The Mighty Insecticons Reborn

A few small start-up companies have been making some professional grade add-on accessories for actual Transformers, mostly from the "TF:Classics" line, over the past few years. Recently one of these companies, Fansproject, created two additional limbs for the modern Bruticus combiner. These limbs are basically in and of themselves new "Transformers". I was excited to see a small company go the extra mile to improve an existing transformers design.

Well now Fansproject is stepping out on their own with three new offerings this calendar year that are basically "Transformers" or "Perfect Transformation Robots". I haven't been this excited about insect Transformers since the Deluxe Insecticons from Generation 1. Just as Generation 1 was an amalgam of toys from different toylines from Japan, I think now is as good a time as any for some upstart companies to offer their own transforming robots in toylines inspired by, but separate from, Hasbro's Transformers.

The three newest offerings are inspired directly by the first three Insecticons in Generation One. The first to be released will be "ThunderShred", a modern redo of the classic Shrapnel. He is currently available for pre-order at www.bigbadtoystore.com for $47.99, which although seemingly 4 times the price a mass market toy would cost, it isn't too far off from a convention exclusive offering price. I feel the price is fair given the company is nowhere as big as the big boys like Hasbro. Although if this company continues to be successful, I hope the prices will become more fair with larger production runs.

I can't do this toy justice in words, so here is a bit from his pre-order text: "Thundershred – A wounded outer space warrior, was converted and recovered. Also learned Ninja jutsu and able to control over the power of “air” in godai. Having the ability to transform into a stag beetle. Carrying 4 sickles which can compose into a manji shaken, and a set of gauntlets attach with 4 blades (* they can be stored on the back of shoulders). Multiplex combinations to switch different forms of weaponry. High quality and superior posability as always."

I can't wait to get my hands on this bad boy, if everything stays on schedule he might be here sometime in June. Being the cheap bast@rd I am, I think it's no small compliment that I am willing to shell out $$$ for this guy. Any serious Robotic Insect, Transformer, or Giant Robot fan should give serious thought into ordering this guy, and his kin when they get released. Check out more images at www.fansproject.com

G.I.Joe lot arrives, part 2 of 2

Here's the second box of G.I.Joe goodies from my sister. On the top left we have the Snake Trax ATV that came with Scrap Iron from the first wave of movie vehicles. Just below it is a pair of Arctic Rockslide ATV's with Snow Job. These three came in at $7.99 versus the initial movie launch price of $15.99. On the bottom left are two figures from the 25th anniversary line, the Cobra Viper & Paraviper. Both of these were $3.99 rather than $7.99 and they came from a Marshall's. Center top are two more Cobra Fury Urban Theater vehicles. On the center bottom is 4 additional Arctic Threat Air Assault Gliders. The grand prize are the three Sand Serpent Desert Battle repaints of the Night Viper from the Rise of Cobra. They were initially intended to be Target exclusives, I think, anyhow they ended up at Ross for $15.99 versus $39.99. So this batch came in at $127.86 (plus $22 shipping) versus $274.86 original retail value.

G.I.Joe lot arrives, part 1 of 2

Well in the past week I got two boxes crammed with G.I.Joe goodies from my sister. She had some fun dropping into a sh!t-ton of Ross and TJMaxx stores on my behalf and phoning me with her finds. Her check is in the mail for these awesome lots. On the left we have two boxes of MARS Industry troopers, Destro's loyal soldiers. I think these supposedly retailed for $24.99 when the movie launched and were pretty much an internet exclusive, I got them for $6.99 apiece. Top center and right are four Pursuit of Cobra HISS tanks. These should be the running change coloration in black as opposed to the original burgundy. These came in at $11.99 apiece, and had retailed for $24.99 apiece. Bottom left is the POC Cobra Fury, the new incarnation of the vintage Cobra Rage. It comes with an Alley Viper officer, and is priced the same as the HISS Tank. Bottom right are the Air Assault Glider & Desert RAM cycle, which had been intended as the last wave of deluxe figures from Target, but they never made it there. These were $5.99 apiece as opposed to the $9.99, they would have been released at. These last two vehicles are "off-screen" vehicles and the side of the box makes reference to the continuing story arc of the "Pursuit of Cobra".

So this lot comes in at $85.91 plus about $20 in shipping as opposed to the original retail of $194.91. A tidy savings on an arsenal of toys.

