The True Cost of Customising

(pictures added tomorrow, honest...)

A lot has been written about the cost of customised toys recently, with several high-end customs by the top names in obscure niche geekdom selling for over $1,000.  People seem to think these things cost the price of the figure, and a bit of paint.  I thought it would be interesting to show a breakdown of just how much cost can go into just one single custom.

I'm picking an example of a recent custom, just to let people know what they're in for.  The example I've chosen is my recent Black Tracks figure, as it's a "simple" custom.  This is not a HOW TO guide, this is a glimpse into the costs involved.

1 - The Base Figure - £10-25
Turbo Tracks, released by Hasbro.  Use this mold if you have it sat in your collection, contemplate buying the United version for your collection to replace it.  This a good rule I feel for any custom, use the cheap version if possible.

2 - Precision Screw-driver Set - £6-15
Like a lot of items on this list, there is a wide spectrum of price variation.  As with all things in life, you get what you pay for.  A $500 call girl gets you a night in Vegas you won't forget, a $50 hooker does the same thing on paper, but gives you herpes.
Yeah, first thing you have to do is disassemble that bad boy.  Don't lose any bits now.  You'll need containers for small bits, and probably some pin punchers to remove that bastard pin running through the windshield.

3 - Soldering Iron - £7 - £25
This has been proven by hundreds of customisers as the best way of removing Transformers tyres.  Again, I'm not explaining how, there are plenty of guides for that, but you will need a soldering iron.

4 - Lavender - £3 (from any good herbal type shop)
You dropped the soldering iron on your leg!  Ouch!  That smarts mother fucker, you won't do that again.  Now you know what your girlfriend risks every time she straightens her hair.  At least you missed the carpet, right?  It's good to have Lavender on hand to treat burns.  Sounds effeminate, but we're taking apart (toy) cars with tools so we're butch men really.

5 - New carpet - price varies, excluded from final.
Move the coffee table to cover it.

6 - Nail Varnish Remover - Free from girlfriends make up bag / Isopropyl Alcohol - £5
Again, there is a cheap option here, but I guarantee that if you use all the nail varnish remover you'll never hear the end of it and really, that stuff EATS through plastic and is a pain in the arse to remove all paint.  Go for the extra expense, and bathe your parts in isopropyl alcohol for 24 hours and rub that paint away with ease and use an old toothbrush (free!) for any grooves or corners.

7 - RIT dye - £4 per colour
This is the dye to use, trouble is it doesn't get sold in the UK.  Look for it on ebay.  I only trust black so far, and you need to experiment with a junker for resistance, finding the temperature that works for you with your equipment.  Again, I know how but I'm not telling you here, that's not what this is for (about 170 seems right), but I will tell you this...read all the tutorials you can so you go in with a couple of methods to try, and for god sake, don't breathe in RIT dye or acetone as vapours from the heating procedure.

8- Acetone - £4
Not expensive, but another small expense.  This stuff added in small quantities helps the plastic take the dye, rather than it just washing off after all your hard work.  Again, experiment, but DON'T breathe it in.

9 - MSDS sheets - free, on the internet.
I'm nearly two weeks out from my big RIT / Acetone experiment and my respiratory tract is still suffering.  If in doubt, look up the medical science data sheet for any potentially harmful materials you may expose yourselves to.  A lot of  customisers skip this step, but it's a free resource, so use it, lest the true cost of customising end up being even higher.

10 - The Junker - £3- ???
Yeah, that sucker wasn't free. It may be junk now, but chances are somewhere along the way this figure cost you money.  Luckily, as your customising grows over time, so will your pile of parts and crap you don't want.
In fact, junker doesn't just apply to toys, because not everything you need for customising has to be bought new, you can use an old jar for holding isopropyl or other chemicals, you can find an old shit pan at the back of the cupboard - that no-one remembers buying and was somehow inherited - for your dyeing experiment.

11 - Spray paints - £7 each
Why do I need spray if I'm dyeing a figure?
Dyeing is great for bodywork for a nice factory gloss finish, and is great for joints as it doesn't rub off or increase the thickness by .5mil and create clearance / tolerance issues, but you can dye every part.  If you dye the windshield of Turbo Tracks it will look wicked black, but you might find the window is a lot less...windowy than before (yes, I could get into opacity, but lets keep it layman, yes?).
If you've ever noticed that some Transformers age differently, or just have different shades out the box, this is the difference between coloured plastic, and painted transparent plastic.  Classics Sunstreaker is the best example of this I can think of.  Heck, even my actual car suffers from this after 15 years (a Pontiac Firebird, the plastic nosecone / bumper looks quite different to the paintwork now).
I also opted for spray paints for the grey parts of Black Tracks, as my first experiment with grey dye didn't work the way I wanted it to and was too dark.  Yes, I actually made two Black Tracks at the same time, this offsets costs and gives me a bit more room to experiment, and means I can sell off one if all goes well.
So for some parts you're going to need to paint, and I ALWAYS recommend a base coat, of course before you do that I recommend...

12 - Masking tape - £2
Yeah, it's cheap enough.  The real cost here is to your time and patience.  I've found I've had to get real good at fitting tiny amounts of masking tape to small detailing, or window frames, and huge swathes of masking tapes to joints and parts you don't want covered in paint.
Sure, it's a pain in the ass, and another - admittedly negligible - expense, but taking the time to properly prep is paramount, and worthy of special mention in this increasingly more tutorially, not a "how to" guide.
So you've masked, you're almost ready to spray...

13- Mask - £5 - £25
A cheap mask will protect you from particulates, but these are better for dust than they are for aerosol,and they offer virtually no protection against vapours.  Look at what you're doing, look at your work space and the chemicals you're using and buy accordingly.  Sorry to harp on about protecting your lungs, but I don't want you all developing Yoda lung.

14 - Paints - (cost seemingly endless) £2 each
Okay, you're dyeing the figure, and your using sprays to base coat bigger areas.  But damn, what about detailing?  In this case, Tracks needs a quick bit of colour on his faceplate.  Gold for e-hobby homage, light blue for Takara tribute, the choice is yours.  Most figures will need more, but luckily, this was just a "simple" black repaint.
You can see on mine I've neglected to get around to this yet, I just don't want to rush the final touch before I find the perfect shade.
I also opted to use a gloss paint for his chest, as this tends to be what Hasbro would use, and as I didn't have any gloss black spray I opted for hand painting. Very, very light application prevents heavy brush strokes, but you should know this.

