Date: Friday, February 21st 2020 10:00pm CST
Categories: Toy News,
Event News,
Press Releases,
Collectables
Posted by: Stargrave |
Credit(s): Hasbro
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Views: 65,202
As part of the Hasbro Toyfair preview press release we have a nice surprise, the reveal of the new Botbots tribes! From Botbots series 5, participating in the Goldrush Games, meet the Frequent Flyers, the Hibotchi Heats, the Cardio Clique, the Party Favors, and Los Deliciosos! And as part of this special unveiling is also the reveal of the series 6 Surprise Inside box sets with Treasure Chest and, yep, Toilet. Read on for the full details and enjoy the images too. As always stay tuned to Seibertron for the ultimate in Transformers news!
BotBots Goldrush Series 5 Tribes
Transformers: BotBots Series 5 Collectible Blind Box Mystery Figure (Ages 5 and Up / Approx. Retail Price: $2.99 / Available: April 1, 2020) Not long ago, a glowing mist of Energon hit a shopping mall and the ordinary objects inside came to life as little converting TRANSFORMERS robots, called BOTBOTS! Now, BOTBOTS tribes are competing in the Goldrush Games, a competition to see which tribes are the most mischievous! Imagine joining the mad dash to grab the gold by trying to find rare gold trophy bots from the Winner's Circle tribe hidden inside select packs! Who will grab the gold? Hidden inside each TRANSFORMERS BOTBOTS blind box is a little mystery figure with a big personality! Collectable BOTBOTS figures are around 1-inch tall and convert between 2 fun modes—a robot and a random object—in 3 to 5 easy steps! Each blind bag randomly includes 1 of 24 available characters in series 5. Reveal the mystery figure waiting inside! You can collect 60 characters in series 5. Convert and see what bot you got!
Transformers: BotBots Series 5, 5-Pack -- Mystery 2-In-1 Collectible Figures (Ages 5 and Up / Approx. Retail Price: $9.99 / Available: April 1, 2020) Not long ago, a glowing mist of Energon hit a shopping mall and the ordinary objects inside came to life as little converting TRANSFORMERS robots, called BOTBOTS! Now, BOTBOTS tribes are competing in the Goldrush Games, a competition to see which tribes are the most mischievous! Imagine joining the mad dash to grab the gold by trying to find rare gold trophy bots from the Winner's Circle tribe hidden inside select packs! Who will grab the gold? Collectable BOTBOTS figures are around 1-inch tall and convert between 2 fun modes—a robot and a random object—in 3 to 5 easy steps! Each 5-Pack includes 5 BOTBOTS figures: 2 from the themed packs such as the CARDIO CLIQUE, PARTY FAVORS or LOS DELICIOSOS, and 3 from other themed teams. Lots to collect and 1 hidden character to discover inside each pack! Look for other BOTBOTS assortments (each sold separately, subject to availability) to build a collection of BOTBOTS toys to discover, play with, trade, and share! You can collect all 60 characters in series 5. Available at most major toy retailers and on HasbroPulse.com.
Transformers: BotBots Series 5, 8-Pack -- Mystery 2-In-1 Collectible Figures (Ages 5 and Up / Approx. Retail Price: $14.99 / Available: April 1, 2020) Not long ago, a glowing mist of Energon hit a shopping mall and the ordinary objects inside came to life as little converting TRANSFORMERS robots, called BOTBOTS! Now, BOTBOTS tribes are competing in the Goldrush Games, a competition to see which tribes are the most mischievous! Imagine joining the mad dash to grab the gold by trying to find rare gold trophy bots from the Winner's Circle tribe hidden inside select packs! Who will grab the gold? Collectable BOTBOTS figures are around 1-inch tall and convert between 2 fun modes—a robot and a random object—in 3 to 5 easy steps! Each 8-Pack includes 8 BOTBOTS figures: 2 from the themed packs such as the FREQUENT FLYERS and HIBOTCHI HEATS, and 6 from other themed teams. Lots to collect and 1 hidden character to discover inside each pack! Look for other BOTBOTS assortments (each sold separately, subject to availability) to build a collection of BOTBOTS
toys to discover, play with, trade, and share! You can collect all 60 characters in series 5. Available at most major toy retailers and on HasbroPulse.com.
