The Energon Pub

[Wolfman Jake]

Dang, that is a LOT of minibots on the shelves in that pic. I hope at least one of the Walmarts around me gets stocked that full. I want all four! Speaking of which, where IS that Walmart featured in the picture above?

[ZeroWolf]

Looking through the sources, I couldn't find the location sadly, so best keep eyes peeled

[Emerje]

Wow, they've got so many of those mini bots they're taking over all of the empty pegs. I'm a little surprised there even are empty pegs, my local Walmarts are both filled beyond capacity with lots of stuff on the overhead shelf waiting for space.

For me - it has to be Thundercracker. He is the template for the animation model, after all. What surprises me at the moment is there is a lack of Blitzwing reissue, given he is in the Bumblebee movie, too.

Since this poll is for 2020 there's always a possibility of a 2019 line so maybe he's already happening?

Whichever Seeker wins, we lose!

How do I vote for a teleporting Skywarp? That would be neat.

You mean like this? I'd buy that in a heartbeat.



Emerje

[Sebstreak]

Does anyone like me focus on buying mostly G1 from season 1? I understand Bee's reissue from Hasbro, but not the other mini bots. I think reissuing more than 2 deceptions in 2020 is realistic and profitable. I have most Toys R Us reissues from about 15 yrs ago. Wal Mart should focus on the missing ones like Sunstreaker, Ratchet, Willjack, Mirage, trailbreaker, the casettes, etc.

[Sabrblade]

Does anyone like me focus on buying mostly G1 from season 1? I understand Bee's reissue from Hasbro, but not the other mini bots. I think reissuing more than 2 deceptions in 2020 is realistic and profitable. I have most Toys R Us reissues from about 15 yrs ago. Wal Mart should focus on the missing ones like Sunstreaker, Ratchet, Willjack, Mirage, trailbreaker, the casettes, etc.

Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, and Mirage have long been un-reissue-able due to their original molds being long gone.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Does anyone like me focus on buying mostly G1 from season 1? I understand Bee's reissue from Hasbro, but not the other mini bots. I think reissuing more than 2 deceptions in 2020 is realistic and profitable. I have most Toys R Us reissues from about 15 yrs ago. Wal Mart should focus on the missing ones like Sunstreaker, Ratchet, Willjack, Mirage, trailbreaker, the casettes, etc.

Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, and Mirage have long been un-reissue-able due to their original molds being long gone.

More specifically, Wheeljack's is confirmed as shot to hell from wear, Mirage's is confirmed to be MIA (ditto for the Dinobots), and Sunstreaker's is all-but-confirmed as MIA - especially after his conspicuous absence from the Encore line and its parade of Diaclone-based redecoes (one would think that if his mold's whereabouts were known, as the very first of the Diaclone Car Robot molds he would have been given special attention there!).

[william-james88]

Does anyone like me focus on buying mostly G1 from season 1? I understand Bee's reissue from Hasbro, but not the other mini bots.

I do. Hasbro wanted to realease the stuff they had on hand, and all those molds were easily accessible due to Takara rereleasing them already:



And if you want an idea of the other stuff Hasbro will probably put out in that price range, we have all these molds easily accessible as well:



I am pretty sure we will get Pipe/Huffer and Gears in the next round.

[Seibertron]

I keep hoping for a "G1 reissues improved" line. The vintage 1980s Hasbro boxes are a welcome change this time around. It's something that had never been done properly before, something that hearkens back to Takara's original reissues like Hot Rodimus, Convoy and Ultra Magnus from (yikes) shortly after the turn of the century. My fantasy "G1 reissues improved" line would do things like ... if you're going to do the mouth version of Bumblebee, commission someone to modify the original G1 artwork to reflect the mold so the artwork has a more G1 cartoon styled head (but in the style of that artwork) ... or if you're going to do a Perceptor reissue, give us a G1-toy styled head with a face and modify the artwork. Soundwave? Give him a red visor finally and modify the artwork. Little things like that which help make this set of reissues stand apart from other reissues. God knows they've milked their money out of their initial investments with these molds so it'd be nice to see some improvements made to set these apart from other reissues.

