Pic of the Day 148 - Transformers

Ramjet, Walmart Exclusive Voyager class figure from Revenge of the Fallen movie line, by Hasbro.

Ramjet is one of the few Generation One Transformers I had as a kid. In fact, that figure still resides at my parents house, though quite worse for the wear. It has none of the attaching pieces, and is banged up and scuffed and scratched and looks like it's been heavily used.

My point being, Ramjet is one of the figures I have a nostalgic attachment to, so he (along with the other jets) is going to be one of the focuses of my new Transformers collection.

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Pic of the Day 147 - Transformers

Skystalker, Scout class figure from Revenge of the Fallen, by Hasbro.

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Pic of the Day 146 - Transformers

Dirge, from Revenge of the Fallen, Deluxe Class, by Hasbro.

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Pic of the Day 145 - Transformers

Masterpiece Skywarp, by Hasbro.

As I understand it, the Masterpiece line is for large scale, high quality Transformers, based on their original G1 design. So Skywarp here is the same F-15 design he was in 1984, and the robot mode looks very similar as well, but it's highly detailed and very articulated, as opposed to the original figure.

Skywarp is a Walmart exclusive, originally retailing for $60 I believe, he's currently on clearance for $30 at the few remaining locations I've seen him. I got this one far from home on an even better clearance price of $15. It was a cheap gateway drug that finally got me to start collecting Transformers, something I've fought against for over the last five years I've been collecting, because I knew that with my nostalgia for the old toys (not so much for the TV shows), I would want to get deeply involved in collecting the toys. As will be seen over the coming weeks.

Anyway, Skywarp is a great looking jet, quite large, and I'll show his robot mode some other time. More Transformers to come.

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Favorite DCUC Finals

You can go vote, I guess, if you want to. I'm not sure if I will.

Honestly, I don't care. Yes, both are really good figures, based on really good characters, but neither is what I what would call the Best DCUC Figure (which it is best, not favorite as I have been calling it. I don't know which I prefer, and therefore don't think I can call either of them the best of the line.

From the final four I would say Deathstroke is the best, great contrasting textures (chain mail and smooth), plus lotsa pouches (which are always cool), and most importantly, a lot of accessories, he comes with a handgun (and holster), a rifle, a bandoleer, a staff, a sword with sheath! Talk about Best DCUC figure. Plus, there was the unmasked variant, which has one of the best heads in the line.

There are probably others that I would contend are the Best, but I'm not going to go into that right now. Some possibilities include Lobo, Ares, Mongol, Cyborg Superman, Tech Suit Freeze, Big Barda, Man-Bat, Power Suit Lex, and Metallo, to name a few. Obviously what I think is best is either different from what others think, or else people were not voting for the best. Oh well, it was fun while I thought a figure I considered really great had a chance. Hope other people are pleased with the result.

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Favorite DCUC Vote Final Four

Get your votes in now!

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J W Rinzler returns with The Making of Empire Strikes Back

One of my favorite purchases during my 2 years of excessive Star Wars collecting was a book. A big, heavy, expensive and monumental book. The Making of Star Wars by J. W. Rinzler. (I should set myself up as an amazon affiliate if I'm going to be linking to $55 books). It had all sorts of fascinating info about what went into making one of the greatest films of all time, all gathered from interviews and such from back then. None of the rose-tinted memories, looking back after all of Star Wars' success, but from before anybody though it would amount to anything.

Well, when I learned earlier this year that Rinzler was coming out with a book based on the making of the best of the Star Wars films, I was quite interested. The price put me off a bit, since it is a hefty price for my current, much lower than three years ago budget, but for as much as I enjoyed the previous book (and have been thinking it's time to re-read it) I just can't pass this one up. So this evening I placed a pre-order for The Making of Empire Strikes Back by J. W. Rinzler. Amazon has a nifty Pre-Order Price Guarantee, and since it is $30 off the cover price, and Amazon's price will go up to list price when the book is released, I thought now was the time, expecting a May release date.

Yeah, it's not due out until October. At least I'll have it in time for my birthday.

The moral of this post is, go buy those books, they're the best ones about how Star Wars was created, that I know of (that's honestly not saying much). Also, the best documentary I've seen on this subject, is Empire of Dreams, from the 2004 DVD set of the Original Star Wars Trilogy. It's awesome.

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Quarter Finals in the Favorite DCUC Voting

Time to vote again! Voting goes through the second of April.

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