Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
Giza was also Nemesis Prime's Arms Micron in the Japanese Prime toyline. It is a bit too easy a clue though, you're right.
The fact they mention armour has me doubting it's Doubledealer. Could very well be Astrotrain then. Has armour, transforms in 36 steps which is close enough and has 8 accessories (5 guns, 2 shoes and backpack). They could always give him an extra gun or something. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
Think bugbite will get a bug head since beast wars characters may be coming to the trilogy?
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
I doubt it. Not all characters in Kingdom will be from BW. I expect Bug Bite to be a straight repaint of Bumblebee.Originally Posted by Autocon
Although part of me wants to see the toy have a new head that's a faux-VW roof/window like the original Super Go-Bot.
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
Okay this makes more sense.The reason is simple - the factories are constantly running, with a production schedule set up months in advance, which means they can't increase a production run by too much more than the quantity that is scheduled, as it would delay products scheduled to follow it... while a second production run might need to wait 2-3 months for the next available timeslot (if Hasbro felt that there is enough demand for a second run and retailers are willing to wait that long, as other stock would arrive before it anyway).
So, if a toyline is more popular than American retailers expected and want to significantly increase their orders too close to the next wave's release, the factories might have already finished production of that wave, or can't produce too much more to cover it, so the stock allocated to other countries gets redirected to America. Hasbro is an American company, and are not going to sacrifice their American business & profit (and retailer reputation) to make sure other countries get stock.
This is sometimes why we miss waves or exclusives here (most of the time it is because there is not enough demand here for extra products that aren't in the retail lines), but this year it looks like Hasbro America reduced all of their production numbers due to the global downturn in retail sales from the recession, but some rare items like the Netflix toys, ended up exceeding their new lower estimates.
Story time...
Several times at BotCon, the organisers noted a number of times that they wanted to increase the number of exclusives (2011 had boxsets sell out in 6 days of pre-registrations opening up), but were often unable to, because 2-4 months before the event was too late to increase to increase production and too late to squeeze in a second production run to make up the extra numbers. Most years they would comment that their tight schedule with convention and club exclusives would often have the toys arrive just a week or two before the convention (time to be produced and shipped).
Back when Armada came to Australia in 2002, the first wave of the toyline was released in America in July, but came out in Australia in December.... and I was told by Hasbro Australia at the time, that this was due to the higher than expected demand for the toyline by American retailers, absorbed all of the stock, and we (and other countries) had to wait until a second production run was done 5 months after the first production run.
(according to Aaron Archer (I think, without looking it up) at BotCon one year, the Armada toyline was in such increased demand by American retailers to the previous year's toyline (RID), that we saw the back end padded out with a lot of redecos that weren't in the cartoon, including those Beast Wars moulds we saw)
I guess then (esp if they have downgraded production) you wonder why they wouldn't try and squeeze in a second run, given surely they know that for more collector focused lines like this it's not like ppl who want a Netflix Elita-1 are going to just buy an Allicon from Earthrise W2 instead... they just won't buy anything!
But they clearly have a reason ! Thanks for the info!
Rank 10 - Admin
In case we don't see the Netflix toys here, or the Centurion Drone is impossible to source, there may be a second chance on both as TakaraTomy have tweeted out photos of both, which should mean that they are going to have them as well... but will be some time behind America (their first wave of Netflix toys is still some time away from release, from September to December). This could mean that the second wave won't see Japan (and Asian sources who get access to Japanese stock) until at least February next year.
The photos don't show the Netflix Leader pack though. (they should get it, but must know not to reveal the contents before its release)
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
So turns out the 2nd Spoiler Leader was black and teal, just not the mold most people were expecting. It's on TFW2005 if you want to see the contents.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
You can say that again!!! Just looked closer, they have mix and matched 3 different releases! And that’s not including the battle master!
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
Funnily enough, I already have the 3 releases to recreate it. Not exact colours but very close.
Rank 10 - Admin
I want to say that that is the most boring, lazy offering, especially with there being another Optimus toy in the Voyager size packaging.
But then I understand that Hasbro and TakaraTomy pretty much release the same things, so it was only natural that we would eventually see the TakaraTomy Black Siege Optimus toy (released in Japan in June) from Hasbro.
We are getting way too many Optimus redeco toys in the WFC trilogy.
Rank 10 - Admin
(snipped for length).
You're 100% right. On both counts. We are getting too many Optimus Primes, Because... he sells. As much as (for the sake of example) I've been hanging out for Hubcap, kids won't know who he is. And for every Minibot fan like me there's a Tilarta (for example) who has made it clear he's thoroughly uninterested in Hubcap. Multiple Primes are a safe bet for HasTak - moreso than Hubcap would be!
But hey, they're finding ways to stretch the moulds without clogging the shelves with 700 Bumblebee & Prime variants (as was the case around 2009-2012 in the movie lines) - so doing it through Pulse & exclusives is a smarter way of reusing the moulds. Sure, it means I'm paying more for my Hubcaps (yes, multiple), but I'm happy to pay a little more if the Selects model means Hubcap is a viable release for Hasbro.
It's a lazy repaint, but it's one that will sell well enough to the broader fandom while helping HasTak get their $$ out of the mould. In my view, if this helps the CHUG lines continued viability, great. I won't be buying it, but the longer the line goes on, the sooner I will see the Huffer and Pipes toys I'm waiting for.
So... long live safe Pulse/Generations repaints, I say.
Eagerly waiting for Masterpiece Meister
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