The mystery of CW Alpha Bravo, Offroad, & Rook

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by Toyzaremine, Jan 18, 2018.

  1. Nevermore

    Nevermore It's self-perpetuating a parahumanoidarianised!

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    HTS/Amazon exclusives? Wuh?

    All of the "May Mayhem" figures were officially available from pretty much every online retailer in existence: Hasbro Toy Shop, Amazon, Big Bad Toy Store, TFSource, ToyWiz, Captured Prey, The Chosen Prime and many more, plus Walmart.com, Toysrus.com, Target.com and Kmart.com, and even comic book shops! The only "exclusivity" was that they were not meant to be available at brick and mortar stores (other than comic book shops), and even then, some unwanted returns from online orders ended up on Walmart pegs.
     
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  2. ReximusPrimal07

    ReximusPrimal07 Well-Known Member

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    “Cash
    Money”
    Seatin
     
  3. jaws

    jaws Well-Known Member

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    Alpha Bravo replaced Slingshot who was mortally wounded. Offroad replaced Wildrider who was also deceased. Rook was the place holder until Takara engineered Groove correctly.
     
  4. BScorpinok75

    BScorpinok75 Squadron X #1 Consultant

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    I just wish that #Jet_Blastoff was a new character to go along with the other...as well as...wishing that that one almost FP redeco/retool...Ironclad would've happen...
     
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  5. ssjkazer

    ssjkazer mr dyslexia

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    i use them for random combiner with the extra voyagers or i leave them as themselfs
     
  6. Gallade

    Gallade HSR and Transformers Enjoyer

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    I feel Wildrider, Groove, and Slingshot were supposed to be released in place of their "replacements", but since they were going to release Dead End and Wildrider, and Slingshot and Fireflight in the same waves, they were moved back and replaced by both Offroad and Alpha Bravo. I don't know about the whole Groove and Rook thing though. That one was odd, but he should have been the additional fifth deluxe in that wave. I guess the other reason is the demand by fans wanting their G1 guys in place of those "noobs" who replaced them. Honestly, I really wish we got more of Slingshot and Wildrider since I missed out on those and they're now selling for ridiculous prices. I also wished they were released as the last wave of CW before TR came.
     
  7. Starscream Gaga

    Starscream Gaga Protoformed This Way

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    It's not really a mystery, is it?

    It was decided to make the Combiners as teams of six consisting of one Voyager, four Deluxes and one Legends. Wildrider and Slingshot were replaced with Offroad and Wildrider to shake up the monotonay of their team's lineups vehicle-wise, while it was decided that Groove, the most glaringly obviously out-of-scale character among the Combiners (yes, I know Blastoff should be huge and Swindle tiny in comparison, but people are a lot more familar with the size of motorbikes than space shuttles) was chosen to be the Legends of the group and Rook was made the new limb. Wildrider and Slingshot found releases through being gangmolded with other molds and Groove because Takara made a new mold for him.
     
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  8. Insurgent

    Insurgent The Amazing Tango Mysterio

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    Sometimes i replace blades with alpha bravo. Defensor looks good with all white limbs instead of random red arm.
     
  9. Superquad7

    Superquad7 OCP Police Crime Prevention Unit 001 Super Content Contributor

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    Combiner Wars was a runaway success for Hasbro. With the boxed sets releases of Unite Warriors, Hasbro was able to release more figures (the ones in question here) to extend the line, especially since there was a demand for each of them. While these were TakaraTomy's original intentions, the different members were the original intentions for each Combiner team initially.
     
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  10. WarInTheFloor

    WarInTheFloor Well-Known Member

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    I'm with you in fact if I could get a whish rom POTPs ..ok 3 wishes like a genie... one would be that those guys ( or more generally ..."the rare CW Limbs" so you catch like Ratchet in there) would come back out with prime armor in place of their HFGs and pretty much no other changes. .. I would use them with their intended Combiners as well as pick up randos like Galvatronus, Starscream. my extra silverbolt...and I figure couple more ( have we EVER learned who Inferno is going to combine with?) before PotP is over with. Throw Alpha Bravo and or Blades in there as well since even though they were a regular release and AB supposed is " controversial" I still cant find either for a reasonable price and my 6yo actively wants one of the two for a " Goodguy helicopter"
     
  11. Gallade

    Gallade HSR and Transformers Enjoyer

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    This is something I would like to see. It would give others who missed out the first time they came around(it was more of me not knowing that online gift cards existed). But oh well, I guess I'm happy we're at least getting a shuttle Blast Off and a Repugnus. Gonna rush to Walgreens once they're announced as Amazon exclusives or whatever.
     
