Is there going to be any more G1 reissues coming out? Why so slow? As far as I can tell many of the original molds still exist.
Ehobby put out a Laserbeak/ravage set, and a Ratchet/ironhide. I believe that they even had a trailbreaker out.
Imitation Menasor, Devestator, computrons, Bruticus, Defensor, and superions are all over the place.
G2 Transformers put out 3 out of 5 dinobots. So those molds should still exist too.
And it is not like Takara/Hasbro isnt making money off of these reissues either.

 

I assume you mean after the blaster/twincast set? cause if you do, its not that unusual not to have heard anything yet, not with the other reissues JUST now getting released. give it some time.

Andy

 

I think our only hope is for Takara to keep the reissue line going. Here's to hoping.

 

Most recent rumor I heard was that the line was being cancelled. But that was before the Blaster reissue was announced, which pretty much contradicts that rumor.

I do know that the Mirage and Wheeljack molds were officially declared lost forever at Botcon.

 

This may be a bit nieve, but why couldn't they just purchase one off ebay and reverse engineer a new mold? The KO companies do it all the time.

 

They could, but it'd be cost prohibitive.

 

Let it be the dinobots...
Let it be the dinobots...
Let it be the dinobots...
Let it be the dinobots...

 

I guess im just wondering why they dont put them all out at once. Is it some sort of marketing strategy?

 

well yeah. The people who buy them are also buying other TFs, like the BT line, or the main line? or even old TF originals... if they were to throw out a crapload of expensive reissues all at once, the sales per figure would be drastically lowered, which means less profit for them.

Andy

EDIT: and I think they might've said the bookstyle line was gettin canned, but not reissues.

 

Subotnik's right. From all the information we've been told, a high-quality reverse-engineer is a relatively expensive procedure. Bootleg work is very quick and cheap, which results in the size variance and parts-fit issues which plague many KO toys (aside from the low quality plastic), not to mention loss of detail. I'm sure Hasbro/Takara have looked into the option of reverse engineering complete figures, but due to the whole reissue market being such a niche market in the first place, they've probably deemed such projects to be completely unreasonable, cost-wise.

 

I dont think takara would have to buy anything off ebay. as they've proved in the past, they have every single transformer they've ever made on-hand. if it was as easy as pointing at a toy and saying "lets release a re-issue of that one now", then I have no doubt in my mind that hasbro and takara would have re-issued almost every G1 toy by now, along with a few G2s. but no, the molds are buried in different factories, often with no record of where they are. they also degrade over time, and from frequent use as well. so every time they want to do a re-issue, they have to send people out to dig through records, call factories and warehouses trying to track down a mold that may not exist anymore. it takes a lot of time, money, and effort.

it wouldnt surprise me one bit to learn that their stock of usable G1 molds is almost up, and thats why the takara re-issues have slowed. the things sell extremely well world-wide, there's no reason takara wouldnt milk that cow for all it's worth unless there was something holding them back.

 

nevermore signal, LOL.

ive actually been meaning to ask this too actually, since even with galvy and blaster, the rumors had been abt 9 months in advance.

theres been no new rumor since then.  

 

Uhm, first of all, a few things seem to get confused here.

So we're only talking about Takara reissues, not the Hasbro ones? Okay.

So, in order to understand the story behind the Takara reissues:

In 2000, for the 15th anniversary of Transformers, Takara reissued Convoy (Optimus Prime) in a faithful replica of his original Japanese packaging. Apparently, that was successful enough so they followed suit with Ultra Magnus, then Hot Rodimus (Hot Rod), Megatron, Starscream, God Ginrai, Rodimus Convoy and Sixshot. These reissues were released between June 2000 and March 2002.

Alongside, repaints of these toys were exclusively available from conventions and shows (black Convoy, shining Magnus, Movie preview Magnus, black and crystal Rodimus, black Megatron), stores (Nucleon Quest Super Convoy from TRU Japan, black and clear Starscream and Fire Guts God Ginrai from e-Hobby) and lucky draw campaigns (Convoy with gold chromed smokestacks and rims, "secret color" Starscream, black and "stealth" Sixshot).

Also, in 2001, Takara released seven limited reissue sets in boxes that mimicked Hasbro's original packaging, with the now famous "Collector's Edition" logo in the upper right corner. Of those seven sets, six (Lambor/Alert, Skywarp/Thundercracker, Ramjet/Thrust, Dirge, Inferno/Grapple and Trailbreaker/Hoist) were exclusively available from Japanese conventions. The only exception was the Ironhide/Ratchet set, which was available from e-Hobby (maybe because Ironhide had never been available in Japan before outside the black Diaclone version, and the Transformers version of Ratchet had previously been a mail order exclusive).

