Day one at Victoria’s Ultimate Hobby and Toy Fair shows this city was certainly anxious for its return. I saw a small lineup at the door when I arrived around 10:30am. I’m sure everyone wanted to find something cool to take home. I saw happy youths with nerf guns and adults with other nifty goods leaving as I was waiting to get inside.
I had only two goals in mind: see if I can pick up any LEGO Ninjago product (the selection was super slim) and if I can find that one elusive comic book to finish my Marvel’s ROM (Sorry, IDW) collection. I wondered if I could nail the Doctor Fate Series Three and Four. Mail order makes it too easy, but the thrill of the hunt is what makes attending shows like this fun. And quite often, I end up buying something else instead….
The battle for which faction will occupy Earth is not likely at the core of the upcoming mobile ARgame, Transformers: Heavy Metal. The media’s abuzz about bringing this Hasbro property to the videogame world again, and honestly, I’m not excited. I’m more curious in when the reboot will be brought back to the screen again (recent Netflix program notwithstanding).
Niantic Inc is involved in the development cycle, and early images suggest this product may well be another Pokemon GO clone. Seattle-based software house, Very Very Spaceship (known for Truck Stars) is leading the development. This four-year-old business doesn’t have a lot of recognition to get some fans excited.
This company is a self-described, “motley crew of space faring designers, engineers, artists and storytellers from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. For the past three years, under the leadership of BAFTA winning founder Sean Vesce (Never Alone, Tomb Raider Series, MechwarriorSeries), we have been solving the problems of the unknown for incredible partners like Google, Microsoft and others. We are a tight-knit group of makers thriving in our undiscovered future, making shared game experiences in AR, VR, Geolocation, Live Streaming and more. In addition to our client work, we develop and release original indie experiments like the recent Knife 2 Meat U, available at our itch.io page.”
Considering how huge Transformers fandom is, Hasbro’s quality control division ought to squash any bumblebees.
Ever since the Prime Wars trilogy and Cyberverse moved the action away from Earth and made the focus on the robots in disguise home world, keeping up with Hasbro’s ever changing Transformers franchise is not always worthwhile. The missing elements which made up why I loved the Generation One series and Prime (2010) are gone. In what’s missing is the idea of making a toon for kids to enjoy.
The War for Cybertron trilogy is more for the long time adult fan who always wanted that backstory told. The narrative that’s developed for part one of a three part arc is very dark and bleak. It hardly laid “siege” on my interest. Bumblebee is not the same fun loving bot that we know of. Megatron’s agenda to dominate gets a bigger development arc which suggests Rooster Teeth, Allspark Animation and Polygon Pictures were looking at some of IDW’s published works and going further with it.
When I heard two beloved 80s franchises—Transformers and Ghostbusters—are crossing over, I had to contain my excitement. I thought about the movie where Starscream died and the G1 episodes “Starscream’s Ghost and Ghost in the Machine. His spirit never moved on; it haunted the tomb where his remains lay and later possessed the Decepticon Octane. Just why his spirit stayed in this world has never been addressed. Those Transformers who ‘died’ in the movie never returned, and yet, throughout the animated series, he’s never moved on. As a ghost, he can possess any Transformer and just why he never took advantage is because of his limited thinking.
It’s a shame across even in Beast Wars, where his spark returns, this Decepticon never gets his just reward.
Nobody can ever know about the possible discoveries to be found at Cherry Bomb Toys’ Ultimate Toy Fair. Instead of a one-day event, it is now two. At least a third of the space was occupied by local shops with items from their vaults and the rest are from either long-time collectors or hobby enthusiasts’ massive collections. Had I spent more careful time on Saturday, I might have spotted the set of miniatures from Dark Crystal the Movie! This product from 1982 was from Pinnacle.
In past shows, I acquired the Orguss from the Super Dimension Century series of the same time. It’s missing the gun, and in due time, I will have the CAD design skills to create and 3D print the replacement part. I even found an Invid once; I passed on it because it was very battle damaged. The thrill of the hunt for random goodness defines why I continue going. The fact it’s a weekend event now had me curious and I had to explore the possibility of what I could find when not everyone will be vending for both days.
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![[Victoria, BC] Quick Takes at Victoria's Ultimate Hobby & Toy Fair](https://i0.wp.com/otakunoculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ultimate-Toy-Fair-1.jpeg?resize=240%2C240&ssl=1 "[Victoria, BC] Quick Takes on Victoria's Ultimate Hobby and Toy Fair Return! 1")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22657427/hm_screenshot_battle.jpeg?resize=201%2C435&ssl=1 "\"No Hope\" for a Franchise. Transformers: Heavy Metal AR 2")
By Ed Sum 
By Ed Sum 
By Ed Sum