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A lot of fans have been excited about the latest encore reissue from Takara Tomy Transformers, of the combining and parts forming two-figure set from Car Robots / Robots in Disguise - God Fire Convoy, or Omega Prime to Anglophone audiences.
However, there seem to be more issues than previously thought with the release of the Fire Convoy and God Magnus brothers, according to a number of reports and seemingly confirmed by a post on the Taiwanese Facebook group TFCN - though the news seems to clash with the actual release of the figure, that has already happened - the figure will be recalled due to quality issues and general not very goodness.
While we wait from an official communication of sorts, let us know what you think of this news. Do you have the figure in hand? Can you confirm the reports? Is your figure also not up to standard for a new toy?
It's a little late, but the most important news today should be this.
.
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This is a message from the last month, the encore series, the encore series, the series of after fire command, which will be cancelled because of the quality of product quality.
Some really big news has just hit the interwebs regarding our first look at a figure from the upcoming Bumblebee movie! No less, this figure in particular is rumored to be a new Movie Masterpiece Bumblebee MPM 07 WITH a Volkswagen Beetle alternate mode! The single image, found on Baidu , shows the MPM's we already know of: Optimus Prime, Barricade, Bumblebee in his Camaro form, Ironhide, and one we've never seen before, a certain Volkswagen Bug! This figure is still just a grey prototype, but it's still big news! We previously knew we would get another Movie Masterpiece Bumblebee from earlier listings and this it our first look at it.
This will be the second Masterpiece figure officially licensed by VW, after the regular G1 MP Bumblebee! Check the photo out below and tell us if you'll be picking up this rumored figure when it hits shelves!
It's been a little while since we've heard any major news about the upcoming Bumblebee stand alone film, but we do have a couple stories to bring you today. First, we have one of the first outside opinions on the main plot of Bumblebee, from screenwriter Steven DeKnight. Coming as a snippet of an interview from entertainment website Uproxx for his upcoming film Pacific Rim: Uprising, he shares that the story they used for the Transformers spin off was his favorite to come out of the Transformers screenwriting room that was arranged last year by Michael Bay and Paramount. Check out the Transformers-related section of the interview below.
Our second Bumblebee story is a bit of a rumor in conjunction with a recent announcement from Paramount themselves. It's been said recently (notably by reviewer and journalist Manabyte (Or Jeremy Conrad) that Paramount is planning to do an early screening of the Bumblebee movie sometime very soon, and that info collides with the announcement that this year's Wondercon Anaheim will be the backdrop to the first screening of a secret Paramount film. There are several Paramount movies coming out this year, and nothing in particular points to the Bumblebee movie being the secret screening, but there is a chance. Either way, we'll find out this Friday!
Uproxx: You were part of the Transformers writers’ room. I’m so curious: What’s a Transformers writing room like?
Steven DeKnight: It was a blast.
Uproxx: I imagine.
Steven DeKnight: It was a room full of incredibly talented, interesting, really wonderful people. I’ve got to say, my time spent in there was just, more than anything, was just so much fun. Everyone was so much fun and interesting. And we actually wrote, I think it was, I want to say 12 different movies. Every one of us took a different idea and developed it into like a full 30-page outline, so there were like 12 movies. And also, in complete honesty, my absolute favorite movie of the bunch was the Bumblebee movie that they’re making right now.
With the stories about Toys R Us dominating the news cycle for toy collectors and fans, something else seems to have made its appearance, sped up by the closure of the giraffe-shaped retail chain, and a name that North American Transformers fans might recognise: KB Toys.
Fellow Seibertronian Sabrblade pointed us towards an article on The Rock Father detailing the entire deal, but it all starts with Ellia Kassoff of Strategic Brands, LLC, posting on LinkedIn about their plans to resurrect KB Toys, and how the TRU closure has affected all this.
we have now accelerated our business plan and hope to have our stores up and running before Christmas. We're in discussions with many of the toy manufactures, as we try to find out the best way to support them and the 20% loss of the US toy market due to the Toys R Us liquidation.
Additionally, Kassoff later posted another message, highlighting their current priorities in terms of the over 30000 people who are losing their current jobs at Toys R Us, along with any other specialist in the toy industry (manufacturer, distributor, retailer, etc) who may be interested in joining the initiative to, as they put it, 'save the toy industry'.
The action is bold, and as Zahn points out in the article on The Rock Father, there are both good pointers and potential hurdles in the whole deal, including the cause of KB's downfall in the first place being the same as TRU's this time round:
Strategic Marks did indeed file for a trademark on the name "KB Toys" back in 2016. What's interesting here is that the original KB Toys fell victim to the same vultures at Bain Capital, who loaded that company with debt and killed it in the same way that they've destroyed Toys "R" Us. Then, in 2009, Toys "R" Us acquired the KB portfolio of trademarks from Streambank, LLC for just over $2M, taking over the domain names and later using the KB Toys name on a series of budget-priced, house-branded toys and games (they were crap) labeled as K•B Classics. Along the way, KB had many variations of their name, including K•B Toys, K•B Toys Outlet, K•B Toy Works and Kay-Bee Toys. It will be interesting to see if Toys "R" Us still considers any of those to be assets in their liquidation, as I was able to find that KBToys.com, KBToyWorks.com and KBKids.com (which once had a $43M push behind it) are all still owned by Toys "R" Us and pointed to the TRU.com server (although unresponsive)
That said, what do you make of this? Is it a positive update in the Toys r Us debacle? Is it something that might interest you to follow through? Join the conversation in the Energon Pub, and share your thoughts!
