The Energon Pub

[Liege Evilmus]

OK, so I'm on a base kick right now.

Tooling around Ebay I found an auction for MicroMaster Countdown, which I only went searching for because in a previous thread BURN posted a pic and I thought it looked cool.

Well, I have few if any MicroMasters, but tons of minicons(who actualy work better with G1 bases than G1 figures )

So anyhow, I won him and some extras, but don't know much about this set and was wondering if someone can tell me how many parts I'm missing, and if they're intrical to the actual set itself.

Here's the auction number: 270190839086

Cut and paste it in the ebay search bar to bring this lot up. Sorry, but I won't post links that tie in to my direct information, so you gotta go yourself

[Overcracker]

I link you to TFU.info's entry for countdown, it list all the parts and accessories the toy originally came with.

Also Congrats on Erector. I have him, since my childhood, only missing the crane section, and I got to tell you he's a pretty nifty little and yellow guy. His Attack platform/trailer is very nice.

[Liege Evilmus]

Thanks, but I don't see the link.

I figured this guy was missing stuff, but the platform, rocket presentation was enough to lure me in for the price.

Still, if I'm only a couple parts away from complete...

[Overcracker]

Oops sorry, here's the link.
http://www.tfu.info/1989/Autobot/Countd ... ntdown.htm

Seems you are missing one of the short black ramps, a few guns, and the crane arm.

But its still a nice set.

[Liege Evilmus]

Yep, a ramp and the 2 red guns. I looked on ebay for parts, seems I can get a ramp and the smaller red gun for about $14(less shipping).

The larger one with the seat, I couldn't find, but I bet I'd pay to much individualy for it.

So now I have to ask myself, spend nearly the same amount for a few parts, or wait and see if I can find another loose incomplete one with the parts I need for a better price, then either kitbash or sell off the extra pieces

[DISCHARGE]

I had him at one time. I bought him from Goodwill for $3.50.
I sold him on ebay a year ago when I needed some cash,
and cash it gave me.

[Liege Evilmus]

Yeah, the complete ones are going for Metroplex prices!

[Burn]

So now I have to ask myself, spend nearly the same amount for a few parts, or wait and see if I can find another loose incomplete one with the parts I need for a better price, then either kitbash or sell off the extra pieces

Spend now.

You could end up getting a number of incomplete ones just for a part or two. If you can get them individually then do it, because chances are as well, that the parts missing on this one are probably going to be commonly missing parts.

And congrats, Countdown is one of the few Micromasters I still need. I actually should sit down and work out which ones I do still need (i'm fairly sure it's just the big bases)

[Liege Evilmus]

So now I have to ask myself, spend nearly the same amount for a few parts, or wait and see if I can find another loose incomplete one with the parts I need for a better price, then either kitbash or sell off the extra pieces

Spend now.

You could end up getting a number of incomplete ones just for a part or two. If you can get them individually then do it, because chances are as well, that the parts missing on this one are probably going to be commonly missing parts.

And congrats, Countdown is one of the few Micromasters I still need. I actually should sit down and work out which ones I do still need (i'm fairly sure it's just the big bases)

I'm thinking it, but befor I spend the same amount on parts, I just wanna watch the auctions and see if I can beat that, and maybe peice together another one or make something cool out of the bits left over(it's happened before).

And hey, if anything, THANK YOU, if you didn't post that pick in that thread a while ago, I never would have gone hunting for this!

I know it's not complete, but it still looks like alot of fun

[vulgar_wraith]

I just won an incomplete one about 15 minutes ago.Its missing quite a bit but half the parts I'm missing I already own.I only need to pick up a few more things and mine will be complete.

[Liege Evilmus]

so on that note, what would you recomend, buy the missing parts loose, or wait for another incomplete?

Also, was it the one with the red gunner seat that you just won?

If so, I was gonna bid on it for that alone. If you have a dup of that part and would wanna trade, PM me.

[zemper]

wow, a Countdown set. this is one of the higher-priced Micromasters and one of the best IMHO. better than the Ironworks and other Micromaster bases i used to have. you're lucky if you got it at below $100, there's a local collector selling his set for about that price, but the peg that's located near the top of the launch ramp (or supprt, whatever) got broken off.

anyways, you're better off spending for the missing parts now. Burn has a point, maybe the other loose sets will have the same parts missing, and you might actually end up spending more than the $14 for the missing parts only.

[Glitcher]

Yeah, the complete ones are going for Metroplex prices!

Which I find hard to believe, considering I bought a boxed, complete Countdown for 30 euros last month. (And this is Europe!) For what you paid, you're missing a red gun pod, a red turret, two black guns, a long black ramp, a short black ramp, and a robotic arm. (BTW, that grey ramp in the photo is not part of the set.) A quick peek at a scan of Countdown's instruction sheet should give you a better idea. Even with the extra MM's, I'd never pay 30 dollars for this, considering less than half the pieces are there. You would have been better off waiting to buy a complete one cheap.

