First Look at Kingdom Core Hot Rod

1. Voyager Wave 4 just came out and now wave 5 is showing up? Makes me wonder if the person that found Tigatron had actually missed a bunch of Blasters.

2. That Core Hot Rod looks pretty good aside from the weird legs.

Emerje

Wow. Death knows a lot of things, but I sure can't figure out Hasbro's distribution system. They make us wait months for some waves, while others burst into existence seemingly overnight.

DeathReviews wrote:Wow. Death knows a lot of things, but I sure can't figure out Hasbro's distribution system. They make us wait months for some waves, while others burst into existence seemingly overnight.

It's not "Hasbro's distribution system," it's global shipping networks. It's not like someone at Hasbro is flipping levers so that a random store in the US puts out their case of toys later than everyone else while another in a different part of the country has them much earlier.

Edit: see for example:
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ha ... ed/608923/
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ma ... ht/609217/

Looks cool, but it's still a pass for me.

Well, that would certainly explain one of the missing entries in the Kingdom numbering.

I didn't even notice the baby legs dangling off the back of the feet at first. Skipped all the cores so far but I think legacy (or how much t30 rattrap costs) will change that.

Emerje wrote:1. Voyager Wave 4 just came out and now wave 5 is showing up? Makes me wonder if the person that found Tigatron had actually missed a bunch of Blasters.

Smart, had not thought of that. So maybe wave 4 didn't hit the US yet. Both were found at Walmart and since Blaster has a bigger demand, so maybe those were bought first, leaving that person to find Tigatron.

A bot with a sword? Gimme!

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:1. Voyager Wave 4 just came out and now wave 5 is showing up? Makes me wonder if the person that found Tigatron had actually missed a bunch of Blasters.

Smart, had not thought of that. So maybe wave 4 didn't hit the US yet. Both were found at Walmart and since Blaster has a bigger demand, so maybe those were bought first, leaving that person to find Tigatron.

Possibly... unless there were any Rhinox sightings (Tigatron wave 4's wavemate). I mean it partially makes sense that they would include Tigatron also in wave 5... But part of me still wishes it was Inferno

Kingdom Voyager Breakdown:

Wave 1 Primal(2) Cyclonus(1)
Wave 2 Dinobot(2) Inferno(1)
Wave 3 Rhinox (2) Cyclonus (1)
Wave 4 Tigatron (2) Rhinox (1) (this just makes no sense to me but...)
Wave 5 Blaster (2) Tigatron (1)

As you can see, there is an Inferno shortage. Unless Hasbro thought he might not sell well based on ER Grapple (which while it did shelf warm somewhat, still sold well, at least in my area).

I've seen Inferno only ONCE ever in store, while I saw Dinobot plenty of times when that wave was around. I personally am not looking to purchase Inferno (I got Artfire and am happy with that), and I also know some sites still have Inferno in stock, but despite his similarities to Grapple, kids are way more into Firetrucks than Utility trucks. Now we know Inferno is seemingly the least produced Voyager from all of Kingdom. I just hope anybody who wants one got it.

Wave 5 IS Blaster and Tigatron, I don't get the question marks. Entertainment Earth is your friend for those questions.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Wave 5 IS Blaster and Tigatron, I don't get the question marks. Entertainment Earth is your friend for those questions.

Not everyone looks at EE, and last I checked, it was not made known on any public forum, but thanks for the update all the same.

o.supreme wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Wave 5 IS Blaster and Tigatron, I don't get the question marks. Entertainment Earth is your friend for those questions.

Not everyone looks at EE, and last I checked, it was not made known on any public forum, but thanks for the update all the same.

The thing with Grapple is he was 2 to 1 in wave along with Starscream, so of course it seemed like there were a ton of him.

Dude that Terrorsaur looks wicked awesome. Much better than even the stock photos. Hes the only one I ordered from the golden discs. So after him and Pipes I am done with Kingdom, WFC was great.

For the people talking bouts the ads here; dont u use Adblock Plus? I never get any ads anywhere online when I use it basically.

sol magnus wrote:The thing with Grapple is he was 2 to 1 in wave along with Starscream, so of course it seemed like there were a ton of him.

All the Kingdom Voyagers that came 2 per case didn't seem to have issues selling (Primal, Dinobot (was the slowest, but still sold well), and Rhinox so far).

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Entertainment Earth is your friend for those questions.

I just checked EE to see who the other deluxes are that are coming in wave 5 with Pipes & Slammer, they didn't have a listing for that yet, so..yeah...not the greatest source of info.

o.supreme wrote:

sol magnus wrote:The thing with Grapple is he was 2 to 1 in wave along with Starscream, so of course it seemed like there were a ton of him.