[Seibertron]

Does anyone like me focus on buying mostly G1 from season 1? I understand Bee's reissue from Hasbro, but not the other mini bots. I think reissuing more than 2 deceptions in 2020 is realistic and profitable. I have most Toys R Us reissues from about 15 yrs ago. Wal Mart should focus on the missing ones like Sunstreaker, Ratchet, Willjack, Mirage, trailbreaker, the casettes, etc.

Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, and Mirage have long been un-reissue-able due to their original molds being long gone.

Yep, but that doesn't mean that reissues of those very figures can't happen at some point in the future. I think there's a lot of demand to see those figures happen after all of this time, especially the Dinobots.

[Seibertron]

I picked up my Transformers G1 Hot Rod reissue at Walmart for $12.97 tonight! It was a little challenging getting them to swap out the one that Walmart.com shipped to their store for me with one of the ones that was on their shelves ("Sir, you can't do that!") and then the challenge of getting them to price match from Monday's price with the $12.97 price on Wednesday. It took 5 employees to figure out how to make it happen so that I ended up with the one I wanted from their shelves and get cash back at the same time. Good lord, it amazes me sometimes that Wally World is as successful as they are.

[Wolfman Jake]

I keep hoping for a "G1 reissues improved" line. The vintage 1980s Hasbro boxes are a welcome change this time around. It's something that had never been done properly before, something that hearkens back to Takara's original reissues like Hot Rodimus, Convoy and Ultra Magnus from (yikes) shortly after the turn of the century. My fantasy "G1 reissues improved" line would do things like ... if you're going to do the mouth version of Bumblebee, commission someone to modify the original G1 artwork to reflect the mold so the artwork has a more G1 cartoon styled head (but in the style of that artwork) ... or if you're going to do a Perceptor reissue, give us a G1-toy styled head with a face and modify the artwork. Soundwave? Give him a red visor finally and modify the artwork. Little things like that which help make this set of reissues stand apart from other reissues. God knows they've milked their money out of their initial investments with these molds so it'd be nice to see some improvements made to set these apart from other reissues.

So much this! Hasbro has basically already opened the possibility for this by using Takara's latest retooling and redecoing of Bumblebee. He's almost as perfect a representation of the G1 cartoon model as he can be now, while still being ostensibly the original mold. Swerve, Tailgate, and Outback all have their improved face paint apps from Takara's latest reissues too, mostly giving them cartoon accurate blue eyes. Too bad Hasbro didn't think to give Starscream red eyes or change the painted stripes on his wings, but it's not the end of the world, I suppose. It's also a bummer that Hasbro apparently didn't opt for the "anime accurate" head sculpt for Devastator that Takara made a few years back for their Encore line.

I'm hoping that these reissues continue to sell well and that Hasbro will be brave enough to reverse engineer some of the broken and lost molds and give us the likes of Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, the Dinobots, and anyone else who has been consistently missing from these reissue lines. Yeah, the prospect of doing so is costly, but I bet a LOT of old fans would jump at the chance to get newly manufactured vintage figures and not have to worry about paying ridiculous aftermarket prices anymore or take their chances with getting counterfeit figures. I also wonder how Hasbro will eventually address the very obvious absence of Megatron from any reissue line.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Does anyone like me focus on buying mostly G1 from season 1? I understand Bee's reissue from Hasbro, but not the other mini bots. I think reissuing more than 2 deceptions in 2020 is realistic and profitable. I have most Toys R Us reissues from about 15 yrs ago. Wal Mart should focus on the missing ones like Sunstreaker, Ratchet, Willjack, Mirage, trailbreaker, the casettes, etc.

Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, and Mirage have long been un-reissue-able due to their original molds being long gone.

