At the moment, both Big Bad Toy Store and Entertainment Earth appear to be caught in a deadlock where no new preorders for upcoming toys have been added in what seems like MONTHS. The current standings: Animated Activators: The latest wave listed is the one with Patrol Bumblebee and Thundercracker. Which is scheduled to be released around this month. (We already know about Grimlock, Megatron, Bandit Lockdown and Cliffjumper.) Animated Deluxe Class: The latest wave listed is the one with Swoop, Sentinel Prime and Elite Guard Bumblebee. Which is already out in stores. (We already know about Swindle, Blurr and Blazing Lockdown.) Animated Voyager Class: The latest wave listed is the one with Blitzwing. Who is already out in stores. (We already know about Shockwave and Skywarp.) Animated Leader Class: The latest wave listed is the one with Ultra Magnus. Who was already stocked by BBTS (and is expected to be released at retail any day now). We know about Shadow Balde Megatron and Roadbuster Ultra Magnus, but thus far KB Toys and the adjacent eToys online store are the only ones listing them. Animated Bumper Battlers: The latest wave listed is the one with Sting Racer Bumblebee and Nightwatch Otimus Prime. Which is scheduled to be this or next month. Universe Legends Class: The latest wave listed is the one with Animated Bumblebee, Prowl and Optimus Prime. Which is scheduled to be released around this month. (We already know about "Classic" Brawn, Beachcomber, Bumblebee and Cosmos.) Universe Deluxe Class: The latest wave listed is the one with Sideswipe, Ironhide and Silverstreak. Which is scheduled to be released around this month. (We already know about Hound, Cheetor, Cyclonus and Hot Shot.) Universe Voyager Class: The latest wave listed is the one with Tread Bolt. Who just arrived in stock at BBTS. (We already know about Inferno.) Universe Ultra Class: The latest wave listed is the one with Stormcloud. Who just arrived in stock at BBTS. Universe Robot Heroes: The apparently online stores skipped wave 2 (Arcee vs. Rumble, Rhinox vs. Waspinator, Optimus Primal vs. Tarantulas) and will get those figures as "wave 2" together with what's "wave 3" for mass retail stores, including the new figures Blaster vs. Thrust, Ironhide vs. Kickback and Silverbolt vs. Megatron. Also scheduled to be released around this month. (We already know about BM Cheetor vs. Tankor and RID Optimus Prime vs. Megatron.) To sum it up: Currently now assortment is listed beyond the next wave as compared to what's already out in stores, and that next wave is due to be released within the next month too. Usually, preorders are several waves ahead of current releases. That's why they're called "PREorders". We already know about a lot of upcoming toys from BotCon and SDCC. With the exception of some Robot Heroes and Animated Bumper Battlers, NONE of those toys are up for preorder yet. As far as I can tell, the latest preorder added by Entertainment Earth was for 25th Anniversary Optimus Prime. So what's up there? Is Hasbro asking online stores to keep preorders down? Do they want to keep stuff under wraps for some reason? Is there a big push coming up? Or what?
Hasbro simply hasn't provided online retailers with the numbers of what they can expect. BBTS, for example, can't list a pre-order until it knows how many they're guaranteed. The wv3 & 4 dx pre-orders went up around a month or so prior to their release. Next animated releases are supposed to be in dec, universe/25th aniv after prime's release in nov. Pre-order will probably show up at end of month, beginning of next. It doesn't help that hasbro hasn't actually announced any release dates for future product.
That means there will be NO new Animated releases between September and December. That can't be right.
I'm sure if you look at what is up for pre-order now at the shops, then you'll find that it fills up most if not all of the scheduled releases for 2008. Nothing has been officially announced for the 2009 schedule/waves yet, so shops can't accept pre-orders till they know what's coming in.
That really sucks! on Hasbro's part for lack of distribution of toys and on CN for not green lighting Season 3 yet. Seriously, what are they thinking? I mean I'm almost done with most of my Animated collection and I could watch both first two seasons on-line. I want something new in Animated in front of me in at least 2-3 weeks.
But that would mean that no new toys would be coming out for three months. Which can't be right. Sometime post-Onlinestorefinallyputuppreorder-ish.
January 2009 at the absolute earliest. Aside from 25th Anniversary Optimus Prime, nothing from the 25th Anniversary line will be out in 2008. (At least as far as I know...)
Considering how unusual this last half of the year has been, going from an all-out drought of new products to a rush of Animated and Universe, this is far from business as usual. Aside from exclusives, maybe this honestly is it?
The stated December dates are saturation dates. Actual release could be a little more than a month previous. That would be only two months out, plus some of what has been released might take a while to hit full market saturation. I'd say the way money is tight, Hasbro's playing it just right and getting the new toys on shelves ready for Christmas.
Thing is, the only cases I remember where stores were explicitly told by Hasbro to hold back with preorders were before the movie line's launch and before Animated's launch. Both times, Hasbro had an official "street date" for those lines' launches. This time it's just a mid-line lull. For two concurrent lines, one of which doesn't even have a show on the air.
Wave 4 is out now. Wave 5 (blurr, swindle, shockwave) is roughly scheduled for nov/dec. No actual release date has been given. Sadly, it's right. We got so used to the animated waves coming out rapidly, that any lull is annoying. One of my guides in figuring when figs are coming is diamond comics 'previews'. No animated nor univ has been listed in the last two issues with exception of 25th aniv prime, last issue, due in nov. Next issue due in two weeks is for dec releases. I expect to see animated entries then. I'm hoping to see wave 4's in stock at BBTS in time for black friday.