Transformers: BotBots Series 6 Surprise Unboxing: Toilet (Ages 5 and Up / Approx. Retail Price: $19.99 / Available: August 1, 2020) Not long ago, a glowing mist of Energon hit a shopping mall and the ordinary objects inside came to life as little converting TRANSFORMERS robots, called BOTBOTS! Now, BOTBOTS tribes are competing in the Goldrush Games, a competition to see which tribes are the most mischievous! Imagine joining the mad dash to grab the gold by trying to find rare gold trophy bots from the Winner's Circle tribe hidden inside select packs! Who will grab the gold? Collectable BOTBOTS figures are around 1-inch tall and convert between 2 fun modes—a robot and a random object—in 3 to 5 easy steps! This Toilet surprise unboxing pack includes 5 BOTBOTS figures, 1 rare gold BOTBOTS figure, and 4 stickers. Use the plunger accessory to plunge out the 10 surprises inside one at a time. Look for other BOTBOTS assortments (each sold separately, subject to availability) to build a collection of BOTBOTS toys to discover, play with, trade, and share! There are 190 BOTBOTS to collect in 2020, which are available at most major toy retailers and on HasbroPulse.com.
Transformers: BotBots Series 6 Surprise Unboxing: Treasure Chest (Ages 5 and Up / Approx. Retail Price: $19.99 / Available: August 1, 2020) Not long ago, a glowing mist of Energon hit a shopping mall and the ordinary objects inside came to life as little converting TRANSFORMERS robots, called BOTBOTS! Now, BOTBOTS tribes are competing in the Goldrush Games, a competition to see which tribes are the most mischievous! Imagine joining the mad dash to grab the gold by trying to find rare gold trophy bots from the Winner's Circle tribe hidden inside select packs! Who will grab the gold? Collectable BOTBOTS figures are around 1-inch tall and convert between 2 fun modes—a robot and a random object—in 3 to 5 easy steps! This Treasure Chest surprise unboxing pack includes 5 BOTBOTS figures, 1 rare gold BOTBOTS figure, and 4 stickers. Dig through treasure chest to discover the 10 surprises inside. Look for other BOTBOTS assortments (each sold separately, subject to availability) to build a collection of BOTBOTS toys to discover, play with, trade, and share! There are 190 BOTBOTS to collect in 2020, which are available at most major toy retailers and on HasbroPulse.com.
Date: Monday, February 18th 2019 3:37pm CST
Categories: Game News,
Collectables
Posted by: ZeroWolf |
Credit(s): jON3.0 and #Sideways# from Seibertron, Official Transformers Trading Card Game Facebook page
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Views: 42,554
Well as we get closer to the release date of the first expansion for the Official Transformers Trading Card Game, Wave 2:Rise of the Combiners, the
official Facebook page has now released all the pictures for you to feast your eyes upon! This news came to us by fellow Seibertron user, and voice of both Soundwaveand Shockwave in the hit Bumblebee movie,
Jon3.0.
Thats not all though, as fellow Seibertron user and contributor,
#Sideways#, has sent in his In-depth analysis of Omega Supreme and a new Bumblebee card!
Over to you
#Sideways#!
_____________
[center]
Robo Smasher not included.
If you hadn't guessed already, today... I have a rather
large reveal to bring to you guys. Oh yes, my friends, it's Omega Supreme. Now, as a preface I do have to mention that you can technically buy this guy right now, but there is a catch. You see, not only is Omega Supreme a promo card found in
this month's Loot Crate, but it is currently
only in Loot Crate. Now, say what you will about that, but something that I definitely recommend is that you use the Valentine's Day code -- LOVE50, or in some cases LOVE35 -- to get a solid 35%-50% off your order.
Basically, you get the stuff in the Loot Crate as well as a confirmed Omega Supreme for about $15. But that's not all that's special about this guy -- notice that his set code states "P2", meaning quite literally "Promo 2". What, then, would Promo 1 be? What could possibly be on-par with Omega Supreme?
Nobody knows, but me personally? I wager Trypticon will be stomping his way to the battlefield shortly.
__________CHARACTERS__________
Bee always was a man of Action.
This Bumblebee is really, really good, and it's easy to see why. First off, you have great stats with a considerable HP stat and a very respectable attack stat in both modes, but you're also a Car Leader, which is very neat when you consider Matrix of Leadership's existence. Perhaps even moreso, you can play him with the Starter Bumblebee to do some Matrix Stacking which is an interesting thought if you don't mind not having a slot to use Turbo Boosters or Agility of Bumblebee with.
But those are just his innate effects; I haven't even
touched on what really makes him good. You see, the best part about him is his ability to combo Actions. For instance, in his robot mode, you have the ability to scrap an Action to draw two which nets you a lot of cards (considering) without using your Action for the turn. Of course, this is something that happens essentially at the end of your turn, but any draw is generally good draw.