15 - Random Tools - £10 - £30
Pin punch set, pliers, scalpel, file, sanding paper, paint brushes...
The chances are the more tools you have, the less frustrating the experience.  I found a small watchmakers kit had everything I needed, and this means next time someone drops a nuke I can re-enact a scene from Watchmen.

16 - Stickers - £1 - £15
For that finishing touch, you can't beat a good set of repro labels.  I wouldn't say they are essential, I'd say they may be essential depending on your custom.  Many people will opt for Repro Label Flames for their Black Tracks, I didn't for two reasons.  One, I've never applied the sticker to my eHobby Lucky Draw Black Tracks and I wanted this to match, and two, I have a happy accident - a light ghostly flame effect is visible through the black dye showing where the old flame pattern used to be.  I guess where the paint was affected the plastic even with it removed, this never happened with the paint removal on Generations Wheeljack - (which definitely needed a sticker set to finish the conversion to Marlboor), but like I said, happy accident, it looks cool and I'm keeping it that way.
Sticker wise, I was happy with a simple Autobot logo, long ago purchased en masse from Repro Labels.

Total Cost - £100
(estimate looking at what I paid for all the parts I used in making this custom, suddenly Botcon Road Rage doesn't seem so bad, huh?)

---------------------------------------------

Crazy, huh?  Now obviously, with a lot of those items you only need to buy them once and then you have them for future customs as well, but just looking at it as set-up costs for your first custom, then it becomes pretty apparent that it is not a poor mans hobby.  I guess there are fixed costs (tools, masking tape, base coat) and then variable costs (additonal parts, new colours, stickers etc...), but really when it comes to customising it's up to you how far down the rabbit hole you go.  This was also an incredibly easy custom.  No parts swaps, kitbashing, glueing, dremelling, articulation adding...not even an add-on head from Shapeways coming soon I promise.

The biggest variable cost though, is time. How much is your time worth?  If I was working and earning $100 an hour, it would certainly be more cost effective to hire some bastard to do the work for me, but then there is the question of effort vs. reward.  There is something very satisfying about investing your own time into making your own custom, something that makes the whole process mean more than another Takara variant.

Bear in mind as well, this cost break down presumes that this first custom attempt goes flawlessly.  It won't.  Even after experimenting with the temperature and immersion time for RIT dye for nearly two (ill making) hours, I still managed to fuck up the first part I submerged that actually mattered.  I did everything right, but the plastic on Turbo Tracks is flimsier than the plastic on a (shitty) ROTF Soundwave, and as such it was much less resilient to warping.  I dropped the temperature and fixed the problem, but the damage was done and I needed a new Tracks figure to replace these two essential parts.

So there you have it, if you haven't entered the world of customising, you now know more than you did and can go into it with a muchclearer idea of what it will cost you.  If you already customise, then I've just wasted your time and probably depressed you a little bit.

Customising is more about learning from your own mistakes and forming preferences and skill sets that work for you, rather than following a tutorial or "how to" guide.  Not that I am against those...

The Official Transformers Customiser Field Guide

WARNING:  This blog is in no way an official guide to Transformers of any kind, and features just one reference to fields.  Two if you include that reference.

There has been an awful lot said about the world of Transformers customisation over the last few years.  Some people blame it for the rise of the third party toy, some people love them for the ingenuity, some people think the Radicon section is nowadays little more than a link to Shapeways stores or ebay pages, to others it’s a hobby and the only way to get that all important niche figure.  Well a few things are for certain, it’s an ingrained part of the TF hobby and it’s not going anywhere fast.

Like most fanboy hobbies, there has always been a hardcore segment of the fan base that links to tinker.  Either arguing that something wasn’t done right in the first place, of that their thousands of hours painting miniature goblins and orks instead of chasing girls when they were young can be applied to a different hobby, and that they can do it better than Hasbro can.
As the hobby has grown on - and Hasbros continual desire to alienate their hardcore audience who meant that they still had a franchise to develop into a billion dollar brand – more and more fans have taken up the mantle of customiser in an attempt to Quantum Leap their Transformer collection and finally finish that all important CHUG 1984 line-up.  Or they just really need a pink Outback.

There are several types of customiser, and they can be identified using this handy-dandy guide:

The “My Mum says I’m talented”

Motto:  Now I can make everyone look like Hooligan!

"I'm special"

What these guys lack in talent, they make up for with enthusiasm.  They’ve got the toy and a picture of how it could look in their head, and very little else.  No disassembly, no base coat, heavy brush strokes, no real materials except what was kicking about under their bed with that Enterprise model kit they never quite got around to starting (modified Enterprise D with the extra warp nacelle from "All Good Things..." for those that care).  The finished product never quite looks like they imagined it would, but they still think it’s the most awesome thing in the world ever and insist on showing it to everyone they know in the world.  

Both of whom like it.

The Warrior

Motto: Dude!!!!!!!!!! Battle damage?

For the customiser with the love of random repaints, usually a stoner, who love tweaking toys but are not so good at giving it the perfect finish.  No, it’s much easier to filthy up the toy and claim it was intentional.  Slip with a scalpel?  War wound.  Shitty paint job?  Duh, off road 4x4 pick up mud, dumb-ass.  Burnt a hole with the soldering iron?  Carbon scorring dude!  It’s battle damage, right? 

Yeah, no.  Fuck off.  I’m sure they’ll blend right in to your official toy collection looking like that.

The Combiner Harvester

Motto:  Hmm, a spare Unicron body?

They're renaming the episode
"Grimlocks Big Wallet"

Many a Transformers fan first noticed that Transformers customs could be more than repainting every Starscream black or blue with the proliferation of Devastator and other combiners that Hasbro decide don’t have a place in their market.  With three or four Hasbro Transformers and a little imagination (or lack thereof), and a spare Unicron or two, anyone can paint a few constructicon vehicles green, stick them on a Unicron and voila, Sort-of-Devastator.  Another popular custom idea is to get a few cars, paint them Stunticon colours, fasten them to a Unicron body and voila, instant Sort-of-Menasor.

