AUG 16th live reveal - Studio Series & Legacy wave 3

[griffin]

Hasbro Designers have already been on instagram to talk a bit about the design of the new Studio Series Hot Rod and Crosshairs...

SS-92 TF5 The Last Knight Crosshairs
“Love that guy. Goosebumps every time.”
Next up on the reveals today we debuted the all new Crosshairs! TF5 Crosshairs is based on a repurposed design from AOE that saw modifications to the vehicle mode. The licensed C7 Corvette Stingray saw minor body modifications to mimic some of the wider flared details of a Z06, while introducing a new spoiler, canards and an all new livery.
Talk about an impossible design, a lot of the new characters introduced in Age of Extinction didn’t take transformation into consideration when hiding car parts amongst the robot forms. To make matters worse, they introduced a figure wearing a trench coat, turning car parts into pliable clothing.

Yuki Hisashi had a hell of an undertaking in trying to bring this character to life, but I think he succeeded marvelously. This figure is a massive improvement from his premier edition release, and does a great job of modernizing the articulation, and introducing an articulated trench coat flaps to the front of the figure.
Crosshairs includes his iconic submachine guns which can be stowed in his door panels, along with his jetpack that can be found on the upper back. Unfortunately Crosshairs does have a rather sizable kibble on his back due to the entire vehicle form needing to disappear from the robot design.
What are your thoughts on this guy? Does he hit his mark, or miss the target?


SS-93 TF5 The Last Knight Hot Rod
“Bonjour, cheri!”
I am thrilled to finally be able to share (and potentially unspoiled) Studio Series Hot Rod! This figured was an absolute blast to work on, so sit back and enjoy as I blush over this design.
Hot Rod gets a proper figure and vehicle representation by way of his primary vehicle mode for the film, a licensed 2017 Lamborghini Centenario. No repurposed parts, no alt heads, just a true to form figure with phenomenal transformation and articulation.
The Last Knight presented a number of fantastic robot designs, but they in most instances were absent of any of their vehicle counterparts pieces. In the minority, is Hot Rod. He maintains enough of the vehicle mode to make for an ultra compact transformation, with next to no kibble. I was fortunate enough to partner with Tomo Tatsumi on this item, who delivered on all of the complex curveballs that our RI design team, and vehicle licensor through at him.
The vehicle and a majority of the robot mode are clad in a gun metal metallic to help replicate the carbon fiber chassis of the Centenario, and is accented with an orange livery to match the robot panels. I was happy to be able to capture the DRL and tail lamps, along with active aero spoiler in the raised position as seen in the majority of the London chase scenes.
As I mentioned on the stream, this might be my favorite studio series character of the year, at least from the Bayverse. I really hope you all enjoy him as much as I do! What do you all think, will he be joining your collection?

[SharkyMcShark]

I really really like the look of that Studio Series Hot Rod.

I paid over the odds for the previous deluxe figure and quite enjoyed that, but this looks *real* good.

[Paulbot]

Bomb-Burst does look interesting but I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting my new Legacy Pretenders to be in the same scale. I think Skullgrin could have worked better as a Core than the deluxe.

Looking at the TFTM Rumble toy next to the TFTM Ratchet toy, I'm guessing his tape mode is still compatible with the Siege/Netflix Soundwave? Anyone seen that confirmed somewhere? I was disappointed with all the WFC Micromaster tapes and wouldn't mind them getting a redo (although not so much at $20 each...)

[Tha_Phantom]

I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting my new Legacy Pretenders to be in the same scale. I think Skullgrin could have worked better as a Core than the deluxe.

Yeah, that was such a random choice.
Unless the plan is to eventually give us core AND deluxe class versions of each pretender - which is highly unlikely.

[JJJ]

Yeah, that was such a random choice.
Unless the plan is to eventually give us core AND deluxe class versions of each pretender - which is highly unlikely.

Well, that that's exactly what the leaks still say - that there is also a core class Skullgrin for later this year.

More interestingly, there was some interesting speculation (fueled by the new pictures) about what appeared to be a hinge without any obvious purpose on the front of deluxe Skullgrin that might allow the chest to open (like Soundwave).

[Tha_Phantom]

Well, that that's exactly what the leaks still say - that there is also a core class Skullgrin for later this year.

Really? Skullgrin specifically? I thought the pretenders were listed in the leaks as "energon monsters" aside from Iguanus.

[JJJ]

They were. There was a core energon monster listing for this year. Since the leaking of deluxe Skullgrin, the leakers have been saying that this core energon monster is actually core Skullgrin, and that we're getting both.

Mind you, nobody has turned up a product number for this core toy, so who knows what is really happening.

[Paulbot]

The earliest Legacy listings mentioned a Core SKullgrin. This list is nearly a year old and was fairly accurate - wrong Soundwave and some case assortments a bit off though.

Probably the Skullgrin is the Bomb-Burst?