Out to lunch...

Well, I finally added something else a little different to my collection. A metal Transformers lunchbox. I have already had the red plastic one that has the original box art scene with Optimus Prime for a while, but haven't gotten around to getting this one until now.

This is mostly due to several things. Starting at the beginning, as a kid I never got it because of the other lunch boxes I had at the time. I had the red plastic one mentioned above, but also I remember having the metal Pac-Man one and I think a G.I. Joe one. I feel like I might have had another, but it escapes me at the moment. Anyway, there weren't too many years I actually carried a lunch box, and I think this one kind of fell in at the end of that run and couldn't make it in. I always thought it was very cool though and wished I had got it years later. Anyway, moving to more recent, I occasionally have remembered to look for it, but every time I have (mostly on eBay) they are usually really beat up and rusty, and are either missing a thermos completely, or have the wrong one with it (the old Optimus Prime/Megatron thermos). If it has been in good shape and complete, it has gone for way more than I wanted to pay for it.

Well, I found the one I just bought now finally on eBay in pretty good shape (far from perfect, but pretty good I think. The best I have seen in a while. It also came with the real thermos that I am pretty sure it was suppose to come with that has Powermaster Prime and other Headmasters etc on it. I will add it to my "Others" page, but you can also see a couple of pics below...

Transformers Whirl

I completed my first run (1984) portion of Gen1 a while ago, and will now mainly start focusing on Wave2 (1985). I really already have most of this wave as well, but looking to focus on filling in the spots that are missing. That being the case, I started this new run with getting a Whirl. I got him complete, and except for some unfortunate discoloration on one side of him, he is in great shape and is complete.

Philadelphia Comic Con

I got to go to Philadelphia Comic Con with a couple of friends on June 17th and it was a lot of fun. I have been to Pittsburgh Comic Con many times now, as well as some smaller conventions in Houston, but this was the first "Large" convention for me. It was cool to meet or at least see so many big name celebrities at the convention. The most notable experiences for me was that one of the friends I went with had a family member who worked the Zenescope Comics both and hooked us up. Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge Grimm Fairytales fan so that was unbelievable. I got to meet many of the creators as well as pick up many variants at good prices. I was really excited to get to actually pick up the Philly Comic Con exclusives there in person and at their prices instead of second hand as I have most all of the other convention exclusives I own.

Ok, this blog is on my Transformers website, so the other really big part of that convention I mentioned was meeting Mark Ryan, who did the voices of Jetfire and Bumblebee in the movies. He was really great and friendly and talked with me for much longer than I expected. I bought a print from him which he signed, and managed to get him to also sign the cover of my Revenge of the Fallen Blu-Ray I had brought along. In hindsight, I probably made an ass out of myself by saying I was more of a Gen 1 fan and not so big on the movies, but he was friendly about it, and didn't seem to be bothered. Sure I was being honest and was just saying what I felt at the time, but maybe I should have gone about that differently.... Well, anyway, he was cool and I have his autographs on display in my mancave.

Well, I met or saw many other celebrities, but can't say there is much to talk about. Well, I did almost get tackled by some girls that went crazy on me when I came around a corner saw Bruce Campbell, and tried to take a picture of him with my iPhone I had in my hand at the time. I didn't know you couldn't take his picture!!! Well, I think you can, but you have to pay for it... :p I know they are there to make money, but that was crazy. I also got to meet Lou Ferrigno (Hulk) He was nice but I don't think he wanted to be bothered, Jake Lloyd (Anakin of Star Wars Episode 1) hanging with Daniel Logan (young Boba Fett). Both seemed nice but seemed bored. I said Hi to both and they did the same back, but I didn't have the money to spend at that point and you have to remember they are there to make some cash. Speaking of Star Wars and money, I got to meet Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and he was really nice. I actually wanted to pay for his autograph, but they only took cash, and I was out. Credit card wasn't going to work. He was very friendly though, and I will probably regret it. Especially because I hear and could somewhat see he has some health problems. Hope he hangs in there. I didn't get to talk to him, but I got a friendly nod from John Schneider (Dukes of Hazard/Smallville). He was really busy with a bunch of others around him. Some noticable other TV/movie celebrities were there that I either missed entirely or were too far away was Burt Ward and Adam West of Batman fame (I did get pictures of the Batmobile though), Bill Goldberg from my watching WCW days, Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane from Superman), and Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3). As for comic creators, it was cool to see EBas again and many of the other Zenescope creators. I also saw and took pictures of the already mentioned Batmobile, the Torino from Starsky and Hutch (a personal family favorite), the Delorean time machine from Back to the Future, the General Lee and a cop car from The Dukes of Hazard, and also the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. I took many pictures on my phone and maybe at some point I will upload them to a page and post the link here.

This post got way longer than it was suppose to, so I am going to cut it off. In case you didn't notice, I had a ton of fun!!

Not Transformers Update - Anime

I noticed I have really been neglecting all of my different collection list for a while now. I will work to update all of them as soon as I can, but took a few minutes tonight to update my Anime collection.

I am probably missing some updating still, but think I got most that where missing. The most notable part was updating to reflect that I now have an almost complete collection of all Tenchi. All 3 different series (OVAs, Universe, and Tokyo) as well as all 3 movies. I am only missing GXP, but everything I have read leads me to believe I need to stay away anyway from it. That is about as bad as the end of the OVAs... I did also update to show GunXSword collection, Mahoromatic collection, Samurai Gun collection and Voltron collection. Now I just have to make time to watch a lot of this.... won't be starting this weekend with the Philadelphia ComicCon here.

Gobots DVD!

Last month, Warner Archives released a "Challenge of the Gobots" mini-series DVD, and when I heard about it, I made sure to pick it up right away.

As anyone who has read on my Gobots page knows, Gobots were actually my first love over the Transformers, so they hold a special place in my heart. They and G.I. Joe were my friends in some less than ideal times. Anyway, I have been looking for Gobots for years on DVD, and had no luck getting the bootlegs that were out there. The torrents I downloaded were okay, but most of the time there were problems, as well as things being out of order and an overall poor video/sound quality. I really thought that was the best I was going to get too, since Hasbro bought Tonka and now owns the Gobots rights. It seems like they would just leave them buried.

Fortunately, unknown to most Warner owns the Hanna-Barbera rights, thus owns the rights to the cartoons too (unfortunately, things still look grim for the toys). Anyway, that enables them to still re-release the show as they are at least trying out with this 5 episode miniseries that was first launched.

Getting to my point, I finally got around to watching it tonight, and it was fun. Sure, a lot of it seems really silly now, but it was great as a kid. They also really cleaned up and "remastered it" so the colors and lines were pretty good. I loved it and highly recommend it to any former Gobots fan. It is not as good as Transformers I admit, but it is still fun!!



See the link to the Warner Archive site for more info: Gobots on Warner Archive