Yesterday I went to TF con. I'm usually in no rush to get to this con because there's usually no recent figures I'm interested in getting ... after all I have a toys R us and a wallmart in the area. This time, however, there was a LOT of recent figures from Japan and from upcoming lines that I wanted. Also, the voice of the one and only Grimlock would be there - and I wanted in on that action!

So off I went! I gotta say, TF con is much more aggressive at the beginning of the con than in the middle (when I usually arrive). Not surprisingly, I didna't end up getting EVERYthing I wanted, but I did get a lot.

1) I got Masterpeice Megatron's stock and silencer. I didn't wanna ebuy it since it's so damn heavy that shipping would be through the roof on an already expencive product, so I'm very glad I got it here.

2) On impulse I got a G1 Star Saber. It was only $50. For those not in the know, Star Sabers can go for hundreads. Why so cheap? Well, he's severely yellowed, he had a badly damaged cockpit, and his door was slightly broken.

HOWEVER, he came with a junker Saber robot and I used that to fix his door and replace his busted cockpick. I also have a KO Star Saber, so I had a sword and gun for him. Now he's the rarest TF I have and I'm very glad I got him.

3) The other Worlds Smallest Dinobots - the terrodactyl, the brontosaurus, and another Grimlock (to replace one that broke). So now I have all of the WSTF dinos and I'm glad of it. I'm very tempted to get the full size versions, but ... I dunno. We'll see.

4) As a set I got a Quintesson Prosocutor, Krenzeek, Energon Cubes, Spike, and Sparkplug for a marginal deal. They're all nice little things to add to my collection, but I could have done without some of them. No regrets ont hem tho.

5) Premium Barracade. From the new movie. I already have the regular one, but the Premium is so much better. I love the alt mode, so I had to get him. He is just that much better.

I was tempted to get Premium Blackout, but ... all I like about him is his helecopter mode and I have nowhere to put him. Barracade's pretty small, but not Blackout.

6) Henkei (Japanese Classics) Astrotrain. I already have CVlassics Astrotrain, but this one's paint scheme is just so much BETTER. I have a fond memory of playing with the origional Astrotrain, so I got this second one.

I'm tempted to get Henkei Grimlock, but I dunno ... he's not too much different from the Classics Grimlock. I plan to get Megatron and Hot Rod eventually from that line tho.I have classics Hot Rod, but I collect him you know.

7) And the three Insecticons. Used. I like the G1 Insecticon design, but I don't care about getting brand new ones since they aren't favorites and these were reletively cheap.

Incidentally I found out that Ikea has good display cases ... hmmmmm....

Things I want, but didn't get ... or have decided they are worth getting:
1) Coronation Starscream set. They had it, but ran out of it quickly.
2) Animated Grimlock. I have a Grimlock collection you know. They had it, but sold out of it in the 40 minutues I wasn't there.
3) Any Classics 2 figures. Especially Galvatron and Silverbolt. Yeah.
4) The trailer for Classics Ultra Magnus. They had it there live and in person and it's awsome. Incidentally, it's competition for me is Titanium Ultra Magnus. At one point it was cheaper, but suckier. Now it's more expencive, but suckier.
5) MP3 Soundwave's headphones. They're pretty low priority for me tho.

On the fence:
1) Classics 2 Onsluight. He looks awsome, but I'm not even sure that's the right name.
2) Henkei Grimlock. He looks slightly better than Classics Grimlock, but I already have Classics Grimmy.
3) Masterpeice Starscream (accurate colors). I have the first Starscream, with the innaccurate colors, but this one's accurate. The mold is pretty nice. Now's the time to buy since it'll only get more pricey from now on. But ... I don't like Starscrem that much. And the darker one I already have has grown on me, so ....

Probably not:
1) Any more movie stuff. Yeah, there's too much stuff I actually want to waste my time with any more stuff from there.
2) Titanium Ultra Magnus. At the con he's going for 100. On ebay it's around 60. Both are far too much for an inferior product. Sure he's neat, but not to the tune of $100.
3) Any more Dead Ends. I have 7 of them. That's enough.

