Sounds like something FT would do lol

But if Windcharger and Tailgate are released before the three you mention I think people might be slightly pissed off…

I generally look at the colour prototypes to get a vague idea of what’s around the corner… Blaster + tapes, CJ, Pipes and PG look finished. AT and WW reissues sprinkled in. After that it’s shots in the dark. Could see gears and swerve, an aerial bot, a bit of FortMax.

I’d like to see at least a grey prototype of Blitzwing this year. And maybe get Deadend Christmas / NY.

 

It’s likely we’ll get figures that have preorders up currently at western retailers before anything else, with reissues sprinkled in. So probably not most of the figures y’all are speculating about, as much as I might want a Tailgate from them.

Occam’s razor would suggest that Thomas and Cliff are next, beyond that we should just probably just enjoy the present moment…cuz Bandit ain’t coming in April.

 

Not that I tend to follow release schedules all that closely these days, but I would have thought Pipes would be next. He's the next one who has been "ready" for the longest, and Huffer came out this time last year, so it makes some level of sense.

I'm thinking Pipes, then Blaster, then Cliffjumper, then Powerglide, probably with one or two of the Astrotrain repaints somewhere in there.
I expect they'll try to have as many releases as last year, and I think we'll probably see a surprise release that's been worked on quietly with few updates (I'm thinking Chromedome or Scourge, maybe even Blitzwing), like what happened with Jazz/Mirage/Hoist.
Gears is probably a safe bet for later in the year too, and I expect they'll reveal Windcharger and Tailgate around June/July (possibly alongside Bumblebee, or maybe even Cosmos or Wheelie, to round out their Minibots).

I for one am waiting on FansToys' Blitzwing, because as much as I like the Star Toys one, it's just a bit too cartoony for me. The FansToys one, presuming the final product looks close to the latest prototype, looks like a nice middle-ground.
Considering FansToys are probably the easiest to figure out (except maybe MMC), I've actually given this a lot of thought just because they have a lot of releases I'm looking forward to (even if I'm not a big fan of the company themselves), but I think I've typed enough for now so I'll keep the rest of my release schedule (and reveal schedule) theories to myself.

I do.

I definitely think they'll try to complete Superion this year, and Menasor next year. Superion is easier because they haven't released either arm yet - that's likely why we're not seeing more of Menasor and Dead End.
If Dragstrip really is the problem, the easiest solution at this point would be to just release some replacement parts to change what they need to change and be done with it, but I doubt FansToys will do that.
Anyway, if they get Superion done, that's ONE combiner done, which gets them off the hook to some degree, makes (most) people feel better about Menasor being completed, and will let FansToys announce a new combiner (probably Devastator to compete with XTB) without people having a meltdown that their others haven't been completed (because at that point, one is completed and the other is one piece away from completion - and they can easily show us Menasor and Dead End ready to go for next year around the same time as completing Superion and/or announcing another combiner).

 

Superion is easier because the extra parts don't have to form Voltron or another vehicle. Flight stands are a different matter altogether. After all FT had plenty of practice with their Universal Stand 1.0  

 

This is probably close to what happens. I don't believe Gears is part of the 2023 cycle but it could fit the bill. I still think with the pending Dead End update, Berserk update, and need to announce new combiners that the Menasor issue is going to start coming to a quick conclusion by the end of 2023/early 2024.

 

I like this way of thinking. I personally have no real preference over which bots come first but it is getting to the point where they should really put a priority label on Superion and Menasor with the aim to show off the next 2, which I could see as being Devy and Defensor just because they are the ones being worked on else where. But I do like the idea of alternate releases of protector bots and combaticons. That would also make sense to me.
If anything I feel like they should have kept the Dinobots reissues for when they do Devy and alternate releases between them.
Similarly, I reckon Blitzwing gets moved up because of ST.
I love the guessing game.
Pipes would make sense too because, like you mention, he’s been ready the longest and a parallel with Huffer.

 

I find it hard to believe Gears wouldn't come out this year. Swerve might not, but if they do 9 new moulds like last year (10 releases including the Galvatron repaint, and reissues not seeming to take up release slots), they kinda have to release Gears to even have enough releases this year, unless they have a lot of surprises coming up.
Gears was announced at the same time as Cliffjumper, Pipes and Powerglide, if I remember correctly, so I find it odd that he'd be bumped for some reason (Swerve being a retool though, I could see him getting bumped, but we'll see).

