It turns out that a rather obscure and previously-thought unattainable release has found its way into the hands of a lucky stateside collector and we have the scoop! The proud owner of this true modern grail piece has taken the time to share with us a little bit about how it came to be in their possession but before that, let’s take a trip down memory lane to see where it all began…

In 2018, the world was rocked by the establishment of Hasbro’s Studio Series toyline, and along with it, an incredible leader class Blackout figure. They took it a step further in China and built a promotion around two special customized repaint figures of Studio Series 01 Bumblebee and Studio Series 08 Blackout. These were not for sale, per se, but served as prizes for Transformers buyers on Taobao. Only 88 copies of this ‘camo’ Blackout were produced for the promotion, and is the closest thing we’ve had to a lucky draw release in quite a while. The demand for this figure has grown in wake of Studio Series’ longevity up to this point, but it has been generally forgotten by those that can easily dismiss a non-factory-generated and region-locked prize figure. See general details of this release on the wiki.

Until now.

Five years and a pandemic or two later, Sangzhong Blackout has ventured across the sea and into the hands of a happy Transformers collector, let’s call him Spiky. Spiky was sharing some brand new pictures of this unicorn-like figure and we just had to ask him a few questions.

Collecticon: How did you come across such a rare piece like the Chinese Blackout?

Spiky: I was given a notice about the Chinese blackout about a week ago on multiple discord servers. A helpful discord user that I will not name now held it for a while and was trying to sell it off. Of course this purchase was leading up to TFcon so it was either now or never as I’m sure I would not have had the funds afterwards.

Collecticon: How long had you been trying to get ahold of one of these?

Spiky: This piece was something that I never actively look for on my time. This painted Blackout was something I knew I would just have to wait for someday to show up on the Internet.

Collecticon: What drew you to this piece in particular over other rare or hard to find figures?

Spiky: The fact that it is sort of the only figure of its kind. As an artist myself, having an artist’s touch on an exclusive lucky draw is very special to me.

Collecticon: What condition is the piece in and are you satisfied with it?

Spiky: The piece came brand new in the box, although I was worried about scratching the gorgeous paint on this figure so it was taken out. I plan to move it into a case later to keep it protected for as long as possible. The condition of the figure itself seems to be fine. It’s exactly what I expected and I am fully satisfied with happiness. Due to the nature of the packaging, I had no problem taking it out while the Studio Series boxes look good, they cannot show the pure beauty of the paint itself sitting on a shelf. This Blackout is not like a normal lucky draw. It is meant to be seen from all angles with an excellent cloud cover type camo all over it.

Collecticon: Was the Scorponok that accompanies this toy included and is it notable compared to the production version?

Spiky: Scorponok was not taken out of the packaging as it is completely identical to the original release.

Collecticon: Borrrring!!! Anyway, Now that you have such a rare prestige piece in your collection, what do you have your eye on next?

Spiky: With every purchase I try to get stuff that is harder to get. More exclusive and more limited, although I’m not really sure where to go from here… All I can say now is I will always keep my eye out for the next rare lucky draw to show up on the Internet.

Collecticon: Well, here’s the big question a lot of people want to know. How much did it set you back if you don’t mind sharing?

Spiky: In all I paid around $800 for it and the cost of the item was not anything I wasn’t expecting a while ago when it was released. I did think to myself someday I would pay a large amount for this figure. Compared to other items in my collection, this was on the more expensive side but at this point I’ve gotten used to it because I have purchased multiple prototypes and rare lucky draws in the past.

Collecticon: That actually sounds pretty reasonable. Any plans to sell this in the near or far future?

Spiky: As special as this figure is, I assume someday it will be sold off. A lot of very rare and exclusive figures go through my household and most of them don’t stay for more than a year.

Collecticon: Well I hope I can be first in line!!

Thanks for sharing with us Spiky and we hope you enjoy this incredibly rare piece for years to come!

