Hong Kong Titans Return Trial and Play Event

[Bladestorm]

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Hong Kong Titans Return Trial and Play Event held last night by Hasbro HK in Mong Kok at Hobbybase.
It was by invite only so I was quite surprised and delighted to get an invite given I'm the only female collector that I (and all the lads I spoke to last night) know of in this country.

It covered Titans Returns Wave 1 which just released here 2 days ago and anything else they had time for...

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7453/27876041715_14aacb6583_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Jtj11T)
They pulled cases of various sizes out, placed them on the tables, cut them open and let us all have at whatever we found inside. It felt a little odd ripping open cards and boxes that I hadn't paid for myself but getting to see so many figures opened at once was loads of fun.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7323/27873732625_68de01882e_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Jt7aAZ)
Wave 1 we got to play with Power Master Optimus Prime, Blaster, Galvatron, Blurr, Wheelie, Stripes, Rewind, Hardhead, Skullsmasher, Cyclonus... those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7369/27875153105_8bded35f63_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/JterS2)
Skullsmasher, Prime and Hardhead were the hits of the wave.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7421/27775336922_bd00383afc_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/JjpRZm)
Next out was Sentinel Prime, Soundwave, Ravage and Laserbeak.
Soundwave proved a hit. I personally liked him more than Blaster. He's definitely designed as a simple kids toy so I can see kids like my son having hours of fun with him.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7351/27596261200_824dbf947a_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/J3A41U)
Hasbro Fort Max was next. His articulate hands made for some fun gestures but most people commented he was too simple and didn't have enough on him to be interesting. When we attached Blaster it didn't add to him in any way so that was a bit disappointing too.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7384/27776249412_ba35594af8_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/JjuxeW)
Then came SDCC Fort Max, however he was never opened. We had to view him in his box. He looked ok... better than the basic version.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7314/27264455754_469fa261b1_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/HxgsPm)
https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7742/27874849355_08580187a0_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/JtcTyX)
Computron made his debut with several boxes placed on the tables for us to play with. I was actually impressed with the Hasbro version (which I'd previously been sceptical about). It had customised hands and feet like Victorion (NOT the same moulds I don't think) and all the vehicles despite the colours worked really well together and were different enough to be enjoyable in their own right.

https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7489/27774543302_ab8fd004d9_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/JjkN5f)
The xiaomi Soundwave was also brought out. It almost looked like a real tablet. In device mode it was impressive. My daughter transformed it into Soundwave. Looks kind of cool but not sure it is Soundwave enough for me.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7376/27776354012_163e81735a_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Jjv5ko)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7588/27265421904_036e4a0eaa_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Hxmq27)
https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7300/27599456810_ffebe3069b_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/J3SqXC)
The SDCC 3 set followed shortly after. Everyone liked this set. Sentinel was more popular than his regular release version. Brainstorm was small but nice and Windblade was surprisingly based on the RID mould not the Generations mould I was expecting.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7406/27801069961_98758f4635_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/JmFKwr)
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7302/27876991705_e739830f7b_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/JtoSq2)
They showed the odd little transforming head figures with the giant logo on the top of the heads. They were actually quite addictive and cute transforming them from robot to vehicle mode despite the huge head on top.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7064/27801108331_7fdaa6b835_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/JmFWVZ)
RID Power Surge Optimus also made an appearance - he was in stores this morning along with Power Surge Bumblebee and Sideswipe.

It was a good night and interesting to meet a large group of HK collectors.

No one was allowed to keep any of the toys. There were freebies, but unfortunately by the time I got over to that table all that was left was a Transformers highlighter. Apparently I missed out on getting a plastic Transformers stand.
Hasbro had a couple of reps there. I asked about the GI Joe crossover figure set but they said that would not be coming to Asia. :/

I took so many photos my camera AND my phone ended up running out of battery.


Photo albums from the event:
(please note: you may post photos from these albums on this site but do not post, use or link to them on any other sites without my permission please - thanks)
Hasbro Computron (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwiinoz/albums/72157670178778805)
Titans Return Soundwave (part of Wave 2) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwiinoz/albums/72157670086652036)
Fortress Maximus (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwiinoz/albums/72157667437090064)
Xiaomi Soundwave (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwiinoz/albums/72157669657530391)
The entire event coverage - 187 photos (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwiinoz/albums/72157669591436962) (includes all the previous album photos as well)

[griffin]

Very jealous... for playing with unreleased toys, and like a mini-convention with all those fellow fans.

