New Transformers Robot Enhanced Design (R.E.D) Toyline Revealed by Hasbro

Not too bad looking actually. Action Masters but on steroids, basically. I’d probably get a Starscream if one gets made and call it a day there.

Looks really good. Not for me though. would be neat if they had some nods to the old action masters line though.

Well, it beats Action Masters. Still gonna stick with the actual transforming figures.

Would be cool if they did them real ghostbusters style and included a ghost... I mean ikkle beast wars figurine with them. This line might even see a build a figure run at some point. Going to be very choosy in what/if any that I pick up other than prime (and mirage if there is one).
Not sure if I'd have the heart to downsize my mp stuff for non transforming bots but its probably worth considering with mps price tags not being affordable as what they once were.

william-james88 wrote:Also, major pass.

Same here, and my wallet rejoices.

You know, I just had a crazy thought that probably won't come true, but...

What if this line was restricted to being nothing but Optimus and Megatron/Galvatron figures, but utilized designs of the two from all across the different series over the decades?

Optimus Primal and Beast Megatron
Transmetals Optimus Primal and Megatron
RiD 2001 Optimus and Megatron
Armada Optimus and Megatron
Energon Optimus and Megatron
Cybertron Optimus and Megatron
Movie Optimus and Megatron
Animated Optimus and Megatron
ROTF Optimus and Megatron
DOTM Optimus and Megatron
Prime Optimus and Megatron
Prime Beast Hunters Optimus and Unicron Megatron
AOE Optimus and Galvatron
TLK Optimus and Megatron
Cyberverse Optimus and Megatron/Megatron X

Retailers would get their big legacy names, while we fans would get legacy franchise diversity.

Sabrblade wrote:DOTM Optimus and Megatron

Now we’re talking! While I’m sure this line is going to be just more G1, It would be really neat to see them branch out to all different parts of the brand. If they made some movie guys (basically Robot Replicas 2.0) I’d totally get a few.

EvasionModeBumblebee wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:DOTM Optimus and Megatron

Now we’re talking! While I’m sure this line is going to be just more G1, It would be really neat to see them branch out to all different parts of the brand. If they made some movie guys (basically Robot Replicas 2.0) I’d totally get a few.

'Course, DOTM Optimus would just be Movie/ROTF Optimus with a new tummy.

I could see this as being a good way to get characters we’d probably never see figures of (like Tarn, or Phasma, or even Fulcrum). That would really be the only way I’d get super invested in this line.

Sabrblade wrote:You know, I just had a crazy thought that probably won't come true, but...

What if this line was restricted to being nothing but Optimus and Megatron/Galvatron figures, but utilized designs of the two from all across the different series over the decades?

Sorry to burst your bubble but as I wrote in the article, we already know Soundwave is coming too.
It will basically be your G1 sunbow cast.

This line could be ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

If they'd do the Pretenders. Meaning the humans and the monsters. No need for the inner bots. Just give us what the outer shell should look like if not constrained with the inner bot gimmick.

william-james88 wrote:Sorry to burst your bubble but as I wrote in the article, we already know Soundwave is coming too.
It will basically be your G1 sunbow cast.

Well, obviously it will be at first. But let's hope it will be just for the line initial "test run" to see if it sell. And if it does, maybe they will dare think outside the G1 Sunbow box.

If we don't get pretender shells and actionmasters from this, it will be such a waste of potential. They could even release the pretenders' inner robots in the main line and make them compatible with the shells.

This is a very interesting development, and one that could be a lot of fun to drop in and out of depending on who gets released

This feels like a waste of time, the generations figures already have articulation this good or better, I mean, especially with o/p, I thinK at least half of us have earthrise prime, the other half has an mp, and some percentage in the middle have siege as a hyper-articulated o/p figure

Lore Keeper wrote:If we don't get pretender shells and actionmasters from this, it will be such a waste of potential. They could even release the pretenders' inner robots in the main line and make them compatible with the shells.

