Finally got TR A3 and I actually like it

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

I have looked at this toy on the shelves for a while now thinking how ugly it is.

Then a strange chain of events happened. I was waiting for a friend who works in a thrift store, and wandering around. I found Jabba's throne for 75 cents and bought it, because that's a great price, they're like $30 online. Later I went to a different friend's store, he offered me $10 for the throne, and I noticed a loose Alpha Trion. He had it up in his shop case for $15, but I ended up getting for $10. So I effectively got him for 75 cents.

The reason he was marked down wasn't just because he was open or ugly, but because it was part of a big buy from this weirdo who likes to glue his stuff to display stands. Normally this means I have to sand feet back to what they are supposed to look like, but this time he had glue on every joint, which was a really annoying cleanup. He also had those weird little shoulder towers clipped off, but they didn't do anything and I didn't pay $25 for it.

Anyway the toy. I had to look it up, but this is the first time we've really had an Alpha Trion toy, and this does a surprisingly good job. Every other Alpha Trion toy wasn't just a repaint, but also a convention exclusive. I lived the Vector Prime toy, possibly the best mold of the series so long ago. This has the same chest details, and a ship mode that does a surprisingly good job of hiding beast bits out of the way, or making it look like possible ship detailing. He has the lion mode because his first planned and unreleased toy was a lion of some reason I am still totally unsure of. His robot mode isn't hampered by beast kibble everywhere as so many past toys were, his cockpit is not totally obtrusive in any mode (unlike Astrotrain). He has a sword and gun like every previous toy before him, though this gun is a sled for a titan master instead of just being a Minicon. I like all 3 modes decently enough, I can see how the legs were used to make broadside.

I wish the sword had a better place to stow in ship mode. Maybe I just remember back to the sword hiding in Cybertron Vector Sigma.

I wouldn't have paid $20 for it, but it's a great buy at less. Now I don't feel the need to buy and be disappointed when Broadside's stickers peel off in the first few transformations.

[banzait...@gmail.com]

Man, I am totally with you. I love this toy. He has been largely panned, but I don't get it. He's is no Vector Prime, but who is? VP's toy is epic on so many levels (including the sword hiding feature that you mentioned). BTW, I love the A3 moniker. Maybe that could be his name if he ever gets into rapping.

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 8:39:55 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> So I effectively got him for 75 cents.

Nice.

> it was part of a big buy from this weirdo who likes to glue his stuff to
> display stands.

I am not opposed to doing this in the comfort of your own home, if that's how you like your displays. Selling it off seems like the weird part, to me. Who else is going to want a toy that you've glued together?

The more I think about this, the more it bothers me.

> Anyway the toy. I had to look it up, but this is the first time we've really
> had an Alpha Trion toy, and this does a surprisingly good job.

It's okay. It evokes the character... it's got the right head sculpt and the right colors. For a while, that was the exact formula for a G1 update. New head, different colors, bam!——there's your G1 tribute. But, really, Hasbro has raised the bar so much higher since then.

With that said, I kind of wish that we'd gotten this:

http://tinyurl.com/combinerwars-a3


Zob (hey, I would have bought it)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 11:20:14 AM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 8:39:55 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
>
> > So I effectively got him for 75 cents.
>
> Nice.
>
> > it was part of a big buy from this weirdo who likes to glue his stuff to
> > display stands.
>
> I am not opposed to doing this in the comfort of your own home, if that's how you like your displays. Selling it off seems like the weird part, to me. Who else is going to want a toy that you've glued together?
>
> The more I think about this, the more it bothers me.
>

He doesn't exactly disclose what he glued when he sold them to the shop. I don't generally mind sandpapering feet on a toy I don't care that much for at 80% off retail. The collector would glue the toys to the display stand and then turn around and not like them a few weeks later? I don't really get it. The store owner told the guy to use hot glue, it just pulls right off, and the collector did not listen. The store owner is going to start checking for glued bots before buying from this guy now. Before it was just the feet.