All the Kingdom Voyagers that came 2 per case didn't seem to have issues selling (Primal, Dinobot (was the slowest, but still sold well), and Rhinox so far).

True, but you may be leaving out the 1st wave massive ordering phenomenon. Earthrise wave 1 would have been ordered before the pandemic began.

Siege Starscream was everywhere back in the ancient days of 2019, if you remember.

I thought it was common knowledge that people like Inferno more than Grapple? You know so that they could recreate the rescue trio with Red Alert and Prowl! lol

Till-all-R1 wrote:I thought it was common knowledge that people like Inferno more than Grapple? You know so that they could recreate the rescue trio with Red Alert and Prowl! lol

It's true, but I'm just saying Grapple 'not selling' didn't come down to simply 'he sucks.'

Glad Tigatron is slowly showing up in stores. Hopefully he will show up everywhere online soon. I am starting to lose my patience for this figure.

o.supreme wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Entertainment Earth is your friend for those questions.

I just checked EE to see who the other deluxes are that are coming in wave 5 with Pipes & Slammer, they didn't have a listing for that yet, so..yeah...not the greatest source of info.

Check again its Blackarachnia and Airrazor (also didn't we have this exact same conversation 10-15 pages ago?)

https://www.entertainmentearth.com/prod ... 8/hsf0364e

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Entertainment Earth is your friend for those questions.

I just checked EE to see who the other deluxes are that are coming in wave 5 with Pipes & Slammer, they didn't have a listing for that yet, so..yeah...not the greatest source of info.

Check again its Blackarachnia and Airrazor (also didn't we have this exact same conversation 10-15 pages ago?)

https://www.entertainmentearth.com/prod ... 8/hsf0364e

OK, so their site search is convoluted, no wonder I don't use them. I search for "Tigatron", I get the individual listing AND the wave listing. I search for "Pipes" I get just the individual listing. I have no time for such nonsense.

o.supreme wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Entertainment Earth is your friend for those questions.

I just checked EE to see who the other deluxes are that are coming in wave 5 with Pipes & Slammer, they didn't have a listing for that yet, so..yeah...not the greatest source of info.

Check again its Blackarachnia and Airrazor (also didn't we have this exact same conversation 10-15 pages ago?)

https://www.entertainmentearth.com/prod ... 8/hsf0364e

OK, so their site search is convoluted, no wonder I don't use them. I search for "Tigatron", I get the individual listing AND the wave listing. I search for "Pipes" I get just the individual listing. I have no time for such nonsense.

It is definitely clunky. I only use them for info on wave cases because they seem to be most accurate. My trick to outsmart the search?
Use: Transformers wave case
Basically search for the cases first then find the the wave/figure from there. And if you want to narrow down further throw in the class.

Now that being said, while I find the the best resource for case info specifically, they still haven't updated the SS wave case with SS86 Perceptor, which is weird because their placeholders are inaccurate saying movies 1 2 and 3, but are all supposed to be from the Bumblebee movie.

I know those images are blurry, but from what I can see, I'm not impressed with core class Hot Rod.
Not that I was going to get any Core Autobots, but now knowing there's not a ton I'm getting from Legacy, I'm more open to it.

william-james88 wrote:After Hasbro said that Pipes, Blaster and Slammer would be the final toys released in Kingdom, we get news that there may be one other new toy coming out before the line's end. It is core class Hot Rod. Now we had seen him in the Legacy wave 1 reveal poster, but now we get an actual look at the toy with a fuzzy image that any bigfoot enthusiast would appreciate. We see him in both modes and it's clear enough to see that the chest is very different from the car's actual front. The packaging is from the Kingdom line so it looks like Hot Rod will be in the final core wave of Kingdom and then in the first wave of Legacy.

The toy is available on e-bay right now for $26 and free shipping: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?siteid=0&pub=5574891718&campid=5336631220&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F284550210831%3Fh%20...%20d%3DTFWNews2%3C%2Fa%3E%26

hot rod looks very Cybervers-ey in style. Really stylized head and legs.

Might just skip it, but will wait for better pictures.

Well, Jackpot arrived today and, yep, his head is messed up.

william-james88 wrote:and since Blaster has a bigger demand

Does he? Is Blaster more popular than Tigatron? Or is it just that Tigatron was available online earlier, and most people got him already through preorders?

Rodimus Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:and since Blaster has a bigger demand

Does he? Is Blaster more popular than Tigatron? Or is it just that Tigatron was available online earlier, and most people got him already through preorders?