Okay, that might be undermining a lot of peoples attempts, and certainly it downplays the amount of work that goes into these custom, which still fetch a huge price on eBay even with the recent uprising of third party companies.  As this ebay sale of the recently sold King Octox Computron (pictured) can attest to, with a hefty final sale of $1,575, when they're done well, they're done very well.

For many people, this was the intro and endgame to customising, but TFC’s definitive Hercules toy has left  a million Unicron torsos unloved, soon to be filling a major landfill site near ET for the Atari 2600.

The Cheapskate

Motto:  How much?

And I only had to make all the white black
and all the black white.  EASY!

Hasbro / Takara announce a toy.  An exclusive toy.  An expensive exclusive toy.

The Cheapskate can make that toy, and dude, it will only cost ten bucks, which is way more than they should have to pay for a god-damned deluxe in the first place, and they remember when a basic would cost £7, all the trees were fields and all these buildings had businesses being all industry in them and men were men and nothing had warning labels and politicians were bastards but they were our bastards and...

Yeah, the cheapskate can make that toy, cheaper than Hasbro can make it.  And they only spent £10 on the toy.  Win.

Although, they did spend £12 on paints, £6 on brushes, £2 on white spirit, £49 replacing the table in the front room they stripped the lacquer off with white spirit before the wife sees it, and two days off work to make the figure / rebuild the flat-pack table (probably minimum wage, say £48 a day).  Yeah, they're “winners” alright.

The Toy Goth

Motto:  Do you do that in black? 

I like toys.  I have some.  I’d like more.  I’ll buy it again.  What colour to paint it?  Hmm, black goes with anything.  No seriously, anything.

Guilty as charged on this one, but I blame Takara for launching a million black repaints before I even though about picking up dye or spray. 

Yeah, it’s lazy, yeah, it’s unimaginative.  But damn, do they look good?  And how well do black base coats turn out.  CHUG Black Tracks?  Check.  G2 Drag-strip?  Check.  Black G1 Overlord…well, give me time.

The Shapeways Whore

Motto:  Dude, when you get a second can you make me…

Damn, I identify with these guys as well.

We all know that one guy who is fucking awesome, and has recently taken the plunge to full 3D design.  Maybe he has a Shapeways account like Calloway Customs, maybe you can convince him that it’s really about time Needlenose had an accurate modern day interpretation and he needs to make the head.

The best thing about knowing one of these guys is anything is possible.

The best thing about being one of these guys is anything is possible if there were just a few more hours in the day.

The worst thing about both, is that anything is possible.  Every single toy released could do with a new head and a paint job to be that guy, or a new set of wings and a gun, or a new engine block and a strap-on.  Suddenly, the hours go by, the orders mount up, costs go through the roof and WIP projects keep being put on hold waiting for that one new part which will make it perfect.  The only way to make it work is to become…

The Mold Master

Dare to be $11 per add-on?

Motto:  It’s in the post.  I sent it yesterday.

These guys have taken the love of their hobby and turned it into a way of making a nice little extra on the side, with add-on kits.  Maiden Japan and Venkstas Renderform are my favourite of these little entrepreneurs.  Ingenuity and knowing your market are the name of the game here, competing against other add-on kits and third party companies. 
Maybe your troop builders need a little more variety, maybe you need to be able to recreate a 3D diorama of “The Carwash of Doom” for next Botcon (Fuck that noise, I’m copywriting this idea now!), maybe these guys secretly have stashes of shit Hasbro toys they picked up at clearance and are trying to raise the market value on RTS Bumblebees???  Hmmm…

The Factory Finish

Motto:  Well, I would have done it like this…

I see the flaws...pilgrim.

Nothing is every good enough for these guys, and I try to subscribe to their theory of getting the figure as close to a Hasbro factory finish as perfect but without becoming a massive asshole along the way.  I like a clean surface, no visible brush strokes, no chipping, clean lines on the dremel, full preparation including washing, isopropyl decal / tampograph removal, another wash, pins removed, tyres removed, masking tape applied, base coat ready…
I don't like doing this, but it's a means to an end, as I like my custom toys to blend into my shelves with the other hundreds of Transformers as seamlessly as possible.

Never ask to show them your toy, as all they will see is the flaws.  Sure, they might be able to do it better, but they spend so long talking about it they sometimes forget to do it, or by the time they almost have the project finished, Hasbro announce an imminent release of RTS Grapple.  Yeah, been there, done that.

It’s all in the preparation for these guys, but if you get it right, the end result is well worth it.  The only problem with these guys is they can grow into something much more sinister…

The Nemesis Sabrina Frenzy Rumble King X

Motto:  Kill me, please…

Look closer, it's not as cool as first glimpse suggests.

Before you say, “I wish I had their job, they just paint toys all day”, re-read their motto.

These guys were trail breaking entrepreneur pilgrims annoying metaphorical early adopters of customising, and they were fucking good at it too, quickly realising their skill was a real money maker.  These guys can make anything out of a junker Cy-Kill, half a Firecon and your Mums washing machine, they're THAT good.  And they know it.

The trouble is, everyone knows it, and everyone wants one of their pieces of work, so people approach and try to commission a piece.  The customizer (with a “z” this time as most of the big names seem to be from the Americas) knows they have too much work on so they just quote an insanely high price.  Knowing their worth is worth it, the customisee agrees, maybe gives a deposit or pays some up front and gets a rough date of when to expect the toy.

The trouble is, the toy is nearly always going to take longer than quoted, and there is now a huge amount of money at stake for all involved.  This “fun way of monetising a hobby” has now become a job: Miserable hard work with deadlines, repetitiveness and someone constantly on your back to finish your piece of “art”. 

Way to go dude, you just killed your hobby.  And the notion of fun.  And your soul.

So there you have it, we all conform to one or more of these archetypes, which will be explored in more detail in Joesph Campbells first posthumously written book about mythology; "Dissecting the Nerd, Kitbashing the Brain".

Not for MISB collectors...

Like I've said before, I am a loose figure collector.  But what happens when you can't find that figure you really want in a good enough condition, loose and complete?  

This happens.  "Wreckers Combine."  hahahaha, *rip, shred, tear*

Sorry America.

Coming Soon...

