Author: Con

Prowl is a nice piece to add your Masterpiece collection(probably the best one this year). I have yet to own one of the Masterpiece Editions, but this one is making me think about it. I usually try to add the cheaper new Transformers or pieces from the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s.

Prowl is one of my favorite Autobots and one of the better Generation 1 toys.  I never had one and this piece is so much nicer than the original G1 robot by far, but for the price I wish it was a little taller than 7 inches.  It looks so close to the cartoon version it is making me itch to see the old cartoons again. From the pose on the box it has much more articulation than the original, so poses will be much more fun than what you could do before. The police car transformation really looks great, but the robot form is where the toy really shines. What a beautiful version of Prowl. Though it seems a lot of people prefer the Takara version. The only big plus I can see is that the missile launchers shoot( I actually prefer the white missile launchers to the original black ones. They look too big). One other plus I see is the Takara box is so much smaller. The Hasbro box seems like a space waster. You can get either version on Amazon, eBay or ToysRUs.com.

Prowl Masterpiece MP-04 2014 Autobot Hasbro Intelligence Specialist

If you are going to pick up a Masterpiece robot Prowl blows away Sunstorm. And the Masterpiece Grimlock re-release is just another reissue. So they will likely put him back out again in some form or other.

Prowl Masterpiece MP-04 2014 Autobot Hasbro Intelligence Specialist

On a recent trek to Toys R’ Us I found a stack of Masterpiece Sunstorms. It was a pleasant surprise and they were fun to look at. I am afraid that the bright yellow color is so ugly, that I will never seriously consider adding this piece to my collection. Maybe if they blow Sunstorm out here on clearance for $30, but I will not be paying $79.99 to add this Toys R’ Us exclusive due to limited funds and space.

I do not have a Masterpiece Seeker in my collection and would love to add one of the other ones like Skywarp, Thundercracker, or Starscream, but Sunstorm is very low on my list. I wish they had chosen another robot for the Masterpiece edition. Say Shockwave or Arcee.  Instead they do a redeco of Takara’s Masterpiece MP-11 Starscream mold, which kinda tells me they are too lazy to make a new mold. They are really milking this one.  The sculpt is the same one they used on the Acid Storm and Thundercracker which were also Toys R Us exclusives as well. It is an amazing sculpt and I do not blame them for re-using it, but it would be nice to get some new original product. Maybe if they used the orange/goldish color in the first cartoon I would actually be interested in this robot.

Sunstorm Masterpiece MP-05 Masterpiece Edition 2014 Hasbro Decepticon Spark Hunter

Sunstorm Masterpiece MP-05 Masterpiece Edition 2014 Hasbro Decepticon Spark Hunter

I have been working on Dave’s Collection page for 3 weeks. I was trying to figure out why it loaded so slow. Sure, it has a lot of pictures, but that was not it. I found out all the images on the page were 2448 x 3264 pixels which is the default on my cousins’ camera on his phone. While resizing them my image editor says they are 30 MB each in PNG format in the original dimensions, but that cant be right. So 145 images at 30 mb would be 4.35 gb right? No wonder the page takes so long to load.

I checked the format and it looks like he used JPEG format which brought them down to 2MB each on the 2448 x 3264 pixels. Still, 290 MB of images on the page would take forever to load. I may need to reconsider using PNG files if they are space hogs.

Anyway, sorry there hasn’t been any new robot posts on the site. I have plenty to go through of my own(I even have 5 new ones. I have a Bismarck DX, Daileon DX, Machine Robo MR-02, Ninja Senshi Kurojishi DX, and a train transformer from Dave), but I have been going over my cousin’s as he puts out his posts profusely. But he is done with his entire collection, all his robots are up. But I am still slogging through the images of his Macross robots and still have to run edits on the Transformers robot images. Since I am editing his images, I might as well fix his posts to use the newer images so they load quicker too.

I will eventually put up my G1 Transformers, G2, Beast Wars, Machine Wars, Jumbo Machinders, Macross, various other Japanese robots and the rest of my Shogun Warriors. I tend to be more meticulous and spend more time on my comments and images than Dave.

I have added ebay search links and Amazon Ads to some of the posts so you can buy the exact same robots shown on the site or at least similar robots. The Store link on the site is my Amazon store. Any purchases you make will help me keep this site up. So next time you feel like buying a robot, click through one of the site links. Thanks

CCC

So I bought the Yamato Shin Getter Robo Repaint in San Francisco in the early 2000’s. I am thinking 2004 since the anime for Getter Robo: Armageddon/Shin Getter Robo came out then. I don’t see much info on it out there, so I don’t know when it came out. I may need to run a search in Japanese to find out more.