Death of the malls

I may be a latecomer to the dead malls scene, which is weird because I watched several malls in the Cleveland area decay into near nothingness. One of these malls was Randal Park Mall, which from what I can tell in the online dead malls community is a rather high profile dead mall. It was virtually extinct by the turn of the millennium. I still stopped by the Toys R Us located across the street until they eventually "moved" to Mayfield, which was probably close to ten years ago.

The last two memories I have besides that of Randal Park, was the last time I entered the mall in the late nineties to discover the Kay Bee toys had been shuttered for a number of years. The other memory was of a seasonal assistant manager of the Great Lakes Mall Kay Bee (where I worked in the late nineties), she constantly claimed "I was the Manager of Randal Park". I never did think that phrase meant much.

My friends and I did alot of "mall-hopping" in the mid to late nineties. We were spending our days off hunting Star Wars & Marvel toys in different Cleveland area malls. I pretty much only really ever checked out Kay Bee Toys and Hot Topic, while my friends also checked out Spencer's and the bookstores (Waldenbooks & B Dalton). Alot of the good times I had freewheeling around in my early 20's was done at malls and surrounding retail environments. When Kay Bee finally went under in the early part of the last decade, it is not a surprise to me that the bulk of my mall-hopping days were done.

However what did catch me off-guard when I stumbled upon deadmalls.com earlier this year was that I was one of the last of a breed who frequented malls. About the time I stopped visiting malls, apparently so did everyone else. This lead to the closure of alot of malls throughout the last decade. Another early dead mall, that pretty much was toast by the turn of the millennium was the Euclid Square Mall. I can remember visiting the Toys R Us there until at least 2001 or 2002 when the Transformers Robots in Disguise toy-line was out.

Another mall I seem to remember being open at around this time, although majorly wounded, was the Rolling Acres Mall. I can remember going into the Target there and thinking it was cool how a Target was the anchor of a major mall.

From the best of my understanding Randal Park, Euclid Square, and Rolling Acres are all now closed to human foot traffic. I think this is an amazing thing to me. That these "monuments to consumerism"* are all now dead. I have a whole lot of memories surrounding having good times with my friends at different malls, and I suppose at least I get to keep those.

I plan to visit a local dying mall near the Ohio/Pennsylvania border, the Ashtabula Mall sometime this year, since I doubt it will be open much longer. I am however happy that somehow despite all the mall deaths in the Cleveland area it's comforting to know that at least for the time being my hometown mall, Great Lakes Mall, and the nearby Beachwood Place mall continue to operate at nearly full capacity. I doubt however that Richmond Mall will last more than the next few years. (Oh I forgot to mention Westlake Mall, which I think has been demolished and rebuilt as an outdoor shopping center.)


Well I bid a fond adieu to these palaces of retail experiences.

*paraphrasing Kevin Smith's 1995 film "Mallrats"

The toy lot from LA

So my buddy, Dave, has been buying a few things for me on and off as he finds it out in California. I just got a package last week that he's been building up since Fall 2010. I'm psyched about the LEGO Kingdoms Advent Calendar, which is full of all sorts of good characters which are exclusive to this set, like: The Queen, The Prince, The Blue Wizard, and the Blacksmith. It also has tons of other goodies in it, and it was exclusive to the LEGO Brand store, which we didn't have in the Cleveland area, although we do have one now. I also got 8 assorted King's Knights from the 2007/08 Castle theme, which is a new incarnation of the Blue Crown Knights from the first LEGO Castle from about 1980, which I had as a child. I got a pair of LEGO collectible figures, the Luchedore from series 1, and the Witch from series 2. Lastly on the LEGO end is two Skeletal Steeds, which are for my Evil Army of the Undead.

For Hasbro's Star Wars line I got the Ewok and Ewok Glider from the $25 battlepack, which he had gotten for about half that price, and sold off the Luke and Imperial Officer. I think this Ewok is supposed to be Warok, one of the Ewoks that was in the classic Kenner line. Another neat thing he sent me, though not pictured, are some cardboard Endor backdrops, which will be perfect for when I finally set up my Return of the Jedi Ewok battle. These save me the time of trying to make a Forest environment from scratch.... which I probably would never get around to because it requires work.

The remainder of the package from Dave, is made of 25th Anniversary & Rise of Cobra (ROC) G.I.Joe Hasbro action figures. The tan desert camo figures are Zartan as a PIT trooper, Law & Order the MP and canine, the Female Dailtone who was introduced in the GIJoe Resolute webisodes, and the last one is either Dusty or an actual PIT trooper. In the classic Joe toyline, Dialtone had been male. Since I started collecting GIJoe again early this year, I missed the Dreadnoks, Torch, Buzzer, and Ripper, and although I still need a Buzzer I got the other two mercenary hooligans in this lot. The last three Joes, are more 25th figures, including Lt. Falcon & Tunnel Rat who debuted in the 80's Animated movie, and Outback the survivalist who was also one of my favs.