4th August 2012

Micromaster Combiners

As promised, it's time to start showcasing my collection.  I thought I'd start with these as you just never see them.

Pictured below are all the RE-ISSUE Micromaster Combiners.  These originally were released as Japan only exclusives when the American toyline was on it's last legs.

Stop looking at my video games.

Sixliner was the first figure to debut - the more Orange train set with the unique head - in 1991, as part of the same toy line as Sky Garry, Grandus and Star Convoy.

During this period of time, Takara only saw fit to release Autobots, as historically good guys always sell much better than bad guys in Japan, and it's not unusual for toylines to contain no "evil" toys for children to fight against.

Sixliner at the back, Chase Sixtrain up front.

The other figures, Sixbuilder, Sixwing, Sixtrain (Sixliners brother - a few re-molds in the line and a new head) and Sixturbo were released in 1992, and the original figures have some differences between the reissues that I collect, mainly deco choices.

The reason why I opted to collect the Japanese reissues, as opposed to the originals wasn't just a price factor - although that did help the decision it was a double edged sword as I will explain in a moment.

Sixbuilder and chase Devy style

What I like about the 2002 Takara reissues (and fuck, yes, it has been ten years since these reissues started to come to market was not only were they easier to buy thanks to the internet, online retailers and entire case purchases, not only were all the stickers removed and replaced with tampographs (MUCH easier to clean, trust me I'm in the middle of attacking 20 years of dust accumulation with a toothbrush as we speak) but Takara also introduced Decepticons into the line with the relatively new (to Transformers) concept of "chase" figures.

Sixwings - I count more than six wings.

Sixturbo and Blackturbo - guess which ones are which?

I believe Sixliner was again the first figure in the line with the reissues, and all his figures we're sold blind packed, although later assortments had part of the instructions showing so you could at least make sure you were buying a set of 6 different figures.  With the introduction of the second release, Sixturbo, you had to wait until you got home (or opened them in transit and risked losing bits) to find out if you had one of the super duper (sort of) rare chase figures.  I remember breaking a case of twelve figures down and finding only one chase figure from the rare Decepticon BlackTurbo set, and I stupidly kept it for my set of six as it was "rarer".  Amateur mistake.  (most TF historians seem to think the official breakdown was two per case)
It was plain to see that one Black evil leg on Sixturbo wasn't going to work, especially after I bought a set of BlackTurbo from eBay which made him superfluous. Another eBay purchase later and Sixturbo was complete, but I still have a spare black ambulance floating about in my parts box.

Lesser seen attack modes.

Over the years more and more figures trickled out, and for every Japanese release there was the even more awesome and elusive chase figures.  Subtle changes were made along the way to differentiate and for various reasons.  Sixbuilder lost his green leg so as not to confuse the collectors with the chase variant, Sixtrain lost a red leg for similar reasons, and whilst Sixturbo was largely unchanged, Sixwing changed factions entirely and become the first non-chase Decepticon Micromaster combiner, instead his chase figure became Autobots.

Pictured below are:  Sixwing, White Berserker Sixwing, Sixliner, Sixtrain, Burning Sixtrain, Sixbuilder, Green Devybuilder, Sixturbo and Blackturbo.

You may notice a tenth figure in the picture,of a lighter, more Autobot looking Sixwing.  Given the popularity of these, Hasbro opted to release the figures for the Western markets as part of the Universe range (Energon in the UK), but picked decos and changed the names to make them more familiar for Hasbro collectors.  Sixtrain became Rail Racer.  Sixturbo again unchanged became Defensor - and interestingly used four of the original six names.  Sixbuilder was only available in Devastaor colours with minor changes and a bit more purple under that name, and actually looks nicer than the Japanese chase set.  Sixwing with his friendly Autobot colourings became Superion, and is the only figure I deemed different enough to warrant purchasing the US version. 

One last image, just because I can.  All the Autobot Takara reissue Micromaster combiners with original Sky Garry and Star Convoy.

Obviously Erector is the sought after figure.

Botcon 2012 Review

PICTURES TO FOLLOW SOON...

Okay, I've really neglected this blog of late. But hey, that's what blogs are for, right?

I thought I'd do a quick review of Botcon, just to bore the heck out of people with an opinion piece which includes outdated news. Hey, that's what blogs are for, right?

Highlights of the Show

Queueing

It has to be said, that this was the best I've seen the queues in the four years I've been attending Botcon. My guys didn't think so, and as this was the first time in attendance for my two travelling buddies – hereafter known as Nick and Dick (or collectively if you'll indulge: The Icks) – they complained about the queues a lot. Enough to make me wish they'd come in 2009, that would have really given them something to complain about. I never complained about the queueing, despite having MORE GOD DAMN REASON TO than anyone (see: The Misery File; filed under diarrhoea and losing a day in the hotel room).
Overall though, I couldn't have picked a finer couple of mates to stand in a line and dick about with for a few hours.

Buying Toys

Oh yeah, I got to buy loads of toys, here's a quick picture of my haul, and we'll come back to it in a bit when I start listing shit.

Meeting Peter Cullen

So this year, instead of insanely long queues starting at 8 in the morning, this year FunPub implemented a “lucky draw” system for meeting Peter Cullen, this meant he didn't have to sign and shake quite as many hands, which must get tiring over along weekend.

On the downside, the new draw to meet Cullen was decided on the day, with EVERYONE who attended being included in the draw. As several people rightly pointed out, this should have been an online draw which you had to OPT IN for, that way it would only include people who wanted to meet Peter Cullen (several people already have met him after those insane queues I talked about in previous years). The other advantage of doing the draw ahead of time is you'd know in advance and could plan accordingly. I have millions of items at home I would love to have signed by Peter Cullen, from my original G1 toy to DVD sets to artwork and beyond.

Instead, I had a mad twenty minute rush around the dealer room to find something to get signed that was cheap and cheerful. You'd think FunPub would provide some nice glossy prints of Peter Cullen for a meagre $5 or something, but no, because that money is obviously better spent on a Soundwave headband.

Anyway, enough complaining, this was a good problem. I ended up buying a sealed TFPrime RID Optimus Prime to get signed (see picture, newb!), but this did unfortunately get a little crushed on the way home. Having said that, I did somehow manage to get seventy new toys home, as you'll see, some of them were fairly big as well. Not bad for one suitcase.

