Rescue Bots Academy 2021 toys & 2022 Generic packed toys

[griffin]

Another new Rescue Bots toy has been revealed, which is a large size "playset".
It is Optimus Prime that transforms into a plane... and I use that word very loosely.

The plane mode has storage for Rescue Bots toys in the wings, making them very blocky, and very un-aerodynamic.

It comes with a Bumblebee toy that transforms into a race car.

It keeps surprising me that Hasbro always falls back onto Optimus and Bumblebee for their major Rescue Bots toys, despite those two characters having more than a glancing cameo over the 6 seasons of the cartoon. The parents might recognise those characters more and buy them, but the young kids watching the cartoon who haven't been converted into Gen1 fans, would be wanting toys of the regular cast to play along with the cartoon.

So... is Rescue Bots as a Brand now dead?

This is now out in Australia, and as I had pointed out in the Dinobot Adventures news topic, this one also does NOT have the Rescue Bots branding or wording anywhere on the packaging.
And looking back at the link in the TFW news posting I linked to in this topic, it doesn't say "Rescue Bots" anywhere in the article... so I think it was just automatically assumed it was part of Rescue Bots by whomever created that TFW topic.

That said, I think Hasbro has dropped the ball on not having new Branding ready for the youngest demographic toys to unify these kiddie Transformers (this one and all those redeco dinos)... as it makes it harder to market them to retailers, and if they don't get it, the won't buy them... regardless of how much demand their may be from consumers.

This toy is on sale here in Australia next Thursday at BigW ($49, down from $69), so I haven't bought it yet... when I do next week, I might post some extra out-of-packaging photos if no one else does before then.
But I can't imagine too many people wanting this toy, as it just looks terrible in person.

[nalops]

The Amazon listing had the code RBA, presumably Rescue Bots Academy, so it is interesting that the branding is missing from the packaging and everything.

[griffin]

Maybe a late change by Hasbro... or Amazon also just guessed it was a Rescue Bots toy.

[griffin]

Sighted by Dogboy at a QLD Kmart store, another new Rescue Bots toy that I haven't seen listed anywhere yet... a Feature Bot Optimus Prime, as a towtruck (different mould to the Hoist towtruck). Since Bumblebee was wave 5, this must be wave 6.



That means for the Feature Bot size class, we now have...
w1 - Medix
w1 - Whirl
w2 - Hoist
w2 - Wedge
w3 - Hot Shot
(w4 all re-release)
w5 - Bumblebee
w6? - Optimus Prime

Could this be the last of the Rescue Bots packaged toys?
I have seen on Amazon for a few weeks, listings for Rescan Chase and Heatwave with product numbers close to the "Classic Heroes Team" Optimus and Bumblebee figures that were very minor redecos... so if Chase and Heatwave are still coming (or have been cancelled), they are likely to be minor redecos as well in that short lived "Classic Heroes Team" packaging.

[griffin]

A surprise find in America, at a discount chain, is a 3-pack of Bumblebee Rescan redecos under the Rescue Bots Academy banner.
Since it it is at a discount chain for just us$20 (Rescan toys are about us$10 in America), it is possible that this was meant to come out earlier in the year before the Rescue Bots label was dropped on the packaging.
There was also supposed to be a 2nd wave of the "all stars" Rescan in RBA packaging (Chase and Heatwave), but they never showed up... so who knows how many other items were planned, or will show up as part of the Dinobot Adventures packaging.

[griffin]

Member Krayt has just found a new item at a Costco (I'd be guessing in Victoria somewhere), which is a re-release of a 2017 Rescue Bots toy, but in the new "plain" Transformers packaging that the recent Jet Plane Optimus was in.
It is probably more proof that the Rescue Bots brand is indeed finished, by re-releasing a Rescue Bots toy without the branding.




The 2017 version... which I think ended up being here at Costco too, but I can't find the price.

[griffin]

Wave 2 of the Classics Hero Team re-release (minor redecos) is out in America (on Amazon and Entertainment Earth), so might appear here since we got the first wave here.

Rescue Bots Academy logo and red bar at top of packaging - alt-mode at top - Classic Heroes Team logo and character art at bottom

Wave 1 (wave 34) FEB 2021
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/p...-set/hsf0719aa
TRA RBA ALLSTAR BUMBLEBEE (minor redeco car)
TRA RBA ALLSTAR OPTIMUS (minor redeco trailer truck)

The second wave breakdown on Entertainment Earth is a case of six figures, so the first wave must have had 3 of each (EE generally seems to sell sets instead of whole cases if they can break it up enough to not have too many unsold figures).
Since wave 2 has two Heatwaves to one Chase, EE is only selling Heatwave on its own, and must have been selling a set with the single Chase per case.
This would explain why Chase was twice the price of Heatwave on Amazon America, and as such, I have only bought Heatwave to compare the differences.

Wave 2 (wave ??) (??? 2021)
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/p...-case/hsf0719b
2x TRA RBA ALLSTAR BUMBLEBEE (re-release)
1x TRA RBA ALLSTAR OPTIMUS (re-release)
2x TRA RBA ALLSTAR HEATWAVE
1x TRA RBA ALLSTAR CHASE

In the comparison photo below, the Classic Heroes Team release is lighter red and yellow, but has a darker blue.