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| "Ice to meet you" |
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| If you didn't want to collect Lego Batman, you do now. |
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| So, that's what all the hype on the weather report was about... |
Showing posts with label fellow collectors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fellow collectors. Show all posts
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Featuring: Josh Bressi photographer
A good buddy of mine and hell of a grand photographer has been shooting some various nerd properties and I must say they are pretty damn professional...Just want to spread some love and talent to the rest of my fellow readers...any feedback is welcomed as I'm sure he's always willing to hear how awesome he is. :)
Thursday, November 1, 2012
G1 Jetfire Cleanup Project
Hello again readers,
My buddy and cousin-in-law John (whose G1/He-Man collection I reviewed a while back) has a birthday coming up so his wife sent me a text asking me to track down a bot for his collection. I had a 25 dollar max which kinda limited me big time since the guys he's looking for a mostly biggies like Shockwave, Megatron, Devastator and Mirage. Low and behold, I found an in-tact but pretty grundgy looking Jetfire/Skyfire G1 model that he's been after for a while for 27 bucks w/ free shipping.
When I said grundgy, that wasn't even the half of it. The pictures on Ebay really didn't do it justice as to how coated in dirt and grime it was. Stickers were sparse and all in the wrong spots. By the way, what is it with buying used on Ebay that the stickers are always diagonal and hanging off the side of whatever toy you buy? Did these kids put them on blindfolded at age 2? I never did this to my toys as a kid! Sheesh.
So, wanting to clean this guy up before my buddy's birthday, I want to get him brought up to snuff with some new, fresh decals. I put an order in to tfkingdom.com for a set of Jetfire's as well as Blades and Groove for my Protectobots who showed up in the mail 2 weeks ago in less than stellar sticker condition. Again, these stickers aren't perfect but they get the job done super cheap if you aren't in the price-range for reprolabels.com. Once ordered I got to work on using an exact-o blade to remove the old messed up decals on the guy and to clean up the over abundance of leftover residue.
From there, I gave him a thorough washing with hot water and grease cutting dish detergent which got a ton of the dirt in the cracks off. A toothbrush and an cue-tip with baby oil did the trick very well. It also was how I restored all of my Joe vehicles I bought used. Cuts dust buildup in a flash. Towel dried the bot and let him air out over night.
Then I moved onto detailing for the really built up muck. I bought some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and they worked wonders to take off the smudged paint on the aft and dorsal wings and got the heavy gritty buildup on his arms and legs as well as the scratches on the top of his head where the rub sign used to be. This drastically reduced the yellowing from sun and smoke staining however yellow was still present. (Nothing short of dipping him in Plasti-dip or repainting him was going to get him 100%)
Now he was clean as he was gonna get and luckily the decals arrived. Decals were placed on today and John's G1 Jetfire is ready to fill his missing ranks. I hope he likes it!
This was our figure right out of the box...pretty banged up.
My buddy and cousin-in-law John (whose G1/He-Man collection I reviewed a while back) has a birthday coming up so his wife sent me a text asking me to track down a bot for his collection. I had a 25 dollar max which kinda limited me big time since the guys he's looking for a mostly biggies like Shockwave, Megatron, Devastator and Mirage. Low and behold, I found an in-tact but pretty grundgy looking Jetfire/Skyfire G1 model that he's been after for a while for 27 bucks w/ free shipping.
When I said grundgy, that wasn't even the half of it. The pictures on Ebay really didn't do it justice as to how coated in dirt and grime it was. Stickers were sparse and all in the wrong spots. By the way, what is it with buying used on Ebay that the stickers are always diagonal and hanging off the side of whatever toy you buy? Did these kids put them on blindfolded at age 2? I never did this to my toys as a kid! Sheesh.
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| That poor head. |
So, wanting to clean this guy up before my buddy's birthday, I want to get him brought up to snuff with some new, fresh decals. I put an order in to tfkingdom.com for a set of Jetfire's as well as Blades and Groove for my Protectobots who showed up in the mail 2 weeks ago in less than stellar sticker condition. Again, these stickers aren't perfect but they get the job done super cheap if you aren't in the price-range for reprolabels.com. Once ordered I got to work on using an exact-o blade to remove the old messed up decals on the guy and to clean up the over abundance of leftover residue.
After a nice cleaning and polishing
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| Took forever to get the scrapes off the dome of his head |
From there, I gave him a thorough washing with hot water and grease cutting dish detergent which got a ton of the dirt in the cracks off. A toothbrush and an cue-tip with baby oil did the trick very well. It also was how I restored all of my Joe vehicles I bought used. Cuts dust buildup in a flash. Towel dried the bot and let him air out over night.
 |
| Dirt was removed from the cracks and crevices |
Then I moved onto detailing for the really built up muck. I bought some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and they worked wonders to take off the smudged paint on the aft and dorsal wings and got the heavy gritty buildup on his arms and legs as well as the scratches on the top of his head where the rub sign used to be. This drastically reduced the yellowing from sun and smoke staining however yellow was still present. (Nothing short of dipping him in Plasti-dip or repainting him was going to get him 100%)
After the final cleaning and decal application, he's ready to rock!
