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Well, better late to the party than never. My vintage collecting doesn't seem very prolific this year, so my list will mostly be which POTP meant the most to me. (Sorry, no digital camera at the moment, so no pics...unless I find some online and edit later)

Although way back in the spring, I did find --

10. BotCon Rainmakers/Welcoming Committee, but due to stupid miscommunication on my part, I'm not sure I even have Bitstream and Hotlink's weapons, and may have to buy both seekers again down the road. Oh well, at least they're viable troop builders. (That actually ended up being the theme of this year's collecting, as I'll explain at #3)

9. Bumblebee Retro Garage Nice of Hasbro to use this year's period-piece movie to go hog wild with cassettes for their lifetime fans, but a LOT of things surely had to line up behind the scenes to make official W Cassette reissues happen. So I'd like to take this spot to give yet another heartfelt thank you to CHMS and the dear departed KOTOYS.com. The knock offs of the four G1 combiner cassette pairs right down to reproducing the packaging (though the dino-rivets were too small, making them distinguishable from the real deals) gave those of us who cared a chance to hold something that we all assumed HasTak wouldn't or couldn't reproduce, and now I truly believe that the ensuing s#!tstorm and crackdown doubled the number of western Transfans who'd heard of the W cassettes, making the official reissues possible. I don't know if it's ironic or appropriate timing that a larger crackdown on exact-packaging-KO-TFs just got underway, but hopefully your valiant sacrifice years ago has already nudged reissues of Squawkbox and my all-time fav Slamdance closer to reality!

I know this post is far too late and long, so I'm trying to make sure this gets a response

8. POTP Titan Predaking Did I miss it, or did this guy seriously not make anyone else's top 10? Yes, it should've been a tad better, and I'll have to buy that 3P set for the knuckle spikes and turn to Shapeways for the sword and individual weapons...with two exceptions. THIS PREADAKING FINALLY HAS THE DAMN SHOULDER CANNONS! When I completed my G1 Predaking over a decade ago, it irritated the hell out of me that he had no acceptable approximation of the shoulder cannons in his character model! I even wasted part of my hard won BBTS credit (the only reason I ever signed up for Facebook) on some POS CrazyDevy cannons that you have to permanently alter Divebomb's wings to attach, and they still wouldn't be in the right spot! Well, bitch and moan about this year's titan all you want, but Hasbro actually came through for me where 3rd parties failed for a change, and that's enough to make me forgive literally all of this new toy's flaws. Showed up on my doorstep on Black Friday, and I've loved him ever since!

7. POTP Volcanicus Finally got Sludge and Snarl in early spring, but had the 3-dino (plus Slash sword) configuration barely holding down the fort against my upgraded Megatronia near my TV since about New Years. Was there any fan consensus on a name for that formation? I keep randomly switching between Grim Caesar and Grim Geister.

And while they should've made him the big one, Sludge is my sentimental fav since the original was my first TF.

6. POTP Rodimus Prime I find his chest EXTREMELY nerve-wracking to transform; feels like something's going to snap every time. Otherwise, this would be exactly the Rodimus Prime toy I've wanted since I was 7. He almost didn't make my list, but then what should come along but the announcement of MP G1 Op #3, and his half-a-grand price tag. And for that much dough, the only truly new feature is his ability to become Starscream in a pivotal scene from Megatron's Master Plan, one of at least two episodes (the other being S.O.S. Dinobots) where Optimus Prime idiotically leads the Autobots into certain death because he apparently just couldn't plan ahead, and is only saved by circumstances entirely beyond his control. Now, correct me if I'm forgetting something, but the only time Rodimus Prime did something THAT stupid was in The Return of Optimus Prime, which is tainted by the beginning of Hot Rod's GEEWUN postmodern character assassination, by whiners who couldn't accept the cold hard facts of life and death, and thought that Rodimus's self doubt lack of arrogance somehow made him a worse leader. In other words, our third Masterpiece Optimus is a $500 reminder that Rodimus Prime was seriously a better leader (in the cartoon, at least), and that I'll be getting that Masterpiece Rodimus Prime reissue with the fixed trailer long before I consider saving up that much for any new TF. (Though I DID spend...more on that below) Until then, POTP Rodimus is my collection's supreme Autobot commander.

