Transformers Vault. The Past. Growing Up. The Present.

Alritey. Camera's still down and don't have a temp. backlog photos FTW.

A while back I came across the Transformers Vault for a pretty good deal at Costco.

I quickly took it home and spent the day flipping through the history of transformers shortly after watching Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

What I commonly hear from the crowd at the Comic Book store, or from my older cousins is that I "missed out" on a great generation of Transformers. That I'd never understand how great it was because I didn't truly grow up with it. I feel that going through "The Vault" might have provided me with the early history of transformers and how it went from being a small toyline to a huge franchise.

Growing up, I watched a lot of "Beast Wars" or "Beasties" as it was called. My favorite figure from my child hood is definitely my Ultra Class Optimus Primal. I literally played the shit out of, and its still so freakin durable. It was my all time favorite toy.

After pulling The Vault out of the sleeve, it made me realize that I actually owned all three "Major Generations" (if I'm wrong, don't hurt me Transformer fan boys) of Optimus Prime.

But no more boring words. Here's the pics and a short description of each of them:

The Transformers Vault Sleeve. Its embossed and the blue has a vivid metallic hue in it.

Upon pulling it out, I saw the three Optimus Primes throughout the ages and decided to take a few pics of them.

Here is the Commemorative G1 Re-release Optimus Prime. I had to get the Re-release commemorative one, because I can't get an original G1 (because I wasn't born yet at the time...100% not my fault)

My beloved Optimus Primal that I cherished growing up. Every joint is loose, all the missiles are missing and one flap snapped in half. So many memories. It's probably worth $2 now, but growing up it was worth everything to me.

Optimus Prime from Revenge of the Fallen. He currently sits on my desk at work in anticipation for Dark of the Moon, which I had already gone to see, but he stays there to keep guard.

4LOM & Zuckuss Celebration V Exclusive

Every year there is a Star Wars Convention called Star Wars Celebration _ with the _ being which year of running it is. This year was the fifth year running.

One of their exclusives was a 4LOM & Zuckuss two pack figure that replicates the original Kenner packaging. You could only get these at Celebration V or from StarWarsShop.com (shortly before it shut down).

The figures themselves are pretty detailed. 4LOM & Zuckuss are two of the bounty hunters that Vader had requested to hunt down the Millenium Falcon in Empire Strikes Back.

Here's some pics. Got my hands on another camera, so testing it out. Gonna be a short one today.

Kanye West & Jay-Z: Watch The Throne

I had a good weekend. I bought a shit ton of Street Fighter HeroClix. (that concludes my weekend).

Good new and bad news.

Good news is on Friday got a pass on my probation period at my IIP Job. So all good over there. Decided to celebrate, and just so happens on that day was the release of Kanye & Jay-Z's new collabo albuuuuum. WATCH THE THRONE.

I invite you to check it out. Its pretty good. Takes a while to grow on ya, but grows on ya good. I drove lots this weekend, so I had a lot of time with it. The album packaging is pretty hype. Covered in gold foil. PIMP.

Plus the music video for their first single is "Otis". Not gonna spoil it for you, but it involves doing some pretty messed up things to a Maybach 626....but i'll just leave it at that. Go check it out.

Bad news is my normal camera is acting like a PIECE OF SHIT. Wanted to give you guys a really long, lots of picture, super HYPE ASS review of one of the SWEETEST figs I own. But guess what? Camera's acting like a PIECE OF SHIT. its 11:30 and it won't read new batteries. Won't detect my normal nickel-metals, brand new alkalines, pre-used alkaline's (out of the tv remote in desperation) and fully charged nickel-metals (15 minute charger FTW). I guess a Canon PowerShot A95 from 2004 is a bit outdated. Time for a new digital camera...but then i'll have less money for toys. Which is indeed shitty.

In the meantime, heres some SHITTY CELLPHONE CAMERA PICS!

piece of shit cellphone camera...

MG Gundam RX-78-2 (One Year War) More Progress...

Alrite. So no gonna be that crazy post I promised you guys. But I did make some progress on the underbody today. Please please please enlarge the first pic. I really took the detail to the next level on this build, so I want you guys to see the full SHABANG.

First thing was everything was fully dried from being sprayed gun metal yesterday.

I spent a lot of time detailing the parts so they'd look really mechanical. Used lots of gold, copper and silver to bring out the detail in the parts.

Actually spend a LOT of time detailing these parts. What do you guys think? Looks pretty good eh? Hopefully this guy will keep going good.

Additionally, my old Canon PowerShot A95 that I use to take these pictures is on its death bed, so there's a purple kinda hue on the left side of the later pics.

