Rescue Bots Academy 2021 toys & 2022 Generic packed toys

[griffin]

Just spotted the new Grimlock and Optimus Primal bots on a Big W

The gorilla Optimus and dino Grimlock? I guess they count as wave 3 of the Classics Hero sub-series, and it is good to hear that BigW are getting more of them, as they got the first two waves.

That wave was also just found in America (Optimus & Grimlock), catching up to us again, after we had Ratchet came out here a month and a half ago, and now Ratchet was also found in America at a different retail chain.

[Paulbot]

These ones? I thought these looked newish, at Geelong's Big W

[loophole]

Yep they are the ones Griffin.

[griffin]

The Classic Heroes Team continues... this time with Megatron.
Yes... Megatron, even with a Decepticon symbol.... and turns into a drill tank.

Since Classic Heroes Team is no longer "Rescue Bots", I guess it is okay to have both good and evil characters in it now (it was often noted that the Rescue Bots toyline would never have Decepticons in it... but did have a couple of "naughty" characters in the cartoon, and the Morbot in the toyline).

[griffin]

As the Rescue Bots branding continues to be retired, the last two of the Feature Bots (convertible Rescue Bots toys that were larger than the regular "Rescan" toys) has been found in a store in Peru, in the new generic kids packaging - that's the Optimus Prime and Bumblebee Feature Bots.

[griffin]

After dropping the Rescue Bots label, and the doctrine of "no Decepticons", we now have a second Megatron toy in the Classic Heroes Team series (found in Malaysia)... this one homages the Basic Beast Wars Megatron toy, with a green alligator alt-mode.

[griffin]

Another Rescue Bots packaged toy from Hasbro has just been found, while they are already a year into releasing "Classic Heroes Team" toys without "Rescue Bots" labeling on them.
It's the toyline that just refuses to die...

I found at a Kmart store yesterday a "Rescan" sized Bumblebee toy that had the alt-mode of the 2020 Hotshot race car toy, with a new head and a remoulded chest to give Bumblebee a normal Autobot logo, instead of the Rescue Bots logo. Everything else appears to be the same.

I checked the product number, and sure enough, it was newer than most of the toys released this year in Classic Heroes Team packaging.
And the really interesting thing that I noticed, was that the "Rescue Bots" packaged Ratchet toy from earlier this year, has a consecutive number to three of the "Classic Heroes Team" packaged toys, suggesting that these toys are being designed by one department at Hasbro, and then some other department is deciding later how to release them, either as Rescue Bots or as Classic Heroes Team... and, even splitting them up across different waves too...

Optimus Primal (CHT) - F4442
Grimlock (CHT) - F4443
Megatron Tank (CHT) - F4444
Ratchet (RBA) - F4445
-
Bumblebee race car (RBA) - F4637
Megatron Gater (CHT) - F6201
Starscream (CHT) - F7287 (listed on the Canadian Amazon listing posted on TFW about a month ago)

Notice that, even though the two Megatron toys were released together about a month ago, the Tank Megatron had a product number that suggests that it was developed at the same time as Primal, Grimlock and Ratchet, but were then released in three different ways (Primal and Grimlock in wave 1 of pure CHT packaging, Megatron in wave 2 CHT packaging, and Ratchet in RBA packaging).
The other interesting thing is that here in Australia, Kmart seems to be the the only still getting these Rescue Bots Academy toys, while other retailers here appear to be getting the Classic Heroes Team toys.

[griffin]

As the Rescue Bots branding continues to be retired, the last two of the Feature Bots (convertible Rescue Bots toys that were larger than the regular "Rescan" toys) has been found in a store in Peru, in the new generic kids packaging - that's the Optimus Prime and Bumblebee Feature Bots.

Just noting that these two started showing up at Kmart stores here in Australia during November: