Japanese release of POTP toys from May 2018

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Originally Posted by FatalityPitt

I think this merging of the two brands can be a good thing. This means that Hasbro/Takara may now aim to release Transformers that will appeal to both Japanese and International fans in a single product line, and these toys will be available to everyone.

-SNIP-

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There's another aspect to this if true as well. It would mean that Hasbro and Takara could actually design and engineer something with the primary market being collectors currently serviced separately by Takara, Hasbro Asia, Hasbro Uk, Hasbro USA and Hasbro Australia. Bear in mind with the Masterpiece line for example, audiences outside of Takara's distribution area cannot legally be factored into thir current const benefit analysies. Yet this would still include exporters in Japan like HLJ, but there are also alot of secondary market retailers and customers which are serviced by Hasbro Asia and therefore not able to be considered.

As a result, we could see the flip side of this, with more 'premium' releases of figures being more easily justified to shareholders with both companies, which then becomes a win for everyone.

Dinobits/fembot combiner/darkeingssszsSSz to be included in regular POTP Japanese release and not released as new UW sets. Bit of a shame rly as I quite like UW.

No Abominus confirmation yet but not holding my breath.

Yes, the 2nd and 3rd waves of POTP toys in Japan have been revealed....
(nothing new that hasn't already been revealed by Hasbro though)

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Japanese Power of the Primes wave 2 – June

• PP-10 Alchemist Prime
• PP-11 Dinobot Slug
• PP-12 Dinobot Swoop
• PP-13 Dinobot Snarl
• PP-14 Dinobot Sludge
• PP-15 Dinobot Grimlock

Japanese Power of the Primes wave 3 – July

• PP-16 Moonracer
• PP-17 Dreadwind
• PP-18 Blackwing
• PP-19 Starscream

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I'd love to know how much business the Japanese and HK online retailers have lost because of Takara products no being identical to Hasbro's.

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Originally Posted by DELTAprime

I'd love to know how much business the Japanese and HK online retailers have lost because of Takara products no being identical to Hasbro's.

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Even though HLJ already has "order stop" on their first wave of POTP toys (we don't know if they just had less stock pre-ordered, expecting a decline in interest), I would probably think a fair bit in the long run. As would TakaraTomy, who... as might be pointed out... can't market their product to Hasbro territories (except the Asian countries supplied by Hasbro HK), but that doesn't mean they don't factor in a calculated percentage being bought up by non-Japanese customers through online stores like HLJ and Amazon.
We will probably never be told what percentage of Japanese Transformers ends up being sold to non-Japanese customers, but obviously, if Japanese wholesalers who sell thousands of units to American online stores like BBTS, TFSource and 3rd party sellers on Amazon, as well as online stores in Japan that sell direct to foreigners (like HLJ), suddenly order half as much product because there are less people outside of Japan wanting their products, TakaraTomy will then recalculate down their total production numbers on toys like POTP, and possibly cut back on regular release Japanese exclusive toys (like "Titans Return" Lioconvoy and Godbomber in the non-exclusive Legends line).

I think it will end up hitting Hasbro HK hard too, as they might not release those mainline Japanese toys if they are identical to the ones they just released 2-6 months earlier as Hasbro toys. And if the mainlines were to no longer be released by Hasbro HK in the Asian countries outside of Japan, it probably wouldn't be worth doing any of the non-mainline Japanese toys, as most of their customers probably wouldn't then be able to meet minimum order quantities each month. (they stopped selling to ToysRUs in HK a couple years ago, leaving them with just independents to sell JP Transformers to now)

Wave 2 and 3 have been added to Amazon Japan, which has included official images (which can be seen here).

The release dates at this time are June 20th for the second wave (mostly Dinobots), and July 22nd for the third wave.

Well I just preordered everything up to PP18 as a just in case Hasbro Australia doesn't release something, but fully expecting to cancel everything.

I liked having options, and I don't think this bodes well for anyone (especially TT).

I don't know why... either the Japanese fans are jumping on them, or HLJ aren't pre-ordering as much stock expecting them to not have as much demand, but within 2 days of the June and July POTP waves being listed, they are ALL on Order Stop.
(you'd think that when something on HLJ sells out that early, they'd be able to increase their order with TakaraTomy, as they are missing out on a lot of money from all those people who would have pre-ordered over the next 4-5 months)

Wave 4 of the Japanese releases of POTP in August have been revealed, and are now showing up at online stores for pre-order.

This wave covers PP-20 to PP-27, covering the five Terrorcons, a Leader, a fem-bot and a Prime Master.

PP-20 - Quintus Prime w/ Bludgeon Decoy Armor
PP-21 - Rippersnapper
PP-22 - Cutthroat
PP-23 - Blot
PP-24 - Sinnertwin
PP-25 - Hung-Gurrr
PP-26 - Elita-1
PP-27 - Optimal Optimus

The official images can be seen all in one place here, which are supposed to be the same as the Hasbro versions, so these images give us a good look at our upcoming Hasbro POTP toys. You can also see some photos of the combined mode of Abominus and a combiner using Elita-1 and four random limbs.

And if you didn't already know, Elita-1's combiner name is Elita-Infin1te. (that is not a typo... it does have a 1 in the middle of the word)