The inner bots could never be "compatible" with the shells. But I'm all for inner bots action figures that would be the same size as the shell figures. Hey, make them into 2-packs!

As for the Action Masters... Let me boom a gigantic DUUUUUH!
Seriously, I can't believe I didn't thought about the obvious. Especially because I have most of them. Many are original characters with an obvious non-transforming design like Banzaitron. Having modern figures for those would be fantastic!

AWESOME!

I was just thinking we needed more over-priced hard to get outside of the US exclusives which don't even transform.

Unless this is eventually used as a way to make decent toys of characters that didn't transform in the cartoons like Alpha Trion, Autobot X/Spike, etc or for cool stuff like Pretenders, my plan is to buy 0 of these. RIP completionism, you were fun but this is exactly the type of product I've been cutting out with respect to buying licensed stuff and I'm not starting back just because this crap is actually Hasbro.

Black Hat wrote:If we get non-G1 figures out of this I might be interested. Though the lacking articulation (90 degree elbows belong in the past) kinda sucks.

They do have bicep swivels. And even on transforming figures 90 degree elbows remain the norm (at least for deluxes) except when more is required for transformation or a beast mode. It tends to require double-jointing, especially when dealing with blocky robot limbs.

Burn wrote:AWESOME!

I was just thinking we needed more over-priced hard to get outside of the US exclusives which don't even transform.

Same price as wfc deluxes but with out having to incorporate crappy alt modes (siege prime, suppository datsun etc) they should be in retail (providing shops have any space left for transformers), non exclusive (tho the line will probably feature exclusives, at least 1 per toy like wfc...) and should be free of qc errors that stop the toy from transforming :p

Can guarantee a red series bumblebee will be the same price of prime/Meg too be it 6 inch or 2 inch. Though it will be interesting to see if they try to keep to scale with them or forget it.

ScottyP wrote:Unless this is eventually used as a way to make decent toys of characters that didn't transform in the cartoons like Alpha Trion, Autobot X/Spike, etc or for cool stuff like Pretenders, my plan is to buy 0 of these. RIP completionism, you were fun but this is exactly the type of product I've been cutting out with respect to buying licensed stuff and I'm not starting back just because this crap is actually Hasbro.

Pretty much mu thoughts.
But we all know we will never escape the Sunbow Gauntlet.

Megatron looks good, but not so sure about Prime. His light colors don't lend themselves well to the shiny plastic and lack of paint, he looks like a model kit that has only had minimum paint applied. Hopefully he looks better in person, the studio lights aren't doing him any favors.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Seriously, I can't believe I didn't thought about the obvious. Especially because I have most of them. Many are original characters with an obvious non-transforming design like Banzaitron. Having modern figures for those would be fantastic!

Only if they come with their partners, they're an essential part of the figure. If not then they would HAVE to be released as Battle Masters in the main line at the same time.

Emerje

blackeyedprime wrote:

Burn wrote:AWESOME!

I was just thinking we needed more over-priced hard to get outside of the US exclusives which don't even transform.

Same price as wfc deluxes but with out having to incorporate crappy alt modes (siege prime, suppository datsun etc) they should be in retail (providing shops have any space left for transformers), non exclusive (tho the line will probably feature exclusives, at least 1 per toy like wfc...) and should be free of qc errors that stop the toy from transforming :p

Will already said they're Walmart Exclusives which generally translates to "not generally released in Australia but if you're lucky you might be able to import or EB Games/Zing will carry them for some ridiculous price"

Burn wrote:Will already said they're Walmart Exclusives which generally translates to "not generally released in Australia but if you're lucky you might be able to import or EB Games/Zing will carry them for some ridiculous price"

If memory serve, Australia do have access to Takara exclusives from times to times.

Win some, lose some.

Unless they branch out and make some action masters and pretenders, this feels pretty pointless to me. Though that Optimus looks better than MP-44, not gonna lie.

