Rescue Bots Academy 2021 toys & 2022 Generic packed toys

The cartoon may have ended, but that doesn't mean Hasbro won't still be pimping out the toys and characters for years to come.
Each year the packaging for Rescue Bots changes, and this year the packaging has the sub-logo of "Classic Heroes Team" ... which Entertainment Earth is calling "All-Stars", so it could all just be existing characters.

The first wave of Rescan bots for 2021 has the Bumblebee car and Optimus (trailer version) Truck, that are both minor redecos of previously released toys in the Rescan size class (according to my records, this 1st wave of CHT is wave 33 since that size class began, waaaay back in 2014).

Entertainment Earth has their release date being February, but they were both in-stock on Amazon early last month, so could be out in stores by now as well.

Hopefully they are releasing other toys this year under this new banner, and maybe some new moulds. The longer this line lasts, the more fans will hound Hasbro to give us some GEN toys of Rescue Bots characters.

Another new Rescue Bots toy has been revealed, which is a large size "playset".
It is Optimus Prime that transforms into a plane... and I use that word very loosely.

The plane mode has storage for Rescue Bots toys in the wings, making them very blocky, and very un-aerodynamic.

It comes with a Bumblebee toy that transforms into a race car.

It keeps surprising me that Hasbro always falls back onto Optimus and Bumblebee for their major Rescue Bots toys, despite those two characters having more than a glancing cameo over the 6 seasons of the cartoon. The parents might recognise those characters more and buy them, but the young kids watching the cartoon who haven't been converted into Gen1 fans, would be wanting toys of the regular cast to play along with the cartoon.

Beginning of February found a new Feature Bot in America, and now in Australia this week...

A new Rescue Bots Feature Bots toy has been found in America, at a Target - Bumblebee.
The Feature Bots are about 50% larger than the Rescan range, and transform. It was introduced in 2019, and so far there have only been six toys (including this Bumblebee).
Since it doesn't have the new Classic Heroes packaging, this must have been planned for release last year, and ended up being delayed. It was a surprise to suddenly show up, as previous waves have been listed on Entertainment Earth, and this one wasn't there (they still only have the first four waves listed).

A new mould Rescan sized Optimus monster truck has appeared on the American Walmart site, and on the Entertainment Earth site, but is NOT the second wave of the 2021 Classic Heroes Team range, as it's listing on Entertainment Earth has in the web address that it is wave 8 of the previous Rescue Bots Academy packaging.
So even though it is technically a 2020 toy, it was released after the first wave of 2021 Rescan toys, and was put up on Entertainment Earth site after the 2021 wave.... which is going to make it tricky to decide where put this wave (toy) on our annual toy checklist.

Doing some research, I get the feeling that just like series 6 of Botbots, a number of waves of Rescue Bots planned for late 2020 might have ended up being delayed as well because of Covid (the factories would have prioritised the main lines, pushing back the minor lines if they were behind schedule or had limited production capacity).

According to Entertainment Earth, there are three waves between the last known 2020 wave (with the hotrod truck Optimus and race car Hotshot), and the new packaging style of the Classic Heroes Team (minor redecos of Bumblebee & Optimus in the first post of this topic).
The good thing about Entertainment Earth is that the web address of different waves is obvious by the letter at the end of the web address... but it also means that if a wave is not listed, it is almost impossible to know its contents, as no other online store that I know of sells Rescue Bots cases with the entire contents listed.

Wave 5 (wave 30) July 2020
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/p...ave-5/hse5366e
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN OP HOT ROD TRUCK (new)
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN HOT SHOT F1 (new)
1x TRA RBT BUMBLEBEE ROCK CRAWLER (re-release)
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN BOULDER (re-release bulldozer)
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN SALVAGE (re-release cement mixer)
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN WHIRL VTOL (re-release of 4-pack toy)

Wave 6 (wave 31) ???
(not on Entertainment Earth - cancelled?)
????
???

