The big display for TakaraTomy's Animated display at Wonder Festival 2010.
Photos by Masabon of TFW2005.com
At long last, our eyes can feast on the Japanese packaging for Transformers Animated and it is incredible! TakaraTomy did not disappoint with their rich colors and stylish graphics. One of the most interesting choices is to package some figures in robot mode and others in vehicle. Prowl, Bumblebee, and Ratchet are all packaged in robot mode, perhaps because their vehicles do not have quite enough mass to them. The packaged sample of Lockdown really steals the show with its deep purple card and slanted resting position.
I am SOOOOO getting this!
He's got the whole town on Lockdown
Still no sign of a very large 7-pack of the first wave, but I still have my ear to the ground…
"I'm a real GOLD-BUG!"
So this really is it. We are getting blinged-out versions of the Animated figures. After the dust has settled, I still think it’s pretty neat but some of the applications of the metallic look are strange. Take Starscream for example: his wings and cockpit are metallic but the rest of him remains matte. He looks a bit mix-matched. Then there is Bumblebee which is totally awesome with his all-over metallic look. Optimus Prime and Megatron leave me salivating as well.
Oh speaking of two-packs, no sign of the original American deluxe two-pack versions of Megatron and Optimus. It appears that TakaraTomy has chosen to omit the mutiple sizes of the same character at this point. No leader Bulkhead, no activator or deluxe Prime or Megatron… With so many figures being released at once, it remains to be seen if we will be offered a Leader Megatron in Earth mode or an activators Soundwave. My guess is that Soundblaster will be a black version of the activator, but it’s only a guess… you heard it here first though!