Yep, but that doesn't mean that reissues of those very figures can't happen at some point in the future. I think there's a lot of demand to see those figures happen after all of this time, especially the Dinobots.

Key word here is eventually

[Sabrblade]

Does anyone like me focus on buying mostly G1 from season 1? I understand Bee's reissue from Hasbro, but not the other mini bots. I think reissuing more than 2 deceptions in 2020 is realistic and profitable. I have most Toys R Us reissues from about 15 yrs ago. Wal Mart should focus on the missing ones like Sunstreaker, Ratchet, Willjack, Mirage, trailbreaker, the casettes, etc.

Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, and Mirage have long been un-reissue-able due to their original molds being long gone.

Yep, but that doesn't mean that reissues of those very figures can't happen at some point in the future. I think there's a lot of demand to see those figures happen after all of this time, especially the Dinobots.

Right. I'm just saying that the current lack of their original molds and needing to have new ones created for them (like what was done for the Dino-Cassette reissues, and likely for the BW Basic Terrorsaur redecoed reissue we got in AOE) makes them just less likely to be reissued than those whose original molds still exist in good enough condition. Not impossible (now that we got Warden's team of wizards handling these instead of Archer's team), but but not as likely as others.

[Wolfman Jake]

I picked up my Transformers G1 Hot Rod reissue at Walmart for $12.97 tonight! It was a little challenging getting them to swap out the one that Walmart.com shipped to their store for me with one of the ones that was on their shelves ("Sir, you can't do that!") and then the challenge of getting them to price match from Monday's price with the $12.97 price on Wednesday. It took 5 employees to figure out how to make it happen so that I ended up with the one I wanted from their shelves and get cash back at the same time. Good lord, it amazes me sometimes that Wally World is as successful as they are.

Were you trying to get one that was packaged in the right direction, or was there something else very wrong with the one they initially picked out for you?

[Seibertron]

I picked up my Transformers G1 Hot Rod reissue at Walmart for $12.97 tonight! It was a little challenging getting them to swap out the one that Walmart.com shipped to their store for me with one of the ones that was on their shelves ("Sir, you can't do that!") and then the challenge of getting them to price match from Monday's price with the $12.97 price on Wednesday. It took 5 employees to figure out how to make it happen so that I ended up with the one I wanted from their shelves and get cash back at the same time. Good lord, it amazes me sometimes that Wally World is as successful as they are.

Were you trying to get one that was packaged in the right direction, or was there something else very wrong with the one they initially picked out for you?

I'm EXTREMELY picky with paint apps and stickers. From the exterior of the package, there's only so much you can gather about the figure since it's in vehicle mode. The "chest" sticker was my biggest focus since I saw so many various flaws on the ones that were packaged in car mode facing correctly. Some of the chest stickers had small black spots, some of them had specs of dust/dirt UNDER the stickers (which is what causes those tiny little bumps under stickers), some of them had very tiny (and I mean tiny) wrinkles, and others just had minor imperfections with the edges and such (or angle of the sticker). I found two that seemed to be absent of any flaws. I have an eye for imperfections with Transformers toys. It has become an obsession of mine, but man when I find a "near perfect" Transformers toy, it just makes me thrilled! Swapping limbs, heads, and accessories is also a favorite thing of mine to make near perfect figures. My obsession with this stems mostly from doing macro photography with Transformers toys for the past 14 years. It drives me crazy when I see flaws in close-up shots of figures of which I have 4000 to 6000 pixel wide original images.

Ugh, just looked at the 2 Hot Rods I picked up and they have different flaws on each of them than what I was looking for earlier at the store. One has a paint flaw on the bottom of the windshield and the other has a comparable paint flaw above the windshield. Just need to find one now with out any paint flaws around the windshield and I'll mix and match parts and sell off the one that I consider "flawed". Urgh.

[Emerje]

And if you want an idea of the other stuff Hasbro will probably put out in that price range, we have all these molds easily accessible as well:

Cliffjumper, Windcharger, and Brawn should be in good shape as well since they've been used for keychains.

