New Rescue Bots toys found on ebay

[griffin]

Since these haven't been mirrored anywhere like TFW yet, it is best to check these ebay links for the images if you are interested in looking at them, or buying them.

From Canada comes a 2-pack of redeco figurines called "Silver Force", which has the 2013 versions of Optimus and Bumblebee with silver paint decos.
It has a Target exclusive sticker on it, so might be Target exclusive in America too, to go with their Silver Knight themed movie exclusives.
It is dated 2014 on the pack so is definitely from this year and not from 2012 (because 2013 had the "Rescue Bots Energize" logo)
(TFwiki has an image of the figurines but no details on when or where it was released)

And from South Korea comes the 2013 pop-out set that we saw at the American Toyfair last year, but then it looked like it never got released. However, some must have been produced, and for some reason they ended up in South Korea, as this seller has had 3 of them.
The reason I know it is not a new release is because of the Energize logo, which was last year's logo... and not used this year for their Dinobots theme. It also has on the back of the packaging, 2012, so this makes this a rare find for Transformers as I haven't seen it reported anywhere.
Even TFWiki don't have it mentioned anywhere on their site.
(yes, I bought one, just in case it doesn't show up anywhere else, since it's taken a year or two for it to show up now)
.

[griffin]

I was just asking about these on TFW to see if anyone in America saw them before at retail, and I saw that the Korean seller has added more of the Rescue Bots Pop-out sets, making it 13 so far... which is a lot for one dealer for a two year old toy, and yet not found anywhere else (that I know of).

[griffin]

The playset from South Korea finally arrived yesterday, so i wanted to share some photos, and an edit to say that it looks like this was actually released in Latin America and South Korea in October last year. (Shmax.com: Product Information - Bumblebee Rescue Repair Station)
It's still rare enough to not be featured anywhere yet (that I can find), so with Rescue Bots on track to be the longest running Transformers cartoon if it goes for another year, I'm sure there should be some fans out there who might be interested in seeing what this looks like in and out of packaging.



As noted in the post above, this was an item that was shown at the American Toyfair in 2013, but as far as I can tell, it wasn't released by Hasbro in Western markets (like America or Australia) during the 2013 Energize series.
When I got this one in the mail, it had a sticker on the bottom of the box that was entirely in Korean, so whatever was planned of this toy in 2013, it must have been produced, but ended up being offloaded in some obscure countries some time later.
Some noted when it was revealed at the 2013 Toyfair, it is a slightly modified re-use of the X-Men Danger Room playset that was released for the Marvel Super Heroes Squad 3D playsets. As such, Hasbro probably had plans to release the other Marvel ones as Rescue Bots sets, but then didn't.

Images of the packaging from all sides. It is a very thin box, emphasising the "flat" gimmick of this item.










Opening it up and removing the contents. You get the fold-out playset, a Bumblebee figurine, a missile, a launcher, instructions and a big sticker sheet.











Unfortunately for a completist collector like me, the Bumblebee figurine is identical to the regular release of the 2-pack and single-packed figures from 2013. In the next photo from the left is the 2013 2-pack version, the 3D playset version and the 2014 2-pack version.



The transformation from flat to playset.







And with the stickers applied. The central grey platform is a trap-door, which aside from the missile launcher, is really the only gimmick on this playset.





Group shot of the various Rescue Bots playsets so far released, with some figurines of the characters on the cartoon.



It cost US$51 for me to get this (to Australia), and would not recommend it at that price unless you are a big fan of Rescue Bots and it doesn't show up anywhere else for less.
.