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Late last month, we reported on the Million Publishing exclusive figures of Shouki (based on Classics Astrotrain, which you can see a gallery of here) and GoShooter (based on Generations Bumblebee/Goldfire (Goldbug) Bumblebee/Nightbeat, which you can see here and here), with pictures courtesy of Tony Preto of TemptingToys.com fame, from the Super Festival 66 in Japan.
You can read the full article, and see Mr. Preto's images, here.

Today, we have more images of the upcoming figures and a new link with more information to share with you. You can read the information here, and see the mirrored images below:













Keep your optics tuned to Seibertron.com for the latest in news and updates, plus the best galleries around!

Nightbeat and GoShooter are the best use of this mold.

Well, I didn't think I'd see that Astrotrain again...

I can't help but like them.

They look terrific.

I'm liking Shouki's improvised battle station/cannon mode.

Still wish the fan poll chose Alpha Trion from Scourge, but between Ratbat, Serpent O.R., and Devcon, I guess we're getting plenty of use from that mold...

IDW Bee is really saturating my shelves ('Bee, Goldfire, Nightbeat, Carzap, RF Hubcap), but I can live with this.

RF Hubcap? What did I miss?

RhA wrote:RF Hubcap? What did I miss?

Renderform did a couple kits that turn IDW Bee into Hubcap:

The official Japanese Transformers facebook page has posted an image of the Generations volume 2 magazine with the Goshooter figure.

Goshooter is a redeco of Generations Nightbeat and it will come with a redeco of Blazemaster. This Japanese exclusive figure can be bought indepdently or combined with the magazine for 10$ more at BBTS.

Maybe Ill get him on clearance. They got me 2 years in a row with Stepper and Artfire at crazy prices. Then by the next year they were half price. Also I feel this mold is getting overused now. Five uses in one year of existence ? (six if you count Takara Bee) It reminds me of KFC Perceptor mold.

Rated X wrote:Maybe Ill get him on clearance. They got me 2 years in a row with Stepper and Artfire at crazy prices. Then by the next year they were half price. Also I feel this mold is getting overused now. Five uses in one year of existence ? (six if you count Takara Bee) It reminds me of KFC Perceptor mold.

Bumblebee
Goldfire
Nightbeat
Carzap
Go-Shooter

Yea... that's a lot. It's a fun mold, and I like it a bunch, but I'd rather not get tired of it so quickly. Sigh. Consolation: 4 of them have unique noggins.

positive aspect of getting these in quick succession... better (and cheaper) to manufacture these all around the same time while the mold is available. The cost of warehousing it, hauling the parts to another city, locating it again, prepping the factory to use the parts, etc.

I'm completely okay with getting mold mates at the same time — Hoist and Trailbreaker in the same box, totally cool. Seeker jets all in one wave or box, great. I'd rather do that than risk NOT getting one of the three.

As for these guys, they're spacing them out pretty well. (different waves and 'lines' with TFCC.) I'm fine with it. (Plus some are real niche characters like CarZap, who may wind up coming a good year later, anyway.)

Seriously???Another retool of IDW BB?????? Nah,still looks cool.

Lockdownhunter wrote:Seriously???Another retool of IDW BB?????? Nah,still looks cool.

It's just a redeco of the Nightbeat version of the mold (and arguably the best-looking version of the mold at that).

While it's conjecture, who is to say Hasbro puts out their "base model" first. Meaning, I think Nightbeat may be the initial design... with Bumblebee and friends (although released first).... being the retools. Make sense?

The mold fits Nightbeat so well, I think maybe he was their plan all along, with Bumblebee being a quick throwaway for the younger fans and as a bit of a fund-raiser to break even on the mold.

Any instances you guys can recall where you think Hasbro "held back" on their home run deco or best-tooling of a figure?

gothsaurus wrote:While it's conjecture, who is to say Hasbro puts out their "base model" first. Meaning, I think Nightbeat may be the initial design... with Bumblebee and friends (although released first).... being the retools. Make sense?

But the design came from Bumblebee's Autobot Leader upgrade in the IDW 2009-2011 ongoing, at which time Nightbeat was long since dead and wouldn't return until recent years.

The two right-most pics on the top row, and the three right-most pics on the bottom:


All four of the first wave of Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxes were inspired by pre-existing comic IDW designs.

Well, if Hasbro actually confirmed IDW designed this Bee via Botcon or whatever... can't argue there, then, can I?

My question still stands. Are there any repaints or retools you all can think of where Hasbro released a repaint/retool of the clearly-intended toy FIRST? ... with the "real" home run, intended design figure following later?

An example MIGHT be the recent Gears toy — which clearly has a Brawn head sculpt. (As time goes by, this may wind up being the case. Who knows.)

Any examples you can remember from recent past?

gothsaurus wrote:Well, if Hasbro actually confirmed IDW designed this Bee via Botcon or whatever... can't argue there, then, can I?

My question still stands. Are there any repaints or retools you all can think of where Hasbro released a repaint/retool of the clearly-intended toy FIRST? ... with the "real" home run, intended design figure following later?