2021 - Rescue Bots Academy logo and red bar at top of packaging - alt-mode at top of backing card - character art at bottom

Wave 7 (wave 32) MAR 2021 (might have been meant for 2020 & delayed by covid)
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/p...ave-7/hse5366g
1x TRA RBT BRUSHFIRE (re-release)
1x TRA RBT MEDIX AMBULANCE (re-release wave 25 redeco)
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN BOULDER (re-release bulldozer)
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN HOT SHOT F1 (re-release)
1x TRA ACADEMY CHASE PK RF (re-release trailer version)
1x TRA ACADEMY BB VTOL (re-release)

wave 8 (wave 33) MAR 2021 (might have been meant for 2020 & delayed by covid)
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/p...ave-8/hse5366h
1x TRA ACADEMY OPTIMUS ATV JEEP (new)
1x TRA RBT BUMBLEBEE ROCK CRAWLER (re-release)
1x TRA RBT HEATWAVE F1 (re-release)
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN SALVAGE (re-release)
1x TRA RESCUE BOTS ACAD. RESCAN WHIRL VTOL (re-release)
1x TRA ACADEMY BLADES PK RF (helicopter re-release)

Rescue Bots Academy logo and red bar at top of packaging - alt-mode at top - Classic Heroes Team logo and character art at bottom

Wave 1 (wave 34) FEB 2021
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/p...-set/hsf0719aa
TRA RBA ALLSTAR BUMBLEBEE (minor redeco car)
TRA RBA ALLSTAR OPTIMUS (minor redeco trailer truck)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

Another new Rescue Bots toy has been revealed, which is a large size "playset".
It is Optimus Prime that transforms into a plane... and I use that word very loosely.

The plane mode has storage for Rescue Bots toys in the wings, making them very blocky, and very un-aerodynamic.

It comes with a Bumblebee toy that transforms into a race car.

It keeps surprising me that Hasbro always falls back onto Optimus and Bumblebee for their major Rescue Bots toys, despite those two characters having more than a glancing cameo over the 6 seasons of the cartoon. The parents might recognise those characters more and buy them, but the young kids watching the cartoon who haven't been converted into Gen1 fans, would be wanting toys of the regular cast to play along with the cartoon.

---

So... is Rescue Bots as a Brand now dead?

This is now out in Australia, and as I had pointed out in the Dinobot Adventures news topic, this one also does NOT have the Rescue Bots branding or wording anywhere on the packaging.
And looking back at the link in the TFW news posting I linked to in this topic, it doesn't say "Rescue Bots" anywhere in the article... so I think it was just automatically assumed it was part of Rescue Bots by whomever created that TFW topic.

That said, I think Hasbro has dropped the ball on not having new Branding ready for the youngest demographic toys to unify these kiddie Transformers (this one and all those redeco dinos)... as it makes it harder to market them to retailers, and if they don't get it, the won't buy them... regardless of how much demand their may be from consumers.

This toy is on sale here in Australia next Thursday at BigW ($49, down from $69), so I haven't bought it yet... when I do next week, I might post some extra out-of-packaging photos if no one else does before then.
But I can't imagine too many people wanting this toy, as it just looks terrible in person.

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2021/062501.jpg

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2021/062502.jpg

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2021/062503.jpg

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2021/062504.jpg

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2021/062505.jpg

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2021/062506.jpg

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2021/062507.jpg

The Amazon listing had the code RBA, presumably Rescue Bots Academy, so it is interesting that the branding is missing from the packaging and everything.

Maybe a late change by Hasbro... or Amazon also just guessed it was a Rescue Bots toy.

Sighted by Dogboy at a QLD Kmart store, another new Rescue Bots toy that I haven't seen listed anywhere yet... a Feature Bot Optimus Prime, as a towtruck (different mould to the Hoist towtruck). Since Bumblebee was wave 5, this must be wave 6.

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2021/062901.jpg

That means for the Feature Bot size class, we now have...
w1 - Medix
w1 - Whirl
w2 - Hoist
w2 - Wedge
w3 - Hot Shot
(w4 all re-release)
w5 - Bumblebee
w6? - Optimus Prime

Could this be the last of the Rescue Bots packaged toys?
I have seen on Amazon for a few weeks, listings for Rescan Chase and Heatwave with product numbers close to the "Classic Heroes Team" Optimus and Bumblebee figures that were very minor redecos... so if Chase and Heatwave are still coming (or have been cancelled), they are likely to be minor redecos as well in that short lived "Classic Heroes Team" packaging.

A surprise find in America, at a discount chain, is a 3-pack of Bumblebee Rescan redecos under the Rescue Bots Academy banner.
Since it it is at a discount chain for just us$20 (Rescan toys are about us$10 in America), it is possible that this was meant to come out earlier in the year before the Rescue Bots label was dropped on the packaging.
There was also supposed to be a 2nd wave of the "all stars" Rescan in RBA packaging (Chase and Heatwave), but they never showed up... so who knows how many other items were planned, or will show up as part of the Dinobot Adventures packaging.