Well I may have accidentally bought Pretender Pincher on eBay last night. I really hope I don’t get the desire to collect them all, that could get expensive!

 

Did that new Netflix Soundwave ever show up on UK sites? I’m hoping to god he shows up at Smyths, it would be my definitive Soundwave, plus the cassettes could just as easily go in Doubledealer! (When I get him...)

 

Hope everyone is keeping well.

Just a quick one that my ex display Aoyi Mech LS-15 Oversized MPM Masterpiece Scaled Studio Series Jetfire is still up for grabs. He comes with his box, instructions and accessories inc the parts to combine with MPM-04 or the Aoyi Mech OS SS32 Prime if you checkout the 3rd party forum thread. Been kept in a closed display cabinet and hardly used with so in excellent condition. Looking for £40 now shipped.

Jetfire in the below pic is the one for sale now (other figures on the shelf not for sale lol)

 

Not yet, I'm similarly on the edge of my seat waiting for a preorder for him and bee. Looking online bee is supposedly due in October or before.

It's starting to worry me wave 2 of earthrise is only just starting to see release. If they follow the usual 2 month wave pattern we will be getting 3 in October and what really worries me then is wave 4 in December which is really cutting it fine with them wanting to now start a new line every year. (probably wanting to start kingdom in January)

Looking on bbts it seems like wave 3 is pushed forward to September so that will at least hurry things along, if so however it may have consequences for the amount of stock out there at retail, wave 3 could be short ordered if 2 doesn't fly off shelves etc.

Adds more fire to the rumour that bee, elita and soundwave were the planned wave 5 shifted across to netflix to get them out this year.

Tl:dr
August: wave 2
September: wave 3
October: netflix wave
November: wave 4?

 

Wave 5? Was it not Wave 4? We don’t have any idea what Wave 4 is/was, the only figures it could be are the aforementioned Bee, Elita and Soundwave, as well as Thrust and Runabout.

EDIT: nevermind, just realised two voyagers means two waves.

 

Another potential logic to shifting some of the wave into the Netflix line exclusively is on the shelves they have distinct boxes and so in Brick and Mortar store would help them stand out more than other waves of the same line. The downside of course being that they'd lack the full colour box artwork the normal releases have   also I've not been collecting Earthrise but what happens with the map pieces they were presumably going to have?

 

Seems a reasonable surmising, I've gone so far as to posit that even Wave 4 may have been effected (Earth Mode 'Bee & Sounders seeing release in Netflix Exclusives when they'd sit pretty naturally in Wave 4 of Earthrise, even Elita's a partial remould of a prior Wave figure that could've gone in that wave, and up until now there's been ZERO remoulding in the Inspired by line to a pretty massive jump in a major bit of partial remoulding) but outside this 'ere Oasis there is a FIERCE resistance to the notion. It seems feasible that to land the regular Run-up-to-Xmas-into-New-Year new line launch that something would have to give to avoid a seriously heavy line-ghosting by retailers skipping the last wave of ER to hop straight into Kingdom, yeah? Some folk are very much invested in not believing that though.

That's a nice, cogent point clearly put in a neat concise way. A neat way to not have suppliers ghost on your final wave (whether it be a posited Wave 5 or what would have been Wave 4), stick the "Exclusive" carrot on 'em.
I'd also note that we already know Takara will be knocking these figures out too, way earlier than we have with any of the Wave 1 exclusives IIRC?
As to the map there's already evidence that the maps themselves aren't strictly jigsaw edged and there's some overlap, plus Caminus appearing twice, illustrated quite differently on either piece it appears on, as well as some other duping suggests there may be some amending that's happened, if not a mistake (that could possibly be due to the necessity of amending it in a hurry). Heck, if they turn up with bits of map inside their Netflix boxes that might just be the irrefutable evidence of some kind of Wave adaptation/reassignment from ER.

 

Oh yeah it makes sense for sure, the map pieces are a funny one but I would think they can find a way round it with the amazon and target exclusives perhaps as they have been coming with them.

We'll likely never know if bee and Co were meant for wave 4 or wave 5 if that is the case, I could see it being 5 just because hasbro would be sure they wouldn't make it to their production window but it could just as easily be wave 4 who would be further along into production and likely be ready sooner and simply repacked. I don't think the new moulding can be ignored as a substantial change as seaaich brings up.

Not sure I agree on the two voyager thing Gumblor, I would think prime was always meant for netflix as he doesn't have any remoulding, we only got one new voyager per later wave in siege and thrust has been revealed as coming.

We've seen listings for voyager thrust, deluxe runabout and bluestreak so I'm summising that's our likely last retail wave.

 

The last wave of ER being shunted into netflix and other exclusives makes perfect sense. It allows Kingdom to start in jan, and it explains why the sudden dumping of a lot of exclusives recently. It's Not like waves haven't been shunted around before. And as you say, Netflix went from no remoulding to quite a bit.

