Animated Toys Will Be Available From Hasbro Toy Shop Next Week

Oh .. .don't under-estimate how charming the cybertron mode of Optimus Prime is. It stands out greater than bumblebee IMO...

I'm really hoping that they'll have enough for everyone for more than an hour.

I've noticed that some toys are lasting longer on their website.. like joes and star wars and not just pegwarmers. new waves and such

If this is a pre-order, here's to hoping they're allowing large numbers of pre-orders..

Good news for most of you. I'll wait for the street date though. Out of the ones listed, I would only want Bumblebee, Lockdown, and MAYBE Starscream.

OMG! i know!!! i don't care if it is a pre-order, i sure hope i can snag them all!! OMG!

ill be up ordering early in the morning

I'm only sold if they'll have 'em shipping any time between now and the supposed release date in June. Just look at the Iron Man figures, they're listed as In-Stock, but they aren't shipping until anywhere between April to June. They did the same thing with the TF movie toys. I call this bait!
DN

This is potentially very exciting news. But is this just a pre-order, or will they actually be in stock to ship?

HTS started shipping the movie Protoform figures a month before their official retail release date...

yes! that means that i can order them instead of waiting three more months YAY! animated is wicked sick

Well, to be fair, HTS phone reps aren't exactly known for reliability. On the other hand, I've had news from another source that points to these being in stock and ready to ship.

Maybe I should start video reviews so inside sources can give me inside info, too... hmm...

EDIT: Or maybe change my name so that it sounds like someone barfing so I could garner more attention, that might work too...

hell yeah I'm excited... is there a way to order without online payment? This is a better deal than driving around wasting a shit load of money on gas.

if it is limited supplies theres always ebay or other members

nice if you guys are member of hasbro toy shop you should receive a brochure with 10% off on a purchase of 50 plus free shipping.

edit here is the code sprcat8

Well to be fair, this is a different situation. The retail stores aren't refusing to carry the Indiana Jones or Iron Man figs, in favor of wanting to stick with an older line that did well. Nor is either movie already out, with no toyline to support it for another 5-6 months.

As far as we know, Hasbro is sitting on a mountain of already manufactured Animated figs that retail stores don't want til June. I see no reason why they'd wait til June to ship them.

Ooof... This could be a BIIIIIIG order for me through HTS. That is if everything isn't sold out by the time I can manage to get online.

So you are saying the retail chains don't want to store any animated TF stocks if Hasbro still sticks to their ass announced street date of june 22. That makes sense... unless Hasbro anytime soon announced the release date being moved up...

I would wonder where is Hasbro storing the mountain of stocks as of we are typing these threads here...

Thats great news for those of you in the US. But the rest of the world still has to wait or hit up ebay.

What time will the order forms be up? I have to work in the mornings.

I have two thoughts. One they are stock pileing to avoid the movie shortage bullshit. Or they are waiting and giving time for collectors to get them on ebay, know hasbro toy shop. So there will be more for the kids. Man I hope they ship instantly. My birthday is April 9th, so if these are shipped in time for my birthday i would be VERY happy.

O man o man, one question though -- im on the fence on voyager megatron, will there be a earth mode voyager megatron or only a leader class? I only want a voyager one, and I'd prefer Earth Mode Megs

i'm with you on that one.

What time does this start?

One month ago, at toyfair, hasbro took orders from the retailers for animated stock. Retailers would take into consideration the approx street date, the types of consumers buying the toys, how it's going to be promoted, and how much their willing to commit to the line.
With transformers, the consumers are kids with their parents and the adult collectors(us!). Hasbro can't move up the date for themselves, and leave the retailers at june22. It would be a slap in the face of people you'll be doing business with for years to come. It wouldn't take long for retailers to realise that they won't be getting the number of collectors they were planning on. Retailers won't be thrilled to lose a large chunk of their expected business removed 3 months early.
It's like any business; agreements have to be honored. HTS is probably committed to approx the june22 date. In business, your word is everything.
This being said; I actually hope i'm wrong. I wouldn't mind having prowl & lockdown early. I guess we'll see next week for sure.

Anyone know what time this starts?

12:00 am Mar 25th would be the logical guess.

ooooh... setting my alarm clock like NOW!

