Blog #687: Toy News: SDCC Transformers Toy Previews, Some Awesome, Some Awful

Toy News: SDCC Transformers Toy Previews, Some Awesome, Some Awful

The news from SDCC is in.  Some of it is amazing, truly fantastic, but it just barely outweighs the garbage.  In short, if you’re looking for Generations next year you’ll be happy.  If you’re looking forward to the new animated series…don’t.

FYI, this is all third hand as I was not there.  Credit the sites I’ve linked to for the info.

Kre-O

There was very little new Kre-O news.  The one big piece of news is the new Transforming Kreons coming in November.  I’ve seen pictures of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Starscream, but Grimlock and an unidentified Triple Changer were mentioned also as being in the first wave.  They are essentially small building sets that ACTUALLY TRANSFORM!  No disassembly required!  I am really excited about these.

Kre-O Transforming Kreons Display Case Photos

Update: The Transforming Kreons are being called Battlechargers.  Here are official pictures of them including Grimlock.

That is however all the Kre-O news there was.  There was no announcement of the Elite Optimus Prime and Stinger’s Cloning Chamber (might not be the exact name) sets seen online.  Really kind of disappointing, since they seem to be sticking with Kre-O.

Angry Birds

Lots of Transformers Angry Birds toys were shown.  They include two separate lines, Racers (which transform) and Vehicles (which I am pretty sure do not transform) as well as play sets and multi-packs.  I kind of like these.

Racers Play Sets
Optimus Prime Bird Raceway

Racers
Bumblebee
Heatwave
Optimus Prime
Lockdown
Galvatron
Soundwave

Racers Multi-Packs
Energon Racers Pack (Toys R Us Exclusive)

Racers Versus Packs
Sentinel Prime vs. Decepticon Bludgeon
Ultra Magnus vs. Soundblaster

Vehicle Play Sets
Optimus Prime Bird Attack Game
Bumblebee Bird Battle Game

Vehicles
Soundwave
Lockdown
Galvatron
Heatwave

Angry Birds Official Photos

Angry Birds Display Case Photos

Age of Extinction

Nothing new was shown for Age of Extinction, they are apparently going to bring this deplorably mismanaged line to a quick end.  The only thing announced (though it could have been announced previously and I missed it) is a Walmart exclusive Scene Pack of Bumblebee and Stinger.  It doesn’t say if that is Deluxe or Power Battlers.  I would hope it’s Deluxe.  No pics that I could find.

Generations

There will be two Protectobots box sets, which have been seen before.  I included these in Generations, but I’m not sure they actually belong there.

Box Sets
Evac Squad (Hot Spot and Blades made from TF 2010 Voyager Solar Storm Grappel and Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Blazemaster.)
Emergency Response (First Aid, Grove, and Streetsmart made from Prime Beast Hunters Deluxe Ratchet, Prime Legion Arcee, and Prime Beast Hunters Deluxe Prowl.)

Protectobot Official Photos

Here is where the really big awesome news was.

The biggest news of the day is that the 2015 Deluxe and Voyager Generations toys will be part of a series called “Combiner Wars”.  Each and every deluxe and voyager toy will be able to combine with INTERCHANGEABLE LIMBS and using a whole new connecting system.  Team leaders are voyager and limbs are deluxe.  These look incredible!  Motormaster is a retool of the Voyager Optimus Prime we’ve already seen, which means you could use the Optimus as a combiner leader!

Additionally, Legend Powerglide is also a member of the team and becomes Superion’s gun!  And an as yet unnamed (but possibly called Blackjack) Legends car becomes Menasor’s chest.  This is a very cool addition rather than having additional parts or having to incorporate the parts into the design.

Deluxe Wave 1
Firefly
Skydive
Alpha Bravo (Slingshot as a helicopter.)
Drag Strip

Deluxe Wave 2
Air Raid
Dead End
Breakdown
Offroad (Wildrider as an off road truck.)

Voyager Wave 1
Optimus Prime
Silverbolt

Voyager Wave 2
Motormaster

Generations Aerialbots Official Photos

Generations Stunticon Official Photos

I have a THEORY.  My guess is that the vehicle changes for Wildrider and Slingshot was to help with future mold retooling, and because they probably don’t have the names.  They put in a helicopter that can later be retooled as Blades and Vortex.  They put in a pickup that can be retooled as Swindle.  Either Dead End or Breakdown can be retooled as Streetwise.  That makes four of the next eight limbs retools.  Since we know they will do retools, this works very well for that.  So, that would mean they need two new leaders (Hot Spot and Onslaught) and only four new limb molds for the next round assuming they do Defensor and Bruticus (god I hope the do them).  To take this theory a step further the four additional limbs are an ambulance, a motorcycle, a space shuttle, and a tank.  So, if they then want to go ahead and do Computron, they would have a motorcycle, car, and jet to retool into Afterburner, Lightspeed, and Strafe, and would just need a drill tank for Nosecone, unless they could retool the tank mold and then need just a new mold for Scattershot (or retool Silverbolt, but that would be sort of phoning it in).  Of course, none of that helps with Terrorcons, that would have to be all unique.  Honestly, I would MUCH RATHER all new molds every time and the repaints be G2 versions or something.  I would gladly buy them all repainted for G2 to get all new molds for the G1, but that doesn’t seem likely.

No new Legends were announced past what we got at Botcon, but it is believed that Blackjack is the car that goes with Menasor and possibly a Huffer will be coming as well.

Constructbots

Absolutely nothing new was talked about.  I’m thinking there are just the two more Dinobot Riders and the line is over.  Or maybe I’m just hoping. :-)

Robots in Disguise (New Cartoon)

The animation is garbage, absolute crap.  Still photos and video are below.  It looks like the kind of thing a kid could draw on an iPad.

RID Animation Photos

RID Animation Video

Only a few toys were announced, but it at least gives us an idea of the look of the series.  The toys look decent accept that awful Underbite.

Hyper Change (Power Battlers)
Bumblebee

One Step Changers
Sideswipe
Underbite

Legion
Strongarm
Optimus Prime

Warrior (Deluxe)
Bumblebee

RID Official Photos Hyper Change & One Step Changers

RID Official Photos Legion & Warrior

Hero Mashers

Nothing beyond what we already knew about, three more Basic and two more Deluxe.  Kind of hope these get canceled.

Rescue Bots

Nothing we haven’t already seen.

Mr. Potato Head

Nothing new.

Battle Masters

Of all things to do more of.  They are doing a Soundwave and Grimlock in new style boxes.  There were photos, but they are such crap it’s not worth my time to find the link.

Masterpiece

Nothing we didn’t already know about, though they are trying to get more Grimlocks into stores as the first wave vanished immediately.

That’s about it.  If any more info comes out of SDCC, I’ll update, but as the panel is over, I doubt there is more to come.

Thanks for reading!