Australia Toyfair Report, Part One: Universe, Robot Heroes

Sorry people about the sneak peek posting going to a link that non-Oz-members couldn't see. We were only able to upload them as attachments while I was away from my own computer. But now that I am back home (about 20,000kms away from the Toyfair), I have started posting pics and info.

Here's the link of the source:
http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=862

But here is what was posted in this first of three parts:

The annual Australian Toy, Hobby and Nursery Trade Fair is on this weekend 4th to 8th April, and the OTCA (Ozformers) was there with full access to Hasbro's display. Paulbot, Demonac and I spent about 4 hours at the event, with most of that time inside the Hasbro section.
I triple checked with the Senior Product Manager Kristin Hamilton (American fans at BotCon last year might recognise her name, as she used to be at Hasbro America, and has come to Australia for a year), and we were allowed to look and photograph anything we wanted, and publicise it (we were registered as media after all).

We asked heaps of questions, took photos of everything, and recorded details and info, which should keep fans excited for the next three weeks when Hasbro are expected to reveal all of this at BotCon.

They had two main Transformers displays, covering Animated and Classics/Universe. In their Marvel display, they had some Marvel Transformers displayed, and in their Star Wars display, there was a mock-up of their new packaging for Star Wars Transformers.

Classics/Universe (September Launch in Australia)
On display (we were allowed to play with anything listed as loose)
-Ultra Onslaught (loose)
-Ultra Powerglide (loose)
-Ultra Silverbolt (box with cardboard standin for toy inside)
-Voyager Autobot Blaster with Blackrock Minicon (box with cardboard standin for toy inside)
-Deluxe Sunstreaker (loose)
-Deluxe Prowl (loose and on card)
-Deluxe Tankor (on card)
-Legends Red Alert (loose and on card)
-Legends Starscream (loose and on card)
-Legends Onslaught (loose and on card)
Pictured on packaging of others:
-Voyager Heavy Load.

Robot Heroes
-Arcee Vs Decepticon Rumble (on card)
-Rattrap Vs Megatron (on card)
-Rhinox Vs Waspinator (on card)
-Cheetor (loose)
-Blackarachnia (loose)
-Tarantulas (loose)
-Autobot Jazz (loose)
-Optimus Primal (loose)
-Thundercracker (loose)

Also included in this display case were assorted Movie items, like scene battles, Legends, and Autobot Ratchet Allspark Blaster.

Pics:

Total display shelf.


Universe Silverbolt (Ultra). Not actual toy in package, only a cardboard mockup.


Universe Deluxe and Voyager, plus Movie Thundercracker (don't know why).


Universe Ultra Onslaught, Silverbolt box, Powerglide.


Back of Blaster's box.


Close-up of back of box.


Close-up of front of box (not actual toy inside, just a cardboard reproduction).


Universe Deluxe Sunstreaker, Prowl and Tankor (unfortunately, Demonac left Sunstreaker in it's 'Sideswipe' mode when I took this photo).


Universe Robot Heroes.


Universe Legends.


Autobot Ratchet Allspark Blaster.


Movie packs that have already been released.


Next segment will cover the Crossover lines and other items, since the Animated segment will take a bit longer to do, and most of it is already known anyway.

(These images can be mirrored into the tfw2005 gallery if the mods want, to prevent any crashing of my 'small' server).

thanks for the pics.

the box art for universe is quite cool, not very 'animated' but an improvement over cybertron art. blaster looks more impressive from his art than the actual toy, its still a bugbear with me that hasbro chose the cybertron repaint route for some of these toys.

g/oz:
That's cool in a geeky way. You didn't happen to take down the name of Heavy Load's minicon, did you? Still called Stripmine?

Almost a pity, though, that the Laserbeak recolor wasn't named Scrounge instead, which would also be cool in an even more geeky way...and the altmode is a lumpy, roller-shaped thing, which is at least partway along the evolutionary path to the wheel.

Interesting that Tankor is packed in plane mode. I'd have thought the truck was his "primary" altmode.

Thanks mate. Wow, Hasbro used Blackrock as a product name!

the packaging is pretty awesome....i wonder why they didn't give blaster a blue visor on the toy?

Griffin were there any gijoe toys on display?

Classics Silverbolt - Awesome, it does seem odd that they are making combiner leaders that don't combine though (I assume silverbolt will be the same as onslaught?)

The pic of sunstreaker is quite handy to see what sideswipe will look like.

i really like how Silverbolt looks in his artwork.

Silverbolt looks amazing from what little we can see.

I'm not completely buying into silverbolt and onslaught not being combiners yet. They could surprise us later on. they don't have to connect using pegs and stuff like we've seen before. as transformer fans have shown in the past, ANYTHING can combine if you're creative enough.

Looks like they're really liking the idea of doing combiner leaders separated.

Hung-Grr anyone?

Hate to burst bubbles but that says "Blockrock"...

that all looks awesome! Can't wait for this Universe Stuff. So cool that its mostly NEW, unlike the previous Universe line which was Rank.

I really like the alternate transform of Classics Sunstreaker. Chest looks very much like Sideswipe which is great (yes, I know Sideswipe is sharing the same mold but with alternate transformation but wasn’t sure how it would look like til now).

Those Classics are awesome! I want them all now! Except for Blaster. I could live without him.

What's Blackrock from?

Isn't that the badguy in Inhumanoids or something?

Silverbolt!!!! Awesome!!!!

I wish him and Onslaught were combiners. It seems like Hasbros teasing us...

Cannot wait to see Silverbolt's robot mode. Not too excited about Blaster but the rest look great.

Wow, Silverbolt looks great. And I thought Energon Stormjet was the closest we could get...

