X-Transbots continues to evolve as a third-party company, and their latest entry, MX-44 Gravedigger, shows how far they’ve come. Designed as an homage to the G1 Constructicon Scavenger, this figure captures the classic look while adding modern articulation and improved engineering. It’s not perfect, but it’s another strong release that solidifies X-Transbots’ growing reputation for quality and innovation.
To accompany our YouTube video, here are all the photo's of our 2024 pick-ups.
Preamble
Soundwave is one of those toys that will forever hold a special place in my nostalgia, having being one of the first ‘proper’ Transformers toys I got as a kid. And let’s not forget that he was also a great, if mysterious, character in both the cartoon and comics. That said, it would not be until the late 90’s, possibly early 00’s that I became aware of Soundblaster! The resurrected version of Soundwave, risen from the ashes of battle and defeat at the hands of Blaster!
I’ll not keep you long on this one as to be fair, there isn’t really a lot to say. I’ll just start by saying that I wanted to pick up FT-26 ever since Fans Toys released their teaser video back in September of 2022. You know the one, the one with the jaunty music and Hitch look all outdoorsy near the stream and waterfall. After seeing that I felt all warm & fuzzy with my wallet ready to go.
Anyway, stuff came out in the meantime and Hitch got moved down the list of ‘would likes’… that was until last week!
Preamble
Released in 1986 the Battle Chargers had a similar auto-transformation gimmick that the Autobot Jumpstarters had from the previous year. A simple pull back and go mechanism which then activated a pop-up feature to give them their robot modes. At the time I had no interaction with the toys and as for the characters, I recall their appearances in the Marvel UK comics to be brief. I have since owned both the Battle Charger and Jumpstarter toys, but now reside in the care of another having long since being sold.
It’s amazing to me to think that Fans Toys first teased us with Inquisitor way back in 2015… that’s almost 10 years ago! It was a blurry silhouette but it had Masterpiece collectors intrigued. In that time we have had to put up with / enjoy X-Transbots Andras (depending on your point of view and collecting preferences). But since obtaining Quietus back in 2018, it has been a release I have been anticipating for some time. Of course Scourge has been represented upon my shelf by the aforementioned Andras, but like in all things, the new comes to supplant the old.
Preamble
Begun, the Devastator Wars have!
Okay, that’s a little dramatic I know but I’m not so sure I’m far off the mark here. Of all the offerings for a Masterpiece style Devastator that are to come, X-Transbots would not have been high on the list. Okay, maybe they would have made the top 5 but to get into the top 3… maybe even the top spot! This was something I’d not considered. But after having played around with MX-46 Big Load for a week, I’m thinking that all bets could be off!
We are almost done with January, February is looming on the horizon, much like the sun of the lengthening days. I’m a little later than usual with my year end look-back. I could make a plethora of excuses, each more dramatic than the other. The truth is two fold and quite unremarkable. Firstly I’d not been so well over Christmas and the New Year, still not 100% even now but getting there. And secondly, I’d really enjoyed not doing the whole social media / collecting thing over the festive period. I’d come to really appreciate not feeling the need to come up with new content, new camera angles and how to do my next Photoshop gimmick. But, there are still things I want to do so it’s back to it and where better to start than the retrospective of my collecting during 2023.
Preamble
Firmly cementing my plan of not collecting Legends scale figures, Newage’s H57EX Freyr arrived into the Vault back in early December. Their take on the G1 toy version of Swoop was easy for me to pass on, considering I don’t have any of the other Dinobots from them to date. Sticking to my guns, I fully intend to ignore the eventual releases of both Snarl and Slag, happy in the knowledge that I will then not have a full compliment of Dinobots!
Preamble
When Fans Toys announced their take on Jazz, a pre-order for FT-48 Jive was placed swiftly and without hesitation. All I had to do was sit back and wait… But even then I knew that eventually I’d be doing the ‘Double-Dip’ as my left big toe was telling me that a toy version would be along in due course… it was and here it is.