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts was unleashed on Wednesday, June 7th 2023 as a special fan event showing across many but not all theaters across the United States. I was there and waiting anxiously in the lobby of my suburban mall movie theatre for my friend to find his way from the food court to my location. Of course, I didn’t want to be late for what could be a disastrous showing of the next in a long line of Transformers live action movies. This fan event might have special freebies for attendees, maybe even toys. My friend, let’s call him Mr. G, casually waltzed up, taking his time meandering through a long empty hall way from the main mall to me, was only there because I purchased an extra ticket in case I could convince someone to join me. Let’s admit, not many moderating successful adults with kids would jump at the chance to accept a free ticket to a Transformers movie after the last six movies. A night away from the kids is a rare treat.

Regardless, the two of us made our way to the ticket counter, received our freebies (a Maximal patch and a non-full-bleed poster digitally printed on standard printer paper), and hit the concession stand. I, of course, wanted the Optimus popcorn bucket tin. At $50, it was a tough pill to swallow but eating popcorn at the theatre is almost a requirement for me these days. The tin was actually incredible, for a novelty souvenir made to drain the pockets of long-time fans. Just don’t forget the straws…

As we watched the humorously simple Transformers trivia screens play out before us prior to the movie start, the reality of the realization that in mere minutes, years of questions, conjecture, and debate would be settled once and for all.

Would Unicron be sealed into Earth at the end of the film, keeping intact the flimsy semblance of continuity the last fifteen years of films had culminated in?

Would the masked villain, Scourge, reveal his actual identity in an ultimate moment of fan wankery?

Most of all, I wanted to know once and for all: Is this film and its predecessor part of the same story as the rest of the “Bayverse” films or do they constitute a new universe or timeline?

The long and short of it is that when the theatre lights came up, the most important of these questions for the franchise at large still remains a bit murky and I have determined this is by design. As frustrating as that is, I’ve found myself coming to terms with the lack of answers surrounding this all-important mystery. For what is a franchise without it’s core mythos and story?

The truth is that the Transformers brand is not a fiction-first entity, like most of its other major pop culture compatriots. Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Avengers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Game of Thrones… they all come from a fiction-first origin, be them books, movies, comics or otherwise. Transformers was and still is a hodge podge of products that needed a feasible story to sell them and for some insane reason, it worked. Transformers hit the pop-culture jackpot and is a 1 out of 100 Cinderalla story. No matter how we fans crave a single chronology to rally behind and unify our fragment fanbase, we will be chasing a dragon we’ll never catch.

All this being said, my initial reactions to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts were not great, lukewarm at best. Mr. G also carried this opinion, if not to a lesser degree. “This is stupid, but in a completely different way,” was something one of us uttered to the other after about 20 minutes of the film, and the other concurred. I left the theatre feeling a bit empty, and called another compatriot of a previous podcast I recently exited. His review was a bit more glowing. He was genuinely positive about his experience and I asked some probing questions. He felt the action was good, the story was simple but followable, and the robots, God, the robots! They were IN THE MOVIE. This I had to agree with. I listened a lot and soaked up his enthusiasm before I asked some really simple questions that gave him pause, and we both agreed that maybe this story wasn’t meant to be dissected.

I could wax poetic for a while, but I want to transcribe my feelings on this because Transformers means more to me than it healthily should. These initial thoughts did not ultimately prevail as I saw it again the next night with a group of other fans, but kept the fact that I had already seen it under wraps to avoid questions that could be spoilers and wanted everyone’s general reaction.

What I was not expecting was a complete change in my viewpoint on the movie after seeing it a second time. Seeing it again, all the great things about the movie were amplified to the 9’s, and the sillier aspects of it I was able to just ignore. I will dissect all of these details in a succession of future blog posts because ultimately my take is this: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is an important fan film.

If you haven’t seen it and are reading this, what is wrong with you? This is a movie we can get behind. This is a movie that has heart and some competent people behind it. Some… I for one feel we still have a long way to go, but this Collecticon thinks the sixteen years it took us to get here was worth the wait.

As I colorfully chided the title, it turns out it was a fairly foretelling premonition. Transformers truly was the Rise of the Bests! Get out there Transfans, and bask in the glory. Thank you.

Well those days are gone and we are back in business! 2+ years away has given me some time to reflect and realize that the world is changing, and we’ve been lacking some tough TF love in this world; the latter I am happy to dispense.

