Tie, that is! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen a Botcon exclusive in a plastic tray like that. Possibly to add some stability in a loose set? Or is it possible this years box won't have that awesome foam inside? It's possible it's a loose set thing, I've only ever seen and gotten the boxed sets from Fun Pub. Maybe someone simply reused a tray from Jetfire's classic box? EDIT: WHOOPS! Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=017&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=270130092490&rd=1&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270130092490 He means this one. Definitely looks packed for separate release.
I'd say that, too. Except it's not just twist-tied, Hasbro's clear rubber bands are on the figure, too, and the twist ties aren't just slapped on, it looks fresh off the assembly line. That being said... we knew there were extra sets that were going to be sold at the show just like previous years, this is just one of the individual figures.
I don't think it would be that hard to take the ties/bands off of Jetfire, note how they were in place and then put the ties/bands onto Deadwind so it looks just like it came from the factory.
But what would the point be? The figure's rare enough as it is and you could photograph it a lot better without the tray. I see where it might be nice during shipping but why go through the trouble of buying a Classics Jetfire, putting it on the tray, carefully setting the twist ties, and applying the rubber bands... just to make it harder to take pictures of for eBay? Not much use in making people think it's mint and never played with, either, without being in a taped box there's no way to make people think that.
The bagged sets from last year had Primal in the tray as well. I think it has to do with the size of the figure. It prevents damage from movement by keeping everything more stablized in the tray. So this isn't a first. It will definitely be the Dreadwinds from the bagged sets.
Okay, that's what I was asking about. I only got the box set from last year, and all of the extra exclusives that were simply bagged had no tray. I wasn't sure if they ever used trays for the bagged exclusives, and I'd hate to not have that nice, easy-to-replace-the-figures foam in the box set.