On Saturday, January 1, 2022 at 12:07:20 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> On Saturday, January 1, 2022 at 10:26:37 AM UTC-7, Ob1k...@att.net wrote:
>
> > A friend from the monthly toyshow was so ecstatic he found Mosquitor at Target, it was the first MOTU Origins he'd seen in store that wasn't Heman, Skeletor, Teela, or Man at Arms since September
> I just barely got Mosquitor at Target myself. (Originally, I was only going to collect the characters I really wanted, but I seem to have fallen down a rabbit hole. The rabbits here are nice, and they're soft and cuddly, and they feed me carrots...)
> > Tigatron was nowhere, then suddenly everywhere all at once. I've still not bought the new Rhinox because there's no shortage anymore and my T30 is really good. Back in August Rhinox showed up for a day and was gone, and now he's everywhere so I don't feel the FOMO.
> Honestly, you're not missing much with Rhinox. He's not great.
>
>
> Zob (remolding the 2014 toy to make it F.O.S.S.I.L. ready would have been a better move)

I wish they remolded any of the Kingdom Beasts to be F.O.S.S.I.L. compatible.

On Tuesday, December 28, 2021 at 4:56:29 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:

> I got a good deal on a broken Targetmaster version, so I had to get a 1986 Hot Rod to replace the broken parts.
> (I could have used a Walmart reissue, but I really didn't like the metal foil sticker on his chest. It's inauthentic.)
> And I learned that you can't just put a 1987 engine block on a 1986 Hot Rod head and call it good. The head
> itself was remolded to accommodate the Targetmaster engine mount. Who knew?

So which sticker did you end up with on the hood? I noticed there are two versions of TM Hot Rod hood sticker-one with a dark yellow background behind the flames (I've only ever seen this on TM Hot Rods) and one with an orange background (like the non-TM release Hot Rod). The dark yellow seems the most common. My childhood toy has the dark yellow background but the flames really don't pop as well as the orange background ones do. I had a very legitimate and valid reason to swap out the hoods recently but then I returned the hoods to their original owners so as to preserve historical authenticity.

It seems the TM Hot Rods with orange background hood stickers are rarer and ebay sellers will charge extra for them but they're easy enough to create by swapping. And I ain't paying for a possibly parts swapped 'variation'. Like I always say, Nothing Loose can be Trusted.

On Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 10:44:31 AM UTC-7, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:

> So which sticker did you end up with on the hood?

I wasn't aware there was a sticker variation. Ugh, that dingy yellow color is awful. How did I never notice that before? I imagine I was probably just perceiving that as a faded orange sticker and not a legitimate version in its own right! I'm glad you told me the orange sticker does appear on the 1987 toy at least some of the time, because otherwise I'd feel like I inadvertantly Frankensteined together something wholly inauthentic.

This is the Targetmaster version I had originally bought:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/393772187860

So, it looks like I got the orange version, but as you can see, the sticker is badly damaged, so I swapped the chest piece out with the 1986 version. I don't intend on reselling it or misrepresenting it as an unmodified piece, of course. I just wanted a good-looking Targetmaster to put on my display shelf.

I suppose I'm making things difficult for future collectors and historians, since whoever ends up with my collection when I'm gone is going to have to somehow figure out which parts are authentic G1, which toys are reissues, and which ones are Zhong Jin reproductions (I tend to mix all three freely on my display shelves). I probably make it even worse when I shop on eBay for loose items, because I can't speak towards the provenance of any of those items like I can with stuff I've owned since I was a kid. But, I'll leave that for others to sort out.

Zob (in the future, they'll probably just have tricorders that can carbon-date all the plastic)

On Saturday, December 25, 2021 at 6:17:09 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> There's a list floating around on the message boards of possible exclusive toys that may be coming around the pike for 2022.

Well, Sandstorm, Nightprowler and Buzzsaw are confirmed to be coming as Wal-Mart exclusives for Legacy, and preorders are now up for the DK-2 Guard release. List's panning out so far.

Really got my fingers crossed for that red version of Cog. Wouldn't say no to a blue Trailbreaker either.

On Sunday, December 26, 2021 at 1:58:55 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> G2 Leadfoot was a member of the Wreckers in some continuity according to
> TFWiki, and there will be a new F1 racer mold for Dragstrip. He might also
> be a Mirage clone.

You called it! I'm impressed.

> I am betting that is Armada of “Cyclonus and his Armada”. The only really
> plausible redeco of Cyclonus would be as a toy-color version.

You're good at this game!

Zob