Because any franchise that's become iconic has ignored their more iconic versions in favor of some obscure thing. Kinda like how they don't keep going back to 70's era Batman designs despite how far the movies and comics have taken the character.

 

Has ANYONE did a review of this figure since it became available on the pulse site. Has anyone international did a review as well on it. I'm really interested to see what it's like. I have the first shockwave but this shockwave will be in the collection down the road.

 

You could set your graphics card to greyscale and watch a review of the regular version  

 

I havent seen any, but this is the exact same shockwave with new paint.

 

Yeah i know but i was wondering if there's been any QC issues with this mold being used again. So like say floppy legs or arms as well tabs or pegs not snapping right or even together as they are supposed to do.

Well,.....  I have to give ya that 1 but Amazon does my web browsing and other important things.

 

Didn’t buy him but here are some pics I took at SDCC:

 

Check out my link.

 

I really think we are only getting the "Selects" line of figures thanks to the demise of FunPub and Botcon. Hasbro saw the market for a line of repaints/redecos targeted at adult collectors and blew the doors wide open. The death of Botcon is unfortunate, but from the perspective of those who cared only for the limited edition toys, it might have been a blessing in disguise.

 

Agreed. It’s a shame that Botcon is gone but Hasbro is handling exclusive/limited figures really well. Major kudos to them. I never bought Botcon collector’s figure but have rushed out to get some of these store exclusives.

 

I came here to find out of this figure was an exclusive and saw your post and just ordered it.  

 

He is much tighter feeling than the retail shockwave.

 

No sure if this is the place for it, but as far as name usage goes, is 'Galactic Man' a trademark of Hasbro currently?

 

This is a tricky question to answer with a definite "yes" or no".

1) Selects Galactic Man Shockwave came out three years ago. Considering trademark protection only lasts a few years unless those trademarks are used consistently, there's a good chance that whatever trademark Hasbro had at the time has since lapsed. So the following can only be applied to the situation as of 2019, not 2022.
2) As of 2019, it would appear that nobody else was holding the trademark "Galactic Man", otherwise Hasbro couldn't have used it. (If it were any different, Mattel could release a "Grayskull Optimus Prime" tomorrow.) This means the only remaining question would be whether Hasbro had an exclusive claim (i.e. trademark protection) to the name.
3) The Selects figure's full name was "Galactic Man Shockwave", spelled in one font and font size, so there's a good chance the trademark applied to the full name, not to individual parts of it.

I am not a lawyer, and I would value the expertise of actual IP lawyers over my layman perspective.

 

And just as a historical reminder, the name "Galactic Man," was first used by Radio Shack, which sold a grey version of the original G1 Shockwave waaaaay back in the 80s. I was lucky to have one, and always thought that color looked better than purple.

 

During the character development of Shockwave in early 1984, the toy figure sample in hand that Hasbro was incorporating into the toy-line was Spark Man, which was the first post-Astro Magnum iteration of the figure to be produced by Intecs, the Korean manufacturer that later manufactured Shockwave for Hasbro. Spark Man is referenced twice in pages of the 1985 product brief (dated 4/5/1984), which is obscure enough, and the Spark Man figure is almost never seen, and relegated to knock-off status, so these two facts have never really been connected. Galactic Man wasn't released until 1985 and probably no earlier than November of that year according to print ads and the Radio Shack TV ad, while Shockwave was released in November of 1984. As far as homages go, this Generations Selects figure shows that Galactic Man is the definitive alt-Shockwave in the TF collective consciousness, and Astro Magnum has received a few nods as well.

 

I wanna take a moment to thank you for demonstrating one of the things I love about this fandom, which is I learn so much all the time. Really, we're all blessed to have each other y'all. Cheers!

 

A reminder, as previously pointed out by unknown456.

Shockwave's preliminary name in Transformers development was "Flash Beam", and an Astro Magnum-based colour scheme was considered for use under that name in the Sunbow cartoon.

https://twitter.com/JesseWittenrich/status/1107973728179290112



(Wow, the Firefox screenshot shortcut is so useful.)

 

Thank you. If you ever want to deep-dive I have a long article on the topic here. I'd love a homage to Spark Man in the future.

 

Yes. Spark Man was basically the same as the clear white version of Astro Magnum, where the original release had pink clear parts.

Hasbro were going off the Spark Man toy sample for the animation design at the Flash Beam stage of his characterization. In the script too.