It's been awhile since we've had a really lackluster final wave (across size classes). CW had Wreck-Gar, Sky Lynx, the Autobot limbs and maybe a Seeker?. T30 had Arcee, Chromia and Brainstorm. If I had to guess (and it's just a guess), Wave 5 is a bit anemic - 1 new TM (Ramhorn), 1 new legend (Seaspray), 3 deluxe - because they decided to spread out releases across the last two waves. So we'd see 1-2 more new TMs, 1-2 legends, at least 2 deluxes, 1 voyager and *maybe* a leader (or 2 voyagers and no leader?) in the last wave. Perhaps. I think*

*I don't want to oversell here  

 

I don't think your far from the truth.

 

That's Hanazuki. She's from an internet show that came out this year.

 

...hmmm - any inkling of whether we'll see a convention exclusive trypticon this year, to match the previous SDCC fortress maximus and metroplex?..

 

Well, it certainly won't be at SDCC by now....

 

I feel like the Revolution set took the place of the "big" TF exclusive. And I'm totally okay with that. Rather have it than "premium" colors Tryp

 

I'm here to make a lame joke about how similar it sounds: HasCon, HasBeen and HasBlow.

But seriously, more interested how they're going to handle their new collector's club internationally. Provided there will be any.

 

What's the sitch on when the exclusive(s) will be announced...???...I got the itch to know now that those leaks were dropped...

 

After talking to the Transformers guys at SDCC, it didn't sound like they were close to coming up with a replacement for TFCC and the TFSS. I hope that changes by September.

 

Well thats a huge disappointment. I was never into TFSS, so I had a tiny hope Hasbro might do something different and cheaper.

 

Robot Points need to make a comeback.

 

I have zero expectation that they'll replace the TFSS. However, I would LOVE a TFSS replacement... those are some of my favorite figures from the club.

 

I could go with a Hasbro version of E-Hobby/Takara Tomy Mall. An exclusive internet only figure goes up for pre-order during a two-week window of time and the figure is only made if "x amount" are pre-ordered. It's a win/win scenario in that folks have two weeks to shore up $50-100 and Hasbro isn't out any money if not enough orders show up.

 

It's almost a certainty that we'll not get a replacement for TFSS - Hasbro has said numerous times over the years that they're not interested in doing low-run, "made-to-order" figures.

I would expect their "fan club" to be more along the lines of what they had in the early 2000s for TF (I think?) and G.I. Joe, which wasn't much different than the 80s versions - you'll get a welcome packet, maybe a chintzy website, membership card, and maybe - just maybe - an exclusive recolor item you can purchase.

 

Yearly membership with guaranteed accesss to certain exclusives. EI, if you didn't attend SDCC you can still get it through your account on HTS, or if you paid for a full membership you just get all delivered on your doorstep. Or something like that.

My dream would be quarterly boxsets.

 

Except that Fun Pub figures were exactly that. So, apparently, they're willing to do some low-run figures. The issue is always going to be that Hasbro wouldn't want to be "hung" with overstock. They'd rather another company deal with that and have all stock moved out of their warehouses and into the retail-level. So they'd need to go through a service. Hasbrotoyshop.com is the obvious go-to. And only making enough to meet demand will help with oversupply.

 

I'd mark out for mailaway promotions again. When was the last time Hasbro did one?

 

I just had a marvelous idea.
What if for the club it allowed you to get early direct access to all figures? You pay each quarter(actually a quarter in advance) and when each wave is available they will send 1 of each figure to you of any class you want, or all of them. So lets say they had this implemented already. At the beginning of Q4 2017 you would pay however much the price would be for all POTP figures released in Q1. Then in December/January you get all of the figures directly shipped straight to your doorstep as soon as they roll out of the factory, eliminating the hunt or the need to go elsewhere, as you've gotten them ASAP. Then at the beginning of Q1 2018 you make a payment for all the figures/waves released in wave 2. You could not order a given quarter and still retain your membership.

You would get to select items based on size class, and would recieve 1 figure of each character in that class of that wave. I know it sounds expensive possibly dropping $200+ a quarter, but you'd be saving gas money and shipping by just getting it all asap from the source. So it wouldn't be costing you much more anywho. Plus of course exclusives you could get too. I know there would be issues with this, such as the QC of recieving factories first batch, but it would still be awesome.

 

...last one i remembre was hasbro's special offer of beast wars II/neo figures around the turn of the millenium, but then i was out of the loop for about fifteen years afterward, so i may have missed something since...

 

Not much advantage to this when they have a perfectly fine retail system to get figures in your hands already in place, either via B&M or online retailers. You'd also piss off most of these retailers if they knew Hasbro was undercutting them via a direct mail-order service for retail figures. Imagine how difficult it might be at Toyfair for reps...