More Leaked Retail Listings for 2025

[Zobovor]

There's a new list of retailer solicitations that's making the rounds,
in addition to the other stuff like the Studio Series Constructicons
that we know about already:

Age of the Primes:
TRA GEN PRIME COMMANDER G1 SILVERBOLT
TRA GEN TITAN STAR OPTIMUS PRIME (Star Convoy)

Fan Channel:
TRA GEN SELECTS G2 DINOBOTS
(uncertain if they're going to be Core-class or Leader-class)

Walmart:
TRA GEN RETRO INSPIRED DLX BRAWN
TRA GEN RETRO INSPIRED DLX SEASPRAY

Target:
TRA GEN BULLSEYE SS VOY WFC OPTIMUS VARIANT
TRA GEN BULLSEYE SS VOY WFC MEGATRON VARIANT
TRA GEN BULLSEYE SS DEV DLX SIDESWIPE
TRA GEN BULLSEYE SS DEV DLX WHEELJACK

Silverbolt as a Commander-class toy speaks towards the idea that,
probably, a) his supersonic jet mode is going to be significantly larger
than that of the other Aerialbots, but also that b) parts of it will
likely detach when he transforms to robot mode, and perhaps will even
form a Superion skeletal framework, similar to what was done with
Motormaster.

Star Convoy has been reported both as a Commander-class and a
Titan-class toy, but it's been confirmed that the Commander-class
listing was a mistake.

I knew the G2 Dinobots were an inevitability, but part of my anatomy
(namely my wallet) hopes that if they're the Leader-class toys, that
they only do one alternate color scheme per character.

I'm guessing a "retro inspired" Brawn means they're going to take the
Studio Series '86 toy and give him a black visor, a mask, and claws for
hands, in an attempt to sort of emulate the look of the G1 toy. It's an
interesting way to get people to double-dip. I don't completely hate
the idea, but I feel like they keep stringing us along with Brawn
variants when what I really want is Outback. Fair dinkum!

And it's fantastic to finally be getting a Deluxe-class Seaspray, even
though they're going to pull an orange Astrotrain move and sell us the
"pre-deco" version first. I guess a retro Seaspray would have the black
visor for eyes and perhaps different shade of blue, as opposed to the
cartoon version we'll surely get eventually. (Padme: "We'll get it
eventually, right?")

Also, with the advent of Seaspray, there's now nothing stopping Hasbro
from doing a set of four G2 Mini Autobots.

Hasbro has been saying for a little while that they want to incorporate
the video games into Studio Series, so it's likely those toys are based
on the Transformers: Devastation game by Activision. ViceGripX and I
were talking about it and postulating that they might take the existing
Kingdom Sideswipe and Wheeljack toys and paint them with shading and
shiny highlights to try to emulate the look of the game models. But,
hard to say for sure.


Zob (also, just a random thought... Comic Pack Galvatron when?)

[GoBackaTron]

Post by Zobovor
TRA GEN RETRO INSPIRED DLX BRAWN
TRA GEN RETRO INSPIRED DLX SEASPRAY

Strange that Wal-Mart gets another exclusive line on top of the
capsule line and the G1 reissue line. Have they ever classified any of
their releases at RETRO INSPIRED before?

I guess it's not straight up reissues but I seriously doubt much
retooling will go into this. Maybe just the head because they sometimes
plan ahead with alternate heads in the tooling.

I wonder what other aspect 'retro inspired' could be referring to. If
not the sculpt maybe the deco and packaging? Maybe Brawn'll be a light
brown deco like in the '84 catalog picture and packaged in vehicle mode
on a carded bubble like in '84. Seaspray carded would have to be in
robot mode as it was in '85.

Hey how about some mini-spies!

[Zobovor]

Have they ever classified any of their releases as RETRO INSPIRED
before?

No, as far as I'm aware, this is new.

I guess it's not straight up reissues but I seriously doubt much
retooling will go into this. Maybe just the head because they sometimes
plan ahead with alternate heads in the tooling.

Well, by accident or design, the Studio Series Brawn toy is already
engineered to turn into a stilt-legged robot mode resembing the G1 look.
So they wouldn't need to change much. I really want to see claw-hands,
because that's such a distinctive feature of the G1 Brawn toy.

I wonder what other aspect 'retro inspired' could be referring to.
If not the sculpt maybe the deco and packaging?

It's possible, certainly. The reason I tend to think it's a toy redeco
or resculpt is because I know the Hasbro higher-ups are more likely to
greenlight production on a toy if the designers can demonstrate their
redeco potential. So, I'm sure that if they're thinking about doing a
character like Brawn, they have to think for a bit about how they can
reuse the design. Outback, obviously. A dead Brawn from Transformers:
the Movie. So maybe the toy version was one of the ideas they
brainstormed.

