LG-EX Blue Big Convoy first in hand photos arrive

I think that Hasbro will release Armada Prime here as Armada was a major part of the franchise in America at the time and the nostalgia is there. He probably will be released in Hasbro Pulse as a 35th anniversary thing. If he has a trailer I think it will be retooled from Power of the Primes Rodimus since he combines in a similar way to Armada Prime. as for a size class if it includes a trailer then it could be what ever class Siege JetFire is as the super mode of the original is of a similar height.

Been thinking recently, if Takara wants to expand the Armada updates to more characters than just Optimus and maybe Jetfire/Overload, they could pretty easily make a Wheeljack from Siege Sideswipe.

william-james88 wrote:

Gzstg wrote:I think that Hasbro will release Armada Prime here as Armada was a major part of the franchise in America at the time and the nostalgia is there. He probably will be released in Hasbro Pulse as a 35th anniversary thing. If he has a trailer I think it will be retooled from Power of the Primes Rodimus since he combines in a similar way to Armada Prime. as for a size class if it includes a trailer then it could be what ever class Siege JetFire is as the super mode of the original is of a similar height.

He is not part of 35th line, nor would he be, its not related to G1.

That appears to be the big difference between Hasbro and Takara Tomy's plans for the 35th anniversary. What Hasbro displayed was entirely G1, but what Takara Tomy displayed with Star Convoy and especially Armada Prime seems to be celebrating the life of the franchise as a whole rather than it's origin. But really lack enough information to say anything is for certain from either side just yet.

Emerje

Oh man, that Blue Big Convoy is a thing of beauty!

bacem wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Gzstg wrote:I think that Hasbro will release Armada Prime here as Armada was a major part of the franchise in America at the time and the nostalgia is there. He probably will be released in Hasbro Pulse as a 35th anniversary thing. If he has a trailer I think it will be retooled from Power of the Primes Rodimus since he combines in a similar way to Armada Prime. as for a size class if it includes a trailer then it could be what ever class Siege JetFire is as the super mode of the original is of a similar height.

He is not part of 35th line, nor would he be, its not related to G1.

That appears to be the big difference between Hasbro and Takara Tomy's plans for the 35th anniversary. What Hasbro displayed was entirely G1, but what Takara Tomy displayed with Star Convoy and especially Armada Prime seems to be celebrating the life of the franchise as a whole rather than it's origin. But really lack enough information to say anything is for certain from either side just yet.

Emerje

For now tho, it's a pretty safe bet whatever new tooling TakaraTomy makes for its lines will remain in Japan for a good while, brand new molds more so. We did get Super Ginrai, but not Godbomber.

yes, but wasn't that godbomber happened before the brand unification thing become official? and since they said that brand unification means takara and hasbro gets the exact same thing, it is safe to assume that armada prime will be brought by hasbro as well, unless it is an LG-EX thing.

Not quite what you think. In practice, what the brand unification does is eliminate regional variants (meaning the figures have no discernible changes between regions), but nothing else. Each company is still free to do whatever with the lines, like how to market them in their respective areas, and when to release them, if at all. For instance:

• Generally speaking, toys are the same, but the packaging is different.
• TakaraTomy seems to have opted out of the Cyberverse and Bumblebee lines for now, aside from the Studio Series releases and Power Charge Bumblebee (plus that Speed Series 'Bee redeco).
• Hasbro has yet to announce any domestic release of the Legendary Optimus Prime figure (the AoE Evasion upscale), plus the Powered Masters retools

Also, TakaraTomy-originals have a rough time fitting with Hasbro's price points which may hamper a possible US-release (and of that aforementioned upscale). I will give you that so far, PotP, Siege, and the Studio Series (barring exclusives) have been the same in both regions when it comes to releases, just a different release order. Not too sure about Masterpiece (tho I know Convoy v.3 will keep the Japanese sounds when released in the US).

