Updated pics of my collection

Cyberverse Beast Hunters Huffer

Apparently this is a re-color of the current Trailcutter figure.  I'm not very interested in this but may snag it anyhow if I see one in a store.

Got my Lynsa Huffer!

Well this turned out to be an eventful day.  First I got the carded El Greco Huffer and now I nabbed the red/yellow Lynsa Huffer that I've been wanting.  This is the same one that I posted earlier that was listed with the blue/yellow Lynsa.  The blue one was bought by someone else.

Score!

I picked this Greek El Greco carded Huffer up for $100 this morning.  Heck of a deal in my opinion.

Two Treasures From Peru

The yellow/red Huffer is taunting me again.  This is the third one that I've seen recently.  Obviously there has been a case find.  However, this time is even better because there is also a blue/yellow one.  Sadly, I can't afford these.

Kre-O Microchange Huffer

I personally don't much care for the big Kre-O figures.  However the little Kreons amuse me.  I don't any of them but they're kind of cool.  The Kreons are little figures that don't transform.  I was  hoping that Huffer would eventually be released as a Kreon but so far no luck.  There is, however, going to be a Kre-O Microchange figure.  They look similar to the Kreons but they Transform.  The robot form is ok I guess but I don't like the truck form at all.

A cool factory error

I just spotted this on eBay.  It's a Greek El Greco Huffer on a Brawn card.  Pretty cool.

Nemesis Huffer!

A TFW forum friend of mine pointed pointed this little tidbit out to me.  The Dairycon exclusive for this year is Nemesis Huffer.  He's black and purple with a Decepticon logo.  I want it!  I don't how I'll possibly get it but I want it.  Argh!

MOSC 1985 Huffer

I managed to pick up this carded '85 Huffer from eBay.  I plan on getting a plastic case for him so that I can stand him upright with my collection.  I'm still hoping to get a MOSC '84 version and maybe a MOSC '85 with minicon eventually.

A very rare find

I saw this at auction recently.  Finding carded Lynsa (Peru) figures is very rare.  This one sold for $547 which wasn't a bad price but was more than I wanted to pay.  The seller didn't include the words Peru or Lynsa in the auction title otherwise it probably would have sold for more.  The weird thing about this is that I was recently offered a carded Lynsa Huffer from an online friend and it wasn't the same toy.  I'm hoping to one day be able to buy a loose one for less money.  Not sure if that will ever happen or not.

iGear set complete...for now

I'm caught up on all of the iGear Huffer releases.  That probably means they'll be making another one soon.

Back in Blue

My iGear Pipes arrived so I figured I'd snap a pic with my other blue Huffers.

I still function!

Sorry that ye old blog has been quiet as of late.  The reason that it has been quiet is that I have not been able to locate any Huffers to add to my collection.  Believe me my eyes are always peeled.  I did get a new shelving unit for my minibots so at least I have something I can post.  I did get confirmation from Big Bad Toy Store that my blue Igear Huffer is in stock.  I'm waiting for my Masterpiece cassettes to come out next month and then I'll just have it shipped all at once.

Some Pictures

I haven't picked up any vintage Huffers lately.  I'm going to a toy/collectibles show this Saturday so I'm hoping that maybe I'll be surprised and find something there.  I did recently receive an iGear Rager which was their first release.  He's pretty cool but I do like the newer one better with the darker colors.  Anyway, I took some time tonight to take some pictures of my collection and thought I'd share.

iGear strikes again

There are currently four variations of Huffer produced by iGear.  The first was the light blue/orange referred to as Rager.  Later came the black/red Roadranger and the yellow/red TFCon exclusive Shafter.  A short time ago the 4th anniversary Rager was produced in dark blue/orange.  I currently have the black/red and dark blue/orange variants in hand and the other two are on the way.  A couple of days ago came some exciting news (well at least for me anyway).  iGear is now producing a blue version of the mold this time referred to as Tubes which obviously refers to Pipes, the blue G1 character based on the Huffer mold.  I pre-ordered it from bigbadtoystore.  The pics below are from bigbadtoystore.

Great day for my collection!

I had another crappy day at work today.  Every day seems crappy anymore.  However, my frown turned upside down when I got home.  I had a package waiting for me from the UK and I knew what that meant.  A fellow collector that I met through the TFW2005 forums and have a ton of respect for sold me a few Huffers from his collection.  I picked up the 2nd release Micro Change (small box), light blue/white European "Puffer", dark orange Greek El Greco, original Takara with box, and reissue Takara.  I put them together with my existing collection and took some pics.  After today I really feel like my Huffer collection is taking shape.

"All of them!"  Sorry, had to channel Gary Oldman from The Professional a bit there.

First release Micro Change (large box) and second release Micro Change (small box).