Inititial article on ign said otherwise but they updated it with walmart exclusive.
How did they handle the Netflix stuff in Australia? Netflix stuff is pretty much just retail release over here for the most part though we are probably never getting walmart wwe motu or any general release gi Joe stuff -with our govt naming an anti terrorist organisation after a fictational terrorist organisation.

Back to discussing Mega scfs... Erm.. Red series.

blackeyedprime wrote:Back to discussing Mega scfs... Erm.. Red series.

No no, they're Revoltech, right?

ScottyP wrote:Unless this is eventually used as a way to make decent toys of characters that didn't transform in the cartoons like Alpha Trion, Autobot X/Spike, etc or for cool stuff like Pretenders, my plan is to buy 0 of these. RIP completionism, you were fun but this is exactly the type of product I've been cutting out with respect to buying licensed stuff and I'm not starting back just because this crap is actually Hasbro.

By the way, for all those thinking this will make way for cool niche stuff we wouldn't regularly see...



Writing a post as to why....

The niche stuff can only exist as super expensive Someconvention exclusive.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Burn wrote:Will already said they're Walmart Exclusives which generally translates to "not generally released in Australia but if you're lucky you might be able to import or EB Games/Zing will carry them for some ridiculous price"

If memory serve, Australia do have access to Takara exclusives from times to times.

Win some, lose some.

Yes ... EB Games/Zing, at ridiculous prices, hence why I said it. Keep up buttercup.

So far this year is giving us an Arcee relase in every line. We got one in Studio Series, Generations, MP and Cyberverse. So, with this new Transformers R.E.D. Series (see what they did there?), we just had to get another Arcee. And so that's what we'll get. Transformers fan LegoTFGuy used his Walmart scanner to see if they could find other listings under this new RED Series and found quite a few. Of course, we've seen Optimus Prime and Megatron, and we have further confirmation of the Soundwave we already had a listing of, but they found even more such as the afore mentionned Arcee, Bumblebee (Big surprise!) and Cheetor along with another figure which has yet to be named in the system. They are all 19.87.

A few extra points, we did have a previous listing for a Generations Cheetor, so it is unclear if this is that same toy or not (the ID numbers are not the same). Also, the Arcee is listed as "Prime Arcee" and these are only inferred to be part of the RED series because they are bundled together in Walmart's system. Though Bumblebee does have the clear RED moniker. And Bumblebee being the same price means either they will be in scale and you are paying the same for half a figure OR he will also be 6 inches and scale will not be a factor in this line.

blackeyedprime wrote:How did they handle the Netflix stuff in Australia?

They (along with G1 mini-bot reissues) have started to appear in K-Marts over the last two weeks.

So K-Mart actually kept its smeg together in Australia and didn't disintegrate?

Wait...

PRIME Arcee?
Are we already getting out of the Sunbow bubble, or I'm just hoping for things?

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:So K-Mart actually kept its smeg together in Australia and didn't disintegrate?

Yeah, K-Mart is going strong here (it's not owned by K-Mart US) but it came at the expense of Target though (Wesfarmers own both K-Mart and Target).

Ingenious how they've used OP's thigh detail as a joint!

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Black Hat wrote:If we get non-G1 figures out of this I might be interested. Though the lacking articulation (90 degree elbows belong in the past) kinda sucks.

They do have bicep swivels. And even on transforming figures 90 degree elbows remain the norm (at least for deluxes) except when more is required for transformation or a beast mode. It tends to require double-jointing, especially when dealing with blocky robot limbs.

It is a little strange that they went out of their way to give them double knees, but not double elbows when they're standard in this scale (unless a character has massive biceps). They've already managed to avoid an ab crunch joint, what's an extra elbow joint?

blackeyedprime wrote:Can guarantee a red series bumblebee will be the same price of prime/Meg too be it 6 inch or 2 inch. Though it will be interesting to see if they try to keep to scale with them or forget it.

