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
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
So here they are, just the pictures and no text as to be honest, there's nothing more really to say that I've not addressed in the previous blog entry, which you can view here. I'll also be discussing them over a live stream, the link to which I'll add to the bottom of this blog when it's done.
I’ll break this down by Month and then do an overview at the end, giving my best / worst figure of the year etc.
Right then, let’s crack on shall we?
Preamble
I chopped in my MP-22 Ultra Magnus early, pretty much a few days after the announcement from X-Transbots. I liked the look of their offering immediately, so much so I did what I did. I have previous form when it comes to Ultra Magnus, he was the first Optimus Prime I had. That doesn't make sense I know but it’s true.