With Transformers: Rise of the Beasts only two weeks away, I can’t wait to weigh in on the continuity debate. Real words on this subject be coming.

I have recently graduated into a new realm of collecting and I simply cannot wait to share it with anyone that’s still within listening distance.

At long last, it’s been announced that PFCON has not skipped the year of our Bin, 2020. It will convene as a virtual livestream event to coincide with the release of Netflix’s War for Cybertron Earthrise series airing at 2AM CST on Wednesday Dec 30. The livestream is apparently invite only and starts at 10PM CST on Tuesday the 29th. More details can be found at PFcon.info.

BUT THERE’S TOYS TOO!

Yes, it appears that just this morning the listing for the PFCON2020 exclusive action figure has gone live! You can find the listing at the event sponsor Collecticon Toys. Let’s take a look:

This year’s figure is none other than Transformers fan extraordinaire Deceptigtar! Who is he? What’s with the two heads? Does this mean there’s going to be a Chicagocon combiner? Answers to all this and more can be found within the pages of this year’s event comic, Crusades of the Chicagocons Volume 4: Duality of Chicagocon drawn and written by Transfomers sage and fart maker @robotswithcoffee.

It looks like a ton of fun to us! Enjoy PFCON 2020! Covid free for sure this year!

The box is a bit unassuming. Yes it focuses on the phrase “Transform” and gives it a special type treatment, but it all seems innocent at first. So let’s see what’s inside…

Once again, nothing too exciting. Why am I bothering to write this blog post about a Windows 10 solicit? Well…

SMACK! It’s a Transformer! Not just any Transformer, it’s a Generations Selects Cromar! Whoa! This is a pretty bizarre find, and just where did it come from?

Here’s a brief snippet back story from the owner of this piece: “A buddy of mine’s company buys a lot of computer hardware and the Dell Sales rep gave this to him and he gave it to me.” So it appears that Dell worked up a B2B promo to help create new business and to give them a bit of an edge, is throwing in a Transformers toy to help rationalize the “Transform” pitch of their marketing.

So why would they choose Siege Cromar over any other potential figure?

Well, chances are Hasbro has quite a few of Generations Select Cromar still floating around. The bubble the figure came attached to is the exact same bubble that comes inside the cardboard Generations Select release, so one could assume it was as simple a process to package these as removing the figure from the previous box and slotting it into the Dell Promo box. It’s also possible that Dell received a variety of left-over Generations Selects figures and randomly inserted them into their promo boxes, since they all share the same inner bubble dimensions.

It does seem strange to choose Cromar, if they had any sort of ability to choose a toy, because his color scheme so vagrantly differs from the blue and white color scheme of the packaging and Dell’s corporate branding. For instance, Power of the Primes Rippersnapper would’ve been a more cohesive choice but it was likely unavailable since it’s from a few years ago. Until another one of these oddities shows up, we won’t know for sure if all these Dell boxes contain Cromar. It is worth noting that the instruction manual for Cromar was also in the box behind the inner cardboard section.

So what to make of this? Well, as the title indicates, this is just one of those crazy Transformers oddities. Thank Primus that it really is just a promotional re-pack and not some incredibly impossible redeco. If that had been the case, there would’ve had to be a few thousand of those floating around. I’d peg this repack box as a small experimental promotion that is hovering between 100-500 units, but hey, what do I know? I don’t run Hasbro or Dell, nyuck nyuck nyuck!

Will this be a valuable rare item? Sure. Rarities always pull some crazies out of the wood work, but chances are we will see more of these in the future one way or another. The real interesting question is whether the next one that is found contains Cromor or something else…

We’d like to thank @Drunk3n_n3rd for taking the time to chat with us, take some very nice photos of the piece and allow us to share them with you. Check them out on Instagram if you like looking at toy photos!

All good Collecticons focus on the presentation and packaging first before diving into the meat and potatoes of a toy release. This box is large, almost two feet wide, and comes surrounded by a small sleeve that includes most of the product details and legalize. It’s a great teaser for what awaits you inside. View the gallery at the end of this post to see all the interior photos and how the item is packaged.

