you?
One Mississippi, two Mississippi. Man, Mississippi is a strange word when you type it out.
Going along with my love for evil Decepticon cars, I have here the beautiful Wildrider. Having been stunned at the Delightful faithfulness of Dragstrip and being super impressed at how close Wildrider's vehicle mode looked to the original Ferrari 308 GTB, I had to get this guy. Plus I was determined to finish Menasor. So here I will be talking about the Legacy version of Wildrider as I count down to Menasor.
How is he?
 |
| Crappy editing dot com |
I heard about the Legacy Stunticons and a rumour soon started wafting about the internet saying that Motormaster's trailer would be a skeleton for Menasor. I immediately thought, hey that sounds cool and thus, another quest for Stunticons starts.
I previously thought the Unite Warriors Stunticons were fairly good. I still feel this way, but looking at these Legacy ones, they are a definite different breed. Today I'll be looking at Dragstrip. The Unite Warrior one was pretty good for a modern take of the character. The Animated one was an Arcee re-colour which managed to work reasonably well. Let's check this new one out.
Yes, I like the Stunticons...
Cyclonus of the Transformers has always been a bit of a loved chap by all. I remember my friend's one when I was a kid and I liked it, but never enough to want one then. Plus his forward swept wingyness always made me wonder if a plane of that design could realy fly. Oddly, yes they are a thing! Which is cool.
Anyhoo, with the advancement of technology, we eventually got Kingdom series Cyclonus. It's quite obvious this guy fits into the Studi Series line as well, but, hey who am I to care? Personally I found the old henkei henkei Cyclonus of yesteryear quite satisfactory.... Until I saw this one.
Hooooo baby!
Due partly (wholly) because of the Masterpiece referencing this comic, I got off my butt and translated it. Everyone's favourite made in Japan oversized ninja robot can be enjoyed easily by all.
This comic comes after the one included in the Legends release. Which you can read here:
Legends Nightbird Comic is here
Enjoy and thanks.
 |
| I have no Mouth(or do I?) but I must NOM |
What a doozy it is as well. 18 pages of fun insanity. It makes me wonder though, is this the start of the end of Generations Selects, or just this comic series? I hope just the comic series, as I am still awaiting Armada Prime that they showed of a couple of years ago (and it looked fantastic!!). Although I must admit I enjoy these comics immensely, so really I hope they continue in some form.
Just a Quicky.
A short review of the Quintesson Judge what came from Takara Tomy and changes into a base thing.
Give it a watch, it's only 5 minutes and you've probably wasted longer time than that on shittier videos on youtube.
Thanks.
Oooh baby.
Takara Tomy dropped another Select toy a while ago, and while I personally have no interest in it, I must admit it looks nice. They also dropped another comic book, continuing the adventures of Star Convoy, King Poseidon, Super(now Omega) Megatron and now Volcanicus!
I have taken the liberty of translating it.
Enjoy! As usual, my random thoughts theories and ramblings after the comic.