Emerje

[william-james88]

I'm just saying that the current lack of their original molds and needing to have new ones created for them (like what was done for the Dino-Cassette reissues, and likely for the BW Basic Terrorsaur redecoed reissue we got in AOE)^

I highly doubt they redid BW Terrorsar's mold. These dino casettes were a big deal, and marketted that way, plus with you having to buy 2 exclsive sets just to get 1 correct set of 2. Terrorsaur was released as a side note at Walmart along with other random molds (like Energon Cruelock). If there was as much work put into him as the Casettes, I don't think it would have been as uneventful. The truth is we dont know much about what goes on, and reports of what happened from Terorsaur's mold may have been wrongly assumed.

I picked up my Transformers G1 Hot Rod reissue at Walmart for $12.97 tonight! It was a little challenging getting them to swap out the one that Walmart.com shipped to their store for me with one of the ones that was on their shelves ("Sir, you can't do that!") and then the challenge of getting them to price match from Monday's price with the $12.97 price on Wednesday. It took 5 employees to figure out how to make it happen so that I ended up with the one I wanted from their shelves and get cash back at the same time. Good lord, it amazes me sometimes that Wally World is as successful as they are.

Price Matching at Walmart SUCKS. I stopped trying a long time ago. What I do instead is simply buy the toy again at whatever better price and simply bring the other one back with the receipt of the more expensive one. Walmart is very good at returns, so I go with their strength. Comes to the same thing in the end. And since its all done withc redit card, I can follow it all and the returns are refunded before I even pay my card.

[no-one]

Well poop, old purple jumpsuit won.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrVRhBzFn7h/

Guess it's purple v purple now.

[ZeroWolf]

Thanks to an update from fellow Seibertron user, Carytheone, we can now confirm that Skywarp has won the second round of voting to see if he can make it to Walmart shelves in 2020. This means that the final round is now open for voting! His opponent is round 1 winner Astrotrain, so as long as you're an Instagram and Facebook user, go and vote to see who you want to see back in the shops. Please go here to cast your vote.



Which of these Cons do you want to see back on shelves? Are you happy that Skywarp beat Thundercracker? Would you want any of these to be improved like the recent Bumblebee reissue? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews.

[Lore Keeper]

I really don't feel thrilled about either choice (brings back feelings of two years ago ). Skywarp is marginally different from a mold we just received, and Astrotrain I've found to be a very weak looking mold (I have the oddly colored PE one). Ooh! An idea just occurred to me: Scramble City box sets! I'd buy that in a heartbeat!

[ScottyP]

I enjoy that it's a choice between Grumpy Spacetrain or Grumpy Jetplane, but that's about the only thing exciting about it.

[no-one]

I enjoy that it's a choice between Grumpy Spacetrain or Grumpy Jetplane, but that's about the only thing exciting about it.

[o.supreme]

Does anyone like me focus on buying mostly G1 from season 1? I understand Bee's reissue from Hasbro, but not the other mini bots.

I do. Hasbro wanted to realease the stuff they had on hand, and all those molds were easily accessible due to Takara rereleasing them already:

Yeah my biggest question would be, to think people would rather have Gears, Brawn, and Windcharger rather than their 1986 *year 3* re-painted personas.

[william-james88]

Yeah my biggest question would be, to think people would rather have Gears, Brawn, and Windcharger rather than their 1986 *year 3* re-painted personas.

Would they? I dont really care either way and they all sold rather well online so it seems like people just wanted reissued minibots, regardless of the character. Plus tailgate and Swerve have been a lot more present in TF fiction as of late.

[o.supreme]

^ I could be wrong, because I'm not picking up any of these, but I would think a lot of these would be impulse buys form fans that haven't seen the original toys, quite possibly since their original release, probably not following the IDW fiction. I was just responding to the original poster who said some fans may be looking specifically for 1984 first year characters, which is entirely possible.