Preamble
What can I say… Well, I knew that when I picked up the DS version of Blaster that I’d end up having to get some cassette-bots for him. I had no intentions of going for the ones on offer due to scaling issues, besides I knew Ocular Max would have my back. I just had to be patient and wait… and wait I did. First up was Tempo, he was good but it was Rewind & Eject I really wanted… I would not be disappointed.
I liked Commander Stack, there were some teething issues shall we say, but these have been rectified and all is good. So much so that when they announced they would be doing the ‘Shining Magnus’ version, it was a done deal. This was a chance to not only grab myself a great figure but also to right a wrong I did myself around 20 years ago. The wrong I speak of is when I sold off my G1 Exclusive Deco C-69 ‘Shining’ Ultra Magnus (20th Century Toy Museum from December 2000). A decision that if I think about too much, regret can often flood in…. but, these things happen! Lets move on to the review shall we.
Preamble
It’s been well over a month now since Variator arrived into my collection, and for one reason or another I just don’t seem to have had time to put ‘pen to paper’ as it were to arrange my thoughts of him into something worthy of sharing. Well, I had some free time at the weekend and arranged various random thoughts into what follows below.
Preamble
At the time of writing the review for Modfans AL01S Ruller (the silver version), AL01T was still on pre-order and awaiting arrival into the Vault. Well he’s here now and I’m going to write a few words and take some pictures for you to look over. Oh hell, who am I kidding, I’m copying & pasting and maybe changing a line or two. As let’s be honest, aside from the colour, it’s the same bloody figure! So you can read on with an air of familiarity or just look at the lovely pictures, choose your fate!
Preamble
Modfans…. I’d heard that name before but I couldn’t place it. So, I took myself off to the Internet and soon found out where I’d seen it before. A few years back they produced a ‘talking’ fusion canon replacement for MP-36 Megatron that spoke English. With my thought niggle fully abated I could turn my focus to the figure that they were releasing, AL01S Ruller, or an MP version of a transforming Roller to you and me. Now I don’t usually hold much value in having things transform that hadn’t had that ability previously, for example; Cybertron, The Ark, The Nemesis etc… Don’t get me wrong, I can see the appeal but it’s not something that has really caught my attention. However after seeing the preview images of Ruller…. Modfans, you have my attention!
Preamble
As far back as I can remember, I have always liked the Omnibots. Which is curious as I have never actually had any physical experienced them, that is to say I have neither owned nor played with them. There have been numerous occasion where I could have owned them when I got back into collecting, but something else always seemed to take priority. For those that may be unaware, the Omnibots were offered as a mail away promotion billed as the ‘Reinforcements from Cybertron’ in 1985. To my knowledge, these mail away figures were never made available here in the UK.
Our friends over at Cosmic Toys approached us a while ago with a view to send me some traded-in items they have had. Asking me to take a quick look at, do some photo’s and write a word or two about them.
You may have already seen some of them, as I had previously categorised them under the “Half-Arsed Review” feature. However I have decided to ditch this in favour of a shortened and more straight to the point commentary, after all, they are items that they do hopefully intend to sell. But don’t worry, the Half-Arsed Review is still a thing but will be moved onto something else.
Honestly, I know very little about the Shattered Glass Universe, aside from the Autobots being the bad guys and the Decepticons being the good guys. Perhaps it’s just as straight forward as that, who knows?
However, as I’m looking at a figure and it’s merits therein, I don’t think I really need to know much past the base overview of the premise. Shall we get to it then?
Preamble
Wheelie was not a character or toy that I was ever interested in. My first introduction to him was in 1986 via the animated movie and then later, sporadic appearances in the Marvel UK comics. As you can guess, he didn’t leave that much of an impression upon me. Much later I happened to briefly own a G1 Wheelie that came into my possession via a lot that I’d bought. He didn’t stay very long, the toy being absolutely awful. I do have a G1 Wheelie now, but it has been foisted upon me as part of the Transformers Collection #20 two-pack, where he accompanies Kup…. yet another abysmal figure. That’s how it would have remained had not my questionable collecting choices buggered things up by deciding to branch out into Masterpiece versions of the animated movie characters from the official movie poster. It was at that moment I realised, I’d fucked up!