Yeah if Hasbro China hasn't been counted yet that may be all that's necessary... Really want to know how many Aussie backers there are
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Yeah if Hasbro China hasn't been counted yet that may be all that's necessary... Really want to know how many Aussie backers there are
With less than 6 days to go, for those still undecided or intending to order here is a list of all the places you can order Unicron and their comparative prices:
Hasbro Pulse
Price: $574.99US
Shipping: Unknown
BigBadToyStore
Price: $774.99(US)
Postage: Unknown but estimated could be around $400
Downpayment: $155.00(US) (non-refundable)
RobotKingdom
Price: $585.00(US)
Postage: $250.00(US)
Downpayment: $175.00(US). Full payment due when production is confirmed.
OhMyPrimus
Price: $850.00(S)
Postage: $110.00(S)
Dowpayment: $80.00(S)
Collection.Toys
Price: $869.99(US)
Postage: Via EMS only and predicted to be very expensive
Downpayment: Need to email them directly
TakaraTomyMall
Price: ¥75,600
Postage: TBA
The Chosen Prime
Price: $774.99(US)
Downpayment: $175(US)
Postage: TBA
ToyBot Importz
Price: $874.00(AU)
Downpayment: Unknown but you get 5 months to pay it off.
Postage: Unknown
TFS-Express
Price: £599.00
Downpayment: Option available
Postage: Unknown
Zing
Price: $848(AU)
Downpayment: $100(AU)
Postage: Free Pick-up in store!
Comparison of Prices in Aussie Dollars
Hasbro Pulse - $834.17
ZING/EB - $848
Robot Kingdom - $848.69
ToyBot Importz - $874.00
OhMyPrimus - $901.11
TTMall - $1010.32
TFS-Express: $1072.03
The Chosen Prime - $1124.31
BBTS - $1124.31
Collection.Toys - $1262.14
Not sure if this is the same thing that happened with the Kehtanna where the last week saw a big jump in people backing the project or if the international orders are now being added, but anyway Unicron is now at 4814 backers. I believe that's over 1000 backers in the last day or so.
Just announced:
Galvatron and interchangeable beards
Quote:
It's up to you to decide if you prefer your Unicron's chin smooth or bearded, with both options now part of the Unicron figure. But better than chin choices, the figure includes a 1.5-inch Galvatron figure to recreate one of the most iconic scenes from the Transformers animated movie.
Galvatron's scale makes it "just the right size to fit in Unicron’s hand, as seen in the 1986 film."
Mini Galvatron figure and beard accessory confirmed by IGN!
https://au.ign.com//articles/2019/08...rd-accessories
Edit: Haha you beat me to it.
I feel this isn't enough to sway people over into backing.
I can't blame them if they're Australian considering while this is still THE biggest transformer its not much bigger than the previously biggest...who was a retool of metroplex, at $99 from big w back in the day.
Seems silly to think like that but that's what nearly stopped me a few times with past titans, I can't be the only stingy person thinking like that, let alone other people who are thinking more...reasonable price limits for their collections.
Size doesn't mean jack, Titan Metroplex/Fort Max are incredibly simple figures in comparison and are much lighter than the listed weight of this Unicron. So what if he's not incredibly taller than them, he's way more complex in design and has a good deal more mass to him.
Picked it! Haha. Nice little touch. Glad they are still hyping it with more features.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulbot
It has now passed the 5,000 mark... as I imagine that the Americans who held off until the last few days to see if they could afford the big financial hit, are now placing their orders.
Kinda disappointed at the two extra accessories, and hope that isn't all we are getting (to be fair, Unicron doesn't need anything extra to sell itself... I can't imagine that there would be anyone now suddenly deciding to buy Unicron BECAUSE it comes with a Galvatron figurine and spare chin).
The second chin to make it look more like the 1986 Movie face should have been the original chin for this toy anyway, as that's what this toy is supposed to be replicating. And the first chin version it comes with looks like a 2 pointed chin anyway because of the blue patch in the middle.
