Transformers: Age of the Primes toyline discussion || update: stock renders of upcoming Alpha Trion, Micronus, Flatline, Fireflight, Skydive, ++

[wonko the sane?]

Case in point: I just got my pre-orders in for quintus, amalgamous, quickstrike, big convoy, and the two hotwheels collabs.

320 bucks. Free shipping thankfully. Hurts right before the christmas shopping season: but I am not missing these.

 

[Platypus Prime]

Glad Pulse wasn't as bad as some WalMarts, but everyone still has a limit. I just found out what mine was. I hope things will improve a bit but I have to focus on priorities for the moment. Maybe I will get another shot later, we'll see.

 

[Exatron]

Interview with Evan at MCM this weekend:

Relevant to Legacy/AotP (Evan referred to the modern range including AotP as Legacy a couple times):

• Showed off and talked about Onslaught a bit. Indicated he's about the same size as Silverbolt.
• Bruticus redeco giftsets are likely to happen a couple years down the road. Evan mentioned Ruination would likely be a top candidate. In response to the comment about there being a bunch of redeco possibilities, Evan specifically mentioned Battle Gaia!
• Confirmed we can expect to see one new combiner per year. Pretty heavily hinted we can expect to see Defensor, and that Groove will be a limb. He did mention really loving Rook.
• Evan talks a bit about how new tooling budgeting is spread across all the different size classes for the year, and how that limits how many new molds can be produced in any given year. He mentioned a specific example that skipping doing a new Commander might allow something like four new Deluxes in its place.
• Confirmed we're likely to see Skybound-original figures at some point in some line, whether that be Legacy/AotP/etc. or some other line.
• Evan kinda hinted that there might be a new Crosshairs with his Targetmaster partner, but didn't want to say anything definite since that would be more in Mark's realm.
• Evan says not only that fans should be talking about having difficulty with getting figures due to availability/distribution issues, but to "be loud about it." They'll try to see to it that hard-to-get figures get back out there, but they need to be aware of it.

Battle Gaia!

Edit: Russ has another video where he mentions that we should be seeing Bruticus fully combined by the end of the year. Apparently his gun will be coming with Swindle.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

• Evan says not only that fans should be talking about having difficulty with getting figures due to availability/distribution issues, but to "be loud about it." They'll try to see to it that hard-to-get figures get back out there, but they need to be aware of it.

...I feel like they could accomplish this on thier own by just checking ebay and seeing what figures have the biggest price differential.

Or hell, actionfigure411 will do it for you.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

...I feel like they could accomplish this on thier own by just checking ebay and seeing what figures have the biggest price differential.

Or hell, actionfigure411 will do it for you.

I'm remembering back to Alternators Meister and Tracks and the fall 2008 assortments of GI Joe 25th:
Fans made a big fuss over availability on certain figures, so, Hasbro DID go forward with refreshes. and reruns. But do to timing and logistics, once those refreshes finally hit retail (almost a year later, in many cases)...the demand wasn't there. Because in the interim, fan interest shifted, or, in the case of GI Joe, Hasbro DID have more inventory in the distribution channel that just hadn't been fully cycled out when fans where making a big fuss.

So I don't view "the secondary market prices" as the SOLE indicator of what Hasbro should rerun. The secondary market is fickle, and I've seen legit rare items sell for peanuts over retail, while more popular characters made in far higher numbers continue to demand much more significant premiums.

I think Hasbro's been doing a solid job with their reruns: Beachcomber was reran pretty quick, but it took a minute for Devcon because I think Hasbro wanted to make sure that demand was legit and not "FOMO". That's why I think Evan wants fans to speak up, to better clarify what has legit demand, and what's high in price due to perceived rarity or raw popularity.

 

[Exatron]

I just want to know where I need to shout at the top of my lungs about Earthspark Soundwave.

 

[lastmaximal]

I think this is another area where the current brand team (whoever's in charge of assortments at least) shines. Since WFC they've been folding tailenders into the next line to some extent, which is helpful for them (one less thing to design and produce to populate the line/wave) and for people who couldn't get a certain figure.

Also somewhat unprecedentedly, they started bringing back molds that had been used for exclusives and outright 1:1 reuses of molds and decos that were exclusive. This hasn't been to my benefit specifically (although I may get a non-yellowing Ramjet, he's been out long enough that there may be a decent consensus on that?) but I imagine so many others are happy to get a Cosmos, a Galaxy Shuttle, and so on.

(I actually haven't run into many people bitching about how this makes their toys less rare, which is refreshing. Although there has been at least one dipshit bitterly commenting on the Cosmos package refresh, saying Hasbro (not the secondary market, huh) charged out the nose for the first one only to turn around and release it again. Idk if that's just spillover from a fandom of something that DOES do dumb stuff like that, or just not understanding how the secondary market works, but you might want to borrow the brain cell back from the cat for a minute.)