PS. In case you're interested, I wrote the first review for Countdown in the database entry. Have a looksie here. [/blatant self-promoting]

[Liege Evilmus]

Ah Glitcher, forever pointing out all the stuff that needs to be pointed out

Thanks for the rundown of parts. But as I will most likely be displaying him in launch pad mode(I'm already way past out of shelf space). Completion would be nice, but not a nessecity.

1 of the black guns is included, and that grey ramp did look out of place, but if it fits, why not

If I can find all the parts, great, if not, no big deal

[wmpyr]

I wish they would make a new line like this..

[Tigertrack]

I wish they would make a new line like this..

I've been saying this since minicons came out. Since they basically brought back the micromaster sized TF, they should have vehicle/bases as well.

I have a loose complete set, and a MISB Japanese set. He and the other MM's are the best.

[Liege Evilmus]

I was thinking though, even more so than these bases, remember back in the day you could get cardboard command centers.

Well wouldn't it be cool if just for the sake of doing something with the boxes, if they perferate them so once you took out the figure you could cut it fold it and make it into a little something for the figure like a garage or comand center.

I remember I use to do stuff like that with boxes all the time, hell befor I moved LugNuts and BreakDown had a shop made out of one.

It wouldn't take alot of effort to pull it off, and it would be nice to have something more than a figure, and waste.

Plus for the sake of argument, parents won't care if kids smash a box over something of their's.

I wouldn't mind something like that.

[Burn]

And hey, if anything, THANK YOU, if you didn't post that pick in that thread a while ago, I never would have gone hunting for this!

You sure that was me? I know i'm quick to go on about how great Micromasters are, but to post pics ... well that just seems TOO helpful for me.

[Liege Evilmus]

It was in one of SkyWarp-2s threads. Something about past G1 elements that should come back or something.

I don't remember why you posted it, there may have been a quote along with it. Who know's maybe you did it with the intent of sticking it to someone else and just forgot

But whatever, it worked out well for me!

[Burn]

eh, whatever converts more people into Micromaster fans!
Just don't read the Dreamwave Micromaster comics.

[Liege Evilmus]

I won't, and to be honest, MicroMasters were that turning point in my youth that made me say, "alright, I'm over toys"

Said sentament lasted 2 weeks before I grew to regret giving my friend's little brothers the few toys I had. But things like getting laid prevented me from imeditly recollecting. Once that was mastered, and I got a license, the craving kicked back in.

See in my area, and where I could shop(again, no license yet, so I was limited to local general and 5&10 shops), we only got the basic figures. I had no idea until a few years ago about that there where bases and placement type sets for these guys.

I decided with TF Animated looking like crap to go for the vintage leaders and bases on 2008. I was gonna omit the MicroMasters all together, but still, CountDown was/is nice enough to change my mind on that one.

So, again, Thanks!

PS, ActionMasters are still out.

[Burn]

I have two Action Masters (Grimlock and Inferno) and really truly hate the concept.

The figures aren't that great either, but it'd still love to get Prime and Megatron, simply for the whole "Prime and Megatron Collection".

Getting back to Micromasters, I don't recall ever seeing the bases or even the team combiners. Only the teams of four packs. And even then I only ever had the one team (damn mean parents).

So when I got back into collecting (like you, license, job, etc) and found about the rest of the Micromasters I set out to collect them.

On their own Micromasters aren't much really, just little TF's that are easy to transform. But they introduced the bases and that just increased the play level so much.

And that's what was one of the big let down with Mini-Cons. They were dependent on the bigger bots and had no stand alone play value.

[Liege Evilmus]

Agreed, but I figure, as I learned with my recently acquired OverLord, MiniCons do work well with G1 bases.

So they will soon be set free from coffee can dormancy as I attain more places for them to live.

I can't say I'm going to care much about the simple quick flip MicroMasters, but the ones that combine or like Erector have a nice vehicile or placement compliment do have my intrest.

Also, I wouldn't mind Action Master Prime and Megs for the same reason, but otherwise, ActionMasters suck. I never had a one as a kid, but I figured they'd at least have GI Joe posability. When I found out that wasn't the case, I just opted against them.

[Burn]

Dare I ask about your opinion on Pretenders?

Aside from Micromasters, they're my other main G1 collecting habit at the moment.

Personally I like them. Sure, simple transformations, some of the alt modes look crap, but I dunno, they just had that extra play value to them.

[Liege Evilmus]

I only had BombBurst and SkullGrin.

I agree on the robots simplicity, and cheesy alts. But I liked them very much.

Last year I got a nice MIB Dowlos(SkullGrin) and was happy to have him again. I look forward to finding another BombBurst and getting a SubMarauder to compliment the trio.

As for the rest, they are hit amd miss with me, I want the G1 Pretenders, and most of the AutoBot guys. The beasts and vehiciles are intresting, but some of the bots inside are just to simple for what I'd have to pay for them.

Over all though, I do like them, and want them in time. But the line was also plagued with to many things that I just have to say not thanks to like,