And a closeup of the Galvatron figurine looks really bad (to me)... I hope the actual version has better detailing and paint.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2019/082803.jpg
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2019/082801.jpg
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2019/082802.jpg
That teeny little galvatron is a 3D printed part, unless you're using a premium printer, something that size with that much detail is going to look pretty mangy. I would prefer if that little galvatron had elbows and knees. I think the model they have there is just a single piece.
I do like the chin options, I think if you look at the movie, it changes from one to the other as the movie progresses. animation accuracy and all that.
I think it's funny all the people asking for electronics to be added.
That's the worst thing they could do to this and I'm glad it's not included.
I would imagine the galvatron will be better and this is just a quick done up piece. They've got a while to perfect it. But not a reason I want it but cool anyway
So it's been extended until October 6th now. Should make it easier for some.
Yes... the main Hasbro Pulse page has been extended to the end of NYCC, so maybe their current numbers just aren't quite at 8,000 yet and they need an extra little push like they got at SDCC.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1AZRAEL1
It must have been a snap decision, as the Australian product pages still end August 31st.
(just in case this is just an extension for American orders, pre-order here before the end of tomorrow just in case)
Couldn't hurt for everywhere else to extend too, so we'll see what happens. Would give more of a chance now.
We need a legitimate looking scenario to fudge the numbers.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1AZRAEL1
Let's give them another 4 weeks. Sounds great! Lunch?
Typical, I just backed it last night at 3 AM.
Now to wait until 2021 when I can start making jokes about paying off my Uni fees*...
*patent pending.
I suspect they may just need more time to integrate the international orders, which seem to be quite large. There was a HUGE jump up to 5000 after doing this, and it may be that they are anticipating last minute orders across the globe to make the difference.
I rather suspect if its close enough they'll fudge the numbers though, because they spent SO much design money getting it to this stage. But if they don't make enough profit (this is my real concern) we won't see future haslab offerings on this scale.
The TakaraTomyMall listing has now ended (they had their cut-off today), but have added a note to say that the reservation period is to be extended, but people have to wait a bit for it to resume.
The Zing & EB listings still end tomorrow, and now that it is the weekend, they are unlikely to be extended before it ends. It's possible that they could re-open the pre-orders, but who's going to take that risk if they wanted one. We had a such a great deal for Unicron with only $100 needed until it is released, anyone who wants one who can afford that amount, should order by tomorrow night. I don't think that an extension here would generate too many more orders, as everyone knew about the deadline being tomorrow, and didn't have to pay a large portion of the toy to secure one. If you are still undecided today after 3 weeks of it being available here, or are still not sure if you can (or should) afford this $848 toy, another month won't make much difference.
The extension may only end up being for those two places that require full payment upfront (Japan & America), as it wasn't as fair for them to pay all of that this quickly.
I'll keep an eye out on Zing/EB next week anyway, in case they put back up the listings.
Well that’s the multi-million dollar question - if they make enough profit. If Unicron turns out to be a cash cow then it’s possible that for the 40th or even 45th anniversary of Transformers we could see a Cybertron/Primus figure on a similar scale. Whilst not nearly as iconic as Unicron, I could see most folk who shelled out for The Chaos Bringer considering shelling out similar cash for his similarly scaled counterpart.Quote:
Originally Posted by reillyd
Given that Haslab Cookie Monster failed a couple of days ago I bet Hasbro was not willing to take any more egg on their face by having Unicron fail also. If it's true that BBTS, RK and others have not been added yet then Unicron might make it without any fudging of the numbers, but I bet if he doesn't reach the goal legitimately he will make it after the numbers are fudged.Quote:
Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev
Give the size and cost, I think it makes sense to ask if an electronics box would be included - it would add a little extra value to the piece by having it actually 'do something'. The torso is certainly big enough to house a sound box, and it may be possible to wire the neck with metal contacts to power an LED in the head.Quote:
Originally Posted by KELPIE
The previous Haslab project, Jabba's sail barge, hit its target within the original time frame, so Hasbro likely felt confident that they could meet their target within the original deadline.Quote:
Originally Posted by reillyd
There has been speculation that the 1000-order jump was due to international pre-orders being incorporated into the count, as "1,500 Sales Via Hasbro Affiliate Retailers" had been announced by Hasbro a couple of days ago, so maybe you're right.