You can’t tell by looking at it, but it is a big piece. I like to think of it as a Mini Machinder as it is a big vinyl Japanese robot. If you check out the back image of the box you can see it comes with a humongous axe!  The pole on the axe is like 15 inches long and with the Tomahawk blade  it is 20 which is awesome. The robot runs about 12 inches tall. Shin Getter 1 Robo is a pretty nice looking robot and the wings are really a nice touch. I almost think they are there to help Shin Getter stand. The wings remind me of an dragon, the wings on Great Mazinga or Mazinkaiser.

It’s a good looking revamp of the old anime robots from Getter Robo. I like the deep blue color, more than the red one you usually see on this robot.  I will have to check the anime on it as I was a fan of the old anime. I am afraid I only bought this because it was cheap($29.99!), but the anime sounds interesting as it supposedly goes in a more serious, darker path than the original anime.

This robot was made by Yamato/Toycom. I don’t have many robots by Yamato. I think I only have two. It’s hard to tell when the writing is all in Japanese. Oddly enough, I never opened this one.

Yamato Shin Getter Robo Days of Apocalypse – Repaint Version 2004

Shin Getter Robo Days of Apocalypse Yamato – Repaint Version 2004

Yamato Shin Getter Robo Days of Apocalypse – Repaint Version 2004

Here is the Giant Gorg DX. The DX robot is actually pretty rare. I hardly ever see this one listed for sale. I bid a few times on this one in a few auctions and it was long time before I ever saw it listed again.

Since it was not the most popular anime, I am thinking this piece came out in limited distribution. I actually watched a few episodes and it was pretty solid. I found review of it online here so I may get around to watching the whole series later. It’s about a boy who makes friends with a big blue robot in the South Pacific on mysterious Austral Island. A large international corporation GAIL pursues them as they search for treasure on the island.

Big Blue is pretty cool. It does not transform, but I really like the idea of a big blue robot aside from Tetsjujin 28. The DX version is so much better than the ST version I have. This ST robot is really disappointing based on the ST versions from Popy which came out at the same time which seem superior to DX versions in many cases. The proportions, detail and, quality really show on this piece. It really makes me wonder if the same company made both of them. Articulation kinda sucks on Gorg, but I really don’t expect much on robots from the 80’s. I just want a good looking robot with die cast metal. Based on what I see. The Giant Gorg DX has it all.

Giant Gorg DX 1984 Takara from anime Giant Gorg(巨神ゴーグ Kyoshin Gorg?) 1984 1/48 scale

Giant Gorg DX 1984 Takara 1/48 scale from anime Kyoshin Gorg(巨神ゴーグ) 1984

This is a pretty nice Toys R’ Us exclusive. The Transformers Age of Extinction Grimlock Evolution 2-Pack comes with a classic Generation 1 like Grimlock based on the classic 1984 cartoon and the Age of Extinction 2014 version from the movie.

If you don’t want to pay big money for a G1 Grimlock, here is a cheaper option you can pick. I do not have Grimlock yet, so it is an option I am thinking about. I have been eyeballing the dark blue Generation 2 Grimlock as my cousin already has the G1 version. But what I like about this one is that the head is not a teeny weeny wee little thing like the original Generation 1 release. The new Grimlock looks really nice, but I haven’t gotten around to seeing the movie yet. So I do not have any attachment to it like I do for the G1 Grimlock redux.

Transformers Grimlock Age of Extinction Evolution 2-Pack 1984 to 2014

Both robots change to Dino mode or into a tyrannosaurus rex.

I found these Platinum Series Optimus Prime & Supreme Starscream at the local Toys R’ Us. Both are repaints of previous releases, which is disappointing. You would think on the 30th Anniversary, they would provide us with some new products. I don’t care much for the gold grill on Optimus Prime, but it is a marvelous piece aside from that. I really do not understand why some robots are re-released in gold versions. They all look terrible.

I went through all my robots and found out I do not yet have a G1 version of Optimus Prime. I am sure they will issue another 2 or 3 in the next 5 years so I can wait. I am tempted to save up and buy the Transformers Optimus Prime 20th Anniversary Figure as I feel it is the best Optimus G1 figure I have ever seen.
Now the Starscream I am thinking about picking it up. It looks great as a robot and the ship it turns into reminds me of the Ark. Looks like this is a shared exclusive with Big Bad Toy Store. They are both nice pieces, but the boxes are so big. I am reluctant to add a piece with such a large box. I am sure if I had the space, I would have them all.

Platinum Series Year of the Horse Optimus Prime 2014 30th Anniversary

Platinum Series Year of the Horse Optimus Prime 2014 30th Anniversary

Platinum Series Year of the Horse Supreme Starscream 2014 30th Anniversary

Platinum Series Year of the Horse Supreme Starscream 2014 30th Anniversary