It's the same with Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black so I expect that to be the case. Those lines are all about scale so I imagine this one will be as well. If Soundwave ends up the same size as Megatron then I'm instantly passing on this line, right now I'm on the fence. This is a 6" line, but that doesn't mean Optimus and Megatron have to be 6". Make Op and Megs 6.5", Soundwave and the Seekers 6", Irohide 5.5", Datsuns and other cars 5" and Bumblebee and the like 4". Just add enough accessories to offset the prices

I'm a little disappointed to see no mention of a BAF on this line considering they do huge ones for Marvel Legends and RED is a line that Hasbro can print money with if done right since they only have to pay production costs, no license fees. BAF Grimlock, BAF Sky Fire, BAF Autobot X, BAF Halonix Maximus (not to scale, or is it?) the sky's the limit!

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:So K-Mart actually kept its smeg together in Australia and didn't disintegrate?

The Australian Kmart separated from the US Kmart many years ago, before things started to really fall apart.

Emerje

Burn wrote:

blackeyedprime wrote:How did they handle the Netflix stuff in Australia?

They (along with G1 mini-bot reissues) have started to appear in K-Marts over the last two weeks.

I'm very happy to hear you are able to get those.

Sooo, anyone hoping for a Nightbird in this line?

Slashercon wrote:Sooo, anyone hoping for a Nightbird in this line?

It would make a LOT of sense. A Nightbird with no random kibbles. Also, she's from Sunbow G1. There's no excuses.

This is an excellent opportunity to give us an show-accurate Armada Scavenger.


Day 177 of waiting for Transformers Armada Masterpiece news.

william-james88 wrote:[T]his new Transformers R.E.D. Series (see what they did there?)

No actually, I’m confused. Granted, I am kinda drunk. But I don’t get it.

It r wordplay. It's an acronym, but also a color. And makes the name similar to Star Wars: The Black Series.

I will say, these are definitely better than that junk with articulation no better than mid-90s PotF action figures.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:

william-james88 wrote:[T]his new Transformers R.E.D. Series (see what they did there?)

No actually, I’m confused. Granted, I am kinda drunk. But I don’t get it.

This is supposed to be the Transformers equivalent of the Black series, so they made up an acronym that would also be a colour.

So now we have the Star Wars Black series and the Transformers Red series.

Wonder what the GI Joe line would be to carry the theme on

ZeroWolf wrote:Wonder what the GI Joe line would be to carry the theme on

G.I. Joe Classified series is already a thing.

Okay so, even being kinda drunk, I DID understand everything there was to know about the R.E.D thing...am I the only one who thinks that name is kinda dumb?

Nemesis Maximo wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Wonder what the GI Joe line would be to carry the theme on

G.I. Joe Classified series is already a thing.

Okay so, even being kinda drunk, I DID understand everything there was to know about the R.E.D thing...am I the only one who thinks that name is kinda dumb?

Come on, it's easy.

Robots Establish Dillydamdillydum.

Or something.

Having thought on this, I can't help but wonder what the point of these is. They don't transform, which is fair enough, but they're not really any more articulated than their transforming counterparts (certainly not enough to justify not transforming), and barely more accurate. They aren't doing anything unusual with the designs to take advantage of not having to transform like the Furai Models did, or even going for IDW or other source material, it's just more Sunbow. They're clearly not aimed at kids so it's not even like they have the shampoo bottle excuse. Honestly, this seems like the most unnecessary thing Hasbro has done in a while.

Edit: all this time typing and Black Hat makes the same point much more succinctly in the post just above this one, so maybe just read that instead of this wall of text

Rant incoming, though I prefer to think of it as "I've had time to think on this and my thoughts and feelings about it are complicated."

I had a think on what strikes me as so wrong, poor and stupid about what these are. Why do I feel that way? I'm staring at my nearly-finished Flame Toys Seekers right now, they don't bug me and the final product is basically the same, not to mention they cost twice as much! Tiny Titans didn't bother me and they're not even articulated. What the heck is making my brain sort of loathe the idea of these R.E.D. dudes? There are a few things that come into play, for me.