Within the large tabbed cardboard box, the Neutrona Wand prop itself is securely fastened to a few structural supports and all of it’s accessories are contained within plastic baggies. These parts can be quickly assembled to form a plastic display stand for the wand, which allows for excellent display options when you aren’t busy busting ghosts. The wand itself has a decent amount of heft to it, but just enough to still have fun.

As you can see, the handle is molded in plastic but it gives the illusion of years of worn grip tape around the handle. This really does help make the handle fit ergonomically in your hand and the weight of the wand is balanced. If you need a cable attaching to your giant DIY home-made back-pack, well that one is still going to be your own side project.

The want itself has 3 toggle switches and once you’ve installed 3 AA’s batteries, this puppy is ready to go! To get the full experience. Each switch activates a portion of the lights and sound features. The main power switch on the bottom right turns on the red Slo-Blo light and activates an ignition sound. The switch above that turns on additional LED lights that bring the wand to life. Finally, flipping the “Activate” switch on the bottom left puts the wand at “full-power” and creates a low hum sound effect. Leaving any of these mode on without pressing the “intensity” button for more than 15 seconds shuts down the device, including that classic de-energize sound effect from the movies. Excellent. Now it’s time to get intense.

Once everything is fully activated, it’s time to press the intensify button, which lets ‘er rip! if you’ve extended the plasma beam component at the front of the wand, a 4-inch light beam will start a unique strobing effect and the proton-beam sound effects will be emitted from the wand. A rumble-pack feature also begins, that just brings the entire experience of Ghostbusting to life. Don’t blast your stream TOO long though, because if you do, the pack will “over-heat” and shut down. All these features combine to give a really light-hearted and enjoyable experience for kids and adults alike.

Downsides? I would say the instructions aren’t 100% intuitive, but nothing is difficult to figure out on your own. Leaving some of the sound and light modes to self discovery is part of the fun of this item. The proton beam is only about 4-inches long which isn’t truly faithful to the films, but how else would you expect to replicate an imaginary proton blast that catches ghost?

All in all, this is a home-run for Hasbro and for the Ghostbusters fan community at large. If you’ve been wanting to have a sturdy, high-quality neutrona wand for your costume, this is a great option instead of building one yourself out of who-knows-what. Without the Ghostbusters: Afterlife film being released due to Covid-19 in 2020, we are still in the dark of where the Ghostbusters story is going next, but this prop may give us a hint. It appears that this item will play a signature role in the upcoming film and that may be why this is specifically billed as Egon’s wand, and not just any old wand. But what do I know? I’m just a Collecticon, and I ain’t afraid of no ghost!

If you’re looking to get ahold of one of these awesome prop display pieces for yourself, might I suggest a few places to find it for purchase online? This items MSRP is $99.99, but only while supplies last!

• Big Bad Toy Store
• GameStop
• Entertainment Earth 

The Transformers Universal Discord sever has just about everything you could need from toy talk, fiction discussion, and everything in between. There’s a decent amount of role-playing on there too, if that’s your sort of thing.

Don’t just take my word for it, see how the members of the server self-describe it:

Welcome to Transformers Universal! We are a community dedicated to the fandom! We host game nights throughout the week, voice chats daily, and feature a wide variety of artists and collectors! Come show off your collection, talk about the newest toys, share your favorite transformers memes, or just hang out in our general chat. Choose your faction, meet other fans, and have an Omega Supreme time!

You can sign up and check it out for yourself by clicking here.

Fans of all kinds can feel welcome and there are lots of community events like livestreams, webcasts, and scheduled video game plays. Sign up, and dig in!

Well it’s been a good ten weeks in a row with new consistent TF Talk news episodes by Mr. Starscream. Today launched the big tenth episode for the show and the whole staff got in on the fun. See for yourself below!

Although it seems a little ridiculous for a show to celebrate their tenth episode, a little tongue-in-cheek never hurt anyone. The was produced and even has a silly story line to follow through the segments. Way to go TF Talk, keep it up.

Full hi-res video version of this silly thing here. Created by yours truly.