Oh yeah, I also got the recolored ROC Mole Pod from the Toys R Us exclusive multi-pack. So now I have all three colorations of this vehicle which fills the void of never getting a driller pod from Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles (if they ever made the a toy from the much used vehicle from the TMNT animated series). So that wraps up this haul, I have another package due from my sister, and my buddy Cam. More on those when they arrive.

Easter selections for boys this year

G.I.Joe is a perennial favorite of boys since the 80's. Right now Marshall's has some of the 25th anniversary figures that came out before the Rise of Cobra movie, for $3.99 apiece. This is a bargain price, as I recall when I stopped collecting Joe's in the early 90's they were either $2.79 or $2.99. These modern figures are easily worth $5.99-$7.99. Gabriel brothers has a selection of the Rise of Cobra (ROC) figures for $3.99 as well, the same holds true for their retail value of $5.99-$7.99. These ROC figures are from the later waves that were produced in lower numbers than the earlier waves of figures. A perfect fit for an Easter Basket this year.

Another favorite amongst boys is LEGO, and contrary to popular belief, not all LEGO is overpriced. Here we have some examples of affordable LEGO for this year's Easter celebration. The Ninjago Bone Chopper polybag is $3.49 at Toys R Us and is an exclusive. Target has a counterpart to this Ninjago set (not pictured), that would make a perfect pair. The small boxed sets usually sell for $3.99 apiece, but are on sale until the 16th at buy 1 get 1 %50 off, which averages to $2.99 apiece (Available at Toys R Us).

Beachwood, Ohio LEGO brand store exclusive Minifigure set

Here is the exclusive set of LEGO figures from this weekend's grand opening event. An individually numbered piece of a series of only 500 sets. Sorry about the flash, my picture taking skills are not the best. You should be able to make out the Water-tower in the background with Beachwood written on it. Also the backs of the figures say something like "LEGO Grand Opening Beachwood, Ohio". Overall a great piece of local LEGO history. Also the decorations on the fronts of the figure torsos are unique to grand opening sets and have only been seen on the Costa Mesa, CA set so far.

Drooling toy-a-holic in LEGO Heaven

Well a LEGO Brand store has opened in the Cleveland, OH area and I must admit I had one hell of a weekend during the Grand Opening of Beachwood Place's store. I went on Friday with my friend from high school and her son after his school let out. He was tempted to skip school, but didn't. This conjures memories of reports of some Pokemon related launch, I think it was for an Official Pokemart store, and many, many kids skipped school to be there. Anyways we waited about a half hour in  line to get into the store. Once inside we marveled at the vast selection of common sets, and exclusives. We decided however to skip purchasing anything Friday as there was an exclusive set of minifigures being given away with a $35 purchase to the first 500 customers on Saturday. So I called the mall office to see when the mall opened. I was told it would be 10AM.... then I asked when does it open to mall-walkers, "Oh well 8:30 or 9:00". Well we made plans to be there at 8:30AM. We got there bright and early with my LEGO fanatic brother. We all ended up getting our exclusive sets, as we were maybe 13th in line if you count children. The store actually opened its doors early at about 9:30AM. I am very, very happy to have participated in the grand opening mayhem... and it was a madhouse. All told by 11AM when I left the mall thousands of fans had lined up for the Store, and the master building event! I will have more on this subject soon.

Easter selections for girls this year

High on my list of recommendations this year for Easter presents for your girls are: 1. Hasbro's Littlest Pet Shop. 2. Mattel's Monster High Gloom Beach assortment. 3. Hasbro's Strawberry Shortcake doll assortment.

I can understand the appeal of Littlest Pet Shop (LPS). First of all they are pocket size which is great for visitng friends or showing off or trading at school. Secondly, there are quite a few variations of the same animal. Lastly, there are tons to choose from. LPS has been high on my niece's want list for the last several years. This year I highly recommend checking out the prices at your local TJMaxx or Marshall's, they have a wide selection, and oftentimes clearance pricing on some. They have the best prices by far. This year Big Lots has a surprisingly large assortment but the price is not the best. Don't pass up smaller three packs and the like at Family Dollar in the range of $5.50. Although I haven't checked, it's very likely Walgreens will have a decent deal on basket stuffers.