Knowing Hasbrotoyshop....I highly doubt it, its usually between 6 and 10 (Mountain time mind you) in the morning for new stuff, from past experience at least.
DN

A clarification from earlier: I failed to notice the word 'evidently' in an earlier message. Granted, I have it on good authority that there ARE some of these figs readily available through HTS, but no actual confirmation if the figures will be "in-stock" or "preorder" come next week. It's looking likely these will be in-hand, but there is still the possibility that these will be preorders.

Sweet, I might not be able to get them untill some time in april but still I'm psyched for this I mainly want BumbleBee, Megs and Starscream before June if possible(Prime I could wait for if I had to). Well I better start trying tto find some way of cramming Animated toys into my room display....I really need to get a bigger book case.

Ditto

Nothing heard about a smaller Earth Megatron at this point, but we already know about two Deluxe, one Voyager, and one "Supreme" Animated Optimus Prime already, so I'm not counting anything out. Depending on how long a run Animated has, I wouldn't be surprised to see another Earth-mode Megatron at some point, though we might need to wait a year or more to see it.

I really don't think retailers are banking on the collectors. As said many times before, we make up at best, 10% of all sales. If these ship right away, rather than be preorders, then I'd say Hasbro is doing this because they know collectors are chompin' at the bit to get ahold of Animated figs. Not to mention just wanting to get the product out there in some way at all. Kids are afterall watching a TF show with no toys coming out until June.

Ahh in that case, Ill just try to get the Voyager Megs

Part of me is really excited, the other part is saying save the money for Botcon and just pick them up once they hit the stores.

hasbro has hung this line under our noses for so long i wish i could stop collecting alltogether just so hasbro would stop getting my money. making us wait was a slap in the kids and collectors face. i hate hasbro!

I actually wonder if online 'fan reaction' is even taken into consideration when hasbro makes decisions on products or does it just work on the assumption that collectors are there without any further information gathering.

Preorder or In Stock and ready to ship I don't really care either way because aside from the standard pick all Megs and Primes up I do not plan on collecting the Animated line due to the fact I am getting married in October and really don't care for the toys that much. That said if another one catches my eye in the store I may pick it up but I really would need to see it in hand and not from an on-line photo. So for those who are excited about these figures on these boards I hope I am wrong about these being a preorder and they will ship immediately. However, I still am going with these are only a preorder and they won't ship until June 22nd.

"Kids are afterall watching a TF show with no toys coming out until June."

Any idea on how well the show is actually doing?

The exact cause/explanation is Animated figures sitting in VOYAGER MOVIE cases. Not every single person who buys Transformers posts on Internet websites you know. And this guy wouldn't short-stick me, shoot, I worked with him for over a year in Hasbro

I hope they do this fairly for those of us who work in the mornings.

Here's a question for anyone who's in the know or has supersecret contacts:

What's the deal with the faction symbols? Will the final versions have red and purple emblems?

Or has Hasbro given up on the traditional symbols in favor of silver and gold for some sense of continuity with the live-action movies?

I remember hearing that cartoon accuracy was a big emphasis for the animated line, but the faction symbols we've been seeing on the animated toys don't fit the animated look. Any word or reasoning on this?

I don't know the reasoning, but the faction symbols are final. These are made, boxed, carded and being sold on eBay for months now.

The symbols aren't a big deal anyway, reprolabels faction symbols fix that right up.

So no faction symbol at all for voyager Prime? Weird.



Feh. Stickers suck. They don't make dry transfers, do they?

stickers rulez!

mebbeh reprolabel will make them cartoony symbols like in the toon.

oooo i know what i am buying!

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but the product codes are working for the Animated figures on HTS. They are all listed as "Out of Stock" and there are no pictures for them, but the codes are in their system now. Some of the other figures that aren't pictured in the catalog are on there now too. Product code 83464 is the Prime/Megs 2 pack, and 83471 is Voyager Bulkhead.

I did a search at HTS this morning (10 am or so) for "transformers animated" and nothing came up. I searched again after seeing the above post and 8 items are displayed. No pics yet; they must be making their preparations.

The anticipation is agonizing. So close, so close.

EDIT: forgot to mention in my original post that all figures are still listed as out of stock.

Thats awesome if voyager bulkhead will be available. I'm on the fence about that battle begins pack though. I was highly dissappointed in the classics megatron and optimus pack. Plus again I only really want one Optimus figure and I want the voyager figure not a deluxe. The only thing that is making me hesitate is getting the Animated DVD with the pack but i'm not sure if its that whole 3 episode beginning arc or just the first episode, anyone know for sure?