Release dates and prices for Takara Tomy Transformers: War for Cybertron - Siege

I'm not one of those "our country should have it first" fans...I believe in equal distribution for all, though unfortunately because of circumstances beyond our control, it isn't really feasible in some areas. However, it does appear that in unifying the "brand" release time frames between and are shrinking, and will very soon pretty much be simultaneous, which I really think is a good thing. But as efficient seemingly is, it looks like they may even get their releases out faster than at some point. It will be interesting to revisit this a year later and see where we are. I know the two companies may not release things in the same order, but just one case in point..

For PotP -Leader Optimal Optimus was supposedly released at the end of August in Japan, he is just starting to show up in some areas (Canada evidently), but still not in the United States. It seems more that this will be a simultaneous release than anything else.

Often when Takara would release their own product, if Hasbro ever decided to use it, it would come much later, and vice versa. i also believe its because of unification that many are getting "second chances" to find PotP figures that were previously very difficult to find. I guess there are some good things to come of this, again, it will be interesting to reevaluate a year form now, when we are most of the way through Siege, and see how things are going

This is a decent looking line, even if Collector types will have to decide if they need a Cybertron version of the more popular figures. Some of the “Cybertron” modes don’t strike me as very futuristic/space-y, but we’ll see. I think the smaller figures are interesting, and a good idea for kids/parents. I doubt the combiners were especially popular with kids and parents, but I don’t know how feasible it is for a toy company that sells retail to collect a good record of who buys what within their product lines.

Anyway, the prices seem reasonable, especially at the lower end. I plan on buying the entire first wave, although I’ll give Optimus a little thought first. He looks fine, but like many collectors, I have a LOT of Optimus figures. I skipped the PotP Leader version... just didn’t care for it. I usually buy Voyager scale stuff, but I’m not sure this Optimus is different enough to add anything to my collection. Ultra Magnus looks great, and I have the RID version boxed up somewhere. I like tye take on Cog, too.

I gotta admit I'm curious to see if Optimus will get a retool into somebody else, as his truck mode this time around is very clearly some pure G1 Optimus through a slight techno-filter. Unless the entire front cab/torso is retooled, whoever gets made using this mold would just look way too much like a recolored Optimus.

The thing is this line features a second Optimus-esque mold which is similar visually but clearly a separate mold: Ultra Magnus' cab. So then who could be the retool for Optimus? Or is he simply not getting a retool because Hasbro is making shorter lines with less need for 'filler'?

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Skritz wrote:I gotta admit I'm curious to see if Optimus will get a retool into somebody else, as his truck mode this time around is very clearly some pure G1 Optimus through a slight techno-filter. Unless the entire front cab/torso is retooled, whoever gets made using this mold would just look way too much like a recolored Optimus.

The thing is this line features a second Optimus-esque mold which is similar visually but clearly a separate mold: Ultra Magnus' cab. So then who could be the retool for Optimus? Or is he simply not getting a retool because Hasbro is making shorter lines with less need for 'filler'?

Actually not only is who could OP be retooled into, but who could UM also be retooled into. So far every single Leader class mold since T30 has been re-used at least once. On the voyager side, all the CW Voyager molds were used at least twice, but TR Galvatron and PotPie Grimlock were solo voyagers (I count Hun Gurr as a re-use of Silverbolt, yes, I know all new parts, but some definite savings on the design side.)

OP could be the voyager mold in this line that they don't re-use. But not re-using the UM leader mold for something else would be a major change for Hasbro. But who, I can't image another OP variant.

People mentionned Thunderclash but we say that for every Voyager or Leader-class truck mold revealed.

william-james88 wrote:

Skritz wrote:I gotta admit I'm curious to see if Optimus will get a retool into somebody else, as his truck mode this time around is very clearly some pure G1 Optimus through a slight techno-filter. Unless the entire front cab/torso is retooled, whoever gets made using this mold would just look way too much like a recolored Optimus.

The thing is this line features a second Optimus-esque mold which is similar visually but clearly a separate mold: Ultra Magnus' cab. So then who could be the retool for Optimus? Or is he simply not getting a retool because Hasbro is making shorter lines with less need for 'filler'?

Wont Optimus just get a black redeco, as he always is?

He technically only got one from Hasbro (Nemesis Prime) during the whole of Prime Wars unless you count his mold-mate Motormaster, who is kinda black/grey/purple. Grand Scourge was Takara only: his redeco in CW was the white Nova Prime-esque 'Battle Core' Optimus Prime. In TR he got the Powermaster Prime figure with no black recolor. Meanwhile the TR Voyager was a pretool of Octane with only a Black Convoy/Scourge repaint in the Takara line.

