The Energon Pub

I just received an email:

Hasbro wrote:The Transformers Prime Deluxe wave 3 is due to appear in store in June/July this year and will be available from all good toy retailers.

Good news, and I'm expecting Wave 2 to hit the other side of the pond around the same period. Getting impatient, really.

I was going to say, I still have to see any wave 2 in East Anglia.

Seibertron.com member Mykltron shared with us an e-mail he received from Hasbro UK concerning further releases of the Transformers Prime toy line.

The Transformers Prime Deluxe wave 3 is due to appear in store in June/July this year and will be available from all good toy retailers.

However, seeing how this is Hasbro UK, take this news with a grain of salt. Assuming the case assortment remains the same and is not a revision wave, Transformers Prime Deluxe wave 3 case assortment consists of:

• 1x Bumblebee
• 1x Arcee
• 1x Autobot Ratchet
• 2x Knockout
• 1x Vehicon
• 2x Hot Shot

yeah even though i don't live there yes

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. That being said, didn't Hasbro announce a while back that season 3 of PRIME had already been confirmed? If that's true then even Hasbro UK aren't dumb enough to pass up the opportunity to make some money. Lord knows we need the new waves.

I like how they say good toy retailer like it's not their fault nothing is getting out because shelves are stuffed with Bumblebees.

GAH...so, Hasbro's stupidity IS universal. Have an army builder? ONE PER WAVE.

Good to see the former overlords gettin some love.

Buy please, Seibertron, can you change the galleries so that Knock Out is transformed properly? As in no sagginess? I realize it might be hard... but it's just painful to look at when he looks fathoms better properly transformed

crazyjeffy wrote:Good to see the former overlords gettin some love.

Buy please, Seibertron, can you change the galleries so that Knock Out is transformed properly? As in no sagginess? I realize it might be hard... but it's just painful to look at when he looks fathoms better properly transformed

That depends on your definition of "properly" transformed. He is properly transformed per his instructions in the picture in this news article. If you wish to have pictures of the popular "fan" transformation, I did that as well in Knock Out's gallery in addition to the way in which the instructions say to transform this toy. In fact, I did it a few different ways because none of them look right and other than the "official" transformation, none of them truly lock into place AND look right. None of them appear to be correct because it's not that great of a toy, unfortunately. It just comes down to a matter of personal preference. Do you want Knock Out's wheels to be in the "up" position, do you want the sides of the front of the car to hang down, do you want them to look like perky breasts, etc. Your pick. I think I went beyond the call of duty by representing all of the different fan transformations I could find via fan sites and YouTube two months ago when I did this gallery.

I call BS on this until i see the figures IRL in my local Entertainer.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:I like how they say good toy retailer like it's not their fault nothing is getting out because shelves are stuffed with Bumblebees.

Perhaps that's because it actually isn't Hasbro's fault.

RogueDeathangel wrote:

Evil_the_Nub wrote:I like how they say good toy retailer like it's not their fault nothing is getting out because shelves are stuffed with Bumblebees.

Perhaps that's because it actually isn't Hasbro's fault.

hmm...it's not Hasbro's fault that they've oversaturated the market for crappy yellow plastic?

craggy wrote:

RogueDeathangel wrote:

Evil_the_Nub wrote:I like how they say good toy retailer like it's not their fault nothing is getting out because shelves are stuffed with Bumblebees.

Perhaps that's because it actually isn't Hasbro's fault.

hmm...it's not Hasbro's fault that they've oversaturated the market for crappy yellow plastic?

It's not Hasbro's fault that retailers order way too much of wave 1 and don't order newer cases because they're waiting for the first lot to sell out. The reason they put so many Bumblebee's in a wave is because that's what retailers tell them that they want. Hasbro is in the business of selling toys, they will give retailers whatever they ask for so long as it makes them money. It's like how every wave of Marvel Legends/DCU Classics has to have a couple of "big name" characters in it - that is what retailers want because that is what sells.

