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Munkky wrote:For those who live near a Walgreens, has anyone seen Deluxe Ratchet yet? Is it actually out/ Because I'm seeing no listings for it on Ebay and my usual go-to websites like Kapow Toys don't have listings for him.

He should be out around the holidays/at the start of the new year

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Munkky wrote:For those who live near a Walgreens, has anyone seen Deluxe Ratchet yet? Is it actually out/ Because I'm seeing no listings for it on Ebay and my usual go-to websites like Kapow Toys don't have listings for him.

I've had a pre-order with him for a while and his listing went from Aug '19 to 'Q4 '19'. I checked on here and the consensus seems to be he has been held back until either Black Friday or Thanksgiving... Whichever holiday comes first? Although, oddly Canada already has him

That is all on Walgreens. For whatever reason they never put their exclusives out until they reset the whole toy section for the holidays. They have typically shown up somewhere around the end of October/beginning of November, so the wait won't be too much longer.

The first sightings will be on the west coast and they usually take about another week or 2 to show up in the midwest. Been that way for Brainstorm, the clones and Wreck-Gar so far, and I expect the same this year.

This is why giving exclusives to niche [non-global] companies, is a bad idea. Now that Toys-r-us is defunct, Amazon is the logical choice for exclusivity. As Hasbro is reluctant to be a direct distributor worldwide.

william-james88 wrote:A lot of people are thinking of replacing their Titans Return Astrotrain with Siege Astrotrain, since that one has alt modes closer to the cartoon. However, that simple swap may not be so simple, when thinking of how all three Decepticon triple changers, which we got in Titans return, match up in height. We got a good in hand look at Siege Astrotrain in the unboxing images we published earlier today, but now we have a comparison image of this Astrotrain next to Takara's version of Titans Return Astrotrain. It comes to us from a fan named Ryan over at Cybertron Philippines. Remember that Astrotrain can be given some platform shoes to stand slightly taller and reach 7 inches (photo shown below as well).

The size difference doesn't really bother me. All of the leaders for Siege have been voyagers with *upgrades* so, I would imagine to be the same with Earthrise. I passed on all the Triple Changer voyagers from TR because they didn't fit in with my collecting MO. The Leaders starting with Astrotrain (and seemingly continuing with Earthrise Prime) have some base connectivity, so I'll be purchasing them for that.

That looks like a deluxe figure. I know he has a lot of extra stuff with him, but the figure itself is underwhelming to me. I already decided I was skipping him, and this just reaffirms it. He looks good, but just too small.

On a separate note, I finally found Mirage, Barricade and Impactor at my Walmart. Got Mirage and Barricade.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Forgetting the minutiae of a long dead 80's cartoon, that should be largely redundant to a 2019 toyline, the Decepticon Triple Changers should all be BIG, due to their nature. Blitzwing should realistically be the smallest of the three based on his altmodes. Scaling with the rank and file of Decepticon Jets. Octane and Astrotrain should loom over most bots, including Megatron. It makes very little sense, even with the idea of mass displacement, to justify one but who can Transform into an Airliner and another, a train and crew carrying space shuttle, being the height or build of regular bots.

Not sure how you can justify this when an old steam engine is considerably smaller than a space shuttle and Octane turns into a tanker truck. And not even a big tanker truck for cross country transport, but the smaller type with the tank attached that might be used delivery. Why does their largest alt mode get to decide their bot size?

Emerje

Spotted these guys at a local Target here in Virginia. First time seeing these around my neck of the woods.


SGM

Emerje wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Forgetting the minutiae of a long dead 80's cartoon, that should be largely redundant to a 2019 toyline, the Decepticon Triple Changers should all be BIG, due to their nature. Blitzwing should realistically be the smallest of the three based on his altmodes. Scaling with the rank and file of Decepticon Jets. Octane and Astrotrain should loom over most bots, including Megatron. It makes very little sense, even with the idea of mass displacement, to justify one but who can Transform into an Airliner and another, a train and crew carrying space shuttle, being the height or build of regular bots.

Why does their largest alt mode get to decide their bot size?

Emerje

Because



It always



Has...

