Toyfair Australia preview images and info

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

Cheers guys for all the pics!

Definitely liking the design of the figures, although the do look a little plain -- but I guess that's what the Takara versions are for...

Astrotrain is looking rather dainty in his spats! And his train mode reminds me of the train from John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars:

[BigTransformerTrev]

Cheers guys for all the pics!

+1 - nice work indeed

Not sold on Astrotrains train mode, dunno how you would go through a tunnel with that big bit sticking up in the middle, but besides that quite liking what I'm seeing. Galvatron is once again looking a much more dark somber purple which means I might not have to go the TT route after all.

[FruitBuyer]

I suppose I'm one of the few people that like his alt-mode as I really like the futuristic look (practicality be damned) and love how it evokes Energon Omega Supreme's train.

[reillyd]

I suppose I'm one of the few people that like his alt-mode as I really like the futuristic look (practicality be damned) and love how it evokes Energon Omega Supreme's train.

Yeah, there's certainly a few who like him. I'm not much of a train person and will leave him in shuttle mode, but its nice to know that he can become a super train as well. +1 Like

[Paulbot]

I think it's great that Hasbro have shared these reveals with our local fan community. Australia is obviously a smaller market but we're loyal and there's a lot of interest (as seen through this forum, the Facebook groups and other Aussies taking part in the international forums). Hopefully this will not be a once off and maybe we'll see more opportunities like this in the future. So thanks again Hasbro Australia!

I notice a very "Evil" bias in these preview figures though? No Autobots? Galvatron and Astrotrain are a nice looking pair of robots with really complimentary colour scheme. The little Squeezeplay toy looks interesting. Bruticus in G2 colours is also very nice (and the white Blast Off jet doesn't look as out of place as a brown Blast Off jet looks on the regular release).

[griffin]

I think it's great that Hasbro have shared these reveals with our local fan community. Australia is obviously a smaller market but we're loyal and there's a lot of interest (as seen through this forum, the Facebook groups and other Aussies taking part in the international forums). Hopefully this will not be a once off and maybe we'll see more opportunities like this in the future. So thanks again Hasbro Australia!

Yes, it is great that Hasbro America/Global have seen some value in adding our Toyfair into their reveals schedule (along with their own American events and other scheduled reveals), and we've worked hard in recent years to earn their trust to disseminate the info and images as public as possible, and not claim ownership of the images (including the official images of Astrotrain and Ravage they have sent me to release).
Now, after everything has been released from the Australian Toyfair, if Hasbro America assesses the overall outcome and feedback from the global fandom as being worth the investment on their part to use us as a "March reveal" of some Transformers products, we could possibly see this as being an annual thing, with the possibility of having actual Transformers team members coming to Australia for Toyfair and the preview fan presentations.
Two years of begging and butt-kissing for us to have a similar preview event to what America has at SDCC and NY Toyfair, has finally paid off.

I notice a very "Evil" bias in these preview figures though? No Autobots? Galvatron and Astrotrain are a nice looking pair of robots with really complimentary colour scheme. The little Squeezeplay toy looks interesting. Bruticus in G2 colours is also very nice (and the white Blast Off jet doesn't look as out of place as a brown Blast Off jet looks on the regular release).

Yeah.... I didn't realise that they were all evil, but the evil bias was accidental, and my fault. I was told to pick some of the toys from the actual exhibit to bring to the meet, and just picked the ones I thought would get the most attention.
Galvatron - because of the pink version in last weeks Hasbro promo video, I chose it to reassure fans that the final version should be a proper purple colour.
Gen2 Bruticus - They had Superion and Victorion on display, and we've seen reveals of them already. We've only seen official images for Bruticus so far... and fortunately for us, someone posted up a huge gallery of Victorion online just two days ago, so our coverage would have been made meaningless.
Crashbash - it was him or Loudmouth, as they were the only two out of packaging in the display (Nightbeat and Terri-Bull were still sealed). I was actually having trouble deciding which one to bring, but recalled that the Japanese Skull(cruncher) has Crashbash, so people were already talking about it and trying to figure out how the headmaster fits into it. Considering how much people were impressed by how it plugs into the dino mode (including me), I think I picked the better of the two.

