Happy New Year 2010!!!

Farewell 2009 and a fond welcome to 2010... Personally. It's been a very trying year in 09' and an exiting year as well for Transformers fans locally and internationally.

Lost my mum this year to internal bleeding in her intestines. She was diagnosed with "Breast Cancer" last year but was actually recovering from it, had it not for the intestinal bleeding that had robbed her of her life. I remember vividly where she was during this time last year. She was hospitalized for lung infection and my sis was looking after her. She fought bravely but finally succumb to the strain on her body on the 18th of February 2009. It was and still is the saddest day of my life. I never knew it could be so painful... much more painful than any physical pain I've ever felt.

On top of this... My sis suffered from a mild stroke 4 days before my mum's passing. She is still recovering from it and is no longer able to drive. I myself have had my own share of health hazards this year. But I guess I should be thankful for all the blessings God had showered me as I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.



OK... enough of the DOOM and GLOOM for now.. it's the coming of a New Year for crying out loud!!! 2009 was indeed a great year for Transformers fans everywhere. The continuation of Season 3 of "Transformers Animated" was a welcoming and refreshing take after having to suffer through 4 Japanese animated Transformers series since 2001. There are those who could not and still would not accept this series branding it as too "Kiddish". But I find it very refreshing... Plus it's a homage of the G1 series. How could anyone ever say no to a homage of the G1 series, I can never know... and they called themselves TRANSFORMERS FANS... pfft!!!

The Henkei and Universe series churned out brilliant G1 revamped figures all throughout the first half of the year. While the TakaraTomy "Encore" series was somewhat of a bore this year. It did manage to churn out some interesting g1 figures like the combiner "Combaticons" gift set forming "Bruticus" as well as a total of 3 sets of Cassettebots this year.

The Summer of 2009 brings forth the coming of "Transformers 2 - Revenge Of The Fallen" aka ROTF. The movie's story line was ABYSMAL!!! A 5th grader could have written a better plot!!! GREAT JOB MICHAEL BAY!!! Toywise... it was OK I suppose. churning out some cool figures like Sideswipe and movie inspired figures like the G1 Dirge. But the most abysmal of the lot was the sad excuse of a mechanical primate called -"DEVASTATOR"!!! It was literally a kick in the huge dangling metal balls to name that brainless oaf, Devastator. The toy doesn't even allow the individual vehicles that form Devastator to transform into their individual bot. While the Individual transformable bots are unable to form into Devastator... so that was a total waste of time!!! Although the Japs do have those legend class figs that allows the individually transformable Constructicons to form Devastator... it was a little too late as the damage had already been done :p

The 3rd party companies are also churning out awesome stuff this year... Fansproject started off with the "City Commander" trailer armor for the TF Classics 1.0 - Ultra Magnus and followed with "Shadow Commander", Power Commander" and finally "City Commander" again.. this time with shoulder cannons. Other 3rd party company are also churning out great stuff and promise even more cool stuff in 2010!!!

So all in all... 2010 looks like a promising year. With a new Transformers animation series in the horizon and fans of "Transformers Animated" should rejoice as the Japs are finally picking up the series in Japan. This means TakaraTomy will be making the toys and in TakaraTomy fashion... they always release toys featured in the show. This means we might be getting a heck lot of new unproduced TFA figures by TakaraTomy!!! WooHoo!!! :P

On a final note....

HAPPY NEW YEAR
2010

Cheers!!!
N_M