From the United Kingdom Transformers Sightings thread: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...gdom-transformers-sightings-post13299265.html http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...gdom-transformers-sightings-post13312911.html Yes, I know. There has been an American sighting, one lone sighting of a single Scattershot at a Target store in Texas last November (which allegedly had a full case earlier that day), an indirect sighting of Onslaught via a comic book store in Illinois whose owner allegedly bought him from the "Walmart across the street", and another indirect sighting of Onslaught somehwere in Minnesota via second person reporting. And that's it, unless you count sightings at comic book and specialty stores such as Things From Another World in Milwaukie, The Toy Vault in Connecticut or Big Ben's Comix Oasis in Michigan. Apart from that, Onslaught and Scattershot have thus far only been available online. So please, don't bother telling me over and over again that you haven't seen them at yout local Walmart yet. I am aware of the situation. But this thread is supposed to be about the UK retail sighting, and this Sainsbury's chain, that one counts as general retail.
There goes my theory Hasbro cancelled the wave after news of Computron leaked. Anybody on the fence about pre-ordering Sky Reign may want to go ahead and do so....that wave may get tricky to find with how long it's taken these two to find *any* retail space.
Well, on Amazon (U.S.) sellers are selling Scattorshot for $27-28.00 shipped while Onslaught goes for $50 or more. Hasbro might've undershipped this wave on purpose due to this version of Scattorshot not really going with any official team, while the wave with Onslaught & Sky Lynx completes TWO teams whose limbs may be on the pegs at the same time. +-MWG-+
my experience since the days of Armada has been that the last wave is incredibly difficult to find at retail. Stores aren't that willing to fill shelves with the last wave of the "old" product when the new product theme is right around the corner. They'd rather keep the shelves 1/2 full of the 2nd-to-last wave then let the shelf sit empty of a month waiting for the newer theme rather than get the last wave and have to do massive discounts to get rid of it when the new theme shows up.
They had mentioned plans for a running change to Oliveslaught...but I wonder if less than stellar fan feedback on Scattershot plus pretty poor preorders by online stores is giving Hasbro pause. It seems like the running change was cancelled as Lynx/Onslaught bundle also has the grey-chest. In theory they could skip the wave entirely and save themselves some cost by repackaging those unshipped Scattershot in the future Computron set.
Forgive me for reaching, but the implication that Scattershot will have two CW incarnations, or at least be released in that many formats calls something else to mind. That is, the individual Headmaster (/Horrorcon etc) heads to be sold in the Titan Masters line; could they - sort of like how Scattershot seems to be getting a second release with the rest of the Technobots - get released again, with all the major components (ie bodies/transectors) that fans would like. Like the combiners' boxed sets (however, probably smaller) counterparts could neatly accommodate the respective groups of Autobot and Decepticon Headmaster Juniors, and the aforementioned Horrorcons.
I'm not too interested in CW Onslaught (I'm planning on getting CW Bruticus) but I am waiting for the Deluxe Combaticons to turn up. I've still got to complete Galvatronus.
The great thing about this Headmaster pattern is they're all the same scale regardless of price point. So it makes Hasbro's life easier if they want to repaint heads/torsos and swap them around to make new characters. (The example I've been using is slapping a PMOP head on Mindwipe's body to create Beast Wars bat Primal) Or, Mindwipe's head on Scourge's body to create Senator Ratbat.
It's all about how many units retail stores order. Hasbro will make as many as stores will want. Right now, stores are doing their Spring resets, which means early Q1 product won't hit until about mid-February. Chances are, we'll be flooded with Combaticons until June...the Sky Reign set will be the chaser.
This is why I skipped the Wave 1 Voyagers and went after the Wave 2 case. I am willing to live with Olive Chest Bruticus if it means I don't have to spend the better part of Q2 trying to find a Sky Reign that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
Yes, thinking back to the Henkei/Classics era, where a retool could reasonably only consist of a new head, this slant on the Headmaster concept will be a great boon for HasTak, and quite possibly FunPub; characters of any trait or specification could be generated, not to mention gender!
