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First, just to be clear, this thread is not intended to be pro 3rd party, if it was I would post in the appropriate forum.

So, I was making my new sig (see below) and I decided to put down all the things I definitely will buy this year from the known 2013 line up and I have to say I am really disappointed with the official Transformers offerings from Hasbro and TakaraTomy. The only thing official I must have is Masterpiece Soundwave and his minions. Though, technically, I paid for Soundwave last year. Nothing from the current lines interests me at all. I had plenty to choose from in the third party line up for this year but not only that I found myself looking outside the Transformers fandom completely. I'm not saying this will be the first time I get things from other lines but I'm more interested in what they have to offer than from my hobby of choice, Transformers in 2013.

I really hope Hasbro has something big up their sleeves this Botcon or they are going to lose a lot of cash from me this year. Though, on the bright side, it will give me more of a chance to catch up on things I missed out on. Most likely that will be ebay sales though. Also, I hadn't planned on buying Encore Fort Max but with such limited offerings from HasTak (in my opinion of course), he is looking more and more likely.

Unfortunately one mans MP-Convoy is another mans Armada Sidewipe.

Between the FOC figures, new AM deco's from TT to compliment PRID, we've only seen Wave 1 of BH, MP S'wave, MP Nemises Prime (a repaint admittedly), Encore Fort Max and some quite interesting looking Kreo sets; I'm already afraid I won't be able to keep up.

That and the new GT/Alternity stuff and we don't know how Takara will handle BH...

The Arms Micron line has a few noteworthy gems like Jet Vehicon General and Wildrider, and I'm really looking forward to finally having an Impactor figure, even if he's just a retool of Onslaught.

Of course, that 3rd party Shockwave... but in this regard I have a considerable bias.

I was just thinking to myself that I am going to spend a lot of money on Transformers this year. Hasbro has more than enough stuff out there to tie up my money.

The offerings actually work in my favor, as I'm planning a hiatus to prepare for moving to the US. A few Last Minute Prime and Arms Micron pieces, that's it, but I do have a wide array of available choices:

- Arcee
- Sergeant Kup
- Decepticon Rumble

- AM-05 Megatron
- AM-08 Terrorcon Cliffjumper
- AM-20 Ironhide
- AM-28 Leo Prime
- AM-26 Smokescreen
- Terrorcon Bumblebee

- AM-15 Megatron Darkness
- AM-19 Gaia Unicron
- AM-24 Silas Breakdown

- AM-21 Arms Master Optimus

Leo Prime is a strong contender, simply because I love the character. Decisions, decisions...

So yeah, no Beast Hunter stuff for me until the later half of 2013. It's funny, I'm actually hoping for shelfwarmers

If you're disappointed with 2013's lineup, you must be downright pissed about 2014's lineup!

Since it's only January 2, how about we relax and wait and see what 2013 brings?

Of the 21 Transformers I have on preorder at BBTS, only 6 of them are Has/Tak.

I should stress though that we know very little about what 2013 will contain, since Hasbro teases way less than 3rd parties.

Since Beast Hunters contains little to no interest for me and I've been unimpressed with half of the FoC figures I've purchased, I will agree the line up for 2013 seems disappointing so far, but I'm not going to complain. Lol. I already have MP-13, MP-15 & Fort Maxx on the horizon. That's plenty enough money for me to spend. The less interest I have in the mainline stuff, the better. Less temptation.

I'm glad you have something to buy, I really do. For me, the Prime line (and the TT version) has run it's course. I'm actually thinking of doing away with them already. They are taking up shelf space I could use for other things. The Beast Hunters design esthetic looks terrible to me and they will never on my shelf. I don't care if they take those forms in the show, those overcomplicated eyesores won't be part of my collection.

GuyIncognito wrote:If you're disappointed with 2013's lineup, you must be downright pissed about 2014's lineup!

Since it's only January 2, how about we relax and wait and see what 2013 brings?

I did say the known 2013 line up and I went on to say that I hope they give something good later in the year. Early 2013 items were revealed at Botcon and Comicon so we do have an idea on the things coming out soon. I remember looking at the HasTak pictures from Comicon and feeling very meh. The third party showcase that came out after it was . If they put more characters into the Generations line that aren't FOC toys then I will gladly pick up every single one of them. Also, more Masterpieces will bring me right back in too. MP Galvatron, I would hijack the lorry taking them out of the factory just so I could get it first (and leave the money to pay for it, I'm not a crook).

The only official offering I must have are MP Soundwave and the cassettes. Fort Max is a possibility but it isn't a must have item. If Takara had waited and released Sixshot around about now, that would have been perfect.

