New Leader and redecoed Voyager are my guesses. It wouldn't surprise me if they made a Voyager size trailer, but I'd be more inclined to suspect it'll be Leader scale and the bundle will be sold at the Supreme price point.
I also struggle with this. I have lost nights of sleep over it. I think I'd fuckin' explode if I saw it. I expect a redeco, probably packaged with trailer. Do ya think Hasblo would change him up if he had to combine with his trailer? Or just work around that? Knowing Hasblo, it'd be just working around that.
All I know is they better give this one articulated hands/fingers. I was so pissed when I opened my ROTF Prime and found fixed hands...I am NOT a modder so swapping them isn't an option for me. I also don't wanna have to buy a gun separately like you had to do to give Prime a weapon other than the blades.
It is a great design, but they could improve it. There's all that rubbish round his back for a start, and the arms generally - tho especially the forearm panels and way the blades hamper movement - need some work. No waist articulation due to the current transformation, no articulated hands, head isn't on a balljoint... all sorts of things that can be improved. The question isn't so much whether the design can be improved, it's if there's a need for a new Prime toy for TF3, or if a straight re-release or repaint will do it. I'd expect an opening trailer for the Leader class to be under development for sure (even if the film version doesn't open up; it's a gift for the toy designers to work with), and the awesome smokestack gun from Takara's "Buster" mould will surely be included - but that may be as much of an upgrade as Prime gets. Then again, the designers may want to refine the ROTF leader mould further as well; in which case, fingers crossed it gets more accurate, articulated and less kibbly. I'd also expect to see the new ROTF Prime voyager mould given a bit of minor refinement. Boringly, you've also got to balance a new or refined Prime mould against the likelihood of new moulds being developed for other "old" characters; a new Bumblebee & Sidewsipe are inevitable, and I'd think there's surely a good chance of improved Voyager moulds for Ratchet & Ironhide. Starscream, unlikely unless he changes alt mode. Megatron may have a new alt mode of course - but even if not, I'd expect the Leader or Voyager moulds to have as much potential for an overhaul as the Prime ones may have. So it's all cost, and it'll depend where Hasbro & Takara think the smart money is.
Whatever their intentions for the trailer are, the amount of work that went into the Leader mold, i think it will be retooled. IIRC, Hasbro specifically said in the past that they're not enthusiastic about doing Leader class and Ultra class toys in the same line...... although a Voyager with a Trailer may be an exception of sorts. With the ice cream van last year, the size of the firetruck, i'm wondering if they're starting to think differently about size classes and what can be included in them... I'm not sure what a $60 prime would come with though... aren't leaders already $45 in the US(?) Buster Prime tooling..... possibly. Buster Prime Chrome... seems unlikely.
Here's my theory,that Hasbro will do a voyager size Prime with his trailer being the big part and charging at Leader pricepoint,while they still release leader size prime with a slight retool or repaint and without his trailer.Because I can't see Hasbro making an $80 Leader Prime with Trailer since 1.they don't mass produce figures at $80+ like they do for Deluxes and Voyagers and 2.Even if they do make a lot of them people aren't likely to buy them for that price. So to finish,I kinda hope they do it like I said above,since I can get a couple for the price that a leader prime with trailer would cost.
Optimus prime is the star transformer in the live action movies. so ofcause he's getting a newer leader sized toy in the TF3 toy line. my guess is optimus combines with his trailer or gets a fire truck CR/Rid styled TF 3 styled new mold toy.
Only improvement I can think of is a trailer. After seeing how fantastic ROTF Prime is, I'd gladly pay $150 ($AU, mind) for a new Prime toy if he comes with a trailer. I remember this comment from one of TakaraTomy TF toy designers; So who knows, Gravity Bots maybe?
I'm hoping it's a re-release because i don't think i could bother getting another Movie Leader Class Prime....unless it came with a new trailer. Now the TF3 Megatron i gurantee i'd buy in a heartbeat.
I suspect a remold of the RoTF Leader. New shoulders Better looking arm guards New weapons Sliding battle mask?
I haven't bought any of the Leader Megatrons. Mainly because the ones from both movies look so terrible. But your comment has made me hope that TF3 Megatron will definitely be the best, and actually worth buying. If he keeps his tank mode, I'll be more than happy; I love the tank, I just don't want a figure who can't bend his arms at all. EDIT: I'm happy with my Legends Megatron lol. Best Legends fig I own so far.
Give him better blades or even blades & hooks, two guns and individual fingers like 07 version and that should do. I'd much rather they figured a way to make Megatron as screen accurate as Prime is. We got a screen accurate Voyager vehicle mode and a screen accurate-ish Leader robot mode but Voyager Robot and Leader Vehicle were both lacking quite a bit.
My heart says all new, but my wallet is screaming re-release/re-use/repaint/remold. Heck, I'd rather save my cash for the inevitable improved Leader Megatron.
I say give him a retractible battle mask, swords that don't get in the way of articulation and maybe removable to reveal hooks (would be cool), two guns (one ala Buster Prime would be OK, but two would be better), articulated fingers and, of course, a Matrix! I don't know how the trailer will be used so I'm just thinking about Prime.
