June Transformers From Japan - Part 2

Arriving late last week after a quick journey from Japan came the rest of the June Transformers, along with a die cast car that joined the journey.

The major arrival was the first release in the Japanese Unite Warriors line, Superion who has been given a small makeover by Takara Tomy to be more faithful to the Generation One version than the version released by Hasbro. Set in a fantastic box, it is going to be hard to open this set up!

For some reason, Japan is using the Transformers Adventure line as a 'catch all' line in order to release castings not previously released in the country, although for these two releases (along with last months Insecticon releases), it would seem more appropriate to release these in the Legends line considering it still has pending releases .. but I am not in charge of marketing.

Again both releases have very slight changes over the Hasbro releases, and with Cosmos you do miss out on getting the additional Targetmaster partner released with the Hasbro version.

Hot Wheels K Case

In my recent finds of J and M case cars, I was missing a number of models that first showed up in the K case. With the major retailer for Hot Wheels in New Zealand (The Warehouse) still stuck on F case and earlier, it was up to the smaller stores like Kmart and Toyworld to provide assistance.

And this week Toyworld came through - I received a call on Wednesday to let me know that they had received another case and because I had taught the employees how to read the case code, I was rather happy when I was told it was a K case.

During lunch I headed down and after a quick check of the case I had five out of the six cars I needed - there were no regular Lancer Evolutions available - but after a quick chat with one of the store employees who had put some cars aside for their son, I was able to walk away with everything I needed as she decided they didn't really need the Lancer Evolution.

My happiness at finding the new cars was slightly ruined the next morning when I received an email from the store advertising a buy one, get 50% off sale .. Oh well

Come on N case!

Matchbox Catch-Up

It has been a while since the local stores got in any new Matchbox after stocking up earlier in the year with older 2014 cases and a few 2015 B cases. So it came as a complete surprise when I rounded the corner at the larger Warehouse store and saw that the pegs had been refilled and one of the first cars I spotted was the Tesla Model S.

Quickly pulling out my phone to grab my wanted list, and proceeded to search the pegs looking for the cars I wanted. Needless to say, since it had been a while since my last purchase of Matchbox, I had a rather large haul and if there had of been a few more of some cars on the shelf then more would have come home.

Fingers crossed that more cases (E, F, G) arrive soon in stores, otherwise to eBay we go.

Greenlight Breaking Bad

Arriving with my recent Transformers order was a Greenlight item I had pre ordered back when it was first revealed - the Breaking Bad 86 Fleetwood Bounder. Since then the exchange rate has gone down, so the model wasn't as cheap if it had of come out when it was supposed to but at least postage was free because of its travelling companions.

Greenlight released two versions of this casting, the Breaking Bad version under the Hollywood subline and the regular version under the Route 66 subline. Both versions have small differences and the Breaking Bad versions main difference is the shirt hanging over the right wing mirror as per the shows first episode.

Enjoy the in package image and I look forward to opening this up.

Heritage Series

Taking over from past lines like Boulevard and Garage, this years "adult collectable" Hot Wheels series dubbed Heritage has finally been released in New Zealand. This line featuring a mix of realistic vehicles and Hot Wheels own creations will receive two assortments alternating between Real Rider (rubber) tyres and Red Line (plastic) tyres.

As seems to be the case with all releases of Hot Wheels in New Zealand, the first wave of Heritage was released at the end of the school holidays and showed up first at a local book store (of all places), and then later at Toyworld (at least in my local area)

With the local price well in excess of three times the USA retail price, I quickly decided not to get a couple of cars that I was on the fence about purchasing and decided to only get the two I really wanted - being the two Datsuns.

Now to see if New Zealand will get Wave 2 ... based on past experience, I think not!

June Transformers from Japan - Part 1

Another month, and another month of Transformers goodness from Japan.
This month in two parts as my primary supplier again couldn't fill all of my wish list and I had to turn to my secondary supplier for a few items.

Up first is TAV (Transformers Adventures) Drift, a new take on the Samurai Drift introduced in the movie. Eventually getting two toys released, the deluxe as pictured and a gimmick toy that shoots Mini Con Deployers. Not sold on them yet but at least they add some Decepticons to the lineup!!

Like the last order from this secondary website, I had to meet the minimum order criteria, and so added some more of the Q Transformers to the cart. Once again they sold out of one of my selections before they confirmed my order and it actually put my order under the minimum value threshold. Thankfully they accepted the order ... If push had of come to shove, I guess I could have added more Q Transformers to the order!

Look out for part two soon, due to leave Japan any day now ...

April/May Transformers from Japan

After getting in some new Transformers for June, I realised that I hadn't done anything about making a video or writing a blog post for those Transformers received back in May!

Rewind back to April, and among the family issues a few new Transformers were released in the Transformers Adventure Line

First up, Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Ultra Magnus - a remold of Transformers Prime Optimus Prime who has received a better paint scheme over the very dull blue Hasbro release

And a new Transformers Adventure casting, Nemesis Prime who is a redeco of the Optimus Prime figure released in the "west". We now know that Takara have their own "bigger and better" Optimus Prime set for release later this year, so I guess they decided to get this toy out there somehow.

In May, saw the Japanese release of the Legends Leader Class Megatron figure, featuring a very slight colour change over the Hasbro version. Henkei Megatron from 2008, or United Megatron from 2011 still lead my CHUG collection Decepticons so at this stage this Megatrons ultimate fate may be in a storage tub.

Also in May my primary Japanese supplier was not able to supply two releases so I headed to another Japanese store I use. Now this store has a minimum order value so eventually I made the order and waited for confirmation. One of the items was out of stock between ordering and receiving the confirmation so I paid for what was available and very quickly had an order at the door.

Another addition to the filler line that is Transformers Adventure, the Insecticon Duo of Shrapnel and Bombshell were originally released by Hasbro in 2014 and 2015. The Japanese versions again feature slightly different paint applications and sadly do not feature the same purple or true Decepticon insignias.

As part of the minimum order value, I added in some Q Transformers to my order. These super deformed Transformers have taken familiar car modes, squished them and then made each transformation the same. Neat, very Japanese but not exactly something I would continue to collect.

Next month, hopefully I remember to make the video before I open toys :-)

Star Wars Black Series

Ah the school holidays, the time where every store suddenly gets new stock and then puts it on sale in order to extract money from bored school children or from parents who want peace and quiet for a few minutes.

As with past school holidays, new items flooded into stores and as part of that flood were some brand new 2015 Star Wars Black Series (3 3/4 inch). Since the change to the Black Series in 2013, New Zealand has only received a handful of waves so it was great to see new stuff arrive and as reported on global Star Wars fan-sites, we were among the first place to see a retail release.

What made the new arrival of product even better, was that it coincided with a 40% of sale making the figures $11.99NZ each which was a considerable saving over the normal $19.99NZ price tag.

As a result of a combination of new stuff and on sale, I brought home my first Star Wars haul in over 4 years.

Eventually these will be opened and added to the small pile of loose Star Wars figures I have (along with Marvel Universe and G.I. Joe) and then eventually displayed "somewhere" and "somehow".

M2 Auto Trucks

A few months back, M2 Machines announced some new castings and eventually showed them off via their Facebook page. With my interest grabbed, I decided to place a pre order for the set and eventually it shipped and arrived in hand this week.

Boy am I glad that I ordered these, in hand these new trucks are real lookers and I can't wait until I figure out a decent display option.

Until that happens, enjoy the images