So, yeah, I got to see the voice of Grimlock. He's pretty nice. Doesn't have much of a story that goes behind Grimmy's voice. However, I did get him to autotgraph three of my Grims. G1, Smallest, and Classics. Smallest had some trouble, so he did the box of that too. It's the only TF I have that will never leave it's box again ... besides, I have a busted one I can look at.

Afterwards I went to a wedding reception. One of my cousins that I don't see often got married. It was pretty fun, but there was a lot of people I didn't know.

Did you see a Vic Viper or R-type at all?

Sounds fun. More Quintessons to join the court and even some rarities.

My desire for Transformers merch has been going down since it spiked in 2005 when I noticed the Energon homages to the toys from my childhood. At that point I thought I was going to get into collecting them regularly, but little has motivated me to go out an buy them. Right now, there are a few I'm interested in, but I think I can wait until August when I can buy them at the con. I probably won't really want them until they're right in front of me anyway.

They sure have milked the movie line, haven't they? Wonder if the sequel's line will go into "Premiums" too. Maybe by then the fans will be counting on it so they don't buy the plain old non-premiums.

Despite how much I'm loving Animated on TV, I think there's only one toy from that I actually want my hands on.

That's an awesome haul Gauntlet. The Classics Onslaught is supposed to the G1 one, just remade and minus an Bruticus ability. And if you think he is way different, look out for Powerglide.

I need to redo a Dinobot collection, I only have the Classics right now, I gave my G1 one to my buddy in Canada before i moved to California.

I collect Megatrons for the most part, Skywarp as well. My wife is a Soundwave fan.

Did you see any sign of the Botcon Shattered Glass Grimlock? It's basically a Classics recolour but he's an evil alternate reality Grimlock. I want the Megatron from that. It's the Energon toy with a Megatron head remould instead of a Galvatron one.

You met Gregg Berger? What's he like?

@GrimoreLibrarian - Wasn't looking for them, I'm afraid. I'm not even sure who they are. Mostly I go for new versions of TFs from my childhood or ones I just think are cool.

@Raj - Yeah, the movie got milked to death. I don't blame them, the movie's a big deal for TFs.

At the Hasbro panel the guy said that they felt that there should just have been better paint schemes overall, so they made the premium line. ButI still dislike that the first versions of the movie toys had such bad paint jobs. Someone just wasn't doing their jobs.

I suppose I'm in the same boat as you as far as animated goes. I love the TV show a lot, but I only want the Dinobots.

The Quint toys are awsome. I don't need ALL of them, as some are pretty generick, but the ones at this con were a lot cheaper than the Quint I bought while I met with you guys and this one is the other prominant ne fromt he movie. The guy that looks like an aliens reject.

@Dynamax - Naturally I've already seen Powerglide. But he's just not a character I care about. Or even ... like so much. If he was a minicon or even a mid-size I might have gotten him, but a huge voyager? That's a pass for me.

I've seen the Shattered Glass set online and it was, indeed, there for about $600. The Grimlock and Megatron from there are nice, but way too pricey for me to even consider getting. Luckily, neither qualifies for my character-driven collection since their colors deviate too much.

Gregg Berger's an energetic sort of guy. Very nice and humble. You can tell it's hard for him to remember the stuff he's done from 20 years ago. I think he looked over some of the TF eps he did before going to the con - he had a few memorable quotes ready to be dropped at the interview.

Vic Viper and R-Type are video game spaceships that have nothing to do with TF (although one version of the Vic Viper does transform) so I dunno what Librarian was getting at, unless the con was for other toys besides Transformers.

The con had a couple toys other than TFs. I saw He-Man, Thundercats, GI Joe and Gobots. But that's all vintige and in the VAST minority. Usually there's nothing but TFs.

Oh wait, I thought TF had something to do with toys or something. Sorry. Abbreviations throw me off.