Transformers: Dark of the Moon [third movie] toys

Xeno-the-Hedgehog · Post by **Xeno-the-Hedgehog** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:04 am

The dreads on mine swivel with minimal difficulty. I ultimately decided not to ship the box in which I had repackaged mine. Anybody else find it odd that the instructions don't demonstrate how you can position the insect mandibles to stick out front in vehicle mode?

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:36 pm

Went in to Tesco at Inverness today to get dinner on my way up to Liathach for work. Of course, being as it is that there's no Tesco near where I live, I checked out the TFs (and picked up DOTM Deluxe Bumblebee given it was reduced to £8.47).

I noticed a DOTM Voyager Class Starscream. Is that a redeco of the ROTF mould? Looked quite nice in snazzy silver, but at £26 or whatever it was priced at, I left it - besides, HFTD Leader Starscream can't be defeated (he even says so!).

Anyhoo - not a figure I was aware of in the line, but I'm not doing well at keeping up. Is it mainline, or another random US exclusive that's found it's way onto UK shelves en mass?

Thunderwave · Post by **Thunderwave** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:07 am

numbat wrote: Anyhoo - not a figure I was aware of in the line, but I'm not doing well at keeping up. Is it mainline, or another random US exclusive that's found it's way onto UK shelves en mass?

It's a Target Exclusive over here iirc. If it's got a red canopy for the jet mode, then that's the Target one. There should also be a Ratchet that comes in the same case pack.

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:05 am

:swirly:

I got a Crankcase with new hands, two feet, dreadlocks that work, and very few paint errors! Thanks to some product code lists (and searching to figure out where the product code is on the packaging), I didn't get one with lopped off fingers.

(For the record, the pc of 11121 seems to be all new hands. It's not listed in the linked list.)

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:18 am

Thunderwave wrote:It's a Target Exclusive over here iirc. If it's got a red canopy for the jet mode, then that's the Target one. There should also be a Ratchet that comes in the same case pack.

Do these have pictures of an IDW comic on the front top right hand corner? It seemed a bit odd as it doesn't actually say it includes a comic, but if it originally had "TARGET EXCLUSIVE!!" over that bit that'd explain why it was removed. Assuming the comic is still even in there.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:52 pm

Yup, those are the ones Dalek.

No Ratchets in the store I went to yesterday, but I've stopped off at a different Tesco on my way back after camping on Liathach last night (most beautiful views in the world - and I was paid for the time!). This store is crawling with Ratchets and very few Screamers. Funny they went the 'exclusive' route with these, given the characters and apparent lack of many Voyager Class figures in the main line. Regardless, I'm happy with my Movie metallic Voyager Ratchet and while Starscream is tempting, I can't justify it given the awesomeness that is HFTD Leader Class Starscream.

Post by **Clay** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:33 am

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

Asian exclusive Year of the Dragon Ultimate Prime redeco.

Not to comment on the merits of the Ultimate Prime toy itself, but that's a pretty neat idea for an exclusive.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:07 am

I saw that the other week, and was quite excited by it until I realised it was a repaint of DOTM Ultimate Prime. The paintjob is really neat, but I have no interest in the mould. Shame.

Post by **Clay** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:49 am

http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... ed-174383/

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:32 pm

Bummer.

Glad I picked up HA Soundwave and very grateful for Knightdramon fixing me up with a Deluxe Soundwave now (of course, I was already, but now all the more-so!). I can only imagine this will push online prices for the Japanese versions sky-high.

Shame - there were way too many Bumblebee repaints and remoulds in the DOTM Deluxe assortments (still clogging my local stores!), yet three fresh moulds have fallen by the wayside.

Ach well.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:35 pm

Unless there's a big problem with GM/Merc, surely they'll be out in early waves of the TF4 line? Do feel slightly less foolish about forking out 4 times retail for Leadfoot now, at least.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:45 pm

Cliffjumper wrote:Unless there's a big problem with GM/Merc, surely they'll be out in early waves of the TF4 line? Do feel slightly less foolish about forking out 4 times retail for Leadfoot now, at least.

Aye, you got the laugh this time!

I'm really happy with my HA version of Leadfoot, but would love a set of Wreckers at Deluxe or HA scale... I may hunt down the Deluxe one, but I guess his price will rocket now.

It's just so weird - there are figures of Jolt, Skids and Mudflap choking my local Asda, yet none of these guys appeared in the film. At the same time, Soundwave, Que and Leadfoot who are in the movie won't see a release... I think this says more about Hasbro choosing to release non-film characters and a gazillion versions of Prime and Bumblebee (which most fans of the film will have one or two versions of already) ahead of the new characters that do appear, as opposed to theories that people have lost interest in the film toys, despite high cinema ticket takings for DOTM. Plus, the fact that Hasbro seems to run multiple lines in together probably doesn't help, as retailers will want to stock the current trend.

I hope that's the case anyway. I'd like to see Hasbro learn from this for TF4.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:24 pm

I would say the hugely positive response to Prime has been the biggest problem. Hasbro fairly rapidly went from "it won't have a toyline" to "oh, maybe a few" to "clear the decks, Prime's coming". I would say DotM probably was a slight downturn in sales from ROTF, but the main reason for the line being wound down so quickly (what were the last figures released now? There can't have been much more than 2/3 waves) is to make space for Prime.

I do think it was a fairly late decision, or we'd have seen the three Deluxes in earlier waves, and there probably were plans to do some of the 'holes' in the line (Leader Megatron and/or Shockwave; HA Topspin; a matching set of Wreckers; Dino) that were shelved.

Prime's not tied to anyone but Hasbro - the vehicles are unlicensed, the show's on their own network. That's probably a hell of a lot more appealing to Hasbro than moulds that are dependant on licenses from car companies and promoted largely by a film company that doesn't actually seem to be outright answerable to them.

