This just in from 2012 Cybertroncon - Asia-only right? I'm calling bullshit brigade on that one.
So Botcon 2012 has come and gone and with it some surprising revelations. The most important of these I am listing below in no particular order:
- Transformers Collector Club subscription service starting soon with 6 exclusive figures available in the initial roll out. This subscription service is expected to replace the usual 1 or 2 club exclusive figures that are available each year. This will make for all intents and purposes a second boxed set of toys for fans and members of the TFCC.
- Transformers Generations will induct a new voyager class starting with War for Cybertron Soundwave, later being repainted to Soundblaster. It can be expected that this is the size class for the all but confirmed Fall of Cybertron Grimlock figure to rival the giant Bruticus. We might even see a reinvented Megatron or Optimus Prime in this size class.
- All the drama and fan rage over the mixmatched War for Cybertron Bruticus figures can be put to bed after the more video-game accurate paint-scheme will be available as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive set. Also showing up at SDCC is the Zombie Cliffjumper figure that seemingly vanished after the reveal at Botcon 2011.
- MP10 will be released at Toys R Us with all accessories and a new paint job. The only question now is the price…
- All the Cybertroncon Asia-market-only exclusives revealed a few months ago may not be as exclusive as everyone feared, however there was no official mention of this in any panels. More below…
So after the Hasbro panel, I visited the display box where the employees were setting up the new figures. There is a lock box at the bottom of the display where all the toys are kept prior to being revealed. The staff had to do this while everyone was ganged around the front of the case. I, however, mulled around in the back and caught glimpse of something that shocked me: a small green G1 legion-class Hoist. It was right there, plain as day. One was in robot mode, the other in vehicle. The female Hasbro staff then rolled it back into a sheet of bubble wrap and placed it back in the bottom of the case while the other staff member prepared Airachnid for display. I didn’t have time to take a photograph and there were too many people in the way, but it was there.
This is what I saw, and that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it
G1 Hoist as a cyberverse or legion class figure was revealed months earlier in mock-up stage (check the image up top) and during those reveals, everyone in the USA cringed or cried at the thought of all those toys being exclusive to Asia, requiring import prices. Well guess what guys? It’s time to wake up and realize that some if not all of those toys will be seen in the USA at some point. Hasbro has enough trouble producing a full toyline at all, let a lone two toylines concurrently that would be cut off from larger sales numbers by being sold in the USA.