F For Fake

You're too kind, I didn't do much other than stand around and look pretty. But I'm glad folks are benefitting from it!

I believe in all Hasbro iterations she is just “Burn Out” (or “Burnout”) but for whatever reason, Takara called out the Diaclone origins with the Diaburnout name. No idea why though.

Also from the sale, this Masterpiece Burnout/Diaburnout/whatever. I've never been much of a MP guy, but this one is fairly new and the sale knocked it down to about $40, so I grabbed it. Plus, I have always loved Skids and his mold-mates. He's one of the most underrated figures, from G1 and onward, but I've always liked the Honda City, it's a neat little car. I will now have to pick up Skids, Crosscut and...what's the other one, the one that looks like Optimus Prime? I'll think of it in a minute... Also, in the same vein, picked up the Senator Cross-Cut Legacy figure. I think this deco is the best for this mold, whatever series we're talking about. Here he is with his mold-mates.

Second order from the Pulse sale has arrived! I'm so stoked to have this X-Men 275 team complete. I really wanted these when they came out, but was holding off for a better price. Who knew it would come just a couple of months later? Completing the set for about $116 is a lot nicer than $180 for sure. These really are beautifully done. It seems like a simple enough idea to execute, since they're all wearing the same uniform, but the love is in the head sculpts, they look terrific. Banshee is PERFECT, and will look so great when they release a green version. The only letdown is Psylocke. In the solicitations, her hair is pretty clearly purple, but in hand, it's barely a hint of purple. Not a deal breaker, still a very nice face sculpt, but the one little nit I have with this set. Hopefully they'll make the funky Charles Xavier figure as well. They kinda hinted at it in one of the Livestreams, so I guess we'll see.

Oh wow, that is too cool! Looks like a GI Joe style construction, is it similar size?

Thanks bud! Definitely grabbed several things I'd been wanting for a while. I'd planned on grabbing Ironhide for some time now, but he wasn't hard to find (actually kind of a shelfwarmer around here) so I was content to wait for a better price. Appreciate the heads up. Man, at that price I am contemplating getting two more Guardians, but I don't really NEED them, so I think I'll wait and see if they get even cheaper around the holidays. Seems like the last several Titans have shown up around $100 by winter, so I may just wait it out, and if it never goes on sale, oh well, I've got the one. Yes, I'm a sucker for complete teams for display, so when they put out those three packs, they were a must have. Glad I was patient, the discount helped a lot. I was really hoping that The Blob and Spiral would go on sale this week, as that would pretty much catch me up on the Legends stuff I'm interested in, but so for no go. Oh well, can't complain, I got crazy good deals on the other stuff I needed. One more order headed my way from this sale, placed this AM, in addition to Skyfire. And with that I must push myself away from the computer before I go bankrupt! Went a little overboard on these deals, will need to start saving towards a presumed Black Friday sale.

WOW, they've actually added several items to the sale, including the Masterpiece Jetfire. The discount knocks it down to about $189 shipped, you're not going to beat that. Just grabbed mine.

My first order from the Pulse sale showed up on Friday, that's pretty swift! I'd been holding off on Skyquake and Metalhawk, hoping for a sale, and sure enough, here they were. With a few exceptions (some exclusives) I find it's usually worth waiting for a sale to pick up mainline TF stuff. Sure, you'll miss one here and there, but the vast majority will eventually be offered for sale on Pulse, or clearanced around the holidays. Metalhawk is for my Robots in Disguise Cybertron crew, and Skyquake, well, I don't know the character or have any specific spot to place him, I just thought he was a badass looking chunk of plastic! The Guardian robot looks nice with this deco. I'll have to clear a spot to display him with ALpha Trion, Orion Pax, and the upcoming War Dawn pack. For now, he stays in his enormous cardboard coffin. Also, I don't buy many Legends, but I am trying to complete some X-Men teams, so this sale gave me a nice shot. Once step closer to Mystique's Brother/Freedom Force, and halfway through the blue/gold uniforms. I was hoping the other three-pack (Banshee, Psylocke, Gambit) would hit the sale, and it looks like it JUST did, so gotta go grab that now!

RIP Jazzy John, one of the best to ever do it, and a total class act.

Yeah, not much I can do. I'm sure there are some folks who will go so far as to print their own customized dj's, but I can't quite go that far. So I'll buy it and complain on here. ha