The other Titans Return toys on display for me to choose from were Hardhead, Blurr, Blaster, "Powermaster" Optimus, and Wheelie. I would have loved to have brought them all, but they needed to keep some toys on the shelves to show off to their customers (the Retailers).
Their selection of RID toys was very small, and only the Powersurge figures looked to be the only unreleased non-minicon figures on display.

I will be posting up photos of the exhibit soon-ish... I just still got a lot of photos to process first.

[Golden Phoenix]

Yes, it is great that Hasbro America/Global have seen some value in adding our Toyfair into their reveals schedule (along with their own American events and other scheduled reveals), and we've worked hard in recent years to earn their trust to disseminate the info and images as public as possible, and not claim ownership of the images (including the official images of Astrotrain and Ravage they have sent me to release).
Now, after everything has been released from the Australian Toyfair, if Hasbro America assesses the overall outcome and feedback from the global fandom as being worth the investment on their part to use us as a "March reveal" of some Transformers products, we could possibly see this as being an annual thing, with the possibility of having actual Transformers team members coming to Australia for Toyfair and the preview fan presentations.
Two years of begging and butt-kissing for us to have a similar preview event to what America has at SDCC and NY Toyfair, has finally paid off.

It was pretty great of them to come out and chat to us. Even better they let you bring out a couple of figures for us to play with.

Yeah.... I didn't realise that they were all evil, but the evil bias was accidental, and my fault. I was told to pick some of the toys from the actual exhibit to bring to the meet, and just picked the ones I thought would get the most attention.
Galvatron - because of the pink version in last weeks Hasbro promo video, I chose it to reassure fans that the final version should be a proper purple colour.
Gen2 Bruticus - They had Superion and Victorion on display, and we've seen reveals of them already. We've only seen official images for Bruticus so far... and fortunately for us, someone posted up a huge gallery of Victorion online just two days ago, so our coverage would have been made meaningless.
Crashbash - it was him or Loudmouth, as they were the only two out of packaging in the display (Nightbeat and Terri-Bull were still sealed). I was actually having trouble deciding which one to bring, but recalled that the Japanese Skull(cruncher) has Crashbash, so people were already talking about it and trying to figure out how the headmaster fits into it. Considering how much people were impressed by how it plugs into the dino mode (including me), I think I picked the better of the two.

The other Titans Return toys on display for me to choose from were Hardhead, Blurr, Blaster, "Powermaster" Optimus, and Wheelie. I would have loved to have brought them all, but they needed to keep some toys on the shelves to show off to their customers (the Retailers).
Their selection of RID toys was very small, and only the Powersurge figures looked to be the only unreleased non-minicon figures on display.

I will be posting up photos of the exhibit soon-ish... I just still got a lot of photos to process first.

Oh man, would have loved to check out some of the others too. Oh well, fair enough you'd have to leave some there. Still awesome to play around with Galvatron and Astrotrain.

[philby]

thanks for the great work and butt kissing and thanks to hasbro for doing this

[griffin]

It was pretty great of them to come out and chat to us. Even better they let you bring out a couple of figures for us to play with.

Yep... it was something I had been asking to do fairly early on, and was told a couple weeks before the event that he was willing to bring some toys with him, but I didn't want to tell the attendees in case he was told not to take any toys out of the convention centre premises. It ended up being a great surprise for those attending, so worked out well. (it was like first-reveals at BotCon)

Besides, I didn't want to pressure him into bringing anything, as I didn't want anyone at Hasbro Australia getting into trouble from Hasbro America, and then get told to cut off all contact with the fans.


(moved topic to main news section, as I created the topic in the wrong section - this was a world-first reveal, making it global news... regardless of what country it was happening in)

[griffin]

My photos from the Lunch preview fan event with Hasbro Australia.
(I will post up the exhibit photos in 2-3 hours in a new News topic, so that fans can digest/share these photos first.)