I hope this practice continues and that they have decent feedback for which to do this with.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

I just want to know where I need to shout at the top of my lungs about Earthspark Soundwave.

Technically, Soundwave is still an active product (however that seems to work that Earthspark's undead existence).

But it's a "kids toy" so I'm not going to hold my breath on that front

 

[Rhinox]

Total for my preorders is around $350. That doesn't include Big Convoy but does include 2 of the Primes as I'm getting a set to keep boxed up.
I'm tired of getting priced out of my hobby.

 

[Platypus Prime]

Looks like my hopes aren't great either, everything is still up for Pulse preorder, except the Combaticons. Sold out.

 

[Rhinox]

Are they sold out on Amazon too? God damn, that was quick

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Evan says not only that fans should be talking about having difficulty with getting figures due to availability/distribution issues, but to "be loud about it." They'll try to see to it that hard-to-get figures get back out there, but they need to be aware of it.

It's not rocket science. The hard-to get figures are:

- Ones sold exclusively in the USA and/or shop exclusives (Most of the deluxe Insecticons, etc).
- Ones sold in multi-packs with other, unwanted figures, making them too expensive to get (like Fangry, etc).
- Etc.

Just release them individually at regular retail. Battle Gaia and Guard City would be great. Throw in Rook, Alpha Bravo and the "Kabaya-exclusive" extra team members for the G1 combiners somewhere inbetween and I would buy these new molds.

 

[lightsyder]

It's not rocket science. The hard-to get figures are:

- Ones sold exclusively in the USA and/or shop exclusives (Most of the deluxe Insecticons, etc).
- Ones sold in multi-packs with other, unwanted figures, making them too expensive to get (like Fangry, etc).
- Etc.

Just release them individually at regular retail. Battle Gaia and Guard City would be great. Throw in Rook, Alpha Bravo and the "Kabaya-exclusive" extra team members for the G1 combiners somewhere inbetween and I would buy these new molds.

Who were the Kabaya-exclusives?

 

[Sabrblade]

Who were the Kabaya-exclusives?

Heatrock and Skyfeather

 

[lastmaximal]

Couple of new Protectobots iirc, Heatrock and Skyfeather.

Edit; yep

 

[Donocropolis]

Huh, I had never seen those before. Always learning something new.

I have to admit, I wasn't super interested in replacing my CW Defensor, but if they made a Heatrock and Skyfeather that could be swapped out for Hotspot to form Gaia Guardian or added to Defensor to make God Gaia, I'd be all in.

Especially since I initially skipped Defensor due to being mildly poor when CW was running and picking up a "Cool Become Brave" KO version a few years later instead of having an official Hasbro one.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Redoing Menasor makes sense to me because the CW Motormaster mould is easily the worst torso of CW. So sure, give them another crack.

But CW Superion is still very solid, so I skipped the AotP release.
I also think CW Bruticus/Defensor is really solid too, but I'm going in on Bruticus because between the two? I think the CW moulds suit the Protectobots best. So having Bruticus/the Combaticons in more dedicated moulds will be nice.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

I skipped Menasor because I just really don't like the show accurate "staple them onto Motormaster and make him taller" design. And I skipped Superion because the CW version is still pretty good. Silverbolt is still the best combiner core. I'm planning to go for the new Combaticons just because they're my favorite combiner, but it depends how the price hikes work out.

 

[Sciflyer]

@LordGigaIce I agree that CW Motormaster was very, very underwhelming. CW Superion / Computron are arguably the best-looking, but I can't share the enthusiasm for Bruticus/Defensor. I think that Onslaught/Hot Spot are fine on their own, but I really didn't like the way the combined modes looked (I'm aiming this more at Bruticus than Defensor, if I'm being honest).

So yeah, I initially wasn't thrilled about going in on combiners again. After thinking it over and actually looking at my CW stuff, though, I feel like it's worth it for me to go all in.

 

[Shadewing]

Redoing Menasor makes sense to me because the CW Motormaster mould is easily the worst torso of CW. So sure, give them another crack.

But CW Superion is still very solid, so I skipped the AotP release.
I also think CW Bruticus/Defensor is really solid too, but I'm going in on Bruticus because between the two? I think the CW moulds suit the Protectobots best. So having Bruticus/the Combaticons in more dedicated moulds will be nice.

I'm going in on the Combaticons becuase while CW/UW is good, all the molds to some degree suffer in some way, and none of them are animation accurate (and the means Uw goes to try to make them is a bit painful at times); which we've never really gotten. And if his combination is more like SS86 Devastator, then he hopefully won't just be seperate robot that you plug everyone into. That's still my main issue with the new Menasor and Superion.

Computron is another big want since the CW and UW one are both very flawed as well. Most other CW/PotP Combiners are still pretty soild imo.