In early 2002, Takara then re-re-released two of their earlier reissues as "New Year's specials". One was Convoy, released on the mass market, now coming with translucent blue windows (based on the old Japanese "Good Bye Convoy" giftset from 1986), a mousepad, a Matrix replica that could not only fit into his chest, but also be attached to a necklace, and a show-accurate repaint of Action Master Optimus Prime, who had never before been released in Japan.
The other one was Lambor/Alert, with different stickers than the previous release, exclusively available from e-Hobby.

At this point, Takara had apparently come to the conclusion that an ongoing reissue series was profitable enough, because in July 2002, they launched their new "Takara Collection" reissue series, starting with #1 Meister and #2 Prowl, followed in September of the same year by #3 Skids (who had previously only been available as part of the VSZ giftset with Sunstreaker and Buzzsaw in Japan) and #4 Tracks, and so on.

Meanwhile, e-Hobby had now been given (sort of) exclusive rights to sell the obligatory repaints of those toys, usually based on old Diaclone or Microman colors (even gold chromed Meister and silver chromed Streak were based on old Diaclone campaign prizes). The only exeptions were Tigertrack, a yellow repaint of Sideswipe (also based on a Diaclone version of the toy), which was available via mail order for buyers of the Figure King magazine, and a black repaint of Tracks (based on an old Diaclone release from Finland [!]), which was available as a lucky draw prize for buyers of the Transformers: The Manga collection.

Some e-Hobby recolors weren't based on Diaclone/Microman color schemes but rather "inspired" by the show (Sunstorm, Road Hauler), some were based on early Takara or Hasbro catalogs ("Go-Bots" Minibots), some were both ("anime" Astrotrain), some were completely "original" (Detritus), and some didn't get an e-Hobby repaint at all (Hot Rodimus, Stepper).

Also, the TFC line featured yet ANOTHER reissue of Convoy (as the special "#0"), this time coming with an orange energy axe that could be attached to his arm (as seen in the cartoon pilot), and likewise, the accompanying Megatron re-reissue came with a purple energy maze. Similarly, all the other TFC reissues were also aiming to be the "ultimate" releases of those toys, thereby often sporting "improved" color schemes ("anime" Starscream) or coming with extra accessories (the aforementioned energy weapons for Convoy and Megatron, Starscream coming with a miniature Megatron gun and remolded fists that could hold the gun, as well as an extra fist for Convoy to hold the gun, Hot Rodimus, Stepper and Kup all coming with both Targetmaster AND regular weapons) or even mold changes (Bumble with an "anime-accurate" head).

In 2004, Takara suddenly revived the non-TFC reissues, starting with a Predaking giftset. Next was Star Convoy, followed by Galvatron, Pepsi Convoy and soon Battle Convoy, the latter three of which are all (supposedly) noticeably different from their original releases (Galvatron came in cartoon colors and with a remolded face, Pepsi Convoy came with a new trailer, different stickers and tampoed-on logos instead of stickers on his shoulders, and Battle Convoy will probably also sport a G1-esque color scheme). Both Galvatron and Battle Convoy will also get their e-Hobby repaints, namely Galvatron II (in original G1 Galvatron toy colors) and Ultra Magnus (in a weird mix of G1 Ultra Magnus "cab robot" and "combined robot mode" colors).

The TFC reissues, meanwhile, have considerably slowed down. Having once come out every 2-3 months, it's now seven months between #20 (Kup & Wheelie) and #21 (Broadcast). This is generally attributed to the Takara/Tomy merger which slows down releases until the joint management has decided on how to continue with the Transformers in general (Binaltech has also slowed down, Robot Masters is done, and Galaxy Force has ended with three major show characters never having been released, wheras Primus will come out but in a G1-esque packaging).

So who knows what the future holds, let's wait and see.

A recent poll held Japanese magazine seems to indicate that demand for the G1 Scourge (!) toy is particularly high in Japan...

 

Well, that about sums it up.  

 

Aaron Archer of Hasbro actually said at Botcon that this is what Takara did with the Soundwave/Soundblaster reissue, so its defiantly possible with other supposedly "lost" moulds like Mirage.

 

Has there been any word on the Sunstreaker mold? I thought I recalled hearing something about it, but then realized I confused it with Mirage and Wheeljack.

I just hope they keep the bookstyles coming, even if they are less frequent. It'll give me time to catch up on the ones I don't have yet.  

 

Oh, and while I'm here, I might as well reaffirm that the bookstyle reissues are NOT called "DW reissues", and the box art isn't done exclusively by Dreamwave artists either... about half of the TFC reissues used box art drawn by Hirofumi Ichikawa, who has to my knowledge never in his life been working for Dreamwave.  

And some of the Ichikawa artwork was also used for Hasbro's CS reissues, for that matter.

 

damn, those were by ichikawa-san? he rawks.

 

Then the onslaught of Chinese bootlegs surfaced. Takara doesn't reissue toys that are easily duplicated.

2006 will be a terrific year for reissues. With Galaxy Force done, Takara/Tomy will need to do something to fill that cash void.

I'd kill for a dinobot giftset.

 

You and most of the rest of us I'm sure.