First up, I wanted to think about why other non-transforming products haven't really bothered me. For the most part, it's probably because these are licensed products, making them nearly objectively exist as supplements to the Hasbro Transformers line. Jada has made some downright cool die cast vehicles of Movie cast and G1 Optimus. Obviously these don't transform, but they provide alt modes of the real world vehicles with nice detail. Even then, some of them have the R.P.M. style robot sculpt on the bottom. Licensees such as 3A and the aforementioned Flame Toys have produced a great deal of "high end" non-transforming figures, and of course there are model kits like Kotobukiya's D-Style and again FT. Many of these offer something actually unique and serve markets that Hasbro doesn't seem interested in. 3A is implicitly niche considering the cost, and if you're like me and enjoy Gunpla, it's fun to have a Transformers option to mix up that hobby before building the 89,000th RX-78-2 variant. The list could go on here, with Funko's ReAction lineup just recently starting to introduce crappy 5 PoA G1 Transformers. I'm sure as a licensee they're super pleased to see licensor Hasbro themselves jumping into a similar space, but Funko at least gets to keep the Cool Hipster Garbage Product market.

For official products, non-transforming options have also been easy to look at as supplementary products, but more importantly these have been easy to view as specifically kid-friendly products that allow kids to play with Transformers in different ways or with other kids that are into different things. I mentioned R.P.M.s earlier as one example. I would have loved it if something similar existed when I was a kid. I loved Transformers and my older brother loved Hot Wheels/Matchbox/basically anything with four wheels. Since he was the older brother, I'd have no choice at times but to play along with whatever Hot Wheels thing he did. I'd always grab the lone Stunticon in the childhood collection (Wildrider, for the curious) but still be told plenty of times to stop transforming him into a robot at every chance, because robots didn't exist in Hot Wheels world, obviously. Before this anecdote rambles too much more, my point is that I can see a clear purpose in these kinds of kids toys.

Most of Hasbro's non-transforming kids toy options over the years provide this kind of clear purpose. Kreo is building blocks, Hero Mashers as a mix-and-match style thing to create whimsical nonsense combinations, Tiny Titans offered some pretty cool little RiD '15 trading cards on top of their trading figure appeal, the '07 Movie and RotF Robot Replicas went for the insane metal shrapnel detail look the characters had in the movies long before Movie Masterpiece existed as it does now - this could go on and there are many examples not listed here, but point's hopefully made. There's almost always something offered in non-transforming toys that wasn't available in the others that, while not usually something massively appealing to Transformers fans, at least provided a reason for their existence beyond "make more money if we can."

Next in my reasons for being oddly bothered by these toys is that they're yet another example of Transformers failing to expand itself by innovation, with the chasing of a trend being the chosen route instead. There's a lengthy, usually poor history of this going all the way back to Micro Masters (a rare case of not chasing a trend poorly, in my opinion), and yes, the infamous Action Masters. Transformers is late to the party again here making them feel like an uninvited guest for yet one more reason on top of possibly not belonging there in the first place. Late in fully embracing 80s nostalgia, late to the Netflix party, late to the blind-bag craze, late to toys-to-life (remember Angry Birds Transformers?), and by the time they're done being late to embracing 90s nostalgia the world will probably have moved on from it. Market saturation of these '6" scale figures' has to be approaching a tipping point.

Why would Hasbro want to inject Transformers into this segment of a segment of the toy market? Obviously, to make money of course, but I'd guess to appeal to collectors that don't currently buy Transformers. I think this misses a key point about why Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, whatever the MotU equivalent is called, and MMPR's Lightning collection are successful and why the similar new lines for G.I. Joe and Gundam make sense for those brands. When I think about Star Wars toys during the prequels/Clone Wars to pre-Sequels era or Power Rangers before Hasbro acquired the license, I think of gimmicky toys. Want a straight-up action figure of the Red Ranger without any frills, or an R2-D2 that isn't battery powered with lights, sounds, and Comm-Tech or whatever compatibility? Go online and hope there's a Figuarts or something because it probably wasn't on the shelf at any given time (note: I don't know if those examples are technically correct, so substitute some other popular character from those franchises if not for the sake of the thought exercise.) The important note here is that I don't collect those lines, but if I wanted some kind of base line, good quality figure from them not riddled with gimmicks, I know where to turn now despite being an outsider to collecting it.

