Blog #1209: Thoughts on the New Toys Revealed at Toy Fair 2017

Thoughts on the New Toys Revealed at Toy Fair 2017

First off, I should say that I was not at Toy Fair.  All the info in this post comes from the major Transformers sites’ reports from Toy Fair.  I have no new info.  I also didn’t bother to gather Hasbro’s official photos as they are everywhere, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them.

Titans Return

Wave 5 of Titans Return was officially announced.  I cannot find any definitive info one way or the other on whether this is the final wave of Titans Returns toys.  It has fewer new toys at most classes than previous waves, but it might be that this is because we likely won’t see wave five until after The Last Knight toys debut on April 24th, and that this summer more full waves will be coming out.  (Trypticon is schedule for this summer.)  I don’t think Power of the Primes is set to debut until 2018, so there is a big gap in there without new Generation toys.  It could be that more is set to be announced at San Diego Comic Con, though there is speculation that Hasbro will forego SDCC in favor of Hascon this fall.  Who knows.  I hope this isn’t the last wave for Titans Return.  There are plenty of more toys I’d like to see.

Deluxe: Twintwist (from Topspin), Windblade (from Highbrow, heavily remolded)

I think everyone assumed we would be getting Twintwist, but Windblade is a bit of a surprise.  The only characterization we have for Windblade is bad IDW comics and the really awful Combiner Wars cartoon.  Why do they keep making Windblade toys?  At least in Robots in Disguise she’s a great character.

Leader: Overlord

Holy crap.  I really wasn’t expecting this.  I can’t even convey how excited I am for this one, and he looks amazing.  Unfortunately, he will only come with one Titan Master, but reportedly there are two different ones in the mold.  I figure both will come with the Japanese version.  I am curious if this toy was Hasbro’s idea, or if it was Takara’s, and Hasbro just decided to release it here.  He’s not the only Japanese character getting a USA release this year.  I hope this is a trend and we get a new Star Saber and Victory Leo in Power of the Primes.

Legends: Cosmos, Seaspray

I was psyched to see Seaspray.  I would love a new Cosmos, but unfortunately, this is just a repack of the one we got a few years ago.  At least we get a trading card.

Multipacks: Chaos on Velocitron (TRU Exclusive), Siege on Cybertron (BBTS Exclusive)

This was not unexpected.  Hasbro went all out with box sets for Combiner Wars (though still no G2 Defensor, Terrorcons, Predacons, or Seacons, dammit) so it’s not a surprise they are continuing them.  Chaos on Velocitron will include Laser Optimus Prime (from Voyager Optimus Prime), Deluxe Nautica (from Deluxe Blurr), Fastlane, Leader Quickswitch (from Leader Sixshot), and Titan Master Rodimus Prime.  This is a really great set.  The G2 Optimus Prime looks awesome.  Nautica looks cool, but is an IDW character, so I’m not that excited.  I’ll come back to Fastlane.  Quickswitch looks great, and is not a straight repaint, he seems to have some remolding.  Obviously he won’t look much like Quickswitch, but it’s nice to get him anyway.

Siege on Cybertron includes Pounce, Metalhawk (from Deluxe Triggerhappy), Tidalwave (from Leader Overboard), Magnus Prime (Japanese Ginrai), and Titan Master Thunderwing.  I’ll come back to Pounce.  Metalhawk looks awesome as does Tidalwave.  The real surprise hear is that we are getting the Japanese Ginrai now called Magnus Prime.  Why they couldn’t have just released that as Optimus Prime instead of the one they did, I don’t know.

It should be noted that the sets may not end up being the same price.  Chaos on Velocitron includes a Leader, a Voyager, a Deluxe, a Clone, and a Titan Master.  Siege on Cybertron includes 2 Leaders, a Deluxe, a Clone, and a Titan Master.  This could be good news.  If they don’t all have to have the same price points, it expands the toys we could be getting.

Update: As Matt pointed out in the comments, Tidalwave is a Voyager.  I got it stuck in my head that he was a Leader, so you can ignore the above paragraph.

As to Fastlane and Pounce, these are completely new molds.  They are smaller than deluxe toys, but larger than legends.  It was reported that they are planning Cloudraker and Wingspan and that they would also be in box sets.  So this begs the question, what else are we going to see in the other box sets?  I would bet we would get a G2 Voyager Megatron to go with the G2 Laser Optimus Prime.  Godbomber to go with Magnus Prime seems a sure thing.  I would be shocked if we don’t get those two.  Assuming there is no Wave 6 for them, I would think that Misfire and Slugslinger would be strong possibilities.  There are a variety of molds they could be made from.  Of course we also have the large Autobot Targetmasters, Pointblank, Crosshairs, and Sureshot.  Since Quake is being made from Hardhead, who has a completely different alternate mode, I think that Needlenose and Spinister are possible, as there are molds that could be used.  There does not seem to be any molds to use for Landfill, Quickmix, and Scoop, so they would seem unlikely.   I’m still holding out hope for an Alligatorcon from Skullcruncher, but that’s probably a long shot.  If Wave 5 is the last wave of Titans Return, then perhaps we will get a new mold for Springer and Sandstorm in the box sets.  We got them both a few years ago, but it would be really lousy to not have them in the Titans Return line, as we got the other four Triplechangers.  The fact that we got Blitzwing, who was also released a few years ago gives me some hope, though that Blitzwing toy sucked, while Springer and Sandstorm were pretty good.