So really in the last three lines he only got one black redeco from Hasbro.

william-james88 wrote:

Skritz wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Skritz wrote:I gotta admit I'm curious to see if Optimus will get a retool into somebody else, as his truck mode this time around is very clearly some pure G1 Optimus through a slight techno-filter. Unless the entire front cab/torso is retooled, whoever gets made using this mold would just look way too much like a recolored Optimus.

The thing is this line features a second Optimus-esque mold which is similar visually but clearly a separate mold: Ultra Magnus' cab. So then who could be the retool for Optimus? Or is he simply not getting a retool because Hasbro is making shorter lines with less need for 'filler'?

Wont Optimus just get a black redeco, as he always is?

He technically only got one from Hasbro (Nemesis Prime) during the whole of Prime Wars unless you count his mold-mate Motormaster, who is kinda black/grey/purple. Grand Scourge was Takara only: his redeco in CW was the white Nova Prime-esque 'Battle Core' Optimus Prime. In TR he got the Powermaster Prime figure with no black recolor. Meanwhile the TR Voyager was a pretool of Octane with only a Black Convoy/Scourge repaint in the Takara line.

So really in the last three lines he only got one black redeco from Hasbro.

I never mentioned Hasbro, on purpose. Brand unification baby!

Plus how dare you forget Shredicus Maximus!!!!!!!

Oh crap I forgot that....thing.

Emerje wrote:

Skritz wrote:I gotta admit I'm curious to see if Optimus will get a retool into somebody else, as his truck mode this time around is very clearly some pure G1 Optimus through a slight techno-filter. Unless the entire front cab/torso is retooled, whoever gets made using this mold would just look way too much like a recolored Optimus.

The thing is this line features a second Optimus-esque mold which is similar visually but clearly a separate mold: Ultra Magnus' cab. So then who could be the retool for Optimus? Or is he simply not getting a retool because Hasbro is making shorter lines with less need for 'filler'?

Hasbro will still try to get as much use as possible out of molds because it helps pay for the work put into making them. Even a shared transformation like Hun-Gurrr would be cheaper to produce even without sharing parts simply because of the reduced development costs. What we'll probably see more often thanks to the shorter line runs is mold reuses being spread out across more series rather than retained within them.

Ultra Magnus is a very obvious potential pre-tool of RID Ultra Magnus, there's no mystery there. Optimus could become Thunderclash, that's usually the popular guess, but with that large part on the top of his truck mode that just hangs off his back they could turn the torso around and make the back the front with a smaller part coming off the top like the g1 figure.

Emerje

...I really don't think they're going to repaint Ultra Magnus into another Ultra Magnus. They already pointed out his alt mode as a shout-out to the RiD fans and a fusion of the two character designs, it would seem kinda redundant to then repaint it minutely and release it as a second Magnus. Plus, a big part of this line seems to be the narrative associated with it, both from what Hasbro has said/shown with the poll and from all these secret messages on the posters, and having two different Ultra Magnuses (Ultra Magni? Ultra Magnus's?) with the same alt mode running around at the same time in one continuity would kinda detract from the narrative Hasbro seems to be wanting to establish.

I think there are three separate discussion topics posed here:
1. Who do we think the planned repaints/retools are for the Siege figures we know of so far,
2. How many of those do we think we'll actually get in Siege, and
3. Are retools/repaints considered "line filler" in Hasbro/Takara's eyes?

Personally, I think the answer to that number 3 is both no and yes. We clearly still get retools/repaints in the shorter lines (Novastar, Cutthroat, Elita-1, Rodimus Unicronus, etc), but we haven't seen the level of mold reuse that we did in CW since that line ended. Now whether that was because that was just a CW thing, because of the length of the line, or because they learned and made a conscious decision not to do that again is debatable, but I think they know that repaints/retools get stale in excess. That being said, we're still going to get SOME retools/repaints, as we already have teases from posters towards a tentative total of three Seekers and at Red Alert, all of whom are virtually guaranteed to be repaints.

fenrir72 wrote:So is UM now Optimus' brother this time? Ala DW's take on the continuity?

If this is during the main civil war in Cybertron (pre Ark launch) so this UM could be the UM in the 1986 Movie sans "earth mode" trans scanning who will in turn be killed by 6shot (JP line) and be resurrected as the Legends UM with A-3?

Officially, I doubt its going to be linked to the g1 toon continuity, however if that's what you want to do with your collection then more power to you

Would it blow everyone's mind if Prime is repainted into armorless Magnus, and Magnus got repainted into Powered Convoy?

Just kidding, that probably won't happen.

Though I'm willing to put good money on Sideswipe getting a Red Alert retool.

Overcracker wrote:Would it blow everyone's mind if Prime is repainted into armorless Magnus, and Magnus got repainted into Powered Convoy?

What might blow my mind is if Optimus could use the Magnus armor as his own trailer.