Blaster is even on the Legacy poster. I recognize that the promotional artwork could have been produced before they changed the wave lineup, but it would be weird to do a soft reveal, no hard reveal, and then a stealth drop. It's also weird to me that all of the other Kingdom figures have shown up in-hand, but we still have only the loosest rumors for him. We know Blaster is coming, but I don't see any good reason to expect him in Kingdom.

 

Honestly, the addition of the 5th wave for Kingdom seems to have happened late in the game due to retailer demand. This apparently caused two figures from wave four to be pushed to wave 5 (Slammer and Pipes) who were likely already in production due to them originally being planned for wave 4. Blaster probably hasn't gone into production yet or may soon be considering he was pulled forward. From what we've been told the creation of Kingdom wave 4 has pushed wave 1 of Legacy into an April release date instead of a January one to make room for it. So, it all kind of makes sense in that perspective. Of course, I'm just offering speculation based on what I've read from the leakers who have knowledge on that stuff. Overall it does seem kind of odd that Blaster and the three Core figures were left out.

Also, while Kingdom wave 4 got a stealth drop without a Fan First stream it is entirely possible that wave 5 will be revealed during a stream.

 

The good news here is that BW in specific and other eras in general did well enough for retailers to ask for more. That bodes well.

By the way, Laser Optimus, happy with your namesake reveal?

 

I'm insanely over the moon with that figure. Probably as good an update to the original with modern engineering that they could do at the Leader budget. It's way better than I thought it would end up being. Though, probably going to give him my old Titan Returns blue sword from the TRU exclusive Laser Prime. This new sword looks a little short to me despite the really cool looking sculpt, but it seems to be on purpose because it combines with the axe to make a larger sword. Though it looks a bit odd like that impo. But options and new stuff is cool! I especially like that his shoulder ports can open to reveal hidden rockets! The double-barreled blaster I'll need to see better pics of since it looks like they streamlined the design to a circular shape instead of the old square chonk version the original had. However, all things considered, I am very much looking forward to this release!

If I had to give a solid critique it would be that I think they should have aped the part of the RTS version's transformation scheme where the chest was formed by the actual cab flipping up and over onto the torso. Granted that wouldn't have been accurate to the original, but I think it was a brilliant update in that version of the design.

 

That's awesome. I'm really coming around on him!

 

Whew Legacy wave 1 has a Pulse shipping date of July 2022. It looks like Kingdom will last a little longer for us.

 

Likely the creation of wave 5 of Kingdom necessitated wave 1 of Legacy getting pushed back.

 

On the plus side, at least that means they won't try to shoehorn wave 5 in before the end of the year, ensuring that the entire wave gets lost in the Christmas rush and new year store resets.

 

I think the much more likely explanation is they're starting to factor in worldwide shipping delays. Wave 4 was probably split into two waves because of that. It's not more shipments of more product, it's the same amount of product spread out over longer periods.

 

Eh, that's possible, but then you've got reports of stuff that's slated for next year already arriving because Hasbro has started using air freight to get next year's product here already due to the ports being backed up with cargo freighters.

 

Oh, hey, that’s a good idea! I have an extra one of those, too!

 

Hasbro updated the wave 1 case assortments.

Ldr Galvatron pr has been moved up a wave to be laser Primes wave mate, so…

1x Laser Optimus Prime
1x Galvatron

Bulkhead and Blaster’s ratios have been flipped, so it’s now…

2x Bulkhead
1x Blaster

 

If Blaster is in Kingdom then that makes sense.

 

Looking forward to seeing Galvatron's hopefully new box art, not looking forward to the possibility of Bulkhead being a repeat of Earthrise Grapple with Blaster being harder to come by

 

I'm a bit mixed on the RTS chest transformation. I mean, I think it worked great on the Laser Prime version of the mold. But when it came to the inevitable Black Convoy/Scourge redeco, I kinda hated it because not only did it prevent him from having his proper chest deco, but it also shifted his colour balance further to black, where he's supposed to be primarily dark grey, with Black only being on his extremities and abdomen. That last bit's sort of a weird hang-up, but I just really liked the dark grey tone on him, and I kinda dislike how most later riffs on the colour scheme keep pushing it more towards the black side of the colour balance (usually unavoidable when toys are all based around a G1 Prime colour blocking, however).

I'm definitely pleasantly surprised by the toy though. My heart sank a bit when it was confirmed the toy was Leader Class instead of Commander, but the trailer base suprisingly doesn't look like a hollow piece of nothing, which counts for quite a bit. Yeah, it's missing all its weapons, but it's a decent start. The core robot itself looks pretty damned great, though.

 

I wonder if we’re going to get a lot of WFC repaints to pad things out till Legacy arrives in July?

 

Like the new pic.
I guessing the Galvatron PR being confirmed to be a repack puts the kabosh on the Prime Soundwave discussion?

 

Lmao I didn’t even realize it was Jtprime!

 

Same!

 

If the gap is due to the current world shipping crisis, then filling the gap with more things that need shipping doesn't exactly help the situation.

We're just going to have to wait it out.