Titan Masters: Ramhorn

Ramhorn, unlike the other cassettes, is not a cell phone.  That automatically makes him the best cassette in the Titans Return line.  Apparently Takara had a number of ideas for additional Headmaster only characters that were never used, and Ramhorn is based on one of those.  That’s pretty cool.

Voyager: Blitzwing (from Megatron), Octone (from Optimus Prime)

Yes, his name is Octone, unfortunately.  I am no less psyched to be getting him.  He will be a million times better than the Transformers Universe toy they called Tankor.  As I previously mentioned, the last Blitzwing sucked, so a new one is most welcome.

Robots in Disguise

Activator Combiners: Soundwave & Laserbeak

Crash Combiners: Optimus Prime & Strongarm (Primestrong) (Repaint)

Legion: Heatseaker

One Step Changers: Blurr, Sideswipe (New Mold)

Team Combiners: Ultra Bee, Menasor, Galvatronus

Warriors: Thermidor

There was not a lot of new RID stuff announced, and most of it was repaints.  The only really significant announcement was the Team Combiners box sets.  They look okay, but they aren’t really that exciting.

The Last Knight

AllSpark Tech Figures: Barricade, Bumblebee, Drift, Hound

AllSpark Tech Starter Packs: Optimus Prime, Optimus Prime (Shadow Spark), Squeeks

These have a gimmick that works with an AllSpark cube that goes into their chests.  The cube only comes in the Starter packs.  The technology is that the cubes activate different sound effects for each toy, and are activated by different movements of the toy.  I suppose it’s a cool idea, but I don’t see the logic in having some toys come with a  cube and some without.  Seems pretty silly to have to swap out the cubes to make the different toys work.  Not excited.

Deluxe (Repaints): Slash, Slug, Strafe

Deluxe (New Molds): Barricade, Berserker, Bumblebee, Squeeks, Steelbane

Deluxe (Remolds): Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Drift

Okay, so this is interesting.  It feels like Hasbro is going cheap with this movie series, which makes the price increase suck all the more.  The new molds look pretty great.  The repaints are, well, repaints of okay toys.  The remolds are pretty interesting.  While we will in one of the later waves get a new mold Bumblebee there are no new toys planned for Crosshairs and Drift.  The three remolds are all Age of Extinction toys with new car parts.  In the case of Drift, the new parts make him a whole new model car.

Leader: Grimlock, Megatron, Optimus Prime, Shadow Spark Optimus Prime (Asia Exclusive)

So, it appears that Megatron is the only new Leader Class toy we’re getting.  Grimlock and Optimus Prime are repaints of the Age of Extinction toys, as is the Asia exclusive Shadow Spark Optimus Prime.  This is kind of sad.  We aren’t even getting a new mold Leader Optimus Prime?  I mean, I love the AOE Leader toy, but a new one would be nice.  Megatron looks amazing as a jet.  I am pissed that the Shadow Spark deco is for Asia only.  I will have to get one of those as the paint job looks amazing.

Update: So, we may not be getting a Leader Grimlock repaint.  I was sure I saw it listed, but it could have been in error.  Hasbro does not make it easy to know what’s coming out.

Legion: Barricade, Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Drift, Grimlock, Megatron, Optimus Prime

I only saw a few pics of the Legion toys, but it looks like they are mostly repaints of previous Legion figures.  Info on one site said there would be nine Legion toys, but I could only find seven announced.  It’s hard to tell how accurate that list is, as it also only listed six Deluxe figures.

Knight Armor Turbo Changer: Grimlock, Hound, Megatron

These are Three-Step Changers with an armor gimmick.  The listing I mentioned above listed 5 Knight Armor toys, and Bumblebee and Optimus Prime are conspicuously absent.  I would expect those to be the other two.

Masterpiece: Bumblebee

I am pretty sure this is a repaint of the Dark of the Moon Leader Bumblebee.

Mega Turbo Changers: Dragonstorm

Dragonstorm is a One Step Changer three headed dragon.  I’m really curious how this one will be.  It looks really cool in dragon mode, and it’s a OSC, so you can only expect to so much.

Radio Control: Squeeks

Well, after BB8, we should have known this was coming.

Role Play Helmets & Masks: Bumblebee, Megatron, Optimus Prime

I can’t believe a lot of people are going to pay $80 for the Optimus Prime helmet.  I may wait for clearance on this one, and I have both the Gary Chalk and Peter Cullen versions of the first movie helmet, so I’m out of my mind and not willing still not sure I can bring myself to sped $80 on it.

Tiny Turbo Changers

These are fully transformable toys that come blind bagged.  There is only one assortment that we know of, and I’m not sure if a character list is out.  These are, I believe, Mini-Con size.

Titan Changers: Bumblebee, Megatron, Optimus Prime

So this is interesting.  These are transforming twelve inch toys.  These were first done for Robots in Disguise.  What is interesting is that there were no regular twelve inch Titan Heroes on the list.  Perhaps Hasbro has decided not to bother with the non transforming ones.

Turbo Changers: Barricade, Bumblebee, Hound, Megatron, Optimus Prime

Turbo Changers are One Step Changers.  The list I mentioned earlier said there would be seven of these, so there could be two more.

Voyager: Grimlock, Optimus Prime, Hound, Megatron, Scorn, Steelbane

Grimlock is the only repaint in the Voyager line.  The rest are all new molds.  And yet, we are only getting remolds of Crosshairs and Drift.  I don’t get it.  The new Scorn and Steelbane look great.  I don’t really like Hound’s new vehicle mode.  The new Optimus Prime looks good.

Thanks for reading!