The Energon Pub

I'm getting this for the cassettes, and the other version for them as well once it becomes available. I love me some transforming cassettes.

And it'll be nice to replace the KO versions I have with something legitimate.

I keep all my cassette guys separated. I really think these guys hit it out of the park all on their own and that's how I enjoy them most. Or maybe I'll keep my KOs out and combine these guys ...

As for Bee ... well, I'll enjoy him a bit before putting him away.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:I'm confused. Is the vol 2 set available at SDCC now as well?

Nah, some of us are just hurting from info overload Vol 1 is SDCC and later, HTS. Vol 2 is, well, pick an e-tailer!

Ok. Here's hoping they have something cooking for the near future to see a matching (double) release of the remaining dino cassettes. (Even if it means retooling them. Putting out half of them would be pretty cruel.)

New info from David Willis about how these cassettes were made:

Msging with Phil Donnelly, who said he asked John Warden about how they got the dinocassettes back.

They're completely new tooling.

They're extrapolated from the original wooden two-ups, so they should be fairly accurate to the originals, but...

...they are new tooling.

*reads up*

also that might be why the combined form doesn't have a mouth

So these are not the original molds brought back after all, but brand new molds altogether.

Just goes to show how much Warden and his team love rare and obscure stuff from JG1 that they'd go to the trouble of making all new molds of super-rare Japanese-original cassette molds of Holy Grail status.

Sabrblade wrote:New info from David Willis about how these cassettes were made:

Msging with Phil Donnelly, who said he asked John Warden about how they got the dinocassettes back.

They're completely new tooling.

They're extrapolated from the original wooden two-ups, so they should be fairly accurate to the originals, but...

...they are new tooling.

*reads up*

also that might be why the combined form doesn't have a mouth

So these are not the original molds brought back after all, but brand new molds altogether.

Just goes to show how much Warden and his team love rare and obscure stuff from JG1 that they'd go to the trouble of making all new molds of super-rare Japanese-original cassette molds of Holy Grail status.

"Wooden two-ups"? So let me get this straight: are they referring to the original wooden models, twice the actual size of the toys, made before final changes that resulted in Legout having a mouth?

Sabrblade wrote:New info from David Willis about how these cassettes were made:

Msging with Phil Donnelly, who said he asked John Warden about how they got the dinocassettes back.

They're completely new tooling.

They're extrapolated from the original wooden two-ups, so they should be fairly accurate to the originals, but...

...they are new tooling.

*reads up*

also that might be why the combined form doesn't have a mouth

So these are not the original molds brought back after all, but brand new molds altogether.

Just goes to show how much Warden and his team love rare and obscure stuff from JG1 that they'd go to the trouble of making all new molds of super-rare Japanese-original cassette molds of Holy Grail status.

The Dinobots are way les obscure, why dont they get this tretment!?

william-james88 wrote:The Dinobots are way les obscure, why dont they get this tretment!?

I guess Warden and Friends figure that something never released in the U.S. before that has held "untouchable Holy Grail" status for all these years is special enough to warrant such special treatment, as opposed to the released-multiple-times-at-U.S.-mass-retail-in-both-the-80s-and-90s G1 Dinobot molds.

Not to mention that Archer's team didn't have the boner for G1 that Warden's team has, so they likely wouldn't have done this for the Dino cassettes if they were still around (instead of Warden's team) anyway. Archer's team never reproduced new G1 molds for reissues, they only reissued ones that were still around (though, the Jazz mold's degradation was fixed for Ricochet's reissue, but that was likely done by Takara themselves for their their contemporaneous Stepper reissue). So they wouldn't have gone to the trouble of making new molds of the G1 Dinobots.

And now that Warden's team has just so recently given us all new toys of the G1 Dinobots in POTP, that makes even less of an incentive for Warden's team to make new G1 Dinobot molds.

That's interesting. I had assumed they were a partial retool using what was left of the original molds, but it's a little strange that they based it on the 2up which wouldn't have been the final design.

Emerje

I'm pretty excited by the effort they made to do this. Give me hope for the other two to be release... and for other oddities I'd kinda stopped hoping or expecting to be released. Props to the new team for digging deep and giving us this. I'm glad to buy an extra bumblebee to get them. Glad to see them as an exclusive. Again, whatever it takes to find a good place to plug in the toys — convention or online store exclusive, box set, etc. Bravo.

Just got mine in!