For mothers who aren't fan of Barbie but are looking for a fashion doll alternative to Bratz, there is Monster High. A ghoulishly clever idea of placing the children of the classic horror monsters into a high school set. These are stylish and affordable, and eliminate the Caucasian-centric doll paradigm by casting the girls in different hues, from greenish, to pinkish, to blueish... a step into the current millennium.

Mothers who grew up in the 80's will love the newest assortments of  Hasbro's Strawberry Shortcake dolls. A definite similarity to the classic dolls can be seen in the newest releases. So far they have released: Strawberry Shortcake, Lemon Meringue, Raspberry Torte, Plum Pudding, Orange Marmalade, and Blueberry Muffin. These range from $7.99-10.49. They are available at Target and Toys R Us, you may be able to find some at web e-tailers, like from Hasbrotoyshop.com. (Oh, Blueberry is most likely $14.99, but she has a color-changing outfit and hair, a variation of Strawberry Shortcake is also in this feature as well)

Says the Night Raven, GIJoe forevermore

So another of the vastly overpriced item from the G.I.Joe Rise of Cobra movie (ROC) was the electronic Night Raven. It came out at $39.99 or better and doesn’t include batteries.  Nevertheless the vehicle itself is definitely awesome and worth owning. A reincarnation of the classic Night Raven, though admittedly much smaller,  it includes the modern incarnation of the Strato-viper who was designed for the 25^th Anniversary line (25^th) that preceded ROC.  I was lucky enough to get the Strato-Viper in his classic colors from the 25th Cobra Island 7 figure boxed set, that Dave was nice enough to allow me to get just the figures I wanted without buying the whole box (which was an internet exclusive).  I got a Night Raven a month or two ago for the bargain price of $15 on clearance at TJMaxx or Marshalls. This week I bought a second at the steal price of $10….. just ten dollars!?! I’m happy,&  I will probably sell off the pilot ;)

My Review of LEGO MiniFigure Series 4 (8804)

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

The LEGO MiniFigure Series 4 (8804) adds 16 all-new, special minifigures to the growing LEGO MiniFigure Collection. Which one will you get when you open the mystery bag? Each MiniFigure comes in a sealed, mystery bag, so you never know which MiniFigure you might get. And each character has its own ...

LEGO MiniFigure Series 4 (8804)

Another round of excellent characters

By L Whip from Cleveland, OH on 4/4/2011

 

5out of 5

Pros: Detailed, Fun, Stands on its Own

Cons: Small Parts

Best Uses: Gift, Young Children, Imaginative Play, Collecting

Describe Yourself: Collector

Was this a gift?: No

The perfect impulse item. Another batch of unique characters to appeal to LEGO fans of all ages. With something for all tastes from the mohawked Punk Rocker to the Garden Gnome. The thrill of the hunt is on. Can you find every figure you want?

(legalese)

Boosting morale versus The Scourge of the Forest Moon

So I'm a huge fan of the Endor Conflict. I imagine the Imperial Propagandists refer to Ewoks as 'The Ewok Terrorist Front of Endor". Due to our challenging political correct times where the evil ruthless organization of Cobra isn't referred to as "terrorists", I suppose that "The Scourge of the Forest Moon" is a more suitable title. I think one of the neat fun things about fan-artists is the new creative angles in which they view their favorite properties. Thus I can see the Empire using recruitment posters like the one in this post to get civilians psyched about operating in forest theaters like Endor, even with the constant threat of "The Scourge". I hope our boys around the globe defending our civil rights are privy to the uplifting efforts of artists and the age old classic of pin-up girl posters.

Transformers Knock Off Cyberjets/Robot Masters

Found a gem today that I had seen en masse at Family Dollar, but this time as the combination of both G2 Cyberjets, at Tuesday Morning. These are reverse engineered off actual Hasbro/Takara Transformers that were seen in Generation 2 as Cyberjets, but may have been used about 5 years ago in Japan's Robot Masters, but I'm not sure. These knock-offs are naturally of some of the poorest quality. I bought them as I had missed buying the G2 Cyberjets from the dump bins of Kay Bee Toys 15 years ago. Visually, they blend okay with real TF's. I am pleased, and only wished they had been released in the Car Robots 2000/Robots in Disguise line. The two biggest problems are one of the rocket's doesn't fit in the launcher on one, and the back landing gear is non-functional. The packaging is a knock off  of the Robot Masters style. If you can't find them at Tuesday Morning try Family Dollar.

