Reveal the Shield – Optimus Prime (Legends Class)

This is the lone action figure I received for Christmas(from the wife).

Like Megatron, Optimus is one of three legends class figures that I wanted from this line(the third is Starscream).  Of the few Optimi(that’s plural, right?), that I own, this is the most reminiscent of our beloved G1 Optimus.  That’s one of the big reasons why I want the three that I do.  Let me tell you a story…

When I was a child, my younger brother and I could not like the same toys.  Now, we could both like the good guys or bad guys, but we couldn’t like the same characters(I’m sure this was the reason my brother and I never had that many conflicts when it came to choosing toys on the fly).  Well, for Transformers, my brother was the first to claim Optimus Prime as his favorite(and as such, we would always refer to ourselves as our favorite  characters, i.e.- “That’s me, Optimus Prime”).  This meant that I could never own an Optimus Prime figure(now my brother and I never discussed this, but we just knew).  To this day, it is a figure that I long to have in my collection(some day!*shakes fist*).  And, c’mon, who doesn’t like old-school Optimus Prime?

This one looks just as good in vehicle mode as it does in robot mode(I tend to lean to the robot side when it comes to Transformers).

He also looks great in robot mode.

I’m actually torn between the two.

Albany Comic-Con 2011

So, about a week and a half ago, I attended the Albany Comic-Con(this was my wife’s anniversary gift to me 🙂 ).  I’m not sure if this was it’s inaugural event or if it’s an annual thing.  This year was the first time in the 8 years I’ve lived here, that I have heard about it.

I’ve been to a few conventions in NYC before, and they were a pretty decent size.  This one was smaller, but it definitely had it’s charm.  To give you an idea, it was held in a Holiday Inn, and had two dealer and guest rooms.  There were a few different panels as well.  I attended the panel discussing action figure sculpting and creating.

There was a pretty big turnout, and there were many deals to be had(every dealer I met with was friendly and reasonable).  I won’t bore you to death with all the details, so we’ll get to the pictures.  Most of them are Star Wars related, but I’m pretty sure that’s okay with most of you.

All of the Star Wars costumes were top notch, and made up 60%-70% of the cosplaying crowd.  The Tusken Raider(or Sand Person) above, was one of two who even had sound effects and music playing(concealed within their costume and accessories) that were related to their character.

Now to the loot!

But before we get to that…I just want to show a few games that came in the mail around the same time I went to the convention.

Ultima isn’t a great game, but it’s an RPG that I have fond memories of.  I already have this game in my collection, but I got a great deal on a complete copy(the box is mint).  Wario Land:Super Mario Land III, is one of my all-time favorite Game Boy games.  This was another great deal that also included the game case and instruction manual.  I only realized that it was a foreign language manual when I got it in the mail.  Game Boy games are region-free, so it works fine on my Game Boy.  And the manual is not necessary for me to play this game.

And now to the Comic-Con loot!

That Punisher comic is one of my favorite comic book covers, and it was also the very first back issue I bought when I first got into comics.  The Marvel Universe is part of a series of of pages with pre-punched holes to be put into a 3 ring binder as a sort of reference book.  Both of those were 50 cents each.  The Jason goes to Hell was a bargain at 50 cents, considering it still has the cards in the sealed bag.  I don’t mean this to sound like it’s worth much.  I’m just a huge Friday the 13th fan, and getting a comic book and trading cards of Jason for 50 cents is great!  I have no idea about the Redfox comic.  But it was 50 cents, and I thought the cover looked pretty neat, so I took a chance.

The New Warriors was one of the titles I was heavily into when I first got into comics(along with The Punisher, Avengers West Coast and Marvel Comics Presents).  I couldn’t pas up the first issue for a dollar.  In my current collection, I don’t have any other New Warriors books.  I’m hoping I’ll like it as much as I did back then.  What The..?! is a parody of Marvel characters by Marvel.  It was done by Hilary Barta, who I have mentioned before.  I love his cartoony style and at 50 cents, I promptly snatched it up.  The 2 G.I. Joe and the Transformers comics were a buck a piece.  The first one is a Marvel one from the eighties, and the second one is an Image one from 2003(this one is actually G.I. Joe vs. Transformers).  It’ll be great to read all of these.

One seller had a bunch of polybagged issues of Wizard from the early days of the now-defunct “guide to comics”.  I picked out a fairly early issue that included some pretty cool premiums.  To the right, we have a press kit for the movie The Crow.  This is my all-time favorite movie.  This is a very cool find!  It has black and white 8×10 photos, 5 film stills and a press release about the movie, the actors and various other things pertaining to the movie.  I had no problem dropping the ten dollars the seller was asking for it.  Also pictures are 3 packs of trading cards.  The seller was selling certain packs of trading cards at 3 packs for $1.00.  The 3 packs I chose were The Worst From MAD, The Valiant Era and Adventures in Toon World.  I’ll be saving these packs, and may do a post where I open them and see what they contain.

