their were about 7 new mold robotmasters basic sized toys like as follows: BW optimus primal,bw T--rex megatron,bw2nd lioconvoy,G-1 Starscream. G-1 Optimus prime,starsabre,victoryleo.
He's pretty cool. If you're a big fan of Animated I'd say just bite the bullet and get the Takara version. I kind of have a feeling another year will go by and people will still be asking the US/Blackout question.
i didn't take any chances with Blackout, so i pre-ordered one and bought an extra. if you have to pay TFSource or BBTS $50, get him. he's worth it. better a fiddy now than one-fiddy on eBay later. as to your question, i seriously doubt they will release him stateside. they had a modest shot if they had released him with the Ironhide and Rodiums figure wave, but well, they let that ship sail... he is one of my favorite figures and i am not really a huge fan of TFA. that says a lot to me.
KOtoys sells the legit one out of package for 30$ (+ shipping), so if you are nabbing any other things from there, you can save.
but he looks nothing like movie nor classics toy. His design is so radically different (just as animated was very diff from every other transformer line) I don't think they will fit anywhere.
BBTS have 59 of the Takara version in stock right now. 1) They order the Hasbro one and it's not any cheaper than the Takara version. 2) They order it and it is cheaper than the Takara one, leaving them lumbered with the Takara version. They'd gain nothing from stocking it. Unlike the Seacons who've been out of production for some 20 years. On top of which, IIRC, the Seacon reissue came from Hasbro Hong Kong, who are Takara's agents in HK, not Hasbro in RI. So Hasbro HK have already shipped plenty of Animated Blackout. Why would they go to the trouble of another production run of Blackout with different packaging and maybe a slightly different deco?
I intend to get him in December maybe, with Predaking coming next month i just can't possibly swing the price until December.
one more time and please feel free to PM an offer: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/items-sale-trade/331927-animated-blackout.html
i bought mine like 4 months ago, and am so glad i did... i'd still buy a Hasbro version most likely, but i doubt that we'll see him get released... which is unfortunate... like most sentiment in this thread, i wish animated had continued on just 1 more season... and 1 more season for toys too...
I've really been considering getting Blackout from KO but I wasn't sure if it was real, fake or what.
I got one from them, its real and legit. But I ordered a lot of other things so the shipping was saved a lot. btw it doesn't come with instructions if you order that way, so you have to figure it out yourself.
i figured out mine without instructions. if that doesn't convince you, those FAB's are like Ldr Optimus Prime. still, that little joke aside, my preference is to get a complete or MISB figure first, then get a loose one (cheaper) a little later. if ya don't have one yet, resolve that and fast. 'nuff said.
Not to mention harder to get stores to take on a figure from a line that has been finished for over a year (save for a few TRU exclusives). As for releasing them in a classics styled line, I don't see it happening. As was already pointed out animated is a wildly different aesthetic especially from the figures in the Reveal the Shield sub-line. Perhaps the club will do something along those lines... probably not as they would be as expensive as the Takara versions. I wonder if the fan-rage over a botcon set of unreleased animated figures & decos would rival that of the '07 botcon set .
So Entertainment Earth. They don't stock Takara product so there is no conflict with the pricing. And as I said they have taken Hasbro product (SW Comic 2 packs) that was set to be released at retail as an exclusive.