G.B. Blackrock is finally getting a hommage, cool. Gotta agree Scrounge would have been better, but then again, we can always repaint that birdy to gold. Not that I'd buy it - with a remolded head, I'd consider it, but Soundwave's head looks weird on him.

I cannot understand why, on every Toyfair, Botcon, etc., the guys putting the toys on display always mistransform them. Aren't they fans?

Actually in this case the toys on display are mistransformed because fans were allowed to fiddle with them.

No "a" in his name, unless the box mockup is incorrect.

Love the universe line so far, except the lame legends. How many repaints of the LOC are they gonna do? The starscream I can live with, as TCs LOC mold. But that onslaught is really...really...really lame.

excellent. and if Silverbolt isn't already configured to be a combiner, I will make it so. Quite happy that I've held off on Superion and Bruticus both.

Superion looks really good.

Silverbolt looks awesome from what little we can see of him.

I think I'll be getting Blaster and putting him on my Cybertron Autobots shelf... sure, he may not make a good Classics Blaster, but he looks good enough to be a Cybertron Blaster. Still, not digging the Quickmix repaint (of course... I didn't like the original version either).

Actually, I'm glad the loose Sunstreaker is shown in his Sideswipe configuration... it gives me a nice idea of what Swipe is going to look like.

Blaster is starting to grow on me. Hate the mold, but the colors look nice. I'll probably buy him for his Mini-Con along though.

Wow...RH Optimus Primal, Arcee, Trantulas and Rumble...

when will we see silverbolt real robot mode? i just wonder from the box art...

Nice...Silverbolt looks amazing and close to his G1 counterpart.

You know, it's entirely possible for them to still make them combiners. If they make the other characters, the parts could come with them to connect in some other way to the big guy.


Chris

Yeah, unless the Blaster box has a typo, that Minicon is named Blockrock. It's a fitting name for a minion of Blaster. Someone at Hasbro must be a Chemical Brothers fan! Now I want a Blockrock all-red repaint of the G1 Buzzsaw/Laserbeak mold!

I looked, but couldn't see a name for the Minicon, only the name Heavy Load was used on the co-sell panels.

Now that you mention it, they didn't appear to have any at all. The GIJoe line in Australia has been pretty much non-existent over the last 5-10 years, and maybe the movie is too far off for displaying product yet.

The Minicons name is Drillbit.

Yes, I just looked at my original full sized photo, and it is indeed Blockrock. So disappointing, that it was this close to being a really neat homage, but like the whole Tankor name thing, Hasbro spoil it.

Actually, we were fixing up most of the toys for much of the morning (gave us an excuse to play with them even more), because the Hasbro reps were constantly pulling the figures from the shelves to show them off to the retailers, but would put them back half transformed because they didn't have time to transform them back properly.

Blockrock makes more sense than Blackrock, homage aside, since the Blaster recolor of the Laserbeak Minicon isn't, y'know... black.

And Silverbolt looks awesome so far. MAN, I hope he and Onslaught eventually get their own combiner limbs...

I was kinda hoping Blaster's minicon would get to be Graphy.

Since the silverbolt is cardboard it might be an aprill fool prank like the comic and thease 'leaked' animated characters

http://tformers.com/transformers-lea...9227/news.html

G.B. Blackrock was a supporting character in the Marvel Transformer comics.

Probably the same time we see the real toy.

You really think Hasbro would go to the trouble of having someone do character art, print up and assemble a box, make a mock-up toy to photograph, and print off and cut out a copy of that photo to put in the box in order to celebrate a holiday that was three days ago? Especially since they have never, ever done any kind of April Fools prank before?

I like the full look at Silverbolt's character art. If the head sculpt looks half as good as the drawing, it's going to be fantastic. Can we just skip Powerglide in wave 1 and put this guy in there instead, Hasbro? Please?

Doubtfull, imo. It's not something I see Hasbro doing. That and as it's now April 4th, the joke wouldn't make any sense at all. It would be different if we had gotten this bit of news on the 1st.

Ah, ok - I should have guessed there was some Hasbro incompetance involved

Not digging Blaster at all! He might be a pass for me.

Everything else is a must buy.

Some of these look pretty good. I am not too hot on Blaster though.

Won't be getting Blaster if I can help it. I don't care for the Cyb. Soundwave mold much, and the repainting idea really doesn't work in this case. Still very interested in seeing more of Silverbolt though.

As long as Sunstreker gets remolded, I got nothing to worry about for Sideswipe it would appear.

Hmmm, they would have me with the Blaster reapint if his minicon would have been retooled into some other critter....like the Steeljaw custom that was online....Nice looking classics figures though - it'd be great if the combiners, well, combined! ;-)

Awesome, awesome stuff. Thanks a TON, man!

Blaster is so "meh", it's not funny. And new Robot Heroes = badass!

All the Classics look really awesome. Can't wait to get them all!

I like the box for Blaster. Loved the mold but the colors are still not setting with me for some reason.

Also, where is this image of Heavy Load? I don't see it.

Bowzers, I have to get all the Universe except the repaints. I'm not against repaints, but the ones I've seen so far just aren't that great. I actually like Cybertron Soundwave, but when i think of Blaster, I jut picture him with large, thick legs, and here we don't have that. The Cybertron Legends repaints are just lazy. I like the legends toys, but Classics/Universe deserves some fresh molds.

Silverbolt looks awesome in that box picture. Looks just like his G1 counterpart. Hope the toy is fairly faithful to the original. Of course I also ask the question, why combiner bodies but no limbs?

Well let's bring on a Motormaster or Hungrr, those would make good classics toys.

I think its because he has too much black. Blaster is red and grey, with yellow and then lastly, black. This repaint has more black than even red on it.

Its just on the box of blaster. look at the first image after the obvious blaster box images, you can see the side of the box on the edge of the picture. We have better images in the Resources though.