And here is the star of  my purchases.

The Reveal the Shield line of Transformers has been virtually non-existent in my area.  I’ve barely see any of this line with in an hour’s drive of me.  And this was the first time that I saw any of the “Legends Class’ figures.   The dealer I bought this from had all of the Legends Class figures from this line, and if money wasn’t an object I would’ve bought them all.  Starscream is the next on my list if I can find him at a decent price.  Megatron cost me 7 bucks(not too bad), and Starscream was the same.  I just didn’t have the disposable cash at the time.

I think the figure looks great, and is a great representation of the G1 Megatron that we all love.  But I do have a few gripes about this figure.  The first will be apparent in the next photo.

That is one hell of a paint error!  I wish I would’ve noticed this before I bought it, or else I would’ve bought the other available Megatron(as long as the paint was better).  My second gripe is the rub sign almost came off.  It’s a sticker, and it was moving when pressure was applied to it.  I may have to super glue it to the figure to make sure it’s not lost in the future.

And my final gripe…

Is the orange cap on the barrel necessary?!  The original G1 figure was made of die-cast metal and was a full size gun, so I can understand the confusion in mistaking it for a real gun.  But is there any chance that anyone would confuse this tiny, very plastic looking toy for a real gun?

Still, I’m happy to add this Megatron to the collection.  And I’d say he’s worth picking up if you can find him.

Random Quickie #5 – 1984 G1 Megatron Instruction Manual

“Instruction Booklet” would be a more correct term.  But anyway.  We’ll take a look back to how even instruction manuals in the eighties were cool.

If you’ve read any of my Transformers reviews, you know that I feel the instruction manuals are pretty much useless.  But, back in the eighties, the manuals were a lot more pleasing to the eye.  Check this out.

I got this in a trade a couple of months ago, from Brian over at Cool and Collected.  I love Transformers, but I wanted this booklet for a more sentimental reason.  Megatron was my first ever Transformer.  Actually, my younger brother and I both received our own Megatrons on Christmas eve of  ’84 or ’85.  It’ll be a while before I’m able to score the figure on the secondary market(complete versions sell for $80+), but this is pretty cool for now.

Oh!  One other thing.  These old manuals use diagrams from the figures themselves, and look to be somewhat informative to the transformation process.

Mail Call!!

For the past week I’ve been waiting anxiously for a package to arrive in the mail.  Any time I know something is coming for me, I watch the mailbox like a hawk!  This package was coming from none other than Brian, the man behind Cool and Collected(check it out, I’ll still be here).  He had acquired some stuff he was taking offers on, and we made a deal.

Without further adieu…

These are some freebies Brian included(thanks, man!!).  I already have these McDonald’s Turtles, but I’ll find them a good home.  Plus some Garbage Pail Kids from 2003.  I thought those 2 were the only ones in the box, until my wife was breaking up the box and asked, “Should these be here?”.  There were a whole bunch more that slipped in under the flaps of the box, that were totally hidden from view!  Brian you really know how to make someone smile!

Here we have “ass-less” Army Ants.  These guys came with bright green abdomens, that were for some reason, removable.  Of course we kids would remove them and lose them shortly after.  I remember getting them suctioned to my tongue, like you would with the small tops of Bic pens.  I didn’t have any of these guys in my collection, so it’s not a big deal right now.  Also in this picture you’ll see Bumper from the The Crash Dummies line.  If I remember correctly, he was paired with Hubcat.

On the left we have Megatron from Transformers Animated(another freebie!).  I really dig the figures from the Animated line, and this was one I didn’t have.  He’s from “The Battle Begins” 2-pack from 2008.  I found the Optimus Prime from this set last year, you can see him here.  All I need is Optimus’ axe accessory, and I’ll be set.  To the right, we have Runabout from 1986.  He’s missing his arms, but still a nice addition to the collection.  The rub sign on this guy works even better than the new Reveal the Shield figures(and he’s 25 years old).

And this last one surprised the hell out of me.  It’s one of the aliens from Independance day.  I thought this guy was maybe 8 inches tall.  How wrong I was!

(“Release me.”)

This guy is like a foot tall!  He’s missing one of the tentacles that keep him balanced, but it doesn’t hinder him from standing up.  I put some new batteries in it, and the action features still work.  The “A” function just makes a loud alien noise, while the “B” function makes the noise, and the head splits open!  If you’ve seen the movie, you know this is basically an exo-suit for the actual aliens(who are way smaller).  This thing is awesome!  Now I have to find one of those little aliens(which I used to have years ago).

Thanks again Brian, not only did you give me a great deal, you made my week!