Last of the Red Hot tail-enders

Ah, tail enders, one of my favorite things. As a re-cap a tail-ender is a toy produced in the last days of a toyline that are usually in smaller numbers and oftentimes appear at discount retailers. Kay Bee used to be notorious for these. Don’t let their discount price fool you, due to the smaller production run, these types of toys often appreciate strongly on the secondary market in subsequent years.

Today’s tail-enders had originally appeared at Ross stores (which we unfortunately do not have in Ohio). I happened on them at my local Gabriel Brother’s while following up a tip off from a friend of mine that the Easter selection of toys there had GIJoe figures. These “alpha class” vehicles had been intended to retail at a costly $15.99, a $11.99 price-point would have been more reasonable. The CEO of Hasbro even declared in a shareholders meeting that GIJoe Rise of Cobra movie toys “may” have been put on the marketplace at too high a price, leading to clogged shelves.

At $6.99, a figure and a vehicle together, is what I consider a “bargain”. I had been looking forward to the “Lava Pod” version of the “Mole Pod”  but thought I wouldn’t get a chance to own it. I now have two, along with the “Tiger Claw” ATV with a Gung-Ho looking Leatherneck, and the “Polar Sharc” with an artic soldier that looks like he bought his jacket at the mall rather than having an arctic camouflage one issued to him. In all fairness though, the Joes in the movie had little time to prepared for deployment to the Arctic theater when they discovered Destro’s hidden base. So maybe they did just throw on civilian attire to stay warm on the impromptu deployment.

A great find, on a Foolish day.

Gotta catch ‘em all! (Again)

Gotta catch ‘em all! Ah, I had hoped the best of my Pokemon years were behind me, but a surprise whammy hit me today. I have at least one friend with the new 3DS and I assume he has either Pokemon Black and or White.  Well my DS was sold off a while ago, but I own a Gameboy Advance I picked up on impulse for $25 the other month.  So while I was pre-ordering LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (namely for the free Jack Sparrow minifigure), I asked about GBA Pokemon games like Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire. My Jaw dropped when I looked at these beat up loose cartridges, $29.99, $34.99, or $39.99. Am I living in some weird Negaverse. There must be millions of copies of these games on the market…. Ah I guess I never figured Video Games could have a “collector’s value”  even though it’s second nature to me that toys fluctuate wildly in price over time. So I guess I’m not playing Pokemon on GBA as an alternative to the DS.

I did however make a Pokemon purchase today, adorable plush from Diamond and Pearl (I did play Pearl). They were dirt cheap so I bought a box, for nearly half the price of one of those GBA carts. I feel all Poke-warm inside. I still miss the hey-day of Pokemon at the turn of the millennium, but times passes, so it’s time to learn some new names.

Stunning Beauty

So "Attack of the Clones" is probably my favorite movie of the prequel trilogy. Many fans complain about stiff or poor acting, poor plot, and other problems. I think Anakin was well acted and specifically portrayed as being the direct bloodline of the whiny Luke we see in "A New Hope". Like Son like Father. Lines like "I swear, Anakin, someday you'll be the death of me" are golden and not just trite pandering. The love affair was a bit rushed, but so be it. The introduction of the Clone Army is definitely cool. The Emperor's rise to power with Jar Jar as the scapegoat is brilliant retribution for Jar Jar existing. I think the action was not as dizzy-ing as "Revenge of the Sith". Anakin's turn to the path of the dark side by slaughtering his mother's killers wholesale is moving in a dark way. I continued to be pleased with Amidala's costumes. To this end it was difficult to pass up this lovely Padme in Tattooine Peasant Disguise. So difficult it is now part of my collection, I guess I couldn't pass it up. The use of cloth is nice, and seeing Portman on a vintage style card is fun.

Custom LEGO Avatars

One of the practical upshots of having too many LEGO minifigure parts laying around is that you start to imagine you and your friends as LEGO guys. This happened to me again this week when I looked at the parts of the Series 3 collection. Seeing as I had no interest in the Aviator character, I noticed that his jacket matched my friend Ken's jacket. So I thought to myself, what else would I need to make a custom avatar of Ken. My brother and I brainstormed a little. We determined he needed a black knit cap, check, a head with an eye patch, check, and black slacks, check. My brother provided everything outside the jacket, with the eye patch head being from a classic Pirates head from like 20 years ago. The black knit cap came from a 2011 set off a crook in a cops n crooks set. Some old used black legs completed the figure. We presented the figure to Ken, and he was overjoyed. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't appreciate a toy version of themselves. I now am of course obligated to make more friends, and I am looking forward to it. I know my friend's Waylon and Anna display their LEGO avatar figures from like 7 years ago in a knick knack shelf at their home.

