Legacy Wave 2 Blitzwing Found at US Retail

We have news that Transformers Legacy exclusives have been found at UK retail. Legend of Matt found them at a Smyths in Bristol. These are all exclusive redecos of Kingdom Beast Wars molds: Sandstorm, Buzzaw and Nightprowler. They are Walmart exclusives in the US.

If you have found them, share your sightings with our community in the sightings section and on our boards in your region related thread.

This sighting was originally posted here.

MeGrimlock78 wrote:So...the exclusivity rules...those apply to Netflix Bumblebee as well. I know people have said he can't be rereleased because of VW, but could it more have to do with Walmart's rights to the new tooling?

Its probably both to be fair, so even when the walmart part ends, the VW part could still scupper him till the time they get the license again.

Great write up Will

Blitzwing got officially revealed not even 2 weeks ago and he's already out? I haven't even seen the wave 1 leaders yet, wow (although that may have more to do with the glut of Slags & Grindors still sitting around taking up space more than anything).

If Blitzwing is THAT early, I wonder how long it'll take to see Jhiaxus and the Deluxes...

Hopefully those BW repaints will hit the US soon.

william-james88 wrote:@Kanrabat, didn't Walmart have Omega on sale by the end? I bought mine at Toysrus though, and they had like a 20% off sale, so that was good enough for me.

I never planned to get Omega for a long while but the more I saw people talking how awsome he was, the more I regretted missing out.

Then, Walmart online had a second run for 225$CAN instead of the going rate of 250/275$CAN so all my instincts SCREAMED to get him. I did and I'm glad my online purchase went through. I picked him up at the store in the highest point of the COVID panic. I was with my sister by car and we had to line up bumper to bumper for one hour to get my bot. Bless her heart.

No regrets at all because as for now, Omega is the best titan ever. I still have to unbox my Select Black Zarak. I'm waiting for the last upgrade kits to arrive by mail before finally playing with him.

william-james88 wrote:Interesting to hear how much input for the legacy line still comes from kids and what they would want. Even for the titan class which I admit even I thought was not really targetting them (simply because that seems like a higher end collectible price point and lack of exposure to kids at retail).

I'd like to see some evidence of their claim because I have huge doubts about kids being their target audience and source of decision-making input. Given a majority of their character choices are G1 (of which kids have nearly zero connection unless their parents force it on them) and the high pricepoint compared to other, arguably more desirable toys in the same aisle, I can't imagine much of the retail sales result in these toys going into the hands of children. It's even further evidenced by the exclusive nature of many of the toys, resulting in scalpers making 3 to 4 times the retail value through reselling. No parent is going to spend that money to give their kid something they may not even care to have.

Regarding their claim that the open box was a kid-tested idea, I suddenly envisioned the old, shortly-lived Toy Box reality show where a panel of 5 kids decided the fates of new toy inventions. I can just imagine the main office having a bring-your-kid-to-work day, and they asked those kids which box they preferred. "There, now we can say we product-tested the box with kids!" No, it had nothing to do with them cutting corners to save money on packaging.

daedalus25 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Interesting to hear how much input for the legacy line still comes from kids and what they would want. Even for the titan class which I admit even I thought was not really targetting them (simply because that seems like a higher end collectible price point and lack of exposure to kids at retail).

I'd like to see some evidence of their claim because I have huge doubts about kids being their target audience and source of decision-making input. Given a majority of their character choices are G1 (of which kids have nearly zero connection unless their parents force it on them) and the high pricepoint compared to other, arguably more desirable toys in the same aisle, I can't imagine much of the retail sales result in these toys going into the hands of children. It's even further evidenced by the exclusive nature of many of the toys, resulting in scalpers making 3 to 4 times the retail value through reselling. No parent is going to spend that money to give their kid something they may not even care to have.

Regarding their claim that the open box was a kid-tested idea, I suddenly envisioned the old, shortly-lived Toy Box reality show where a panel of 5 kids decided the fates of new toy inventions. I can just imagine the main office having a bring-your-kid-to-work day, and they asked those kids which box they preferred. "There, now we can say we product-tested the box with kids!" No, it had nothing to do with them cutting corners to save money on packaging.