5. POTP Abominus Leading with another complaint, WHY, WHY, WHY did they sculpt a show-accurate visor, then make his head's coloration and antenna position accurate to the toy instead of Call of the Primitives?!? Isn't any 3P going to step up to the plate here? Or have they, and I missed it? Well, this is the one Prime Wars Scramble Gestalt that was never going to outdo the original in terms of leg articulation and balance, so screw Hun-grrr. The other 4 needed the upgrade most desperately, and I was not disappointed. My first Terrorcon Blot's G1 toy was always such a mess, though it was appropriate for his character, so his new toy blew me away the most. And sure, it says he's an ogre, but I'll bet that's more a cheap attempt at a Shrek reference; Blot's just Blot.

4. Armada Sideways Knock Off Wins the award for most total surprise of 2018. Had never heard of this until I checked other items of the seller I bought #1 from. Both headmaster minicons looked like the original Rook and Crosswise despite unstable combining abilities, chest has been remolded into diagonal silver strips in eliminating the allegiance switching gimmick, one of his missiles is replaced by what looks like a lavender pretend-turkey-thermometer, but the the main draw was the yellow and orange color scheme, making him a perfect generic Junkion! I'd already bought 2 3P upgrades for my RTS mold Junk population, so both of those unofficial finds perfectly enhanced my next entry...

3. POTP Wreck Gar Timing can be an odd influence on my collecting. I started scouring Walgreens for this guy way back in July, not knowing how soon he'd hit the states, because I assumed everyone saw him as an army builder, even if they only intended to buy one, meaning I might have a far harder time finding him than Brainstorm or the clones of axed boxsets (that 2 pack is still hanging around at least 2 stores between Northville and Garden City). The day they finally did show up in late October, I bought 1 each at 2 different stores, restraining myself by leaving at least one behind per location for the benefit of fellow collectors. On the 31st, I found 2 more, making that my trick-or-treating for the year; assembling Elita Infinite with Junkions for her right limbs during my annual viewing of City of the Living Dead will forever be my definitive Halloween 2018 memory.

That night was also when I finally started organizing my Prime Wars cards in a CCG tote I bought for the new game, as part of cleaning up. Somehow, I hadn't thought about the significance of the random Primes for the same POTP characters before, but it sunk in when I noticed that all 4 Wreck Gars thankfully had different ones. That was the foot in the door which I neither saw coming, nor knew where it would lead. While I haven't bought any cards off ebay yet, I began buying duplicate toys whenever I could find them on sale/clearance, as long as they had a card that I didn't, and I could at least justify it as potential custom fodder. I have 2 of each Dinobot except Snarl (Grimlock ironically burned me the worst with 2 Vector cards; my biggest custom pipe-dream is to someday turn them into combinable 4-Star Dinobots), 4 Slashes and 7 Cindersaurs (to customize into those female Rapticons whose designs got leaked, and dammit I have to find the "her" card), 7 or 8 Dreadwinds (giving me some duplicates, as I actually bought most of them earlier since he'd be the easiest to dye into custom Seeker limbs with parts from CW Aerialbot KOs kitbashed onto him assuming I ever get better at knocking pins out), 5 Starscreams (for LeoZack, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Lyzack, possibly needing a 6th for parts for Slipstream in case I can't do her entirely with one of--), 3 Elita Ones (one of which will become Nancy - I always thought their head designs were just similar enough to make that the most logical choice for a Junkion gestalt torso; whether I bother turning the jet into a motorcycle alt remains to be seen), 4 Infernos (I should get a 5th assuming Reprolabels does an Artfire set in addition to G2 Hotspot, Hosehead, and Pyro; I'd never do a whole Guard City custom) 3 Jazzes (one will become Backstreet, the missing Adventure Triggerbot), 4 Tailgates (WA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAA, Wipe-Out!) 4 Windchargers (1 was broken in-bubble, so he'll probably be my TF:TM appearance custom), plus 2 each of Darkwing, Beachcomber, Moonracer, Novastar, the Terrorcons, and non-evil Optimus and Rodimus Prime...just in case.