Emerje wrote:Not sure how you can justify this when an old steam engine is considerably smaller than a space shuttle and Octane turns into a tanker truck. And not even a big tanker truck for cross country transport, but the smaller type with the tank attached that might be used delivery.

I don't know how this concept still loses people? Astrotrain is not "an old steam engine". He is an alien shape-shifting robot that looks like an old steam engine. Only on a superficial, visual level. Hence how the entire Decepticon army is able to board him in both altmodes as transport.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
Because

It always

Has...


I don't know how this concept still loses people? Astrotrain is not "an old steam engine". He is an alien shape-shifting robot that looks like an old steam engine. Only on a superficial, visual level. Hence how the entire Decepticon army is able to board him in both altmodes as transport.

Scale was always inconsistent so no not always, only sometimes

You show off Broadside who's size was always changing.

Combiners like Bruticus should not have even limb sizes with this logic.

I think robot scale is more important then vehicle scale for story purposes, giant characters get shoved to the side because it's too much hassle to work them in for stuff like conversations and only exist to be big fighting machines.

Like Shatter and Dropkick from Bumblebee suffer from this due to triple changer stuff.

I wish Astrotrain was the height of Galaxy Prime in super mode, I wish he were taller. that is my main beef.

He looks good, but he needed height!

Regardless of the timeless Scale Argument™, I think most agree that Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain could have been a bit taller.

but now we have a comparison image of this Astrotrain next to Takara's version of Titans Return Astrotrain. It comes to us from a fan named Ryan over at Cybertron Philippines.

That's it? No vehicle modes comparisons?
Too bad.

I have about all the TR triple changers and my Decepticons display is perfect. I don't see that particular Astrotrain replacing my TR one ever. But, I do have the G1 in NASA colors and the Henkei one too. So there's still high chances that I'm going to pick the Siege one regardless.

emlit wrote:

Sideswipe G-Win wrote:Is anyone else unhappy that the Cybertronian look was just dropped in favour of Earth modes? I'm all G1 and I love the new reveals for Earthrise, but I'm really bummed out that most of the G1 Autobot roster won't be finished in the Cybetronian forms. Has there been any word on this from Hasbro? (I'm new, so please no flame-blasts for my not being up to date!)

I’ve mentioned it numerous times before, so many are probably tired of me discussing it - but since you brought it up, yes, I was very disappointed when I found out Earthrise would include yet more 80’s-inspired designs. I was hoping the entire trilogy would include Cybertronian alt modes. I think there is a wealth of opportunity there which needs further exploration.

I totally agree! It's surprising to me that after all these years the civil war on Cybertron has still remained largely untapped. We could see a whole slew of new characters and concepts. As others have said here, hopefully there will be room for some more in part 3, or if Hasbro (or a 3rd party ) can at least finish the original crew....or at the very least give us Cybertron Jazz, Wheeljack and Bumblebee as a nod to the 84 cartoon.

Just in from Youtuber TFA1024 is a video review for the Transformers 35th Anniversary SoundBlaster! From the Transformers Addict himself:
"35 years of The Transformers has dawned upon us ans we given another exclusive Japanese character. Today we celebrate 35 years of our favorite giant shape-shifting robots and see if Soundblaster is worth adding to the collection."

For fans who don't know this character's history, in the Japanese exclusive cartoon series Transformers: Headmasters our beloved Soundwave was blasted to bits in a fatal fight to the finish with his arch enemy Blaster. Both were rebuilt into new characters, SoundBlaster and Twincast, with each toy reconfigured to hold two cassettes at one time. This Siege version follows suit by upgrading the Siege Soundwave chest cavity to hold two cassettes simultaneously. Enjoy the view and share your thoughts in the forum and as always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!

My concern with the size was more based on how siege Astrotrain would look with TR octane and blitzwing as I had passed on the TR Astrotrain and only got Sentinel for that mold. Thankfully I think it will be fine, as was already pointed out, the astrotrain mold was larger than the other 2 triple changers. If the comparison in height to siege prime is correct, then siege Astrotrain without the lifts will be taller than octane, and half a head shorter than blitzwing - using the lifts would negate that half a head, so in all, they will display nicely together.