This is not the kind of thing that there's ever going to be "evidence" for, you can either take their marketing at their word or you can disbelieve it. I think it's obvious that many of their decisions, like character choice and the G1 focus more generally, are obviously prioritizing collectors over children. But other choices, like play features and box marketing, could reasonably be expected to target children. I also wonder how much of this is based on what kids or parents want, versus what retailer ordering professionals want.

Though on that topic, and on the subject of exclusives you raised, it's also clear that retailers know the adult collector demographic is important, even if it's a bigger part of their web presence then in-store selling. Target, Wal-Mart, and Amazon have all done dedicated collector events and mini-sites, which often include toys that have very limited appeal to children.

In sum, I don't have any reason to doubt what Hasbro says at these events, but I don't think it's as reductive as they sometimes imply or as fansites sometimes infer. And as an aside, and with no evidence other than my own biased recollection, it seems to me that they often use kids as an excuse for things they know fans broadly don't like, such as the open-window packaging. I'm curious why Transformers is keeping it even as many of their Marvel Legends products are moving to closed-box, and I can't imagine there's that much difference in the demos for those lines.

"Hasbro clearly stated that the legacy line is still designed with kids in mind and they product tested this line with kids. It turns out kids prefer the open box design over closed box."

They also focus-group tested the open boxes with shoplifters and toyswappers. Turns out, shoplifters and theives prefer the open box design over closed box as well, by 100%. "Keep 'em coming, Hasbro!" all toyswappers are reported to have said. "Can do!" Hasbro is said to have answered. "I'm sure the honest customers will be glad to pay more, once we raise our prices again to cover our losses!"

If the powers / were to repaint this Metroplex and give us Metrotitan then I would open my wallet for that. But they would have to ditch the giant pizza cutter and give him 2 big weapons like his G1 counterpart....'nuff said!!!

I assume Legacy has hit around where I live although all Ive seen is a single damaged package Arcee, oh yeah and LOTS of Buzzworthy Silvertreak, although that is a subline technically, it is still quite plentiful,no sightings of anything else though.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Just because the new toys are G1-inspired, doesn't mean they can't appeal to today's children. If their parents tell them they had similar figures representing the same characters when they were kids that's just a bonus. A kid will walk down a toy aisle and be drawn to whatever they find fun and visually stimulating. And the Legacy figures are nothing if not colorful, especially the packaging. Even if they know nothing of G1 the new toys can be appealing.

That's right, and Hasbro has always said that. Everytime they do, fans speak out against it as if they run the company. But yeah, you are 100% on the ball. Aaron archer said the reason they chose Scoop was because having an orange character in the wave would work well for colour variation on shelves. John warden said the reason they chose Krok as a mainline figure was because a kid would see a robot that transforms into an crocodile. And just now they said Metroplex was picked because construction-type vehicles are favoured among kids.

Of course, fans buy too and are a big part of sales (supposed 30%, that counts anyone aged over 8 ) so these G1 characters are definitely there to get their sales. But that doesn't mean they are the only ones buying, taht's what people have to realize. Do fans really think it was other older collectors who bought all those Earthrise Arcees?

Also, o.supreme already posted this video, but I'll repost it here since it definitely answers why there being specific G1 characters in this line of transforming robots is irrelevant when it comes to selling to kids.



This is not 100% Hasbro verified fact, it's the thoughts from an industry professional, but it definitely lines up with Hasbro's statements and it's explained in a way that may help those not in the know of robot toys within the toy industry.

In the end, any cool looking transforming robot would sell to kids. ANY. But to get that also very lucrative adult market, they make it characters we'd also like to buy.

Someone asked for evidence. We have it. In terms of marketing strategy, we have the adds for kids as well as the channels and places these toys are. Legacy figures are being sold in the toy aisle, next to other toys aimed at kids. If the main market was collectors, the toys would be sold only in collector shops, like high end statues and mafex figures.

Also, we have this internal slide from Hasbro showing their target market being 5-8 year old kids (it was not meant for you to see).

And lastly, we have my anecdotal evidence of what I find in thrift stores. If only collectors bought Generations figures or SS figures, I should find none of them at thrift shops, but that's not the case. Meaning enough of them are bought by parents and kids for them to go through the second hand toy cycle and end up as random toys found in thrift stores with missing panels or heads or whatnot.