It'll be interesting to see what sort of toy support TF4 receives if Prime sells really well still in 2013 or whenever it's out; it wouldn't surprise me if it's relegated to a sub-label of Generations, especially as there's every chance the models for the likes of Prime, Bumblebee and Sideswipe will just be reused on-screen. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see the moulds that are clearly ready to go with a Japanese release under them released later in Generations as Movie Series or something, possibly before the end of the year, before whatever licences expire.

The reported Season 2 cast expansion of Prime, plus the possibility of upgrade recolours and different character recolours/retools

Brimstone · Post by **Brimstone** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:47 pm

Well...that sucks ass.

No Dino, Que, Leadfoot, or Soundwave. RotF was bad enough when we didn't get a Scrapper or Overload (well, mostly I just wanted a Scrapper...he looked pretty cool). But seriously...to not have Soundwave!? And instead have a hundred f****** versions of Bumblebee? What are we, Mattel now?

Maybe they should have spent less time and money making new moulds for characters that people mostly hated from the first movie (ala the Twins...and to some extent, Jolt). Oh, and more importantly...weren't even in the damn movie.

<sigh>

Okay...rant over. I'm just upest. Soundwave and Leadfoot looked cool though, so, I'm disappointed I won't be able to get them.

(p.s. I ranted on Jolt some...but the new mould was pretty cool. I just didn't care because he wasn't even in the movie)

Brimstone · Post by **Brimstone** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:50 pm

You know...(sorry for the double post)...with all the BS that happened with the Transformers 3 Blu-ray release. And the pretty lackluster release we finally got, even the 3D "deluxe" version pretty much sucked. It makes you wonder if Hasbro and Dreamworks were just ready to be done with TF3 for some reason.

Kind of upsetting, as it was far better than #2, in my opinion.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:31 pm

Brimstone wrote: (p.s. I ranted on Jolt some...but the new mould was pretty cool. I just didn't care because he wasn't even in the movie)

Well, for what it's worth, DOTM Jolt is a really good figure. Still, I'd have preferred the opportunity to buy toys of characters that actually appear in the film.

Brimstone wrote:You know...(sorry for the double post)...with all the BS that happened with the Transformers 3 Blu-ray release. And the pretty lackluster release we finally got, even the 3D "deluxe" version pretty much sucked. It makes you wonder if Hasbro and Dreamworks were just ready to be done with TF3 for some reason.

Kind of upsetting, as it was far better than #2, in my opinion.

Aye.

At the end of the day, the main thing for me is the film itself, but still. The Bluray release was very poor, little hyped and the 'trilogy' box set is lack lustre at best - just the three films in their normal plastic boxes held in a boring cardboard sleeve.

It's all quite odd, considering the film did extremely well, regardless of views as to its superiority over ROTF (which I share). All quite weird.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:03 pm

Jolt's the weird one - the Twins were possibly slated to appear until late enough in the day that the moulds were maybe basically done and they made sense as makeweights in an early wave; but as far as I can tell there was never any serious consideration for including Jolt in the film (to the extent where IDW were allowed to kill him in their shitty prequel comic).

That said, Hasbro seemed to have changed their minds about DotM after the first couple of waves had landed - I don't think the line was planned to be particularly smaller than ROTF when it first landed, something (and my money is on surprise at just how much of a hit Prime was) changed around autumn (am I right in thinking we had next to no new Western DotM figures after about August?).

Over here at least DotM seems to be shelf-warming badly - I can't think of many figures I couldn't still pick up at retail here. I think part of the problem is the success of ROTF. For the 2007 movie, the figures were generally not so great and needed work, plus some of the 'cast' toys suffered from poor avaliability as Hasbro misjudged demand. ROTF brought out generally better figures in bigger numbers (and some, like Leader Prime, Jolt, Bumblebee Sideswipe, Ironhide etc. were basically continued into HFTD with only minor modifications) and sorted a lot of this out; a lot of kids, fans and older casuals probably saw little reason to upgrade for DotM. I would suspect the first couple of waves were over-produced, and retailers are now reluctant to take on more stock when they already have so much - all of it branded and linked to an 8-month old film.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:18 pm

I agree Cliffy. This is obviously a late gamechange, likely due to the success of Prime. Still, it seems Hasbro have suffered here through releasing figures of non-film characters early on, which has ultimately resulted in what are not insignificant movie bots missing release despite moulds being designed (and produced). I don't think that Hasbro have capitalised on DOTM fully, due to this odd early loading of waves with non-film characters, remoulds (and new moulds) of previous film characters, and multiple 'Bees at the expense of new characters. Seems a waste of such an epic multi-million dollar advertising opportunity (ie film). Sorry, I can't hide the fact I'm quite disappointed. And does this mean no DOTM Leader Megatron?

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:25 pm

Plus most will assume that a movie series has run its course as a trilogy -- even if there are more films tacked on, they're unlikely to follow swiftly or with as much interest.

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:07 am

I think the 'failure' of the DOTM toys has more to do with the fact that there were an awful lot of toys that were minor updates to characters that have already been in two other years' worth of toys. Why would Timmy want yet another Bumblebee when there's only been about 200 of them in the past few years. Obviously the same is true of Prime himself, then you get a bunch of Ironhides, Megatrons, Starscreams, Ratchets... Effectively, the movies were demanding that kids buy pretty-much the 'same toys' for five years running, and parents had enough of it. Retailers, seeing walls of Bumblebee, Skids, Mudflap, etc. not selling, decided they too had had enough.

I really don't think that TF:Prime was on the retailer side of the equation. The Hub only has a limited audience and the big sales pitch for the line hadn't hit. If Prime was expected to be 'the big hit', the mainline toys would have shown up in October, not February and well after the big sale time.