'84 prerub, dark blue/white Mexican IGA Puffer, light blue/white European Puffer, Greek El Greco

Greek El Greco + eHobby Roadranger

original Takara with box + reissue Takara 

A good day indeed

I waited in my living room today for the mailman to come because I knew that at least one of the items that I bought was going to arrive.  To my surprise I got two.  My #1 most wanted Huffer was the dark blue/white Mexican IGA and today I got him.  He was a loose AFA graded 85 which is quite good.  Here is the problem though.  There is just no way in hell I was going to allow this figure to be stuck in truck mode entombed in a plastic case.  Nope, not happening.  With delicate application of hammer and screwdriver I was able to get him out safe and sound.  My other purchase was Roadranger from the eHobby minibot set.    I'm glad to be able to start posting some of my own pics now instead of just reposting from the internet.

Here are a couple of comparison pics of the eHobby Roadranger with the iGear black Rager.

What might have been. What may yet be.

When Takara was designing their MP-10 Optimus Prime they initially planned on including a Masterpiece version of Huffer with him.  Why?  Well if you've watched the animated series from the 80's you'll recall the day that little Huffer helped his battered boss by hauling his trailer for him.  Pic courtesy of tfwiki.net.

Unfortunately Takara determined that adding Huffer to the MP-10 set would have raised the price too much so they didn't make him.  Too bad.  I would have LOVED a MP Huffer.  Here is the design drawing for MP Huffer.  He is in the lower right.  Pic is from tfw2005.com.

So, is the book closed on Masterpiece Huffer or Masterpiece minibots in general?  Could be but I don't think so.  The Masterpiece line has expanded into things like Autobot cars and Soundwave's cassettes so I think it is definitely possible.  I really hope that it happens.

Well, that is three posts in one night.  I think we're good for now.  :-)

Other newer Huffer figures

In this post I'm going to post up a couple of the newer Huffer molds.  Up first is the Botcon 2007 exclusive.  First pic from Tom Nayder's flickr account.

The following pic from transformertoys.co.uk.

If you want an evil version of the Botcon 2007 Huffer you can make your own Shattered Glass Huffer using the 2007 movie Armorhide figure along with a Reprolabels set as explained in this article   http://transformingseminarian.blogspot.com/2009/08/weekly-transformers-feature-shattered.html

The following two pics are also from that article.

The other newer Huffer is the Power Core Combiners version.  Huffer was the center portion of a combiner toy.  Here is a pic of him in robot and truck modes from therealmcast.com.

Here he is in combiner mode courtesy of whirlblog.com.

iGear

Until now I've been focusing on the G1 mold of Huffer because he's the classic and mainly the one that I'm interested in.  However, there have been newer versions of him made.  First up I want to talk about the iGear Rager which is patterned off of Huffer's character from the cartoon.  Thus far iGear has made four variations.  The first one is light blue and orange.  The second is a yellow and red version named Shafter which was a TFCon 2012 exclusive.  The third is the black and red variant which is an exclusive to upgradecommander.com.  The last is a dark orange and red variant to celebrate iGear's 4th anniversary.  It is supposed to be limited to 500 pieces.

Thus far the only one that I have in hand is the black and red one.  I applied a couple of Decepticon logos to dress him up a bit and make him look extra bad (in a good way).  I may buy some Reprolabels for him later. I bought the anniversary version and am waiting for him to arrive.  He'll definitely be getting Reprolabels.  I may pick up the other two eventually.  Here are some pictures.

Here is a robot mode comparison of the dark and light orange variants from shop.igeartoys.com.

Here we see the Shafter figure courtesy of tfcon.ca.

Lastly, here is my black and red Rager.

That's all for today.  In the last couple days I've been able to acquire some really nice and rare pieces that I'm really excited about.  I will take pictures after I have them in hand.

Dairycon

Time for some wackiness.  In 2006 this cow colored Huffer was released at Dairycon in Wisconsin.  I believe that the number released was very limited but I have not yet been able to find out just how limited.  His name is Heffer.  Get it?  Cow colors + Huffer = Heffer.  You know like a cow.  Sigh.  Anyway, despite its ridiculousness I'm amused by it.  Here are a couple of pics from dairylandtransfans.com.

Also, here is a boxed one.  Pic courtesy of Lewis M. Brooks III from this post http://lmb3.net/2012/07/16/blog-164-toy-review-dairycon-2006-heffer/ on his site Imb3.net.

I also found this pic from fredsworkshop.com of Heffer along with eight other Huffers colored in all sorts of different ways.  I really like how some of them look but apparently they are just photoshopped and never got made.  That's good one one hand though.  Less hunting and less money to spend!

One  last thing from Dairycon and I saved the best for last...Pretender Convoy.  As any Transformers collector worth his salt knows Optimus Prime is referred to as Convoy in Japan.  In 2010 Dairycon gave away a Pretender Convoy as a Lucky Draw prize.  There are only 8-10 in existence according to this fellow selling one on eBay  http://www.ebay.com/itm/2010-Dairycon-Exclusive-Pretender-Convoy-Prime-Transformers-AFA90-/330811609124?pt=US_Action_Figures&hash=item4d05e89024  Note his asking price of $10,000.  Apparently this is one Huffer variant I won't get to own.  Damn shame too because I really like it.  Not only do you get an awesome Huffer figure with Optimus Prime's head but you also get a Pretender shell that looks like Prime's voice actor Peter Cullen.  Pics are from this article   http://dairylandtransfans.com/2010figmooo.html