The New Haul!

What’s up, everyone?! Welcome to my little corner of The Chosen Prime world. My name’s Mike Kingcaid, and I’ve been a Transformers junkie since day one as an 8 yr. old in 1984. I was asked recently by the King of the TCP universe, Brandon Weik, to contribute to this blog, so this will be my first entry. Even though this is a review of sorts, I have a different aim for my section of the blog. Our friend Lap Tran does such nice product-style photography and very well written and in-depth reviews that it would be silly for me to rehash. I want to to give you, in my posts and reviews, the point of view coming from a 39 yr. old guy that is getting ahold of homages of the characters that he grew up with and looking through the eyes of that kid who was age 8 through 13 during the Transformers original heyday. I’m gonna give you my views on scale and cartoon accuracy as they fit my personal collection.

I collected everything from the G1 era except for the Micromasters and Action Masters. My collection endgame is to collect one MP version of each character from the original series. Our opinions may differ or be the same as to what “MP” might mean, but therein lies opportunity for great discussion and for all of us to bounce ideas and opinions off each other.

The other aim of some of my “non-review” blog posts will be to hopefully draw out the creativity of those who choose to read them. I’m a lifelong artist and a musician for about half of that life, so the need to create in one form or another is always at the forefront of much of what I do, if not lurking just below the surface. And I believe ALL OF US have at least a little creativity. You don’t get captivated by robots from outer freakin’ space if you don’t have some imagination at your disposal. I am continuously amazed at the amount of talented Transformers fans I come across: The artists, both traditional AND digital, the customizers, the writers, and the designers of the bots themselves. It’s a great time to be a collector and fan of the Transformers, in my opinion.

That being said, let’s start off with a review! haha.  

Unique Toys Buzzing (Blurr) - I already own a few Unique Toys products and have yet to be really disappointed. The most recent of those was Provider, their homage to Octane. I was happy with him, so getting my hands on Buzzing became a no-brainer. And I gotta say, UT nailed it. He’s very sturdy and well-built. He has a very sleek and cool alt mode, but I display everything in robot mode. And that being said…he looks excellent. He’s very clean and doesn’t really have any oddball kibble hangin’ off of him from his alt mode. He’s a great height for the MP scale, about as tall as Ratchet, which I feel is perfect. When I think of Blurr in human terms, I see him as an Olympic sprinter. He’s tall and thin and from all indications, he looks like he can blow your doors off in a race. 

He’s a got a fresh, young-looking face, although it almost exudes too much confidence, as we remember Blurr being a nervous hyperactive wreck at almost all times. I also love that most MP and 3P MP-scaled figures come with episode-specific items, and the transformation cog is a nice touch. 

Voodoo Robots Salus (Ratchet) - Though I plan on getting a boxed Takara MP Ratchet when he’s released (I usually get two of every official MP release, one to keep boxed and one to open), I decided to go with Voodoo Salus as my display Ratchet. My plan with the repaint figures like Grapple/Inferno, Hoist/Trailbreaker, etc. is to split them between companies so they have slightly different looks to them. This was my thought process in getting Salus because I’ll be displaying the MP Ironhide alongside of him. I’m pretty impressed with Salus. To me, he speaks 1984 Ratchet. The Voodoo mold looks a bit more slender than the MP van molds, which works in my eyes. Again, and I know it may sound silly to some, but I’m looking at the van-bots in human terms.
I see Ratchet as a doctor….probably taking care of himself a little better, staying thin, watching his energon diet. I always saw Ironhide as that old fart of a lifer military guy, and probably one of those tough guys that never actually saw a doctor unless one of his limbs was hanging by a single bolt. And even then, you’d probably have to force him to go. Yeah, I know….that’s out there. Welcome to my brain. I’ve heard people complain about the windows on the feet…..that doesn’t bother me. The only thing that bugs me a tiny bit about the figure is the ratchet hips. He is either standing straight up or he’s in a bit of a wide-legged stance, ready for action. It’s a bit tough to get him into a relaxed standing pose. Also, the filler kit made me slightly homicidal. I would suggest watching a YouTube video on this so you know what tiny pieces go where. 

FansToys FT-13 Mercenary (Shrapnel) & FT-11 Spotter (Reflector) - I’m lumping these two together. I’m a FansToys fanboy and I’m not apologizing for it. Pound for pound, I think they might give you more for your money than any TF company there is, Takara and Hasbro included. Every figure of theirs is well-built, solid and heavy as a tank. I’m always impressed by the options that are included with each release, whether it was Perceptor’s alternately colored armor, Swoop’s extra beak and wings so you could choose between flat and chrome finish, Quakewave’s opaque hand and blaster vs. the translucent, and the list goes on. That continues with their Shrapnel and Reflector. 


They two (four) of them are flawless and awesome. I’d buy anything by FansToys above all over companies….’nuff said.

Warbotron WB-03D Double Strike (Strafe) - Ever since Warbotron introduced their Combaticon set I was in. I really liked the creative liberties they took in their approach to designing their figures, while still remaining true to the original look of the character. They also raised the height of the combiners, which was cool. Although now that ToyWorld has released their take on Devastator and blew that all to hell, my aim has changed when it comes to collecting combiners.
Mass shifting has done more than just make Albert Einstein roll in his grave. It’s confused the hell out of us as collectors and what we aim to do. So my solution is this: I will probably get the figures that scale well with the MP figures as individuals such as the Warbotron Combaticons and Technobots and the GenerationToys Constructicons and leave them in individual robot modes. And then the tough part: Waiting for huge combiners to be released that will scale correctly with the ToyWorld Devastator. That being said, Warbotron Strafe is a pretty sweet figure and will not disappoint if you are into their past releases. 

BadCube OTS-08 Sunsurge (Sunstreaker) - BadCube is quickly becoming one of my favorite 3P companies. I liked Brawny and Backland a bunch, I was really impressed by the engineering of Wardog, and the bugs were pretty cool. Their take on Sunstreaker is just awesome. Super possibility, options between flat and chrome wheels and spoiler, and great in both modes. The way they designed his chest to look like the windshield and roof of the car while hiding the ACTUAL roof and windshield is pretty damn cool, and it allows him to be proportioned very nicely. I feel like using the actual windshield and roof would have made his chest look too big, whereas the way they did it led to more cartoon accuracy in my opinion. One can look at this guy and almost see the cockiness exuding from within. He definitely looks like the type of bot that’s into himself and tries to avoid getting shot, not because of feeling pain, but because he just gets completely annoyed when others mess up his paint job. Also, including Chip in the set is pretty awesome.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I'll talk to you again real soon. Peace, love and robots!

- Michael Kingcaid