But that's not all.
Not only does Bumblebee draw using Actions, but he also allows you to play a "free" Action during your turn when you Transform him to vehicle mode, the same ability that Mirage has. So, that being said, when you play a Roll Out or a Start Your Engines and have both a Bumblebee and Mirage in robot mode, you have the ability to play two free Actions, then untap one of your Cars. That's monstrous value, and when you consider playing him with other Bumblebee to abuse Agility of Bumblebee, that value gets even higher.
Now, that being said, he won't be in
every car list thanks to his 10 Star cost to play him, but standard Car lists might want to make use of him. It would mean dropping the Super Rare Bumblebee, who is rather incomparable to Common Bee outside of having the name "Bumblebee" given that SR Bee can attack untapped characters and at the end of the game turns into something of a beast, but as a cheap alternative, I don't see why you wouldn't want to play him.
There are already debates regarding whether or not it's better to play him over SR Bee, but I find myself on the Super Rare side of the fence after playing Predacons. Being able to attack untapped characters is immensely powerful, especially against decks like Insecticons, Combiners and even Double Prime because you can potentially remove a character that has not attacked yet from the field. Doing this essentially wins you the game, so to say it's powerful is a bit of an understatement.
That being said, being able to draw more and play more Actions certainly makes me swoon. You're likely to have more early game usefulness with Common Bumblebee, while at the end of the game SR Bumblebee will be a monster. I don't really know for sure, of course -- this is all just theorycraft -- but it cannot be denied that a case for either could be made and made quite well.
I suppose it's all up to your personal preference which Bee is for you, but I think it should go without saying that you should probably be playing one in your Car list.
"Designation: Omega Supreme. Imperative: Chew bubble gum, kick tailpipe. Lacking: Bubble gum."
Something that I've noticed about promo cards from the Transformers Trading Card Game is that none of them seem wholly unplayable. Slipstream has her uses in Planes, Cliffjumper has his own version of Cars to consider, Devastator seems extremely strong out of the gate, Metroplex turned into a top tier deck and even Ironhide, who is oft regarded as one of the worst characters in the game, has a home in the Truck archetype. Or at least he did before Motormaster likely took his spot, but that's another discussion for another day.
Basically what I'm saying is this: Just because they're a promo, don't discount them. Too often promo cards have turned into shiny proxy backs, or even the esteemed position of bulk. Not here. Not with Omega.
Omega seems to have some of the most janky potential in a promo card I've seen yet, and when you consider that he has 19 stars, it's easy to see why. Having 19 stars means that you can play him with a small partner, someone to either help keep heat off him or perhaps increase his damage. Where he has only one defense, his HP and attack are both quite high indeed, and on top of that he's a Tank, where you can abuse Hunker Down to attach everything from a Force Field to a Reinforced Plating. That, and when you consider playing him with Flamewar in an all blue setting, you begin to realize that Omega will begin to have a monstrous amount of staying power.
He won't be the only one to stay on the field forever, though, given his ability in robot mode to take two damage off your opponent's attack directed at your smaller, softer character you play him with. This is an incredible ability, which essentially makes it to where he can let his partner last a lot longer in the battle. I mean, imagine: Your opponent swings at your partner for six. You defend three, and then you move off two with Omega. Your opponent did effectively one damage. Omega is insane at keeping his partners alive, and it really shows.
Omega also has his vehicle mode, which is both a Tank and a Spaceship -- which would be nice if being a Spaceship actually meant something given the decided lack of support for them. Omega also has the neat ability to either deal one damage to something when you flip to his vehicle mode or to draw a card. Drawing a card is usually better, but depending on the partner you chose you might want that extra damage. In fact, that ability pops Skrapnel for enough damage to turn him into a 2HKO instead of a potential 3HKO. Being a Tank and using Hunker Down and Flamewar on the same team, you can start to defend quite a bit of damage.
But that's honestly not my favorite way to play him, even though I am and always will be a fan of Flamewar. Not to betray my Decepticon waifu, I actually like the idea of playing Omega with either Warpath or Acid Storm. Since these anti-keyword characters are both six stars, playing either one with Omega Supreme seems obvious. On one hand, one could dedicate an extremely defensive list with Acid Storm, using Omega Supreme and high blue cards to keep Acid Storm alive and keep Dinobots depressed, but on the other, one could use Warpath in the same way to try and beat Double Prime.
So let's talk about that for a moment. Which one is better, and in a way, isn't playing one redundant if the way to play Omega is defensively?
