So I know we are now to get Ultra Magnus and Thundertron.

But is this true that will shall never see a Jet Vehicon, Breakdown, and Hardshell?

If so, then Hasbro: You guys suck, and are not being cool to your fans! Shame on you!

 

Skyquake, I think, is the only Hasbro Prime figure pre-Beast Hunters, that hasn't been released yet.

In Japan we still have Silas, Nemesis Prime, Smokescreen, Leo Prime, Red Rumble, and Wildrider.

We know nothing of any Hardshell toy anywhere, and the Jet Vehicon and Breakdown were already released in Japan.

For this line, to be complete, you pretty much have to import.

 

For retail there is

Prime RID

Skyquake Voyager

Prime First Edition

Optimus Prime Voyager
Bulkhead Voyager

Arms Micron

Cyrus Breakdown
Smokescreen
Nemesis Prime
Leo Prime
Shockwave
Rumble
Frenzy
Wildrider
Darkest Megatron
Jet Vehicon General
Optimus Prime Deluxe Exclusive
Unicron Darkness Exclusive

 

Yes it is true. Takara produced Jet Vehicon, Breakdown, and Smokescreen figures on their own. Once Beast Hunters starts any vehicle character will look like the Bumble Bee the barbarian remold they showed at NYCC. And no Insecticon figure has been shown by anyone.

 

Hasbro:
Ultra Magnus
Thundertron
Skyquake

Takara:
Silas Brwakdown
Nemesis Prime
Smokescreen
Leo Prime
Red Rumble
Blue Frenzy
Wildrider
General Jet Vehicon (Silver repaint???)

 

We will not see them in 2012. That's all we know right now. Hasbro said they want to get all in show characters released and as Prime is an ongoing line, I'm sure they will. Hardshell doesn't even have a toy in Japan yet but I bet we see it during the Beast Hunters line.

In short, no one has ever said that we would "never see" those figures. Just the opposite. They will come eventually. Patience is all we need.

 

The toys got a slow release because retailers wanted to focus on the movie toy line. That means we aren't as deep into the toys as we could have been if the toys had been released before or with the start of the cartoon series. The over release of Bumblebee and Prime might have also slowed us down from where we should be.

With such a small cast of characters I'm sure the toy line will start catching up. A jet Vehicon seems very likely at some point in the line. The only releases to really worry about are the dead characters because if the show isn't pushing the characters it doesn't seem likely that Hasbro would give any priority to characters not being pushed by the media.

 

I will be pissed if hasbro cancels skyquake.

 

AM Smokescreen kinda annoys me, I mean the show already has barely any characters, so when we finally get an original character, we get a repaint instead of getting a new mold?

The line has nightmare from beginning to end. I wonder what will happen when TFer movies no longer get made and Hasbro has to actually invest back into the new TFer toys they make.

 

There's no reason to assume that. We already know that the legion class Smokescreen, both solo and his playset vehicle are completely normal. I doubt they'll be the only normal looking Prime toys released in the line.

 

According to TFWiki, the Breakdown mould is in a sort 'no man's land' with regards to the amount of plastic - it doesn't fit into any of Hasbro's existing size classes, so is unlikely to see release in their markets. I suspect the Jet Vehicon is a similar case, seeing as it's essentially the Car Vehicon with larger kibble.

 

It has nothing to do with the amount of plastic, or fitting into any size classes. The TFWiki says nothing about plastic content or size classes.

All that Aaron Archer said is that it wasn't made to the same standards, and that it's in a "no man's land" cost-wise. That's literally all the information that was given. Anything beyond that? People just guessing.

Size class sure as hell doesn't have anything to do with it, as its about the same size as the current voyager Bulkhead, and comes in a standard sized voyager box. The amount of plastic? There's barely any there, when you consider how the other voyagers in the line are constructed.

Personally, as an owner of that horrible, flimsy, hollow, fragile toy, I think "not made to the same standards" could mean that it was made to much lower standards than what Hasbro has put out in the US, and isn't being released because of the costs involved to bring it up to the same standards.

 

then they'll just re-issue and re-tool some Energon molds.

 

Hey, I wouldn't mind another domestic rerelease of Bruticus.

 

Someone asked at NYCC about deluxe Ironhide and the like. Their answer was what I repeated. Once the changer over from PRiD to Beast Hunters happens.

 

I can't possibly imagine Hasbro's strategy for this line. The RID toys were released in late January, and we are now almost at the end of 2012. The line has only seen 5 waves, 11 deluxe molds, and 5 Voyager molds (plus the 2 coming out now). For the main line, this is not enough product to last almost a year, especially when multiple characters from the show have been omitted at these scales, and when the Generations line didn't launch until about halfway through the year. Hasbro seems to be placing more faith in the Cyberverse and Bot Shots instead. Now, we are at the end of 2 seasons of the show, and out of the already small cast size, are missing 5/20 characters outside Japan (8 Autobot models, 11 Decepticon models, and Unicron, unless I'm counting wrong).

 

I thought when Beast Wars starts the Autobots were coming back out with new weapons and some repaints? I remember seeing a pic of the deluxes with all sorts of extra weapons on them in car mode, sort of like a mini weaponizer.

 

Yeah, I was hoping we were already at this point, then Bay comes back to screw things up yet again.

I would rather have more ongoing seasons of Prime as we knew it than another half ass alien movie with too many explosions and females sleeping their way on screen.

 

Keep in mind that little feature film last year probably did a LOT to fuss with release plans (especially First Edition), and the number of "molds" is moot. At this point, we've gotten 14 deluxe RELEASES and 8 Voyager RELEASES. All said, that is a solid showing, on par with what the brand was getting at the end of the Cybertron series (when it was still EXTREMELY successful).
Fans (especially those that started collecting around or after the first film) have simply become accustomed to a HUGE number of releases supporting by a thriving brand. Well, the brand has "cooled down" so we're probably going to start seeing the volume go down to around Cybertron's levels (which is still pretty fucking awesome amount for a retail line, especially as we're still seeing effectively TWO lines running at the moment)

From a character standpoint, the only major characters missing are Breakdown and Smokescreen, along with the Air Vehicons and INsecticons. Shockwave and Unicron are one episode wonders at the moment, so I wouldn't count them, especially Unicron who doesn't even transform into anything (I know Shockwave looks to have an expanded role in Beast Hunters, which may be why he isn't getting a toy until that series).

Of those, Breakdown is the only major omission in the line at this point. Smokescreen just appeared a few weeks back and the INsecticons fit thematically better with Beast Hunters. And with the car Vehicon still on the market, I'm sure Hasbro is going to wait until Beast hunters to do the jet version (so you don't get two toys with the same name on the market).

Hardly the disaster some seem to make it out to be. IF anything, it's something of a relief not having to deal with 30 new deluxe figures in the span of a year. For comparison, that was 2010's entire deluxe ($12.99) output. It took Beast Wars THREE YEARS to produce that many deluxes, and about 2/3 of the TOTAL deluxe output of the Unicron Trilogy (itself spanning almost six years).
Seriously, up until last year, we've been DROWNING in new stuff compared to every brand short of Star Wars.

 

Wait, people really think the movies' huge financial success (regardless of what you think of them) made Hasbro invest LESS on the toys?