Fan First Friday FEB 4th - Legacy & Studio Series

[griffin]

Early this morning our time it was still February 4th in America, and Hasbro/Pulse had another live streamed product reveal - which can be seen here on youtube....



For those unwilling or unable to watch the video, screenshots can be seen here.

New toys from several lines were shown off, even though most were already out, already revealed officially, or already leaked.
At least two toys were officially revealed for the first time - Studio Series Sludge and Ironhide.

They also promoted some licensed materials - some upcoming IDW comics, a new audio file on the (not free) Calm app, a new crossover event on the game app Top War, and a new at-home Virtual Reality game that will be sold through Steam and Playstation.

The toys shown off today...

Studio Series - wave 2 for 2022
SS-84 Deluxe Bumblebee Movie Ironhide (from Ratchet)
SS-85 Deluxe Bumblebee Movie Arcee
SS86-14 Voyager Junkyard (from Wreckgar)
SS86-15 Leader Sludge
SS86 Core Exo Suit Spike Witwicky

Legacy - some claim that these are "Fan-channel" online exclusives, not mainline toys (have to wait and see)
Deluxe Predacon Sandstorm (from Scorponok)
Deluxe Autobot Nightprowler (from Cheetor)
Deluxe (Predacon) Buzzsaw (from Waspinator)

Vintage Beast Wars - Walmart exclusive in America
Scorponok - main body now grey, claws still sparkly blue
Tigatron – bright white like original Japanese release, not dull white like original Hasbro release

Robot Enhanced Design - R.E.D. - Walmart exclusive in America
Prime Knockout- has drill arm, saws, and alternate hands G1 Ultra Magnus - from Optimus (slightly modified, so not just straight white redeco)

Buzzworthy Bumblebee - Target exclusives in America
SS-70 B-127
SS86-02 Kup
SS86-13 Cliffjumper

I'm still waiting for Hasbro to post up the official images, as one fansite (tfw) has watermarked Hasbro's official images as if they took the images themselves (if they are screenshots from the live stream, that would be okay, as they had to put in additional effort to create those images).
Oddly, Seibertron is using the screenshots and details from tfw, so resorting to my 3rd best option (tformers), I have mirrored the images from there (watermark free).

Hasbro Team Members

Ben
Isabella
Sam
Mark
Evan

There will be 15 new products to be shown today!

Transformers Franchise News

Meta 4 Transformers Beyond Reality - VR shooter game, home experience for PlayStation VR and Steam. Trailer shown. Coming in March 31st.

Top War Darkness Falls - New crossover game event 2. Faceoff with Unicron. Coming in March.

IDW King Grimlock - Comic Conclusion on sale now.

IDW Wars End - On-going comic series in shops now.

IDW Shattered Glass Comic Trade Paperback coming July, 26th.

Calm Transformers App - History of the Transformers story read by Peter Cullen. Available now!

Studio Series Wave 2 - Preorders coming soon!

Arcee - Deluxe class more details. Great looking robot and alt motorcycle.

Ironhide - Redeco of Ratchet with a cool yellow stripe!

Junkyard - Partial mold from Wreck-Gar with lots of spikes. Sample versions are shown.

Sludge - Leader class figure. Has extended articulation in head and neck. Windowless box shown.

Core Class Exo-Suit Spike - New mini-figure based on MP version with ports for blast effects and stuff.

New Legacy Beasts - Preorders coming in March!

Sandstorm - Beast Wars redeco from Scorponok with a new head.

Nightprowler - Redeco of Cheetor. Based on the unreleased prototype figure.

Buzzsaw - Redeco of Waspinator with a new head and numerous changes from the original as well as light piping in the head.

Vintage Beast Wars - Orders Open now for shipping in Spring!

Scorponok - Mega class figure. Metallic show colors.

Tigatron - Deluxe class figure. White color base.

Transformers R.E.D. FIgures - Hasbro Pulse orders today, more on Walmart.com coming soon.

Prime Knock Out - Show accurate robot mode with articulated feet. Has drill arm and other accessory hands.