As others have stated based on my observations locally about buying patterns, I may live in some sort of "OG" Bubble (in that any OG character in my area tends to outsell BW, or an other line rather quickly). So my initial response would be to say YES Blaster by default is more popular than Tigatron.

However...I've been very vocal about the fact that Tigatron (and his powered up form Tigerhawk) are my favorite BW characters of all time. I really dig all the love this character is getting recently, but I have a question... When did this all happen? I mean I was first getting into the online community when BW was new in 1996 (I lurked on alt.toys, but BW Anonymous Fanfic site was my first ever forum, followed soon after by Ben Yee's).

I remember feeling like I was all alone. Fan reception about Tigatron ranged from "meh" to...."He's nowhere as cool as Dinobot". Now seemingly out of nowhere, he is getting a LOT of love, which is great. Was it the MP toy? Is it just that fans are rediscovering Tigatron through rewatching the series 25 years hence? I'm just curious what lead up to this change?

It's interesting because I experienced the same thing a couple decades ago with Omega Supreme. Not that he was ever hated, but I remember as a kid growing up, I was definitely way more into that character than any of my peers.

Anyway. I'm glad you all are liking what you are seeing of Tigatron, and hope all who want this toy can get it without too much hassle.

o.supreme wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:and since Blaster has a bigger demand

Does he? Is Blaster more popular than Tigatron? Or is it just that Tigatron was available online earlier, and most people got him already through preorders?

As others have stated based on my observations locally about buying patterns, I may live in some sort of "OG" Bubble (in that any OG character in my area tends to outsell BW, or an other line rather quickly). So my initial response would be to say YES Blaster by default is more popular than Tigatron.

However...I've been very vocal about the fact that Tigatron (and his powered up form Tigerhawk) are my favorite BW characters of all time. I really dig all the love this character is getting recently, but I have a question... When did this all happen? I mean I was first getting into the online community when BW was new in 1996 (I lurked on alt.toys, but BW Anonymous Fanfic site was my first ever forum, followed soon after by Ben Yee's).

I remember feeling like I was all alone. Fan reception about Tigatron ranged from "meh" to...."He's nowhere as cool as Dinobot". Now seemingly out of nowhere, he is getting a LOT of love, which is great. Was it the MP toy? Is it just that fans are rediscovering Tigatron through rewatching the series 25 years hence? I'm just curious what lead up to this change?

It's interesting because I experienced the same thing a couple decades ago with Omega Supreme. Not that he was ever hated, but I remember as a kid growing up, I was definitely way more into that character than any of my peers.

Anyway. I'm glad you all are liking what you are seeing of Tigatron, and hope all who want this toy can get it without too much hassle.

I think it might be the rewatch, as Tigatron is a character I appreciated more when I rewatched the show as an adult. I found him kinda cool when I was a kid because he was a tiger and I liked cats, but watching the show as an adult the eco pacifist aspect made him look even cooler to me.

But also I think that it's that those of us who watched Beast Wars as kids are now getting into the hobby as adults. So it's possible you're now seeing opinions from people who a couple of years ago were busy going to college and trying to get a job and such, for whom Beast Wars was their first experience with Transformers. And we might have different preferences to those of people who grew up with G1.

Interesting Hypothesis, especially since I WAS and adult & in college when BW first came out, maybe that's why I liked Tigatron more. I always appreciated how strong he seemed, but never flaunted his strength.

o.supreme wrote:Tigatron questions

To answer your questions on Tigatron, I'll just give my view: I think it has to do with fan maturity. As we get older, see the world differently and become more aware, a lot of us most likely identify with Tigatron over some of the others due to his mostly pacifist personality.

I'll use myself as example. I was a teen when Beast Wars came out and even though I liked the overall story, I wasn't a fan of either Tigatron or Airazor. I was full of raging hormones, so I identified more with action and aggressiveness, which were most of the Preds and some of the Maximals, most notably Dinobot and Primal. Now let me stress that I'm not trying to generalize, this was my experience only. Tigatron was amore peaceful and nature-minded personality, someone I relate to much more now than I did 25 years ago. Conversely, back in the day I was a huge fan of Blaster, mainly due to his portrayal in the Marvel comics. He was a straight-ahead, no-nonsense badass. Now, however, even though I still appreciate his bravado, if I were made to choose between Blaster and Tigatron, I would choose Tigatron. He just seems like someone I would like to hang out with.

