Curse you, eBay!

I'm sure I've already described the positively unhealthy amounts of time I spend trawling eBay.

There are a few things I'm on the lookout for, and will aways try to bid on when I find them. One such item is the torso of the G1 gestalt group, the Seacons. Snaptrap is a strange aquatic tortoise (he has feet rather than flippers, so he can't be a turtle) with guns sticking out of his shell, and a wierd claw thing at the back. He's pink and blue, so he looks really scary.

Considering how poorly-executed most of the Seacons are, it's strange that the combined form, Piranhacon, actually looks reasonably effective. Frankly, it looks about as good as any of the G1 gestalts (perhaps not as good as Menasor, the only full set I have, so perhaps I'm biased), but the colourscheme was always a bit on the psychedelic side. The best version was the Japanese Beast Wars II version, God Neptune, which had a consistent colour scheme - pearly white, gold and grey for the most part - and that's including the new TransFormers Collectors' Club version.

I suppose part of my thinking for completing my G1 Seacons set is that, if I sell the complete set on eBay, I would probably make more than enough to buy the Club set, if I so desired.

The Club set is complete - unlike God Neptune, which was lacking one of the smaller Seacons - but the colourscheme is pretty vile. Apparently, much like Club Astrotrain, it's based on an unreleased Walmart exclusive set. Unlike Astrotrain, however, it's made from a 20-year-old mold that wasn't particularly impressive the first time round. Add to that a colourscheme that's even more psychedelic than the original (the yellow burns my eyes!), and you've got a Club exclusive that's not high on my want list.

I shall consider my options very carefully when Snaptrap arrives... To be honest, having looked over my G1 collection several times of late, I'm thinking of selling a good chunk of it. Things like the Headmasters are, in this day and age, pretty rubbishy - incredibly simplistic transformations, very limited posability, boring gimmick. Even the massive Scorponok isn't much cop by today's standards. Then there are things like the Firecons and the Throttlebots - very limited play value, and not much to look at on display. I'd imagine some of it would net me a fair old sum...

The upside to selling a complete set of G1 Seacons to fund buying the Club set is that it's supporting the Club. When I join a club, I do like to support it... and it's really only by buying the exclusives that one can support this club.

I kind of wish they'd reduce the number of BotCon exclusives and channel more resources into the Club exclusives (say, a 3-piece BotCon box set, a further 4 'souvenir' pieces, and then 4 more Club members only pieces to go with the two non-BotCon Club exclusives?) but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon... BotCon is a huge moneyspinner, and this year's set sold out completely, well before the show.

But, back to eBay... While I was there, I ordered a couple of Japanese videogame artbooks - for Guilty Gear and War of Genesis - from Otaku's eBay shop. It's been ages since I ordered any artbooks, which is odd because I tend to find them quite inspiring, one way or another.