Siege: Cybertron Defense Scattorshot from Impactor
Earthrise: Nacelle from Thrust
Kingdom: Goldfire from Waspinator, slightly retooled to look more like a bumblebee and in Bumblebee colors

Punch/Counterpunch, Repugnus, and Blast Off

 

i reckon for celebratory figures, do

siege: Cybertronian Wheeljack from ER wheeljack or ironhide
earthrise: Earth mode Hound from siege Hound
kingdom: Sea Clamp from Kingdom Scorponok to go with Skywarp

 

US release of shuttle blast off, repugnus, and punch/counterpunch

 

It was that Amazon series of releases with the US release of Takara's Blast Off and.. Megatronus, I think, for CW, deluxe Repugnus from twinferno for TR, and P/CP with Prima for POTP. I can't recall if Repugnus came with a prime master or not

 

I saw the price hikes coming, and I understand why. If anything this is just ushering in price hikes that we’re gonna happen as some point in the next 5 years I’d imagine. As much as I want prices to go down once things are running smoothly again, that’s likely just wishful thinking. May take retailers a bit to implement though.

 

"The price went up 2 dollars so I will instead spend money on things that are exorbitantly more expensive".

Yeah that makes sense

 

I wouldn't mind the price hikes as much if they hadn't also clearly cut the budget during Earthrise and then again for Legacy. We had a noticable budget increase when prices went up for TLK/Siege, but that lasted only one line.

 

It's not about the absolute cost, it's about value for money. I'd rather pay 3x as much and get a toy I'm really satisfied with than these new prices for toys I'm increasingly unhappy with.

Never thought I'd be saying that since I used to roll my eyes at the 3P boosters who said the same thing back when WFC Deluxe prime could be had at retail for $13, but it's where I find myself.

(I should also add that it isn't really an "instead;" I've already been spending "exorbitantly more" on 3p for a while, because my budget went far enough that I didn't have to choose. But with price increases squeezing me across the board, if I have to choose what to cut, it's mainline stuff that will get the axe.)

 

Wish I could feel good about putting more than $660 total a year for toys, but that just doesn't vibe with me. No matter how good the toys are.

 

  yea...no, there wasn't any obvious budget cuts between Siege and Earthrise or between Kingdom and Legacy.

 

Yeah, there were. It's obvious. It would be obvious even if we hadn't had people here telling us in advance that Hasbro would be cutting budgets.

 

Yea, still gonna say it's really not obvious. I also don't recall anyone with actual inside info saying there would be cut budgets.

 

Bummer about the price increases. Hopefully my local Walmarts hold the line at $19.99 for deluxes for a bit longer (at least through Velocitron; not getting much from the mainline, but the exclusives are going to eat me alive).

 

Yeah I agree on that, but he could easily get a voyager or leader with no issue.

 

Can you give some examples of these budget cuts? Genuinely curious which figures you think obviously had reduced budgets. We do know that ER Scorponok had a reduced budget compared to Siege Omega Supreme from that designer interview last year but it is hard to tell comparing the two figures. We’re there any other interviews that revealed anything similar to that.

 

Sure that would work but if HasTak decided to did TM2 Megatron (big character with big proportions and a considerable wingspam) as Leader Class, I don't know what would stop them to do a retoled Leader Class Powermaster Optimus Prime from another old mold. Maybe it will save costs since it's a retoled.

 

Yeah, a Voyager class Rhinox retool was what was first suggested, then someone said Commander or nothing

 

Any new PMOP is likely to be a new mold, especially considering they're giving characters like Motormaster the commander class treatment and then you have Victory Saber that is also getting a brand new mold.

 

Skids is the most obvious one to me, along with Bulkhead. Skids' thighs and the detail that fills in his lower legs are molded as one piece. They relied on paint to do a color change for the thighs, and then didn't paint the inner surfaces (maybe I'm wrong, but I can't remember a time when they painted a limb to do a color change and didn't paint all four sides). Also Drag Strip, while an excellent looking mold, is severely lacking in paint. It doesn't look to me like they used his paint budget on any of the other figures in the wave – Skids, Kickback, and Arcee don't have unusual amounts of paint – he's just...really sparse.

Compare with Siege waves 1 and 2 where color separation was largely done with molding, and they even painted Sideswipe and Cliffjumper all over with paint, not to define detail but apparently just because they could.

Compare also Bulkhead and Blaster with the Siege Optimus and Megatron wave. Blaster in on par with Siege absolutely, but Bulkhead is simple and hollow. Both Optimus and Megatron on the other hand were very complex and minimized hollowness.