I'll be working on the chest tomorrow. A lot of the pieces are getting ready to be sprayed and decalled, but I have something else I want to show you guys tomorrow..

MG Gundam RX-78-2 (One Year War) Progress

Didn't do anything special today. Just your typical friday. Gonna be a lame update...But I'll have a super dope one for you guys tomorrow...hopefully.

Now some Gundam Model Kit Knowledge:

Whats special bout the "MG" class Gundam's is that they contain an under frame. These frame's are pretty high in detail and allow the Gundam's to have tons of articulation and hold some pretty insane poses. This particular model is in 1/100 scale, which normally averages from 8 - 10 inches in height. The other common scales are 1/144 (4-5 inches) and 1/60 which is pretty damn big. I have no clue how big these are since I don't own any. If your really curious about the Gundam Model hierarchy, their all on wiki.

For my underbody I chose to bust out the Gun Metal spray cans to make this thing look as mechanical as possible. I started out with taking out the pieces for the legs and arms and doing the underbody of the chest.

Street Fighter HeroClix Released! Got AKUMA.

HEROCLIIIIIIIIIX.

Alright. Trying to give you guys some different stuff everyday. A new "sector" of collectibles I can introduce to you, so you guys know what kinda shit I spend my money on.

But i'm sure after the introduction of the Mighty Muggs, Models, Heroclix, Car Models and Lightsabers it'll just be repeats of the same stuff, but just different characters or types or something.

So today is HeroClix.

What is HeroClix?

Its just a game played on a map with multiple players. It involves dice rolls and a shit load of complicated rules I still don't know half of. They involve attack, defense, damage, speed and special abilities. Majority of the abilities are outlined on the card and every character is different. What happens is there's normally a limit of points for your "team" and stronger characters have higher points, weaker ones lower. You set them up on a map and try to FOOOOOOOOOKIN destroy the other team as badly as you can with your bad ass plastic super heroes. When your guy takes damage his dial gets "clicked" (hence heroCLIX) and most of the time he becomes weaker. (unless your hulk, then you just get more pissed and get stronger and just fuck shit up).

How do you by them?

You have to buy them mostly in blind boxes so its similar to games like Magic, or my childhood past time, Pokemon. What I find attractive about HeroClix though, is that sometimes I just can't justify paying for printed paper anymore, so little collectible plastic figures seem to justify it a bit better? I dunno. haha. But as you can see in the Akuma I opened today, the detail in these little figures are pretty good.

What "super heroes" or characters can you get?

Majority of HeroClix is super heroes with DC and Marvel universe. There are some other Clix licenses that have come out in the past, but the company which creates them (NECA now) is starting to move into other licenses. The newest of which is Street Fighter! Because of the different varieties and licenses, you can play a wide range of heroes, so you can mix and match your favorite super hero team from across different universes. and together THEY CAN FUCK SHIT UP. admit it. you always wanted juggernaut and superman to pound a team of green lanterns to a pulp. Or like 5 batmans fight 5 robins. I dunno?

How did I get into it?

I frequented the comic book store a lot since I was a kid and over time someone who works there graciously would give me his doubles since he doubles quite often in pursuit of completing an entire set. Over time I've accumulated a ton of clix, and just recently started playing (maybe a year or so now?) I still don't buy a lot of clix, and the new Street Fighter set has got me pretty excited, so I might end up picking up quite a few of those.

They were just released yesterday so went down to Quantum and bought a set of 3. The molds on them are really good, and I'm pretty impressed with the set so far. Really wanted one of the major figures. Wanted to try just 3 individual guys first and If I like them i might pick up a case. Akuma was the first one I opened, and he's a pretty sweet fig. Check it out:

MG Gundam RX-78-2 (One Year War)

So this is the first "model" or progress of a model I've posted on the blog.

I do make a lot of models, but the shitty part is I've never fully finished one. Not for myself at least. I've made a few as gifts and such. But for myself, I've never fully finished a model to 100% i'm ashamed to say.

I just start one and get really into it, build several parts to near perfection and then stuff it back into its box. A major reason behind this is because I use spray cans for a lot of my models and the result of Canadian weather is that I can't spray during the winter months. (I spray in my garage).

The end result is several. I mean SEVERAL. Half finished kits. Half finished cars, gundams, and various other customization projects presented to me by friends, family or I've bought myself.

But have no fear. Because this month. Might be special!

Behold. The MG RX-78-2. No corners will be cut for the building of this one. For those who aren't into Gundam, This is the classic original Gundam. RX-78 is the main flagship and poster character for the entire franchise. I've never built one, and I've never watched the original "Universal Century Gundam" anime, but every major Gundam fan knows of this and I felt I should build one at some point. So here is the initial progress. Started with the Upper body: