So I'm very excited for Unicron, and I love the detachable head feature. I was able to see the unpainted transforming prototype at the small Hasbro event during SDCC, and I saw the painted robot at the Hasbro booth. It looks super cool.

During the small Hasbro event, Flint Dille said that the head should be detachable. I'm not sure if that was in the plans at that point, as I recall a designer giving me a surprised look. But with this new announcement about the detachable head, apparently that feature got done. I love the feature, and I'd love to display this in Planet mode, with the head floating off to the side.

We have about two weeks left for this crowd funded project. My prediction is still that this will be funded, but it may be close. Here is my crystal ball prediction:

I predict that the numbers will start jumping higher during the week of August 19, and then we will start seeing larger spikes during the final week of August 26. There may be any number of reasons for this, but I recall that this is how it happened with the Star Wars sail barge. With the sail barge, the 5000 order minimum was shattered with several days remaining, and the final order numbers surged over 8000 to hit 8810. Given the high volume of orders in the final two weeks , any mystery about whether the project would achieve funding was gone well before the deadline.

Unicron requires 8000 orders and has a higher price at $575 instead of $500 for the sail barge. I have heard from some folks with more knowledge than I that this price difference and higher order number is likely due to the amount of new tooling required for this larger Unicron.

We will continue to see the good and bad of the fandom as this progresses. When a high price point item is announced we often get a crowd of folks who cheer the design but lament the price. We also typically get a crowd of people that fixate on the price, often rightly so, but then we see this crowd devolve into throwing shade at the project, the price, and at people who plan to purchase the item.

My philosophy remains the same - I'm happy this is being proposed. Yes it is not cheap, but it looks great, and I support Hasbro making larger projects like this. I hope this gets funded, I am all in.

 

All due respect but the idea that some don't do it doesn't diminish my point really. The possibility is there...something I don't really see with Unicron.

 

Dude, I hope it gets funded. I cannot wait to own it. For me, this thing is worth the price of admission.

 

This toy really doesn't, and can't work that way. Mechanical gimmicks like the opening planet maw and moving robot eyes don't account for 60% of the budget. Most of the cost is in his shear mass, which is immutable.

 

But if you are arguing possibilities, it’s possible plenty of collectors who want Unicron don’t expect a Unicron that is 1:1 with their other figures and thus the random scale holds no drawback for it.

Plenty of things are possible.

 

The fact that the cracked eye lenses aren\'t painted green or molded in that clear green looks pretty bad. If that\'s final (may not be), I\'m definitely taking a brush to them.

 

Wow, that's really creepy.  

 

LED would help as well and your welcome.

 

I still think this will happen, even though at this time there is only 2500 preorders.  I am very interested in seeing this in person.  I do not think the pictures you see here do it justice. But for me unfortunately, I will not purchase this toy.  I have other priorities and those come first.

 

That is accurate, and can be viewed from that stance. But you can equally look at it from a pure 8k number, and consider that overage has minimal costs, with mostly profit. Another "six one way, half a dozen the other" scenario.

I concur. I don't think this "adult collector" nostalgia spree can last forever. And something like a $600 figure/toy starts to give us pause, reconsider what the hell we're doing with our money. I do think that we're in some sort of endgame with all of this. The 2010s really was a wild ride for collecting, but the 2010s are coming to a close. With it, I think we'll see a slowdown in GenX toy spending, especially if the economy tanks.

I don't think any collector here in this thread, talking about Unicron, wasn't born in the 70s or early 80s. And any from the late 80s probably grew attached because of older siblings watching it on VHS. I also think a lot of us were raised with the idea that this is "kid stuff", so we find it a guilty pleasure. Younger generations don't have that stigma, that outlook, and in a way it could actually be argued they have arrested development because of it.

 

That was my thought as well.

 

Not just LEDs for the eyes but also for planet mode - white light for when he first meets Megatron, red light for his punishment/pain beam and greenish light for reformatting! Probably have to DIY or 3rd party for that though! And of course lights along his rings for post feast engorgement   A voice chip with his lines from the movie would also put this over the top!

 

Thats a hand painted prototype....... the final version might have the eyes painted right .... especially if we ask for it

 

For a bonus incentive figure how about a reissue of this guy

 

...... I wonder if it had crossed through any of their minds to just create a Titan class Unicron head that converted into a Space Prison for $160.00.

I'd be more excited about that more than this current Unicron they're peddling regardless what the price was.

 

Thanks I need it now

 

I love that movie.

 

The sheer mass would be viable as a retail Titan.

 

The sheer mass is more than THREE Titans, so, no, not really....


(EDIT: OK, if we don't include the stand, we can bring that down to two Titans, but still...)

 

None of it is final. They haven’t even gone into the pre-production phase which is where final decisions are made.