I really like the idea of electronics in this guy, given it’s not very invasive. LED eyes would be really cool and add to the spectacle of having him display all huge in a menacing pose. A voice chip would be super cool, but it may just be because I am a sucker for electronics in toys, coming from the UT (Cybertron) era.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnus
Though I get why they did it, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad that the new Omega Supreme and Trypticon didn’t have walking/rolling electronics, even if I’d never use them.
I suspect some third party will make a replacement head (since it is attachable) with electronics. Shockwave lab does a lot of low cost led's for example. I would prefer a sound chip with unicron talking myself, but lights would be cool too I guess.
Still you can queue up some sound clips on an iPhone if there isn't a 3rd party electronics release, and it will almost be as good. I'm not going to let anything take away the shine of owning the planet killer Unicron
Things are getting exciting - at the moment Unicron is up to 6869 backers, with 5 days to go...
https://hasbropulse.com/products/tra...ertron-unicron
Hard to believe they won't produce it with that many backers already...
I tend to agree. I also suspect that the current total doesn't include all international purcahses yet. With all the marketting and little extras they have gone tot he trouble of showing, my money is on this making the 8k target.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jazzman
Two new bonus items announced in it's final week...
- a digital comic bundle from IDW through comixology with "Unicron" cover (it is rather vague with being "exclusive", in that it could just be existing comics that haven't been offered in that combination before)
- a Hotrod figurine (to go with Galvatron), an Autobot shuttle, and a stand for the floating head of Unicron. (they also note that the hands have more articulation now, but the original images looked to me like they they already had 15 points of articulation)Quote:
In addition to this once-in-a-lifetime figure, HasLab: Unicron backers through HasbroPulse.com will now receive an EXCLUSIVE digital comic bundle, made in partnership with @IDWPublishing and available only through @comiXology!
I think they might have just updated more of their international orders, which might have included the Europe, which only recently had a retailer there offering it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultra Mackness
I saw a tweet claiming the digital comic was the IDW TFTM adaptation but don't know if that was sourced info or a guess.
The Autobot shuttle is a little disappointing to be honest. Those shuttles never interact with Unicron. The ships the Autobots try to escape the Moonbases on, or the Quintesson or Junkion ships would be better options.
As pointed out by someone on facebook, the bonus digital comics might only apply to orders placed with Hasbro Pulse. The Unicron page is rather vague about it, so it could go either way.
Unicron was on display at NYCC this weekend, showing off the newly announced accessories (with the yellow looking very bright - the Unicron on screen was orange, so I wonder if these hand-painted prototypes are just a little off with the final colours).
From the aggressivecomics website, an interesting interview with Takashi Kunuhiro (Takara Tomy Senior Product Designer), noting that he had originally wanted the Unicron toy to be 100cm tall, but the sheer weight of all of that plastic wouldn't be able to work in planet mode, so it was scaled back to being about 70cm tall.
Quote:
How did you first hear about this project?
2 years ago when we heard that Unicron has been selected as part of the Haslab project I was ecstatic! Being on the same platform as Star Wars, I felt happy that Transformers in now seen in the same spotlight. My immediate thought was that I wanted to make this at least 100cm in size. But very quickly after, I had a feeling of “this is going to be an extremely complicated project” and as I looked around the room with other senior designers we all felt the same without saying a word.
Where did you even start with the idea of designing this giant toy?
There were a lot of trial and error at the beginning of this project. The biggest setback was how we started our thinking from looking at the previous largest Transformer toy we’ve created and that’s Titan class Fortress Maximus. My first instinct was that Unicron has to be at least twice as big if not more than Fortress Maximus. So I consulted with Ono-san, our senior designer who made the original G1 Fortress 30 years ago and see if there’s anything we can learn from his development of the toy.