Any word on where/when Thrust is meant to be coming out? I've lost track of what is in what beyond the wave 2 deluxes, and I need that seeker.

 

I think the large amount of exclusives is a price hasbro is paying for yearly lines regardless, siege did a lot of it as well with rainmakers, ratchet, bluestreak, smokescreen, skywarp etc etc when the next line is such a departure and repaints won't fit but they want to keep the fans happy it's kind of the only way unfortunately.

Does make me wonder if this yearly recipe is going to bite them on the ass when they've sped through all the characters and angles and are left burnt out.

Still no word on thrust, we've only seen him through leaks and being listed on the coneheads box. I would speculate with ER snapdragon dropping this month and ER megs wave apparently close we will be looking at November alongside the last wave of deluxes.

That being said the voyagers wave 2 and 3 all seem to be coming july/August according to kapow and bbts. I'm wondering if that's just being overly optimistic about wave 3.

 

As you say Prime's bang on a straight recolour (and so toy deco inspired it's a shame he hasn't got the yellow eyes) but when it comes to Voyagers Earthrise has already had the Quint bumped from Wave 2 with Snapdragon to Wave 3 (meaning only one Voyager in Wave 2 when there's been 2 before), which perhaps bumped Thrust from Wave 3 Voyager (which would've had him better synced with the release of his fellow Coneheads), and as a consequence Thrust bumping Earth Mode Soundwave from the Wave 4 Voyager slot.

Here's a collation of what we know plus some of the likely rumours/reveals written up by @Fort Max:

I could see Wave 4 being Thrust as well as Runabout, Doublecrosser and the repacked Micromasters, in a similar fashion to how Novastar was it for Wave 4 of POTP which got rolled up quicker for different reasons but falling within that number range could mean he's also been shunted to being an Exclusive as in this partially speculative list.
Which also could mean that Bluestreak falls under an exclusive banner if he is indeed WFC-E32?

 

As I always say, if you see something at a reasonable price and want it, grab it now.

Figures who should be common as muck weren't/aren't. America couldn't even get a hold of some Battlemasters and Micromasters. Australia and Canada got random, limited stock. Hard enough to get Soundbarrier at times and he's part of a much wider gimmick.

They'll likely never be able to fulfill the Gen Selects demand over again or have the capacity to do so, even though the profit must be insane on the cassettes alone.

Hasbro always has a perfect storm with it's logistics. Until it sorts out dedicated stock within it's for talk's sake, 3 year plan, they're leaving millions on the table every year. The rigid structure is a hindrance in the day to day and even worse for the future. Got a super profitable hit in the Gen Selects cassettes, or the Brunt repaint? Well you can only do one batch cos you're snowballing into Kingdom. And after that you can't put them out again in any sense.

And even that's ignoring how badly they treat retailers! I really hope Mattel and NECA can get their shit together at retail because Hasbro absolutely need the competition to act as a kick up the arse.

 

Zavvi currently have the soundtrack album to TF:TM on vinyl on offer, 10% off:
Transformers: The Movie OST LP

 

It will never fail to amuse me that the way in which Hasbro distributes its products causes speculation which probably makes up at least 50% of Transformers discussion on forums and social media.

Actually, sometimes it does fail to amuse me, and I just get sad.

 

A question for the group mind - has anyone ordered from Till all are one toys?

I sent them a message last week about a pre-order I placed a while back (using their 'contact us' form) and haven't had a reply.

 

Althought not really CHUG, the ichigo Bludgeon design has got to be Iron Factory Honekumoki. It looks amazing. I love the banner on the back, the fact that his gun barrel doesn't become his sword handle, the Oni face and that awesome anime feudal era rifle
I'll be picking it up for my chug gang, whilst praying for some kind hearted chinese ko toy maker to oversize it



Edit: Also, legendary enabler, @Napalm , has reported he has the first in the Samurai series, Lio Convoy so perhaps we can peer pressure him to share his thoughts. Though, from my own past experience, invoking that particular evil spirit can become a Faustian pact for the wallet

 

Thanks for the list. Huh, thought Fasttrack was wave 2. Here's hoping that list is a little wrong and Thrust gets a general release in wave 4 like you speculate.

 

If you manage to make something nice out of it, take some pics and tag me in the post so I dont miss em!

 

Honestly would not mind some of the waves being pushed back a bit for more breathing room.

Just wish Snapdragon would show up for UK stock already.

 

Yeah, with the continued announcements despite a belaying of releases they're sliding about in the ol' noggin there for me too, especially with your stuff like the Quint actually shifting, I mean if Smokescreen is due soon but the rest of his wave is delayed that at least splits 'em into wave 2.0 and 2.1 respectively, right? Heck, you wouldn't be far wrong to say Deluxe Wave 2 is actually one figure if this is the case!