Transformers Generations : Sergeant Kup

I got this figure last August at my local Wal-Mart.  At the time of it’s purchase, it was the first one I had seen locally.  But if you find any of the Generations figures in stores now, Sgt. Kup here is usually in the mix.

Now, while I’m a huge fan of G1 Transformers, I find Kup’s vehicle mode to be a nice upgrade compared to his original look.

While it looks nice, for some reason it seemed small to me(hence the quarters for comparison).  Maybe it because it’s a pickup truck, and not a car?  I especially like the clear plastic that makes up the tail lights(not shown).  Hasbro also did a great job in concealing his blaster when in vehicle mode(when he’s on his wheels that is).

And of course I think he looks awesome in robot mode.  If you’re around my age, I’m sure you remember Kup as a grizzled veteran with a fondness for telling old war stories.  And I’m happy to report that his face still conveys that G1 feel.  Plus, with the upgraded body, he looks even better.

As with all of the other Generations figures I’ve purchased, I find this to be a nice figure.  I would like to display all of my Generations figures in the same area, so it looks like some of my other Transformers are going to have to be swapped out, as room is at a premium right now.  I’ll try to get a group shot of my Generations figures up in a day of so(after I get them all together).

Weekend Finds

On Friday night, myself, my wife and a couple of friends headed out to Albany.  I’m sure you’ve heard me make mention of going to Albany at least a couple of times.  This is the closest place of major commerce in my area(not to mention it’s the state capital).  Before we even got in the car, I had one clear objective when we got out there….to find Transformers Generations Wheeljack.  With the luck I was having these past couple of months, I would’ve even settled for Thundercracker(I want both, but I would have been happy finding either of them).  Long story short.  I didn’t find either of them.  I checked Toys R Us, Target and a couple of places at the mall.  People selling these online are asking crazy money for these recently released toys, and the legit businesses are sold out.  Thinking about this was kind of depressing at the time(and still is), but I didn’t come home empty handed.  “Let’s begin, shall we?  Shall we?!”

The first place we hit when we reached Albany was Goodwill.  It’s pretty much the first place I stop at when we’re in the area.  I found some pretty cool stuff at a really great price.

Yet another McDonald’s Garfield glass that I didn’t have!  I’m thinking Mickey Dee’s ran a few different promotions for these glasses.  The reason I say this is because this one has copyrights for 1978, 1979 and 1980.  While the others I have are copyrighted 1978.  99 cents later and it’s in my cupboard.

Now, while these are all sports games, and aren’t worth much, they were games I didn’t have.  NHL ’94 was actually on my want list though.  I actually enjoy that game and there’s also memories attached to it as well.  These were 99 cents each, which is a nice price.

There were a bunch of these shirts on the rack in medium and large.  I usually have to get xl t-shirts, because they fit well.  They didn’t have any xl, so I thought I was out of luck.  Well, I bought a large one, and I’m wearing it now(it fits fine).  All of these shirts(featuring Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Jazz, Hot Rod and Grimlock), were brand new and priced to go at $3.99.

The next stop was Target.  While I didn’t have the luck with Transformers like I usually do at Target, I did find a really cool figure.

Apocalyse!  I’m not going to say much, as he’s up for review in the next post.  I’ve mentioned that he’s one of my favorite villains before, and now he’s got a figure that does him some justice.

Next was Toys R Us, but guess what?  I didn’t find anything!  The new Dark of the Moon toys aren’t really doing it for me.  Having Nascar Transformers totally flabbergasts me!  Ridiculous!!!!

At the FYE in the mall across the street from Toys R Us, I found a really great deal.

Pee-Wee’s Playhouse complete seasons 1 & 2 for $14.99!!  I could not pass this up as it normally sells for $29.99.  As one of my favorite shows ever, it was a blast to watch the first seven episodes this past weekend!  I’m actually looking to get the Playhouse playset(as well as the other toys in that line).  Next time, I’ll have to get the second set which has seasons 3-5.  This kind of made up for not finding Wheeljack.

Lastly, there was a game store next to the FYE, that was not there on previous visits.  This store sold Atari games, NES, SNES, Genesis and every other major console up the the current generation.  They did have a lot of games that I would have liked to have, but I had to be thrifty.  So for a total of $4.30, I got these 2 games.