LEGO Collectible Minifigure Series 3 overload

So just as series 4 is getting released, and my local LEGO brand store is about to open for business... I break down and decide to stock up on Series 3 figures. Come on, they were on sale for an average of $2.24 after a buy one get one helf off sale at Toys R Us from retail of $2.99. That's only a quarter higher than when series 1 was released last May. They were $1.99 then, also when I found the first box of Series 2 at Target they were $1.99 and I committed to buying a box. But honestly, for series 2 I had a friend lined up to buy a set from me, and I dumped a second set off at cost, to be left with the third set and a few extras for me and my brother. I swore I was done with series 3, after the odd few I bought, even though I didn't find the cyborg Blacktron guy or the Native American chief.

Well I skipped the old "feel a foilbag" method and just tore into these series 3 guys with my brother and some friends at my local Denny's. We had a good time, and ended up with some trade bait I plan to use to get the guys I want from series 4. So far I only have plans to get Hazmat workers, Musketeers, Punk Rockers, and Mad Scientist from series 4. Even though I say that now, I suppose I'll end up breaking down and buying a bulk lot.

Well the good news was my brother got the cyborg Blacktron guys x 2, and the Baseball players he wanted. He also ate up the tennis players, snowboarder chicks, aliens, and a couple others. I meanwhile got my Native American Chief and a pair of Modern Forestman counterparts (AKA elves). The spread on the lot was fairly even except for the Sumo wrestlers which we ended up with 9 of. However considering the lot we got was the halves of two separate display boxes, I am amazed that basically we got two complete sets and extras. It's a shame we had no interest in a  complete set, but so goes things in the world of collecting.

Blurr reincarnated, with Arcee to boot

In either 2009 or 2010 I found a new version of Autobot Blurr that I felt ,finally, truly was an homage to Blurr seem in the original Movie. I knew that there was a Toys R Us exclusive Arcee that would complement Blurr if I ever found her. Both of these new versions of classic characters were from the aptly named, Transformers Animated series. Blurr was once again a elegant and sleek toy in both robot and vehicle form. His articulation was of modern quality meaning as a robot he was allowed the free flowing movement of an action figure. This is of course leaps and bounds over the vintage Transformers who basically, merely resembled robots, but failed miserably on the articulation front. I'd say that within 6 or 7 months of finding this Transfomrers Animated edition of Blurr, I found the elusive Arcee exclusive. These two bots form the core of my limited modern collection of Transformers. I think they are probably two of the best Transformer toys I have ever owned thanks to their sleek forms, clever Movie homage robot forms, and nicely designed packaging. I look forward to owning them for decades to come.

Blurr, the fastest talking Autobot ever

In Transformers the Movie (1986), the character Blurr was voiced by that fast talking guy from those classic Micro Machine commercials. Blurr was probably my second favorite Autobot next to Wheeljack. As I seem to recall, though I may have things out of order: Blurr appeared in an episode of Transformers before the movie came out, that was set in the future. It is more likely that if this episode exists it was aired after the movie. I also seem to recall the day I got him as a gift was the Easter before the Summer release of the movie. My dad had taken me to the company Easter Picnic. I may have either found some money in an Easter egg hunt, or my dad simply promised to buy something for me. After the picnic we went to a Kmart somewhere in the vicinity of the event. Kmart, by the way, was one of the companies my dad worked for, and was the sponsor of the company picnic. I found a Blurr figure on the shelf, and read his bio, Autobot Courier, that made sense as he was so fast. I think the figure was around $11.99 though it may have been a dollar or two difference. Well my dad bought him for me, or used that money, if I had actually found some (Though I don't really remember finding an egg with money in it) It's far more likely that this was a consolation prize from my dad for me, since I likely got nothing at the picnic. Though the transformation of Blurr is rather simple, his robot form was elegantly sleek and natural looking. He bent at the knees, which was nice as earlier Autobots really didn't have leg articulation. He overall was a cool character, which made the Movie all that much cooler for me when I watched it, since I owned one of the main characters. His gun and shield were great accessories. It would take over two decades for Hasbro to make a Blurr figure that I felt was a true homage to this movie classic.