So you know how I said I'm not into the toys? Yeah, Studio Series Hot Rod is cuddling--he can literally *cuddle*--Steeljaw (original 80s version) on the living room mantelpiece, and it's everything I ever wanted from Transformers toys.

For the record, (as well as digging out the box of G1 toys) I've bought both Arcee and Hot Rod from the Studio Series line. Obviously, not to cuddle each other--that's what Steeljaw is for. After some testing, I can confidently say that Hot Rod does better at petting cats. Clearly this is why Hasbro is considering giving Arcee a voyager class upgrade. Ah, well, maybe I can do something cute with Arcee and the ridiculously petite G1 Sludge.

Velvet Glove (My kids are away for three weeks. I'm making no pretence of responsibility during that time.)

On Sunday, August 13, 2023 at 5:10:41 PM UTC-4, Velvet Glove wrote:
> So you know how I said I'm not into the toys? Yeah, Studio Series Hot Rod is cuddling--he can literally *cuddle*--Steeljaw (original 80s version) on the living room mantelpiece, and it's everything I ever wanted from Transformers toys.
>
> For the record, (as well as digging out the box of G1 toys) I've bought both Arcee and Hot Rod from the Studio Series line. Obviously, not to cuddle each other--that's what Steeljaw is for. After some testing, I can confidently say that Hot Rod does better at petting cats. Clearly this is why Hasbro is considering giving Arcee a voyager class upgrade. Ah, well, maybe I can do something cute with Arcee and the ridiculously petite G1 Sludge.
>
> Velvet Glove (My kids are away for three weeks. I'm making no pretence of responsibility during that time.)

Best image ever.

And if you want cuddly, the Studio Series 86 Dinobots are the way to go!

(or these Etsy plushies: https://www.fanboy.com/2015/01/the-most-adorable-dinobot-plush-toys-ever.html)

On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 3:28:00 AM UTC+1, Codigo Postal wrote:
>
> And if you want cuddly, the Studio Series 86 Dinobots are the way to go!

I do want cuddly, but I'm going to have to draw the line at the Dinobots' price point--especially since I've already missed Grimlock and Slag, so I'd have to buy them at the marked up Ebay prices. At some point, they'll do another cartoon-accurate set of Dinos, and if I'm still into the toys then, I can buy them one at a time as they come out. (And if I'm not still into the toys then, it's not worth me filling up a box with accurately scaled Dinobots now.) Meanwhile, I can be grateful I have little versions of Grimlock and Sludge to be silly with.

Velvet Glove (plushie Dinobots are cute, but after my daughter's gigantic plushie collection, I will die before I bring any others into the house)

On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 6:47:22 AM UTC-4, Velvet Glove wrote:
> On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 3:28:00 AM UTC+1, Codigo Postal wrote:
> >
> > And if you want cuddly, the Studio Series 86 Dinobots are the way to go!
> I do want cuddly, but I'm going to have to draw the line at the Dinobots' price point--especially since I've already missed Grimlock and Slag, so I'd have to buy them at the marked up Ebay prices. At some point, they'll do another cartoon-accurate set of Dinos, and if I'm still into the toys then, I can buy them one at a time as they come out. (And if I'm not still into the toys then, it's not worth me filling up a box with accurately scaled Dinobots now.) Meanwhile, I can be grateful I have little versions of Grimlock and Sludge to be silly with.

To be honest, in many ways I prefer the Power of the Primes Dinobots to SS86. They're more reminiscent of the original toys, where SS86 is more accurate to the cartoon, their transformation is simple and quick, and they even combine into a new gestalt, just for fun. Plus, 1:1 KOs can be had for a song, and slightly larger (Deluxe to Voyager, Voyager to Leader) high quality knockoffs with diecast are available from BMB for roughly 10-12 bucks each.. They're the #deskbots I return to time and again.

On Sunday, August 13, 2023 at 3:10:41 PM UTC-6, Velvet Glove wrote:

> For the record, (as well as digging out the box of G1 toys) I've bought both Arcee and Hot Rod from the Studio Series line. Obviously, not to cuddle each other--that's what Steeljaw is for. After some testing, I can confidently say that Hot Rod does better at petting cats. Clearly this is why Hasbro is considering giving Arcee a voyager class upgrade. Ah, well, maybe I can do something cute with Arcee and the ridiculously petite G1 Sludge.

As a not-really-toy-collector, I'm curious about your thoughts on your Studio Series toys.

As for Dinobots, I'm going to echo what Codigo Postal said and suggest that the Leader-class Studio Series toys are probably going to be the best you'll get. It's likely TakaraTomy will do Masterpiece Dinobots some day (they did Grimlock ages ago, but I assume he'll get a redo when they get around to doing all of them) but they'll all probably retail for something like $200 USD apiece.

I think there's at least an outside chance they might do a redeco of Studio Series Grimlock in cartoon colors. If that's the case, then you should be able to get him for around fifty bucks. Right now you can get a weird yellow version at Walmart, but he's kind of hideous. It won't be the Grimlock you know and love.

So what would your ideal toy collection look like? Which characters would you want to buy? At what point would your collection feel "complete" to you? I'm fascinated by your switch from non-collecting to collecting.

Zob (usually we see the opposite—people who decide to just be done with it and sell off every toy they own)

I think that there's a couple of important qualifiers to my collecting:

Firstly, I've paid no attention to Transformers for a good decade, and then a couple of months ago, I got the urge to revisit it. I don't honestly know if this is just some flash in the pan nostalgia for when life was going a bit better for me, or if this is going to be a long term hobby for me again. (And by hobby, I mean fanfic-writing rather than toy-collecting). So I'm a bit wary of suddenly buying a bunch of toys that I might lose all interest in before the end of the year.

Secondly, my connection to Transformers has always been via the G1 cartoon with its sprawling cast of characters and disproportionately lengthy timeline. It's a fun playground... but growing up with the G1 toys, which my brother collected avidly, I always found them disappointing. I think it's fair to say that the G1 toys were better at the alt modes than the robots? But it's the robot modes that represent the characters.

So to take a sampling from my G1 box (actually my ex-husband's old toys, for the most part, but my brother's collection had similar issues), you've got Grimlock who's smaller than Springer who's smaller than Hot Rod who's smaller than Wreck-Gar who's smaller than Blaster. (And Wreck Gar is a legitimately terrible looking robot as well. I'm not even going to touch on Powerglide.) It's pretty well impossible to enact a cartoon consistent story with them, unless you take one on a solo adventure. My childhood toy was My Little Pony which might not have had nearly the amount of play features as Transformers, but at least they were all in scale with each other. I played with them *endlessly* as a kid.

Anyway, fast forward to modern day, and I'm absolutely blown away by how much the toys have improved. Arcee and Hot Rod are a good scale for each other and *so* amazingly poseable. It's a massive deal to me that they look like their cartoon counterparts (honestly, I thought G1 Hot Rod was one of the better toys but the poseability and the facial expression on the modern version is just... Yeah, it's that stuff that's important to me.) Props are important too... I love the fact that I own a little bitty Matrix, and I adore the cartoon diorama-backgrounds--not currently using them, but I like that I've got them to mess around with.

Where does this leave me? Hot Rod's still hugging Steeljaw in the living room, and now my bedroom shelf has its own little micro-continuity, where Arcee has a dog-sized Sludge as a pet. It's making me very happy--I'm interested in a bunch of other Studio Series figures, but I'm rationing myself to one toy a month until I have a better feel for where this is going.

Velvet Glove (I'm guessing the answer is 'no', but I don't suppose any modern Blaster toys are compatible with the original cassettes?)