Notes from today's stream:
Nate and Evan abstain from using the word "gun" in reference to SS86 Megatron, opting to use the word "blaster" instead.
The figure does have butterfly joint shoulder articulation.
The tank mold is based on a real-life tank prototype from the '80s that never got produced. It was called something like the "Armored Blaster System", which Evan felt was perfect for Megatron considering he used to be turn into a "blaster".
SS86 Grimlock is a straight rerelease of the same Leader class figure from 2021, giving people who missed out on him the first time a second chance to get him. He comes with the same accessories as before. Nothing else new about him.
Voyager WFC Thundercracker has yellowish eyes because in the WFC video game, all three Seekers actually have slightly different colored eyes from each other, compared to the promo art where all three just have red eyes, so they wanted to be faithful to the in-game eye colors.
SS86 Mixmaster is a Voyager instead of a Deluxe because he is one of Devastator's feet, so they had to build in ratchets into his robot mode waist so that he could have an ankle tilt for stability in order to support the weight of the combiner when he becomes Devastator's foot.
There are no plans for a Devastator giftset for either 2026 or 2027 right now. They encourage us to buy the Constructicons this year rather than later. They are already knee-deep in 2027 planning and are intentionally not planning a box set so that they can move on to other Combiners they have to get to.
SS TF One Elita One comes with the mining jetpack seen in the movie, which is also compatible with the other SS TF One Optimus, Megatron, and Bumblebee figures.
SS TF One Starscream is the first of more TF One Seekers to come. The will not just be doing pure redecos, they will make sure that the sculpts match what we see in the film.
KSI Widow is based on the McLaren MP4-12C that appears among the many KSI drones in Age of Extinction, but whose robot mode was never actually shown onscreen. They had concept art for something called "Widowmaker", whose altmode ended becoming Stinger's altmode in the film. But they really liked the Widowmaker concept art and wanted to bring it into the toyline, so they simply color-graded her red to orange to make her match the McLaren. And now she's KSI Widow.
They wanted to give more female Decepticon representation to the Bay movies (besides Alice). Though, Evan admits that she's more KSI than Decepticon since it was kind of a gray area in that movie.
First look at 2026 Studio Series product:
TF One Airachnid is a Deluxe, but very "significant", like a "Deluxe Plus". She has ball-joint articulated spider legs, and butterfly-jointed arms because of how she transforms. Lots of articulation.
TF One Alpha Trion is a Voyager. He does have the sculpted battle damage, the rust and grime that he has when they find him in the movie. That was one of the flourishes that they wanted to bring into this line, to separate it from the "kid line" version that was a clean Alpha Trion. They did use the movie CAD for this figure.
Evan jokes that a new Rail Racer would have each of his three components be a Titan since they are "monstrous".
Evan and Nate explain that Skids and Mudflap are more of an eventuality, but right now not so much. The two are brought up every once in a while to see how everyone is feeling, and it's just like "No, not yet." They'll never say never on this, they think they'll get there eventually, just not right now. This is different from the discussion on Megatron's "blaster vs. tank" mode since that is a legal thing. There's no gray area there, they just can't do it. But with Skids and Mudflap it's more of an "emotional" thing. They know there are strong opinions about them, like "Just finish the collection!" and "No, not now!" But for now, there are no plans. That is not a "never", they are fully aware that those are two gaping holes in the collection, it's hopefully a potentiality but they'll see. Every year they try to gauge the interest across the design team, so it's an eventuality. It will happen, eventually. They hope.
Evan is very coy about the possibility of Monstructor.: "I think fans realize that the pieces are out there. We've used those molds a couple of times, but maybe he's coming and maybe I promise you he won't be dinosaurs." Stay tuned on Monstructor "potentially coming".
Fan poll question: "Do you want to see toys of characters from Season 1 and 2 of the G1 cartoon, that did not appear in the 86 movie, in the Studio Series 86 segment?" They've had this conversation many times, as there are also different versions of the script and storyboards that show different characters in scenes that got cut. And it always turned out be "What is okay to show in Studio Series and label it 'Studio Series'?" So, what do the fans prefer? It's a simple "Yes" or "No".
People have quoted Evan being "slightly wrong" about "We'll be done with 86 in 2026." There will be more, there's always more. Evan can mine deeper, can go deeper. There is no bottom. "This one animation cel, this one interview from back in 1986 where someone said, 'I recorded lines but I got cut,' this one animation error, etc."
Images below are from the video above as well as Hasbro Pulse and Notrab
