Fit For Natalie

Yeah, they're different from the Premium Figures. The Target exclusive Allspark power blue paint tube things are a "This retailer wants a Transformers exclusive sub-line, and they don't really care what it looks like. So let's make it as cheaply as possible."

Hasbro stock photos of Premium Movie Starscream

Isn't that WRX 5 years old now? Several factors one has to consider, though: Indeed, Swindle was originally going to be Trailbreaker, but since Hasbro could not trademark the name 'Trailbreaker' (and still can't for toys), they changed the name and deco to Swindle, and Takara followed suit. TakaraTomy is playing it fairly safe these days, given most of the reissues and now the BTs are themed around the 2007 Movie. For Trailbreaker to be made, it likely depends on how popular the character is. I guess the same goes for Japanese Classics seeker repaints, as Starscream is much more popular there than Thundercracker and Skywarp, which might explain why only Hasbro reissued the other seekers during the 'book-type' reissue era. Yeah, I don't think Hasbro has much to do with these. *Apparently* they said at Botcon that they no longer have the licenses to use the cars, anyway. Evidently TakaraTomy renewed them. Hasbro also said the line was very costly, as they spent over a million dollars developing it. TakaraTomy seems leery on doing anything significant in Transformers on their own these days, so I don't think they'll be spending the money that is needed to restart Binaltech with new toolings, unless Hasbro and their fat wallets are involved.

Why the hell didn't he offer that to us last weekend? We are (apparently) buying Super Hornets and we (apparently) need some sort of carrier.

Hey, relax. All I wanted was an elaboration of your statement so I can go edit his TF Wiki article in the interests of accuracy.

While I don't like them that much, if you can get the Japanese or Korean Car Robots versions. At BotCon 2005 I believe they said the toolings for these toys are totalled now (or at least in a condition below their standards). Where did he say this? I recall in the thread with pics of the resin proto at TFW2005, he didn't seem to dispute the general belief that he designed it, and even mentioned surprise that they molded the vents on the back of the hands (a trademark of his). What type of pegs do they attach to? Because hands shouldn't bee too hard to track down. I'm thinking of calling him Whirl, since he has all that blue in robot mode.

Galvatron does appear to have knees. There are pins in the knee pads. Prime - it's a weird design and I love it personally. Soundwave - yeah, he is supposed to be an alien spaceship, like his Planet X compatriot Sideways. He never set foot on Earth. What, Cybertron didn't have realistic jets and cars? Considering Wing Saber actually had the A-10 cockpit originally, I don't think he's that futuristic. Cybertron Jetfire is based on a real transport plane. Soundwave is a bad example considering he never set foot on Earth and wasn't meant to be an Earth fighter. He even had the same sort of 'ancient' exposed tech motif as Vector Prime and Sideways. Scattorshot, Overhaul/Brushguard, Armorhide, Hardtop/Swindle, Hot Shot/Excellion, Red Alert/Cannonball, Landmine, Evac, Thundercracker/Skywarp, Downshift, Crosswise, Cybertron Defense Hot Shot, CD Scattorshot, CD Red Alert. While the theme of the Cybertron line is futuristic/cybertronic due to the plot, that's just over a quarter of the line that fits in quite well with Classics/Universe. Most of them are genericised vehicles based upon real vehicles, are reasonably realistic by Transformers standards and none are futuristic. Well except Hot Shot/Excellion, he was based on a concept car. I didn't include Jetfire/Sky Shadow, Lugnutz/Hightail, and Shortround because while their vehicle modes are reasonably realistic, their robot modes aren't very old G1 looking.

The new Transformers Crossover Marvel figures look impressive! The Hulk Iron Man There isn't that much a difference in Classics and Cybertron, aside from the lack of a line-wide key gimmick. I think people elevate Classics/Classics Universe into some kind of unique position because it's new G1. Classics, being designed as filler between Cybertron and the Movie, incorporates much of Cybertron's design asthetic and styling. About a quarter Cybertron toys are heavy G1 homages or new designs with realistic genericised vehicle modes. That's why the more conservatively-styled or more traditional-looking Cybertron toys fit in so well with Classics and Classics Universe. Of course, Cybertron Soundwave and Quickmix aren't the best examples since they're both Cybertronic vehicles (in Soundwave/Blaster's case an alien fighter based on the Have Blue). I want them to redeco the Ultra Class Cybertron Defense Red Alert into Perceptor, goddammit.

Update on Leader class Bulkhead - he talks and comes with a figure of The Headmaster. When you plug him onto Bulkhead's noggin, Headmaster yells out 'OWNAGE TOTAL OWNAGE!' Leader Megs is alright, but nothing you can't live without. If you get one, wait for the Premium version with all the paint and stuff. Besides, one thing to consider with Movie toys is the sequel is out in 2009, so we'll be replacing returning characters with new toys anyway, with a hopefully better looking megatron design

Universe Galvatron pics Deluxe class Looks cool though.

Yeah, I giggled. Apparently that's Blaster and some all-new character named Heavy Duty.