G1 Ultra Magnus - Redeco of Optimus Prime with translucent parts.

Buzzworthy Bumblebee - Preorders coming soon!

Bumblebee B-127 - Maskless new head and warmer colors than the original figure.

TFTM 86 Kup - This figure has solid windows and parts such as seen in the movie. Falls apart to be fixed again. Do fans like opaque colored parts?

TFTM 86 Cluffjumper - New deco of WFC with the movie-accurate look.

Livestream Panel Ended

[griffin]

It has been noted that Nightprowler is being labelled as an Autobot to homage the original unreleased toy, that was intended to be released in the 2003-2004 Universe toyline... because even though that toyline was filled with Beast Wars and Beast Machines redecos, everything was packaged as Autobots and Decepticons, to keep things simple for Retailers (the Transformers Brand was a LOT different back then, with a unified marketing approach for the entire brand each year, which we saw was changed several years later as Hasbro Management and Marketing saw the need to branch out to different demographics and age-groups).

So even though that toy didn't get released back in 2003, it is likely that it would have been packaged as an Autobot, even if it (and the other three toys in the set) were clearly Beast Wars toys and characters.

It means that this new Legacy Nightprowler is more of a homage to the 2003 Universe toyline than to the character toy itself... but I think it would have made more sense to be packed as a Maximal this time, because it would have been a Maximal back in 2003 if the Beast Wars allegiances were being used.


Hopefully that answers the question that no one was asking...

[Sinnertwin]

What about Sludge's robot arms now being his hind legs?
I don't know how I feel about that.

[JJJ]

What about Sludge's robot arms now being his hind legs?
I don't know how I feel about that.

Is there any particular reason to be bothered by it? Apart from the fact that the alt-mode forelegs don't appear to be jointed, which is rather disappointing (but not really connected to where they go in bot mode).

[Deano85]

Trying to figure out where Sludges front legs hide away for bot mode

[JJJ]

I think they end up inside the torso. There seems to be a lot of stuff moving about and turning in this one; without a different view of the toy, about the only thing I can work out for sure is that his head ends up in his bum

Really looking forward to this one now, if only to work through the transformation.

[Deano85]

Yeah I was looking at the space behind his chest. I definitely like that the dinobots end up having some cool transformation tricks

[KELPIE]

My main thing with Sludge is the same complaint from PotP version. The wings need to be lifted a bit higher.

Still I'm excited for both 86 teases.

[griffin]

With Studio Sludge being officially released this month, one of the designers has released some info on its creation.

This includes a reason why Sludge didn't come with a mini-figure partner like the previous two Dinobots (he was more complex and had more parts).

Studio Series SS 86-15 Sludge
Hi Transformer fans! It's been awhile since I've posted, apologies for that. It's been quite a busy time getting everything prepped for SDCC!

I thought I'd follow up with another dinobot so here we have SS86 Sludge!

Land Before Time was a favorite movie of mine as a kid so the Brontosaurus shaped Dinobot was my favorite of the group!

Hasui san worked on this big bad dino and really made sure to bring to life his animation look. You can see his amazing pencil sketches for the detail drawings that bring some of the g1 scribe details into the character's form and feel so natural to them.

Always impressed how he keeps the transformation looking like the standard toy transformation but gives it a twist so the modern proportions and articulation of our figures can really shine.

Some of you might notice that the early block model had the horns on the robot head looking more like the G1 toy instead of the animation model. We made sure to update that as we moved to the physical model to make sure to get in those arched horns that were iconic to his design.

When we started development of this figure, we found he needed the most pieces of all the Dinobots so far.
This means that there wasn't any room to slip in a smaller character but since we had just launched Core Class for SS, we figured that it was justified to proceed without.

Other than that, there isn't much to tell!
I hope you all enjoy completing the original Trio of Dinobots by picking this guy up (If you like him).

[griffin]

Going back a few months, does anyone remember on one of the Hasbro presentations, the Virtual Reality game for Playstation at home?

Another promo video has been put up on youtube, showing more of the game play...



Apparently it has its official release today... if you have the hardware for it. (and if it was released in our region at the same time)