Lawson Exclusive Legends Mudflap and the Fallen

Okay, I've been doing a little research on these guys...

These promo pictures are the same ones that were doing the rounds when the 2-packs went up for order. They were shown on the Lawson site and on the TakTomy site.

The two-packs WERE released. Deluxe Preview Bumblebee in a 2-pack with Legends Mudflap, and Deluxe Soundwave in a 2-pack with the Fallen.

HOWEVER, despite the promo pictures showing some differences in these figures, when the 2-packs were finally released (note that they were order-only, and never went on shop shelves) both EZ Mudflap and EZ Fallen were identical to the US versions. Some pics can be found on an old thread on TFW2005 here:

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-toy-discussion/281376-rotf-takara-v-hasbro-comparisons.html Note: log-in may be required to view this page.

So, at least for the 2-pack versions, the official promo pictures were wrong. We've seen these sorts of innacuracies before with the Takara ROTF figures - in initial photos we've seen a Takara Deluxe Ravage with extra purple paint, a Voyager Mixmaster with a grey head (instead of beige), and a Takara Devastator with the standard grey face (it was eventually released with a red face). Just go back through Seibertron's news archives (especially scans from Hyper Hobby and Dengeki hobby) to see what I mean.

So basically, Takara photos have proven to be inaccurate in the past, and these Lawson legends have already seen limited release in 2-packs with NO CHANGES to the US Versions.

Another point to remember - these figures are exclusive to Lawson in Japan. Although both Legends Mudflap and Fallen were released at mass retail in other countries, these two have not yet seen mass-release in Japan. Similar to how Deluxe Stalker Skorponok was a TRU Exclusive in Japan, and Deluxe Swerve was an Amazon exclusive in Japan.

So it might well be the case that these guys are the same as their US counterparts, and that any mention of the word 'exclusive' merely indicates the fact that, in Japan at least, they are exclusive to Lawson stores.

So to all you collectors out there, a word of warning - you may want to wait until we see in-hand photos of these guys before splashing the cash!

So someone (Blurrz, I'm looking in your general direction) looked at the official promo shots and mistakenly concluded that they represented what the actual product would look like, and then assumed that they must be repaints. I thought everyone knew that those promo shots are 'shopped.

Blurrz, I wasn't questioning your integrity or calling you out. I was just pointing out that you seemed to draw an incorrect conclusion based on the pictures.

alternator77 wrote:let me guess theyll be 95$ each or 2 for 170 dont know much about lawson but he seems to be a ripoff artist.

Lawson is not a person, it's a chain of stores in Japan.

They often sell figures that are exclusive to their shelves, such as the metallic Deluxe Bumblebee (only available with a cinema ticket to the first film), and Desert Skids / Mudflap (only available with the ROTF DVD).

Most of their stuff is reasonably priced (compared to other Japanese outlets). The reason why their Transformers are so expensive is simply because their exclusive figures are so rare.

As such, sellers on the secondary market can inflate the prices, knowing full-well that desperate fans are happy to hand over massive amounts of money for them. Which is no fault of Lawson's, of course.