 

I don't see Gears coming out early 2024 as getting bumped or delayed. Gears was announced in 2022 and comes out early 2024 makes sense. It was announced after the others you mention. Parkour 2019, Warthog 2021, and Tube even though announced close to Gears was the follow up to Rig announced in 2019 and had painted test shot in 2021 when Tube was clearly in development. Those all have painted test shots shown and preorders, except Tube lacking preorder. FT uses the minibots as quick release gap fillers so 2024 is likely Berserk, Gears, Swerve, Margh, Chromedome, Scourge, Fort Max. 2023 already has a lot of those releases if you include the Autobot tapes with needing to get out some big releases (Jester/skeleton and Bandit/skeleton) that count for really two releases each. Again, late 2023/Q1 2024 is likely some interchange of Bandit, Berserk, Gears in some order. I fully expect to see painted test shots of both Gears and Swerve in 2023. Hubcap might get squeezed in somewhere along with other reissues and FT announcing Windcharger/Tailgate. That only leaves Wheelie and Cosmos outside of Bumblebee to finish the minibots. I am not sure FT follows that path completely or in the near future.

You have to remember that 2023 is necessarily going to be a big reveal year for FT because at their current rate they run out of releases in 2024 and we know that's not real.

 

I also believe that they will release Ethereon / Superion first, hopefully before the end of the year, before Marauder but I don't think Smokey is the issue, or Bandit himself for that matter. I think the real issue is getting the whole skeleton into a second trailer. I would assume the main issue is that the skeleton is just too darn big; it'll be 18"-24" long and look totally out of place next to the existing trailer or be totally out of proportion (wider / higher) compare to the Road King trailer. Maybe it'll be 2 extra trailers to form a proper road train?

The arm bots having integrated elbow joints does not seem like it would go against any design for this character so I don't see the issue being there.

I must admit that the first time I saw dalianjj (deleted user?) post that the combiner parts would form the trailer I was very puzzled by it. I know other Menasaurs have gone that way but none of them have a Motormaster with an all-in-one trailer, so it's a very different challenge.

I know that there is no known reason so far, but that is my 2 cents.

 

I really hope they ditched the idea of a second (or God forbid, third) trailer. A simple base/display stand would be so much easier for them to make and for us to transform, and would look so much better when the Stunticons are displayed in vehicle mode next to the Aerialbots, each atop their respective base/stand.

 

Yeah, I’m not convinced that Bandit and Smokey are the issue. I am of the belief that a) they are trying, or have been trying to get a third mode into it and b) it’s just too damn heavy.
That second possible issue is going to require much more capital to get the baseline materials so maybe c) they’ve been needing to release other stuff to get the investment they need.

I wouldn’t mind it if the trailer was taller than MP10s and a tad longer but an entire 3rd trailer? That’d be excessive for me. But you’re absolutely right when you say the skeleton is too big to squeeze into one without making some compromise.

Can’t wait to see what they have done though, that much /is/ true!

 

I'm still not convinced Gears won't be out this year. I think it's awfully presumptive to assume that Scourge, Chromedome, Blitzwing, and even Fort Max will be out this year, and I have no idea who Margh is (presumably a made-up FansToys name for a character I can't recall they're doing). I'm still not convinced Fort Max will be coming any time soon. I'm sure they're trying, but I still don't think it's practical. Gears was further along than all but Blitzwing as far as we know (granted, they could have progressed a lot behind the scenes). It takes roughly 2 years to develop these figures and Gears was already well along by the time we saw him.
Keep in mind that some of those earlier announcements like Cliffjumper were essentially just rough, blurry CGI mock-ups. What I was recalling was that we saw all the grey prototypes at the same time last year. That suggests to me that they're all in the same "batch", with Cliffjumper ahead of the rest (I believe he was a different type of prototype or test shot at the time, if I remember correctly).
I could be wrong, but I thought the Cassetticons were dumped at the same time as Soundwave, so are technically just counted as a single release even though they're not.

I'm also not convinced they're going to have a huge amount of new reveals. I think they've been working through their backlog and have only started to trickle out new reveals to keep people interested, without going the X-Transbots route, and I think it's working in their favour. I do think they'll reveal a handful of new figures this year, but I don't think it'll be a ton.

 

I think you misread my post. The releases you mention I listed as 2024, not 2023. We know the majority of the 2023 releases with Blaster, tapes, Cliffjumper, Powerglide, Pipes, Fireflight, Slingshot/skeleton. Margh is Ultra Magnus/Optimus Prime. I listed them because they were the only releases remaining for 2024. There is AT LEAST a 6 month delay from when Fans Toys shows a painted prototype and then preorder and release so you are already at September 2023 at the earliest with Gears if they reveal it immediately when they return from CNY. I believe we will see painted Gears and Swerve more towards end of summer. I don't believe you can just trust the timing of the pictures you see. These are released for a reason. Images are blurred for a reason. We did not see the Superion flight stand until recently but that was clearly part of the original design with pictures available and remember the Aerialbots being blurred. I too saw the prototype picture with the figures you mention in a group. Gears alt mode was a render. Yet, FT CHOSE to show us Tube (Pipes) as a painted test shot and likely will be a preorder when they return from CNY. Dead End I can almost guarantee you is a painted test shot and we have seen nothing. Blurry Blaster is teased, then Deformation Space releases and we immediately go from prototype to painted test shot. XTB shows painted test shot of Ultra Magnus, FT shows blurry image of Ultra Magnus, now we have a prototype. I am making the argument that although you see something and assume it is next that is not the case as we have seen in the past and until you see it in painted test shot we don't know FT's scheduled releases. These releases were chosen for a reason. They do that a year in advance. I don't see the great disparity in our positions related to the timing of Gears. As stated previously, it is either late 2023/2024 Q1 so this is a matter of a few months. Don't get mad if Hubcap is snuck in before Gears when all they have to do is change the face sculpt and give it a different paint job.

