An Armada Like None Other

Proud. Egotistical. Way in over his head. Those are many of the words that describe Starscream. It can also be used to describe the many collectors who 'believe' that they have the Ultimate Transformers' collection. Two and a half decades have passed since the creation of the first Transformers toys, and to be able to obtain everything that was released till our present day; Exclusives, Lucky Draws, and everything else, is just nigh impossible and unlikely maintainable. That's why for those with not such a lucrative budget, like myself, try to aim to collect Transformers within a single generation, toyline, or simply collect figures that we find attractive or interesting.

A particular toyline is what Seibertron.com member rikkomba had in mind, as he had his hearts set out in completing the entire Armada series. Not only was his eyes aimed on obtaining that, but he wanted to obtain every mini-con that had been released since Armada's origins in 2002. What he has today is not something that he 'believes' to have complete. It should be considered fact that he's the first person to ever complete a full Armada/Mini-con collection. So, what, right? A complete collection is not anything to be taken lightly at all. Whether you're a fan of Armada, hate the series completely, or have avoided it's existence, I recommend that you take a look at this collection and pay your respects to it.



As an Armada enthusiast, I was surprised to see just what was in this collection. It's hard to fathom just what rikkomba has been able to obtain all these years. Everything that he sees fit to put into this collection revolves around one aspect; If the figure is a mini-con, or has a mini-con included in it, it's in this collection. He's got the original Armada molds, both Hasbro and Takara, and everything that has been repainted out of them, including Botcon figures. He's got every mini-con released, be it repainted or the originals. And then there's figures that many will never see face to face in their lifetime, Lucky Draw Armada figures. Now, I could go over everything that is in this collection, but that would take a ridiculous amount of time. I've decided to piece over what Armada figures that are the most elusive, and downright impressive.



We start off with one of the most elusive and grandeur Armada repaints of them all. Lucky Draw Green Unicron, a repaint of Armada Unicron. He goes by many names, Shining Unicron, Unicron of light, and Shining Unicron of Light. What did you need to do to obtain this figure? Well it was a Lucky Draw after all. You had to send in a postcard that was included in a Micron Legend Year book in 2003. Getting picked, would give you one of 10 Green Unicrons. Sadly, it has become even more rare as some of the owners of these Green Unicrons decided that they would split the package in two, by selling off Green Unicron's mini-con partner. Why they did this, no one will ever know.





Next up is what rikkomba claims to be the rarest Lucky Draw Combiner, and it wouldn't be far off to believe him. What composes this Lucky Draw Combiner JetConvoy is Lucky Draw Jetfire, a repaint of Armada Jetfire, whom rikkomba explains that only 5 exist. The other part is Lucky Draw Convoy Super Mode, repaint of Armada Optimus Prime, in which he says there are only 58 of them. Why there are 58 of one component, and merely 5 of the other is something that we'll never know. All I know is that I wish anyone good luck trying to obtain Lucky Draw JetConvoy.





Moving over to the little guys, mini-cons, we piece over what rikkomba says to be one of the most elusive mini-cons teams to obtain. The Space Galaxy Team. Only 400 of each mini-con were made, and to get one of the three mini-cons, you needed to purchase Takara Optimus Prime, which was priced around 50$. That means you needed to consider buying 3 Optimus Prime's in order to completely gather up this team. From what rikkomba says, many people are stuck with just 1 or 2 components of the Space Galaxy Team, so having all 3 would be a great feat. The Space Galaxy Team is a black and white repaint of the Destruction Mini-Con Team, who respectively are Buzzsaw, Drill Bit, and Dualor.







The last look at this collection features one of the most intriguing sets of mini-cons. 15 different mini-cons have been dubbed the DVD Exclusive Mini-cons. In order to obtain these 5 different repainted mini-cons teams, you needed to buy each volume of Takara's Armada DVD series. Each volume contained a one mini-con(excluding Volume 1, which contained 3) , a series of the Linkage comic, and the DVD itself. There were THIRTEEN volumes. Imagine the time and money needed to obtain these mini-cons. Another key component of the volumes were the Linkage comic, and you can check out a translated version of it here.

The Fifteen DVD Exclusive Mini-cons;

Super Stunt Team, repaint of the Street Speed Team;
Redline, Servo, Flatout;

Speed Chaser Team, repaint of the Race Team;
Tailslide, Midship, Top Gear;

Sonic Assualt Team, repaint of the Air Military Team;
Falcia, Combusta, Twirl;

Hazard Team, repaint of the Emergency Team;
Kingbolt, Quench, Impulse;

Aqua Raider Team, repaint of the Sea Team;
Sunburn, Freeboot, Bilge



Now we come to the closing point of this. Unfortunately the main reason why I decided to focus on rikkomba's collection is because he has to part with his collection. Due to a new career, he needs to sell of this collection. That's right, the Ultimate Armada Collection could possibly end up in your hands. If you have $14,000 US floating around, and deem yourself worthy to possess this collection, then by all means, take a look at his Ebay auction.




This is the most complete Armada/Mini-con collection that anyone can ever see. This is a piece of Transformers history. Spanding over 600 mini-cons and over 150 larger figures, this is something of a dream for anyone to obtain. The amount of time, dedication, bidding wars, research and commitment that rikkomba has put into this collection is just simply awe inspiring. If you're interested in looking at what else rikkomba has in his collection, you can check it out here. As a fan, I wonder if there are other series that have been singled out by other collectors. Is there a complete Beast Wars collection out there? RID? Energon? By all means, let us know in the Energon Pub. Even if you don't have such a massive collection, please consider showing off what you have in our Collections Forum!



So, has looking at this collection inspired the 'collector' in you? Well take in consideration one last thing. rikkomba doesn't reside in Hasbro's hub of the United States, nor does he reside in Takara's headquarters in Japan. No, our humble member has completed this collection while living in Italy. Go figure.

~Blurrz
Seibertron.com News Crew

Credit(s): rikkomba