However, all that said, this is only my opinion. If you like what is coming, go forth and indulge I'm only one man, Hasbro are hardly going to take one person's opinion into account.

Congratulations. You're the one of the first threads of 2013 made to complain about Hasbro and Takara.

And on the flip side...another one of these threads?

Okay, we get it. The new figures suck. Don't buy them, then. You really hate them? Stay as far away from them as possible and only look at the new stuff that's of the most recent announcement. Configure your verdict and be done with it. So sick of us constantly complaining about toys we're not going to buy anyway. And 2013 ain't over. Let's complain about the toys we don't know about yet.

Now that my rant is done, you can look at my signature below to see what I'll be picking up this year.

I agree, it's more to do with where HasTak's focus is these days (FOC, Prime) whereas I am interested in finishing my Geewun collection and Hasbro don't seem to be concerned with this at the moment. They are losing out to 3rd parties because of decisions like making 2 out of 3 Decepticon triple changers and not bothering with the Autobot ones.

Although I have YOTS Omega Supreme on order (he looks great), and FOC Grimlock is miles better than I expected, I think official pickings will be slim this year.

PrymeStriker wrote:Congratulations. You're the one of the first threads of 2013 made to complain about Hasbro and Takara.

And on the flip side...another one of these threads?

Okay, we get it. The new figures suck. Don't buy them, then. You really hate them? Don't even open up a news post regarding them. Stay as far away from them as possible and only look at the stuff that's not been announced. Configure your verdict and be done with it. So sick of us constantly complaining about toys we're not going to buy anyway. That's like me complaining about the pathetic nature of Squinkies everyday. I'm not going to pick them up, why should I complain about them consistently?

Now that my rant is over, you can look at my signature below to see what I'll be picking up this year.

I'm not complaining about Hasbro or Takara, and I'm not posting hate, just disappointment. If you like them, that's great, enjoy them. I was posting an observation I had when I was looking into must haves for this year using what we know is coming out and that only 3 upcoming HasTak products (MP Soundwave, MP Cassette pack 1 and MP Cassette pack 2) are on it. I look forward to Botcon where we can see what they have in development, I really do. I want Hasbro to dazzle me. This time last year we didn't know about MP Sideswipe, Red Alert or Soundwave. They were must haves for me.

One question, how do we look at things that haven't been announced yet? We don't know what they are.

Edit: I looked at your sig after posting and noticed you want a PRID Airachnid. Have you not seen that lump of crap? It is the latest fig to join the Armada Scavenger, Side Swipe and Energon Treadbolt crowd as pure garbage.

Trikeboy wrote:One question, how do we look at things that haven't been announced yet? We don't know what they are.

I meant stuff that hasn't been announced previously. Kind of like Beast Hunters were before NYCC.

Edit: I looked at your sig after posting and noticed you want a PRID Airachnid. Have you not seen that lump of crap? It is the latest fig to join the Armada Scavenger, Side Swipe and Energon Treadbolt crowd as pure garbage.

She's an in-show character. I rest my case.

PrymeStriker wrote:

Trikeboy wrote:Edit: I looked at your sig after posting and noticed you want a PRID Airachnid. Have you not seen that lump of crap? It is the latest fig to join the Armada Scavenger, Side Swipe and Energon Treadbolt crowd as pure garbage.

She's an in-show character. I rest my case.

I have the in show characters too but I won't touch that one if I found it in my local £1 store.

Then I will use this opportunity as money saving year.

Trikeboy wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:

Trikeboy wrote:Edit: I looked at your sig after posting and noticed you want a PRID Airachnid. Have you not seen that lump of crap? It is the latest fig to join the Armada Scavenger, Side Swipe and Energon Treadbolt crowd as pure garbage.

She's an in-show character. I rest my case.

I have the in show characters too but I won't touch that one if I found it in my local £1 store.

Good for you. I get all the in-show characters. I don't care how crappy they are. It's the only one we've got, and I'll settle for it.

Trikeboy wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:

Trikeboy wrote:Edit: I looked at your sig after posting and noticed you want a PRID Airachnid. Have you not seen that lump of crap? It is the latest fig to join the Armada Scavenger, Side Swipe and Energon Treadbolt crowd as pure garbage.



She's an in-show character. I rest my case.



I have the in show characters too but I won't touch that one if I found it in my local £1 store.



Good for you. I get all the in-show characters. I don't care how crappy they are. It's the only one we've got, and I'll settle for it.

Crappy as she is, she has an amazing head sculpt!

Has/Tak is putting out a fair amount of product. However, it all generally disinterests me. All in all, I had a very down year this year. The MP's that were released were the only figures that imterested me. Thanks to budget concerns I passed on those. I am strongly against the 3rd party market and I don't mess with them. I passed on all of those as well.

