More Transformers Combiner Wars

Each Transformer Combiner released so far in Combiner Wars has had one common feature - a completely new character/toy that takes the place of an existing character.
Superion - Alpha Bravo replaces Slingshot
Menasor - Off Road replaces Wild Rider
Defensor - Rook replaces Groove (though Groove does survive as a "chest plate")

Naturally, the "fan-boys" (and girls) raged that these new characters shouldn't be there, and that these Combiner Wars toys should be faithful to the original G1 characters. This rage got even louder when Takara released the first promotional image of their Superion showing that it had 4 planes as the arms and legs, rather than 3 planes and a helicopter. When actual photos of Takara Superion were released, it clearly showed that Slingshot was back (as a retool of Fireflight) and that Alpha Bravo was no more.

Adding more flames to the fire, when Takara released images of Menasor, it was once again clear that Off-Road was no more and Wild Rider was back (as a retool of Dead End). It was clear that as far as Takara went, the Combiner Wars series was going to be a massive nod to G1 and that only the G1 characters would be part of the team.

Either planned, or in order to appease the fans, Hasbro announced via Facebook that they too would also release the missing team members for Superion and Menasor as online exclusives late in May 2015.

Ordering a set from Asia, these arrived a few weeks ago well before the "street date" that the large American base online stores have to stick to.

At the moment these two figures have been left in their packages, as the Hasbro combiners look fantastic as they are with the new members. As a child of the 80s, it is great to have these new Combiners but I am happy with the changes made on the Hasbro side to introduce these new characters to the team.

As I do also plan to get the Takara versions of the characters, my plan at the moment is to have the Takara ones combined and the Hasbro as single characters on the shelf - sadly I do need a bigger shelf for that plan to actually succeed.

Marvel and Star Wars Hot Wheels

Joining the large lineup of "other" Hot Wheels items arriving in stores in time for the school holidays where the Marvel Character cars. Taking advantage of the percentage off sales in early April, I decided that a couple would come home with me.

Just like the few Star Wars cars, these two appealed to me and will join the rest of my open cars. Sure they don't have the required front headlights and rear taillights, but for these I have made an exception to the rule.

Speaking of Star Wars, I also picked up another car - original plan was to get this a few days after the Marvel cars but then life happened and I delayed all purchases. It worked out however as I was able to get the car for even cheaper.

Fingers crossed that more of these arrive in New Zealand over the next few months and this isn't just a one off.

Matchbox Lesney Edition

I started collecting die cast back in mid 2011, and hanging around on the pegs back then were Matchbox Lesney Editions. Priced at either $7.99 or $9.99 (depending on the retailer) I thought they were a tad too expensive at the time since I still had Transformers as my expensive hobby and die cast were to be the cheap hobby (I was also unemployed at the time, which didn't help).

Fast forward a few years and now I crave the more premium options from the various die cast makers, and think "nothing" of spending $10-15NZ on a premium die cast car (at 1/64 scale). How times change!

While having a look around Trademe (New Zealands version of eBay), I found a seller who had several Matchbox Lesney Editions for sale. Comparing my list of what I had, verses what the seller had, I decided to go with a small order of 5 cars. The seller got back to me very quickly with a postage quote and so I paid and waited. The next day I received a message from the seller apologising - he could not find a couple of my cars, but had attached images of what he had and asked me to pick replacements but if nothing suited he would give me a refund.

As I needed/wanted a heap of cars, I made a primary list and a secondary list and gave both to the seller who said he would hold the secondary list for me for a few weeks (waiting on my own payday). Being impatient, I paid for the secondary list a few days later and waited for both parcels to arrive (which happened while I was away for work).

Opening both parcels, I wasn't disappointed with my selections and added a couple of cars to my wish list to also open.

Now to find the others that I am missing (along with a checklist - if anyone knows, please get in touch)

RAOK

Coming home from work to see a parcel at the front door is an exciting time, and when the parcel is unknown to you it is even more exciting. Arriving home from work, I found a parcel sent from a fellow New Zealand collector who I know via YouTube and who I have sold items to. In the parcel was a note letting me know that he was sending me back an item I had included two off in the last parcel I had sent his way, along with a few snacks to help me through my next YouTube video.

First up the snacks - we have some potato chips and M&M candy, and then items that will allow me to grow my own snacks in the future including vegetable seeds, water saver and fertilizer!

Next, the toys including the returned item along with one item I mentioned in a video about not being able to find locally.

Truly was an awesome parcel to come home to and find, pulling out all the various parts of the parcel made me laugh.

Thank you very much Glenn!

