A bit of surprising news today, as Generations Sandstorm has been confirmed via a product listing on the Hasbro Live Chat customer service page. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that a small orange VTOL-based aircraft possibly resembling Sandstorm was on the packaging for Generations Metroplex at Toy Fair, possibly as an extreme remold of the recently revealed Generations Springer?
(The product numbers for Highbrow and Banzai-Tron on the page are reportedly the same numbers as the Hunt for the Decepticons Voyagers from 2010. No Headmaster or Action Master love in sight, sadly.)
Be sure to keep it here on TFW2005 as we bring you the latest Transformers news as it happens.
Springer2814
Kapow Toys posted this on twitter
Kapow Toys @Kapow_Toys 23
Generations Sandstorm Pre-order open, confirmed remold with wings Transformers Generations Voyager Sandstorm – Kapow Toys
tom servo
Highbrow? Wow. That's new.
LoserBroadside
Oh! You're the guy who build that! I saw this a while back: it's super awesome! Years ago I would try and distract myself from the misery of working in a warehouse by trying to design a Sandstorm if he got the matrix of leadership- and I decided that he'd turn into a crane-copter like yours'! The idea was that his trailer would be a cargo container in that mode for him to carry.
down_shift
I did. I hated losing his sword when I was a kid. I would always pretend he was locked out of his flight mode until I would find it every few months.
Fort Max
I've never considered springers rotor sword to be parts forming.
alanyap
Yea Sandstorm is one of my favorite G1 toy too due to its non-parts forming design, and two pretty solid vehicle modes , and bot mode WITH non-fused legs , even though he has short arms.
and btw, LEGO-forming is not necessarily partsforming .. just saying. I built a LEGO-forming Sandstorm last year without a need to deconstruct it to form his 2 alternate modes. (radicon link below)
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/radicons-customs/604171-lego-neo-sandstorm.html
Anguirus
^ Actually IDW is promoted on ALL toy packaging now. Sorry.
adambman
The other twist is that the Voyager Triple Changers have IDW branding on the back of their boxes – if my memory of the Australian Toy Fair photos serves me well. So maybe they could have made IDW Megs as a Voyager after all, but I think the concept of an IDW version is open to interpretation. Classics (Sideswipe, Prowl, etc) and Masterpiece (Seekers) designs have popped up in the comics, so for me it only fair that over time, this is a two way street; characters that haven't had their own Dlx/Vgr mold or remold before are going to be more influenced by IDW designs. As such, IDW tie in or not, Blitzwing, Springer, Sandstorm, Trailbreaker and Hoist will be going on my Henkei/Classics etc shelves.
This is all very open to the taste of individual collectors though. I like the IDW specific interpretations of characters, particularly Megatron and I have half a mind to set up a separate IDW Classics shelf – as I want to with my G2 figures from the Classics molds – so there's only one version of a character per shelf. This raises some funny points though: Do I move Drift to the IDW shelf? What about Blurr? His head design is IDW based. Yes, I'm being ridiculous now. Maybe we'll see IDW Seekers based on the F-22? The funny thing is, the Seekers and other Classics toys I already mentioned that have appeared in the comics could justifiably be duplicated on a distinct IDW shelf.
adambman
This is a good point. Back at NY Toy Fair I was a bit overwhelmed by the quantity and overjoyed with the allure of the upcoming releases to debate negative posts.
One thing I do remember though was the new IDW Megatron unsurprisingly took some flak for being a Deluxe. I saw it as Hasbro testing the waters for customer appeal for this line with figures at a fairly inexpensive price point. The same thing happened with War for Cybertron characters. Now with the FoC Generations figures we have way more Deluxes – five molds of which can combine – plus Voyagers and Legends. Maybe if these IDW tie in releases sell well, this line will expand too.
Still, as any fan who though Classics Galvatron might have been redeemed/better as a Voyager might tell us, it would be unlikely for HasTak to make a more or less straight upscale of IDW Megs any time soon.
LoserBroadside
In fairness, the cool thing about G1 Sandstorm was that, unlike Springer, he was entirely self-contained. No lego-forming. The retool with the VTOL wings allows the retool to be self-contained as well, rather than have a rotor that removes between modes like the Springer mold. I mean, I wish Sandy was getting his own mold (as he's my fav G1 guy), but as that was NEVER gonna happen, this is a decent compromise. Super-curious how the VTOL wings work in robot mode…
Probe
IDW said that there will be 8 Spotlights. The line can certainly continue to produce toys after that, but they just wont be IDW pack ins.
But the point was that the first two waves, provided the second wave uses all spotlights like the first, will most likely not include Skids. Skids not being in the first two waves means he's probably not going to be on the shelves at the same time as Metroplex.
down_shift
Yup. All we know are there are some figures that are being paired with spotlights, that's not to say we won't see a half dozen more without a comic.
Fort Max
Again, there's no rule written in stone that says every new classics deluxe must come with a comic.
Hasbro can, and will do whatever they want.
Transbot90210
Let us remember that Classics started off as a 7 figure one off and sales would determine the rest. Look where we are with that now.
I would presume that if sales are strong on the IDW line that more will follow.
CelticMutt
Where is it confirmed that there's only 8 figures? Because we have 8 spotlights that we know of? Because that doesn't really prove anything.
I really hope it's not 8 figures. That would guarantee no Skids, Arcee, or any of the other requested figures.
down_shift
I remember them saying there were only 6 confirmed for the comic pack deluxes. Number five being the obvious Hoist.
Thundershot
Only ones confirmed as toys are Bumblebee, Megatron, Orion Pax, and Trailcutter.
UltimusPrime
Is there a confirmed list of the 8 figures?
Thundershot
Well, there's 8 figures. If they decide to spread them out over multiple waves, or if the repaints don't count as the 8, then it can be stretched out…
Fort Max
Is this confirmed? I don't recall hearing anything about the duration of this line.