New pictures of Studio Series Airachnid

The only thing TF1 Airachnid has of honesty are her hips. They are the only things that don't lie!

Seriously, she's super cool and that vehicle rock. I'll have to be patient to get her.

Sabrblade wrote:

They actually used a broken Soundwave sample for their official stock photography, and now you can't unsee it!

Hasbro gotta stuff up the official pics somehow. If it's not mis-transformation , it's something else. Lol.

I think the 3 new cassettes look terrible from their animal shapes to the gaping wholes in their cassette forms.

Soundwave looks pretty good though. Only things that bother me about him are his upper shoulders and the tabs on top of his cannons. Both of which id consider to be minor issues. Other than that, he looks fantastic.

Soundwave has me really split, the Legacy Leader one looks pretty nice, but im just not sure i could hunt it down at this point without it costing an arm and a leg. Comparing that to the new SS though .. it does seem like the SS one comes out on top in terms of really nailing that clean tapedeck mode, no shade to Legacy but for Gods sake it still has the hover barge landing gear on the bottom of his arms!

As someone who bought the Legacy leader Soundwave I now wish it had come with laserbeak instead of Ravage then I'd have both it and Buzzsaw in the versions I want. Being that I don't like the new versions that is. Because now I'll be one short . I really thought they'd reissue Laserbeak before doing an all new one so now I'll have to try and track down that old two pack that's too expensive that also has a ravage I don't like.
I mean I'd have much rather seen Eject and Rewind updated over the birds, so that they matched Frenzy and Rumble.

Emerje wrote:Thought I could avoid buying Legacy Leader Soundwave, but I guess I need one if I want a proper Buzzsaw. The cost cutting on these tapes is pretty horrendous.

Emerje

If it meant having better tapes with integrated weapons, I would've preferred them to be sold separately.

Definitely interested in Soundwave. The gaps in the tape modes... I think it's as much minmaxing on the cartoon robot modes above all else as it is cost-cutting, at least for the birds. The tape mode gaps don't bug me nearly as much as Ravage's back tumor weapon mount does (maybe they should have left Ravage for a separate release and given the resources to the birds). But hey, even with the back tumor and the gappy tape mode this Ravage still makes a much better Ravage than the Siege version.

Soundwave himself looks excellent. I had no real interest in the Netflix/Legacy Soundwave: his tape deck mode only really holds up from the front due to still having the Siege figure's arm transformation (tbh the clean look from the front is the only real improvement over the kit-enhanced version of the Siege one's fan mode) and apparently doesn't sit well, plus he's got some other vestigial Siege parts that undercut the look I was honestly more inclined towards kitbashing a G1 Soundwave (either my current one, or a reissue since mine's a bit shonky and has the original tape door that I've had to re-glue umpteen times), which would also scale a tad more favorably. But now that we have this guy coming, I think I can scrap those plans. Hopefully we see a Soundblaster version too.

The greed+tariff price hikes are aggravating. But he's worth it to me. I like him a lot better than Megatron. Megatron is... frustrating. The robot mode looks really, really good. But the tank mode looks mostly like just a bog standard Earth tank, and transforms in such a way that the Walther barrel on his back in robot mode has to partsform. I wish they'd gotten a bit more creative - have his upper body transform basically like the G1 toy but as a tank turret, and have the legs be solely responsible for forming the hull and treads (without too much worry about making it resemble a normal tank); this would have avoided needing to partsform the barrel (and made it more feasible to customize him into the proper altmode if desired). The robot mode is amazing, but the transformation is frustrating. I'll probably still end up getting him, unless I miss my chance to get him at/near retail price. Because past that point the smegging scalper markup would mean I may as well just save up for Newage Romulus.

The recent price hike on Transformers was pretty massive, with the voyager price point going from $34.99 to $42.99, in the US, which is a whopping 23% increase. This is the highest increase we've seen since the Generations line began and fans across the globe were wondering if this was just in the US, due to their new tariff policies, or if Hasbro would raise prices everywhere to make up certain losses.

Well , it seems that for now MSRPs outside the US are staying the same. Alpha Trion is a great example as there are 2 upcoming voyager class Alpha Trions coming our way, one in Age of the Primes, which was already up for preorder, and one in Studio Series, that is part of the new batch of preorders with the new price. As you can see from images below:
the MSRP in France (EU) is remaining at €35.82 ($39.75 USD)
the MSRP in the UK is remaining at £29.16 ($39.39 USD)
the MSRP in Canada is remaining at $47.99 CAD ($34.44 USD)

As you can see, all those prices are lower than the $43 USD MSRP the US now has. Here's hoping that MSRP is temporary but prices have rarely ever gone down. Are your collecting habits going to change, with this new MSRP? Especially when the lack of stock in stores makes a waiting for a sale futile for most figures.

Fortunately I'm at the tail end of my collecting this line once Powerglide comes out and they update a couple older G1 characters. Still holding out hope for a better Astrotrain and Octane but at this point if it doesn't happen oh well.
My Transformers display case it almost completely full with no room left, particularly the Autobot shelf. I still might pick up a random Decepticon to fill out the ranks and that shelf otherwise 2026 will be my last year.

As a tangent topic, I'm seeing retail theft of everything, but notably toy isles that I frequent on a weekly basis. Transformers figures ripped out of the packaging.. Supposedly the high cost of living crisis is perhaps to blame. I'm from Australia.

Peeps also seeing this elsewhere around the globe? Would higher toy prices in US lead to more theft???