Ah, understood. I jumped around GI Joe, but TF I've read them all up through the end of Phase 3. As for where to start, well...that's a thorny issue. IDW's publishing history of TF is fairly complex, in that it started with a series of one-shots and events, and then had a soft reboot, and then continued along...then ANOTHER soft reboot for Phase 2, etc. It's pretty convoluted. It does, technically, follow a single continuity, from Phase 1 through 3, but there are several editorial and stylistic changes throughout those runs, so while it is all connected, it definitely has an overall disjointed feel. There are a lot of TF people who like Simon Furman's contribution to IDW (though I imagine a lot of this is colored by nostalgia for his Marvel and UK TF stuff.) So, basically that adds up to a bunch of "Spotlight" one-shots, and miniseries Infiltration, Escalation, and Devastation. To that end, you'd probably be best reading the Transformers: The IDW Collection hardcovers (or digital files, as the hc's are now oop). That puts everything in a more or less coherent publishing order, and is the easiest way to keep all the random stuff straight. However, if I was trying to convince you to read the BEST stuff? I'd say skip Phase 1 and jump right into Phase 2, either via the IDW Collection Phase 2 HC's/files, or the collections of More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise. All you really need to know is that Phase 2 kicks off after the war between Autobots and Decepticons has finally ended. Sure, there are some other storylines and seeds planted in Phase 1 that will pay off in Phase 2, but you have to get through a lot of mediocre junk to find them. MTMTE is essentially a big space adventure story with lots of humor, heart, and imagination (Rodimus takes a disparate crew on a quest to find the Knights of Cybertron), whereas Robots in Disguise is the story of Cybertron in the aftermath of the war, as the various factions (Autobots, Decepticons, Non-aligned Indigenous Lifeforms) try to live together. I think they're very well done, particularly MTMTE, which I'd recommend to pretty much anyone to read, whether they were familiar with TF or not. SO...yeah. There's tons of content out there, and you may like Phase1. I certainly like parts of it. But I would keep expectations low. My personal recommendation would be track down that first comprehensive collection. If you dig it, continue going forward. If not, skip to Phase 2 MTMTE and RID.

I'm currently in the middle of my comprehensive IDW re-read. Phase 1 stories were hit or miss, but I'm still loving my revisit of Phase 2, particularly More than Meets the Eye, which I think is one of my favorite comics of all time, regardless of genre. I've got all of the reboot stuff in HC, but haven't started reading it yet. It's my understanding that I should be prepared to be underwhelmed.

From IDW, I really loved Costa's Last Laugh, and the Cobra/Coil stuff. Really great spy/espionage comics. I just couldn't ever get into the Hama stuff. Liked it when I was a kid, but didn't really hit the same as an adult. Great deal of respect for the guy, and if that's what fans want, I hope he writes it for a long time. But I don't think I'd buy a Joe book he was writing at this point.

Don't really care about new TF comics, so much as I hope they give us nice HC editions of the Marvel stuff, and finish printing the UK stuff that IDW never got around to. Between their oversized hardcovers, compendia, etc Skybound does pretty nice collected editions, so it would be nice to finally have the classic stuff in a single hardcover format. That's really all I'm waiting for. As for new stories, I'm sure I"ll check out whatever TF stuff they put out eventually, but I don't buy new floppies anymore, so I'll be trade waiting whatever they put out.

Drives. Me. Crazy. Still, happy the book is finally out.

Hasbro Pulse is having a sale. Not so great if you're not a premium member (only 15% off) but if you ARE a Premium member, it's 35% off, plus your typical free shipping. A few good deals in the sale, going to have to go ahead and grab the Guardian robot at that price. https://hasbropulse.com/collections/hasbro-pulse-power-days-sale Kind of a random assortment this go round, but definitely a few things that I've had saved in my cart for just such an occasion. Going to knock a couple off of the list.

Yes, 100%. I’ve been selling on eBay for 25+ years, and I’ve screwed up a few times for sure. The key is honest (and fast) resolution. Sometimes doing the right thing means eating a loss. But I pretty much always learn from it.

Ah, that could be! I don't keep up with moderns, so most of the chatter I've heard is from the Transformers groups and forums about the movie. Interesting confluence of events! So, looks like several potential reasons why the series could heat up. Then again, as raws go, they're not exactly in short supply, so prices may not move at all. But worth having on the radar, I suppose.

Appreciate it, but there’s a pretty good chance I’ll end up seeing it, so I’ll go in as fresh as I can.

Yeah, I’m satisfied with my copy, so I won’t be buying more, but it may be worth paying attention to the prices. Or…it may not! For all I know the movie may bomb. So, take it for what it’s worth.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR TRANSFORMERS:RISE OF THE BEASTS DISCUSSED BELOW, IN CASE YOU CARE ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING! Noticed that my copy of G.I. Joe and the Transformers #1 on my GPA account has been nudging upward. Plenty of raw copies out there for $3-$10, wonder if we'll see a run on them after the weekend. May be worth digging through your dollar bins before the weekend is out. I'm not selling my 9.8 unless it goes ballistic, but asking prices are now double what they were a couple of days ago, and GPA shows the last sold copy was $400. Curious to see where it ends up.

$300 would be a solid deal. Sold prices are all over the place, from around $350 to $700+, depending on god knows what. Condition, time of day, what the seller ate for breakfast, etc.

Ugh. Definitely looks like seller's remorse/cheapskatery. I would contact the seller and say "Hey, I know this only sold for 99 cents, but you should be aware of how this arrived." I wouldn't expect much of a response, but they should at least be made aware of it, on the verrrrrrrrrrry slim (practically nonexistant) chance that they are an honest seller who just doesn't know how to best ship action figures. Beyond that, I'd say it's a matter of what you spent vs how much you're willing to be annoyed by this person. Feedback I'd simply base on their response. If it's silence, or anything other than "Wow, I'm sorry about that," then I'd go with neutral. Negative is probably warranted in that case, but man, I just hate to go that far unless we're talking about the absolute worst offenders. But you gotta do what's right for you.

And the more traditional stuff. Chipping away at the Adams X-men covers.

That moment when you're reviewing your recent CLink pickups and remember, "Oh, right, I'm a perv!" Seriously though, been looking for that Dirty Pair cover for a minute. Bondage, nudity, AND implied cannibalism? That's a trifecta! Probably overpaid for that Bolland barefoot WW cover, but it doesn't come up often.