This group photo was the idea of the Hasbro people, and it has most of the invited senior Ozformers members in it, along with Hasbro Australia's Lewis
in the middle holding onto Bruticus. Unfortunately the visiting American Hasbro employee (Phillippe) was the one taking this photo for Lewis (and
for me to share), so he didn't end up in the photo.


Fortunately I managed to get him in one of my photos, at the back in the white business shirt. He was from the modelling department at Hasbro in
Rhode Island, so has an engineering background (to help fix or figure out things in the Hasbro exhibit, particularly as there are often pre-production
items that don't have packaging or instructions). It was a pleasure to have him join us for the Lunch meet. (and Lewis too of course)


So when I went to the Toyfair to get our guests, I was told that we to be officially revealing two toys - Astrotrain and Ravage... and as noted above
already, I was also told to pick some of the toys from the actual exhibit to bring to the meet as well. There wasn't a lot to choose from, but it was
really hard to pick just three (I didn't want to strip the shelves when they are trying to get retailers to buy them), so I just picked the ones that I
thought would get the most attention.
Galvatron - because of the pink version in last weeks Hasbro promo video, I chose it to reassure fans that the final version should be a proper purple colour.
Gen2 Bruticus - They had Superion and Victorion on display, and we've seen reveals of them already. We've only seen official images for Bruticus
so far... and fortunately for us, someone posted up a huge gallery of Victorion online just two days ago, so if I had picked Victorion, our
coverage of a couple photos would have been pretty meaningless.
Crashbash - it was him or Loudmouth, as they were the only two out of packaging in the display (Nightbeat and Terri-Bull were sealed on their
cards). I was actually having trouble deciding which one to bring, but recalled that the Japanese Skull(cruncher) has the dinosaur from
Crashbash, so people were already talking about it and trying to figure out how the headmaster fits into it. Considering how much people were
impressed by the way it plugs into the dino mode (including me), I think I picked the better of the two.
Of the toys that we brought with us to the Crown Casino food court, it didn't take long for people to grab and play with them... so fast, I didn't
even get a group photo of the toys. (missing Galvatron and Crashbash in this photo)


The star of the show - Astrotrain - with spaceship and armoured train modes.

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People are complaining about the feet, but they can go both ways. (yes, Astrotrain is headless in this photo)

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According to the official images given to me later, the head for Astrotrain is called Darkmoon. Looks to be the same mould as Sentinel Prime's head,
but with Astrotrain's face on the back instead of Sentinel Prime.


Three heads are always better than one...


The other first official reveal was for the Legends Ravage, who turns into a jet and data unit.

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Ravage with Titan Master Crashbash and his dragon.


Crashbash combined with its partner, in Dino mode. Very well designed, to have the robot arms become the dinosaur arms, and the robot legs become the bottom jaw.


Galvatron - a very popular item at the preview event, as I was only able to get a couple photos of it, due to it being rarely left on the table long
enough for it to be photographed. I have photos of its robot mode in the exhibit though, which will be posted up later.

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The three Titanmaster heads - Darkmoon from Astrotrain, Megatron/Nucleon? from Galvatron, and Crashbash.


And finally, the Gen2 coloured Bruticus boxset, which comes with Shockwave.

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Yes... the legs aren't properly transformed on Shockwave, but I had to rush it to take photos of it in robot mode, so I didn't notice it at the time
(and I don't have the Shockwave toy yet either).
The regular Shockwave was on hand at the meet, from one of the other attendees.


When I saw the orange on the gun arm, I immediately thought of the Actionmaster, so I pulled out my Generations book (don't leave home
without it ), and sure enough, the orange chest and gun barrel were like the Actionmaster toy. It just needed grey parts instead of red, and it
would have been a perfect homage.

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The preview event went for about 45 minutes, but it was over so fast.
Here's hoping it becomes an annual event for us in Australia.