Transformers Encore #20 Devastator
Back in June, it was announced that the Japanese Encore line was going to continue with the release of Devastator. I was quite surprised as it had been said in the past that the original toy molds for this figure had been either lost or damaged beyond repair. I also figured that if he was going to get a rerelease that it would have happened when the 2nd Transformers Movie, Revenge of the Fallen, was released as a new version of this character played a fairly prominent role.
It was also surprising as the last Encore figure, #19, had been released almost a year and a half ago. I was beginning to think the entire reissue line had been cancelled, but this is certainly a great way to kickstart it off again.
Here’s a little bit of history on the figure. Before he became a Transformer, he was part of the Japanese Diaclone line of toys. The vehicles in the set had a color scheme that included orange, red, and blue. Hasbro imported him to the U.S. in 1985 for the Transformers line and went with a mostly all green color scheme. He was the first of many “gestalt” combiners and is the most recognizable of them to anyone who grew up in the 80′s. He consists of 6 construction vehicles that also transform to individual robots. The unique aspect, is that all 6 of these vehicles together combine into a huge robot, Devastator. Each constructicon vehicle was available individually on card or if you were really lucky, you got the gift set box which had all 6. I never had any of these, but they were certainly on my want list. I can’t blame my parents though as I certainly had plenty of Transformers. (Thanks Dad!) I remember a friend having one or two of the 6 figures, but I never got to see the full Devastator.
In the early 90′s Transformers: Generation 2 started. In the beginning they reissued a lot of the original toys, but used colors very different from the originals. The Contructicons were released on cards in yellow and orange colors rather than the green from before, but were never released packaged together as a gift set. This was the last official versions until now.
During the 2000′s a version of Devastator showed up at cheap toy outlets. These versions were Knock Offs and not official in anyway. They were made of cheap plastic and broke easily. They were still interesting to see and I even picked one of these up at a local toy store in St. George. A few years ago now, another knock off was released, but this time much higher quality parts were used and it even came in a replica gift set box. I was certainly tempted to get one of these, but still held out hope that an official version might see the light of day again.
Fast forward to November 2011 and the official reissue version is released in Japan. I was ready to buy it for myself as a birthday present, but Sarah told me not to. 
She got me one for Christmas, so now here we are, 26 years later, with my very own Devastator.
Meccano Luke Jedi Miscard
This has been on my want list for my Luke Jedi collection for some time. This was put out by the French distributer, Meccano, and is a Luke Jedi figure on a Yan(Han) Solo cardback. I’ve seen a few of these over the years and most seem to also be packed with the palace blaster accessory while a smaller number are without. I’ve never seen one with the cloak/lightsaber included. I think a miscard like this is fun to break up a run of figures that to the average person look all the same. It’s also fun to see a different language on the text.
The real question is how did this combination happen. There’s enough of them out there, that it was deliberate and not just a one off accident. The majority of these type of miscards show up on Trilogo cards which replaced the Meccano cards later on. Did Meccano get a stock of Luke figures, but didn’t have the cards printed up for them yet? And why no accessories other than the palace blaster? Maybe because of Lukes popularity they were having trouble keeping up with demand and were just trying to get them out as quick as they could? It could also have been later on and they were simply trying to get rid of extra figures on extra cards.
Apple TV 2
We bought our first Apple TV 2 about a year ago and I’m really loving this little box. In fact we ended up buying a 2nd one a couple months ago. The box retails for $99, but there are a decent amount of used/refurbished ones out there to help bring that price down. Now that doesn’t quite make it the cheapest compared to Roku and some of the other set top boxes, but there are some great features about it if you already own another idevice.
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The first and foremost advantage with pairing it with an iPhone or iPad is Airplay. Basically you can take any piece of media on those devices and with the tap of a button, send it on over to your T.V. This works with the latest pictures/video you’ve taken on your device, music, videos, youtube, etc. This feature alone is certainly a great reason to get an Apple T.V.
WordPress 3.3
Just in time for Christmas, WordPress 3.3. has been released. I’ve just done the update myself and like some of the changes so far. Hopefully this will get me writing again a bit more.
Here’s a video showing what’s new.
Droids & Ewoks Prototype Coins
I originally hadn’t really planned on picking up any of these, but some showed up on ebay with nice Buy it Nows, so I couldn’t resist. These are silver first shots of some of the Droids and Ewoks coins. The produced coins were packaged with figures from the cartoon series, but were colored gold for Droids and bronze for Ewoks. Most likely these were tests of the coins before they switched to the anodized gold and bronze blanks for the final coins. I managed to get 4 out of the 6 that were available by the seller. For Droids: C-3PO, R2-D2, Jord Dusat and for Ewoks: King Gorneesh.
