After reading my Runabout review, a lot of you were surprised or confused by my "only one version of a mold" thing. What, you haven't read every review we've ever posted? You don't remember the review from September 12, 2006? I count on your obsessive completist mentality to allow me to keep half-assing these reviews!
Anyway, why do I only buy one version of any given Transformers mold? Because for me, it's more about the engineering than the character, so if I have it once, I'm good. That's why I was fine with Sparkcrusher and Shadow Striker instead of Warpath and Wheelie, and why I didn't buy Generations Blurr (because I already had Dorifuto-san). So not buying more than one version of a Transformer mold is my own rule, my own personal "I before E except after C."
But hey, here's an OAFEnet fun fact: there are 167 words in English that have the "cei" in them (and only six of them in common use); 923 words have "cie" and 2,606 words have "ei" after something OTHER than C; that's 21 times as many words that break the rule as follow it, meaning it's not much of a rule at all, now is it? And similarly, here's are a bunch of Transformers I've bought that use the same mold as ones I already owned:
- Astrotrain and his eHobby repaint
- Devastator and at least two knock-offs
- Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus
- Revoltech Convoy and Ultra Magnus
- Sports Label Conoy and Megatron
- Masterpiece Starscream and Skywarp
- Alternators Overdrive and Arcee
- Alternators Sideswipe and Sunstreaker
- Animated Arcee and Drag Strip
- Animated Jazz and Dead End
- Animated Ratchet, Ironhide, Autotroopers and Fisitron
- Animated Lockdown and Wildrider
- Animated Motormaster and Toxitron
- Animated Rodimus, Breakdown and Sideswipe
- Animated Soundwave and Electrostatic repaint
- Armada Optimus Prime and Nemesis Prime
- Energon Arcee and movie Elita-One
- Cybertron Optimus Prime and Menasor
- Jungle Planet Optimus Prime and brown repaint
- Classics Mirage and movie Fracture
- Classics Ultra Magnus and Nemesis Prime
- Classics Megatron and gray repaint
- Classics Skywarp, Ramjet, Thrust, Dirge and Thundercracker
- Universe Ironhide and Ratchet
- Universe Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Punch/Counterpunch
- Generations Scourge and Ratbat
- Generations Tracks and Wheeljack (and Runabout and Runamuck)
- Generations Wreck-Gar and Junkheap
- Human Alliance Sideswipe and his black repaint
- Movie Chromia and Elita-1
- Movie Devastator and his green repaint
- RiD Landfill, yellow repaint, and green Devastator repaint
- Titanium Starscream, Skywarp and Thrust
...aaaand that's off the top of my head. (And our Reviews page, of course.) There may be others I'm not remembering right now. The point being, for all my talk about not buying duplicates, I've sure got an ass-load of them, huh?
Just because I know someone's going to ask, some examples of words that don't follow the rule:
glacier
ancient
species
concierge
science
efficient
sufficient
hacienda
society
bouncier
caffeine
weird
weir
being
veil
eight
either
protein
Keith
And so on in that fashion. And the six common words that do follow the rule?
That's it...
I think with Transformers its almost impossible to avoid buying the same mold twice --- that is if you want specific characters. I remember you first talking about this "rule", which I never really understood the reasoning behind it --- but I do understand it now.
I don't mind it so much if its a solid mold, good design, fun to transform, etc. To be honest I wasn't such a fan of this mold with Tracks --- but I thought it fit Wheeljack nicely. This guy looks good tho.
You reeeeeeeally should give Blurr a chance. It's worth it just for the guns. Also his giant feet coupled with his articulation mean you actually CAN get some great running poses out of him.
Combiner wars must really be leaving you chomping at the bit then huh?