Well, on one hand Acid Storm seems to lend himself extremely well to that defensive playstyle. Acid Storm turns off Bold, which means your opponent will be doing even less damage to your blue-driven deck, decreased even further given your recycling of Armor with Hunker Down. That, and when you consider that Omega will be doing his part to keep Acid Storm alive by taking two damage for him, you realize that Stormy can pretty well keep himself alive from there with his healing ability. Dinobots will then be dead drawing into their Bold Stacking cards all game, while Insecticon players will be considering dropping Barrage from their list altogether, but there's a problem with that:
Acid Storm sucks against defensive lists.
Against anything that's offensive, Acid Storm chews through like butter, but when you run across something that's going to be trying to outlast you, he falls apart. Conversely, Warpath -- who turns off Tough -- is something approaching the same thing for offensive lists, or at least he should.
You see, Warpath's ability prevents your opponents characters from using Tough, and that also means that these extremely defensive lists like Double Prime, Planes or similar lists are going to be taking a lot more damage than normal. All of their armor in their deck essentially turns into dead cards in their hand, and when you consider that Warpath is a Tank as well as being on the same team as Omega, you realize that he will be able to stay on the field forever to keep it that way.
Double Primes also becomes even more inconsistent given that they will be potentially drawing into dead armor cards all game, and their deck cycling effects won't come into play, making Nemesis' ability even slower than it already is. Simply put, Warpath is priority number one on their list of KO candidates -- so it's a good thing that in a defensive Tank deck with Omega Supreme on the battlefield, your opponent won't be able to do anything about him.
This is why I like Warpath. He doesn't help you "win harder" against Dinobots, which should still be a good matchup given your "Tank"y ability and blue list, but he also helps you against Double Primes which is the best deck in format at the moment. That, and he's a Tank, which means that you can Hunker Down with him as well as Omega, cycling Force Fields and Reinforced Plating all game. He might not have much offensive power -- at all, actually -- but that's what Omega's job is. With an Energon Axe, Omega Supreme has a whopping 10 Attack, which can deal even more damage with Leap Into Battle and other boosting cards.
I definitely think that Warpath is the way to go in terms of six star teammates for Omega, and as for Omega as a whole, I look forward to seeing Omega be the anti-meta pick he was always destined to be. Of course, his smaller friends should always watch out for any Aerialbots on the horizon, but Omega fears nothing but the strongest of foes.
__________BATTLE CARDS__________
"It was just a fling!"
Jar Ja-- Erm,
Wheelie gets his debut in the Transformers TCG by being on a Battle Card, and it's just about as terrible as he is. Fling is just outclassed by pretty much all of its peers. It's a bad healing card, as MEDIC! straight heals more, and even Field Repairs allows you to Plan while still providing an orange pip. Even Emergency Repairs is better because it has a pip and the ability to repair three damage from one of your characters, and Emergency Repairs isn't that great.
So, if its medical license is revoked, then how about its offensive potential? Well, it's not good either. Shall we look at some examples? Plasma Burst deals two damage while still having no pips, "One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall" deals three damage and while having recoil damage you can also use that to your advantage through Energon Axe and Slipstream-esque abilities. Even Inferno Breath deals three damage and has a pip. Sure, it taps one of your characters, but a lot of lists don't really care about that given the new Brave mechanic.
So on all fronts, Fling is lackluster. It just isn't a keeper. It's just a fling; not really marriage material.
The "let's make that broken card better" starter pack.
Press The Advantage is a keeper; definitely marriage material.
You might say, though, "Now, wait a minute, this only matters with Autobots VS Decepticons!"
You could say that. You could. But when you consider that pretty much every deck plays at least one Decepticon with Metroplex being one of only a few exceptions, and with Wave 2 adding even more good Decepticons, Press The Advantage becomes quite the good card. Let's quickly dive into why.
So, this card both increases your Autobot damage while decreasing Decepticon defense which, mathematically speaking, is essentially another increase in damage. When you consider that most defense stats average out at 2, you end up seeing a boost of essentially +4 damage against Decepticons and a standard +2 against Autobots. That +4 is insane when you consider Optimus Prime -- Battlefield Legend. Not only does he have the ability to flip this card and boost his damage with the orange pip to nine, but he also gets that solid +2 bringing his damage to 11. Worse yet, whomever he attacks will have their defense lowered to zero, making their demise on likely the first turn of the game something of a done-deal.
But that's not all. What, you thought that confirming an OHKO on the first turn of the game without any repercussions like Reckless Charge or One Shall Stand was good enough? Ohohoho, you might want to sit down: This is gonna make you weak in the knees.