Seaspray is a harder toy to redeco in a way that makes sense. The G2
color scheme, for sure. Maybe that early Takara prototype color scheme
in red and blue. I have a hard time seeing a toy-based Seaspray as
being that different from the cartoon version, except for I guess the
eyes and the little stickers on his chest. And it's weird that they're
doing the oddball version of Seaspray first. It's like Sandstorm (at
least this is what I'm predicting). Give us the "wrong" version first
and then give us a "corrected" version for us to spend money on.

Hey how about some mini-spies!

The Minispies (and Omnibots) remain very nearly the only thing from the
1984-85 product line they haven't touched yet, unless you want to start
counting the Time Warrior wristwatch or weird non-Hasbro things like
Kaltor. I think the Minispies would be hard to do properly.

For one, they would need to be given actual names. But then you run
into the issue of how many of them do you name? Does the Autobot yellow
Jeep get a different name from the Decepticon yellow Jeep? Or would
they just give us one style in one color? There were only three colors
(blue, white, yellow) but four vehicle types, so unless they wanted to
cheat and throw in a color like red, from the Takara Mecha Senshi days,
I'm not sure how they could do it without repeating a color.

But, maybe they could just incorporate a rotating panel with both
insignias, so each toy could potentially be an Autobot or a Decepticon.
So they would only have to design four new toys, and sell us each one in
three different color schemes. Buying twelve of them ($300 if they were
Deluxes) would be more palatable than buying 24 of them ($600). But,
the fact that they're non-characters with no G1 media love means they
might be a tough sell.


Zob (maybe they should be a HasLab project or something)

[GoBackaTron]

Post by Zobovor
TRA GEN BULLSEYE SS VOY WFC OPTIMUS VARIANT
TRA GEN BULLSEYE SS VOY WFC MEGATRON VARIANT
TRA GEN BULLSEYE SS DEV DLX SIDESWIPE
TRA GEN BULLSEYE SS DEV DLX WHEELJACK
ViceGripX and I
were talking about it and postulating that they might take the existing
Kingdom Sideswipe and Wheeljack toys and paint them with shading and
shiny highlights to try to emulate the look of the game models.

If they follow the pattern of the recently revealed Devastation
Optimus, these are new molds with cel shaded sticker windows. Most
likely it's just the Kingdom toys with new stickers on the windows but
one can dream.
Hasbro is getting to the point where their redecos will just be old
molds with Toyhax labels packed in.

[GoBackaTron]

Post by GoBackaTron
Hasbro is getting to the point where their redecos will just be old
molds with Toyhax labels packed in.

It was recently announced that an exclusive run of SS86 Optimus Prime
with a slipcase and additional stickers will be released at Cybertron
Con in Shanghai on Dec 6th-9th:

https://tformers.com/daily-prime-cybertron-con-2024-exclusive-ss86-commander-optimus-prime-adds-stickers-/54080/news.html

The toy as originally released was criminally underdetailed but
that's cartoon accuracy for ya. The stickers in the con set are for the
trailer to give it the big blue/silver stripe with the Autobot sigil
from the G1 toy and also a selection of different cel shaded windows for
the cab, which the toy should have had in the first place.

It's like the original Pepsi Prime days where your special version of
the toy is just the normal version of the toy with a unique sticker
sheet. I am all for this and I wish they would offer label sheets at
Pulse.

[Zobovor]

Post by GoBackaTron
The toy as originally released was criminally underdetailed but
that's cartoon accuracy for ya.

The new stickers, they only serve to ugly up the toy. There, I said
what I said.

Post by GoBackaTron
It's like the original Pepsi Prime days where your special version
of the toy is just the normal version of the toy with a unique sticker
sheet. I am all for this and I wish they would offer label sheets at
Pulse.

That reminds me of something. Every so often on eBay, I used to see
sticker sets, seemingly produced by Hasbro, for various Titans Return
toys like Highbrow and Weirdwolf and others. I'm given to understand
they were an Asian-market exclusive item. I really wonder why official
stickers were made available for those toys, specifically, and only
those toys.

I know they experimented again with stickers during Power of the Primes,
but the factory-applied stickers didn't adhere to the toys very well at
all. There was something seriously wrong with whatever glue they used.

I'm of two minds about stickers. I love putting them on, most of the
time, and they help complete a toy and make it "mine" in a way that it
wasn't before. Most G1 toys look naked without stickers and they are
important for proper presentation.

However, there's a movement lately to sticker up EVERY new toy release.
ToyHax seems like they come up with a sticker sheet for just about every
mainline toy that gets produced. A lot of it is very creative, and I
don't disparage the talent or effort that goes into the sticker sets.
Really, there are some toys that don't NEED stickers, especially if
they're meant to be cartoon accurate and already capture that specific
look.


Zob (and misapplied stickers can absolutely ruin the look of a toy, in
my opinion)