My memory is sketchy but its entirely possible that the entire year passed without me purchasing a new figure. Generations Thundercracker is the newest figure on my self. What does that tell you?

When money is available but interesting figures are not, the phrase "whats old is new" really applies. I use the dead periods of interesting toys to do some hunting/ebaying for good prices on figures from past lines that I missed for whatever reason.

Unless you are completely satisfied with your collection and you would consider it to be complete by your standards, there has to be something that you missed out on that you could be hunting for.

I'm interested in a lot more official product than I thought I would be initially. The Prime line has had a few disappointments, but I'm still collecting it and overall, I'm satisfied with it. The new Beast Hunters figures definitely have my attention (and my preorders ).

For that hardcore G1 itch, Takara is scratching it big time with the upcoming MP releases as well as the Asia Exclusive Seeker sets, not to mention whatever Has/Tak have planned for Generations this year (which they've already said they will be doing more of). Here's hoping for some new molds there, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

FoC has actually exceeded my expectations quite a bit. The new molds/retools look pretty awesome so I'm definitely expanding my WfC/FoC shelf this year big time.

All in all, it looks as though I'll be spending at least as much this year on TF's as I did in 2012, maybe even more and the year is still young with many new announcements forthcoming I'm sure.

admittedly there are a bunch of 3rd party offerings I'm after, but Has/Tak has some decent stuff too. I'm still keeping my eye on new AM things, particularly AMWs but yep, Wildrider looks pretty good, and am still tempted by the racing car Star Saber dude. Since I'm already importing the majority of my purchases I'm not too put off by getting Japanese releases, but for some of the Prime line, and most of the FOC Generations guys, the US releases are much more worth it to me, money wise. There are only a very few that come out where the Takara/Tomy paint-jobs are worth it.

Looking forward to the MP Cassetticons. Passing on Soundwave til the Hasbro release, because he's really probably a bit too big for me, but the tapes will fit in nicely with the rest of my Classics and G1 Soundwave.

mooncake623 wrote:
Crappy as she is, she has an amazing head sculpt!

nah, considering how good she is, I went and hunted down a Beast Machines Blackarachnia.

I might buy a BH fig or two but i highly doubt it. I only bought one or two official figs in 2012.
MP Soundwave i might cancel my pre-order for and put the money towards Hexatron. Better engineering and detail for a far better price. But i'm a real big fan of Soundwave so i'm on the fence with this line of thinking.

But nothing that is official HasTak is on my radar for this year either.

EDIT: WHo am i kidding? Of course i'll keep my SOundwave pre order now that i'm thinking about it and looking at some pics. IF there is only one TF i buy this year, MP SOundwave should be the one. He's just a little too expensive for what i think he's actually worth. Especially in comparison with Hexatron. But I'm not willing too wait for a TRU release either and drive around town like an idiot looking for him. SO i guess i'll keep the preorder up.

If I only get Impactor this year I will be happy. Like Straxus I have waited many years for this character to see toy form. Now if I can get Xaaron I will be happy! (And Ruination's head does not count)

PrymeStriker wrote:

Trikeboy wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:

Trikeboy wrote:Edit: I looked at your sig after posting and noticed you want a PRID Airachnid. Have you not seen that lump of crap? It is the latest fig to join the Armada Scavenger, Side Swipe and Energon Treadbolt crowd as pure garbage.

She's an in-show character. I rest my case.

I have the in show characters too but I won't touch that one if I found it in my local £1 store.

Good for you. I get all the in-show characters. I don't care how crappy they are. It's the only one we've got, and I'll settle for it.

Your list doesn't currently include the retools of BB and Soundwave, or the new Optimus (though oddly enough does include Ravage).

God help us all if Soundwave is actually redecoed into that yellow monstrosity on screen, but are you really so determined to get in-show characters even when the figures are crap? I can understand wanting to have them, but some, like Airachnid and Skyquake and Breakdown, are probably killed off. Two of the figures I mentioned are awesome, but the characters are no longer actively appearing in the series. Is this just a completionist thing or do you just really like Prime in particular?

Because either way, you could substitute, say, Cyberverse figures into the equation, where Airachnid is the decent figure and Breakdown is the crappy one... but I digress.



Back on topic and enthusiasm for 2013:

Cyberverse Commanders: Yes, please.
Predaking and Optimus look good. I have hope Hardshell will be decent (here's hoping for Voyager Hardshell/Insecticon figures down the line too, as long as they're on a 'beast' sort of kick).

Henry921 wrote:Because either way, you could substitute, say, Cyberverse figures into the equation, where Airachnid is the decent figure and Breakdown is the crappy one... but I digress.

Breakdown is the crappy one? Really? ...