Got my hands on Generations Junkheap and Sky Shadow from Peter at Nifty's Toys and Games today, he has some new stock of these if any of the Perth guys have gotten them yet....I'm happy to support the small guy especially when their prices are the same as Kmart.
Once you smash the toy into tiny pieces then you won't need to look at the scratches!
Kinda like when people tell me they have a headache, and I say "Take your head off. You won't have a headache anymore and your neck can enjoy a pleasant breeze."
This too. Mea culpa.
"Now look what you've done!" - Megatron (Cosmic Rust)
For $15 that is still a bargain. This is a very expensive figure after all. The tail may be missing but you have the guns which are exclusive to this figure! But why are they silver? Is that a custom job or something? They are supposed to be a creamy grey.
On top of that, despite his flaws, he looks structurally complete so it's very much a doable restoration job. You can get a tail from TM2 Cheetor and repaint it.
Very awesome overall!
If all else fails G, you're in the right part of the world to either track down parts for him, or another complete one!
No TF Collection is complete without one!
*Dreamily stares at his Ravage...*
TRANSFORMERS: DEICIDE -- The Beast Wars 20th Anniversary Comic Book series that could have been...
TRANSFORMERS: UNITY -- the BotCon 2016 Comic Book that should have been...
My first notable acquisition in about 4 months. Simply because we're in such a dry spell (and SAL from Japan took 6 weeks...)
(okay, I did buy myself a unit in that time, so I'm not complaining!)
Eagerly waiting for Masterpiece Meister
He has the tail, it's just been painted black and is pretty flaky is all. Whoever had him last did a pretty poor job of customising him, including mauling the guns and painting them silver. I don't mind the colour changes since they're easy to fix, but the fact the gun barrels have had parts of them cut off is pretty aggravating. Seriously, who mauls a Metals X-9 fer crying out loud?
The tail and body can be repainted pretty easily, the hip/leg joints are easy to tighten up, but replacing those gun barrels is gonna be a nightmare.
X-9 was never really a grail of mine and I was quite happy with the CHUGUR Ravage for the Odieverse, but for 1050 Yen I wasn't gonna pass up the Metals version and now that I've got him I want to see him done justice dammit. If I can find a set of replacement X-9 barrels and/or weapons from another toy that can be modded into similar barrels I'll see if one of the good-at-customising crew here can fix him up and maybe even improve on him. If I try doing it I'll probably just make things worse.
If he was in halfway decent shape I'd leave him as is, but since someone's already given him a going over I figure I might as well get him fixed up properly and given a quality show-accuracy treatment.
I suspect the last owner was trying to make the toy more "show akkurate" (*sigh*) (-_-) As you can see here Ravage's guns never had those side clips in the cartoon - they justmagically^magnetically attached to Ravage's hips like this. Ravage's legs are identical (mouldwise) to Transmetal Cheetor's, and Takara engineers took advantage of the fact that his legs happened to have those grooves and added those side clips on the guns so that they can clip onto the legs. It's actually a really cool feature of the toy considering that it's reverse-engineered from TM Cheetor and based on a show model that wasn't initially intended to be made into a toy.
So yeah... sucks how someone's gone and mauled what was a pretty cool feature of the toy - but at least it can still clip onto the wrists and have him hold the guns. :/ Are they so badly mauled that they can't clip onto the legs at all or do they just attach really loosely?
Indeed... those guns were especially made for that toy alone. The only other toy that has them is Transmetal Tigatron, who's a limited BotCon exclusive toy!
Honestly, if I were in your position I would either:
a/ Keep this toy as a placeholder until I find another Ravage in gooderer condition (although apparently they sell for stupid prices now)
b/ Just keep this toy, strip off the paint on the tail and guns and well... yeah - display the toy with the guns in hands, or alternatively use something like Blu-Tac to help keep the guns holstered if I want to display or play with the toy with the guns in that position.
I'd be inclined to go with Option B
If you ever find a good X-9 Ravage and wish to sell this one, I will be happy to buy. The gun barrels would be a challenge but I see the figure as a very possible restoration job specially when he is 'complete' with all parts and accessories.
There aren't as many of this figure around and that with demand has caused it to command high market prices limiting it's availability to fans. Adding this one back even with the inevitable 'reverse customization' job on the guns would be good.
I guess this falls into one of the somewhat 'controversial' areas of modifying or changing a toy with limited availability and high demand. I am personally against the concept of modifying vintage and rare figures as that Ravage basically means 'one less for the world to enjoy' in it's original state. I understand that it's a person's right to do with their property as they wish and respect that but that doesn't change how I feel when I see a rare toy being 'destroyed' to make another.
See, if they were more show accurate I wouldn't mind so much, but he has the full barrels in the show so it's actually less show accurate.
They do clip to the legs, but pretty poorly. He'll only be displayed in robot mode with the barrels attached to the guns anyway, but as it is it bugs me enough that I'd like to find replacement barrels. They don't have to be from X-9 or Botcon Tigatron, if I can find a figure with similarly sized/shaped pistols from a different toyline or collectible figure that can be cut off and modded as replacement barrels that's fine too.
Getting a new one is a bit too costly and difficult for my liking - I found one for US $100 which I'd be OK with, except of course the seller only ships to the US. I'm tossing up a few options. Either get someone to restore it and do up some new barrels from whatever aforementioned similar guns I/they can find - still costly but worth it all things considered; or see if I can trade it for a grail of my own.
Unfortunately - or happily subject to how you look at it - what with my being in Osaka and having a decent wage the only real grail I have left is a Classics Ultra Magnus to fill out my empty City Commander armour, and one of those is almost as costly and hard to find as a new/replacement X-9. All the other major wants I had I've picked up over the past two years, and given how beat up he is it's hard to see anyone who didn't have BW Ravage as a major want going for that.
So right now it's looking like finding someone to pay to do him up right, and hanging onto him for my own collection. Ravage was one of my favourite characters from G1 and he's a nice piece to have after all.Yeah, I generally tend to agree on the last bit, it's kind of the same philosophy as why I prefer to get loose/opened TFs over MISB. The only reason I'm OK with having this one fixed up and modded is 'cos someone had already done the dirty on him when I got him. I just wish I had the skill and workspace to do it properly myself.
In the unlikely situation I see another one in good nick for a decent price and subsequently let this one go I'll put him up for sale/trade and let you know. Aside from the guns it's just loose hip joints and a new paintjob, so he'd be pretty easy to restore without too much hassle.