Even if Siege Astrotrain is shorter - it's worth it because of TR Astrotrain's horrible, HORRIBLE alt mode...

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who caught on that Trenchfoot could be in place of Pinpointer, and I think that might've been the plan. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one of Spinisters Targetmasters in the Skywarp pack as well?

I love the Crossair target master of the titan wave, where it came from?

..And for size, I hope Hasbro releases GREAT new Dinobots in this line, on the right scale as a Leader ( Grimlock) 2 voyager ( sludge and slag) and 2 deluxe ( Swoope and snarl) - will be perfect!

TFanPage101 wrote:I'm so glad I'm not the only one who caught on that Trenchfoot could be in place of Pinpointer, and I think that might've been the plan. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one of Spinisters Targetmasters in the Skywarp pack as well?

Yes. His name in that set is Shrute, but it's colored like his old Targetmaster Hairsplitter. His other Targetmaster, Singe, is due out in the final wave of Siege.

Might hold off on crosshairs until the other autobot target masters are confirmed/photos with their absence in wave 1 of Earthrise Though theoretically if selects is continuing to use siege molds with the TCG mercs being possible figures I'm not sure what would fit pointblank and it might be a bad fit like jetdasher/cromar alt but for pointblanks robot mode. Seems weird that he's retail and not selects too but no complaints on that.

blackeyedprime wrote:Might hold off on crosshairs until the other autobot target masters are confirmed/photos with their absence in wave 1 of Earthrise Though theoretically if selects is continuing to use siege molds with the TCG mercs being possible figures I'm not sure what would fit pointblank and it might be a bad fit like jetdasher/cromar alt but for pointblanks robot mode. Seems weird that he's retail and not selects too but no complaints on that.

Just conjecture on my part but it's possible that Crosshairs was supposed to be a selects release but when Siege was extended for a wave, he got upgraded to main line release, the same way that Astrotrain was taken from Earthrise (which I'm thinking by them offering him again in wave 1)

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Emerje wrote:Not sure how you can justify this when an old steam engine is considerably smaller than a space shuttle and Octane turns into a tanker truck. And not even a big tanker truck for cross country transport, but the smaller type with the tank attached that might be used delivery.

I don't know how this concept still loses people? Astrotrain is not "an old steam engine". He is an alien shape-shifting robot that looks like an old steam engine. Only on a superficial, visual level. Hence how the entire Decepticon army is able to board him in both altmodes as transport.

I get that, but he doesn't turn into a giant train. You can't use poor animation and plot devices as evidence.

I mean, these aren't giant space trains and he doesn't role around on giant Earth train tracks.



By your logic of large alt modes = large robots plus what we saw in the cartoon...



...Huffer is bigger than Optimus! Or maybe Hoist is smaller than Huffer? It doesn't matter what shenanigans they pulled in the cartoon, the alt modes are still Earth sized.

ZeroWolf wrote:

blackeyedprime wrote:Might hold off on crosshairs until the other autobot target masters are confirmed/photos with their absence in wave 1 of Earthrise Though theoretically if selects is continuing to use siege molds with the TCG mercs being possible figures I'm not sure what would fit pointblank and it might be a bad fit like jetdasher/cromar alt but for pointblanks robot mode. Seems weird that he's retail and not selects too but no complaints on that.

Just conjecture on my part but it's possible that Crosshairs was supposed to be a selects release but when Siege was extended for a wave, he got upgraded to main line release, the same way that Astrotrain was taken from Earthrise (which I'm thinking by them offering him again in wave 1)

I agree with this. As JelZe pointed out Astrotrain's lot number is also in line with Earthrise, not Siege. Not sure how the rest fall into that, though, since they're all new molds, but not very fitting for Earthrise.

Emerje

On the note of trains, I'd LOVE a redux Raiden ... now that the notion of train tracks and roads and ramps is on the table. Seems like the perfect time.

Maybe they can do a little micromaster train station and train crossing guard.

gothsaurus wrote:On the note of trains, I'd LOVE a redux Raiden ... now that the notion of train tracks and roads and ramps is on the table. Seems like the perfect time.

Maybe they can do a little micromaster train station and train crossing guard.

I'd buy that!

Spinister I can't explain that mind, same with Rung