Peter Cullen is a lovely chap, I tend not to get star struck by famous peeps, but I'ms ure I babbled incoherently a bit as I explained that I've wanted to meet him for years but could never be bothered to stand in a line for four hours. He seemed to take it as it was meant, rather than interpreting it as some sort of sleight against him, so I thought it best that I didn't ask him to dedicate the piece “to ebay.” Nice guy.

Buying Toys

So yeah, seventy toys. I'm not going to list them all, as that would be boring, indulgent and strike me as something from Bret Easton Ellis' “American Psycho” novel. Having said that, what IS what blogs are for, right?

What I will do is talk about a few pieces that are special to me, or stand out a bit.

My first purchases, within minutes of entering the dealer room on the Friday preview, was a boxed set of the Sonokong Goldran toys, from the Brave line.

I've recently gotten into Brave more and more, and I will do an article dedicatd to them soon.

I asked to look at the figures and they looked great, but being somewhat of a Brave novice, I wasn't 100% sure what I was buying. Fortuitous moment of the day: I spy fellow UK trans-fan, TFW mod and all around nice guy and Brave expert Sol Fury about three feet away. Yoink! I collared him and he was great, really taking the time out tomake sure I knew what I was buying. A swift bit of haggling later and KA-CHING! I was $220 lighter.

Before I got to leave the stall, I chatted with Sol Fury about Brave and remembered that, shit, I really wanted a Shadow Maru. See picture that follows. Shadow Maru is a repaint of the G1 awesome ninja Sixhot – who in my personal canon doesn't enter into a Yaoui relationship with Spikes son, Daniel – retooled with a new robot head, animal head and some great weapons. They wanted a $100, but after I pointed out it's cheaper on their website but the shipping has put me off, and c'mon mutha fuckers I just spent $220 with you, I got it for $80. Cheers Toy Arena!

The two panels which are worth attending

The Hasbro Panel, and the TFCC panel are the two panels I consistently attend, because you need to see the pictures. Every other panel you can read the shit online at your convenience, and that's precious toy buying time going to waste.

The Hasbro panel was disappointing. Sure, a couple of goodies and better than the awful 2011 reveals, but compared to the awesome 2010 revelations...LAME!
C'mon Hasbro, you know your audience, give us some new, original mold G1 characters – preferably from 87-90 unless it's Trailbreaker – in the Generations line. It's what we want, and every day you procrastinate you lose an opportunity to the third parties.

It did seem to me from the feelin the room that Hasbro have gone the wrong way releasing the Generation 2-esque day-glo version of Bruticus to stores, and the “real world” colours as an SDCC exclusive, and Hasbro didn't really make it clear that both were coming out. I think several people got the wrong end of the stick thinking that the SDCC version would be the only version, until they saw both figures on display in the Hasbro booth.

So overall, slightly disappointing. Having said that, MP10 for under a hundred bucks...it seems rude not to.

The TFCC panel was actually pretty good, especially with the reveal of the TFCC subscription, similar in style to the Matty Collector MOTU monthly nerd snail mail drop. The highlight for me was the announcement of an actual official G1 Breakdown. A no-brainer really, as they have the mold and the head available, and it beats CHMS at their own game. Sure, I buy and support third parties, but I'm not a huge fan of how CHMS do things, and would always rather have an official figure (unless it's shit, CHUG Galvatron!).

Overall, I like the idea of a subscription service, even though I'm no longer even a member of the club (but I already have people in place to send these to in the US to avoid getting raped monthly for shipping and customs charges). This is what the fans have requested for years, and with obscure characters and even the occasional Animated figure, I really am quite a fan, but I hope that all the people that have pushed for this realise that the majority of G1 figures we want will be sidelined as exclusives and cost $45+, rather than trickling out slowly into stores for $10-15.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think part of the reason Hasbro agreed to this is to move them aside, to concentrate on their main lines, which basically means any lines which have mainstream appeal and a cartoon or movie backing them up.

Buying Toys

G1 toy wise I did great. I finished off several sub-sets, such as Junior Headmasters, Junior Targetmasters, Sparkabots, Clones and Monsterbots. Some were great deals – Quickmix for $25 complete, others were a bit more than I'd like to pay - $100 for a complete Hosehead, although I did haggle down and trade a few pieces. I've spent sometime cleaning them up, and with a few repro labels these will all pop.

All in all, it means I only need four figures for 1987, and three figures for 1988 and I am done with what I consider the main G1 collection, and then I can concentrate on Pretenders (hate them), Micromasters (I never remember what I have and what I need) and Action Master – whoI have strangely some tolove given their awkwardness and oft-lamented place in G1 history as a “line killer”. I made good bounds with Action Masters after scorring a complete Jazz for $10 and thinking, “hmm, I wonder what other Action Masters are here”. Fifteen Action Masters later, I am close to completing the first years worth.

American Dogs! ... or Dallas City Centre.

Dallas was awesome. It's not as great a venue as Florida or California, which I will happily spend two weeks in with all to see and do (that basically means theme parks, comic shops and a drive to Vegas). Because of this, we opted for only five days / four nights in Dallas. With a 12 hour flight each way, that was a crazy schedule to keep.

Overall, I feel I saw and did everything I wanted to in Dallas, and the enthusiasm of one of my travelling buddies meant that everything we saw and did was an experience, whether it was taking photos of fire hydrants, traffic lights or spotting different coloured taxi-cabs.

Exclusive Toys

The Club Store was an epic mini-adventure all in itself. I was the only one in my little group who wasn't hit by the TFCC credit card fraud problems this year, mainly because I moved about so much last year by addresses are no longer valid, and because I thankfully didn't renew my membership this year. Both my friends who I travelled with were stung. Twice in one case.

Freshly armed with new credit cards, I asked my buddy if he had told his credit card companies he was going on holiday. He said no, but it shouldn't be a problem as he used to travel abroad fairly frequently. The problem was, he had been stung by FunPub twice, naming them as the potential security breach when it happened, so when his card had a sudden flurry of activity in Dallas, and then was used to try and authorise a sale with FunPub, warning lights went off and they blocked his card. A massive pain in the arse when your four thousand miles from home with no money.

