New Transformers Power of the Primes Display Found at Wal-Mart

^That's a beautiful display, typical of Walmart

I kid earlier, but I'm just glad we're seeing new product at all. In years past I've seen entire toy aisles wiped out by Black Friday. Not so this year. There's till plenty of TLK, and some stores still have a glut of TR Wave 4 repack deluxes (ugh...) . Not that I wanted anything from wave 5 or 6 (except Ramhorn...) But I guess I can pretty much resign looking for them. May have to bite the bullet and purchase Ramhorn on BBTS (well the whole assortment) for $20, and just get whatever I can back by reselling the ones I already have.

o.supreme wrote:I kid earlier, but I'm just glad we're seeing new product at all. In years past I've seen entire toy aisles wiped out by Black Friday. Not so this year. There's till plenty of TLK, and some stores still have a glut of TR Wave 4 repack deluxes (ugh...) . Not that I wanted anything from wave 5 or 6 (except Ramhorn...) But I guess I can pretty much resign looking for them. May have to bite the bullet and purchase Ramhorn on BBTS (well the whole assortment) for $20, and just get whatever I can back by reselling the ones I already have.

Entertainment Earth is another option for Ramhorn if you only want Ramhorn. Just no clue how much longer he is going to take from there. Currently says Jan 2018.

o.supreme wrote:Hasbro did try to purchase TT recently,

That was just speculation on a possible purchase, there wasn't an insider source or anything official said.

I think steals_your_goats has the right idea. Takara Tomy usually doesn't do a lot of lines simultaneously and they seem to have a lot planned for next year. Besides the stuff he mentioned (Legends is probably going on break after Grand Maximus and Great Shot) there's also the theorized return of Unite Warriors (for the Dinobots, Terrorcons, and the G1 Fembots if they manage a full set) and who knows what other exclusives they have planned (maybe a premium PotP Optimus?). It isn't very surprising that they'd let Hasbro take the lead on these rather than develop new paint schemes. And in hindsight this actually does a lot to explain why so many of these figures are cartoon accurate (Orion Pax and blue Swoop) when Hasbro had been going for G1 toy accuracy for a while.

Also, if this isn't proof that higher quality paint also means a higher price I don't know what is.

Emerje

when you buy the Grimstone and Paddles retools of Sludge and Slag... you'l have the extra fists to go in all spots

I thought his chest was retooled as well? If that's the only difference, will make for an easy G2 Hot Spot with a head swap. Anyone seen pictures of Inferno anywhere?

Bronzewolf wrote:The newest Transformers you'll be, Power of the Primes has been slowly trickling it's way into mass retail stores. For quite a while now, the figures had only been seen at Target, but now we have proof that they're making their way to other big box stores! Our very own ScottyP sent a brand new sighting our direction, not of a figure, but of a new store display!
The display comes from a Wal-Mart in North Carolina, and features various stocking stuffer toys. Among them Lego Polybags, Nerf Darts, and POTP Legend Class Figures! With a price tag of $9.94, this is one of the first times these figures have been spotted at a non-Target store, and certainly the first time we've seen this display! This will hopefully make it easier for collectors and fans to fond the highly coveted figures! Check out the provided image of the display below!

Lol... "Display"

albnok wrote:

trheads.jpg

So here's Grimlock's enigma on Titans Return Nitro and Titans Return Cogman. Head doesn't turn!

Dude! Yeah! Never gonna find me a Cogman, though.

Emerje wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:I thought his chest was retooled as well? If that's the only difference, will make for an easy G2 Hot Spot with a head swap. Anyone seen pictures of Inferno anywhere?

We really don't know. The only two pics we've seen are from around the time of the leak so it's hard to say if what we've seen is the final product or a mock up since it's likely the head sculpt already existed with the mold and it wouldn't have taken much to produce an unfinished Inferno to show off to buyers. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to have a whole play feature that involves sticking an Enigma into the chest of combiners and then use a figure that doesn't have that feature as one of your few offerings. With the amount of retooling they put into the PM jets why wouldn't they try to improve Inferno, too? Really just a matter of altering the center of Defensor's chest, doesn't seem that complicated.

Emerje

I'm not sure we even saw any photos of the actual product or even a mockup. Rather, I though all we've seen so far were the box art and a portion of the instructions. What we do know is that they didn't retool the arms to be able to accept the combiner feet as bucklers, rather, they have you combine the feet with the regular Hot Spot guns to make bigger (and worse looking) guns. From the box art/instructions, the chest area of the combiner torso looked pretty much identical to Defensor.

As for modifying it to include the gimmick, that may actually be a bit difficult, depending on how deep it would need to sit. Remember that the area of the combiner torso where the matrix would go is formed from 2 different pars of Inferno, the ladder and the main body of the bot/fire truck. Not impossible, but not an easy change either.

I'm guessing in this case, they will just expect kids to insert an enigma into the hands/feet... no retooling done to the mold. Just my gut feel.

I'm okay with this turn of events. It means I can buy the Prime Masters, the Legends Class, and the Leader Class figures for Power of the Primes from Hasbro, for significantly less money, and significantly sooner than Takara's versions will be available. I'm still going to TRY to hold off on getting the Dinobots until we know what Takara plans to do with them and other upcoming proper combiner teams, thought it's gonna be REALLY tough be patient. I want me some cartoon accurate blue eyes for the Dinobots and red helmets for Slag and Swoop, though! Please make it happen, TakaraQ!

All in all, Hasbro has done a very good job so far with the Power of the Primes in terms of design, sculpting, and deco choices. There's not much to improve on Takara's end, except for the damned stickers on the Voyager and Leader figures. We don't have a situation like with Titans Return where Takara needed to change almost all of the face sculpts because of art style and animation differences between The Transformers season 4 and the separate Headmasters anime. It makes sense for Takara to turn some of the PotP stuff into an "overseas" import line, especially if they can't cram the characters and gimmicks into their already unbelievably bloated G1 timeline and extended narrative. I suspect the majority of Deluxe class and Voyager class stuff will be in a revived Unite Warriors line, with deco changes.