These were $1.99 each.  It’s been a long time since I played T & C Surf Designs, and I’ve never played Alpha Mission(it’s from SNK, so it should be decent, I hope).  I collect for NES and SNES, so it’s not a matter if the games suck or not.  If the games are good, that’s a bonus, and they’ll actually get played more than once every year or two.  🙂

Thrust and ?

Happy New Year everyone!!

As you can tell from the title, Cybertronian Bumblebee remains untransformed.  I haven’t even attempted to try since the first time I failed.  I will get to it, since I really do like his vehicle mode.  When displayed, he will be posed in robot form, but I have to transform him for piece of mind.

Moving along.

The day after Christmas I found myself at Wal-Mart with my wife.  As I always do, I went to check out the selection in the toy aisle.  I went over to the Transformers section, not figuring to find anything new, or even a decent figure for that matter.  I perused the Generations pegs, and was surprised to see 3 of this guy.

Thrust is one of the “conehead” seeker jets(Thrust, Dirge and Ramjet).  Unlike Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker, in robot mode, the nose of the plane stays erect instead of folding back, hence the conehead title.

Knowing that we had some Christmas cash I snapped one off of the peg.  I took him to the check out and home we went.

One of the reasons I bought him was that he is a seeker.  The other is because he resembles the G1 Thrust almost to a tee.  In the package his 2 thrusters are attached to the rear stabilizers, while they’re shown on the wings on the reverse of the card.  There are six total places on the wings and stabilizers, so it doesn’t really matter where they’re at.  But if you’re looking to make him look closer to his G1 look, you want the thrusters on the wings.

In jet mode, he looks pretty cool, and the color scheme is pretty good looking as well.  Thrust is labeled as a level 2(easy) transformation, and this is a pretty straight forward.  That gives Thrust bonus points.  Because you may be able to decipher the first 3 steps, and then they just make no damn sense after that!

But as it is with so many Transformers, he looks best in his robot mode.  His articulation is pretty good and he has missiles that really fire(always a plus).

I went to go grab a beer, and when I came back, Thrust thought he stumbled upon an Energon cube.  But then I let him know that that was a late Christmas gift from my buddy Clark.

When I purchased that Bob-omb a couple of weeks back, there were 2 candies I didn’t buy because I couldn’t justify the price.  I got one of them as a gift from my wife, and then Clark goes and gets me the second one I wanted…Sweet!

Inside, there are 8 gummy squares(think fruit roll-ups, only thicker), with sprinkles on them, that make up 3 different Mario related objects(Starman, mushroom and coin).

These candies also have a great name, Snerdles candied fruit strips.  They’re pretty tasty, and surprisingly the sprinkles are more like sprinkles, and not like Nerds.  If these are what Energon cubes taste like, I can sort of understand whey the Autobots and Decepticons are at war.  🙂

Yard sale finds #4 + more

All of this was aquired over the last few days.

This past Saturday(yesterday), there was a village wide garage sale in the nearby village of Schoharie.  This is an annual event, but this was the second one held this year(I don’t believe that this has happened before).  It was a beautiful warm sunny day.  Perfect weather for an event like this.

Before we get started, I would like to state that all of the items in the pictures were aquired at the aforementioned village wide garage sale, except for the SNES games and the packaged Transformer(which were found at my younger brother’s house and Wal-Mart, respectively).

The journey begins this past Wednesday.  My fiancee and I went to go meet with a woman to design and make our wedding cake.  After we left, my fiancee suggested that we visit my younger brother, Jeff, who lived around the area we were in.  It was almost one year since I had last seen him, so I knew he would have a lot to show me.  I was checking out his SNES collection amd I came across two games I was interested in owning.  I asked him if he wanted to sell them, and he did.  I asked him how much he wanted for them, to which he replied, “Three bucks each”,(I’m assuming those are brother prices).

I selected Donkey Kong Country 3-Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble, and Castlevania IV*.  This particular Donkey Kong Country is the first in my current SNES collection.  I am very familiar with the first two games in this series, and I have maybe played this one once.  So, this is almost a new game experience for me…sweet!  The same could be said of the other title I selected, Castlevania IV*.  Now, I have played, and own the first two of the trilogy that was released for the NES in it’s prominence, but I don’t recall ever playing Castlevania on the SNES.  So…another new game experience.  This isn’t the first time my little bro has came through for me though, years ago he sold me Contra and Bugs Bunny’s Crazy Castle(both for the NES), for five bucks each(gotta be brother’s prices!!).