Thankfully, my debit card was going through a rare period of actually showing money in the account, so we managed to get all the toys we wanted.

It just goes to show though how the credit card fraud thing goes on to have long lasting ramifications long afterwards, lets hope TFCC sort that shit out!

Much has been written about these, and I don't want to go into too much detail. Suffice to say, I thought this was one of the weakest sets of exclusives they've had. Generally, I feel 2009 and the “Wings of Honour” set was the lamest duck of them all, but because of the novelty of that being my first Botcon I feel I need to keep the toys and boxset.

Being a 99%er – that is I'm nearly completest, but if I really dislike something or feel it has no place in my collection I leave it, things like Armada Scavenger or CHUG Galvatron. I thank the movie line for breaking my will and any miss-held belief that being a completest was a clever idea – I had recently parted with my Shattered Glass 2008 box set.
Shattered Glass is an excellent way for people to expand their collection, to buy an necessary second version of every figure or repurpose an obscure repaint into a new line. However, I have my G2 redux collection for that, and much prefer the crazy colour schemes one can get away with on G2 figures. Either way, both are great for customs, but I went for G2 and don't need a third set of everything with wrongly coloured faction labels, I'm much happier with obscure faction logos.

I kept the box set, as it was a Botcon I attended, and I have repurposed the awesome red Tracks as Road-Rage for my Classics collection along with Kick-Off, and Treadshot as an evil Decepticon. As it stand I still have Overlord, Metalhawk and Octopunch (pending a new head for the latter), but I may well sell all of these off and leave myself with just two figures in the box set. I have kept the Spinister even though I feel they got the colours the wrong way around, but that if the way the figure is molded and the transformation is so different to the original, having one mode in inaccurate colours was inevitable. I have also kept six of the SG Junkions, currently I am displaying them with my normal Junkions, without a hint of a continuity retcon as to who they are or why they are there. They are black and purple and look cool, that is enough for me.

So that means I sold off a few figures. Ultra Magnus and SG Prime had to go, I hate the mold, it is of no use to me and I am happier with my four versions of the G2 Laser Prime mold. The stoopid Bard of Darkmount, yellow Straxus was also no good to me and I traded that in fairly quickly for extra spening money. The way I look at trading the exclusives is, sure, I might get more for them if I sold them in the UK at Auto Assembly, but less money is worth more to me at Botcon where I can buy all sorts of obscure goodies.

That leaves just Soundwave unaccounted for, and my epic tale of trade in fail!

Despite the fuss surrounding the character, I thought that was the weakest of the set. I don't like the mold, I don't like Shattered Glass, I don't like Soundwave in white...and I REALLY don't like obscure GI Joe references. If I wanted a cold slither I'd give myself a reptile enema. He HAD to go.

First day I traded him for like $65, that went towards my G1 Doublecross. I was happy.

Then I saw a dealer offering, get this, $80 cash for Soundwave and $40 for the $5 headband. I know, right!

I told my friends Will and Rich, and ran off to the dealer I sold him to earlier with a tale of woe and regret and I wish I'd kept the figure really, honest guv. He very nicely agreed for me to buy the figure back from him for $65, as I've bought from him in the past. Nice one!

I run back around to the cash offering fool / dealer, bumping into Will on the way. Will has traded several figures in after my hot tip and made great money, Rich is in the process of trading with the dude as I get there.

What does the guy say to me?

“Sorry, too many, no more!”

Thanks to my amazing nice guy attitude helping my friends out, I'm now $65 and back in the possession of fucking Soundwave...

To be continued.

Wal * Mart (to buy toys)

No trip to the US is complete without midnight visits to Wal*Mart. I love Walmart, I really do, and when you're surrounded by hotel prices and hotel bars, it is very wise to stock up on snacks, water and soda...even if the soda didn't agree with me.

Frutiful visits – thanks to Will having a car – scored me some new t-shirts and an RID Prime Ratchet. Yay. It's fun to buy at least one toy from retail.

More toys...

No good deed goes unpunished. Stuck with my Soundwave (and headband!!! Great), I don't manage to offload him until Sunday morning, after resigning myself to the fact I was probably going home with him.

I managed to swap him with an awesome dealer guy for White Berserker SixWing, six Micromaster figures which merge into one figure, the last of the Micromaster combiner re-issues I need to complete my set. One which was currently selling on ebay in my watch list, for $180! Win! I can't complain with that.

Kennedy!!!

Another awesome aside to Transformers was the full Kennedy experience. I'm a big fan of American politics from '45- '72, and it was great to see such an integral slice of history. For every Bill Hicks myth it dismissed it raised four more questions, and my knowledge of both Jack and Bobby's assassinations is now pretty insane since returning home and reading up / watching all the films about it. Yep, I too stood on the grassy knoll, and marvelled and people willing to risk death for that all important photograph stoof on the exact spot he was shot, helpfully marked with an “X” in the road. Classy Dallas, classy. Given how much Dallas hated Kennedy prior to that fateful November afternoon, no-one can argue he hasn't been damn good to the economy.

Parts Parties (to buy toys)

I love the parts parties at Botcon, and this was my first chance to really indulge in them, as this was the first year I stayed in the actual convention hotel. For 2 weeks, I couldn't justify the expense, but for four nights, split three ways, it was worth the money.

Megamus and Megatoyfan stole the parties again, hopefully with less asshole thieves than last year, and I got some great bargains. There was a chap four doors down from our room which had a nice little set-up, and I got quite close to buying the super exclusive DIY custom-class Shockwave / Longarm Prime off him for $200. I didn't really want it, but knew I could flip it for a profit. He ended up selling it for $500, and more power to him. Even though I booked within four minutes of ticket sales opening, I still missed the customs bookings. Next year...

Outside of the regular TF affair was the proliferation and reveals of the third party companies, this year safely removed from the Hasbro eagle eyes on the dealer room floor. Mostly...

Joe photobombing a previous years and this years entry.

Custom Competition

I'm gonna save this for a separate entry and showcase a few of my customs over the years as well, as I've already waxed on enough. Mind you, that's what blogs are for, etc...

More toys, third party edition.