> > Anyway the toy. I had to look it up, but this is the first time we've really
> > had an Alpha Trion toy, and this does a surprisingly good job.
>
> It's okay. It evokes the character... it's got the right head sculpt and the right colors. For a while, that was the exact formula for a G1 update. New head, different colors, bam!——there's your G1 tribute. But, really, Hasbro has raised the bar so much higher since then.
>
> With that said, I kind of wish that we'd gotten this:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/combinerwars-a3
>

But he was never a car with a badly photoshopped cape. I like the fact that the TR can be a ship that doesn't look like a lion, and a lion that doesn't look like a ship. I wish the robot feet looked more like a ship nose and less like an aircraft carrier, but they had to find something to reuse.

>
> Zob (hey, I would have bought it)

You buy almost anything. You're not a completist, just a near-completist.

[Zobovor]

On Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 4:41:33 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> He doesn't exactly disclose what he glued when he sold them to the shop. I
> don't generally mind sandpapering feet on a toy I don't care that much for at
> 80% off retail. The collector would glue the toys to the display stand and
> then turn around and not like them a few weeks later? I don't really get it.
> The store owner told the guy to use hot glue, it just pulls right off, and
> the collector did not listen.

This reminds me of something. At work, once we were done with a LEGO display case (because it was being phased out in favor of a new one), we would auction them off to the highest bidder and donate the money to Children's Miracle Network. I ended up with a Star Wars one and I figured I could give the mini-figures to my son, and I could break down the ships and use the component parts for projects. The problem was, every piece inside the display case was glued together. The mini-figures were all super-glued together, except for their hands and heads, and their weapons were hot-glued into their hands. The models were all glued together, too. You're right about the hot glue... that came off pretty easily. The super glue was a different story.

I still have a lot of broken plastic pieces left over that I occasionally incorporate into other projects, but otherwise it was, like, the worst $20 I ever spent.

> But he was never a car with a badly photoshopped cape.

Well, if they're going to do an Alpha Trion toy, he's got to transform into SOMETHING. He never turned into anything in the cartoon, so whatever they came up with, it would be wrong on some level.

> You buy almost anything. You're not a completist, just a near-completist.

I'm actually really particular about what I buy. (Ask me how many RiD2 toys I've skipped. Answer: I don't know, because there have been dozens.)

It just so happens that Hasbro has been providing a lot of Geewun-centric toys lately that really appeal to me. Eventually, they'll stop catering to the G1 crowd and then I'll go back to buying virtually nothing at retail again.


Zob (just found the new TMNT Muckman toy, after about a year of being teased by its existence)

[Gustavo Wombat]

Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. <Ob1k...@att.net> wrote:
> I have looked at this toy on the shelves for a while now thinking how ugly it is.
>
> Then a strange chain of events happened. I was waiting for a friend who
> works in a thrift store, and wandering around. I found Jabba's throne for
> 75 cents and bought it, because that's a great price, they're like $30
> online. Later I went to a different friend's store, he offered me $10 for
> the throne, and I noticed a loose Alpha Trion. He had it up in his shop
> case for $15, but I ended up getting for $10. So I effectively got him for 75 cents.
>
> The reason he was marked down wasn't just because he was open or ugly,
> but because it was part of a big buy from this weirdo who likes to glue
> his stuff to display stands. Normally this means I have to sand feet back
> to what they are supposed to look like, but this time he had glue on
> every joint, which was a really annoying cleanup. He also had those weird
> little shoulder towers clipped off, but they didn't do anything and I
> didn't pay $25 for it.

I've always wondered who buys the Transformers statues, and here is some
guy turning perfectly fine Transformers into statues. What the fuck?

Are the weird shoulder towers his unicorn horn?

