I think it was a rumor that came up awhile ago, can't remember where I heard it. As for the second point, maybe, just maybe, Hasbro's policy on gun-mode Transformers has changed since they made/released the figure in the first place. While they were OK with it at the time, several years ago, the policy now is "no gun-mode TFs".
Sometime after 2006 (when classics Megatron came out) US toy gun laws got stricter. The question of a classics Megatron rerelease was brought up at botcon (either '08 or '09), the answer was that those changes mean't that even classics Megatron white/purple/green colour scheme was illegal. I think your not allowed to have white, grey, or black as a main colour on a toy gun. Also all those toy guns you listed shoot foam darts, which Megatron doesn't. On the specific issue of Shockwave's alt mode, while the toy was a laser gun. The show never depicted it as such. A good compormise would be to make Shockwave a sci-fi self-propelled gun, like Galvatron.
There are some mostly Nerf guns or Toy Star Wars guns, and may some cowboy style six shooter although i haven't seen any in years all with the required orange cap of course. It doesn't but hey who says the world has to make sense. there are solid legal and safety reasons for the law on Toy Gun though.
Both of those are laws determined by each State separately, not Federal restrictions on a nationally distributed mass-market product. Case in point, you have to be 18 to buy a gun in Washington State. I would know, I took a field trip in the 5th grade to lobby for that law to be changed (used to be 14, the lobby was to have it changed to 21, and 18 was the age agreed upon).
Energon Shockblast is probably worthless enough that you can find him for a reasonable price on forums and eBay anyway.
Yeah, he's pretty pricey. People are also buying up alot of those figures for customs. There have been a ton of nice customs from that mold in the Radicons...
I reckon the fact that the WFC Shockwave model is an exclusive lessens the chance of a toy. Which is too bad, because it'd be the only classics Shockwave we'd ever need. Especially as Shockwave is one of those characters that never had an earth mode.