On display at the parts partys was the awesome finished version of Cyclops, and a very close to finished version of Air Screecher, Hands of Steel versions of Shockwave and Starscream, courtesy of MMC and Captured Preys hotel room. These are awesome, and there is a good chance I won't be able to resist all three seekers upon release. I am lucky enough to have fiddled with a test shot version of Cyclops, all in all, this could be the best release of the year.

Also were on show were the awesome Venksta's Hubcap and Bumper add-on kits. I am a big fan of his work and he is a lovely, affable chap with some nice things to say about my custom work, bless him. If you don't have his add-ons for Darkwing and Skyfall, then shame on you. Annoyingly he had Goldbug heads, but as mine were in the post at the time, I had to learn patience...young padawan.

Other third party wins included chrome Drift swords for $10, Devils Horn add-on kit for Cliffjumper for $20 and some more add-on kits from Maiden Japan. I am a sucker for his junkion add-ons.

There were more third party goodies discussed and seen at the show, but several of these weren't for public consumption...yet.

Guests

That guy!

The guests always kind of go under my radar, as I tend to avoid panels and long autograph queues. It was nice to meet David Wallis of Shortpacked infamy, always good chatting with Garry Chalk and the fact he is a fellow smoker (occasional in my case) really helped, I offered to save Simon Furman from an over-zealous fan which I will mock him about in the future (I think they were arguing continuity errors from comics he wrote 25 years ago), caught up briefly with the always busy David Kaye, was reminded by Derrick Wyatt that I have to finish a custom for him (kind of humbling that) and got a chance to talk bad sci-fi with the brains behind the Animated Almanacs again. Can't be bad.

Even more toys...

Some of the best parts of the toy shopping were swapping parts with people and haggling. Although the problem with taking a parts box with me was - not only did it chew up suitcase on the way back – I broke any number of international laws by taking a G1 Megatron IN GUN MODE in my suitcase. Completely my accident. It didn't even register to me as a thing, it's just a junker to me. Oops. I got away with it, which was great, but gave it away rather than attempting to “smuggle” it back. Dumb ass!

I had almost as much fun buying stuff with my guys though, picked up all four G1.5 Axxelarators for Rich, who managed to come back with nearly as many toys as me but did much better on deals than I did. $20 for an Animated Fisitron!!!

The best “win” of the event..

Okay, it may not have been the best figure I bought back with me, but man, how psyched was I when I (finally) got to the Club Store and they had a few Runamucks in stock for $25?!? I refused to rejoin this year, as I have paid $79 every year (shipping is the killer) for the last six years only to see the toys for sale much, much cheaper on the secondary market. Instead, I joined a group order for Runabout (to spread the horrendous cost of shipping and customs, last year I paid close to £200 for Cheetor and G2 Ramjet, only to see them cheaper at Botcon...and I hadn't even received mine yet) and trusted that somehow, somewhere, I'd find Runamuck. $25? I bought two.

Yeah, I'd happily pay £800 for a holiday to save $54 on a toy. What of it?

Save the best 'till last: The people.

This is always bittersweet.

I love America, and Americanna. I collect American toys, I spent twelve years working in a comic shop that sold US comics...I drive a freakin' Pontiac Firebird (with UK petrol prices!). I love America, and I struggle coming home, and it's only been made harder by the amount of great friends I have made in the US. I console myself with the fact that Botcon is only a break from reality, and living in the US wouldn't be a non-stop Mecca of toys and geekdom, that real issues like guns, and employment, and that fucking abortion issue would keep cropping up.

Ill and bloated...or fat?  You decide.

From photobombing with Joe (present) and Joe (absent), selling customs to Will, to fucking about in the hotel pool with Colin, smoking with Chell, getting that one missing Decoy for my collection from Christian, sending a UK exclusive GI Joe convention poster to Kevin (also absent, lazy West coasters!), riding in elevators with the Icks to see the OCP building from Robocop, from meeting new random people who find our awkward brand of sarcastic British humour appealing, being given TF Prime toys that I'd completely forgotten I paid for months ago whilst queueing...

...I miss the guys there. I go for the toys, I stay for the people.

Still, there is always Auto Assembly :)

Decoy Ahoy!

Here is a small little side-line from my collection, some of the very few non-Transforming pieces I collect.  I say collect, that's probably not very accurate, as the history of my decoy collecting is limited thusly:

1987 - A young Sid buys a Throttlebot, (Rollbar if you're keepingscount, I'll check my attic to see if I can find the card sometime, if I can, I'll upload it), receives a "free*" decoy.  Again, if you're keeping a record, it was a Windcharger.

This is not the one I had.

1987 - 2006 - Sid has lost the Windcharger, doesn't keep it with the others Transformers.  Doesn't give a shit.
2006 - Sid buys a complete set of Decoys from eBay. He thinks he paid about £60 for all 53 of them.  Sid will now stop referring to himself in the third person.
2006 - 2011 - After sort of being looked at once or twice, the toys remain in two separate polybags depending on faction, on a floor, in  an empty room, unloved.  So much so they auditioned for the role of the villain in Toy Story 3 and were turned down for being, "too evil".
* = included in the price...doesn't it always?


Decoys were packaged in the UK and US with various case assortments of the 1987 Transformers range, as well as the Throttlebots this included other toys which were much better.  What can I say, as an eight year old kid I obviously liked cheap green jeaps which transform into shit robots.  This was done by Hasbro purely as a tactic to fuck over any future MISB "completest" collectors, and not in a bid to boost sales, because including 1.5 inch unpainted rubber figures only boosts sales of Frosties (these are exactly the same as the US "Frosted Flakes" except for our version of Kellogg mascot Tony the Tiger is 12.6% gayer for sharing a cereal universe with Andi Peters voiced Coco the Monkey).

I haven't really been a huge fan of these, I've kind of taken them for granted in my collection, and they are pretty cool as a nice rarity.  Maybe if I had spent years tracking down every single one they would mean more to me, as it is I just bought the collection.  This makes more sense to me than trying to re-create exactly what I had as a kid, as the odds of finding a Rollbar with a Windcharger has case assortment odds of 1:318.
Anyway, I digress...this is my collection of all 53 Decoys.

If you look carefully, one of the seekers is in red.