Amazing what a few stickers can do, right?
Now he was clean as he was gonna get and luckily the decals arrived. Decals were placed on today and John's G1 Jetfire is ready to fill his missing ranks. I hope he likes it!
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| Now he can start building the armor collection like I have (note I'm still not done...mine needs a right leg set and a blaster clip) |
Sunday, June 3, 2012
G1 goodness; Skywarp Review and Fellow Collector's Toy Room (MOTU and Transformers lovers take notice!)
Welcome back to another review and feature from the Man who Stares at Toys! I've been seriously delinquent with my posts this week...lapsing 6 days is inexcusable in my mind so I'm going to try to churn out two posts today (hopefully)... This first will be Transformers (with a little Masters of the Universe in there) The next will pertain to some Vintage GI Joe Sunbow Movie stuff. We're talking Rawhides and Renegades, no Cobra La though, what a shame. Ultimately, this post is dealing with two formats of toy blog. The first is a straight up review of a G1 Decepticon and the second is to highlight some shots of my cousin (in law)'s toy collection.
The Decepticon who is the subject of this review is none other than Skywarp. He, along with his counterpart, Thundercracker, are some of the first characters we meet in episode one in their cybertronian tetrajet alt modes when they catch Bumblebee and Wheeljack taking energon units. This teleporting seeker jet was one of the first Decepticons we see in action when they begin mixing with the Autobots in the early season one episodes and he gets a good one-two shot at Ironhide after teleporting behind him. This is only after Ironhide stupidly charges ahead regardless of the other autobots' warnings. Eventually Ironhide will die at the hands of Megatron in the animated movie along with Prowl, Brawn and Ratchet and Skywarp along with the other Seekers will be badly damaged in Megatron's attack on Autobot City and will be abandoned to be remade by Unicron into either Cyclonus or Scourge... such a bummer that so many great characters bite it in the movie.
The toy's version I got my hands on was a beautiful reissue edition from the Toy's R Us commemorative series IV. He is well packaged and displayed in wonderfully illustrated box art. The front depicts Skywarp in a threatening pose and impressive in high detail and the rear of the box has his stats on top with a nice wide pan of various Decepticons including the Insecticons, Megatron, Starscream, Thundercracker and Devastator (No Skywarp though). This box features a nice Velcro sealing flap to display the toy through a clear plastic window as well as photos of the Series 3 and 4 collection bots in robot and alt modes. They include: Jazz (Meister), Thundercracker and Silverstreak (Bluestreak) as well as Prowl and Red Alert. The packaging art alone is worth laying down a couple extra bucks in an auction although I do say I enjoy the design of the Japanese "books" and encores a little better. Honestly, why is Japan still re-releasing fan favs like Soundblaster but the States aren't? We get "bot-shots" and "Prime" crap but nothing to keep the Throwback fans happy as far as major brick and mortar retailers go? Oi.
Skywarp figure is of the iconic seeker model similar to Thundercracker, Dirge and Starscream with removable landing gear, fists, rocket launchers, wings and stabilizers. He's a sight to see in impressive Decepticon silver and purple. His missiles shoot and you get a long and short set to choose from with this guy. Decals were nice and colorful and application was a breeze. I lucked out and got unapplied decals so I got the pleasure of putting them on myself...one of the best feelings you can get with collecting toys in my opinion. He looks especially cool in his alt Jet mode and his transformation is fairly simply beyond flipping the wings and applying the fists. My only gripe is that the wings are very fickle about staying in place and fall off very easily. If your displaying him this is a minor issue. Another nice feature is that his orange clear plastic cockpit opens on a hinge.
Skywarp is an all around great figure and is a clear reason why Transformers endured the way they did up to this very day. I'm extremely happy that he was my first big time Decepticon I got my hands on and until now, its has really been Autobots filling my ranks. Strangely, good guys outnumber bad in nearly all of my collections, Joe's, Turtles, Star Wars...weird.
Since we are on the subject to Transformers, I'd like to use this review as a springboard into highlighting a pretty nice collection. This is the setup of my cousin-in-law John. His man-cave, well, man floor is the basement of his home similar to a place suitable for trolls and Orcs to live where I'm sure many of us married men need to horde our collections be it in closets, basements, attics, dark corners and crawlspaces away from the sight of our significant others. (we should be so lucky...really, we should) John's whole display was really the motivation for me to set up my own toy room and what started as putting up a "shelf or two" has clearly expanded beyond where I ever thought I'd be. Thanks buddy, my wife thanks you too (eyeroll included). A whole point of my blog was to highlight not only my own toy selections but to cover collections of my friends as well. If I could only get my uncle Brian to show of some of his stuff... can you say Death Star or Well of Souls Playset? I should get a petition going. Time will tell.
