Yeah, but the alpha trion wasn't an "exclusive" in that he was ultra limited edition. He was/still is readily available to all on the pulse website. (granted Im not sure about every country)

 

With 'unused' designs I was just referring to designs that - as far as I could gather - never got it into the toy design phase. To be honest I don't know very much about the line. I only dabbled into this line a few years ago (I believe after stumbling upon photos of customs for Perceptor and Wheeljack). But anyway, this was an impulse mention and is extreme wishful thinking.  

Ofcourse, hence 'ramblings'. I mean, I felt Victory Saber (and Deathsaurus by the same token) didn't quite scream Haslab. But that was just my perception of Haslab. And likewise, I don’t know what is Hasbro’s idea/vision of a 40th celebration of The Transformers (but surely they know better than me).

Either way - aside from my little hopes of contributing to the likeliness of a new Metroplex - it's all useless in the end, but eh I like to engage in the speculation game from time to time.

 

Titan Class Unicron Head.

 

Best guesses:

Theme sets: Elita-1’s Sabotage Squad vs. Shockwave - all new molds for the G1 female Autobots, and possibly new security attack bots?

Thunderclash and the Turbomasters set

Rise of the Renegades set: Gobots, people. They’re canon in the MCU now and there’s buzz around the brand.

The Welcoming Committee: Cybertronian alt mode Bumblebee and Wheeljack vs. the four Seekers from the opening scene that started it all. We know Hasbro is willing to repack and existing mold into a Haslab given the Rancor. There’d be some grumbling, but people would clamor for the other figures. Who doesn’t want more Seekers?

Others:

Primus/Cybertron: We already got Unicron

Thunderwing: He’s big, has a corrupted Matrix, and can even have his old gimmicks. With the release of Needlenose, it’s a possible start to collecting the Mayhem Attack Squad. Throw a couple more MAS members out there first and the completion isn’t collectors will salivate.

 

Yeah, I'd like Primus!

 

Thinking about a Metroplex, it would be cool to see them really try to make one that works as a play set for the other figures. Even the original g1 toy basically only worked for the micro masters. A Haslab would give them the budget to make Metroplex into a legitimate play set. Though the price does become the question and I’m not sure if Metropkex would get funded at $500-plus. Hopefully they could keep him under that. Shoot for the $300-400 range maybe.

 

I have a feeling someone in this thread guessed correctly. But who????

 

For Haslab, I think they'll want to do something that can't or won't be done at mass retail. My first thought was a Powermaster Optimus with Apex Armor, but ignoring the fact we already had one because that one didn't have an inner robot (only a titan master), an Optimus Prime is guaranteed to sell so there's no point in making it a Haslab, I thought. Maybe they'll prove me wrong though.
Primus is my next guess, but considering how rough a time Unicron had getting funded they probably won't be that ambitious again. More likely it would be another Devastator, more in-scale with the other large combiners we've gotten like Menasor, and not skimping on the individual bots to fit within a budget. I can't think of anything else more iconic of Transformers outside of the Big 5 Names that would be worthy of the 40th anniversary. That also means more Devastators for everyone!

 

If Primus happens to be the next TF Haslab project, I doubt you would have any issues getting it funded. A combination of fanatics being more aware of what Haslab is, and probably more international presence with a few countries recently added. It’s more plausible than not.

it’s my next Transformers wish. It would be proper to pair it with the Chaos Bringer.

 

I think we'll need to see shipping prices and times stabilize a bit more before we see Hasbro do another big mass item, personally.

 

Fortune 500 companies (2022 Rank 496) like Hasbro have set agreements with shipping companies (probably like most companies in this line of business). Bulk shipping containers prices have basically collapsed. Its that last mile delivery cost that have gone up with labor going up, so it somewhat offsets a little, margin will shrink a little but I'm sure the team will calculate into the cost and minimum number of backers/

While a valid concern, it's on the lower end of the totem pole of worries IF Primus is even on the finals list for upcoming Haslab TF projects.

 

I really hope it's not Primus. Too similar to Unicron.

 

Without mentioning a specific character pairing, does anyone think it's feasible to have a character and their obvious repaint as connected HasLabs? Something like "if Toy A gets over 12K orders, we will open up orders for Repaint B, who will also get made if that reaches 8K in orders by the same cutoff date" or similar.

I ask because plenty of reasonable HasLab ideas are characters and molds that *could* be reused but probably won't, but it wouldn't cost Hasbro almost anything (just a digibash before funding) to piggyback one campaign on the other

 

While I would love to see some real GoBots, I think a 40th _TransFormers_ anniversary is the absolute last place it would ever happen.

Where the hell do people find stuff like this? When I needed one for a convention cosplay prop a few years ago, it was all but impossible to find even neon colored toy guns.

 

not going to lie, i think a primus would be the best option. The first shot in nearly every transformer media was cybetron itself so why not

 

I want Dai Atlus just to complete all the G1 Autobot leaders. He hasn't had a good/original figure since god knows when.

Plus, it would still be too expensive and Primus isn't even that popular of a character.

 

The only thing I can see that symbolizes Transformers and celebrates 40 years is really either
Primus - it’s cybertron it’s always in every story
Devastator - He’s symbolically the first combiner for TF but he’s also part of the big 7 that sell on name and popularity alone. Maybe they break the rule and he comes with the wall he tears from autobot city in the movie.

the rest just don’t make sense. Anything from any series post g1 doesn’t symbolize 40 years. Even though RID 2001 and Armada are the reasons we’re even still here. Metroplex doesn’t represent the 40 years either.

 

transformers dont technically need haslabs. titans have been done at 180$. space and money is a big issue for MEGA sized projects. Technically anything can be done at retail with a couple extra packs to go along with it.

haslab is a bonus project they do in addition to the retail line. Special characters or ones that are hard to do at retail due to predetermined rosters.

My suggestion is TF haslabs should be kept at this price if not even lower. Complete teams done right, combiners done right (these will cost more), titans done right (180$+ better than whatever we had already).

Going for over the top HUGE characters isn't that interesting imo, its just ALOT of plastic. I like the 3rd party unicron as i do not have room for a child size toy, really hope we get a titan size one someday.

 

Cybertron Vector Prime... built with premium grade materials and design. It would look beyond gorgeous with pristine white, gold, sea green, and maroon finish. Just one of the primes. God of Time which would be significant for 40th anniversary. All in all has the potential to be a Class S figure. Hopefully Hasbro does it.

 

I could see an Ark/Nemesis playset or modularized pieces of the TFTM Autobot City as a HasLab.