So how did the learning of Fortress Maximus apply to Unicron?
I quickly realized that it doesn’t. Not in the slightest bit. Ono-san had a lot of creative liberty within Fortress as long as he can create a big, cool robot that convert into a big base. On the other hand, our Unicron is inspired from the 1986 movie character where he has distinct Robot and Planet mode design.
Then what would you say was the biggest challenge in designing Unicron?
The biggest challenge is to make the planet mode a perfect sphere with absolutely no space/crack from any 360 angle. As if that’s not a challenge enough, Unicron has unique robot features so I knew the conversion steps was going to be extremely complicated to build. Another challenge worth mentioning is that even if I wanted to recycle parts like his horn, the size varies as robot vs planet mode so I couldn’t. Therefore, we ended up with twice as much as parts for Unicron and much heavier toy than Fortress. Speaking of weight, if I made this toy as big as 100 cm like my first instinct, there was no way plastic could hold that much weight to create the Unicron shape.
Doesn't make much sense to me tbh, I could see the "too heavy for robot mode" possibility in terms of balancing/posing, but in planet mode its a big ball, can't see how could weight make any difference. Maybe to the stand, but you'd make a better stronger stand.Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
Obviously that would all increase cost, so potentially $$$ came into it as well.
Well, it's funded now, so that's exciting.
I genuinely think Hasbro doesn't actually have 8000 customers for Unicron and they just fudged the numbers to avoid having more egg on their face after the abysmal interest in the Cookie Monster Haslab project.
This is odd... the extended deadline was supposed to close in about 40 minutes time (2pm Brisbane time), but they've added another 24 hours onto the clock and noted that the deadline now ends October 7th in America (tomorrow afternoon our time).
And they have removed the actual count now, just noting that it is 8000+ on the counter.
Hope this is just a temporary measure until they get the final numbers in from around the world, and give us a total number to see how well it actually went.
If their total official number is over 9000, that should cover any drop outs and cancellations over the next year (particularly from countries like ours that didn't pay all up front).
They won't tell us, but I'd love to see what percentage of their 8,000+ backers were from countries that had to pay up the full amount (US and Japan), to see how much money Hasbro ended up raising for this project. Not that they needed the money for this project, but they needed to make sure there was enough numbers to buy it, and if they charged some money up-front, it would mean people were more seriously wanting it. (unlike pre-orders at sites that don't take any money, it is a lot easier to cancel without a second thought on pre-orders that were just placed as a back up, leaving the site with unsold extras)
The clock is no longer showing up on the page, so I guess that?s that. I don?t think we?ll ever get the full picture of how many backers were direct from Haslab and how many were from overseas preorders. I said previously this was a bit of a dog?s breakfast of a crowdfund campaign with the extended deadline and the way preorders were mixed in with pledges.
I wish the best of luck with Hasbro in completing this figure on time and I hope people commit to their preorders.
Looks like it might have been a glitch, or someone on the website stuffed something up when updating the counter... because the text has been changed back to October 6th.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Wiggum
I hope the public holiday here today doesn't hold up our final numbers from EB Games to Hasbro... as the product page is still active on their website, so probably won't be taken down until tomorrow.
At least Hasbro Australia was getting updated numbers every few days from EB Games to give to Hasbro America, but I imagine that Hasbro America will allow a few days for final numbers to come in, as a cut-off date doesn't seem to be a problem after extending the deadline an extra six weeks.
Those Americans who were able to order directly from the Hasbro Pulse / Haslab website, have just been emailed with their access code to their exclusive digital comic content... which is noted as being a couple of existing comics, with one being the IDW version of the Movie adaptation with a new cover art (which we saw already).Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
Well that’s a rip. Not that anyone would have backed for that alone but still disappointing.
:confused:
It was always clear it was existing comics with a new cover...
It would seem that at one point WFC Unicron was going to have a rather cool looking "city mode".
https://www.seibertron.com/transform...evealed/44302/