Seibertron wrote:

crazyjeffy wrote:Good to see the former overlords gettin some love.

Buy please, Seibertron, can you change the galleries so that Knock Out is transformed properly? As in no sagginess? I realize it might be hard... but it's just painful to look at when he looks fathoms better properly transformed

That depends on your definition of "properly" transformed. He is properly transformed per his instructions in the picture in this news article. If you wish to have pictures of the popular "fan" transformation, I did that as well in Knock Out's gallery in addition to the way in which the instructions say to transform this toy. In fact, I did it a few different ways because none of them look right and other than the "official" transformation, none of them truly lock into place AND look right. None of them appear to be correct because it's not that great of a toy, unfortunately. It just comes down to a matter of personal preference. Do you want Knock Out's wheels to be in the "up" position, do you want the sides of the front of the car to hang down, do you want them to look like perky breasts, etc. Your pick. I think I went beyond the call of duty by representing all of the different fan transformations I could find via fan sites and YouTube two months ago when I did this gallery.

I see :/ I'm terribly sorry for the assumption lol I guess I was looking in the wrong places :/ Now I feel bad I'm just a little overzealous of the figure because it gets so much flak

But I do wish retailers would wise up and order less Bumblebee. I don't know about anyone else, but in Northern NJ theres pegs upon pegs of the Yellow Plague. I don't know why the retailers keep ordering them when it's obvious it's everything that isn't Bee is selling.

crazyjeffy wrote:But I do wish retailers would wise up and order less Bumblebee. I don't know about anyone else, but in Northern NJ theres pegs upon pegs of the Yellow Plague. I don't know why the retailers keep ordering them when it's obvious it's everything that isn't Bee is selling.

That's the whole problem: Hasbro does not provide orders for individual figures, it merely provides whole cases containing a certain amount of figures (usually 8 for Deluxe). That's why we're always so eager to know the exact ratio of figures per case. The fact there were no less than 3 Bumblebees in Wave 1 and Wave 2 Deluxe case made infestations quite easy.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

crazyjeffy wrote:But I do wish retailers would wise up and order less Bumblebee. I don't know about anyone else, but in Northern NJ theres pegs upon pegs of the Yellow Plague. I don't know why the retailers keep ordering them when it's obvious it's everything that isn't Bee is selling.

That's the whole problem: Hasbro does not provide orders for individual figures, it merely provides whole cases containing a certain amount of figures (usually 8 for Deluxe). That's why we're always so eager to know the exact ratio of figures per case. The fact there were no less than 3 Bumblebees in a Wave 1 Deluxe case made infestations quite easy.

I forget which wave has 0 Bees, but they need to get on that pronto.

crazyjeffy wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

crazyjeffy wrote:But I do wish retailers would wise up and order less Bumblebee. I don't know about anyone else, but in Northern NJ theres pegs upon pegs of the Yellow Plague. I don't know why the retailers keep ordering them when it's obvious it's everything that isn't Bee is selling.

That's the whole problem: Hasbro does not provide orders for individual figures, it merely provides whole cases containing a certain amount of figures (usually 8 for Deluxe). That's why we're always so eager to know the exact ratio of figures per case. The fact there were no less than 3 Bumblebees in a Wave 1 Deluxe case made infestations quite easy.

I forget which wave has 0 Bees, but they need to get on that pronto.

Wave 3 had only 1 Bumblebee along with 2 of his retool hot Shot, but Wave 4 switches him out for, you guessed it, his Shadow Strike repaint, 2 per case.

Seibertron wrote: Do you want Knock Out's wheels to be in the "up" position, do you want the sides of the front of the car to hang down, do you want them to look like perky breasts?

ummm...is this a test?

RogueDeathangel wrote:

craggy wrote:

RogueDeathangel wrote:

Evil_the_Nub wrote:I like how they say good toy retailer like it's not their fault nothing is getting out because shelves are stuffed with Bumblebees.