Cyberverse is a good example of what I just mentioned within Transformers itself. How many here didn't collect anything from the line because everything was gimmick-ed up kid stuff? Probably a good number. How many of you have or have at least seriously considered a Deluxe Class Cyberverse toy? Probably a good percentage of that number. Do I need to spell out why that is? You know the Deluxe Class figures are base line, good quality, not gimmick-riddled entries for Cyberverse and that makes them more broadly appealing to collectors.

There was an important point at the end of the second-to-last paragraph above this one - knowing where to go to collect the occasional product from another line despite not being a regular purchaser of said products. That's a justification I can understand, but I'm not sure it works for Transformers. Ignoring vehicles (Star Wars, GI Joe) and Zords (MMPR), the heart of a Star Wars, GI Joe, Marvel, Power Rangers, or Masters of the Universe toy collection is figures of the characters. The current 6" lines for these are the product of a natural evolution over time of collector lines that have increasingly struck at the core of what these brands are. Many Darth Vader figures also include a helmet that can be removed because duh didn't you watch Return of the Jedi? Professor X figures would come with a wheelchair because of course they would (hey you - I know there are versions of the character that don't have it, it's just an example!) If they make a Shipwreck figure in Classified, I'd expect it would come with Polly even though the line isn't dedicated to the animals of GI Joe. Those things are a core, essential element of who those characters are so you assume and hope as an outsider to those hobbies that these basic elements are covered.

This R.E.D. series leaves behind a core, essential element of who and what the Transformers are - they transform. This separates them from the pack of other '6" scale' figures in what I think is an important way. To me, this makes them feel like they're appealing to a very limited audience. Are these the no-frills, good quality, not gimmick-laden go-to Transformers? No, of course not, they're all missing their T-Cogs! That's not a gimmick, it's literally part of what makes Transformers what it is. Perhaps the fact that it's launching as a retailer-exclusive speaks volumes about the actual broad appeal, though it's always possible Walmart specifically wanted something like this because parents bought a bunch of those $5 Titan Guardians, who knows. Assuming these were not shopped as an exclusive by Hasbro's sales agents - which is a big assumption, I know - we could maybe presume that Target, Amazon, Walgreens, Meijer, and everyone else big enough to matter also thought these were a poor idea with limited appeal.

Hasbro and Walmart are good at making money, so they must know something I don't. What I do know is that these don't appeal to me whatsoever as a Transformers fan, though they likely weren't meant to. The weird personal wrinkle is that I'm the oddball that buys everything - those aforementioned R.P.M.s, Hero Mashers, and so on? I have them. Guess I'm not that guy anymore!

My opinion is that these will also be unappealing to people that are not already Transformers fans or collectors either, and time will tell if I'm right or not. It's probably 50/50.

There's a time and place for non-transforming figures in Transformers toys, and it's the niche of comic and TV characters that never had an alt mode to begin with. From all known information, this line is not that and won't be that - but I reserve the right to no longer agree with my own opinions from this post if it becomes that.

tl;dr better dead than R.E.D. or something

TlDr, there's TONS of non-transforming characters in the TF universe. Humans, monsters, and even some robots. Why not make those instead of the same 5 characters over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over,............... .

-Kanrabat- wrote:TlDr, there's TONS of non-transforming characters in the TF universe. Humans, monsters, and even some robots. Why not make those instead of the same 5 characters over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over,............... .

Because retailers want the big name characters who keep bringing in the big ones.