Japanese Super Festival display images

[griffin]

Mirrored here are some photos from a recent Japanese toy convention that had some Transformers items on display, but not by TakaraTomy I think.

One display is by, or for, the Million Publishing (Generations book) toys Go-Shooter and Shouki, while the other display is by Fewture Models, who have the giant Unicron head, Alpha Trion, etc.

Also at the convention is some original Headmasters Manga art, along with a giant standee that you can stand in, and take a photo as if you are Pretender Starscream.

[griffin]

It is some-what odd to have Pretender Starscream as the display you can stick your head into for a photo, as this was one toy that wasn't released in Japan as a complete Pretender during Gen1 (or ever).
So why not have a Gen1 toy that was released or easily recognised in Japan, or a current/recent/iconic toy? It's almost like it is an easter egg for a future project or direction of the brand after Combiners (after Combiners and Headmasters, Pretenders are probably the next biggest wish to be redone or homaged).

It's just so obscure (for Japan) to intentionally chose that particular toy to go to so much trouble to create a human-sized photo standee... that it would be like Hasbro having a standee at BotCon for the Japanese exclusive Galaxy Shuttle toy - American fans at the convention would wonder why such an obscure character was chosen by Hasbro as the sole photo standee if there wasn't a project on the drawing board for a homage toy.
It might end up just being a red herring to throw off fans, or to see how they react to it before attempting an updated Pretender concept... a bit like the expression of having an elephant in the room - everyone can see it, but no one knows why it is there.