Perhaps that's because it actually isn't Hasbro's fault.

hmm...it's not Hasbro's fault that they've oversaturated the market for crappy yellow plastic?

It's not Hasbro's fault that retailers order way too much of wave 1 and don't order newer cases because they're waiting for the first lot to sell out. The reason they put so many Bumblebee's in a wave is because that's what retailers tell them that they want. Hasbro is in the business of selling toys, they will give retailers whatever they ask for so long as it makes them money. It's like how every wave of Marvel Legends/DCU Classics has to have a couple of "big name" characters in it - that is what retailers want because that is what sells.

I understand the rationale for having big name characters in place in each wave. But...you're suggesting that it's not Hasbro's fault that they're putting more Bumblebees in each case/wave than consumers want. I don't see how this is what anyone wants. Okay, so Hasbro has made their initial, short-term money, by selling 87thousand Bumblebees. But they're not making any ongoing money, because retailers have those toys sitting on shelves for months at a time, taking up space that other, better selling products could be put in. The retailers aren't ordering more cases, unlike they would if the ratio per case of characters was more even, and all of the wave that got put out there sold at roughly the same speed.

If BB is all retailers want, then why not go DOTM-style and just ship full cases of That Yellow B@$^@&) and not make any new molds?

RogueDeathangel wrote:

craggy wrote:

RogueDeathangel wrote:

Evil_the_Nub wrote:I like how they say good toy retailer like it's not their fault nothing is getting out because shelves are stuffed with Bumblebees.

Perhaps that's because it actually isn't Hasbro's fault.

hmm...it's not Hasbro's fault that they've oversaturated the market for crappy yellow plastic?

It's not Hasbro's fault that retailers order way too much of wave 1 and don't order newer cases because they're waiting for the first lot to sell out. The reason they put so many Bumblebee's in a wave is because that's what retailers tell them that they want. Hasbro is in the business of selling toys, they will give retailers whatever they ask for so long as it makes them money. It's like how every wave of Marvel Legends/DCU Classics has to have a couple of "big name" characters in it - that is what retailers want because that is what sells.

Except they don't sell. Bumblebee has been clogging shelves since the RotF line and Hasbro is still putting out 4 Bumblebees for every other character. I think retailers would have noticed Bumblebee isn't selling by now. PRiD Bumblebee has been clogging shelves since day one and they're still putting him and his multiple repaints in every wave.

Do retailers like Asda and Argos really look at which figures sell? I can see people like TRU paying more attention but supermarkets wont will they?

Agreed on the 1x Vehicon being frustrating from a collectors perspective - but it's hardly a new discussion. We should all know by now that wave distribution doesn't take collectors into account - it's been discussed on the podcast & forums enough times how parents/children are the primary market.

The thing that frustrates me is that all I can find on shelves is the unwanted remnants of over-orders from wave 1. 'bees and Cliffys -everywhere-. Weren't we supposed to have wave 2 already? Instead, we get UK ebay auctions starting at £36 ($56) for Voyager PRiD Bulkhead and Starscream from a handful of scalpers! For that price, I may as well pay the extra £10-£15 and import the FE figs!

Also, if past experience is anything to go by - the fact wave 1 was over-ordered means that most retailers will probably drop the line after wave 2. It happened with Hasbro's 1st run at Marvel Legends and I can see it happening again with PRiD.

Ravage XK wrote:Do retailers like Asda and Argos really look at which figures sell? I can see people like TRU paying more attention but supermarkets wont will they?

Argos don't when i worked there they would get 1 or 2 cases then as they went down more or less would order a top up and you would find a few random packets here and there putting the deliverys away.

Autobot Genocide wrote:

Ravage XK wrote:Do retailers like Asda and Argos really look at which figures sell? I can see people like TRU paying more attention but supermarkets wont will they?

Argos don't when i worked there they would get 1 or 2 cases then as they went down more or less would order a top up and you would find a few random packets here and there putting the deliverys away.

I don't think the retailers get a choice, they just get sent 'stock' and everywhere I've been its the same story every time.