Transformers Combiner Wars Wave 3

Back in April, I was able to preorder the 3rd Wave of Hasbro's Transformers Combiner Wars, the focus of this wave being the combiner Defensor. Unlike the first two waves, Defensor (made up of the Voyager Hot Spot, the Deluxes First Aid, Blades, Street Wise and Rook and Legends Groove) were all available at the same time and made the decision to import everything that much easier, as local stores have not yet received anything past Wave 1.

From my childhood days, I had one member of the Protectobots - First Aid and was looking forward to the upgrade. While the Generation One version of the character was made up of 5 transformers, this new Combiner Wars is actually made up of 6 toys with Groove (the motorcycle) being moved from being an arm or a leg to being the chest plate/shield.

Included in the order, were the other figures from Wave 3 - part of Hasbro's requirement to reuse existing toys in an effort to spread out the cost of creating new toys. Aside from Viper, these extra toys were not added to the collection.

As a awesome bonus, Hasbro Hong Kong produced a sticker sheet for the first two Combiner characters (Superion and Menasor) which is a fantastic throwback to the sticker sheets included with the original G1 Transformers.

Super RAOK

Work sent me up to Wellington (the capital of New Zealand) for a few days and I took the opportunity to catch up with a couple of Hot Wheels collectors up there, including another visit to see "my good mate from the capital city" and his collection at home.

On leaving, he handed me a small box with instructions not to open it until I had checked into my hotel for the evening, I promptly forgot about the box until the next day as I was heading to the airport for my next flight and needed to find some room in my baggage for the box.

Opening it up, I was amazed at the contents..

Two Hot Wheels Super Treasure Hunts!!

Needless to say I was on the phone within seconds thanking "my good mate" for the parcel.
6 for the year now ticked off the list, 7 more to go.

Marvel Infinite Series

Returning to work after my bereavement leave allowed me to take a look in some stores I hadn't set foot into in a few weeks. One of those visited yielded a surprise find, in the form of Marvel Infinite Series. For those who are unaware, this is the continuation of the Marvel Universe series that ended in 2013 and was a series that had left New Zealand retail in late 2010.

I had been a keen collector of Marvel Universe (along with Star Wars and GI Joe) 3 & 3/4 inch figures up until my unemployment made getting the sets or cases unaffordable, so it was a real treat to see these back on the New Zealand store shelves again. The sighting also happened to coincide with a 25% off toy sale at the store and so I picked up the two figures I wanted that were packed one to a case with the aim of getting some of the 2 per case figures later on when I had actually worked out what characters I hadn't already picked up back in the Marvel Universe days.

A few days later, I decided to check out the local auction website (Trademe) along with a few online New Zealand stores to see if there were any other Marvel Infinite around and via one online store found a few from the first series that were on special. 

One order and a couple of days later I had a parcel at the door.

While not as "super articulated" as the Marvel Unverse of old, they are still fantastic figures and vast improvements of the 5 point of articulation figures that seem to clog store shelves. 

Fingers crossed that future waves of Marvel Infinite Series land here in New Zealand and this isn't just a one of shipment that is doomed to fail due to over ordering.

M2 Auto Mods

Back in October (or November) 2014, I pre-ordered a hobby exclusive set of M2 cars that had an expected release date of December 2014. In April 2015, they were finally released and arrived in hand a few weeks later.

There was just something that caught my eye when I saw the pre order, it might have been the casting, it might have been the colour, it might have been the tampo's on the car and it was probably a combination of everything. Whatever it was, I am glad to have these in hand now and look forward to the day when I can open all the M2's I have and display them in their display cases.

HWC Special Editions

While I was "offline", two parcels from the Hot Wheels Collectors Club arrived which added two new cars to the HWC/RLC collection,

The first car doesn't really need any introduction - the Datsun 240Z in the BRE colour scheme.
Around the Hot Wheels collecting community, anything Japanese seems to be HOT at the moment and this Datsun 240Z is no exception. After the release of the 510 in late 2013, this 240Z is an awesome companion piece.

The second arrival was another Special Edition, the 2014 Corvette Stingray.
Priced at $20US ($5 more than the Datsun, $10 more than Series 13 cars), the item looks spectacular in hand however doesn't seem to be any more special than any other RLC car so the price increase was somewhat confusing.

Here is hoping some more cars are announced as being on sale soon!

Greenlight Green Machines

Hitching a ride with my March Transformers order, was a single Greenlight die cast car.
Because the Japanese website I use offers it, I subscribe to an RSS feed over several categories, and one night I checked and saw there was one single new Greenlight listing, that specifically mentioned green wheels.

I checked it out, saw it was still available and went through the checkout process. The next day after confirming my order I paid and waited.

As you can see by the image, I did get my green wheeled item - a Series 1, Greenlight Hitch and Tow 1967 Chevrolet Impala and Airstream Bambi.

Item will be added to the trade pile as I do not actively collect Green Machines (unless they are fully green cars) and already have a potential trade in the works.