Hmm, I dunno. I think I remember seeing BPOP, Rattrap, (and possibly Battle Unicorn) on the shelves when the Beast Machines toyline was still going, though it definitely was close to the end of the line's run, during the "Battle for the Spark" subline imprint.Seibertron wrote:Sabrblade wrote:Has there ever been a case of a cancelled prototype eventually seeing the light of day as an official mass produced product at a much later day?
Somebody correct me ... but I'm pretty sure Beast Machines Blast Punch Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Air Attack Optimus Primal, Battle Unicorn, and Megabolt Megatron all fit this description (at least as far as we knew at the time). Though I have a sneaky suspicion that the toys had been made, but not packaged, and/or a retailer hadn't said yes to put the product on their shelves.
Blast Punch Optimus Primal and Rattrap came out long after the end of the Beast Machines toyline and after we had all thought they had been canceled. Those two figures came out in August of 2001, a year after the last episode of the cartoon had aired in Canada and a while after the last Beast Machines toy had been released ... and after the RID toyline had started if I recall correctly.
One thing I DO remember well is seeing a sweepstakes commercial on Fox Kids when Beast Machines was still airing, with the narrator saying, "One thousands others will win a Beast Machines Rattrap and Optimus Primal toy!" The Optimus Primal toy shown was the Blast Punch version. We may have to look into this further.
Yeah, I think it's safe to assume that at least Air Attack Optimus Primal, Megatron Megabolt, and RiD Bruticus (the Cerberus) were set to be released, but were repackaged for the RiD toyline.Seibertron wrote:But I'm really grasping at straws here. The time frame I'm talking about is way too short compared to them coming out with a G1 Unicron after all of these years. If they did anything like that, it'd probably be a new mold made to look similar to the original (and obviously to meet current toy safety laws) ... a la the recent Star Wars rocket-firing Boba Fett figure from Hasbro or the upcoming Fearless Photog figure from Mattel's MOTU line.
And, now that I think of it, weren't we shown an image at BotCon 2011 of Megatron Megabolt in its original unreleased Beast Machines packaging? I wanna say we saw it in the Sunday Hasbro panel during their "Things that didn't make it into the Vault book" session.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the selling of the factory samples of the G2 Protectobots and Stunticons inhibit rereleases of them?Seibertron wrote:Still holding out hope for news about an exclusive G2 Defensor and Menasor set (next chance is whenever Takara decides to do a reissue of either of these two and e-Hobby wants to do us right, even though they dropped the ball with Metrotitan and Battle Gaia).
Though, reissuing the likes Metrotitan, Battle Gaea, Guard City, etc. are a must!