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[AllNewSuperRobot]

So what’s the story on Ratchet? I’ve had a pre-order for sometime now. Initially it said ‘end of August’, now the listing is the nebulous ‘Q4 2019’??

Walgreens Holiday Shopping Season Reset... which is sometime near Thanksgiving or Black Friday. Canada already has him as an EB Games exclusive.

So once again we have International fans/buyers held hostage by bizarre exclusivity deals of Japanese toys with isolated US retailers...

[sol magnus]

So what’s the story on Ratchet? I’ve had a pre-order for sometime now. Initially it said ‘end of August’, now the listing is the nebulous ‘Q4 2019’??

Walgreens Holiday Shopping Season Reset... which is sometime near Thanksgiving or Black Friday. Canada already has him as an EB Games exclusive.

So once again we have International fans/buyers held hostage by bizarre exclusivity deals of Japanese toys with isolated US retailers...

Just hang in there, dude. I'm sure you'll get your Ratchet.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

If I were buying it for me, I'd be perfectly fine to wait.

I am extremely patient and it has become apparent to me over the last year or so, that Hasbro doesn't really grasp that there is more to being a Global retailer than shipping to Japan and the US. As it isn't for me, but a friend of mine, I get asked for an update at least once a week. It's not his fault, nor mine and delaying a release by at least a month or two for some arbitrary US holiday is meaningless to me. Considering I already paid for the pre-order in full.

[AcademyofDrX]

Walmart is processing my payment for my Bluestreak preorder, so I expect to have that in hand by the end of the week. Today is the nominal Hasbro Pulse release date for the next wave of Siege figures, so hopefully they'll get shipped soon, too.

[ZeroWolf]

So what’s the story on Ratchet? I’ve had a pre-order for sometime now. Initially it said ‘end of August’, now the listing is the nebulous ‘Q4 2019’??

Walgreens Holiday Shopping Season Reset... which is sometime near Thanksgiving or Black Friday. Canada already has him as an EB Games exclusive.

So once again we have International fans/buyers held hostage by bizarre exclusivity deals of Japanese toys with isolated US retailers...

Japanese toys? Aren't they dual nationality? After all American designers helped bring these to life as well in partnership with Tomy Takara

[TF-fan kev777]

So what’s the story on Ratchet? I’ve had a pre-order for sometime now. Initially it said ‘end of August’, now the listing is the nebulous ‘Q4 2019’??

Walgreens Holiday Shopping Season Reset... which is sometime near Thanksgiving or Black Friday. Canada already has him as an EB Games exclusive.

So once again we have International fans/buyers held hostage by bizarre exclusivity deals of Japanese toys with isolated US retailers...

I'm not sure that is actually the case here. Hasbro isn't delaying the release to the rest of the world, as evidenced by EB Games in Canada already having him out (I believe Robotkingdon already had him as well). In the US it is Walgreens that is delaying things, not Hasbro, for whatever their reasoning is to make everyone wait until they reset their stores for Thanksgiving/Christmas. Dumb, but whatever.

What I have no idea on is how the rest of the world outside the US and Canada are getting Ratchet. But in any case there, I don't think they would be affected by the late release by Walgreens. If anything, the Haslab Unicron showed us that Hasbro really doesn't have great relationships in place for the UK/EU fans. My guess is the delay is just a result of them having really poor distribution relationships in UK/EU rather than them being intentionally delayed because Walgreens is weird.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Japanese toys? Aren't they dual nationality? After all American designers helped bring these to life as well in partnership with Tomy Takara

[AllNewSuperRobot]

What I have no idea on is how the rest of the world outside the US and Canada are getting Ratchet. But in any case there, I don't think they would be affected by the late release by Walgreens.

Personally, I found the best price via Collecticon Toys. As it is a US site, I assumed the delay must be linked?

[TF-fan kev777]

What I have no idea on is how the rest of the world outside the US and Canada are getting Ratchet. But in any case there, I don't think they would be affected by the late release by Walgreens.

Personally, I found the best price via Collecticon Toys. As it is a US site, I assumed the delay must be linked?

Hmm, that is weird, but I'm guessing they would probably have to get theirs from some outlet outside of the US. I know BBTS/TF Source has had the Walgreens exclusives in past years and they were available before Walgreens had them out. The temptation was really hard on the clones to wait out Walgreens. My best guess is that Collectiontoys is just waiting on their middleman/shipment to deliver and this it probably isn't related to Walgreens.

[TF-fan kev777]

What I have no idea on is how the rest of the world outside the US and Canada are getting Ratchet. But in any case there, I don't think they would be affected by the late release by Walgreens.