My fellow Seibertronians, lend me your audio receptors!
One of the major stories coming out of this past weekend's Hasbro Media Day at New York Toy Fair is the launch of Hasbro Labs (HasLab for short), a crowdfunding platform intended to deliver oft requested and long sought after 'grails' to the various communities in Hasbro's fan ecosystem. Their initial project is the largest Star Wars vehicle ever: a 3.75" scale Jabba's Sail Barge from Return of the Jedi. With all crowdfunding projects comes a degree of risk: HasLab requires a 5000 unit commitment at $500 apiece for the project to succeed.
What does this have to do with us, the Transformer community? Well, if you haven't seen or heard the group interview with the Transformers Brand Team, some saw HasLab as a path to a no-holds-bar update to the Chaos Bringer himself: Unicron.
Would fans want to see a crowdfunded HasLab Unicron? What kind of pricing? Point fans to HasLab, talk about it, read about it, podcast about it. Talk about what you want to see, we’re listening. #Unicron
What does the Seibertron community think? Should the Transformers Brand Team use HasLab as a vehicle to bring us the Chaos Bringer? Or would you rather see Hasbro's crowdfunding platform directed to create something else entirely?
Share your thoughts in the comments below, and let's get this discussion started --- the powers that Has-be are listening!
A scanned image from the latest issue of Figure King magazine - mirrored below via Planet Iacon and thanks to a tip from fellow Seibertronian Cyberpath - shows us something the magazine themselves call a 'scoop': what appears to be a new version, or at least an 'update' to the Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece Optimus Prime (supposedly the MP10 version, at this stage), for the 35th anniversary of the franchise in 2019.
In the image below, we can see differences in the shoulder and ab grill compared to the previous figure, of which we've also included an image below for comparison. Check it out, and let us know what you think in the Energon Pub discussion!
Coming to Transformers 35th Anniversary.
There's new design plan reveal Masterpiece Optimus Prime, shoulder and core pack are updated and new. Is there a possibility of seeing MP Optimus Prime 3.0?
Amazon seems to be the hot spot for exclusives this year, or at least special edition toys. We already had listings for a Generations Blastoff and now Amazon.ca has a listing for an upcoming Deluxe Counterpunch toy.
Here are all the details given:
TRANSFORMERS E1864 Generations Special Edition Deluxe Counterpunch
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 25.4 x 17.8 cm ; 4.54 Kg
Shipping Weight: 4.5 Kg
Item model number: E1864
ASIN: B077ZBCPDV
We do not know more than that. This is a very premature listing with stand in text but it is fun none the less. This is a character that has not had a release from Hasbro proper since G1. It is also interesting to note that the listing is only titled after the Counterpunch identity with no mention of Punch. He is said to be part of the Robots in Disguise line but that may be fill in text. We will write an update whenever we know more.
We have an update on a list we previously published of listings which did not have images or descriptions.
TRA ACTION ATTACKER 20 AST
TRA ACTION ATTACKER 30
TRA ACTION ATTACKER 15 AST
TRA ACTION ATTACKER 8 AST
These Action Attackers turned out to be the entire Cyberverse line, with the numbers being the confirmed price points. You can find out more about that particular line, here.
The previous listings also had Project Storm which we now know to be the codename for the Authentics line:
Transformers Generations
TRA GEN PROJECT STORM (?)
TRA GEN PROJECT STORM 10 (?)
Photo by Murasame
With that said, we have new Action Attacker listings below. These are different than the previous ones and are probably for the Bumblebee Live Action film. Which means that, as with the Cyberverse line, the Bumblebee Movie line will be full of action gimicks.
E1886 Action Attackers Battle
E1907 Action Attackers Costanza
E1906 Action Attackers Bania
E3522 Action Attackers One Step
Along with these new listings were the following which also seem to be for the Bumblebee movie line:
E2093 Energon Ignitors Radar (TF Fan Nevermore informs us that "Radar" was previously used as Optimus Prime's code name)
E0753 Energon Ignitor Blue Light
E0752 Hot Rod Power Series
E0759 Bumblebee Power Series
And two Masterpiece listings which may or may not be for toys we already know are coming.
E0705 Masterpiece Autobot
E0835 Masterpiece Bumblebee
All of these listings were found on www.srbrinquedo.pt and we were made aware of them by TF Fan Nevermore.
This piece of news from the New York Toy Fair aftermath is entirely thanks to Transformers Twitter, as users The Last Gherkin, Jalaguy and original source of the image TFU.info combined their efforts to provide the best resolution of the tidbit - but what we have thanks to them is a first look at the female Decepticon character due to appear in the animated Cyberverse series from Hasbro and Boulder Media: Shadow Striker!
You can see artwork of her on the side of the Cyberverse Megatron box, which we do have in our own galleries, but not as visible as the further images mirrored below.
Take a look, and let us know what you think of the design so far, and join the discussion in the Energon Pub!
According to the official Facebook page for the Transformers brand, we will be seeing a new fan vote in the year 2018, as has been the case for the past four already!
The short clip tells us absolutely nothing other than a vote is coming, but does point out the various winners of previous editions, such as the Generations Combiner Wars Victorion / Rust Renegades team for 2015, the cityformer Titan class Trypticon for Titans Return in 2016, the upcoming Optimus Primal in Power of the Primes, which will be leader class and feature the evolution gimmick and a Primal Prime mode, for 2017 (ish, cut them some slack). Check out the teaser clip below, and speculate away in the Energon Pub!
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