200th Post: Transformers Prime Collection

It's the 200th post! Thank you for viewing! I hope you like what you've seen here on the site. My camera has gotten quite a work out over the last hundred posts. The toys were one thing, there were also several events which I attended this year. There's still a major one to go in Anime Festival Asia 2012. That will be in just over a week. Right now I would like to share with you my Transformers Prime collection.

Warning: Spoilers ahead if you haven't been watching Transformers Prime.

I didn't start collecting this line till April this year. I hadn't even watched the cartoon till I caught several episodes at Cybertron Con 2012. Man I was hooked. I wished I had followed the show sooner. Executive Producer Jeff Kline and others were in town for Cybertron Con. I would surely have wanted to have a chat with them. Oh well, no use thinking about that now.

My favourite character is Starscream. He's such a cunning schemer, and also quite the clown. I kind of pity him. Hes had a fair bit of misfortune, though some of it was through his own making. He appears to be laying low for now. I hope to see another twist in the plot. Starscream was one of the first figures that I got. Mine is the deluxe First Edition. Fortunately at the time I started collecting he could still be found fairly easily. I like his robot mode. His appearance is almost like the cartoon. Thin, slithery and treacherous. His plane mode is a little fat at the back end for my liking. The First Edition line was re-released recently so if you're looking to get him, there's plenty of him in stores right now. Hopefully with the holiday season coming, there'll be discounts. If that happens I'll consider picking up a couple more to recreate his clone scene.

Here's a look at the Autobots. I'll just be touching on the main five. Thanks to the re-release, I finally have the First Edition Optimus Prime. I'm not sure if I should feel lucky or not as I seem to have gotten a "variant". The area just underneath his side windows in vehicle mode are painted brown instead of red. I searched on the net but I found no mention of this. So why the need to get First Edition Optimus? The main reason is for the weapons. The Transformers Prime Robots in Disguise (RID) version comes with a gimmicky transparent light up gun and a fully grey sword which are not cartoon accurate. It's the same with Bulkhead. I don't mind the figure but his weapon is a let down. I'm still using the RID Bulkhead for the moment. I'll look to get the First Edition one when he goes on sale.

I'm glad I picked up the First Edition Bumblebee when I did. He's nowhere to be seen now even with the First Edition re-release. Though he looks like a gorilla, he's better than the RID version especially in the head and neck areas. It took me awhile to decide which version of Arcee I should get. The RID version is shorter which is how she should be. In the end I went with the First Edition as she looked neater, has better articulation and I prefer the shade of blue. Both versions' vehicle mode are oversized so I use the Cyberverse Legion version when she's rolling with the others. Ratchet is a great figure but unfortunately is let down by his size.

Other Autobots in the collection include Wheeljack, Sergeant Kup, Ironhide and Ultra Magnus which you can see pics of further down.

Most of the Decepticons were released in the RID line. Aside from Knock Out, I had trouble finding the rest when they were first released. I wish I didn't put in as much effort that I did to find Airachnid. She is a poor figure. Her vehicle mode is decent but her robot mode is horrible. She looks like an armoured stick. Her already poor articulation is hindered by the panels. Her straight giant hands would be ideal if you needed someone to do the robot dance. Soundwave and Vehicon are great. Vehicon is one figure which I think the RID version is better than the First Edition. Its slimmer and more show accurate. Knock Out is decent, just wish his robot mode was better.

Megatron and Dreadwing are voyager class figures and come with gimmicky weapons. Megatron's isn't too bad. Dreadwing could use his regular big cannon. It's a bit of a shame as Dreadwing is a great figure. He's one of my favourites.

Breakdown was only released by TakaraTomy. He's a solid figure. I didn't put any of the stickers on him as I handle my toys quite a bit. I didn't want them to flay up.

Decepticons that I have and didn't touch on include Jet Vehicon and Rumble.

So is this the complete collection? (character wise) Not quite, I'm missing a couple. There's the TakaraTomy Skywarp, Thundercracker, Orion Pax and Unicron. I passed on Skywarp and Thundercracker as they're basically Starscream repaints and they didn't appear on the show. I passed on Orion Pax as I already had the deluxe figure from the Entertainment Pack. And I prefer that figure's colours which are closer to Optimus Prime's. I wanted to get Unicron. I couldn't bring myself to buy him. He looked awful in person and the shiny gold areas just made him look worse in my opinion. Besides I think the stand in I have is menacing enough.

There are still a couple of figures which are not released yet. They are Skyquake, Smokescreen, Vehicon General and Silas Breakdown. Skyquake is a deinite purchase. I'm still thinking about the rest.

Picture time. Here are all the road vehicles.