I've almost completed my collection of the four fairly-challenging-to-obtain Action Master Elites that were exclusive to Europe, Australia, and several other countries. It's taken me a couple of years to complete this set. I waited patiently until I could get each one for $100 to $150 a piece, far less than the $300+ I've seen both loose and carded versions go for.
It all started early last year when I came across a BIN on eBay for a MOSC Turbomaster for $130 shipped from a US seller. I bought it with the box was damaged, but the toy was sealed to the card which is what I was most concerned with since I will eventually open it for Seibertron.com's galleries. Fortunately, it was among the items that survived the flood I endured back in July.
About a year or so ago, I came across a BIN for a complete loose Doublepunch from a seller in Turkey.
It was a risky move at the time since he only had a feedback of 1 or 0. His feedback is now -1, so it looks like I was very lucky that I received Double Punch at all (and it looks like I was the only one who received anything from the guy). Unfortunately, the pink plastic on him had yellowed a bit so I wasn't quite sure what to do. He was one of my first attempts at using the H2O + daylight solution to fix his yellowed parts. Little did I know that you can't do this on some colored plastics. The H2O bleached the plastic to a very light pink color unfortunately. A few months later, an incomplete one showed up on eBay with no yellowing so I bought that one and will sell the other at a later date.
Not long ago, a seller listed a MOSC Windmill, that's in great condition, from an eBay seller in Spain. Got it at a very reasonable price. It was my "retail therapy" purchase right after the flood in July.
Well, now I was on the hunt for Omega Spreem who has been one of my holy grail pieces for a while. Not because he's anything special mind you, there's just something unique and interesting about this piece that makes for good conversation. Heck, so does Double Punch for that matter since every version of that character has been an exclusive (Black Zarak was a Japanese exclusive, followed by European exclusive AME Double Punch who is based off Black Zarak, followed by BotCon Japan exclusive Double Punch, and then the 2010 BotCon Double Punch). I finally won an Omega Spreem from an eBay seller in Germany at a very reasonable price over Labor Day weekend (I attribute it's low price to being listed in a collectibles category instead of the Transformers category). I haven't received it yet, but it's on the way! I also snagged an incomplete Omega Spreem days afterwards for a really cheap price that I'll use for parts if anything is wrong with the other one.
I got the incomplete Omega Spreem in the mail today. Having never held this mold in my hands until today, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Action Master Elite Omega Spreem might actually be the most poseable Action Master ever. Aside from the lack of neck articulation unfortunately due to his transformation, he has an unusual amount of leg and shoulder articulation that most (if not all) Action Masters lack. He's even got waist articulation much to my surprise (though I'm sure that's due to his transformation more than anything).
Aside from the unofficial BotCon 2004 Breakdown, I now own all of the Action Masters. I can't wait to photograph these four Action Masters at long last ... especially the "European" exclusive ones!
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