Press The Advantage has a green pip so the turn after you use it with Battlefield Legend,
you get to use it again. But Optimus is tapped! You can't use him again, right? Well, the whole "choose an enemy Decepticon" thing doesn't have to be with an Active Autobot present, so you get to use it with Nemesis Prime or perhaps an Autobot partner to Battlefield Legend, making them deal more damage as well.
Sometimes, the built-in armor stat is so vital to the survival of the character they have a low HP stat. Just look at Tanks for example. Demolisher has four defense but only seven HP, Darkmount has nine HP but a whopping potential five defense against ranged characters, and so on. That defense is their lifeblood, and when you strip it from them, things start looking dire for them very quickly.
Now, it should be noted that simply doing more damage is essentially what's happening here. Reducing defense is the same thing as doing more damage since more damage "ignores" the armor, but most highly damaging Actions like Reckless Charge have some sort of drawback. This one does not, and that's what makes it so good at dealing that damage. The fact that it has a green pip makes it even better.
As a whole, this card makes me more terrified of being one-hit on turn one by a Battlefield Legend than I already am, and it begs the question about Battlefield Legend: Is he
too good? Nothing can compete with the amount of utility Battlefield Legend has, and very few things can compete with the amount of damage he can do out of effectively nowhere. I think it remains to be seen if he will continue to keep that crown given that we haven't seen all of the characters from this set yet, but I don't think he's going anywhere any time soon.
Remember, kids, it's only legal if you're the Rams trying to get into the Super Bowl.
Tackle is surprisingly good, I'm not gonna lie. Being able to tap your opponent's characters to either open them up to attacks, trigger the "end of turn brawl" where your characters all get to gang up on one of your opponent's characters or deny them the ability to attack is pretty fascinating.
Cars, for one, can make especially good use of this card given their reliance on Turbo Boosters. You can transform Bumblebee -- Trusted Lieutenant and play Tackle to tap one of your opponent's characters, then Turbo Booster him and then still have your Action for turn. Perhaps even moreso, you can use Start Your Engines to transform him, use Tackle for free, then use the Start Your Engines untapping effect to untap the character you just tapped.
Tackle gets kind of crazy when you use it in conjunction with characters that can either untap or in wide lists that have man advantage over your opponents, but something I would also like to touch on is a potential lock combo with Battlefield Legend.
You see, when you flip this card on an attack with Battlefield Legend, you can tap your Nemesis Prime to tap your opponent's Nemesis Prime. If this is the first attack of the "round" with no characters tapped, you're essentially denying your opponent an attack with Nemesis.
And, when everyone resets, you can transform Battlefield Legend and reuse it -- this time tapping Battlefield Legend to tap your opponent's Battlefield Legend. Of course, you're also denying yourself an attack, but it's an interesting thought for the mirror in Double Primes, though to be perfectly honest if you're that worried about the mirror you should probably be playing Enemy Combat Analysis and try tipping the matchup that way.
The Battlefield Legend combo seems interesting, but I don't know if it's any good. Just a thought.
__________CONCLUSION__________
Omega Supreme -- outside of the card himself -- might be one of the weirdest promotional ways to get a trading card I've ever seen, and I am still not sure how I feel about it. I mean, on one hand it's promoting the game, but on the other hand it's a goofy way to get a single card. I dunno, it's strange. But hey, you can't deny that getting a bunch of other cool stuff in your Loot Crate isn't a bad thing.
I'm just sad that I literally just bought a real-life loot box. Curse you, Activision for setting the industry standard! Curse you EA for making it worse!
But in all seriousness, the cards revealed so far have had very few bad cards among them. From Omega Supreme to Devastator to Dreadwing, I can't believe how competent that these decks are. I think that we're about to enter a very diverse metagame, but I don't know if any of them can beat Double Prime at the top.
As always, you can catch me uploading more competitive discussion and deck profiles on
my YouTube channel, Nanomachines regularly. If you want to see some of my deck lists, check out my deck profiles!
What do you think? Is Omega Supreme good? Is Bumblebee? Is Press The Advantage as good as I think it is, or am I just living in Narnia? Is Battlefield Legend too good, or does he create a centralized meta approaching some of Pokemon's best years during the SP era? Let me know in the comments below, and as always, I'll catch you next time!
__________
Don't forget to check out
our photographs of the TCG products at Hasbros display at this weekends Toy Fair New York 2019!
What do you think of these cards? Will any of these end up in your deck? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!