Five. Don't forget the retool/repaint of TM Megatron.

Perhaps not releasing all the Seekers during Classics may not have been malice, but it was odd that they'd release Starscream and Skywarp for Classics but not Thundercracker. And then it took Hasbro years to release the rest of the Seekers in retail... why release Acid Storm before releasing Thundercracker, Dirge and Thrust??? Acid Storm was a peg-warmer too - but surely it makes more sense to release the rest of the "core" G1 Seekers before venturing off with obscure characters like the green Rainmaker. If anything, Thundercracker should have been released in retail sooner and Acid-Storm should have been a BotCon exclusive (IMHO).

And why give us Classics Ramjet but not Dirge and Thrust?? If they didn't want to give us all 6 Seekers, they should have just released Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker in Classics -- it would have been inexpensive to do because they just repaint the same mould... then if they sell well, do the Coneheads.

And that's the thing that frustrated me... the whole idea of doing repaints is that it's such an inexpensive way of pumping out "new" toys because Hasbro doesn't need to invest in any R&D to develop a new mould. If the repaint shelf warms, then they don't lose out as much as with a new mould... so it's a relatively "safer" risk. Yet with the Seekers Hasbro were ultra ultra cautious... but took risks with other weird crap like Recon Ravage and Sea Attack Ravage - who peg-warmed something chronic.

Quote Originally Posted by Cat View Post
They ended up giving a fair distance between the Botcon release, and their own domestic release.
Which was nigh on frustrating. Five years to collect the Classicsverse Seekers? Gah!!

Quote Originally Posted by Cat View Post
In between that you had the Gentei releases in Japan, so at that stage, you had had two chances to get them.
Not very good chances considering that:

a/ They were limited exclusives
b/ They were f'expensive ($50 for a Deluxe?!? Owch!!)

I did get Gentei Thrust, Skywarp and Thundercracker... but it cost me a pretty penny.

Also, this would not have been part of Hasbro's plan because Hasbro and Takara are contractually forbidden from 'cross-contaminating' each other's market; i.e. Hasbro can't go and tell Takara to release Seekers that they haven't done to "cover" them or vice versa.

Quote Originally Posted by Cat View Post
Acid Storm was neat, I was pleased to have a totally new Seeker. It seemed obvious that the others were coming at some stage.
It's easy in hindsight to say that the others were coming at some stage - I don't know about you - but at the time Acid Storm came out I really had no idea if Hasbro or Takara would ever release Thundercracker, Dirge or Thrust in retail. Why else would I have bothered to pay fifty freaking dollars each for Gentei Thundercracker and Thrust?? (I got Skywarp because he came with Thundercracker - I already had Classics Skywarp at the time)

I missed out on Gentei Dirge too... so Dirge eluded me for a long time. I was so desperate that I got Universe Dirge (repaint of Voyager Cybertron Starscream) as a placeholder in hope that Hasbro or Takara would release Dirge again (hopefully in retail) and that I would be able to get it. Three years later I finally got Generations Dirge and I sold off Universe Dirge.

I don't think it was any intentional malice... I highly doubt Hasbro execs sat back evilly laughing saying, "Let's make TF collectors wait 5 years to complete their Seekers, wahahaha!" -- that's not what I'm implying... but it does seem to be a rather unfocused, inattentive and sporadic effort from Hasbro. As Ultra Magnus says, Consistency is victory!