Official Toy images

[JJJ]

Shame they put all that effort into the colour of the energon rods (which I consider a failure, as I still don't see what they were on about) instead of making the items, well, something that a toy can hold in its hand. I can see now why they didn't bother (designer A intended them to clip onto the back, designer B dropped this but didn't do anything else for them), but that hardly makes it better now does it?

Also, kinda interesting to see that they genuinely do use a paint that allegedly matches the plastic dye. I was sure that they would use a different shade in order to compensate for the way that paint and dyed plastics will never match. There is, after all, plenty of knowledge out there on how to match these things...

[Seraphim Prime]

Shame they put all that effort into the colour of the energon rods (which I consider a failure, as I still don't see what they were on about) instead of making the items, well, something that a toy can hold in its hand. I can see now why they didn't bother (designer A intended them to clip onto the back, designer B dropped this but didn't do anything else for them), but that hardly makes it better now does it?

Also, kinda interesting to see that they genuinely do use a paint that allegedly matches the plastic dye. I was sure that they would use a different shade in order to compensate for the way that paint and dyed plastics will never match. There is, after all, plenty of knowledge out there on how to match these things...

I would say it's potentially not always about paint matching the plastic than the plastic changing. My Origins Bumblebee has a couple of plastic panels that don't match the others and are a lighter shade of yellow that I can't explain - couldn't be sun exposure as other pieces beside it aren't faded - so a paint may have been matched to the design plastic colour, but then the mix gets slightly different

And the jetpack storage being lost is a bit of disappointment for me, as I don't like pieces just sitting around. But it fits with the ethos that their trying to meet at the moment of providing the best accessories that can be mixed and matched across your figures across the line rather than just focusing on each figure in singularity (positives and negatives to both approaches)

[Tha_Phantom]

Also, kinda interesting to see that they genuinely do use a paint that allegedly matches the plastic dye. I was sure that they would use a different shade in order to compensate for the way that paint and dyed plastics will never match. There is, after all, plenty of knowledge out there on how to match these things...

I'm sure there is if you're some 3P company without a deadline or a fan doing a custom, but with the number of figures Hasbro employees have to put out constantly they wouldn't always have time to get the colour match perfect. Markclonus has mentioned this on an Instagram story recently.

[JJJ]

It isn't about having endless time. There is real industrial research out there about how to match Pantone X in ABS (and nylon, and all sorts of other plastics) to Pantone Y in paint. It should be quite literally an exercise in looking up a chart - the work has already been done for them. I never expected, for example, to see the same colour being listed on that chart for Bumblebee for both plastic and paint - one should be different to compensate for the difference in how they reflect light (and also perhaps to account for the underlying plastic colour).

Now that I think about it a bit more, though, perhaps they're having real issues with the dyes in their plastics, and getting them to come out the right way. Would explain a few things...

[griffin]

The re-release of Legacy Leader Dragon Megatron in Legacy Evolution packaging... which is really just the new logo on the box I think...
I think some people at Hasbro are learning to re-release final wave toys in the next series if possible, as most countries tend to miss out on the final wave of a year, or have very limited supply of it. In the case of this Megatron, it has started showing up at specialty outlets here, but it could have just as easily have been missed out if stores were clogged with wave 1 Leaders. (as it was, I think wave 2 Blitzwing will end up being the hard-to-find Legacy Leader here, as the major retailers who are still selling wave 1 will get a second chance at wave 3 Megatron, but not wave 2 Blitzwing)