i know its been mention in the past, but now with so many 2010 items coming out. i still wonder if they will release these in japan first then the usa for much cheaper. maybe toyrus exclusives? i would really hate to spend so much on these, then to have the usa get it a year later. any new thoughts about the chances the usa will get them? for example, did the japan encores ever get a usa release? i dont remember encore omega supreme or metroplex being reissue in the usa. so maybe these might or might not either? what do you think? now that we are getting so much 2010 items.
Between Yellow Box, Generations, and Powercore Combiners, I think Hasbro has enough on their plate lined up for the rest of the year. Unless you wanna count SDCC Soundwave and his cassettes last year, then Encore has no presence here. We did get reissues of Perceptor and the Insecticons, but those were more because of loose tie-ins to Animated and Revenge of the Fallen. Unicron was released last year as a straight-up repack of the Armada deco in a Universe box as a TRU exclusive and unless I missed my mark, he sold poorly. The recent release tied with poor sales takes him off the table, as it would Primus. They'd be hard pressed to shop around another expensive figure that'll just sit and sit until it gets clearance'd out the door. Typically we've only gotten 1 Masterpiece figure per year and this year Grimlock has the honors. We *could* see Rodimus next year, its a possibility, but I'd be super surprised. I'd lean more towards us seeing Thundercracker on our shores next year. As for "Sleep Mode" Convoy... I don't see it happening, folks already aren't beating down the doors to buy $70-80 dollar Transformers locally, let alone the corpse of one. The Sons of Cybertron set seems like an outright impossibility. Hasbro's had enough trouble shopping around the last of the Animated figures, so a special, limited edition 2 pack strikes me as an exercise in pounding sand. Predaking... normally I'd scoff at the notion, but BBTS getting Piranacon kinda makes it a possibility, albeit a slim one. I suppose it'll primarily rest upon how well Piranacon sells to see what kinda market there is for re-released G1 combiners. The other issue is, those toys haven't been safety tested on these shores since the 80s? Have they? I haven't ever owned Predaking, but when I look at that toy, I see lots of little spikes and pokey bits that might call for re-tooling and if it came to that, the amount of additional tooling needed to get the figures to pass testing over here could price it back out of feasibility. I say give Rodimus a wait and see. As for everything else... if you want it, I say lay down a pre-order and start saving.
IF they are released in the US (and I think that's a big if) it will be a year or more before we even know about it. Unicron was just reissued last year and I don't see many stores wanting to take on a store exclusive that's over $40. As for encore releases coming to the US, they would either be store exclusives that loosely tie into existing lines (i.e. Perceptor for Animated, Insecticons for ROTF) or SDCC exclusives (i.e. Soundwave and Blaster). Hasbro has had poor luck with G1 reissues in the US, which is why there have only been very few released since they ended the commemorative series.
every release of the supereme unicron has been a shelf warmer. probably one of the worst ever, if not the absolute worst ever. I really don't think hasbro will touch it again.
Last g1 molds to get safety tested before the seacons due out this year not counting reissues would have been from the RID/UNi 1.0 era(s) and Fort max as Brave max failed the drop test much to the anguish of collectors everywhere.
Pretty much, I know Hasbro surprised us with generations Thrust/Dirge but that is not the norm. No one should expect everything Takara does to be imported here by Hasbro.
that and the seacons totally coming out of left field no one saw them coming before those first pics.
Yeah besides the Masterpiece Rodimus I wouldn't count on any of them. Even he'll probably not be until 2012 or so. As for BBTS doing Predaking (or some other retailer doing him), why would they when the Japanese one is coming out? It's not like there was a Japanese Piranacon (King Poseidon) and then BBTS did it. BBTS did it because there was no comparable release besides the Club one that was very limited and in very different colors. Randy
Hasbro eventually gets around to it, from what I see.....I mean mp grimlock has been released twice internationally (afaik) now he a tru exclusive....honestly like everyone says unicron and primus I don't see it, unless they're in the movie...hot rod a tru exclusive...I think walmart is feeling kinda burn by ordering so many mp skywarp and having to sell half of corp cost.....target has been pretty smart with their exclusives....but like I said hasbro get to them, when, you never know...generations line is a fantastic idea becuz they can go through all the lines, cheap for them and cheap for us....the 1st four waves of generations are pretty much sold...and we haven't seen kup, cosmos..etc...