I think Takara are doing quite well with the brand unification actually, while I have no proof, it wouldn't surprise me that the money they've saved by not doing specialised decos for every figure has saved them money, which has then gone into developing these LG-ex releases and their own ip like Diaclone and whatever the transforming trains line is (oh and the other transforming car line)

bacem wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Gzstg wrote:I think that Hasbro will release Armada Prime here as Armada was a major part of the franchise in America at the time and the nostalgia is there. He probably will be released in Hasbro Pulse as a 35th anniversary thing. If he has a trailer I think it will be retooled from Power of the Primes Rodimus since he combines in a similar way to Armada Prime. as for a size class if it includes a trailer then it could be what ever class Siege JetFire is as the super mode of the original is of a similar height.

He is not part of 35th line, nor would he be, its not related to G1.

That appears to be the big difference between Hasbro and Takara Tomy's plans for the 35th anniversary. What Hasbro displayed was entirely G1, but what Takara Tomy displayed with Star Convoy and especially Armada Prime seems to be celebrating the life of the franchise as a whole rather than it's origin. But really lack enough information to say anything is for certain from either side just yet.

Emerje

For now tho, it's a pretty safe bet whatever new tooling TakaraTomy makes for its lines will remain in Japan for a good while, brand new molds more so. We did get Super Ginrai, but not Godbomber.

yes, but wasn't that godbomber happened before the brand unification thing become official? and since they said that brand unification means takara and hasbro gets the exact same thing, it is safe to assume that armada prime will be brought by hasbro as well, unless it is an LG-EX thing.

Brand unification means the toy will look the same no matter where it is sold. That is entirely independent from whether or not a toy will be carried by one company or the other. We have enough proof now with the near hundred of hasbro/takara exclusive toys we got in 2018 that not everything released by one company will be released by the other.

Shinkalion is also possibly more popular in Japan than Transformers right now. There's even a model kit line from Good Smile Company and even Vocaloid Hatsune Miku has a minor character in the show.

Ironhidensh wrote:All the more reason to through this bullshit "unification" in the trash, and for Takara to get back to making vastly superior decos.

I would argue that the level of paint we've seen in Siege is as good as anything we got in Legends, especially the Voyagers and Leaders. At best they might have removed the dirt and battle damage, but I can't see them doing much different with the colors aside from doing boring stuff for cartoon accuracy like removing the red from Cog. Same with PotP Deluxe, I'm not sure what Takara Tomy could have done to paint them better.

I've really never considered either company doing better or worse versions (aside from Hasbro's stickers), they were just doing things in a different direction. Hasbro preferred to do things more like the original toys and Takara Tomy went for cartoons.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:
I've really never considered either company doing better or worse versions (aside from Hasbro's stickers), they were just doing things in a different direction. Hasbro preferred to do things more like the original toys and Takara Tomy went for cartoons.

Emerje

We will just have to agree to disagree. I saw Hasbro figures as cheap mass market offerings (which is what they are, I get that) and Takara as the bbn premium collector line. If you just want a toy, hasbro us just fine, but if you wanted a display piece, it was takara all the way.

Ironhidensh wrote:

Emerje wrote:
I've really never considered either company doing better or worse versions (aside from Hasbro's stickers), they were just doing things in a different direction. Hasbro preferred to do things more like the original toys and Takara Tomy went for cartoons.

Emerje

We will just have to agree to disagree. I saw Hasbro figures as cheap mass market offerings (which is what they are, I get that) and Takara as the bbn premium collector line. If you just want a toy, hasbro us just fine, but if you wanted a display piece, it was takara all the way.

I get it, I bought more Legends figures than Titans Return figures, but there's quite a few figures that I bought both versions either because I thought both looked great (the Decepticon Targetmasters) or both looked so different (Hot Rod). There was also a lot of TR figures that I bought just because I didn't care about what Legends was doing. I wouldn't call the TR original Headmasters less displayable than their Legends counterparts, they just represent something entirely different.

Emerje