You mention few reveals but what if that is Hubcap, Windcharger/Tailgate and a couple of combiners? That's 13 releases. Everything is relative. I can see the picture now with the painted test shot of Hubcap with prototypes of Windcharger and Tailgate flanking it just like the picture you mentioned in June and then at October TFCon you get the combiner reveals. At the very least, FT has teased Sky Lynx and promised Devy, Defensor, Bruticus, Abominus, Computron, Predaking, and Hardhead, Highbrow, and Brainstorm so that is coming whether you see the renders next year or not. FT likely will pick up the Targetmasters at some point and I could see them do the Horrorcons. Also, we have to assume they want to do more of the carbots. Add in potentially more citybots and that likely keeps FT busy for the decade. XTB and FT really have no correlation to one another because XTB may have had a decent year last year but they announced enough for two lifetimes and they are not releasing close to FT's pace. Probably about half if they stay consistent. XTB is the one working through a backlog. FT's backlog consists of Berserk and Dead End that I believe get updated after CNY in the Spring. FT will run completely through their existing releases by the end of 2024 and are releasing 8 or 9 new releases a year so they are going to want to follow the pattern of the past and have something out there for the future. I personally do not think FT is going to want to let MMC and XTB just sit out there with Devy and Defensor. I also think FT is going to want to add Bruticus and are likely working on some of these currently.

 

I think the theory about the skeleton being too big for the trailer has been proven wrong multiple times. DX9 didn't use the full trailer for the skeleton and XTB did and both kicked out 20 inch combiners. It's pretty clear after seeing the reveal of Superion's flight stand brilliance that FT's ego wouldn't let them just put out a trailer that turned into the skeleton. FT already saw two/three other examples while FT developed Menasor. XTB got their butt kicked by adding that base mode and FT refused to let that challenge go. Bandit was completed at the same time as Smokey. I don't think the issue is too damn heavy but more origami and torque on small parts as the trailer explodes out making it difficult to keep something solid that creates the appearance of weight problems. The trailer, as DX9 did it, had a simplistic and MOSTLY solid transformation. XTB did XTB things to get that base mode and FT likely followed them down that rabbit hole. The one weight issue I would attribute to FT MIGHT be the center of gravity with placing Roadking in the torso. It appears to sit lower in the torso and perhaps that worked sufficiently in early prototypes but not as well after test shots. Hopefully, we get what we need in the end, a stable combiner that can pose as the character.

 

Serious question. Why do people expect hubcap so much? He wasnt in the toon was he or am i missing something?

 

I guess the assumption is that Hubcap is probably gonna be a repaint of Cliffjumper? But I think maybe that assumes it won’t be remolded in some way, though it probably would be because that’s what FT does.

 

I mean i get that but based on how few toy repaints ft has done i dont see this as the forgone conclusion that others seem to be drawing. Will they do it? Maybe. But i for sure dont see it being so soon after cjs release. Thomas and sovereign got repaints as we know but it has been many years since the original release.

 

100% with you. Lotsa forgone conclusions about figures that are news to me. But that's ok, because my uncle that works for Fans Toys told me that the Fans Toys Wheeljack is definitely coming this year, and that the proof will be Chinese retailers putting up preorders.

 

Easy retool, its just the head. Rest is just a different color of plastic.

And for me personally, my mum took me shopping one day when i was little. She wanted to gift me something small and i saw him. That was my first transformer ever! That set off the journey to collect transformers to this day!

So for me, he is very important!

I do get you though!

 

I think that's a solid reason to want this guy, although I'm not sure Fans Toys would simply throw on a new coat of paint and retool the head, only because so far their releases of mold-mates have have separate, similar but unique molds. They also have stated on this board that they're only doing seasons 1-3, the movie, and the Headmasters JP and that's it, and Hubcap isn't in any of those. For better or worse, I suppose. Though if they did do a Hubcap, I'd consider it, because why not? I'm always down for a character I don't have the figure for yet.