  12. ma70er

    ma70er HasTak/3P TF Collector, Gamer

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    I didn't mind the new members only because I got the UW sets for all my combiners. At that point, these were just extra characters I could add to my collection as combiner fodder.
     
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  13. KFGatri

    KFGatri Madman with a Blue Box

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    That just explains what the promotional materials did with the changed teams - it isn't the explanation. Hasbro isn't obligated to follow what goes on in the comics in the toyline. The toys come first. And some, like myself, completely ignore what IDW does.

    "Enigma of Combination"? Seriously?
     
  14. Blam320

    Blam320 Assembly Inventor

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    As you clearly didn't read much of the thread, many after my first post have suggested that it was to prevent multiples of the same mold or very similar color schemes from being used in the same wave, which might deter stores from buying waves (as is also the reason the Dinobots were split up, we're sure; stores only see a bunch of similarly colored dinosaurs, not all the distinct characters we know them to be). Alpha Bravo is a helicopter as opposed to another white jet (Slingshot), Rook was created by necessity since Groove was turned into chest armor for the mass release, and Offroad is a grey pickup as opposed to another red and grey sports car (Dead End).
     
  15. KFGatri

    KFGatri Madman with a Blue Box

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    I did actually and agree with your assessment in particular.

    I was just disputing the idea that what IDW was doing somehow dictated the toy assortments. Transformers is toys first - Hasbro can borrow from what the licencees do if they choose, but they aren't beholden to it. (And frankly the less they borrow from IDW the happier I am!)
     
  16. WishfulThinking

    WishfulThinking The world has moved on...we've always said.

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    Another fact of the matter was that Slingshot, nor Air Raid, were ready for production at the time of wave 1's release. Hasbro has stated that they wanted to release the Aerialbots and Stunticons together within their respective waves but production time was too far behind. The Blades/Vortex mold and Drag Strip, though, were both ready to go, so DS was released in wave 1. And with Slingshot also not ready, it was probably decided to create a new character with the B/V mold by way of Alpha Bravo.

    It seems this made way for a slippery slope of precedent. Molds that weren't ready within respective teams were replaced by newly invented pre-tooled characters. The exception seems to be the Protectobots, where Groove was planned as a Legends from the get-go. Of course, it could be that the plan for the Protectobots was just reapplied to the prior combiners out of a sense of need...becoming a working budget device backwards from the plan for Defensor.

    At any rate, we ended up getting the correct character molds in the end so now we have a choice for either having the G1 configurations or the IDW configurations (which was just a response to the fact that certain characters were missing in CW to begin with).
     
  17. Blam320

    Blam320 Assembly Inventor

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    Did I say it was IDW's doing? I stated a fact; that all three alternate members have appeared in IDW fiction to replace members who were killed off/resized.
     
  18. Optimum Supreme

    Optimum Supreme Well-Known Member

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    Groove wasn't HTS or Amazon exclusive, I got mine at BBTS.

    Anyway the three oddballs I'm currently using with POTP Starscream, with Dreadwind as the remaining limb as of last night. If we'd gotten the other blastoff already, the jet would probably be part of "team expendable" as I tend to think of them.
     
  19. KFGatri

    KFGatri Madman with a Blue Box

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    Well, the OP asked why Hasbro released these replacement characters, and then you talked about IDW. So it did look that way to me. It looks like I misinterpreted so I apologize.
     
  20. WarInTheFloor

    WarInTheFloor Well-Known Member

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    I appreciate that ( what Ive read little it is) IDW seems to try and keep the toys latest happenings incorporated into their story somehow, the comics from the CW Deluxes are pretty good and the boys and I look at them to get ideas of how to stich our universe toegther