I'm really surprised that they just opened up all those toys and let about 30 random people to play with them... I wonder how many were pinched, like the smaller items.

As we wait for the rest of your photos, a number have been posted by others on twitter and facebook, and compiled at TFW for people to look through as well (http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/06/23/titans-returns-honk-kong-trial-play-pics-info-317705).

What is the display stand and coloured stick (http://news.tfw2005.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/06/PSOP9.jpg) - freebie items from Hasbro?

[TAAUBlaster]

Very jealous... for playing with unreleased toys, and like a mini-convention with all those fellow fans.

I'm really surprised that they just opened up all those toys and let about 30 random people to play with them... I wonder how many were pinched, like the smaller items.

As we wait for the rest of your photos, a number have been posted by others on twitter and facebook, and compiled at TFW for people to look through as well (http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/06/23/titans-returns-honk-kong-trial-play-pics-info-317705).

What is the display stand and coloured stick (http://news.tfw2005.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/06/PSOP9.jpg) - freebie items from Hasbro?

The "coloured stick" looks like a pen, or double ended highlighter to me.
Didn't you get to play with some unreleased TW toys a little while ago Griffin? :p

It looks like there were a lot of nice figures there to have a play with, Bladestorm :) How do they feel in hand?

[Paulbot]

... and Windblade was surprisingly based on the RID mould not the Generations mould I was expecting.

I hadn't noticed that at all either.

[griffin]

I guess people are getting so over all the Windblades in everything, no one looked long enough before to notice it was not the GEN mould used for last year's SDCC Windblade...

I just had a look at my BotCon photos, and sure enough, it is the RID Windblade toy.
The other thing I also only just realised is that the wings are backwards on their RID version... something that looks to be attached with pins, so it might have been a miss-assembled pre-production figure (the released RID toy has the fans at the front like the SDCC toy).

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/botcon/bc16/ha23.jpg

[GoktimusPrime]

JELLY!! Thank for letting us vicariously bask in your toy glory. :)

[Bladestorm]

What is the display stand and coloured stick[/URL] - freebie items from Hasbro?

The coloured stick is a highlighter. Pink from one end, yellow from the other. I got the last one of those but missed out on the display stand as people grabbed those as quick as they could (and may have grabbed more than one in some cases). I thought there would be enough for everyone but my bad... there wasn't... I was too busy playing with the figures. heh

As for being stolen, I don't believe any toys were. The group there were very respectful of both Hasbro and Hobbybase and we lined all the toys played with up on the tables for Hasbro to collect. It isn't really in the HK culture to do things like toy swap boxes in stores (unless you're going to replace a real with a fake and consign it through a place like Toyzone) or shoplift. Everyone knew this was a privilege. I doubt anyone there wants to jeopardise something like this not being able to happen again in the future because of their selfishness...

Someone asked how they felt in hand...

I have to say the Titans Returns line feels "cheaper" than the Combiner Wars figures, especially when we had Computron side by side with some of them.
The tapes were a huge disappointment to me. I did like the simplicity of Soundwave, but probably because I know my son will love the toy when he gets his hands on one as it is really age appropriate for the 9 to 12 age group.

Computron was a surprising delight. I (and most of the other collectors there) were impressed by the figures individually and the set as a whole. It was a joy to play with although I wish my son had been there to put him together quicker for us. ;) The hands and feet are apparently only going to come with the hasbro set. Takara will use the older style combiner wars hands and feet.

The SDCC 3 set really was nice. I confess I don't know much about the Brainstorm character but the toy was really good. Fun to play with, really nice colourings and good transformations. Windblade, despite being the RID mould also wasn't too bad although her transformation isn't as sleek as the Generations version. My daughter can't wait to get her and was quite happy to have them mix up the moulds a bit. I'm not a fan of Sentinel but other collectors really loved the SDCC version and one guy didn't want to let it go.

I'm still undecided on Fort Max. He didn't have that wow factor some of the other figures had and even the SDCC version... I don't know if I can justify the extra few hundred HK$ for him after playing with the basic one...

I'll add some links to the first post in a moment with photo albums for people to peruse as I simply have too many pics to link in here. If people have favourite photos they like feel free to post them up in here to comment on (but please don't post to other sites without my permission - thanks).

[reillyd]

That's fantastic coverage and photos of the event, and thank you for posting. I'm really surprised at how nice Brainstorm and Windblade looked, and great to finally see Soundwave with Buzzsaw perched on shoulder.