Month: April 2014

1000 Visits!

Sorry I missed the Robot of the Week last week. I have been editing all the posts that you guys have been visiting every day this week. Making the images bigger and centering them, making the posts look nicer. My cousin Dave left us with photos that were only twice as large as thumbnails it seems at 220 pixels wide and just tossed into the post with no sense of order. So I decided bigger was better and went large with 350 pixels. The finish product is so much better, but I still haven’t fixed all the posts. Only the ones that are generating any visits/interest. This is time consuming work! I can definitely consider this a labor of love.

I am so excited to note we have had 1,000 visitors in 9 months!  We had 500 after 7 months in February, but doubled that in just 2 months now in April Hooray! The first four months there were 79 visits and that was mainly just me and my cousin.

This site was initially just homework for me to start learning WordPress, Google Analytics, and adsense, start cataloging my robots so I would know what I have(and my cousin would know for his trip to Japan in October last year), and now I want to see how far I can take the site as traffic has continued to grow. As more and more people check out the site, it seems like others share my love of robots old and new!

Dragun, Raider, & Poseidon Mattel Shogun Warriors

Here is your Robot of the Week! Beachcomber from the Generation 1 Transformers mini vehicles. So if it looks like I am doing a run of G1 mini vehicles, you would be correct. I will probably eventually do a run of Go-Bots from Generation 2 and Machine Robos when I get around to it. So Beachcomber is a pretty cool little robot. Stands good, you don’t have to extend the legs(like Bumblebee and Cliffjumper) which can cause issues down the line if you transform these baby’s long enough. Blue and gray work pretty good colorwise for this little dune buggy. It is a simple design, but simple can take you a long way when you got a nice looking dune buggy and decent looking robot as options. The transformation is simplistic as well, but it’s nice as I have done it about 3 times while writing this little blurb. The dune buggy mode reminds me of a Lego car. The pieces mold tightly together and you would hardly know it was a Transformers robot if not for the Autobot sticker on the hood. It’s a nice Generation 1 robot that really would not cost you much to add to your collection loose.

Beachcomber Generation 1 Autobot Hasbro 1985

This is a robot from the 80’s I have only seen online. I knew nothing about this series before I bought it, but I found it when I was searching for the Clover Gundam. It is from an anime series from one of the guys who brought you Mobile Suit Gundam. The Aura Battler Dunbine is a series based on knights  with robots  instead of armor. So if you dig medieval times with dragons and fairies, just throw in some kick ass robots and voila you have Aura Battler Dunbine.

Unfortunately, this is the last batch of toys Clover came out with before they went out of business. These little robots are amazingly heavy and full of die cast metal goodness. Too bad these are a bit clunky when compared to Takatoku’s amazing Valkyrie but this may be part of the reason Clover is not around anymore. The Gundam robots Clover made are really terrible design wise, but they have a heavy die cast metal appeal for me. The Virunvee is one of the better looking robots this line.

Here is the opening trailer. The robots are pretty sharp in the cartoon, not so much as a Chogokin. Looks like it might be worth an episode or two to check out.

Aura Battler Virunvee Clover 1/58 Scale 1983

Aura Battler Virunvee Clover 1/58 Scale 1983

Aura Battler Virunvee Clover 1/58 Scale 1983

Aura Battler Virunvee Clover 1/58 Scale 1983

When I first got this one, I was like nice. I have Bumblebee! It really looks like Bumblebee from the cartoon since I have the yellow version, but it is the wrong car. Bumblebee is a Volkswagon Bug, not a Porsche Turbo. The face really looks like Bumblebee though. While looking this up with Bumblebee I realized I had Cliffjumper and I mixed the two up. Hasbro made the choice to have Cliffjumper in red and yellow as a way to make the toy line look bigger. I dunno, six cars in the Mini Vehicles line is good enough as far as I can tell.

Cliffjumper Generation 1 Autobot 1984 Mini Vehicles

I enjoy the little guy as it is easy to transform. Not too stupid looking, but they could have put a little more effort into the hands and arms. Anyway figure since these Bumblebee and Cliffjumper both transform the same way and I confused the two, they will my Robot of the Week this week. Cliffjumper’s legs are a little loose after transforming him over the years. So the joints on the arms and legs are a bit loose and he does not stand or pose as well as he used to.

Cliffjumper G1 Transformers Hasbro Mini Vehicles 1984 car form