Anyway, John's got a great selection of various Transformers and Master of the Universe toys and he's kept many of them in great condition. Whole lotta G1, Encores, Reissues, Generations and Universe stuff with a ton of nice packaging and shelving. The Transformers get their own little room and He-man gets a much larger wall in the main area of the basement. Let's take a look. Mind you, these were the absolute first toy photos I ever took last summer so be kind to my somewhat less than par photography.
This concludes my first fellow collector feature, if you would like any more shots or detailed features, drop a comment and I can always get more photos (better ones, I swear). If you like what you saw, feel free speak up! I'm sure John would love some validation for his growing collection.
The Decepticon who is the subject of this review is none other than Skywarp. He, along with his counterpart, Thundercracker, are some of the first characters we meet in episode one in their cybertronian tetrajet alt modes when they catch Bumblebee and Wheeljack taking energon units. This teleporting seeker jet was one of the first Decepticons we see in action when they begin mixing with the Autobots in the early season one episodes and he gets a good one-two shot at Ironhide after teleporting behind him. This is only after Ironhide stupidly charges ahead regardless of the other autobots' warnings. Eventually Ironhide will die at the hands of Megatron in the animated movie along with Prowl, Brawn and Ratchet and Skywarp along with the other Seekers will be badly damaged in Megatron's attack on Autobot City and will be abandoned to be remade by Unicron into either Cyclonus or Scourge... such a bummer that so many great characters bite it in the movie.
The toy's version I got my hands on was a beautiful reissue edition from the Toy's R Us commemorative series IV. He is well packaged and displayed in wonderfully illustrated box art. The front depicts Skywarp in a threatening pose and impressive in high detail and the rear of the box has his stats on top with a nice wide pan of various Decepticons including the Insecticons, Megatron, Starscream, Thundercracker and Devastator (No Skywarp though). This box features a nice Velcro sealing flap to display the toy through a clear plastic window as well as photos of the Series 3 and 4 collection bots in robot and alt modes. They include: Jazz (Meister), Thundercracker and Silverstreak (Bluestreak) as well as Prowl and Red Alert. The packaging art alone is worth laying down a couple extra bucks in an auction although I do say I enjoy the design of the Japanese "books" and encores a little better. Honestly, why is Japan still re-releasing fan favs like Soundblaster but the States aren't? We get "bot-shots" and "Prime" crap but nothing to keep the Throwback fans happy as far as major brick and mortar retailers go? Oi.
Skywarp is an all around great figure and is a clear reason why Transformers endured the way they did up to this very day. I'm extremely happy that he was my first big time Decepticon I got my hands on and until now, its has really been Autobots filling my ranks. Strangely, good guys outnumber bad in nearly all of my collections, Joe's, Turtles, Star Wars...weird.
Since we are on the subject to Transformers, I'd like to use this review as a springboard into highlighting a pretty nice collection. This is the setup of my cousin-in-law John. His man-cave, well, man floor is the basement of his home similar to a place suitable for trolls and Orcs to live where I'm sure many of us married men need to horde our collections be it in closets, basements, attics, dark corners and crawlspaces away from the sight of our significant others. (we should be so lucky...really, we should) John's whole display was really the motivation for me to set up my own toy room and what started as putting up a "shelf or two" has clearly expanded beyond where I ever thought I'd be. Thanks buddy, my wife thanks you too (eyeroll included). A whole point of my blog was to highlight not only my own toy selections but to cover collections of my friends as well. If I could only get my uncle Brian to show of some of his stuff... can you say Death Star or Well of Souls Playset? I should get a petition going. Time will tell.
Anyway, John's got a great selection of various Transformers and Master of the Universe toys and he's kept many of them in great condition. Whole lotta G1, Encores, Reissues, Generations and Universe stuff with a ton of nice packaging and shelving. The Transformers get their own little room and He-man gets a much larger wall in the main area of the basement. Let's take a look. Mind you, these were the absolute first toy photos I ever took last summer so be kind to my somewhat less than par photography.
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| Various Microbots, Targetmasters and G2 figs |
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| Ratchet, Ironhide, Ricochet, Hound, Hoist, Tailbreaker and Prowl |
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| Perceptor and some various Primes |
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| Jazz, Tracks, Red Alert and Wheeljack |
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| Thundercracker, Astrotrain, Soundwave and Blitzwing |
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| Hot Rod, Sideswipe, Tracks, Inferno and Starscream |
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| Dinobots and Kickback |
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| Some animateds, Sunstreaker, Cliffjumper and Drift |
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| Warpath: both big and small |
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| Generations Cyclonus, Nightstick, Ravage and Thrust |
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| He-Man atop Battlecat along side some other figs |
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| Nice selections from Eternia's ranks. |
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| All his MOTU figures |
This concludes my first fellow collector feature, if you would like any more shots or detailed features, drop a comment and I can always get more photos (better ones, I swear). If you like what you saw, feel free speak up! I'm sure John would love some validation for his growing collection.
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