Retail Therapy

The perfect antidote to several crappy weeks of work (and the sure knowledge that the next few will be rather crappy as well) surely has to be a trip to something like Memorabilia at the Birmingham NEC.

Get there early (very little difference between the cost of standard (11am) entry and Early Bird (9am) entry) and wander round at leisure, taking the opportunity to study what's there before crowds of the great unwashed pile in and block every aisle. Find a few things you thought you'd never see again. Pick up a bargain or twelve. Grab something that's not available in this country yet. Discover how keenly you want something you didn't think you'd be interested in until you clapped eyes on it. 'Meet' celebrities and get their autographs, if you're that way inclined.

Then get the hell out with your haul and enjoy the rest of the day however you like.

For the record, I made off with:

TF Movie: Dropkick, Landmine (and Voyager class Optimus Prime for the office)
TF Classics: Grimlock
RiD: Megatron Megabolt (should really be Beast Machines, but hey)
Beast Machines: Rattrap
Beast Wars: Airazor, Tripredacus (Cicadon, Ram Horn and Sea Clamp)

A very respectable haul, all things considered. Details? OK then. From the top...

Dropkick is quite an oddity. His packaging proudly proclaims that he his "As seen in the TransFormers Video Game", which explains why he wasn't seen in the movie by any stretch of the imagination. The alternate mode is a low-riding pickup truck with a spoiler on its bed cover. Transformation is far simpler than the likes of Longarm, but still very satisfying. Robot mode is rather bizarre, in that he has animal-like legs, but a very humanoid shape overall. Unlike most of the videogame drones, Dropkick has something approaching a normal robot head, rather than the usual large lens and consequently has a lot more personality. The only downside to him is his ridiculous 'capture claw' weapon, which just looks like pliers.

Landmine is also an oddity, for many reasons. Firstly, he's an Autobot created out of a Sector 7 vehicle by the Allspark. Secondly, he appears to have claws. Thirdly, he appears to be wearing a hockey mask. He has some quite clever features, such as the vehicle's seats transforming into the robot's hands, and some bizarre features, like the fact that he seems to move around on roller skates. Hardly the most elegant of robots, but an effective and satisfying model.

Classics Grimlock is the one Classic I've never seen in the shops. In so many way's he's inferior to the original Gen 1 model, but he's far more poseable, and remains distinctively Grimlock. As has been mentioned all over the web, his shoulder assembly has been put together completely wrong, so things don't lock into place as they should, but he's still pretty effective... and he completes my Classics collection.

Megatron Megabolt was released under the Robots in Disguise banner despite clearly displaying a Vehicon logo on his chest, which would place him in the Beast Machines continuity. Moreover, his alternate mode appeared as a giant flying fortress in the Beast Machines TV series and not at all - as far as I'm aware - in RiD/Car Robots. The robot is another awkward one - no head movement, and even the ball-jointed limbs offer limited dynamic posing ability. Transformation is very complex for such a small model, and he wins a few points by utilising a magnet to attach his helmet and cannon to the robot's head. The insectoid legs of his alternate mode move thanks to wheels on the bottom and, supposedly, this thing can function as an alternate head for Fortress Maximus or Brave Maximus.

Beast Machine Rattrap is about twice the size of the original BW model in robot mode, and much larger in his robotic rat mode. Robot mode can use legs or wheels to get around, but frankly he looks terrible either way. Rat mode is a real winner, though, because it's very accurate to the TV show, and features a mechanical action where rotating his tail causes his head to move from side to side, tilting and waggling his ears as it goes. In that way, it's far more cool than I was expecting.

Beast Wars Airazor is a very simple model - this and the original Rattrap typify the simplistic construction that went into most of that line. Bird mode is only really effective when viewed from above (it's curious how true that statement is of almost all flying TransFormers), but it does feature a sort of 'diving' action where pulling back on part of the tail angles the wings forward. Robot mode is very simplistic, but quite effective. I'm aiming to display this model along with the TFCC Airazor eventually.

Tripredacus - not to be confused with Tripredacus Agent - is one of a very few Beast Wars gestalts. Made up of Cicadon, Ram Horn and Sea Clamp (each of whom has a robot mode of their own) he's a bizarre-looking monster of a robot. The face is curiously reminiscent of The Joker, due to some unfortunate and sparse paintwork, and the arms are not exactly convincing but, as a feat of toy engineering, he's pretty clever... How else could a fly, a beetle and a lobster be combined into one robot? As was frequently the case with Beast Wars and its offshoots, the beast modes are far more convincing and impressive than the robot modes, but the use of translucent plastic is very good, making the parts and the gestalt 'whole' very eerie-looking in a certain light.

We ended up leaving the show just before standard entry time, partly because we had other plans for the rest of the day, and partly because it was a much smaller event that previously. It only took up one hall, when it has previously been two. That said, it felt to me like a distillation rather than a drop-off. Attendance was high, even before standard entry kicked in, and the quality and range of merchandise on offer was very impressive. I don't think there's been a single show that hasn't been dominated by Star Wars one way or another, but it's never felt as though it's becoming a Star Wars convention... even if security appears to be provided by the Stormtroopers of the UK Garrison.

One stall was selling all kinds of movie props, including two pieces of TransFormers. One was an unrecognisable talon, listed simply as 'TransFormer Part', by the other was a section of Scorponok's tail. Even a cursory glance revealed obvious welded joints, which was disappointing but, equally, proved that there is still enough magic left in cinema to turn human-made props into convincing alien robotic monsters.

After the show, we headed into the town nearest the hotel for some food, then back to the hotel to eat, snooze, lark about and watch DVDs for the remainder of the day. The trip back home today was smooth - far smoother than the outward journey, in which we got lost because we left directions to and details of the hotel back at the office - and without any of the snow that was threatened in weather reports earlier in the week.