HasCon Transformers Panel and Display Cases

[Gutsman Heavy]

Did we get any word on Leader Blackout/Grimlock?

[Bladestorm]

A lot more photos of the Volcanicus combiner.

And official character art of the toys revealed on Friday - Dinobots, and Optimus & Micronus.

Those "antenna" on the shoulders (Grimlocks arms) ... just look so wrong.
But as others have said... I'll be getting it cuz... dinobots!! And it's probably as close to G1 dino's as we are gunna get.

I really like the look of Optimus other than the grey hands.

And Moonracer... does this mean we're going to see another female combiner with a leader class Elita One? She just seemed like the odd one out which makes me wonder if Moonracer is the teaser for a reveal of something bigger with the fembots later on.

I have to admit this event exceeded my expectation in terms of guests, displays and reveals, although I did notice quite a few of the Cybertroncon wall art re-used for this. The idea of touring Hasbro would be an interesting prospect. I wonder how fans of other franchises there eg MLP felt about the combined event and whether Hasbro will do it again or realise they need to dedicate time and effort to each franchise respectively with their own events.

[griffin]

The thing I try to remind people about these combiners, especially ones who aren't traditionally combiners, is that, as long as the combining element/engineering doesn't significantly ruin the look of the toy (like the PowerCore Combiners and RID Combiners), think of the combining element as just an added bonus, that you don't have to use... but if you do, it's a bonus feature in addition to it transforming between its classic modes.

And with pretty much all animal combiners, you are going to have limb kibble sticking out everywhere, and non-cubic bodies, so that when they are all combined into one form, it is usually a mess. Even the Gen1 Predaking - most of the individual beasts were rectangular blocks to give Predaking a more uniform combined mode, at the expense of the individual robot modes (being rectangular blocks).

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

And Moonracer... does this mean we're going to see another female combiner with a leader class Elita One? She just seemed like the odd one out which makes me wonder if Moonracer is the teaser for a reveal of something bigger with the fembots later on.

Yup. Maybe. Sorta.
Voyager-class Elita-1 (Starscream retool) with Moonracer and FireNovaStar deluxes. Whether that means there's a Greenlight, Lancer, and/or updated Chromia on the way is anyone's guess. I'm hoping for a Greenlight and Lancer myself, but that's probably a bit optimistic.

[griffin]

I haven't watched it yet, but apparently this is a video of the Sunday Transformers panel. If it is, it mustn't reveal anything new, or else it would be news on the major fansites.

[Jellico]

Yup. Maybe. Sorta.
Voyager-class Elita-1 (Starscream retool) with Moonracer and FireNovaStar deluxes. Whether that means there's a Greenlight, Lancer, and/or updated Chromia on the way is anyone's guess. I'm hoping for a Greenlight and Lancer myself, but that's probably a bit optimistic.

The whole leak thing makes it weird. The above is a good example. You would think that they are half way to a full combiner with the first three. But the plan for the year has mostly repeats in Wave 3 and 4. Heck, Jazz is the only other Autobot Deluxe leaving any potential combiner a limb short.

Don't get me wrong. It looks like a great year. You have 3 strong waves of Legends. The 3 unique Leaders are solid enough though dominated by Autobots. 5 unique Voyagers, though all are torsos, only two seem to have a full set of limbs planed so far. Which brings us back to the Deluxes. Two sets of 4 and not enough spares to make anything. Curious.

Oh well. Time to go back to thinking about putting TR Optimus and PotP Optimus in a cage fight to see who gets to face off against CW Megatron.

[griffin]

Clean official images of the Dinobots, Optimus and Micronus.

[Jellico]

The Seibertron version has fluff, prices and release dates. I mention it because all the Dinobots are listed as Fall which doesn't match with what we have been told before.