> Anyway the toy. I had to look it up, but this is the first time we've
> really had an Alpha Trion toy, and this does a surprisingly good job.
> Every other Alpha Trion toy wasn't just a repaint, but also a convention
> exclusive. I lived the Vector Prime toy, possibly the best mold of the
> series so long ago. This has the same chest details, and a ship mode that
> does a surprisingly good job of hiding beast bits out of the way, or
> making it look like possible ship detailing. He has the lion mode because
> his first planned and unreleased toy was a lion of some reason I am still
> totally unsure of. His robot mode isn't hampered by beast kibble
> everywhere as so many past toys were, his cockpit is not totally
> obtrusive in any mode (unlike Astrotrain). He has a sword and gun like
> every previous toy before him, though this gun is a sled for a titan
> master instead of just being a Minicon. I like all 3 modes decently
> enough, I can see how the legs were used to make broadside.
>
> I wish the sword had a better place to stow in ship mode. Maybe I just
> remember back to the sword hiding in Cybertron Vector Sigma.

I like Alpha Trion. Paint on the hands, to make the backs of the hands
reddish purple would have made the lion mode better, but overall, he is
decent in all modes.

And, no stupid stickers!

He doesn't look like the frail old man of the cartoon, but in his earlier
days, he might have been this. Mostly, though, I just think the mold is
great. I might get the Lio Convoy version.

> I wouldn't have paid $20 for it, but it's a great buy at less. Now I
> don't feel the need to buy and be disappointed when Broadside's stickers
> peel off in the first few transformations.

I swear, I must be the only person to actually like Broadside. He has that
1970s-80s shitty toy look to him, so he's a nostalgically shitty toy.


--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.

[Zobovor]

On Monday, April 24, 2017 at 1:19:33 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I've always wondered who buys the Transformers statues, and here is some
> guy turning perfectly fine Transformers into statues. What the fuck?

We were all buying Transformers statues during G1, to be fair. Or, at least, most of them were 90% statue in robot mode.

> Are the weird shoulder towers his unicorn horn?

I thought so too, at first, and then I realized he must be talking about those spring-up things on either side of his head.

> I swear, I must be the only person to actually like Broadside. He has that
> 1970s-80s shitty toy look to him, so he's a nostalgically shitty toy.

It's good that Hasbro is catering to different demographics with Titans Return. I feel like most of the time, they climbed into my brain and figured out exactly what I wanted. It was your turn when they came up with Broadside.

Also, did you see that the Nemesis version of Prime/Octone/Other Prime was unveiled by Takara recently...?


Zob (talk about a mold that's earning overtime)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Monday, April 24, 2017 at 2:19:33 AM UTC-5, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. <Ob1k...@att.net> wrote:
> > I have looked at this toy on the shelves for a while now thinking how ugly it is.
> >
> > Then a strange chain of events happened. I was waiting for a friend who
> > works in a thrift store, and wandering around. I found Jabba's throne for
> > 75 cents and bought it, because that's a great price, they're like $30
> > online. Later I went to a different friend's store, he offered me $10 for
> > the throne, and I noticed a loose Alpha Trion. He had it up in his shop
> > case for $15, but I ended up getting for $10. So I effectively got him for 75 cents.
> >
> > The reason he was marked down wasn't just because he was open or ugly,
> > but because it was part of a big buy from this weirdo who likes to glue
> > his stuff to display stands. Normally this means I have to sand feet back
> > to what they are supposed to look like, but this time he had glue on
> > every joint, which was a really annoying cleanup. He also had those weird
> > little shoulder towers clipped off, but they didn't do anything and I
> > didn't pay $25 for it.
>
> I've always wondered who buys the Transformers statues, and here is some
> guy turning perfectly fine Transformers into statues. What the fuck?
>
> Are the weird shoulder towers his unicorn horn?

No, the little push-button spring up things that all the Voyagers but Galvatron seem to have. Although looking at the pics online, they look cool, but not like Alpha Trion.

If we get a painted Broadside, I am totally buying that bitch just so I can transform the jet in a less stupid looking way.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

It looks funny if his lion feet are landing skids for the ship mode.

Lion eyes need to be a different color. I might paint them silver.