Opening Salvo
Well folks now begins CE version 3: Going Bi. I’m up this week while Mike has next; lets get to it.
Pluggin Away
OK fWo roll call:
Some people call him the Professor or Mike but to the fWo he is Big Sexy.
Next the guy that got the ball rolling and an OG if there ever was one Plutonium Boss.
Of course there is yours truly The Lone Wolf.
Because we need him; call him Elohim, call him Lord, we call him Vince.
You know him as Batesman but he is a MAN among men long live EzE.
Last but certainly not least our leader the almighty PK, Hollywood.
Toys: What I got, what they got and some news too
Not too much on the new toy front this week. I did ship my Pile of Loot from BBTS, which includes MP Starscream, and Prime with trailer, as well as Kiss play Autorooper. I’m kinda upset since the day after I had the stuff ship my 1:1 scale RoboCop gun came in then the day after that Kiss Play Hot Roddimus arrived. Well November is going to be a big month for my Pile of Loot. On the storefront I just picked up Classics Bumblebee. All I need is Megatron and I’ll have wave one of Classics complete. I did order that new Nerf Longshot from Hasbrotoyshop.com; I like it but again I’m pissed since they decided to split my order between two shipments, again. What else did I order you might ask? A pack of extra darts for my Nightfinder pistol. They are no bigger than a small box of crayons but hey, who am I to judge.
I guess the first thing I want to touch upon is the rumor-near fact that MP-05 will be Megatron and that he will be an oversized Walther P-90. Interesting fact, the Walther P-90 was actually an air soft pistol not a real gun. Another interesting fact is that while taking promotional pictures for the James Bond movie “Thunderball” the prop master did not have a Walther PPK and had to substitute a P-90. The photo of Sean Connery posing with the P-90 has become an iconic image of Bond, one that has been replicated for all the Bonds since. BBTS has already responded to some early inquiries that they would not be able to carry Megatron due to the fact that he will be a gun. Keeping in mind that they have, on occasion, had a G1 Megatron figure who looks like a normal sized gun as well as the E-Hobby repaint that features a brown finished handle that more closely resembles a real gun. It should go without saying that there is no way Hasbro would be carrying this item as well due to a gentleman’s agreement between the Federal Government and most toy companies not to produce replica firearms. Most fanboys on the net are understanding of the situation that BBTS faces especially since it’s not like there isn’t a dozen different ways to get Megs. What bothers me is a rumor, just a rumor I said. That some importers are getting fed up with Transformer collectors since they have taken serious losses on “Must have” collection pieces that haven’t sold well and might stop carrying foreign Transformers as a whole. I find some merit and some folly in this; while MP-03 Starscream did not sell to expectations and neither did MP-04, THS-02 Hybrid G1 Convoy sold better than expected so well that a second run of the figure had to be created. Granted that was due to the preview card for MP Starscream. Personally I don’t think importers will stop carrying TF’s and I think that BBTS and other stores will find a way to stock MP Megatron; if he is even made.
Bad news for international TF fans; it appears that the Classics Prime/Megatron two pack will not include the DVD that highlights the battles between the two over the course of Armada, Energon, and Cybertron. The going rumor is the DVD was going to be narrated by Gary Chalk since he played Prime during those years. I really don’t think ya’ll will be missing much.
The Wave 5 of SW/TF’s are hitting the shelves. This wave is comprised of Darth Vader as a repaint remold of the vehicle that Annakin and Obi Wan flew and an ARC-170 Starfighter; a remold of the Clone Trooper Mech. While I think this is cool I have main line Transformers higher up on the list.
Over in Japan Hyper hobby magazine features a report on there being two new Transformer lines for 2007. One will be the movie line while the second is believed to be the Classics line. One can only imagine what exclusive repaints we will see over there.
The Collectors Club is really turning things up a notch as we draw closer to the movie. This past week the club announced that the new comic in the back of the newsletter will focus on the Classics line. I can’t wait to see how they are going to pull this one off.
A Canadian voice actor named Brian Cox was auditioned for the live action Movie. He did two voices for three of the bots. It has not been revealed yet who the bots were and whether they were Autobot or Decepticon. The rumor around the web is that the Transformers will have two different voice types in the movie; one for their normal mode and one for their battle mode. Again that is just a rumor.
The Transformer Site(s) Of The Week
Confused about the new Kiss Player line out of Japan here is a site that can help:
Teletran-1: The Transformers Wiki– This is a site like Wikipedia but dedicated to Transformers. It features translations of the Kiss Play radio show as well as several Japanese hobby mags. Check it out, and hey; help build it up.
The Pros and Cons of Being a Transformer Fan
Will return in two weeks with a few things Hasbro can do to keep their positive momentum moving.
Parting Shots
Well next week it’s back to Mike; yes I missed him too, it was great to have my Padawan back.
The King of the Fanboys,
Charles