Gigantic Universe Classics stock photos. Beware slow connections, Wizard forgot to upload thumnails (at time of writing), so every image is full size. Also, remember these are hand-painted prototypes, so Sunstreaker, Prowl and Octane will presumably have transparent windows like their resin prototypes. I recall somebody being dissapointed about Octane's gold windows a couple of weeks back. Headmaster is a human villian who has not appeared yet, not the Headmaster gimmick (at least as far as we know). He will be involved with Bulkhead somehow.

Bulkhead here, slurms! I concur with Shin, so far most of the accessories have been in the show at some point, so I assume Bulkhead assumes this new body later in the show.

At least they're not Highbrow-short

Get some cheap bootleg Maximus reproguns if you can. I made that comment because you guys seemed to be taking the fact he is fakey-fake a bit seriously. At least they didn't give him giant gattling gun hands In that case the sculpt is very impressive, though I thinks he could have saved some costs for himself by simplifiying parts of the design a bit, even if that meant sacrificing accuracy to the cartoon robot mode. BTW, isn't Powerglide's head/nose mounted gun supposed to be off-center? I can't remember if they carried that quirk onto the animation model.

Hasbro doesn't really care about real world accuracy (so long as the gist of it is there), or creating scale replicas of real vehicles, since their business is primarily creating fun, safe toys mainly with children in mind. The toy being fun and safe is infinately more important to them to real world accuracy, I've observed, which is probably the right way to go about it when you're a toy company dealing in nations that still have young populations. A problem with Jazai's stuff is they have significant quality control issues (either from design issues or material issues), and are not meant to be played with like a toy. Perhaps for engineering work, but not as much in design, because Hasbro pretty much dictates the design of most new mold Transformers that are sold in both countries, and TakaraTomy are unlikely to do their own thing so long as Classics/Universe and Animated are available for them to release in Japan. Hey, it's essentially free since Hasbro already paid for the development of both.

Oh yeah, he did. Given the debate over KOs in TF forums at the moment, this is the weirdest TF KO I own (sorry about the bad phone camera) Each plane limb is roughly as large as Classics Starscream in fighter mode, all are made of a single plastic colour, bar the wings which are vacuum-metalised. Oddly, they've all been retooled so that you are forced to use this exact configuration if you want to use Superion's hands and feet, so no Scramble City hijinks. Silverbolt is bizzare. He has chinese (I think) writing on the hull with a faint '2001' printed above it, giant Ms set in shields replacing the Autobot symbols, and a the words 'Kitten' with a wavey design behind it like an airline logo.

While USA editions are sometimes altered in some manner, the packaging itself is almost always the same as Hasbro's... that's why they're called USA editions There's a more accurately coloured 'Premium' version coming out relatively soon, though it has the battlemask head instead of his usual head. Price will be the same as normal Deluxe class toys. Pics here The Australian designer made Classics BB, Mirage, the video game controller bot and the Camaro Concept Bumblebee. Wish he HAD made the Classic Camaro as well

Nice! I noted on the CGI, their silver robot mode parts are generally not very shiny at all, while Prime's truck mode chrome parts are super-shiny, so I think the balance is a brushed-metal look for his robot mode parts and a polished shine for the vehicle chrome.

Alright, saw the Club pics. Somebody at Hasbro involved with the actual toys REALLY, REALLY needs to accompany their photography staff or the studio they farm out the stock photos work to. It's no good to anybody if they merely fob off this question at Botcon by saying "Oh, it's because a central photography department handles our toy photos, next question?" Those photos are just horrid. Just horrid. Anybody remember Hasbro telling us they would rather we not looking at test shots because it may cast a bad light on their toys? Well, your own bloody official photos aren't much better. Actually, as ebay proto sellers get better at Transforming toys... Hasbro gets WORSE. Bloody corporations. *shakes fist*

I think he meant grey. Red accents keep it Powerglidey, vaugley, or just keep his red head and other red parts from looking 'odd man out'. Hasbro's stated aim for the Universe line's initial toys was to continue with the realistic astethetic laid down by the movie line, so that's why.

Good chance TakaraTomy will redeco Starscream and Ramjet into Thundercracker and Dirge, rather than Hasbro doing it. They don't need to honour any exclusivity agreements Hasbro made. Not sure if they'll go to the trouble of making new wings for Thrust, though (Botcon new tooling parts are paid for by the convention organiser, and the cheaper aluminium toolings are likely degraded by now).

Sunstreaker looks perfectly fine. He has his roof chest, and what's wrong with that? Aside from his legs not forming the front of his car, he looks pretty much like he always has. Now if Hasbro hadn't given the option of having the roof chests, people would be talking about how cheap and lazy they are for not doing so, and would be figuring out ways to give him the roof chest.

Prowl is kind of based upon his IDW G1 appearance, so I wonder if any other Autobot cars will follow suit.

I think Hasbro has been having legal problems with making an accurate A-10 lately, as they've had to genericise or add parts onto them to make them look less like the real thing. Normally, they do that anyway to any unlicensed vehicle based on a real world one, but it's much more noticeable on the A-10s. For example, the original sculpt for Cybertron Wing Saber featured a fairly accurate nose and canopy, with the major deviation being twin gattling guns. This was quickly changed to the one we got at retail. Anybody know if the makers of the A-10 are especially litigious?