On the plus side, BBTS is far more reliable with preorders than Walmart.
This might be the biggest pre order I’ve done.
Dinoking
Galaxy Shuttle
Armada Wheeljack (he’s beautiful)
Ramjet (Now we need Thrust re released. I also liked they’re comment about learning their lesson when it comes to making seekers store exclusives.)
Tarn (did they change his colors like they did with Metalhawk? They looked darker on the stream today).
Star Wars Black Series Prince Xizor.
Dinoking
Galaxy Shuttle
Armada Wheeljack (he’s beautiful)
Ramjet (Now we need Thrust re released. I also liked they’re comment about learning their lesson when it comes to making seekers store exclusives.)
Tarn (did they change his colors like they did with Metalhawk? They looked darker on the stream today).
Star Wars Black Series Prince Xizor.
Let’s be honest, though.
If you’re relying on your local retailer for your Transformers needs? You’ve been pretty SOL for the better part of a decade. Retail distribution has sucked for years, and has only gotten worse with the “demo split”. And if you’re unlucky to be stuck with JUST a Walmart? You’ve probably not even seen entire price points for years on end.
This little “tail end rerun” is probably the best thing Hasbro has done for addressing shortfalls in years.
Officially, he should just be a package refresh of the original release. However, “batch variations” are a thing and it is POSSIBLE that changes may crop up in this batch that were not present in the original.
All I felt I needed was Wheeljack. Got everyone else on their first runs, and I just couldn’t bring myself to drop $80 on Dinoking. It’s cool, but I’m not sure “$80 cool”. As is, I’m not sure if I’m even going to end up keeping the Victory HasLabs.
Does Core Swoop really have a different robot mode head than the Dinoforce member? I really can't tell.
Very minor but the Dinoforce version looks good.
Oh, wow. Yokuryu's face really does look more like just an alternate Swoop face.
Even if I'd decided to buy the set, I don't think I would have ever noticed he wasn't just a redeco if it weren't for that comparison. I think it's mainly the Pteranodon crest. Even with the paint to set it apart from the rest of the head, having that crest there makes it read as Swoop. The head being too small to easily make out the sculpt differences doesn't help either.
Still, impressive that they did go ahead and add the alternate head detail anyway. The set's not for me, but it looks really good for what it is.
Still, impressive that they did go ahead and add the alternate head detail anyway. The set's not for me, but it looks really good for what it is.
Was cautiously optimistic for G2 Breakdown even though I'm not a fan of the mold (especially how annoying the spoiler is in robot mode) but the end result looks pretty disappointing - dark purple instead of magenta-pink, silver robot mode chest instead of bronze, green is a bit too minty. Ah well, $25+ saved.
Oh, you have no idea how funny this post is to me, because over on the TFWiki Discord, we were just talking about how the wiki's pic of the original G2 Breakdown toy has been completely colored wrong with oversaturated colors, and that the BotCon 2010 and BotCon Kreon toys of G2 Breakdown were both colored incorrectly based on that oversaturated pic of the original.
Behold:
The wiki's oversaturated pic with the wrong colors
The same pic, but color-corrected as of two hours ago
Other internet pics with the same purple and gunmetal instead of the pink and gold
And even the toy's original box art was purple and gunmetal:
Thanks. I was kinda wondering if the chest was supposed to be gunmetal but was looking at the other toys and concluded it was bronze (not taking the time to think that they might well be based off the same misconception). Weirdly it does sorta look a bit bronze to me still in some of those better pics, maybe just because the surrounding colors make it look that way, or making my mind subconciously seeing it as such? But the box art does cinch it.
I still do think (compared to the original toy) the purple is too dark and the green a bit too minty (though I know greens like this always photograph weird). Maybe they were basing it off the box art since it is a lot more of a darker purple.
I still do think (compared to the original toy) the purple is too dark and the green a bit too minty (though I know greens like this always photograph weird). Maybe they were basing it off the box art since it is a lot more of a darker purple.
The colors are still off. Sure, they aren’t the wrong colors of the old wiki photos but they’re not the corrected colors either. Then again, the stock photos are all over the place and these colors look like the kind that are hard to photograph
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We also saw the new one with studio lighting at the reveal, and it looks pretty accurate to this stock photo. The colours they chose are off, possibly due to marketability (IIRC they called out the G2 colour palettes in the stream).
Maybe they're planning ahead for the photodegradation and Breakdown will look closer afterward.
Now that Dinoking can be pre-ordered without the Premium nonsance, I ordered him and Wheeljack, the rest I don't need or already own, but something I did notice between the US & UK Hasbro listing for him, the amount of copies you can order, the US site says a max of two, while the UK says a max of three, thou I only ordered just one!
It's the first time I can remember that store exclusives were re-issued as general retail. (And not as redecoes or retools.)
I could be mistaken, but even if I am, it sure doesn't happen often. (That being said, I don't recall any new molds being exclusives until Origins Bumblebee. Retools, sure, but not brand new molds. Again, I am happy to be corrected.)
ANYWAY
In terms of mold re-releases, tail-end charlies typically have fewer new molds, but I am much too lazy to look up previous lines/sub-lines to see how often that number is zero. Distribution of the final wave is often... Sub-optimal, let's say, and sometimes cancelled outright, so it's really for the best.