Personally, I found the best price via Collecticon Toys. As it is a US site, I assumed the delay must be linked?

Hmm, that is weird, but I'm guessing they would probably have to get theirs from some outlet outside of the US. I know BBTS/TF Source has had the Walgreens exclusives in past years and they were available before Walgreens had them out. The temptation was really hard on the clones to wait out Walgreens. My best guess is that Collectiontoys is just waiting on their middleman/shipment to deliver and this it probably isn't related to Walgreens.

Edit: Holy Crap! $49.99! Maybe they are just waiting for Walgreeens to put them out and are buying right from their local store. No clue here, but if that was the price they gave you, you might want to keep an eye on BBTS and TF Source. Might get a better price whenever they show up there.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

I believe when I made the pre-order a couple months ago it was $39.99, so it looks like the pre-order has had a slight price hike since the release date vanished.

...This is why I stick to the Masterpiece line. Do you know where you can buy MPs from? EVERYWHERE!
My first - MP Optimus Primal - I bought from a Hong Kong based retailer. The rest have been locally from Kapow & ID Toys ever since.

To get all seven Tetrajets, I had to put in an exception amount of sourcing. More than anything else I've bought in recent years. Hasbro seriously needs to fix their distribution arm, as they are clearly as inept as Hasbro UK...

[chuckdawg1999]

For those interested in Siege Barricade:

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Thanks to both Seibertronian chuckdawg1999 and Youtuber PrimevsPrime, we have a pair of video reviews to share with you today for the newest Decepticon addition to the Siege family: Barricade!

Barricade is a retool of Siege Prowl, featuring a new head that is the basis for his repaint and Selects release, Smokescreen. He also features a pair of new guns that can serve as shoulder cannons or combine to form a new hand held weapon. Barricade is an homage to the Movie Barricade, and is the realization of long running fan customizations of Smokescreen into a G1 version of Barricade.

Barricade is part of Wave 4 of Siege, and should be widely available right around the time of this writing, along with his wave mates Impactor and Mirage, the 2 winners of the Siege Fan Vote. You should be seeing them shortly coming to stores near you.

Barricade is a repaint of the Generations Selects Smokescreen figure and it is gorgeous, the best looking Transformers figure that I can remember in a long time. My favorite aspect of the figure's deco has to be the gray/lavender combo that's used on the limbs. Highly recommended.

[Ultra Markus]

Just got mine from Amazon today
Indeed it is beautiful

[TF-fan kev777]

Just got mine from Amazon today
Indeed it is beautiful

The clear purple plastic is glorious, isn't it. Especially the legs in bot mode, they just seem to have a glow to them.

[angtre]

Looking forward to a repaint of MP Smokescreen in these colours.

[Rainmaker]

Looking forward to a repaint of MP Smokescreen in these colours.

good luck, there won't be

[angtre]

Looking forward to a repaint of MP Smokescreen in these colours.

good luck, there won't be

What a mean thing to say, shattering one's little wish like that.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Looking forward to a repaint of MP Smokescreen in these colours.

good luck, there won't be

What a mean thing to say, shattering one's little wish like that.

Who knows what TakaraTomy may do, they're known to be cheeky with their releases.

[bodrock]

I’d love to get Barricade — dig the colors, but I hardly buy online these days. Skyfire was certainly my most recent exception

Zetar’s Skyfire Story

[william-james88]

While we almost had a year to get acquainted with the fact that the price points in the Transformers Siege line are not indicative of the size of the main robot, some people were still wondering just how high Siege leader class Astrotrain would be. It was expected that he would be almost voyager height, maybe slightly shorter than the faction leaders and that is exactly what is happening. He will be about the height of fellow Decepticon Shockwave from what we can gather in the images below. Now remember, as with Shockwave, he can be given boots to be taller and of course comes with many accessories that can interplay with all his 3 modes. These are the first in hand images of the toy and they come from Transformers Overdrive on Facebook. The toy should be hitting shelves in December.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

To anyone getting him in: comparisons with TR Blitzwing and Octone, or their moldmates Megatron and Optimus Prime please?

[Skritz]

In 2024, Leader price tag will be Deluxe sized!

[bodrock]

That Astrotrain is way too cool to pass up!

[Deadput]

Besides a few characters like Overlord most characters were way to damn big in the leader size class, at least in generations, Titans Return Blaster/Soundwave being an example.

Would people really want a Shockwave or Astrotrain that was way taller then Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave?

The Leader size point also allows them to be less hollow and more solid.