So you can imagine just how nuts I went with actual army-builders! I might actually have 12 Skrapnels, but at least one is a duplicate Solus that I haven't opened. I might have more TR Scourges and Sharkticons between the Hasbro and Takara versions, but most of those were 2017. I also stocked up on the first 3 Prime Masters, especially Micronus since his shell is probably best for customs. And even if I do all the missing '88 shells, that'll still leave me with enough Cloudbursts to repopulate Lemnos Femax!

But although I'm only up to 8 Wreck Gars (and only got that post-Black Friday deal on one), I believe he'll be the first character I get all the cards for, so he's representing every duplicate toy I bought this year tied for 3rd place...except for one sentimental favorite below:

2. POTP Battletrap G1 Battletrap was the first con I got from the '87 line, and a favorite intersection of compact complexity. "Lack of articulation, just makes kids use imagination!" -Wheelie I remember bringing him on at least one trip down to Illinois to visit my dad's relatives at age 7 or 8, a trip we'd usually make twice a year, but which became less frequent in my early adulthood, and fell off altogether during my mom's 5 year battle with Alzheimer's.

Well, fast forward to June 2018, when my biggest problems thankfully included the POTP distribution issues, and I can't find any scouts beyond the first 4 in my neck of Michigan. My dad and I go down to to stay with his sister (now my oldest living relative) for a week. While I normally shun Walmart, Jacksonville (outside Springfield) is one of those towns where you have to shop there at some point, and what should I see at first glance in the toy section but BS and RT, the perfect link to the vacations of my youth! Next day was the family gathering which included most of my 2nd and all of my 1st and 3rd cousins, and the kids all seemed to think those two Cons were the most fascinating toys they'd ever handled, perhaps because their complexity even stumped me at first. The lone teenager came up with a fan mode for Battleslash that she decided was good enough to be his Cybertronian copter mode, and the only boy (4yo) was frustrated at how long it took to get Roadtrap into humvee mode; not sure any of us truly appreciated his head-out-the-tailgate syndrome (found Tailgate 2 days later BTW), but I really appreciated that the greatest update I never imagined for a TF I played with so much as a child struck such a chord with my youngest relatives.

I have 3 pairs of BT at present: one will get upgrade labels, one will be customized into Tracer and Dropshot the next time I do a batch of black dye (no idea what to call their gestalt), but that slightly scuffed up one will always be a memento of that trip, probably posed to play that little novelty Bad Dudes arcade game I had with me.

So while army-building got a tad expensive, the main reason I bought so few vintage toys this year was that most of that money went towards...................







1. Complete, in box, FOSSILSAURUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GoBots have been legally adopted into the TF family, so this counts more than any 3rd Party stuff, and was well worth the $500 I dropped. I mentioned in another thread that GoBots is my most reliable link to the dozens of transforming robot toylines that stores overflowed with in my youth. Well for decades, my primary link to GoBots fiction was the Battle of the Rock Lords movie in my college town's Videoland. One intriguing character was the Lord of Fossils, whose toy I later learned was Jawbone, the head of Fossilsaurus, a true holy grail that couldn't be sold in the U.S. because he would've been the one truly awesome toy in the line, and Rock Lords legally had to suck, apparently. Although I got Margo Kidder's character Solitaire years ago, I later learned that it had some mystery weapon, so I bought a complete one from this seller just to get her sword, but that means she can ride Fossilsaurus's obtrusive, oversized cannon just like Jane Fonda! Its pellet firing action was probably what got this toy banned in the States for safety reasons, which is stupid because it's so unnecessary they could've just left it out and then just the cannon would be the holy grail you had to buy from Europe or Japan, rather than the whole...

*ahem* So in summary, a #@%&ing Rock Lords toy was what brought my childhood back for me in 2018, not the Bumblebee movie. That, and some Retrocade games that now allow me to play the arcade versions of 1943, Final Fight, Captain Commando, and Caveman Ninja.

Oh, and none of the many Amazon exclusives I bought made the list because of the ordeals I went through ordering them. That was such a pain in the reactor linkage that, you know what Bezos? Your marriage deserved to fail! But you should've destroyed the citizens of South Park.