This post has taken far to long but with the light box and all that noise and blah blah blah, whatever, its all excuses. Anyway, on to the post –
My main focus of my collection is Classics/Generations, basically the new versions of the G1 favorites. My Classics collection is, however, far from complete, but with my recent haul from last month, I filled in some important gaps:
I figure I’ll just touch base on each one real quick.
Optimus Prime:
The classics Prime mold is, I think its fair to say, considered one of the best designs used during this line. While there have been several subsequent Optimus Primes released, this one is still far and above the deluxes in every way. I don’t know if the PRIME RID Optiums is any good, it would seem he’s probably more pose-able than this version, but to me, this is a fantastic re-imagining of the G1 classic. Coupled with the 3rd party trailers available, he’s an amazing toy.
Inferno:
The original Fire Truck Autobot returns as the first of the Fire Truck Autobots in the classics line. You can see my other post on them here. Like Optimus, this mold is a testament to what is capable in a Transformer toy (when the world economy isn’t in the gutter…) and it’s easy to see why he’ s a favorite amoung collectors. I did track down TFC’s Gear of War set, as you can see which is outstanding, and I’m waiting on my collar wings upgrade from Maiden Japan, so Inferno will have another post coming up at some point.
Mirage
Mirage was an interesting pick up for me. For one thing, I’ve always wanted a Mirage, and never seemed to be able to get one. My next door neighbor had the G1 toy when I was just a lad, and I remember being insanely jealous because he was blue and white, which was (and still often is) my favorite color scheme. I remember trying to show off Beachcomber but realizing he was nothing compared to the awesomeness of Mirage. (still have Beachcomber, which is a testament to him). Classics Mirage is a fantastic figure, though mine was in ROUGH shape. Scrapes and scratches everywhere. But luckily, the Reprolables upgrade covered 99% of the areas that were beat up, and also made him look flat out astonishing. Coupled with the Weapons from Primes G3 Trailer, he’s managed to cement himself in my top 15 list of favorites.
Smokescreen
Smokescreen started off on the chopping block. I really didn’t think I was going to keep him. Then I saw he was sealed in his original packaging, so I thought I would keep him on my shelf sealed. Then I got caught up on Transformers Prime and while, PRIME Smokescreen’s design and colors are awesome, I started liking Classics more and more. So I tore him open. The more I toyed around with him, the more I really stared to like him. I don’t love this mold, I think the head sits WAY too high up, but on Smokescreen it doesn’t seem so bad. Even his..um..”unique” color scheme has completely grown on me although, I’m pretty sure the reprolables set will have to be ordered, I applied a few that were meant for Bluestreak, but I would like to fix the blocky 38s for sure.
But getting these guys in allowed me one other happiness – see, I’m one of those collectors that LOVE repaints. I love the idea of taking a mold of one character, painting it totally different (and maybe giving it a different head) and making it a WHOLE NEW character! While you’ve seen the “Fire Truck Club” already, all four of these guys are molds I already own:
Smokescreen actually helped me appreciate Prowl a bit more, which is nice, though I honestly like Smokescreen better. I have legends Bluestreak, but I’m still working on tracking down Classics at a reasonable price.
Mirage and Dragstrip look awesome together. I’m glad I have upgrades for both of them, and now that Mirage has his shoulder rocket, it helps distinguish the two quite a bit (besides the colors of course).
And speaking of distinguishing one from another –
Who’s more notorious in the “recolor” realm than Mr. Upholder of the Tryst Accord himself, Ultra Magnus. Of course, these two are further distinguished by Magnus’ City Commander trailer, but that’s not pictured here, for obvious reasons.
Well, there we have it. As I mentioned, I did also get Universe IronHide in this lot, but for now, I’m keeping him in his package seems PPO5W is all the IronHide anyone ever needs.
Up next: Shattered Glass Soundwave makes an unusual return to the limelight….
Stay tuned!
Pax Cybertron 
Looking at your pics really really makes me wish I had bought that Gear of War add-on set!
Well, here’s the thing though – I really only would have needed the Inferno stuff and Soundwave’s Autotrooper cassette. The rocket launchers were no where near as good as the G3 Trailer’s equipment (like you see on Mirage).
i have the smokescreen shown here and i loved it so much i had to get Silverstreak too, but i really wanted prowl. my smokescreen has a small flaw. two left hands lol. but still a very nice figure.
Bluestreak, to me, looks to be the strongest of the three in terms of a color scheme. I think that’s why he’s a little harder to find than Prowl or Smokescreen. Two left hands is very odd, but occasionally you get some odd mishaps like that.
speaking from experience, silverstreak(bluestreak) has the worst paint on earth. it gets sticky and rubs off from the doors and front side vehicle panels. mine has no paint on the doors now and i’v customized him to look battle damaged with scratches and bullet holes, but the paint was so bad i literally washed it off in the sink. thinking of getting some paint to redo the doors mostly silver and rust orange, to add to the battle damaged effect. i also want to do a bit of paint to smokescreen to undo accumulated scratches to his body.
Oh no! Well then disregard my last reply, lol. Maybe I’ll spring for the Henkei version of Bluestreak then. That’s terrible about the paint, what a shame.
As for the “Fairlady Z” trio, the Henkei! version of Smokescreen is hands down the best version of any of the 3 guys.
Yeah, I’m sure he is Flywheels, but…I think that could be said of any Henkei figure, now that I think of it! LOL.