TakaraTomy Mall Exclusive. Limited to 300 pcs in Japan. Lottery draw purchase. You have to put your name in for the draw between 13 - 22 Oct (one chance per TakaraTomy Mall member) and only the lucky 300 that get selected on 23 Oct can purchase the figure.
It's been the Japanese market name for G1 Trypticon since 1986. Also, this is what, the first "USA Edition" since 2008's Universe Ultras?
What on Earth are they doing with this poor thing? Just release him so people who want it can buy it at a decent price. Why all the nonsense?
I suspect retailers in Japan are a little leary of big Transformers after Fort Max and titan class Metroflex. if that is true this could be the only way they could offer him.
This is weird... The name of the toy on the TTM page in Japanese is ダイナザウラー which is pronounced as Dinahzaura (Dinosaurer), but both Google and Bing translators are translating it to Trypticon... as if someone has made a submission to them of their different names in different countries. When you split the word up in the translator as two words it gives "dinah" for ダイナ and "Zawraa" for ザウラー but when you put the whole word in the translator, you don't get anything sounding like Dinahzawraa, but a completely different sounding word. That's not what a translator is there for, when you have someone wanting to know what to call the Japanese toy by its Japanese name.
It's spelled in Katakana, so you don't need a translator if you've learned to read Kana (I've written a handy tutorial here ages ago). But yes, I agree that it looks as if someone cross-referenced the Japanese-market name spelled in Katakana with the Western-market name, which is a bit... weird. It's a localization rather than a "translation".
Yep I know about Katakana, and the reading of them... I was just dumbing down the description and process for those who aren't familiar with the Japanese language. As you say, it is weird that both major translators have not just translated it, but then converted that translation into an equivalent 1980s toy character in America. If it was an actual Japanese reissue in a new box, it would be named "Dinosaurer" on the front of the box, but the online translators would still tell people that it the toy is a completely different name with a completely different pronunciation (Trypticon) based on the mis-translation of the Japanese writing. I just checked, and even Babelfish did it... so maybe I'm just missing something obvious that is explaining why this is universally happening.
Hey, yeah... why do they pay $50 LESS!?? Seriously, WTF is up with prices in the USA? They're getting so exorbitant that it's cheaper to buy overseas (w/ shipping)?! Signs of bad TF times, if you ask me. They can't (won't) afford to give better product discounts = milking dwindling fanbase for all their worth! No thanks. I passed on $200 Trypticon cause I don't believe 1st Parties should be charging 3P prices!
