Restoring G1 Optimus Prime

Restoration of a Classic

August 2023. With TakaraTomy revealing the figure just days before, the newly-announced Missing Link Optimus Prime was the talk of TFNation (the UK's premiere Transformers convention).

For those of you living under a Rock Lord for the last few months, Missing Link Optimus Prime is a reissue of the Generation One Prime toy you remember - except now re-imagined with a butt-load of added articulation, all-in-one transformation, and several brand new features.

Drift Notes #1: All Outta Love

Love can be a funny thing.

I've been a Transformers fan for literally as long as I can remember. Over the years, my lifelong love of the franchise and ongoing fascination with the lore has led me to curate a collection of amazing toys, books, artwork and more. In more recent years it's given me the chance to join a community of excellent people (and for that in particular I consider myself incredibly lucky).

Yet despite all of this, I've had one foot out of the collecting game since late 2020.

It wasn’t a deliberate choice to get out of collecting, like in the same way that you choose to stop smoking. I didn't wake up one day and decide it was time to stop buying toys.

Looking back on it now with a few years perspective it was, simply, burn out. And it all hinged on one single tipping point.