I totally feel your new found appreciation for that series. I myself was an adamant G1 collector as well, but I have recently been purchasing as much Japanese and Korean boxed Transformers from various series.Recently i have become very enamored with Beast Wars, and in watching choice episodes on youtube, and buying from ebay.. i bought Beast Wars 2 Galvatron and Lio Convoy, the Takara Beast Wars 10th anniversary reissues, Big Convoy-Love him, and Magmatron.
Now Car robots was one that I was very interested in, I went to the same ebay guy your link goes to and got Fire Convoy for a good 65.00 MISB, and bought the Magnus for 32.00. He is a great ebay seller, and notifies you via e-mail when it ships, and sends regular tracking through FEDEX. I love Toyarena, until you posted that link, it was what I thought, my secret, cheap ordering guy.. but hopfully he won't run out of stock, cause I really want more figures.
As far as Robots in Disguise vs Car Robots goes, i found a site that does comparisons from the Japanese issues versus the european releases which i assume are very similar to US releases.., I love the Car Robots Fire Convoy, he is very special, when you combine his armor, he has lots of articulation, and great paint scheme, and the molding, color, and plastic quality is a little better then the RID version.
EDIT!! here is the link to the site that does a comprehensive comparison, i love this site!!!
http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vjap.htmlI would definatley buy fire convoy, and since you have Magnus and Scourge, its just a matter of getting the Megatron and fire convoy, they are the most expensive I have seen so far, but the gestalts are good and the articulation in this line up is fantastic!!!
the story is good, Predacons vs Autobots..with Megatron stealing the sparks and protoforms to create Decepticons..its an interesting take on G1.. but My feeling is that the new transformers animated tv cartoon will have a new fire truck optimus Prime, in which case, only expect to see the car robots figures jump in value, especially that Fire Convoy..
Good to see you taking an interest in other series, I felt like I was the only one who had been so g1 stingy..
I(f you get a chance check out youtube episodes of Beast Wars, BW 2, and BW Neo..if you want watch RID, but it is like watching Digimon, heck it was produced by that company..so expect kiddie stuff all around..
currently I'm obsessed with BW Optimal Optimus or Primal Prime.. I like Optimal Optimus, he's got a great design, but the Primal Prime repaint has a cool color scheme that looks like the G-1 Prime..only he's a clone.. so I'm kinda perplexed on which one to buy and where to get him cheap..