SDCC 2018 SS-19 Bumblebee Retro Rock Garage Vol.1 by triKlops, on Flickr

Looks good TriKlops! You're amping up my excitement.

gothsaurus wrote:Looks good TriKlops! You're amping up my excitement.

I paid a little more to get it in early but compared to the V2 preorder, it was only a $5 difference.
If you can score free shipping when HTS goes live for him, thats the real money saver!

triKlops wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:Looks good TriKlops! You're amping up my excitement.

I paid a little more to get it in early but compared to the V2 preorder, it was only a $5 difference.
If you can score free shipping when HTS goes live for him, thats the real money saver!

Hey triklops, any chance you could upload your pics here or send it to our email?
newsATseibertron.com

Sending them now WJ88.

Transformers Studio Series 19 Bumblebee Vol. 1 Retro Rock Garage
Transformers Studio Series 20 Bumblebee Vol. 2 Retro Pop Highway
Review
http://blacklai1979.blogspot.com/2018/09/studio-series-1920-bumblebee-vol-12.html

Fellow Seibertronian Blacklai, also a member of the Facebook community TFND, has dropped by with a new pictorial review / set of in hand images, this time featuring a Studio Series / Bumblebee Movie / Exclusive First Release combo pack in the form of the Transformers Studio Series 20 Bumblebee Vol. 2 Retro Pop Highway, along with the Vol. 1 Retro Rock Garage we had initially seen here.

While Bumblebee is the main figure in the boxes, the sets also include some previously unreleased (in the US) smaller figures that kind of take the main stage for the batch of images mirrored below: Dairu, Uruaz, and new redecos Uriad and Zauru, including their combined forms. Check it all out, and let us know what you think in the discussion!

Also, for those wanting to order these you still can.

Vol 1 is a Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive and Vol 2 is shared between Gamestop and Entertainment Earth.

You can order Vol 1 here and preorder Vol 2 right now by clicking here.

Wow. I'm surprised how much I LOVE that new color combination on the two new character cassettes. Just in time for Halloween.

I've always hated Bumblebee... from G1-Bay. Having his own movie to me is akin to wheelie getting his own movie. But, with that said I am actually hopeful for the new movie and the toys coming out of it seem to be going well so far with no crazy or is that a shopping cart or a spaceship alt forms.

I have to say, G1 Bumblebee (and Spike) were two of the LEAST annoying human and cute-mascot-for-the-kids characters in the history of the franchise. (He's WAY down the list below Wheelie for me, Anshin, but I get where you're coming from. I think a lot of us old-timers are tired of how Bee has hijacked the franchise.)

In G1, Bee wasn't a cliche, hot-rodding muscle car with something to prove. He was kind and relatable. Spike was old enough to make intelligent conversation and have grown up relationships. Looking back, I can't believe how well they nailed that delicate balance.

Since then, younger human characters and bad boys like Kicker have certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. Bee not speaking drops his relatability, and he goes from being a major character to comedy relief. (I was really glad to see his voice back in RID.) It would be like R2D2 getting his own solo movie. Or a mime.

But back to the box set... it seems like someone at Hasbro realized it's a great way to release rare and niche figures if you put them with a Bee, and I'm 100% okay with this. Keep up the good work. Everybody wins. You even talked this old G1-er into buying a couple of movie figures, which is a feat. That accomplishes two things — gets older fans to dip their toe into the new franchise… and gets new fans into the G1 nostalgia. AND building diverse super-fans is what ANY franchise wants.

(Now if there were only some kind of convention all those super-fans could go to that pushed the envelope on the stories, lore, obscure figures, toys, comics... #BringBackBotcon)

Does anyone know where these are exclusive too?

Tommy T. wrote:Does anyone know where these are exclusive too?

Volume 1 was SDCC, Volume 2 is Entertainment Earth

Tommy T. wrote:Does anyone know where these are exclusive too?

Yeah.

Vol 1 is HTS and Vol 2 is shared between Gamestop and Entertainment Earth.

You can order the first here https://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/en/htsusa/-e07060000

and preorder that second one right now

https://www.entertainmentearth.com/prod ... ve/hse1891

Thanks

I love that vol. 2 bee, But I have no desire for the cassettes. If anyone getting this set wants to go in together or sell me just the goldbee I'd be willing to work with you.

Awe scrap. Now I have a reason to buy more Bumblebee!