2023: A YEAR IN COLLECTING RETROSPECTIVE

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.

NEWAGE 57EX BOMBARDIER FREYR > REVIEW

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!

FANS TOYS FT-48X JIVE > REVIEW

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.

OCULAR MAX RMX-10 MOTIF & RMX-12 PITCH > REVIEW

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.

NEWAGE 56EX JUNGLE WARRIOR RHEDOSAURUS > REVIEW

Preamble

I’m not a Legends scale collector, and truth be told I have no intentions of becoming one. But that said, there are always those few figures that come along which grab your attention and somehow end up on your shelf.

The above was pretty much how I started the review for H-44EX Ymir, Newage’s version of Grimlock. I stand by those words but have to admit that Newage are making it very hard to do so. I always intended to pick up the rest of the Dinobots… and so here we now are with H-56EX Rhedosaurus, their take on Sludge.

X-TRANSBOTS MX-22CY COMMANDER STACK > REVIEW

Preamble

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.

FANS TOYS FT-56 VARIATOR > REVIEW

 

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.

TAKARA MP-45 BUMBLE > REVIEW

Preamble

Has it really been 4 years since this diminutive chap was released upon the Transformers collecting community? Oh how time flies! I had been of a mind to pick one up when he first came out but wasn’t over keen on the price point so I settled on two options: either wait for the price to come down if a second run was released, or pick up the inevitable knock off when that eventually surfaced. Now knowing myself and the luck (or lack there of) that surrounds me, it was obvious that the initial KO’s would sell out or there would be certain QC issues. Both of these scenarios would come to pass so I resigned myself to never having one or having to wait until Fans Toys eventually got around to doing their version, a possibility now made stronger after the release of Parkour. But, consider my ghast well and truly flabbered when Show.Z announced they were getting some stock of the MP-45 Bumble KO…… pre-order swiftly placed, it was now time to play the delivery waiting game.