I know a couple of us are local to the Seattle area and March 19th will be the day that Abby Trott will be doing an in store appearance at the Outlet Collection mall in Auburn. She's been Windblade in the Prime Wars trilogy of animated series.

https://www.facebook.com/unlockthecon/posts/2127436277424028

That would be quite a commute for me from Olympia. I sold my Headmaster
Windblade toy, so I wouldn't even have anything to autograph.

On Tuesday, March 8, 2022 at 2:32:11 PM UTC-8, Travoltron wrote:
> That would be quite a commute for me from Olympia. I sold my Headmaster
> Windblade toy, so I wouldn't even have anything to autograph.

Well this weekend there's a toy show at the old Toys R Us in Puyallup. You could go there and look for Windblade stuff in preparation for the appearance on the 19th. That's still about a half hour drive but at least it's all freeway in both cases. Barring crashes or other disasters it's a straight shot.

And how about The Toy Box in Lacey? That place is a pretty neat little store a lot closer that may or may not have Windbladery.

I don't know why I am trying to convince others to buy WIndblade stuff. I don't even have any myself. When I lived in Georgia there was this discount place called Ollie's and they had tons of that Thrilling 30 wave with Windblade. I remember holding one and thinking about how the character was a pretty historic addition to the franchise and I should probably jump at owning some version of it early on. Was that the first one? But I skipped on it and now here I am. I still don't care much either way but there's an opportunity to make a connection with the VA. I feel like somehow I fumbled the ball but maybe someone else hasn't.

I just bet somewhere around here within a few miles' radius there's the PNW's foremost Windblade fan with a Windblade shrine in their closet and they don't know about the appearance and they're going to miss it and regret not knowing about it.

On 3/9/2022 10:15 AM, Evil King Macrocranios wrote:
> And how about The Toy Box in Lacey?

Yeah, he's the guy I sold my Windblade to.

That's interesting about the Puyallup store. I remember that Toys R Us
was a holdout and kept its 1980s look and layout for a really long time.
It was a trip to visit.

On Wednesday, March 9, 2022 at 12:36:11 PM UTC-8, Travoltron wrote:
> > And how about The Toy Box in Lacey?
> Yeah, he's the guy I sold my Windblade to.

Oh well forget that option then. It would be kind of awkward if not embarrassing for me to buy back a toy from the same shop I already sold it to. (Well I guess it's kind of the same thing as putting stuff in storage. You're just paying someone to keep it at their place for you for a while.)

> That's interesting about the Puyallup store. I remember that Toys R Us
was a holdout and kept its 1980s look and layout for a really long time.

It was a sad day when I saw they painted the rainbow tiles on the front of the store that bordered the windows this really ugly grey color. Like how Optimus Prime turned grey when he died.

On Wednesday, March 9, 2022 at 11:15:37 AM UTC-7, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:

> When I lived in Georgia there was this discount place called Ollie's and they had tons of that Thrilling 30 wave with Windblade. I remember holding one and thinking about how the character was a pretty historic addition to the franchise and I should probably jump at owning some version of it early on.

I rather liked the Titans Return version. There was something fun about getting an all-new Headmaster character. I probably have two or three versions of her at this point, but honestly she just didn't become the phenomenon that I think Hasbro wanted her to be. I don't think you can create a phenomenon by committee.

> I just bet somewhere around here within a few miles' radius there's the PNW's foremost Windblade fan with a Windblade shrine in their closet and they don't know about the appearance and they're going to miss it and regret not knowing about it.

I would presume if this person was such a huge Windblade fan, they would be stalking her voice actor on Twitter or something, and would know about every public appearance she's ever made.

Zob (is not a Windblade fan)

Well I really tried to like Windblade in the hopes I would be hyped to meet her voice actress but I failed. I couldn't make it through the Combiner Wars show so that's strike one. I did kinda like her whole "I hate the Autobots! I hate the Decpticons!" schtick. I feel like that a lot, too.

I never bought any figures before so I question my motives for wanting to come across as some sort of Windblade fan when I haven't ever done anything Windblade fanny up to this point. That's strike two.

I wanted to find a good figure to maybe get Abby Trott to sign the box of but most of them don't capture the character well. The one piece of merchandise that does is a Flame Toys model kit that is only this week shipping from retailers so I won't have it in time to make the appearance. Well I would if I wanted to pay 40 bucks shipping for 2nd day air from Entertainment Earth, but my wife reminds me that's a lot of money for shipping on top of the $50 cost of the model itself. Plus the organizers are charging $30 for her to sign Funko Pops and I think they may want that much for model boxes as well. It's a lot of money and I forgot why I was even getting caught up in this in the first place. So there's strike three.

In my researching I came across this one collector who has a whole lot of Windblade stuff:

https://myfigurecollection.net/blog/52861

He says the model is painful to put together. I would have wanted to have that done before the meet so I could get that ultimate fan pic of me, the model, and the actress but I realized it would have meant an all nighter putting a model together. That's not gonna happen. That's strike four.

The one piece of Windblade merchandise I ever wanted was the Combiner Hunters t-shirt that was selling a few years ago. But I never got it and getting that signed just seems like a weird way to trick someone into touching you.. Strike five. Although I do remember thinking it was cool at a con once when I saw one guy who got Herb Trimpe to draw the Hulk on his green t-shirt as he was wearing it.

Well so much for getting Abby Trott to sign my model box with "I hate the Autobots!" That $120 dream went out the window once I waited past the deadline to have the model kit shipped in time. Maybe one day I'll see the model during a Hobby Lobby 40% off sale and I'll pick it up. I'll make her a little baseball cap, a bat, and five baseballs to pose with.