The only retooling that came with the Encore version was to accommodate Slammer's gun to become a tower. Nothing was done for the waist.

 

Wish Artfire got reissued, especially considering Inferno and Grapple, even Hauler were done. Maybe due to the Targetmaster?

 

Compared to my Encore and G1 plastic wheels wheels version, the waist in the former seems a lot more stiff and not wonky.

I read somewhere that Artfire was in the works yeaaaaaaaaars ago during Hb's re-issue binge(though those versions were ridiculously overpriced and neutered, I hope the ladder revision mold is still intact. The targetmaster molds are still there. Heck, Stepper, Cha and Hotrodimus were even released back in 2004.

 

There have been rumors for years that the dinobot molds are lost or damaged. I find this hard to believe, since they reissued 3 of them during G2. The G2 toys even had a few minor improvements, to help avoid breaking.

IF they still have the molds...

-There may be concerns about the cost of assembly, since they are fairly complicated designs compared to many G1 toys.

-The original molds may not meet modern safety standards. They may need to get rid of some of the sharp edges and whatnot.

-Snarl and Swoop have some parts that break easily, if you don't know how to handle them correctly. They could be hesitant about too many returns.

All that said... I can't really think of many reissues that I want more.

 

I'd be all in for a reissue of the Dinobots in G1 colours. Really curious whether those rumours of the molds being stolen are true. Surely it wouldn't be hard for Hastak to reverse engineer them if that was the case and they would be hugely popular I'm sure.

 

This is why I asked in another thread, how does everyone know that all these G1 molds are gone? I don't come here regularly, so I could've easily missed the viable source where this news came from. But everytime that I've come in here through the years when I hear that there are G1 rereleases, I see people saying over and over again that such and such character can't be reissued since the molds are gone. I've never seen official confirmation of that, though. For all I know, it could just be one of those urban legends that gets perpetuated from person to person, year after year, because some dude thought he heard someone say something about overhearing another guy's friend's uncle used to work at Takara 20 years ago say something about molds. Or people are just guessing that the molds are gone when, in reality, Takara/Hasbro just don't want to reissue certain characters for some stupid reason.

I'm not asking for an official press release, but even an official interview of someone who ACTUALLY works/worked for Takara or Hasbro would be nice.

 

Yeah, I've seen it mentioned in the forums here a lot, but don't know the exact source, and am not sure if anyone does! I think I recall reading that a few people that post here spoke to Hasbro/Takara employees at a convention, and were told some specific molds are missing or damaged. But I don't know if that was first-hand information when I read it.

 

Even G1 Hound was re-issued with the TFC series though his head mold really degraded over the years. But they are still there (given that Hb re-issued the minibots recently). Also, Trailbreaker, Hoist got the re-issue years back in the Hb collection series yet old slow but tough was bumped over. 
Already have them but wishing for a re-release for the other fans who don't.

 

G1 reissues? Dinobots for me.

 

I never had the G1 Dinobots. I would get all 5 if reissued most definitely. With the KO’s I have seen on eBay(Sunstreaker, Hound, Wheeljack) I am amazed these exist yet Hasbro claims the molds are lost or destroyed.

 

They don't have much substantial information to go off of because most interviews are vapid, with questions ranging from "how tall is MP-1 Optimus Prime" to "what are you selling right now and why is it the best ever."

My theory is that the only reason we have G1 reissues at all is that Takara followed a straightforward manufacturing process with Diaclone and Microchange. A book somewhere said "plastic injection molding uses steel molds" so they made steel molds. They didn't overengineer them or mix in aluminum and sawdust filler to shave a few nickels off the cost. Think about this - G1 was a essentially a reissue line itself. We're talking reissues of reissues of reissues of reissues at this point. Have you ever seen a toy line reissued that much?

 

A mold disappearing at the factory level and eventually ending up in the hands of the KO people is basically the same difference as saying the mold was lost or destroyed by Hasbro.

 

What is known is that in the 90s, many of the Euro reissues were most likely being cranked out of the same factory chosen by Hasbro International to produce reissues for China. Those China reissues were the last official G1 toys before the 2000s and included the likes of LioKaiser, although many mistook them for knockoffs. The contract with the factory expired in the late 90s. It wasn't long after that Hasbro began telling everyone who asked at Botcon that certain molds were now missing or outright gone. It seems 2/3s of the 1984-86 cast survived...but many key figures from that Chinese factory did not. BUT, unlicensed versions of them have since shown up on Ebay. You do the math.

 

You know what would be awesome, a G1 repaint of a character that never had a G1 toy... I’m thinking a green seeker as AcidStorm or red seeker as Redwing or A limited exclusive pink Arcee using the Blurr mold with a fembot head.

 

We got many of those in the 2000's between E-Hobby (Sunstorm, Hauler, Magnificus, Overcharge, etc.) and Botcon (Tap-Out & Glyph). But demand is low for those sorts of things as most of those eventually saw clearance pricing. Look at the cold shoulder most of the fandom gave Platinum Astrotrain and Blitzwing.

 

Kinda shocked at the lack of Dinobots in any line sans Grimlock. Especially CHUG and MP. Animated had 3 and it took forever to get all 5 in the CHUG line....

 

I think that's a strong indicator that Hasbro also suspects that only hardcore fans would be interested in spending 5X$35 for all five. Once the 10 hardcore fans in an area by up the stock, I think there will be more shelf-warming than some fans believe there would be. Grimlock would sell, undoubtedly. Swoop probably would also, due to his supply of non-broken versions being less available than the others. But it would be debatable if Slag, Snarl and Sludge would see the same levels of sales. I do think it would behoove Hasbro to rebuild the mold for Grimlock and use him as a test run. Once fans get their hands on him, they may be more keen to spend 4X$35 further down the road and Hasbro can justify recreating the molds for those others.

Mind you, Optimus without the trailer is $50 - and that could possibly be the working price for Dinobots as well. Now you're talking $250 for a set of five!

 

Well I referring to Dinobots across any TF line, period. Not just G1 reissues. Not sure if even Slag (or Slug or whatever now) will need horns trimmed or Snarl would need some of his spine dulled? I'm sure some G1 would shelf warm just because.

Kids, whether my own or ones I used to teach just love dinosaurs. I thought there'd be more in CHUG, Cyberverse, etc. In Rescue bots, they had some dinos I guess...

 

At this point HasTak simply needs to create new G1 Dinobot molds... :-/

 

The G1 dinobot molds are in the hands of KO guys in China, you can buy reissues on eBay right now for $150 for 5 of them.