But all that is regarding personality. If we're talking strictly toys ( and this is a toy thread), I guess Blaster can be seen as much anticipated, as he has never had a true representation that fits in with the rest of the G1 figures. But as far as I know Tigatron hasn't had one either. Like you said, maybe that G1 bubble is more prevalent than we think.

I guess the overall difference is whether people buy a figure due to connection with the character it represents or just because it's a pretty cool toy. Personally, for me this time around Tigatron wins in both categories.

LoneDragon who found Blaster at retail has taken some images comparing him to Soundwave and, more importantly, next to the previously released cassettes. Like that we have a good sense of scale and if they could be compatible. Also, someone was rather astute in pointing out that since Tigatron and Blaster are in the same wave, it is unknown if the wave 4 voyagers ever did hit the US sine Tigatron is in both waves. It could be that all blasters were sold out when we got a sighting of Tigatron at retail. Also in Kingdom voyager news, wave 3 is reaching saturation across the US. So it could be that you see lots of Cyclonus and Rhinox as well as you search for the two latest Kingdom voyagers.

Well, that kinda dampens my excitement for Blaster a bit. I was expecting him to be the same size as Soundwave, not Optimus. Still a great looking figure.

As for the waves, in my area there's no voyagers to be found. My Target is swimming in Galvatrons and Ultra Magni, and my Wal-Mart is drowning in Grindors and Slags, as well as the reissues of the original BW toys.

Love Tigatron, love Blaster. If I can only getting one, it's going to be Blaster.

Good thing I can get both.

Speaking of Tigatron, mine seems to be stuck in the FedEx hub in North Carolina for some reason. It was supposed to arrive yesterday.

o.supreme wrote:
Possibly... unless there were any Rhinox sightings (Tigatron wave 4's wavemate).

We can't use that for any added certainty or evidence since lots of places are seeing restocks of wave 3 which also has Rhinox. The person did say they saw Rhinox and Tigatron on the shelf too, but there's no telling which wave that Rhinox is from. It could simply be wave 3 and 5 on the shelf with Cyclonus sold. Or it could be that everything that was held up is going to shelves now including restock of wave 3, and wave 4 and 5. No way of knowing right now.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:and since Blaster has a bigger demand

Does he? Is Blaster more popular than Tigatron? Or is it just that Tigatron was available online earlier, and most people got him already through preorders?

Yes to both. Tigatron does have preorders so the fans who wanted him no matter the cost and whatnot have their preorder. And he's shipping from retailers now. Blaster is not shipping now and there are no preorders on Pulse or Amazon so odds are if a fan is hunting for a voyager right now, it's for Blaster.

But also, I do believe that Blaster is more popular simply because he is RIDICULOUSLY popular all on his own. I have no explanation, just the fact. After his G1 toy was rereleased a few times, he still won that reissue contest. I remember I was shocked. Not only was he reissued but even his original G1 figure is rather easy to find. And since he doesn't come with a cassette, and his gun is very large, a complete G1 blaster is not hard not find and not as expensive as other complete G1 figures.
By all this, I just meant that there is lots of G1 Blaster figures out there and yet there was still demand for more of him, enough to outbeat Skywarp.

Also, and this is just a cute story, Blaster is ridiculously popular in my household too. My son was 3 and when he wanted to watch the 86 Transformers movie he would ask to watch "the movie with blaster".

Rodimus Prime wrote: My Target is swimming in Galvatrons and Ultra Magni, and my Wal-Mart is drowning in Grindors and Slags, as well as the reissues of the original BW toys.

Oh man, please take a pic next time, would love to see how fully stocked your shelves are. From what I read, it seems you guys are seeing more stocked shelves now than in the past years (granted, not a very diverse lineup though).

As for the size difference between Blaster and Soundwave, I am almost positive that it reflects the G1 show. The blaster toy was way bigger and while that size difference was toned down, he was still drawn bigger than many bots in the show.

Oh and another interesting point regarding Blaster and Tigatron, neither are legacy characters. Meaning their names and identities or character themes were not reused across different shows, nor the films or other media. We got Tigatron again only recently in the WFC show but that was just a throwback/redo of Beast Wars, not that big a departure.

Pretty easy to guess why Blaster is so well-liked. Everyone already thinks Soundwave is awesome, and Blaster is an Autobot Soundwave with a fun personality. What's not to like?

There is an image we will share with you now even though we can't validate it's authenticity. It is an image of a redeco of the Transformers Kingdom Waspinator toy in Buzz Saw colours. Buzz Saw was a redeco of Waspinator in the original beast Wars line and the character and deco has kept appearing in other lines throughout Transformers history. What is interesting here is the headsculpt. The original Waspinator/Buzz Saw toy had a robot head and a mutant head. While Waspinator was portrayed on the show using his mutant head, Buzz Saw always used the robot head on the box art. So it makes sense that his head sculpt shown here would reflect the robot head he is usually associated with.