An example MIGHT be the recent Gears toy - which clearly has a Brawn head sculpt. (As time goes by, this may wind up being the case. Who knows.)

Any examples you can remember from recent past?

Yes, the best example is Alternators Silverstreak and Smokescreen. Silverstreak was to be the first use of that mold ot be released and it is indeed the only Alternators to be painted instead of using a coloured plastic. However, Smkokescreen was issued first (and was the only toy packed in the box).

Quote from tf wiki:

Smokescreen was actually designed as a retool of Alternators Silverstreak (aka Binaltech Streak), whose alternate mode is the Subaru Impreza WRX street model. However, the marketing department at Takara felt that the flashier Smokescreen would make a more suitable debut toy and would grab more attention than the plain silver Streak would.

Also, I have my sincere suspisions that G2 Dreadwing was the initial reason for the Generations Megatron Stealth Bomber mold. The head sculpt fits so well with the stealth bomber body in comparison to Megatron's, which feels a little out of place (even though he does have that body in the IDW comics). I guess it's a similar situation to the Bumblebee/Nightbeat case. The fact that Dreadwing was released so soon after really makes me it more likely that he could have been the initial intended purpose of the mold and Megatron be the retool.

And look at the feet!!!!!!

I think you nailed it! Exactly what I was talking about. Thanks for chiming in, William-James.

gothsaurus wrote:I think you nailed it! Exactly what I was talking about. Thanks for chiming in, William-James.

Always a pleasure!

The Megatron body was also an IDW-original. They only made the Dreadwing toy because they made the Megatron toy first and wanted to get more use out of it. But the design was Megatron's first.

Until recent years, IDW artists were making their own character designs independent of Hasbro's toy designers with no initial plans of Hasbro making toys out of them. By the time All Hail Megatron came out, Hasbro saw all these non-toy designs and stepped in to request that IDW start putting in some designs that were based on preexisting toy designs, such as Prowl, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe all suddenly switching to have designs based on their Universe toys. But even then, the trend of non-toy designs continued into the 2009-2011 ongoing, and it wasn't until 2012 that Hasbro and IDW finally decided to start working together to create designs that could be made into toys, which eventually led to the creation of the Dark Cybertron storyline.

Orion Pax, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Trailcutter all took inspiration from comic designs that came out years (or in Trailcutter's case, one year) before any of these four toys would get made. Orion Pax's design came from the Guigo Guidi design used in "Spotlight: Blurr", Megatron's stealth bomber design came from the Don Figeroa's design from the ongoing, Bumblebee's Autobot Leader design came from Guido Guidi's version of the design from the ongoing, and Trailcutter's design came from Alex Milne's design from More Than Meets The Eye.


To answer the other question, Prime Dreadwing came out before Prime Skyquake, despite the mold being original intended for Skyquake.

william-james88 wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:Well, if Hasbro actually confirmed IDW designed this Bee via Botcon or whatever... can't argue there, then, can I?

My question still stands. Are there any repaints or retools you all can think of where Hasbro released a repaint/retool of the clearly-intended toy FIRST? ... with the "real" home run, intended design figure following later?

An example MIGHT be the recent Gears toy - which clearly has a Brawn head sculpt. (As time goes by, this may wind up being the case. Who knows.)

Any examples you can remember from recent past?

Yes, the best example is Alternators Silverstreak and Smokescreen. Silverstreak was to be the first use of that mold ot be released and it is indeed the only Alternators to be painted instead of using a coloured plastic. However, Smkokescreen was issued first (and was the only toy packed in the box).

Quote from tf wiki:

Smokescreen was actually designed as a retool of Alternators Silverstreak (aka Binaltech Streak), whose alternate mode is the Subaru Impreza WRX street model. However, the marketing department at Takara felt that the flashier Smokescreen would make a more suitable debut toy and would grab more attention than the plain silver Streak would.

Also, I have my sincere suspisions that G2 Dreadwing was the initial reason for the Generations Megatron Stealth Bomber mold. The head sculpt fits so well with the stealth bomber body in comparison to Megatron's, which feels a little out of place (even though he does have that body in the IDW comics). I guess it's a similar situation to the Bumblebee/Nightbeat case. The fact that Dreadwing was released so soon after really makes me it more likely that he could have been the initial intended purpose of the mold and Megatron be the retool.

And look at the feet!!!!!!

There was also this:

EDIT: fixed photo link

Moonshot wrote:There was also this:

TFU.info does not allow direct linking to images.

The (unreleased) G2 ATB Megatron may have been the inspiration, but he was still a repaint of G2 Dreadwing, a reversal of the Generations figures

Fellow Transformers fan MASABON1980 has updated their Photobucket account with a nice look at the Million Publishing Exclusive triplechanger Astrotrain redeco Shouki, with the little Daniel minicon - check out some of the mirrored images below, and browse the full album here.

Man, this is such a clever figure. I honestly can't think of any better use of this mold as another character who isn't Astrotrain and without remolding it (since Million Publishing's toys are never remolded). And using the shuttle as the Thunder Arrow with Daniel to pose as its pilot...