*-The front of the cartridge reads, “Super Castlevania IV”, while the top reads, “Castlevania IV”.  Now, this being the first Castlevania game for the SNES(of two I believe), I would think that, “Super Castlevania”, or, “Castlevnia IV” would be appropriate titles.

Fast forward to Friday afternoon.

Across the street from the local  Mobil gas station, there was a yard sale, where the proceeds from the sale, went to the local Lutheran church(I’m Roman-Catholic, but I don’t discriminate when it comes to a charitable cause).  Everything to be sold was donated by local people, and you determined the price you would donate for the items you wanted to purchase.  I donated two dollars for this awesome piece of video game history.

The box was in rough shape, and I took a shot in the dark, by not checking the contents within.  When I got home, I was astonished at my findings.

Released by Coleco in 1983, we have the “Kid Vid Voice Module”.  As you can see, it’s complete.  Aside from white gunk on the cord, this appears to never have been used.  The black cassette in the photo was in the player when I bought it.  As of this moment, I have not listened to it.  I should though, who knows what could be on it?

I decided to do a little research on my find, and here is what I learned…in general, “Smurfs Saves the Day” is a pretty rare title.  This seems to have everything that was included…instructions, pristine cartridge, ear piece, power cord, all three of the audio tapes(still factory sealed), the tape deck, mail surveys and advertisement, as well as original Coleco styrofoam.  I found that complete copies are in the range of $200, but this one seems unused, the cassettes are still sealed, and I don’t think anything is missing.  The box is pretty beat up, and a few pieces are ripped off, but they are inside the box**.  If I get any additional information, I’ll be sure to give an update.

**You can’t see the original price on the sticker in the picture, but this retailed for $64.95.  That price was crossed out with red pen and reduced to $39.95.  Best find ever?

Saturday.

Garage sales, yard sales, lawn sales and Wal-Mart.  Here’s the little things I found throughout the hunt.

The first finds of the day were a M.U.S.C.L.E and an unidentified doll/figure(1984 Mattel), for a donation of 50 cents.  They were aquired at the same sale that I found the Kid Vid the day before.  Grover and the little jack-o-lantern guy were found at one of the many sales for 5 cents a piece.  We’re at $2.60 so far.

The Transformers made three seperate appearances throughout the day.  Here are the ones that found their way to my home.

First up for 25 cents, is Optimus Prime, who looks to be of the “Transformers Animated” variety.  He’s stamped 2008 and was a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy.  The little purple and black guy is Storm Cloud(the woman at this sale told me to take it for free).  This Decepticon was part of the “Air Strike Patrol”, released in 1989 under the Micromasters line.  Last but not least, we have “Tracker Hound”.  He was the most extravagant purchase at $4.95.  He’s pretty reminiscent of his G1 design.  He will be opened and given his day in the sun.

Our next item is absent from the main photo, for two reasons.  One, the first picture(the one that I used), didn’t include it because I forgot about it.  And two, The picture I later took with it in the picture came out blurry, and I said, screw it!

This is one of the coolest mugs I have ever seen!  With Newport cigarettes everlasting slogan.  The bottom of this mug states that this mug is neither dishwasher nor microwave safe.  I believe that this was a give away promotional item originating from sometime in the early nineties.  If I remember correctly, this was at a time when there was cigarette branding on a wide variety of everday items, from fanny packs to keychains.  Bought for 25 cents at a thrift store down the road from where I bought that Herman book.

Speaking of Herman…

I stopped at the same place I bought the first Herman treasury.  I opted for the third and eighth treasuries at the same friendly price as last time.  A buck a piece. These people also have the treasuries that appeared in between the course of the ones pictured.  I’m a sucker for great literature.  🙂

Last up, we got three dvds, for a grand total of eight bucks.

Ghostbusters was found early in the day.  Marked for three dollars, haggled down to two dollars.  The Good Son was found at the last sale I stopped at for a dollar.  And while grocery shopping later that evening, I found “The Great Outdoors” in the $5.00 bin at Wal-Mart, during the same trip “Tracker Hound” was purchased on.

I’m guessing that this was the last hurrah for summer garage sales.  I found a lot of neat things and the thrill is definitely in the hunt.  Soon, we’ll be shifting gears to “Thrift store finds”.