We do not know how this toy will be released or if it's even coming out, it was not part of any rumoured exclusive list for 2022. Here is a link the original Buzz Saw's gallery if you want to see more of that toy:
Transformers Beast Wars Buzz Saw Gallery

I'm extremely happy with the look of Blaster.
Even if old character models show that he and Soundwave should be the same height, I always thought of Blaster being a really tall robot... Almost as tall as Prime.
So for me, I think this version is pretty close to perfect.
Can't wait to get him, even if it's in Legacy packaging.

That's a gorgeous deco on buzzsaw, the colors just work so well together with that vivid black plastic. Gotta say, I wasn't really interested in getting a buzzsaw, as I never really felt his head sculpt worked with waspinators body design, but this is making me reconsider.

william-james88 wrote:We do not know how this toy will be released or if it's even coming out, it was not part of any rumoured exclusive list for 2022.

Technically incorrect, the individual who gave us all the Selects listings we currently have said that this would be a Selects figure but they just haven't found a listing for it yet.

william-james88 wrote:please take pics next time, would love to see how fully stocked your shelves are.

Well it's really just leader class. Everything below that is crickets. A couple of SS deluxes, no more. But I'll take a few tomorrow. I'm going to start checking both stores regularly for Tigatron, since I was late for the preorders. If I see Blaster, he will be an in-hand decision.

Blaster looks really good. I'm probably gonna pick him up, but I'd rather focus on getting Tigatron because Blaster's gonna be rereleased in Legacy. I'm hoping that the rumors of Twincast with Rewind are true, but I'm not gonna hold my breath over it

Blaster for me, tigatron mp outshines the wfc but it does look like he has had his stripes painted like on the golden disc version rather than the initial images where he had undeccoed areas.

Waspinator repaints are welcome tho as I'd rather have them to go alongside t30 Waspinator.

Sentinel_Primal wrote:Blaster looks really good. I'm probably gonna pick him up, but I'd rather focus on getting Tigatron because Blaster's gonna be rereleased in Legacy. I'm hoping that the rumors of Twincast with Rewind are true, but I'm not gonna hold my breath over it

There are rumours of Twincast?

william-james88 wrote:

Sentinel_Primal wrote:Blaster looks really good. I'm probably gonna pick him up, but I'd rather focus on getting Tigatron because Blaster's gonna be rereleased in Legacy. I'm hoping that the rumors of Twincast with Rewind are true, but I'm not gonna hold my breath over it

There are rumours of Twincast?

Not that I recall, it's more just an assumption of "they made Soundblaster from Soundwave so they'll make Twincast from Blaster." But there's no evidence behind it IIRC.

Apparently there was another exclusive "fan videoconference", where Pipes & Slammer were shown off (also the new SS BB toys including Arcee, but that is for another thread)



THIS however was what I wanted to see. Sure it may be nothing special to some, but It's what I was waiting for with Slammer.

(Hi Rodimus Primal

Hey guys, I'm new to collecting again and I have a question.

Is it worth tracking down the Walgreens exclusive Red Alert or just get the one from the Seige line?

cambot wrote:Hey guys, I'm new to collecting again and I have a question.

Is it worth tracking down the Walgreens exclusive Red Alert or just get the one from the Seige line?

Welcome to Siebertron!

In my humble opinion, it's worth tracking BOTH. They look awesome together and are each pretty much perfect toys.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

cambot wrote:Hey guys, I'm new to collecting again and I have a question.

Is it worth tracking down the Walgreens exclusive Red Alert or just get the one from the Seige line?

Welcome to Siebertron!

In my humble opinion, it's worth tracking BOTH. They look awesome together and are each pretty much perfect toys.

Agreed. "Why not both?" as the meme goes.

cambot wrote:Hey guys, I'm new to collecting again and I have a question.

Is it worth tracking down the Walgreens exclusive Red Alert or just get the one from the Seige line?

TBH I think it depends on the version you want, Earth Mode or Cybertron. As G1 fan I prefer the Earth Mode to having Cyberton writing on him. So I passed on Seige version. Of course limited space and saving Money also played a role in this decision.

cambot wrote:Hey guys, I'm new to collecting again and I have a question.

Is it worth tracking down the Walgreens exclusive Red Alert or just get the one from the Seige line?

Get the Walgreens one, will be easy to find once its out.