Yes, unfortunately my #34 Thundercracker is erroneously red.  This renders my collection incomplete and hastens feeling of deep-routed shame and suicide.  I might as well just stop collecting now.  If you guys can help replace #34 Thundercracker in the appropriate purple colour, PLEASE let me know!

So is this red figure an error of production?  The way I look at it the only Decepticon figure that shoudl have been available in red should have been #50 Frenzy, repackaged as #54 Rumble just to really piss people off and divide the fan-dumb even more.

For the sake of having it here, this is a list of the full Western collection of Decoys.

01) Grimlock 02) Snarl 03) Swoop 04) Sludge 05) Slag 06) Ratchet 07) Ironhide 08) Smokescreen 09) Grapple 10) Trailbreaker 11) Sunstreaker 12) Skids 13) Jazz

14) Inferno 15) Tracks 16) Red Alert 17) Hound 18) Sideswipe 19) Prowl 20) Mirage 21) Hoist 22) Wheeljack 23) Bluestreak 24) Brawn 25) Windcharger 26) Bumblebee

27) Huffer 28) Cliffjumper 29) Blaster 30) Perceptor 31) Optimus Prime 32) Megatron 33) Skywarp 34) Thundercracker 35) Starscream 36) Soundwave 37) Blitzwing 38) Astrotrain 39) Kickback

40) Shrapnel 41) Bombshell 42) Hook 43) Scavenger 44) Bonecrusher 45) Long Haul 46) Mixmaster 47) Scrapper 48) Devastator 49) Ravage 50) Frenzy 51) Shockwave 52) Reflector

Oh yeah, and Laserbeak.  They forgot Laserbeak who is #53.  Probably because his swooping engine noise is stolen from the TIE fighters in Star Wars and it would cost a license fee of $14million to George Lucas to include Laserbeak on the list.  But they did make him, unlike the Robot Heroes Laserbeak who got even more fucked over.  If inanimate fictional robot bird cassettes can get fucked over, then trust me, he's feeling it.

Rounding off the list there is #52 Reflector, as I mentioned in my previous blog this is the only version of Reflector made by Hasbro accurate to the animation model, in a show accurate purple colouration.  Of course, to really finish of the collection, you should buy two more Reflectors and file off the lenses, to make Spector and Spyglass.

So there you go, we've managed to expand and add a few more to the officially available 52 figures:

#52 Reflector Viewfinder
#53 Laserbeak
#54 Rumble
#55 Spectro
#56 Spyglass
#57 Buzzsaw - because, why not buy another Laserbeak you lazy shit?  What kind of Transformer fan are you?

So, if you do all that, can you finally call yourself a completest?

Actually, it's not that easy.  Although in the West we had the aesthetically pleasing faction split of Autobot = Red, and Decepticons = purple.  Nice, easy and simple, although I am surprised Fun publishing haven't re-released the ENTIRE range in reverse colours as Shattered Glass Decoys.  Hang on, I'll just facebook Benson Yee!  You can see at a glimpse the split in my collection, even with my shitty camera skills (it was lack of said mobile based camera that halted this blogs updates for a week).  Do you want to see how the average Japanese person displays their decoy collection?

Using the phrases "average person" and "decoy collection" in the same sentence?!?

You've got to want to be a collector in Japan, bear in mind with the premium cost of actually having space for things in that overly developed small country, storing this technicolour yawn pile of toys would cost a billion yen a year in rent*.

In Japan they think it is a good idea to get rubber toys from vending machines, because obviously it's that or fucking used panties (buying fucking used panties is different to fucking used panties, just want to make that distinction here).  And also, Richard Gere gerbil whatever - the West is just as weird, we just don't talk about it.  The only reason I can think of for blind-buying small toys exclusively from vending machines is because they're fucking tiny and the only thing that you can actually fit on a bullet train in rush hour. It's for much the same reason this sort of item is available in cinema foyers in the UK now, usually advertised with small trinkets of Mario and Luigi to tempt kids into putting their pound coin into the machine only to come away with a badly painted Para-Goomba, which they then loose in the dark cinema only for staff to repackage and re-sell. Bwahahah.

*a billion yen = $12 dollars

To be fair, the Japanese are actually pretty cool, especially when it comes to making Transformers shit I don't really need, but absolutely feel the urge to buy.

Not content with the expanded 52 (not to be confused with the new DC Comics), in Japan they went a bit further, depending on your definition of decoy.  You see, in Japan they weren't content to just have decoy rubber figures for the sake of it, they felt the need to turn them into statistically ranked gaming pieces which you fire out of a cannon in an attempt to knock over other said pieces and ultimately defeat Trypticon.  Sort of  Warhammer meets Pokemon meets pogs.  Sure it wasn't a chess beater but with a recipe like that, how did it not make more money than Catholocism?

Yes, these rubber guys actually did something!  It was only after releasing them in Cybertron / Destron gift sets to tie into the Scramble City themed board game that they moved towards the gachapon capsule vending machine distribution mechanism, so they could re-release them again in seven different colours.  You see, in the UK and the US, distributors and retailers are always looking for that magic product that they can sell to the same person twice, in Japan there were over 550 variations available (and you didn't know what you were getting until you bought it and opened it), and that still wasn't enough. 

I'm not going to own these :(

Although arguably not "real" decoys, these guys were only available in Japan in celebration of the arrival of 2010, their version of post-1986 movie season 3.  I would like these, and include them here for the sake of completion, but as they were not available in the aesthetically pleasing faction colourations, I'm going to skip on them.  Because these and other Japanese exclusive decoys probably cost a fortune.

Some of the figures were also released in over-sized editions, including a version of Metroplex (because he should be big, you know), but in a range where Devastator is literally the same size as all six Constructicons, this feels unnecessary.

Because of my lack of desire for these items, and the 318 MISB Throttlebots, and the 550+ Japanese coloured variations, some Trans-fanboys would say I'm not a true fan.

So I have a choice.  Either I declare myself a true fan, spend the next few decades tracking all these down, have a mental break-down after achieving a balanced state of celibacy and bankruptcy, then use a cheese grater and vinegar to remove my Transformer tattoos to recognise my failure...Or I try and find a way of showing I am happy with the middle ground of not being a "completist".

You know what? I think I'm going to keep my mis-coloured Thundercracker in this collection, I kind of like the intentional incompleteness that error suggests.