Beast Hunters Construct-Bots found (in Europe)

[griffin]

Series 1 - Gen1 (ish)
Series 2 - Beast Hunters
Series 3 - TF4

Before Beast Hunters wrapped up, there was supposed to be a second series of Construct-Bots released, which would feature Beast Hunters characters.
Hasbro America revealed them at BotCon last year and even started putting up their product details on the official Transformers page at the end of last year.
But then, after a few months of nothing, and a stagnant Brand in stores (thanks to the mainline of BH toys), we went through the Toyfair season (US, UK, Germany, HK, Australia) with not a single mention or product on display.


Scout (US$10)
Bumblebee (car - Auto) (34 pieces)
Starscream (brown/red jet - Decep) (33 pieces)
Ripclaw (wing beast - Pred) (34 pieces)

Elite (US$15)
Skystalker (blue wing beast - Pred) (45 pieces)
Shockwave (tank - Decep) (51 pieces)
Optimus Prime (truck - Auto) (54 pieces)

Triple Team (US$25)
Unicron Megatron (bronze jet) w/ Ratbat (bat) & Barrage (rhino beetle) (Decep) (71 pieces)
Bulkhead (armoured vehicle) w/ Airazor (bird) & Wolfang (wolf) (Auto) (70 pieces)

Ultimate (US$35)
Optimus Prime (truck - Auto) VS Predaking (dragon - Pred)

Just like the BotShots, these were assumed to be cancelled, and all the time and money spent on those figures and their new parts, was wasted.
(except Predaking, which was released early as part of the Target exclusive "Predacons Rising" set, AND, labelled as number 11 of 30)

But, it looks like they were produced after all... just not likely to go anywhere convenient for those keen on them.
Just like the final Beast Hunters toys, these have been found in Eastern Europe... Hungary and Slovakia of all places.
We used to be the dumping ground of old or cancelled items, and now Europe seems to be.

The one being shown off here is Ripclaw, which actually makes the more rounded, "organic" element of the Construct-Bots concept work, to the extent of not looking too bad.
After all those odd-looking Gen1-ish sets in the first series that were essentially the exact same figure with different coloured body armour, and not looking too good in vehicle mode, this one pulls off the beast mode quite nicely.

[griffin]

Some pics of Skystalker, which also translates better into Construct-Bots than the Vehicle ones of the first series.
From Eastern Europe again.