Anyone else have some confusion about Master Morpher's stock status? The page says preorder, but I've been charged, albeit without an email or anything about shipping out. I'm assuming they had limited stock on hand and I got shuffled into the initial shipments by luck, which would be cool, but notification about what's happening would be cool as well.

You’re welcome! If you’ve never checked it out, look around the tutorial section on Figure Realm. A lot of their tutorials are old but still contain some good information. They even have several tutorials dedicated to painting. If you’re not finding some in the action figure community on Figure Realm or Youtube, try the Warhammer 40K communities. A large part of that game is painting the miniatures. Many of their fans post online and are really talented. Reddit and Youtube are the places I typically find them.

https://www.figurerealm.com/customtutorial

For acrylic paint, look in the model aisle at Hobby Lobby. The two brands that I use are Vallejo and Createx. Vallejo Model Color is the brand that replaced Testors Model Master since its no longer made. Createx is for air brushes but you can apply it with a traditional paint brush. They have a wider selection of colors than Vallejo. I look at both brands to find the colors I want.

If you want something to practice on, try the Playmates TMNT Mutant Mayhem figures. They’re relatively cheap (~$10) and have lots of sculpted details that have been left unpainted.

Hasbro had stock available and stock still on the way. They sold out of the first batch so those can ship soon.
The 2nd batch of stock they assume they'll have by November. They could get it in today or tomorrow for all we know.

Those are not release dates. Those are expected by dates. You should expect they could get in product any day.

Shipping data has to come later. They can't bill you and pack up at the same time.

Does Helix have a band-aid tattoo or is it meant to be a real band-aid?

I'm not new to Pulse, I'm new to being charged by Pulse upfront for an item they sold to me as a preorder.

Master Morpher has arrived and it's pretty cool! I am glad that I didn't spring for any of their other versions, though, because this thing is comically oversized and I can't even touch the button while holding it properly, forget pressing it. I can see why it was being held so awkwardly during the presentation.

I'm going to do a wash and some dry brushing on the base.

Edit: I got antsy and slapped some paint on while watching something. I'm totally redoing this but it's already got better "shelf presence" like this.

https://i.imgur.com/GBDRwsx.jpg

Before:
https://i.imgur.com/0Y6eMFD.jpg